INVITATION
Citizens for Justice and Peace, Communalism Combat, Muslims for Secular Democracy, Bombay Catholic Sabha, NEEDS invite you to join us in a collective felicitation of a victim-survivor of the Mumbai carnage of 1992-93 and his legal team.
Your organization is most welcome to join in as co-organiser of the felicitation. If you wish to join please add your organisation’s name and forward this message within your network. Please remember to send a copy to us so we can add your organisation’s name in the Press Release that goes out on Monday morning.
LET’S SALUTE FAROOQ MAPKAR, BRAVE FIGHTER FOR JUSTICE
& A VICTIM-SURVIVOR OF 1992-1993 BOMBAY POGROM
And his legal team:
Yusuf Muchala, Vijay Pradhan and Shakeel Ahmed.
VENUE: K.C. COLLEGE AUDITORIUM, NEAR CHURCHGATE
DATE: TUESDAY MARCH 3, 2009
TIME: 5.30 p.m.
-------------------------------------
“The testimony of Hindu witnesses helped me more than the silence of Muslims. And I can proudly say, if you fight legally, there is justice in our country.”
- Farooq Mapkar, after one phase of his 16-year-old struggle for justice ended and another began.
On February 18, 2009, Judge RD Jadhav of the 25th Sessions Court ended a 16-year fight for justice of a man who survived police firing inside Hari Masjid during the 1992-93 communal riots but was slapped with charges ranging from murder to rioting. “Not guilty”, ruled the judge.
Farooq said: “The tension of attending court that has haunted me these 16 years is finally over. The accused has always got to be on time while everyone else — police, public prosecutor and even the magistrates — can walk in late. It’s unfair.”
The Hari Masjid Incident, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg, Wadala
In the midst of the communal carnage in January 1993, some policemen fired inside the mosque at Wadala killing at least seven persons. Injured in the unprovoked firing, Farooq Mapkar, a bank employee, was picked up along with 54 others from inside the mosque and booked for rioting and attempt to murder.
His fight for justice began 15 days later when he lodged a complaint after being released. Over the years, he has become the face of Mumbai’s riot victims who refuse to give up till the guilty are punished. “I have never rioted in my life,” recalls the son of a Bombay Port Trust employee. Like others in the area, Farooq had gone to Hari Masjid to pray that Sunday afternoon. He ended up being shot in the shoulder as police led by then sub-inspector Nikhil Kapse fired into the mosque. He saw four persons being shot while they prayed inside the mosque, and another who had came out with his hands up in the air.
Farooq, like others present there, told Justice B N Srikrishna what he saw. The judge indicted Kapse in his report, which was released in August 1998. Since then, Farooq has been fighting, not just to get acquitted, but also to ensure punishment for Kapse. Last month, on Farooq’s plea, the Bombay High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the Hari Masjid firing.
What rankles with him most is not the tedious legal process, “but the way the Congress government has cheated us Muslims. The Sena withdrew riot cases against their own people, but the Congress didn’t withdraw even those cases against Muslims that Justice Srikrishna found to be false, like mine. Neither did it punish the indicted policemen. Then it has the nerve to claim that it has implemented the Srikrishna Commission Report.” During his 16-year-long struggle it was only human rights activists and lawyers who stood by him, said Farooq.
For further details please contact: Teesta Setalvad (09821314172), or Javed Anand (09870402556),
February 28, 2009
February 21, 2009
Encounter at Batla House a report by Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group released
The Jamia Teachers Solidarity Group (JTSG) released their report, ‘Encounter at Batla House: Unanswered Questions'on the February 20th, 2009 in New Delhi.
see some news reports:
http://tinyurl.com/bhrc2n
http://tinyurl.com/c5cpy5
http://tinyurl.com/aatqyg
see some news reports:
http://tinyurl.com/bhrc2n
http://tinyurl.com/c5cpy5
http://tinyurl.com/aatqyg
Communalism, police and human rights
Gulf News,February 20, 2009
Antagonism as a political assertion
By Kuldip Nayar, Special to Gulf News
A 15-year-old girl committed suicide in India's southern state of Karnataka after activists of the Bajrang Dal, a right-wing group, humiliated her publicly for having a conversation with a Muslim boy on a bus. The police refused to register a case against those who harassed her saying they did not want to risk the chance of a communal riot.
This reflects how the police in the state have come to be politicised within a matter of months after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power. Some say that the state is rapidly becoming another Gujarat (also ruled by the BJP) and that Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa is following in the footsteps of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The allegation has a ring of truth to it because there seemed to be perfect amity between different communities in Karnataka before the advent of the BJP government.
Parochialism has become the governing principle in BJP-ruled states. The party seems to believe it can land a majority in the coming parliamentary election by dividing society on the basis of religion. The party is convinced it will not find favour with Muslims, who constitute 12 to 15 per cent of the electorate, and is, hell bent on weaning away Hindu voters.
However, the attitude of the Karnataka Police points to something more serious. Sadly, the force has shown a readiness to oblige the ruling party thus compromising its brief, which is to maintain law and order. It should register a case against the culprits without making distinctions on the basis of religion, caste or gender. But the Karnataka incident has brought into the public eye a new face of the police - a force which would rather go by the "interest" or "philosophy" of its political bosses than upholding the law and maintaining order.
Over the years, such elements have reached positions of authority not on merit but because of their proximity to political masters. This state of affairs, in fact, is rampant across India. The police make little effort to enforce the rule of law but often exceed their brief to ensure that the roughnecks in the ruling party are not touched, much less annoyed.
Things began slipping when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the home minister. The ravages of partition racked the police. Still, in those times, police stations worked independently and there were no instances of interference from political bosses.
The watershed was, however, the emergency (1975-77) when even blank warrants of arrest were issued for the police to take action. The force became a willing tool for tyranny. There was hardly an officer who went ahead and registered protest against the open breach of law.
Former prime minister Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, flouted all norms and suspended even fundamental rights. She brought about a dark transformation in the police - it didn't hesitate to detain people without trial, to raid houses of critics, or to demolish entire colonies that were considered hostile. The Shah Commission which went into the excesses during emergency named some officers. None of the accused were punished because Indira Gandhi returned to power before any action could be taken. Election Commissioner Navin Chawla is one of them.
The National Police Commission appointed when Indira was in the wilderness gave its recommendation on how to make the force autonomous but she did not even look at the report. She rewarded officers who had acted as per her whims.
The successive governments have done little to implement the Police Commission's recommendations. Even the Supreme Court's directive to that effect have not been implemented. It is a pity that the states would rather have their own rule than law and order.
The harassment of the 15-year-old girl is not an isolated incident. What poses a danger to the country is that organisations that have the patronage of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - that self-appointed guardian of Hindu morality - like Sri Ram Sene, Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena are trying to ape the Taliban. They have intimidated girls in Pune, Kanpur and Mangalore for wearing jeans or frequenting restaurants with boys.
It is time that India wakes up and takes note of what has happened in Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted that successive governments have failed to take timely action against the Taliban. New Delhi should directly intervene if a state does not take action against those who try to hijack an open, democratic society.
Meanwhile, the BJP has retrieved the Ram temple from the debris of the demolished Babri masjid. The party did not rake up the issue in the past decade because it found no takers. All of a sudden, the party's national executive meeting early this month at Nagpur, the headquarters of the RSS, surfaced with the agenda of building the temple on the disputed site and also revived the battle cry of Hindutva.
Why the BJP has chosen to revive these issues two months before the parliamentary elections is not hard to guess. The party reckons the Hindutva plank has found currency in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
The RSS and its cohorts are said to have assessed public opinion and concluded that the Mumbai carnage and "Pakistan's attitude" have set in motion anti-Muslim sentiments which can be harnessed for political gains. The party's reaction to Islamabad's positive response has been that it is "too little and too late".
But this has not been to the liking of the BJP's allies. The Janata Dal (United), one of the allies, has distanced itself from the BJP. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that he is opposed to the building of the Ram temple. The Akalis have said many a time that they do not accept the Hindutva thesis. The ruling Biju Janata Dal in Orissa too has said that the revival of temple-masjid controversy is regrettable.
The BJP should be seen as the Hindu version of the Jamat-e-Islami which wears religion on its sleeve. While the Jamat has never done well in Pakistan and was routed in Bangladesh in recent elections, the BJP has been gaining ground since the emergency. It is often said that it is not the BJP which wins at the hustings, but the Congress that loses. Yet the fact remains that the BJP is in power in six states and it is part of ruling alliances in three more states.
Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian high commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.
Antagonism as a political assertion
By Kuldip Nayar, Special to Gulf News
A 15-year-old girl committed suicide in India's southern state of Karnataka after activists of the Bajrang Dal, a right-wing group, humiliated her publicly for having a conversation with a Muslim boy on a bus. The police refused to register a case against those who harassed her saying they did not want to risk the chance of a communal riot.
This reflects how the police in the state have come to be politicised within a matter of months after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power. Some say that the state is rapidly becoming another Gujarat (also ruled by the BJP) and that Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa is following in the footsteps of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The allegation has a ring of truth to it because there seemed to be perfect amity between different communities in Karnataka before the advent of the BJP government.
Parochialism has become the governing principle in BJP-ruled states. The party seems to believe it can land a majority in the coming parliamentary election by dividing society on the basis of religion. The party is convinced it will not find favour with Muslims, who constitute 12 to 15 per cent of the electorate, and is, hell bent on weaning away Hindu voters.
However, the attitude of the Karnataka Police points to something more serious. Sadly, the force has shown a readiness to oblige the ruling party thus compromising its brief, which is to maintain law and order. It should register a case against the culprits without making distinctions on the basis of religion, caste or gender. But the Karnataka incident has brought into the public eye a new face of the police - a force which would rather go by the "interest" or "philosophy" of its political bosses than upholding the law and maintaining order.
Over the years, such elements have reached positions of authority not on merit but because of their proximity to political masters. This state of affairs, in fact, is rampant across India. The police make little effort to enforce the rule of law but often exceed their brief to ensure that the roughnecks in the ruling party are not touched, much less annoyed.
Things began slipping when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the home minister. The ravages of partition racked the police. Still, in those times, police stations worked independently and there were no instances of interference from political bosses.
The watershed was, however, the emergency (1975-77) when even blank warrants of arrest were issued for the police to take action. The force became a willing tool for tyranny. There was hardly an officer who went ahead and registered protest against the open breach of law.
Former prime minister Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, flouted all norms and suspended even fundamental rights. She brought about a dark transformation in the police - it didn't hesitate to detain people without trial, to raid houses of critics, or to demolish entire colonies that were considered hostile. The Shah Commission which went into the excesses during emergency named some officers. None of the accused were punished because Indira Gandhi returned to power before any action could be taken. Election Commissioner Navin Chawla is one of them.
The National Police Commission appointed when Indira was in the wilderness gave its recommendation on how to make the force autonomous but she did not even look at the report. She rewarded officers who had acted as per her whims.
The successive governments have done little to implement the Police Commission's recommendations. Even the Supreme Court's directive to that effect have not been implemented. It is a pity that the states would rather have their own rule than law and order.
The harassment of the 15-year-old girl is not an isolated incident. What poses a danger to the country is that organisations that have the patronage of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - that self-appointed guardian of Hindu morality - like Sri Ram Sene, Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena are trying to ape the Taliban. They have intimidated girls in Pune, Kanpur and Mangalore for wearing jeans or frequenting restaurants with boys.
It is time that India wakes up and takes note of what has happened in Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted that successive governments have failed to take timely action against the Taliban. New Delhi should directly intervene if a state does not take action against those who try to hijack an open, democratic society.
Meanwhile, the BJP has retrieved the Ram temple from the debris of the demolished Babri masjid. The party did not rake up the issue in the past decade because it found no takers. All of a sudden, the party's national executive meeting early this month at Nagpur, the headquarters of the RSS, surfaced with the agenda of building the temple on the disputed site and also revived the battle cry of Hindutva.
Why the BJP has chosen to revive these issues two months before the parliamentary elections is not hard to guess. The party reckons the Hindutva plank has found currency in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
The RSS and its cohorts are said to have assessed public opinion and concluded that the Mumbai carnage and "Pakistan's attitude" have set in motion anti-Muslim sentiments which can be harnessed for political gains. The party's reaction to Islamabad's positive response has been that it is "too little and too late".
But this has not been to the liking of the BJP's allies. The Janata Dal (United), one of the allies, has distanced itself from the BJP. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that he is opposed to the building of the Ram temple. The Akalis have said many a time that they do not accept the Hindutva thesis. The ruling Biju Janata Dal in Orissa too has said that the revival of temple-masjid controversy is regrettable.
The BJP should be seen as the Hindu version of the Jamat-e-Islami which wears religion on its sleeve. While the Jamat has never done well in Pakistan and was routed in Bangladesh in recent elections, the BJP has been gaining ground since the emergency. It is often said that it is not the BJP which wins at the hustings, but the Congress that loses. Yet the fact remains that the BJP is in power in six states and it is part of ruling alliances in three more states.
Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian high commissioner to the UK and a former Rajya Sabha MP.
February 20, 2009
Holy garb Profanae Goals
Holy Garb: Profane Agenda
Seers Demand Dropping of Word Secular from Indian Constitution!
Ram Puniyani
What do spiritual leaders talk when they meet? One thought it may be the matters pertaining to the ‘other world’ that is the focus of their attention, away from the profane World, which is the matter of concern for ordinary people. One thought they may be deliberating on the issues of moral values of the religion. But it seems that is not the case. Recently when many of them met in Mumbai they showed that the saffron garb is the mere exterior, this color of renunciation and piety, is no representative of their political core. On the top of that they use saffron color to hide their sectarian ideas and narrow politics in the name of religion. The only difference in their case being that their politics is couched in the language of religion. That their ideas are full ‘Hate’ for others, unlike the values Hinduism which teaches us Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (whole World is my family). This got revealed once more.
Recently many a chiefs of Akharas and other assorted Saints came together at the First Conference of Dharma Raksha Manch (29th Jan 2009) in Mumbai. They were brought together by Vishwa Hindu Parishad, apparently for the agenda was Combating terrorism. They called for dropping the word secular from Indian constitution and replacing it with word religious. They Ram Temple, Malegaon blasts, terrorism, and amongst other things and demanded that they need Manu’s parliament and not Christ’s. They drew attention to terrorism breeding in Madrassa, and hit out at media for using the term Hindu terrorism. Finally Beginning Mid Feb. (2009) they plan to take out series of yatras (religious marches) covering large parts of the country, with the call for ending Jihad.
Who are these assorted Holy seers, coming together on the call of Vishwa Hindu Parishad? VHP itself is the creation of RSS in the mid sixties. Initiative was taken by RSS chief and his close lieutenant to get different established mutt’s to form VHP. It primarily became a religious wing of RSS, involving the Hindu achrayas etc, and attracted especially traders, affluent processionals and those who did not want to openly associate with RSS, as at that time RSS stood fully discredited in people’s eyes due to its association with Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi.
VHP got involved in the identity issues strengthening the conservative politics and Ram temple became its central rallying point. Along with this it called for Dharma Sansad (religious parliament) where they stated that in the matters religious, in this case Ram Temple, the decision of saints is above the judgement of the courts. Place of Lord’s birth became a matter not of History but of faith, and who else can decide these issues than these custodians of faith.
This congregation of holy seers has taken place long after their earlier meetings around Ram Temple issue. It seems it is their next innings where the focus is also on terrorism apart from its earlier concerns. At the same time they are reiterating that Indian Constitution is not welcome; let’s go back to Manu Smriti. In a way there is nothing new in this. The RSS politics has always been against the Indian Constitution, against the values of secularism, democracy as these stand by Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Right from the time Constituent Assembly was formed, RSS opposed the same, saying that ‘we’ already have the best of Constitutions in the form of Manu Smirit so why a new Constitution. It was backed by eulogies for Lord Manu by the RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar, who also at the same time has heaped immense praise on the methods of Hitler. Later K.Surshan also openly called for scrapping of Indian constitution and bringing Manu Smriti instead.
While the saints are overtly for the subjugation of Muslims and Christians, at the same time their agenda is to push back the concept of equality for dalit, Adivasis and women. Interestingly RSS came up as a reaction to social changes of caste and gender during the freedom movement. Our national movement stood not only for freedom but also for the transformation of caste and gender towards equality. Barring some exceptions the concept of democracy and secularism go hand in hand. Freedom movement was the epitome of these political and social processes, leading to the emergence of secular India. Today RSS has many mouths to speak and many fora to articulate its agenda. VHP is the crude version of expressing its agenda while BJP, due to electoral compulsions, puts the same agenda in more subtle ways.
The VHP agenda is quite striking in combing the Holy language with profane goals. It will totally ignore the problems of ‘this World’; the problems related to survival and Human rights and will harp on identity issues. This brings in a politics which targets the ‘external enemies’, Muslims; Christians, and intimidates internal sectors, dalits; Adivasis and women, of society. Its call for doing away with the word secular is nothing new in that sense. Its demand to do away with secular word and secular ethos shows that their Holiness is restricted to the appearance, while they want to maintain their social hegemony through political means. Secularism is not against religion. The best of religious people like Maulana Abul Kalam and Mahatma Gandhi had been secular to the core. They knew the boundary line very well. Also they used the moral values of religion to create bonds of fraternity (community) amongst the people of different religions. There were others who created Hate against the other community, and that too in the name of religion. One can cite the parallel and opposite roles of Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS on the other.
The seers, respected because of their Holy garb are misusing their appearance at the service of sectarian politics, they are playing the role of handmaidens of the divisive politics. Secularism precisely means that secular, this-worldly, issues should be the base of politics. So the genuine religious person like Gandhi could distinguish between the moral values of religion which should be adopted in life while shunning the identity related issues from political life, "In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly secular." It is a matter of shame and disgust the identity of a religion is being used to pursue the political goals of an organization, supplementing the goals a communal political party by appealing in the name of religion.
At the same time to further demonize the Muslims it is taking up the issue of terrorism in lop sided manner. The slogan end of Jihad is a way to hide the anti Muslim agenda. There is an attempt to put the blame on Islam and Muslims for terrorism, which is totally false. A political phenomenon is being presented as the one related to religion. So Islamic terrorism word is acceptable to them! All terrorist are Muslims formulation is acceptable to them. But how dare you use the word Hindu terrorism if Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pande and their ilk is involved in acts of terror? In this meet, overseen by RSS representatives, lot of anger was expressed for the Maharashtra ATS for starting investigations against Sadhvi and Company.
The timing of the meet and the planned Yatras is more then striking. As we await elections, the VHP is trying to revive Ram Temple as an issue and will also be talking of terrorism; about Afzal Guru and will be reprimanding the state for ‘torturing’ Pragya Thakur. As a matter of fact VHP and this motley crowd of saints is an adjunct to the electoral goals of BJP. It articulates emotive things which BJP will not be able to do because of election commission and the media watch.
Of all the techniques evolved by RSS, the use of these Holy men for political goals may be the worst insult of the Hindu religion. While these Holy seers infinite in number, many of them have succeeded in building up their own five star Empires, there are others who are sitting on the top of already established mutts. What unites them through VHP is the politics of status quo, the opposition to democracy. We had saints, who talked against caste system and social evils. We had Kabir, Chokha Mela, Tukaram and the lot who stood for the problems of the poor, and now we have a breed, whose agenda is to undermine the prevalent social evils of dowry, female infanticide, bride burning, atrocities on dalits and Adivasis. Their goal is to keep talking about the spirituality and religiosity which is so different from the concerns taken up by the likes of Gandhi and the whole the genre of Saints of Bhakti tradition in India. One hope the people of India can see this clever game of communal politics and differentiate the grain from the chaff.
Seers Demand Dropping of Word Secular from Indian Constitution!
Ram Puniyani
What do spiritual leaders talk when they meet? One thought it may be the matters pertaining to the ‘other world’ that is the focus of their attention, away from the profane World, which is the matter of concern for ordinary people. One thought they may be deliberating on the issues of moral values of the religion. But it seems that is not the case. Recently when many of them met in Mumbai they showed that the saffron garb is the mere exterior, this color of renunciation and piety, is no representative of their political core. On the top of that they use saffron color to hide their sectarian ideas and narrow politics in the name of religion. The only difference in their case being that their politics is couched in the language of religion. That their ideas are full ‘Hate’ for others, unlike the values Hinduism which teaches us Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (whole World is my family). This got revealed once more.
Recently many a chiefs of Akharas and other assorted Saints came together at the First Conference of Dharma Raksha Manch (29th Jan 2009) in Mumbai. They were brought together by Vishwa Hindu Parishad, apparently for the agenda was Combating terrorism. They called for dropping the word secular from Indian constitution and replacing it with word religious. They Ram Temple, Malegaon blasts, terrorism, and amongst other things and demanded that they need Manu’s parliament and not Christ’s. They drew attention to terrorism breeding in Madrassa, and hit out at media for using the term Hindu terrorism. Finally Beginning Mid Feb. (2009) they plan to take out series of yatras (religious marches) covering large parts of the country, with the call for ending Jihad.
Who are these assorted Holy seers, coming together on the call of Vishwa Hindu Parishad? VHP itself is the creation of RSS in the mid sixties. Initiative was taken by RSS chief and his close lieutenant to get different established mutt’s to form VHP. It primarily became a religious wing of RSS, involving the Hindu achrayas etc, and attracted especially traders, affluent processionals and those who did not want to openly associate with RSS, as at that time RSS stood fully discredited in people’s eyes due to its association with Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi.
VHP got involved in the identity issues strengthening the conservative politics and Ram temple became its central rallying point. Along with this it called for Dharma Sansad (religious parliament) where they stated that in the matters religious, in this case Ram Temple, the decision of saints is above the judgement of the courts. Place of Lord’s birth became a matter not of History but of faith, and who else can decide these issues than these custodians of faith.
This congregation of holy seers has taken place long after their earlier meetings around Ram Temple issue. It seems it is their next innings where the focus is also on terrorism apart from its earlier concerns. At the same time they are reiterating that Indian Constitution is not welcome; let’s go back to Manu Smriti. In a way there is nothing new in this. The RSS politics has always been against the Indian Constitution, against the values of secularism, democracy as these stand by Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Right from the time Constituent Assembly was formed, RSS opposed the same, saying that ‘we’ already have the best of Constitutions in the form of Manu Smirit so why a new Constitution. It was backed by eulogies for Lord Manu by the RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar, who also at the same time has heaped immense praise on the methods of Hitler. Later K.Surshan also openly called for scrapping of Indian constitution and bringing Manu Smriti instead.
While the saints are overtly for the subjugation of Muslims and Christians, at the same time their agenda is to push back the concept of equality for dalit, Adivasis and women. Interestingly RSS came up as a reaction to social changes of caste and gender during the freedom movement. Our national movement stood not only for freedom but also for the transformation of caste and gender towards equality. Barring some exceptions the concept of democracy and secularism go hand in hand. Freedom movement was the epitome of these political and social processes, leading to the emergence of secular India. Today RSS has many mouths to speak and many fora to articulate its agenda. VHP is the crude version of expressing its agenda while BJP, due to electoral compulsions, puts the same agenda in more subtle ways.
The VHP agenda is quite striking in combing the Holy language with profane goals. It will totally ignore the problems of ‘this World’; the problems related to survival and Human rights and will harp on identity issues. This brings in a politics which targets the ‘external enemies’, Muslims; Christians, and intimidates internal sectors, dalits; Adivasis and women, of society. Its call for doing away with the word secular is nothing new in that sense. Its demand to do away with secular word and secular ethos shows that their Holiness is restricted to the appearance, while they want to maintain their social hegemony through political means. Secularism is not against religion. The best of religious people like Maulana Abul Kalam and Mahatma Gandhi had been secular to the core. They knew the boundary line very well. Also they used the moral values of religion to create bonds of fraternity (community) amongst the people of different religions. There were others who created Hate against the other community, and that too in the name of religion. One can cite the parallel and opposite roles of Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS on the other.
The seers, respected because of their Holy garb are misusing their appearance at the service of sectarian politics, they are playing the role of handmaidens of the divisive politics. Secularism precisely means that secular, this-worldly, issues should be the base of politics. So the genuine religious person like Gandhi could distinguish between the moral values of religion which should be adopted in life while shunning the identity related issues from political life, "In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly secular." It is a matter of shame and disgust the identity of a religion is being used to pursue the political goals of an organization, supplementing the goals a communal political party by appealing in the name of religion.
At the same time to further demonize the Muslims it is taking up the issue of terrorism in lop sided manner. The slogan end of Jihad is a way to hide the anti Muslim agenda. There is an attempt to put the blame on Islam and Muslims for terrorism, which is totally false. A political phenomenon is being presented as the one related to religion. So Islamic terrorism word is acceptable to them! All terrorist are Muslims formulation is acceptable to them. But how dare you use the word Hindu terrorism if Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pande and their ilk is involved in acts of terror? In this meet, overseen by RSS representatives, lot of anger was expressed for the Maharashtra ATS for starting investigations against Sadhvi and Company.
The timing of the meet and the planned Yatras is more then striking. As we await elections, the VHP is trying to revive Ram Temple as an issue and will also be talking of terrorism; about Afzal Guru and will be reprimanding the state for ‘torturing’ Pragya Thakur. As a matter of fact VHP and this motley crowd of saints is an adjunct to the electoral goals of BJP. It articulates emotive things which BJP will not be able to do because of election commission and the media watch.
Of all the techniques evolved by RSS, the use of these Holy men for political goals may be the worst insult of the Hindu religion. While these Holy seers infinite in number, many of them have succeeded in building up their own five star Empires, there are others who are sitting on the top of already established mutts. What unites them through VHP is the politics of status quo, the opposition to democracy. We had saints, who talked against caste system and social evils. We had Kabir, Chokha Mela, Tukaram and the lot who stood for the problems of the poor, and now we have a breed, whose agenda is to undermine the prevalent social evils of dowry, female infanticide, bride burning, atrocities on dalits and Adivasis. Their goal is to keep talking about the spirituality and religiosity which is so different from the concerns taken up by the likes of Gandhi and the whole the genre of Saints of Bhakti tradition in India. One hope the people of India can see this clever game of communal politics and differentiate the grain from the chaff.
February 19, 2009
Moral Police . . . footsoldiers of Hindutva
People's Democracy, February 15, 2009
Bigot Soldiers . . . Obsolete Ideology
by G Mamatha
ON January 24, 2009, a group of young women in Mangalore, in the southern state of Karnataka were attacked in a pub by Sri Rama Sene, Saffron Brigade’s another outfit. Activists from the Sri Rama Sene assaulted the women in order to protect “traditional Indian values”. Just a week later, Shruti, a young PUC II student of Mangalore was forcibly abducted from a public bus, physically assaulted, and was threatened because she was seen speaking to a Muslim boy who was traveling on the same bus and who was a brother of a school classmate. The boy was also brutally attacked. Last year, 30 students of the St Marthas education institute were attacked when they were on an excursion to Mysore only because the girls happened to be Hindu and some of the boys Muslim.
Analysing the activities of the fascists, noted communist thinker Gramsci had stated long back: “The fascists have been able to carry on their activities only because tens of thousands of functionaries of the State, especially in the public security forces (police, royal guards, carabinieri) and in the magistrature, have become their moral and material accomplices. These functionaries know that their impunity and their careers are closely linked to the fortunes of the fascist organisation, and they therefore have every interest in supporting fascism in whatsoever attempt it may make to consolidate its political position”. The incidents quoted above, similarly, no doubt, have the tacit support of the state government. It is hoping that the moral policing of Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal will bring the party electoral gains in the upcoming general elections. Just like what Modi did in Gujarat!
True to their character, they are unconcerned about the brutalities committed on women, forget about their sympathies for the hardships that women have to face in their daily existence. Almost 3-4 women die every day in the city of Bangalore in cases of “unnatural” deaths of women in marriage. Practices like dowry, female foeticide and trafficking of women are rampant. Just last week, an 18-month-old girl was raped (you read it correct, an eighteen month old girl) by her neighbour in Ajmer district of Rajasthan. Have any of these incidents pricked the conscience of these forces? After all, they are not so 'cultured' to be sensitive to these atrocities.
They attack us, because we speak to a classmate whom we know by name and not religion. They are blind, they cannot see anything except religion; their minds are closed to reason and are seeping with hatred and intolerance. While it is wrong for us to talk with our Shabnams and Rahmans, it is right for them to befriend one Mr G W Bush. It is not for nothing that the saying goes, ‘birds of the same feather flock together’. Both their hands are smeared with blood - one with the blood of Iraqis, Afghanistanis, etc., the other with the blood of Gujaratis etc. Let us not forget that it is their brethren who had raped many and even cut the womb of a pregnant woman during the riots in Gujarat.
What is the ‘culture’ that these self proclaimed custodians desire to protect with their blood smeared hands? They want their view of morality (prescribed by the Manu dharma shastra) as the only one that should prevail in India. Their culture is beating and molesting women in public places in order to control and make them conform to the patriarchal notion of decency. Isn't it they, who upheld sati as part of the same glorious tradition? One of the former chief ministers of BJP too voiced the same opinion. Of course, it is good, at least in this regard, they do not practice what they preach!
The founding member of the Sri Rama Sene, Pravin Valke is quoted in a newspaper (Indian Express, February 3, 2009) saying, “Why should girls go to pubs? Are they going to serve their future husbands alcohol? Should they not be learning to make chappatis? Bars and pubs should be for men only. We wanted to ensure that all women in Mangalore are home by 7 pm.” It is a clear explanation of the mindset of these men who speak in the name of culture. Women should stay at home and make chappatis while 'men' can go out and drink, rape and molest, cheat, murder or do whatever they wish. Thereby our “culture” will be preserved! The Mangalore attack is all about controlling women, to deny Indian woman her rights.
From the attack on women at a Mangalore pub to the Delhi police booking a married couple for 'obscenity' because they were kissing in public, to organisations in Kashmir displaying posters warning women not to mingle with the opposite sex and a madrassa board chairman in Lucknow wanting to stop girls from going to madrassas to get education and imposing dress codes on girls and women, self-proclaimed guardians of culture across India are having a field day. They look at Indian culture from a narrow patriarchal prism. For them, culture is all about dowry, sati, gender discrimination, untouchability, intolerance, etc. These people are antithetical to our real culture.
As women who have always borne the brunt of fundamentalist cultures within the home and the community, we refuse to silently witness the brutal assaults on our pluralistic and open cultures in the name of language, tradition, religion and region that are spreading through our land. We refuse to endorse this deeply divisive political culture that is going to leave behind a legacy of hatred and intolerance for the coming generations. The Sri Rama Sene is a fringe element. But lurking under the skin of many such men, irrespective of caste or community, is a similar view of what women should and should not do. They fear women’s autonomy, for, it challenges their power.
Equally worrying is the response of the union government to these incidents. Rajasthan chief minister and a leader of the Congress party, Ashok Gehlot’s reaction to the Mangalore attack is not very different from that of the Saffron Brigade’s. Instead of seriously impressing upon the state government to take strict measures on these elements, Union minister for women and child welfare, Renuka Chowdhury says, ‘I wonder how Muthalik’s mother raised him,’ `Pub bharo' to beat moral police (in an absolute degradation of the Jail bharo of the freedom movement.) A Facebook group, ‘A Consortium of Pub-Going Loose and Forward Women’ has launched a ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign as a response to the Sri Rama Sene's violent assault on women. These kinds of responses actually sidetrack and trivialise the real issue and in fact play into the hands of the fundamentalists. They do not talk about empowerment of women in the real sense of the term. In the name of modernity, there is also a trend to vulgarise, commercialise and objectify women's body and the gender issues.
Today, we face an imminent threat to our democracy, against which, tolerance coupled with passivity, a deadly vice, will destroy us unless we're on guard to be sure it doesn't. It is high time for all the people with conscience to unite and raise their voices against such barbarities which alone will secure the future of our country and its people.
Moreover, as somebody said, in this struggle "if you don't have a strategy you end up being part of someone else's strategy." The strategy of the extreme right's gospel of 'hate, exclusion, cruelty and intolerance' has to be challenged with a doctrine of 'life, hope and respect for the worth and dignity of everyone'. And this should include the struggle for political and economic rights also. Mere wishing won't make it so. Because defending democracy means working at it every day. An African saying, very common in our country, says: “When your house is burning, it’s no use beating the tom-toms.” Let us start acting.
Bigot Soldiers . . . Obsolete Ideology
by G Mamatha
ON January 24, 2009, a group of young women in Mangalore, in the southern state of Karnataka were attacked in a pub by Sri Rama Sene, Saffron Brigade’s another outfit. Activists from the Sri Rama Sene assaulted the women in order to protect “traditional Indian values”. Just a week later, Shruti, a young PUC II student of Mangalore was forcibly abducted from a public bus, physically assaulted, and was threatened because she was seen speaking to a Muslim boy who was traveling on the same bus and who was a brother of a school classmate. The boy was also brutally attacked. Last year, 30 students of the St Marthas education institute were attacked when they were on an excursion to Mysore only because the girls happened to be Hindu and some of the boys Muslim.
Analysing the activities of the fascists, noted communist thinker Gramsci had stated long back: “The fascists have been able to carry on their activities only because tens of thousands of functionaries of the State, especially in the public security forces (police, royal guards, carabinieri) and in the magistrature, have become their moral and material accomplices. These functionaries know that their impunity and their careers are closely linked to the fortunes of the fascist organisation, and they therefore have every interest in supporting fascism in whatsoever attempt it may make to consolidate its political position”. The incidents quoted above, similarly, no doubt, have the tacit support of the state government. It is hoping that the moral policing of Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal will bring the party electoral gains in the upcoming general elections. Just like what Modi did in Gujarat!
True to their character, they are unconcerned about the brutalities committed on women, forget about their sympathies for the hardships that women have to face in their daily existence. Almost 3-4 women die every day in the city of Bangalore in cases of “unnatural” deaths of women in marriage. Practices like dowry, female foeticide and trafficking of women are rampant. Just last week, an 18-month-old girl was raped (you read it correct, an eighteen month old girl) by her neighbour in Ajmer district of Rajasthan. Have any of these incidents pricked the conscience of these forces? After all, they are not so 'cultured' to be sensitive to these atrocities.
They attack us, because we speak to a classmate whom we know by name and not religion. They are blind, they cannot see anything except religion; their minds are closed to reason and are seeping with hatred and intolerance. While it is wrong for us to talk with our Shabnams and Rahmans, it is right for them to befriend one Mr G W Bush. It is not for nothing that the saying goes, ‘birds of the same feather flock together’. Both their hands are smeared with blood - one with the blood of Iraqis, Afghanistanis, etc., the other with the blood of Gujaratis etc. Let us not forget that it is their brethren who had raped many and even cut the womb of a pregnant woman during the riots in Gujarat.
What is the ‘culture’ that these self proclaimed custodians desire to protect with their blood smeared hands? They want their view of morality (prescribed by the Manu dharma shastra) as the only one that should prevail in India. Their culture is beating and molesting women in public places in order to control and make them conform to the patriarchal notion of decency. Isn't it they, who upheld sati as part of the same glorious tradition? One of the former chief ministers of BJP too voiced the same opinion. Of course, it is good, at least in this regard, they do not practice what they preach!
The founding member of the Sri Rama Sene, Pravin Valke is quoted in a newspaper (Indian Express, February 3, 2009) saying, “Why should girls go to pubs? Are they going to serve their future husbands alcohol? Should they not be learning to make chappatis? Bars and pubs should be for men only. We wanted to ensure that all women in Mangalore are home by 7 pm.” It is a clear explanation of the mindset of these men who speak in the name of culture. Women should stay at home and make chappatis while 'men' can go out and drink, rape and molest, cheat, murder or do whatever they wish. Thereby our “culture” will be preserved! The Mangalore attack is all about controlling women, to deny Indian woman her rights.
From the attack on women at a Mangalore pub to the Delhi police booking a married couple for 'obscenity' because they were kissing in public, to organisations in Kashmir displaying posters warning women not to mingle with the opposite sex and a madrassa board chairman in Lucknow wanting to stop girls from going to madrassas to get education and imposing dress codes on girls and women, self-proclaimed guardians of culture across India are having a field day. They look at Indian culture from a narrow patriarchal prism. For them, culture is all about dowry, sati, gender discrimination, untouchability, intolerance, etc. These people are antithetical to our real culture.
As women who have always borne the brunt of fundamentalist cultures within the home and the community, we refuse to silently witness the brutal assaults on our pluralistic and open cultures in the name of language, tradition, religion and region that are spreading through our land. We refuse to endorse this deeply divisive political culture that is going to leave behind a legacy of hatred and intolerance for the coming generations. The Sri Rama Sene is a fringe element. But lurking under the skin of many such men, irrespective of caste or community, is a similar view of what women should and should not do. They fear women’s autonomy, for, it challenges their power.
Equally worrying is the response of the union government to these incidents. Rajasthan chief minister and a leader of the Congress party, Ashok Gehlot’s reaction to the Mangalore attack is not very different from that of the Saffron Brigade’s. Instead of seriously impressing upon the state government to take strict measures on these elements, Union minister for women and child welfare, Renuka Chowdhury says, ‘I wonder how Muthalik’s mother raised him,’ `Pub bharo' to beat moral police (in an absolute degradation of the Jail bharo of the freedom movement.) A Facebook group, ‘A Consortium of Pub-Going Loose and Forward Women’ has launched a ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign as a response to the Sri Rama Sene's violent assault on women. These kinds of responses actually sidetrack and trivialise the real issue and in fact play into the hands of the fundamentalists. They do not talk about empowerment of women in the real sense of the term. In the name of modernity, there is also a trend to vulgarise, commercialise and objectify women's body and the gender issues.
Today, we face an imminent threat to our democracy, against which, tolerance coupled with passivity, a deadly vice, will destroy us unless we're on guard to be sure it doesn't. It is high time for all the people with conscience to unite and raise their voices against such barbarities which alone will secure the future of our country and its people.
Moreover, as somebody said, in this struggle "if you don't have a strategy you end up being part of someone else's strategy." The strategy of the extreme right's gospel of 'hate, exclusion, cruelty and intolerance' has to be challenged with a doctrine of 'life, hope and respect for the worth and dignity of everyone'. And this should include the struggle for political and economic rights also. Mere wishing won't make it so. Because defending democracy means working at it every day. An African saying, very common in our country, says: “When your house is burning, it’s no use beating the tom-toms.” Let us start acting.
February 18, 2009
Slaps on N. Modi's face: Gujarat High Court debunks Godhra conspiracy notion
Dear friends:
SOME GOOD NEWS FROM GUJARAT, AFTR ALL.
Slaps on Narendra Modi's face.
But do slaps on Narendra Modi's face mean anything to him? These have been delivered before, time and again. And he has continued to act as if nothing really landed on his face.
This time, the High Court in his own State has declared unequivocally that the fraud he had committed on the night of February 28, 2002 by publicly broadcastig that the fire on the Sabamati train coach was a conspiracy hatched by the Muslims of Godhra, was nothing but a wholesale lie. It is on the basis of this fraud that Narendra Modi had whipped up the anti-Muslim and pro-Hindutava frenzy which led to a three-day long orgy of organized pogrom. Thousands were slaughtered in broad day light. Women were gang raped in public plazas; wombs ripped and unborn fetuses tossed in open fires. Fleeing people in the country side cornered and lynched. Homes turned into ashes. Fascism had its ugly, ferocious dance. India's fragile democracy was nailed on barren poles.
And for the last seven years Narendra Modi has continued to shine in his own glory - as if nothing really could touch him; as long as he had the Gujarati upper-caste Hindu masses hoodwinked to the notion of Hindu Rashtra. The Corporate India came to touch his feet; declared him as the most desirable future prime minister of India. International Capital eulogized him, as a model of third world development, and as the prime destination of capital flows.
Yet, all this could not hide for ever the edifice of lies and fraud. Even the Commission of Enquiry headed by Justice Nanavati, hand-picked by N. Modi himself, to look into the ghory details of what happened during those fateful days of 2002, had shamefully exonerated Narendra Modi.
And now the judicial verdict has come. No, it was not a conspiracy. No, it was not an Act of Terror. No, the suspects could not be kept behind bars under the notorious POTA act, without even a chance of bail. And, Yes, the government of Narendra Modi deliberately misused the legal system.
We happily append below a series of newspaper articles on the High Court judgement of February 12. And beyond that, if you continue to scroll down, we append some write-ups on the Nanavati Commission findings which we had already shared with you on November 9, last year: an article by the veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, and a link to a detailed Critique of the Nanavati Commission prepared by an Ahmedabad-based organization, Jan Sangarsh Manch (Front for People's Struggles), headed by the Advocate Dr. Mukul Sinha, who had been making representations before the Commission.
The observatons contained in that detailed Critique stand vindicated by the latest High Court judgement.
Most importantly, the High Court ruling has given a sunshine hope to the 81 people who had been incarcerated all these years under the draconion POTA Act, as conspirators for the torrorist act. Maybe, they now have a chance to get out, atleast on some kind of a bail.
No memory of my 2005 visit to Modi's Gujarat is more poignant than the ones associated with my visit to the Muslim neighborhood of Godhra, where hundreds of people had assembled in some kind of a false hope (because a new outsider had come to visit them), and where I heard loud wails and complaints from old fathers, mothers, young wives, small children, brothers and sisters, neighbors - because someone among them was kept in the custody under POTA. Never in my life had I felt more helpless, and my words sounding more hollow, than what I exprienced that evening and what I managed to utter there. Painfully I remember all that.
Maybe, there is an end now to that embarrassment, to that sadness. An end to the seemingly endless suffering.
But one doesn't know. What if Narendra Modi, shamelessly, made an appeal against the High Court ruling!
Let's see.
hari sharma
for SANSAD
*************
Godhra carnage: High Court sets aside 'conspiracy theory'
Syed Khalique Ahmed
Indian Express
Posted online: Feb 13, 2009 at 0002 hrs
Ahmedabad : With the Gujarat High Court upholding the recommendations of the Central POTA Review Committee that there was no evidence to prove 'conspiracy' behind the Sabaramati Express carnage, it has set aside the 'conspiracy theory' of the state government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). The team comprised Rakesh Asthana, J K Bhatt and Noel Parmar.
The three officials of the Gujarat Police had in their investigations concluded that a conspiracy was hatched in the Aman guesthouse in Godhra on the night of February 26, 2002. A huge quantity of petrol was procured to torch the S-6 coach carrying pilgrims from Ayodhya, the report had said. It was on the
basis of the SIT's findings that provisions of POTA were applied to the accused imprisoned in the Sabarmati jail.
Reacting to the judgement, Sayeed Umarji, son of 75-year-old Maulana Hussain Umarji imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the carnage, said the "ruling has proved that investigating agencies have misused law". He demanded action against SIT officials, saying the POTA provisions asked for action against the investigating agencies in case of misuse of law by them.
While Sardarji Maganji Vaghela, who had challenged the recommendations of the review committee, was not available, his advocate Vijay Patel said he would challenge the order in the Supreme Court after consulting the petitioner. Special public prosecutor J M Panchal, however, said the order was binding on all parties.
While Asthana and Bhatt could not be contacted, Noel Parmar who was present in the court during pronouncement of the order, refused to comment.
Senior advocate and representative of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, Mukul Sinha, who had earlier defended the Godhra accused, said the HC order blasted the findings of the Nanavati commission report. The report, which was tabled in the state Assembly a few months ago, had relied on the evidence supplied by the SIT and concluded that the incident was a conspiracy.
He said the high court ruling also upheld the recommendations of the UC Banerjee commission, which had too rejected the conspiracy theory and held it an "unfortunate communal conflict". "So, the entire theory of petrol being brought and train torched as part of a conspiracy was not the reality," Sinha said.
He went on to say that the judgement was a "slap" on the face of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who had been maintaining since February 2002 that Godhra incident was a terrorist conspiracy and had blamed the Muslim community of Gujarat for it.
"The judgement will give enormous relief to the Muslims," Sinha said.
Though Nanavati and Banerjee commission reports had no bearing on the trial of the case, CPRC recommendations and the high court rulings on it would certainly set the process of trial in motion and give a ray of hope to the case accused imprisoned for the last six years to seek justice.
The natural consequence of the order, Sinha said, would be that the trial of
the accused, which had been stayed since November 2003, could begin now.
Meanwhile, Sayeed Umarji, son of accused Maulana Hussain Umarji, told Newsline that he would move the Supreme Court beseeching that no interim relief be given to the petitioner without hearing the accused party.
'HC order on Godhra shows agencies misused law'
Syed Khalique Ahmed Posted: Feb 13, 2009 at 1541 hrs (Indian Express)
Ahmedabad THE Gujarat High Court's decision of upholding the recommendation of the Central POTA Review Committee that there was no evidence to prove 'conspiracy' behind the Sabarmati Express carnage has come as a setback for the Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed by the state government. It was this team which had established the conspiracy theory behind the incident.
Comprising Rakesh Asthana, J K Bhatt and Noel Parmar -- officers of the Gujarat Police -- the team had concluded that a conspiracy was hatched at the Aman guesthouse in Godhra on the night of February 26, 2002. A huge quantity of petrol was procured to torch the S-6 coach carrying pilgrims from Ayodhya, the report had said.
It was on the basis of the SIT's findings that provisions of POTA were applied to the accused imprisoned in the Sabarmati jail.
While Asthana and Bhatt were not available for comment, Parmar, who was present in the court when the order was pronounced, refused to say anything on the issue. Reacting to the judgement, however, Sayeed Umarji, the son of 75-year-old Maulana Hussain Umarji imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the carnage, said the "ruling has proved that investigating agencies have misused law". He demanded action against the SIT officials.
Senior advocate and representative of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, Mukul Sinha, who had earlier defended the Godhra accused, said the HC order blasted the findings of the Nanavati commission report which had relied on the SIT findings.
He said the HC ruling also upheld the recommendations of the UC Banerjee commission, which had rejected the conspiracy theory. Now, the trial of the accused, which had been stayed since November 2003, could begin, he added. While Sayeed Umarji said he would move the Supreme Court, praying that no interim relief should be given to the petitioner without hearing the accused, Vijay Patel, the advocate of Sardarji Maganji Vaghela who had challenged the recommendations of the review committee, said he would challenge the order in the apex court after consulting the petitioner.
POTA not applicable to Godhra accused, says HC; incident does not constitute an act of terror
Express News Service
Posted online: Feb 13, 2009 at 0131 hrs
Ahmedabad : The Gujarat High Court on Thursday ruled that charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) were not applicable to those arrested in connection with the Sabarmati train burning incident in Godhra.
The division bench of Justice Bhagwati Prasad and Justice Bankim Mehta upheld the Central POTA Review Committee (CPRC)'s recommendations announced earlier in this connection.
The ruling came on a petition filed by Sardarji Manganji Vaghela, whose son had been killed in the Godhra incident of February 26, 2002.
The SC had on October 21, 2008, upheld the findings of the CPRC and had maintained that it was binding on the Gujarat government. It had, however, made it clear that the opinion of the review committee could be challenged under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by any aggrieved person. It was owing to this Supreme Court order that Vaghela moved the HC and the CRPC's recommendations were not implemented. The bench concluded that the Godhra incident was no doubt "shocking", as it was capable of being treated as a serious criminal act," but "fell short of the requirement of an act of terror".
The bench said, the "material available lacked details to establish it as an act of terror or break the unity of communities."
The CPRC had in right earnest considered the material available before it to decide whether the incident attempted to break the unity of the communities, it said.
The bench further observed that "the state did not make any serious attempt to show how the unity was intended to be damaged". In his petition, Vaghela had challenged the CPRC recommendations, which had in May 2005, held that there was no conspiracy alleged to have been hatched in Godhra, and hence POTA could not be invoked against the accused.
The committee had recommended that the Godhra accused be tried under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Railways Act, the Prevention of Damages of Public Property Act and the Bombay Police Act. The committee had also made its recommendations binding on the courts and investigating agencies.
The order will now allow the accused to move the trial court and seek bail earlier denied to them because of the POTA charges invoked against them. The bench gave two weeks to the petitioner to challenge its orders in the SC following an oral petition by the counsels of the petitioner that complications might arise in operation of the judgment, and it may require transfer of the case from special POTA court to the Sessions Court.
Fact file
A total of 134 people were accused in the Godhra carnage case of February 26, 2002. Of these, 116 were arrested and 18 were declared absconder, including one who has died. A total of 103 people were chargesheeted and 19 were bailed out, including three juvenile and two others who died. Three others died in judicial custody.
A total of 81 are now languishing in jails, 79 of them in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad and two others in juvenile observation homes. Among those in jail, 77-year-old Maulana Hussain Umarji suffers from kidney malfunction, high blood pressure and arthritis. Siddiq Abdullah Badam suffers from bone tuberculosis; Anwar Muhammed Menda suffers from mental depression; Qutbuddin Ansari suffers from a lung disease and Anwar Hussain Pital from severe haemorrhoids.
**************
And from the old files of SANSAD:
Here is the link for the Report by Jan Sangarsh Morcha, led by Dr. Mukul Sinha. Following this is an article by Mr. Kuldip Nayar, a prominent journalist, and also a former Member of Paliament.
http://nsm.org.in/2008/09/29/jan-sangharsh-manch-comments-on-nanavati-commission-report/
.*******************
Modi let off the hook?
By Kuldip Nayar
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/opinion.htm
I suspected some design when the Justice Nanavati Commission submitted only a part of the inquiry report on what was known as the Godhara incident. I could see the contents written on the face of a gleeful Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi in a photograph at the time of the report's presentation. It was clear that Modi had been exonerated.
Was it necessary for Justice Nanavati to suggest this or even release a part of the report in he did not want to favour Modi and the BJP? Nanavati has clarified after heavy criticism that his first report was confined only to the burning of Sabarmati Express coach. He has said that he did not give a clean chit to Modi or his government and that he was still working on the rioting after the Godhara incident. Why should the Nanavati Commission which has had as many as 16 extensions submit an incomplete report?
There was no pressure on the commission. Then why hurry with it?
It looks as if Nanavati is a party to the travesty of justice: separating the report into two parts while it should have been one. True, the BJP and Modi wanted it that way. But I cannot comprehend why Nanavati has done so. He knows that nobody can condone the killing of some 2,000 Muslims, not even his Commission. The ethnic cleansing in Gujarat has been recorded visually and there are many witnesses and documents to corroborate it. Is his compulsion on the second part the reason for splitting the report?
Maybe, Nanavati has a point. But he has already held local Muslims guilty of "conspiracy" for burning the coach. The manner in which he has exonerated Modi and his officials suggests that Nanavati was discussing the Gujarat carnage, not the burning of the coach. Since the full report will be ready only by the end of the year, this gives an opportunity to Modi and the BJP to go to town on what Nanavati has already said and exploit the findings in November assembly elections in five states.
It was clear that Nanavati was more or less repeating the version which Modi and the BJP had projected to provide an alibi for the massacre of the Muslims soon after 59 kar sevaks were burnt alive in the compartment that was set to fire. The report released by Nanavati is no different. He too says the fire was "a pre-planned conspiracy" by local Muslims. Justice Nanavati has also ruled out the involvement of any religious or political organization, exonerating the BJP the Bajrang Dal and the likes.
The version which Nanavati has relied upon is in stark contrast to what another Supreme Court judge, Justice U.C. Bannerjee, had reported. According to him-he was appointed by the Railways-the fire was not ignited from outside the coach but from within it, either by accident or design. Bannerjee has repeated his findings even after Nanavati's report.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed by the Supreme Court to reinvestigate the riots, is still at work. Nanavati should have waited till it had given its report. By not doing so. Justice Nanavati, himself from the Supreme Court, has only shown scant respect to the Supreme Court. Even the petition challenging the Bannerjee Committee's findings is still pending before the state High Court. Should Nanavati have still gone ahead?
The conflicting reports, one by Justice Bannerjee and the other by Justice Nanavati, bring no credit to the judiciary. Had such a thing happened at the level of the two judges in a subordinate court, the High Court would have taken them to task. I cannot say anything more but do feel intrigued by the spectacle when the judges involved are from the Supreme Court.
It is obvious that Nanavati wanted to favour Gujarat, the state which appointed him to head the inquiry commission. He knows he cannot but criticise the state in the post-Godhara report. Did he intentionally separate the two incidents, which are really one? Since the first report is favourable to the state, he let it go as if it was independent of the other. Legally, there is nothing wrong in releasing the report in parts. But ethically, it is not correct because people are now expected to make up their mind on the basis of partial report.
I have a nagging feeling that the post-Godhara report, which is bound to hold Modi and the Gujarat administration guilty, and corroborate the thesis that there was a prior plan to cleanse the state ethnically will be released after the general elections which are due early next year. Wittingly or unwittingly, Nanavati has helped Modi and his party.
The Jan Sangarsh Manch (JSM), a Gujarat NGO, is the first to react to the submission of incomplete report. It has criticised the Nanavati Commission for being hasty in giving are incomplete report to the state government. The JSM's convenor, S.H. Iyer, has questioned the urgency of the partial report. He asks: "Don't the thousands of victims of the post-Godhara riots have any right to know why their lives and property were destroyed? And which minister, politician, police officer or organisation was responsible for the massacres."
I recall talking to Justice Nanavati before he submitted his report on the 1984 riots in which 3,000 Sikhs were killed at Delhi alone. He told me what happened in Delhi could happen anywhere in India and at any time because the police knew no limits and politicians no norms of behaviour. He even commented on the probe that he was conducting on the Gujarat killings. He said "I have seen the same pattern in Gujarat." He also said he saw many similarities between the happenings in Delhi and Gujarat and he had no good word either for the politicians or the authorities. Therefore, I find it difficult to understand when he gives a clean chit to Modi, his council of ministers and police officials.
Former Chief Justice J.C. Verma, then chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, has released a ietter which shows that he had cautioned Nanavati. In his statement Justice Varma has said that Nanavati's clean chit is far from the truth.
In the report on the 1984 riots, Nanavati had expressed his helplessness. After 20 years, he said, there was no concrete evidence to pursue, nothing to bring the killers to book. I hope he does not take the same line on the post-Godhara killings and expresses his helplessness once again. The 1984 killings were two decades old when Justice Nanavati was asked to probe. The killings in Gujarat are only six years old. The nation expects him to do a better job.
SOME GOOD NEWS FROM GUJARAT, AFTR ALL.
Slaps on Narendra Modi's face.
But do slaps on Narendra Modi's face mean anything to him? These have been delivered before, time and again. And he has continued to act as if nothing really landed on his face.
This time, the High Court in his own State has declared unequivocally that the fraud he had committed on the night of February 28, 2002 by publicly broadcastig that the fire on the Sabamati train coach was a conspiracy hatched by the Muslims of Godhra, was nothing but a wholesale lie. It is on the basis of this fraud that Narendra Modi had whipped up the anti-Muslim and pro-Hindutava frenzy which led to a three-day long orgy of organized pogrom. Thousands were slaughtered in broad day light. Women were gang raped in public plazas; wombs ripped and unborn fetuses tossed in open fires. Fleeing people in the country side cornered and lynched. Homes turned into ashes. Fascism had its ugly, ferocious dance. India's fragile democracy was nailed on barren poles.
And for the last seven years Narendra Modi has continued to shine in his own glory - as if nothing really could touch him; as long as he had the Gujarati upper-caste Hindu masses hoodwinked to the notion of Hindu Rashtra. The Corporate India came to touch his feet; declared him as the most desirable future prime minister of India. International Capital eulogized him, as a model of third world development, and as the prime destination of capital flows.
Yet, all this could not hide for ever the edifice of lies and fraud. Even the Commission of Enquiry headed by Justice Nanavati, hand-picked by N. Modi himself, to look into the ghory details of what happened during those fateful days of 2002, had shamefully exonerated Narendra Modi.
And now the judicial verdict has come. No, it was not a conspiracy. No, it was not an Act of Terror. No, the suspects could not be kept behind bars under the notorious POTA act, without even a chance of bail. And, Yes, the government of Narendra Modi deliberately misused the legal system.
We happily append below a series of newspaper articles on the High Court judgement of February 12. And beyond that, if you continue to scroll down, we append some write-ups on the Nanavati Commission findings which we had already shared with you on November 9, last year: an article by the veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, and a link to a detailed Critique of the Nanavati Commission prepared by an Ahmedabad-based organization, Jan Sangarsh Manch (Front for People's Struggles), headed by the Advocate Dr. Mukul Sinha, who had been making representations before the Commission.
The observatons contained in that detailed Critique stand vindicated by the latest High Court judgement.
Most importantly, the High Court ruling has given a sunshine hope to the 81 people who had been incarcerated all these years under the draconion POTA Act, as conspirators for the torrorist act. Maybe, they now have a chance to get out, atleast on some kind of a bail.
No memory of my 2005 visit to Modi's Gujarat is more poignant than the ones associated with my visit to the Muslim neighborhood of Godhra, where hundreds of people had assembled in some kind of a false hope (because a new outsider had come to visit them), and where I heard loud wails and complaints from old fathers, mothers, young wives, small children, brothers and sisters, neighbors - because someone among them was kept in the custody under POTA. Never in my life had I felt more helpless, and my words sounding more hollow, than what I exprienced that evening and what I managed to utter there. Painfully I remember all that.
Maybe, there is an end now to that embarrassment, to that sadness. An end to the seemingly endless suffering.
But one doesn't know. What if Narendra Modi, shamelessly, made an appeal against the High Court ruling!
Let's see.
hari sharma
for SANSAD
*************
Godhra carnage: High Court sets aside 'conspiracy theory'
Syed Khalique Ahmed
Indian Express
Posted online: Feb 13, 2009 at 0002 hrs
Ahmedabad : With the Gujarat High Court upholding the recommendations of the Central POTA Review Committee that there was no evidence to prove 'conspiracy' behind the Sabaramati Express carnage, it has set aside the 'conspiracy theory' of the state government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). The team comprised Rakesh Asthana, J K Bhatt and Noel Parmar.
The three officials of the Gujarat Police had in their investigations concluded that a conspiracy was hatched in the Aman guesthouse in Godhra on the night of February 26, 2002. A huge quantity of petrol was procured to torch the S-6 coach carrying pilgrims from Ayodhya, the report had said. It was on the
basis of the SIT's findings that provisions of POTA were applied to the accused imprisoned in the Sabarmati jail.
Reacting to the judgement, Sayeed Umarji, son of 75-year-old Maulana Hussain Umarji imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the carnage, said the "ruling has proved that investigating agencies have misused law". He demanded action against SIT officials, saying the POTA provisions asked for action against the investigating agencies in case of misuse of law by them.
While Sardarji Maganji Vaghela, who had challenged the recommendations of the review committee, was not available, his advocate Vijay Patel said he would challenge the order in the Supreme Court after consulting the petitioner. Special public prosecutor J M Panchal, however, said the order was binding on all parties.
While Asthana and Bhatt could not be contacted, Noel Parmar who was present in the court during pronouncement of the order, refused to comment.
Senior advocate and representative of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, Mukul Sinha, who had earlier defended the Godhra accused, said the HC order blasted the findings of the Nanavati commission report. The report, which was tabled in the state Assembly a few months ago, had relied on the evidence supplied by the SIT and concluded that the incident was a conspiracy.
He said the high court ruling also upheld the recommendations of the UC Banerjee commission, which had too rejected the conspiracy theory and held it an "unfortunate communal conflict". "So, the entire theory of petrol being brought and train torched as part of a conspiracy was not the reality," Sinha said.
He went on to say that the judgement was a "slap" on the face of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who had been maintaining since February 2002 that Godhra incident was a terrorist conspiracy and had blamed the Muslim community of Gujarat for it.
"The judgement will give enormous relief to the Muslims," Sinha said.
Though Nanavati and Banerjee commission reports had no bearing on the trial of the case, CPRC recommendations and the high court rulings on it would certainly set the process of trial in motion and give a ray of hope to the case accused imprisoned for the last six years to seek justice.
The natural consequence of the order, Sinha said, would be that the trial of
the accused, which had been stayed since November 2003, could begin now.
Meanwhile, Sayeed Umarji, son of accused Maulana Hussain Umarji, told Newsline that he would move the Supreme Court beseeching that no interim relief be given to the petitioner without hearing the accused party.
'HC order on Godhra shows agencies misused law'
Syed Khalique Ahmed Posted: Feb 13, 2009 at 1541 hrs (Indian Express)
Ahmedabad THE Gujarat High Court's decision of upholding the recommendation of the Central POTA Review Committee that there was no evidence to prove 'conspiracy' behind the Sabarmati Express carnage has come as a setback for the Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed by the state government. It was this team which had established the conspiracy theory behind the incident.
Comprising Rakesh Asthana, J K Bhatt and Noel Parmar -- officers of the Gujarat Police -- the team had concluded that a conspiracy was hatched at the Aman guesthouse in Godhra on the night of February 26, 2002. A huge quantity of petrol was procured to torch the S-6 coach carrying pilgrims from Ayodhya, the report had said.
It was on the basis of the SIT's findings that provisions of POTA were applied to the accused imprisoned in the Sabarmati jail.
While Asthana and Bhatt were not available for comment, Parmar, who was present in the court when the order was pronounced, refused to say anything on the issue. Reacting to the judgement, however, Sayeed Umarji, the son of 75-year-old Maulana Hussain Umarji imprisoned for his alleged involvement in the carnage, said the "ruling has proved that investigating agencies have misused law". He demanded action against the SIT officials.
Senior advocate and representative of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, Mukul Sinha, who had earlier defended the Godhra accused, said the HC order blasted the findings of the Nanavati commission report which had relied on the SIT findings.
He said the HC ruling also upheld the recommendations of the UC Banerjee commission, which had rejected the conspiracy theory. Now, the trial of the accused, which had been stayed since November 2003, could begin, he added. While Sayeed Umarji said he would move the Supreme Court, praying that no interim relief should be given to the petitioner without hearing the accused, Vijay Patel, the advocate of Sardarji Maganji Vaghela who had challenged the recommendations of the review committee, said he would challenge the order in the apex court after consulting the petitioner.
POTA not applicable to Godhra accused, says HC; incident does not constitute an act of terror
Express News Service
Posted online: Feb 13, 2009 at 0131 hrs
Ahmedabad : The Gujarat High Court on Thursday ruled that charges under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) were not applicable to those arrested in connection with the Sabarmati train burning incident in Godhra.
The division bench of Justice Bhagwati Prasad and Justice Bankim Mehta upheld the Central POTA Review Committee (CPRC)'s recommendations announced earlier in this connection.
The ruling came on a petition filed by Sardarji Manganji Vaghela, whose son had been killed in the Godhra incident of February 26, 2002.
The SC had on October 21, 2008, upheld the findings of the CPRC and had maintained that it was binding on the Gujarat government. It had, however, made it clear that the opinion of the review committee could be challenged under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by any aggrieved person. It was owing to this Supreme Court order that Vaghela moved the HC and the CRPC's recommendations were not implemented. The bench concluded that the Godhra incident was no doubt "shocking", as it was capable of being treated as a serious criminal act," but "fell short of the requirement of an act of terror".
The bench said, the "material available lacked details to establish it as an act of terror or break the unity of communities."
The CPRC had in right earnest considered the material available before it to decide whether the incident attempted to break the unity of the communities, it said.
The bench further observed that "the state did not make any serious attempt to show how the unity was intended to be damaged". In his petition, Vaghela had challenged the CPRC recommendations, which had in May 2005, held that there was no conspiracy alleged to have been hatched in Godhra, and hence POTA could not be invoked against the accused.
The committee had recommended that the Godhra accused be tried under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Railways Act, the Prevention of Damages of Public Property Act and the Bombay Police Act. The committee had also made its recommendations binding on the courts and investigating agencies.
The order will now allow the accused to move the trial court and seek bail earlier denied to them because of the POTA charges invoked against them. The bench gave two weeks to the petitioner to challenge its orders in the SC following an oral petition by the counsels of the petitioner that complications might arise in operation of the judgment, and it may require transfer of the case from special POTA court to the Sessions Court.
Fact file
A total of 134 people were accused in the Godhra carnage case of February 26, 2002. Of these, 116 were arrested and 18 were declared absconder, including one who has died. A total of 103 people were chargesheeted and 19 were bailed out, including three juvenile and two others who died. Three others died in judicial custody.
A total of 81 are now languishing in jails, 79 of them in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad and two others in juvenile observation homes. Among those in jail, 77-year-old Maulana Hussain Umarji suffers from kidney malfunction, high blood pressure and arthritis. Siddiq Abdullah Badam suffers from bone tuberculosis; Anwar Muhammed Menda suffers from mental depression; Qutbuddin Ansari suffers from a lung disease and Anwar Hussain Pital from severe haemorrhoids.
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And from the old files of SANSAD:
Here is the link for the Report by Jan Sangarsh Morcha, led by Dr. Mukul Sinha. Following this is an article by Mr. Kuldip Nayar, a prominent journalist, and also a former Member of Paliament.
http://nsm.org.in/2008/09/29/jan-sangharsh-manch-comments-on-nanavati-commission-report/
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Modi let off the hook?
By Kuldip Nayar
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/opinion.htm
I suspected some design when the Justice Nanavati Commission submitted only a part of the inquiry report on what was known as the Godhara incident. I could see the contents written on the face of a gleeful Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi in a photograph at the time of the report's presentation. It was clear that Modi had been exonerated.
Was it necessary for Justice Nanavati to suggest this or even release a part of the report in he did not want to favour Modi and the BJP? Nanavati has clarified after heavy criticism that his first report was confined only to the burning of Sabarmati Express coach. He has said that he did not give a clean chit to Modi or his government and that he was still working on the rioting after the Godhara incident. Why should the Nanavati Commission which has had as many as 16 extensions submit an incomplete report?
There was no pressure on the commission. Then why hurry with it?
It looks as if Nanavati is a party to the travesty of justice: separating the report into two parts while it should have been one. True, the BJP and Modi wanted it that way. But I cannot comprehend why Nanavati has done so. He knows that nobody can condone the killing of some 2,000 Muslims, not even his Commission. The ethnic cleansing in Gujarat has been recorded visually and there are many witnesses and documents to corroborate it. Is his compulsion on the second part the reason for splitting the report?
Maybe, Nanavati has a point. But he has already held local Muslims guilty of "conspiracy" for burning the coach. The manner in which he has exonerated Modi and his officials suggests that Nanavati was discussing the Gujarat carnage, not the burning of the coach. Since the full report will be ready only by the end of the year, this gives an opportunity to Modi and the BJP to go to town on what Nanavati has already said and exploit the findings in November assembly elections in five states.
It was clear that Nanavati was more or less repeating the version which Modi and the BJP had projected to provide an alibi for the massacre of the Muslims soon after 59 kar sevaks were burnt alive in the compartment that was set to fire. The report released by Nanavati is no different. He too says the fire was "a pre-planned conspiracy" by local Muslims. Justice Nanavati has also ruled out the involvement of any religious or political organization, exonerating the BJP the Bajrang Dal and the likes.
The version which Nanavati has relied upon is in stark contrast to what another Supreme Court judge, Justice U.C. Bannerjee, had reported. According to him-he was appointed by the Railways-the fire was not ignited from outside the coach but from within it, either by accident or design. Bannerjee has repeated his findings even after Nanavati's report.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed by the Supreme Court to reinvestigate the riots, is still at work. Nanavati should have waited till it had given its report. By not doing so. Justice Nanavati, himself from the Supreme Court, has only shown scant respect to the Supreme Court. Even the petition challenging the Bannerjee Committee's findings is still pending before the state High Court. Should Nanavati have still gone ahead?
The conflicting reports, one by Justice Bannerjee and the other by Justice Nanavati, bring no credit to the judiciary. Had such a thing happened at the level of the two judges in a subordinate court, the High Court would have taken them to task. I cannot say anything more but do feel intrigued by the spectacle when the judges involved are from the Supreme Court.
It is obvious that Nanavati wanted to favour Gujarat, the state which appointed him to head the inquiry commission. He knows he cannot but criticise the state in the post-Godhara report. Did he intentionally separate the two incidents, which are really one? Since the first report is favourable to the state, he let it go as if it was independent of the other. Legally, there is nothing wrong in releasing the report in parts. But ethically, it is not correct because people are now expected to make up their mind on the basis of partial report.
I have a nagging feeling that the post-Godhara report, which is bound to hold Modi and the Gujarat administration guilty, and corroborate the thesis that there was a prior plan to cleanse the state ethnically will be released after the general elections which are due early next year. Wittingly or unwittingly, Nanavati has helped Modi and his party.
The Jan Sangarsh Manch (JSM), a Gujarat NGO, is the first to react to the submission of incomplete report. It has criticised the Nanavati Commission for being hasty in giving are incomplete report to the state government. The JSM's convenor, S.H. Iyer, has questioned the urgency of the partial report. He asks: "Don't the thousands of victims of the post-Godhara riots have any right to know why their lives and property were destroyed? And which minister, politician, police officer or organisation was responsible for the massacres."
I recall talking to Justice Nanavati before he submitted his report on the 1984 riots in which 3,000 Sikhs were killed at Delhi alone. He told me what happened in Delhi could happen anywhere in India and at any time because the police knew no limits and politicians no norms of behaviour. He even commented on the probe that he was conducting on the Gujarat killings. He said "I have seen the same pattern in Gujarat." He also said he saw many similarities between the happenings in Delhi and Gujarat and he had no good word either for the politicians or the authorities. Therefore, I find it difficult to understand when he gives a clean chit to Modi, his council of ministers and police officials.
Former Chief Justice J.C. Verma, then chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, has released a ietter which shows that he had cautioned Nanavati. In his statement Justice Varma has said that Nanavati's clean chit is far from the truth.
In the report on the 1984 riots, Nanavati had expressed his helplessness. After 20 years, he said, there was no concrete evidence to pursue, nothing to bring the killers to book. I hope he does not take the same line on the post-Godhara killings and expresses his helplessness once again. The 1984 killings were two decades old when Justice Nanavati was asked to probe. The killings in Gujarat are only six years old. The nation expects him to do a better job.
Ram Sena Not Fringe, Its Sangh Parivar In All Its Splendour
The Asian Age
February 18, 2009
RAM SENE NOT FRINGE, IT’S COLOURED SAFFRON
by Inder Malhotra
WHAT began at a Mangalore pub last month and manifested itself menacingly on Valentine’s Day in a number of states — from Karnataka to Haryana, from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra — cannot be dismissed as a mere aberration by a small lunatic fringe. It is a dangerous trend which, if unchecked immediately, could talibanise a religion that has been most tolerant for millennia and a country whose legitimate pride lies in its secular traditions and respect for people’s Fundamental Rights.
In the first place, the number of goons and thugs who go on a rampage at will is not as small as it is made out to be. Secondly, the perpetrators of unacceptable barbarity get away easily. Either they are not arrested or, if taken into custody, are let off on bail. No wonder more and more goons are joining their ranks in a milieu in which violence on any pretext is routine. Thirdly, and most gravely, the likes of Pramod Muthalik, who are self-appointed custodians of Hindu culture as well as morals and morality, have the tacit support of the votaries of Hindutva who dominate the principal Opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There can be no other explanation for the fact that L.K. Advani, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, hasn’t uttered a word of condemnation so far about Valentine’s Day incidents.
In fact, after the Mangalore outrage, BJP leaders did condemn it and declared emphatically that it was the handiwork of "anti-social elements" with whom their party had nothing whatsoever to do. This pretence could not hold water. The antecedents of Mr Muthalik and his associates showed how close their links were with the saffron party before personal differences drove them to organise a new outfit called Sri Ram Sene. In any case, whatever the names of various senas, all of them are members of the extended Sangh Parivar, presided over by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). Bajrang Dal members, who were hyperactive on Valentine’s Day, have been the Hindtuva camp’s storm-troopers since before Mr Advani’s rath yatra and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In the circumstances, those who say that parcels of pink knickers should have been sent not to Mr Muthalik but to Mr Advani, Rajnath Singh and the chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyurappa, have a point.
It would, of course, be wrong to condemn the BJP governments alone though it is hair-raising that the "saviours" of Hinduism should have attacked a brother and sister duo in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, where the saffron party has been returned to power in the recent Assembly elections. In the wake of Mangalore incidents, the newly-appointed Congress chief minister of Rajasthan spoke of "pub culture" in a language indistinguishable from that of the Karnataka chief minister, who pontificated that it was wrong for people to take the law into their hands, but he wouldn’t allow the "pub culture" to grow. The Rajasthan chief minister backtracked only after top Congress leaders frowned on him. On Valentine’s Day, in Maharashtra, ruled by a Congress-led coalition, vandalism by the Hindutva goons was as widespread as in Madhya Pradesh.
And to Congress-ruled Haryana goes the dubious and shameful distinction that one of its assistant sub-inspectors of police, instead of protecting victims of violence, dragged a girl by her hair and treated her in a beastly manner. His suspension means nothing. He’ll be back in his job soon, if past practice is any guide. The Karnataka government’s action in the case of the teenaged girl who committed suicide because she was humiliated and brutalised by the Hindutva hoodlums is nothing short of monstrous. The state police arrested the Muslim boy she was accompanying in a bus but not her assailants. The district superintendent of police’s explanation was that if he had arrested the "real culprits", there would have been a communal riot!
Let there be no mistake that the looming peril is great and the stakes in defeating it are high. The message of the "custodians" of Hindu religion and culture amounts to a wail that Hinduism would be destroyed if some girls drink beer at a pub or if a boy and girl walk hand-in-hand or if a young man presents roses or chocolates to his wife or girlfriend on February 14. What is the remedy prescribed by these paranoid backwoodsmen? To "semitise" the Hindu religion, in the words of historian Romila Thapar, by imposing a strict and uniform code on every Hindu, just as the Wahabbis did in Saudi Arabia in the past and the Taliban are doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan now.
Not only does the Hindu religion have no book and no Pope, but it also doesn’t impose any compulsion on its followers. It is not at all compulsory to go to a temple or to pray. Hundreds of millions worship at temples regularly, and an equal number don’t. Moreover, the notion of a monolithic Hindu culture is ridiculous in such a vast and hugely diverse country. Different patterns prevail in different regions. To give only one example, in Tamil Nadu, for a Hindu to marry his sister’s daughter is not just permitted but is considered the right thing to do. In north India this would be reprehensible incest.
The Indian state and civil society must learn from what has happened in Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari has candidly admitted that the Taliban could "take over" the country. Earlier, in an article in Newsline titled "The Saudi-isation of Pakistan", the highly respected Pakistani academic Pervez Hoodbhoy had warned: "It is a matter of time before the fighting (in the wild areas…) shifts to Peshawar and Islamabad (which has already been a witness to the Lal Masjid episode) and engulfs Lahore and Karachi as well". He also explained why. Instead of resisting the religious extremism, "the (Pakistani) state used religion as an instrument of policy". A stage has now been reached where "every incumbent government (is) fearful of taking on powerful religious forces". Let this country not say later that it wasn’t forewarned.
February 18, 2009
RAM SENE NOT FRINGE, IT’S COLOURED SAFFRON
by Inder Malhotra
WHAT began at a Mangalore pub last month and manifested itself menacingly on Valentine’s Day in a number of states — from Karnataka to Haryana, from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra — cannot be dismissed as a mere aberration by a small lunatic fringe. It is a dangerous trend which, if unchecked immediately, could talibanise a religion that has been most tolerant for millennia and a country whose legitimate pride lies in its secular traditions and respect for people’s Fundamental Rights.
In the first place, the number of goons and thugs who go on a rampage at will is not as small as it is made out to be. Secondly, the perpetrators of unacceptable barbarity get away easily. Either they are not arrested or, if taken into custody, are let off on bail. No wonder more and more goons are joining their ranks in a milieu in which violence on any pretext is routine. Thirdly, and most gravely, the likes of Pramod Muthalik, who are self-appointed custodians of Hindu culture as well as morals and morality, have the tacit support of the votaries of Hindutva who dominate the principal Opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There can be no other explanation for the fact that L.K. Advani, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, hasn’t uttered a word of condemnation so far about Valentine’s Day incidents.
In fact, after the Mangalore outrage, BJP leaders did condemn it and declared emphatically that it was the handiwork of "anti-social elements" with whom their party had nothing whatsoever to do. This pretence could not hold water. The antecedents of Mr Muthalik and his associates showed how close their links were with the saffron party before personal differences drove them to organise a new outfit called Sri Ram Sene. In any case, whatever the names of various senas, all of them are members of the extended Sangh Parivar, presided over by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). Bajrang Dal members, who were hyperactive on Valentine’s Day, have been the Hindtuva camp’s storm-troopers since before Mr Advani’s rath yatra and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In the circumstances, those who say that parcels of pink knickers should have been sent not to Mr Muthalik but to Mr Advani, Rajnath Singh and the chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyurappa, have a point.
It would, of course, be wrong to condemn the BJP governments alone though it is hair-raising that the "saviours" of Hinduism should have attacked a brother and sister duo in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, where the saffron party has been returned to power in the recent Assembly elections. In the wake of Mangalore incidents, the newly-appointed Congress chief minister of Rajasthan spoke of "pub culture" in a language indistinguishable from that of the Karnataka chief minister, who pontificated that it was wrong for people to take the law into their hands, but he wouldn’t allow the "pub culture" to grow. The Rajasthan chief minister backtracked only after top Congress leaders frowned on him. On Valentine’s Day, in Maharashtra, ruled by a Congress-led coalition, vandalism by the Hindutva goons was as widespread as in Madhya Pradesh.
And to Congress-ruled Haryana goes the dubious and shameful distinction that one of its assistant sub-inspectors of police, instead of protecting victims of violence, dragged a girl by her hair and treated her in a beastly manner. His suspension means nothing. He’ll be back in his job soon, if past practice is any guide. The Karnataka government’s action in the case of the teenaged girl who committed suicide because she was humiliated and brutalised by the Hindutva hoodlums is nothing short of monstrous. The state police arrested the Muslim boy she was accompanying in a bus but not her assailants. The district superintendent of police’s explanation was that if he had arrested the "real culprits", there would have been a communal riot!
Let there be no mistake that the looming peril is great and the stakes in defeating it are high. The message of the "custodians" of Hindu religion and culture amounts to a wail that Hinduism would be destroyed if some girls drink beer at a pub or if a boy and girl walk hand-in-hand or if a young man presents roses or chocolates to his wife or girlfriend on February 14. What is the remedy prescribed by these paranoid backwoodsmen? To "semitise" the Hindu religion, in the words of historian Romila Thapar, by imposing a strict and uniform code on every Hindu, just as the Wahabbis did in Saudi Arabia in the past and the Taliban are doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan now.
Not only does the Hindu religion have no book and no Pope, but it also doesn’t impose any compulsion on its followers. It is not at all compulsory to go to a temple or to pray. Hundreds of millions worship at temples regularly, and an equal number don’t. Moreover, the notion of a monolithic Hindu culture is ridiculous in such a vast and hugely diverse country. Different patterns prevail in different regions. To give only one example, in Tamil Nadu, for a Hindu to marry his sister’s daughter is not just permitted but is considered the right thing to do. In north India this would be reprehensible incest.
The Indian state and civil society must learn from what has happened in Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari has candidly admitted that the Taliban could "take over" the country. Earlier, in an article in Newsline titled "The Saudi-isation of Pakistan", the highly respected Pakistani academic Pervez Hoodbhoy had warned: "It is a matter of time before the fighting (in the wild areas…) shifts to Peshawar and Islamabad (which has already been a witness to the Lal Masjid episode) and engulfs Lahore and Karachi as well". He also explained why. Instead of resisting the religious extremism, "the (Pakistani) state used religion as an instrument of policy". A stage has now been reached where "every incumbent government (is) fearful of taking on powerful religious forces". Let this country not say later that it wasn’t forewarned.
February 16, 2009
Yogi Adityanath - BJP MP cum Hindutva Don in UP
‘When I Ask Them To Rise And Protect Our Hindu Culture, They Obey Me’
Yogi Adityanath, 37
BJP MP FROM GORAKHPUR, UP
NUMBER OF CASES: 2
RIOTING, DISTURBING HARMONY
Cover Story
Photo: AP
EYES CLOSED in exhaustion, hundreds throng the Gorakhnath temple, their mouths mumbling prayers and fists scrunching bits of paper. The queue is headed not towards the revered shrine but to the air-conditioned office where a saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath sits. He collects the crumpled and sweaty chits his devotees bring and promises deliverance. The assurance is grounded not so much in his holiness but in the Hindu predominance he vows to bring about.
Yogi Adityanath, head priest-apparent at the Gorakhnath mutt in east Uttar Pradesh, is a BJP MP from Gorakhpur and a Hindu leader of clout. “When I speak, thousands listen,” he says. “When I ask them to rise and protect our Hindu culture, they obey. If I ask for blood, they will give me blood.” To channel these energies, he founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a radical and violent group consisting mainly of unemployed youth and small-time criminals who pledge to serve “Yogiji” and destroy his enemies: the non-Hindus. “I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu rashtra,” says Adityanath. He does accept Muslim votes, but only after they have been “cleansed with Gangajal”.
For more than a decade, Adityanath and the Vahini have been accused of turning Gorakhpur and its neighbouring districts into a simmering communal cauldron. Calling himself the next Narendra Modi, Adityanath has repeatedly threatened to turn Gorakhpur into Godhra and UP into Gujarat. Driving through Muslim-majority pockets like Azamgarh with sword-brandishing youth screaming his name, Adityanath unleashes the infamous firepower that has provoked massive Hindu-Muslim violence. While he swears he will “eliminate the Muslim population in UP”, he claims he has another plan for Christians. In October 2005, he led a ‘purification drive’ in the district of Etah, converting 1,800 Christians to Hinduism. Earlier that year, he had converted 5,000 Dalit Christians in the same district.
The Yogi takes pride not only in his oratorical skills but also in what he calls his “clear code of right and wrong”. “Being Muslim — right. Being Muslim in India — wrong,” he says. “Terrorism — wrong. Hindus hitting back at Muslims for terrorism — right.”
He believes there is no such thing as a Hindu terrorist and claims that any violence by a Hindu is only done in selfdefence. In November 2008, when the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad announced it will interrogate a “highprofile person” in UP in connection with last September’s bomb blasts in Maharashtra’s Malegaon town, Adityanath brazenly appeared on TV news channels daring the Congress-led Centre to question him.
“A few arrests will not stop me,” he says. And they haven’t. Adityanath is said to have provoked over 20 incidents of communal violence. But there are only two criminal cases against him, one of which pertains to the killing of a gunman of a rival political leader from the Samajwadi Party at Maharajganj near Gorakhpur, in 1999. The second criminal case was registered when Adityanath and his Vahini laid siege to the town in January 2007, burning mosques, houses, buses and trains, claiming that the Gorakhnath temple had been attacked. Adityanath and 130 others were arrested on the spot. The District Magistrate, Hari Om, who ordered the arrests, was transferred out the next day. Today, the case lies cold and untouched. Says Adityanath, “God looks after me.” Hari Om counters, “The Yogi’s protectors are less powerful than God but more corrupt.”
ROHINI MOHAN
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 6, Dated Feb 14, 2009
Yogi Adityanath, 37
BJP MP FROM GORAKHPUR, UP
NUMBER OF CASES: 2
RIOTING, DISTURBING HARMONY
Cover Story
Photo: AP
EYES CLOSED in exhaustion, hundreds throng the Gorakhnath temple, their mouths mumbling prayers and fists scrunching bits of paper. The queue is headed not towards the revered shrine but to the air-conditioned office where a saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath sits. He collects the crumpled and sweaty chits his devotees bring and promises deliverance. The assurance is grounded not so much in his holiness but in the Hindu predominance he vows to bring about.
Yogi Adityanath, head priest-apparent at the Gorakhnath mutt in east Uttar Pradesh, is a BJP MP from Gorakhpur and a Hindu leader of clout. “When I speak, thousands listen,” he says. “When I ask them to rise and protect our Hindu culture, they obey. If I ask for blood, they will give me blood.” To channel these energies, he founded the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a radical and violent group consisting mainly of unemployed youth and small-time criminals who pledge to serve “Yogiji” and destroy his enemies: the non-Hindus. “I will not stop till I turn UP and India into a Hindu rashtra,” says Adityanath. He does accept Muslim votes, but only after they have been “cleansed with Gangajal”.
For more than a decade, Adityanath and the Vahini have been accused of turning Gorakhpur and its neighbouring districts into a simmering communal cauldron. Calling himself the next Narendra Modi, Adityanath has repeatedly threatened to turn Gorakhpur into Godhra and UP into Gujarat. Driving through Muslim-majority pockets like Azamgarh with sword-brandishing youth screaming his name, Adityanath unleashes the infamous firepower that has provoked massive Hindu-Muslim violence. While he swears he will “eliminate the Muslim population in UP”, he claims he has another plan for Christians. In October 2005, he led a ‘purification drive’ in the district of Etah, converting 1,800 Christians to Hinduism. Earlier that year, he had converted 5,000 Dalit Christians in the same district.
The Yogi takes pride not only in his oratorical skills but also in what he calls his “clear code of right and wrong”. “Being Muslim — right. Being Muslim in India — wrong,” he says. “Terrorism — wrong. Hindus hitting back at Muslims for terrorism — right.”
He believes there is no such thing as a Hindu terrorist and claims that any violence by a Hindu is only done in selfdefence. In November 2008, when the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad announced it will interrogate a “highprofile person” in UP in connection with last September’s bomb blasts in Maharashtra’s Malegaon town, Adityanath brazenly appeared on TV news channels daring the Congress-led Centre to question him.
“A few arrests will not stop me,” he says. And they haven’t. Adityanath is said to have provoked over 20 incidents of communal violence. But there are only two criminal cases against him, one of which pertains to the killing of a gunman of a rival political leader from the Samajwadi Party at Maharajganj near Gorakhpur, in 1999. The second criminal case was registered when Adityanath and his Vahini laid siege to the town in January 2007, burning mosques, houses, buses and trains, claiming that the Gorakhnath temple had been attacked. Adityanath and 130 others were arrested on the spot. The District Magistrate, Hari Om, who ordered the arrests, was transferred out the next day. Today, the case lies cold and untouched. Says Adityanath, “God looks after me.” Hari Om counters, “The Yogi’s protectors are less powerful than God but more corrupt.”
ROHINI MOHAN
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 6, Dated Feb 14, 2009
Official Figures on Numbers of Dead Rise - Gujarat riots of 2002
The Times of India,16 Feb 2009
2002 riots toll to rise from 952 to 1,180
by Leena Misra , TNN
AHMEDABAD: The post-Godhra riots’ official death toll will rise to four figures on February 28 — from 952 to 1,180 — when the stipulated seven years since the disappearance of 228 people end, after which the missing persons will be declared dead.
The communal conflagration in the state had led to the disappearance of a total of 413 people. Of these, 185 people were found, leaving 228 still missing. Administrative procedures are now on to correct the official toll by listing those 228 missing persons as dead.
The missing include Azhar Mody, son of Rupa and Dara Mody, whose story inspired the 2007 Bollywood flick, ‘Parzania’.
“The question of government presuming a missing person dead arises when rights are attached to the dead. Relatives of the missing people will have to inform a competent government authority like the revenue department about their status. But the real issue, because these people went missing in rioting, is that they are presumed murdered. The bigger question is not of compensation but investigation of these murders,’’ said Gujarat High Court lawyer Mukul Sinha.
Rupa and Dara Mody continue to wait for Azhar, although a witness has claimed before the SC-appointed special investigation team (SIT) that he had seen Azhar’s body after the Gulbarg Society massacre. “We are not buying that version because the witness’s description of the boy’s clothes do not match with his mother’s who would certainly have a more vivid memory of her lost son,’’ said a senior SIT officer.
Of the 413 people reported missing in Gujarat, around 200 were from Ahmedabad alone. Among the 185 found was Muzaffar Sheikh, raised by a Hindu mother, Veena Patni. SIT helped him reunite with his parents in 2008.
Additional commissioner of police Ashish Bhatia confirmed that the toll of riot victims is set to rise. “In the Naroda Patia case, we confirmed 95 persons dead, against the earlier official toll of 83. In Naroda Gaam, we have confirmed three more dead, which takes the toll in that area to 11,’’ he said.
Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) had submitted a list of missing persons to the Supreme Court to support their claim that 71 of them had died in Gulbarg Society, and not 39 as officially stated. Congress ex-MP Ahsan Jafri, whose body was never found, is listed as dead. “Banks will now be able to release money from the accounts to their (missing people’s) legal heirs,’’ said Teesta Setalvad of CJP.
2002 riots toll to rise from 952 to 1,180
by Leena Misra , TNN
AHMEDABAD: The post-Godhra riots’ official death toll will rise to four figures on February 28 — from 952 to 1,180 — when the stipulated seven years since the disappearance of 228 people end, after which the missing persons will be declared dead.
The communal conflagration in the state had led to the disappearance of a total of 413 people. Of these, 185 people were found, leaving 228 still missing. Administrative procedures are now on to correct the official toll by listing those 228 missing persons as dead.
The missing include Azhar Mody, son of Rupa and Dara Mody, whose story inspired the 2007 Bollywood flick, ‘Parzania’.
“The question of government presuming a missing person dead arises when rights are attached to the dead. Relatives of the missing people will have to inform a competent government authority like the revenue department about their status. But the real issue, because these people went missing in rioting, is that they are presumed murdered. The bigger question is not of compensation but investigation of these murders,’’ said Gujarat High Court lawyer Mukul Sinha.
Rupa and Dara Mody continue to wait for Azhar, although a witness has claimed before the SC-appointed special investigation team (SIT) that he had seen Azhar’s body after the Gulbarg Society massacre. “We are not buying that version because the witness’s description of the boy’s clothes do not match with his mother’s who would certainly have a more vivid memory of her lost son,’’ said a senior SIT officer.
Of the 413 people reported missing in Gujarat, around 200 were from Ahmedabad alone. Among the 185 found was Muzaffar Sheikh, raised by a Hindu mother, Veena Patni. SIT helped him reunite with his parents in 2008.
Additional commissioner of police Ashish Bhatia confirmed that the toll of riot victims is set to rise. “In the Naroda Patia case, we confirmed 95 persons dead, against the earlier official toll of 83. In Naroda Gaam, we have confirmed three more dead, which takes the toll in that area to 11,’’ he said.
Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) had submitted a list of missing persons to the Supreme Court to support their claim that 71 of them had died in Gulbarg Society, and not 39 as officially stated. Congress ex-MP Ahsan Jafri, whose body was never found, is listed as dead. “Banks will now be able to release money from the accounts to their (missing people’s) legal heirs,’’ said Teesta Setalvad of CJP.
February 15, 2009
Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre (Harsh Mander)
Published by Penguin Books India
February 2009
Cover Price Rs 299.00
ISBN13: 9780143102212
240 pp
‘Human history is not just a history of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, [and] kindness. What we choose to emphasise in this complex history will define our lives…’—Howard Zinn
In February 2002, a violent storm of engineered sectarian hatred broke out and raged for many months in Gujarat; blood flowed freely on the streets and tens of thousands of homes were razed to the ground. An estimated 2000 men, women and children, mostly from the Muslim community, were raped and murdered, and more than two hundred thousand people fled in terror as their homes and livelihoods were systematically destroyed.
However, Gujarat abounds with thousands of untold stories of faith and courage that endured amidst the fear and hate—Dhuraji and Babuben Thakur who sheltered 110 Muslims for ten days in their home; of Rambhai Adivasi who restored his Muslim neighbour’s roof in the face of local opposition, Rabiya of Ratanpur who waits in the hope that the people from her village will call her back one day and then every thing will be all right, Bilkis Bano and Niyaz Bibi whose perseverance and determination have made them symbols of courage in the face of adversity.
Harsh Mander’s Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre, written over the past six years, is not just about the grim events of 2002, of the state’s lack of accountability and the failure of justice, of the numerous commissions and their reports, of the indiscriminate use of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act 2002, of police brutality and the trauma of relief camps. It is about the acts of compassion and courage, of the hundreds who risked their own lives and those of their families and their homes to save innocent men, women and children, and even today help the betrayed and shattered minority heal and rebuild. The book compels us to acknowledge the flaws in our judicial, social and rehabilitative structures while showing that the way forward must be one of sympathy, understanding and forgiveness.
February 14, 2009
VHP thugs ransack Bokaro Post office for selling valentines day cards
The Telegraph
VHP V-Day rage singes post office
by Shashank Shekhar
The ransacked head post office in Bokaro. Picture by Pankaj Singh
Bokaro, Feb. 12: More than a dozen activists of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) went on the rampage at the recently upgraded head post office of Bokaro steel city in Sector II today in protest against the sale of Valentine’s Day cards.
Hurling a volley of abuses, the protesters damaged property worth thousand of rupees, injuring an employee in the process.
The employees immediately informed the police, who rushed to the spot and managed to arrest three VHP leaders while the rest fled. The arrested have been identified as Vinod Ojha, Virendra Kumar Singh and Arjun Singh.
Sources said that around 12.30pm, a group of VHP workers suddenly barged into the post office. “They demanded to know why Valentine’s Day cards were being sold at counter number IX instead of revenue stamps. Shouting slogans, they went on the rampage, shattering the counter glasses and forcing the customers and employees to run for cover,” said an eye witness.
Shashi Das, who was sitting at counter number IX, tried to ward off the youths when a huge chunk of glass hit him on his head. He was rushed to a nursing home. His condition was stated to be stable.
Hearing the commotion, acting postmaster Laldeo Singh rushed in to pacify the youths. He said that they were only following government rules. But the youths did not pay any heed to Singh’s pleas. They continued with the rampage till the police arrived.
Later, the employees of the post office lodged an FIR against the activists at City police station for causing obstruction in government job and attacking government employees. The post office was modernised and reopened on January 23 this year
Singh told TheTelegraph that there was nothing abnormal in selling Valentine’s Day cards. “The VHP workers attacked the office for reasons best known to them,” he said.
Officer in-charge of City police station Ratan Deo Singh said: “We have arrested three persons for ransacking the post office, forcefully stopping work there and injuring an employee. We have decided to depute a police team at the post office to avert such incidents in the future.”
VHP V-Day rage singes post office
by Shashank Shekhar
The ransacked head post office in Bokaro. Picture by Pankaj Singh
Bokaro, Feb. 12: More than a dozen activists of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) went on the rampage at the recently upgraded head post office of Bokaro steel city in Sector II today in protest against the sale of Valentine’s Day cards.
Hurling a volley of abuses, the protesters damaged property worth thousand of rupees, injuring an employee in the process.
The employees immediately informed the police, who rushed to the spot and managed to arrest three VHP leaders while the rest fled. The arrested have been identified as Vinod Ojha, Virendra Kumar Singh and Arjun Singh.
Sources said that around 12.30pm, a group of VHP workers suddenly barged into the post office. “They demanded to know why Valentine’s Day cards were being sold at counter number IX instead of revenue stamps. Shouting slogans, they went on the rampage, shattering the counter glasses and forcing the customers and employees to run for cover,” said an eye witness.
Shashi Das, who was sitting at counter number IX, tried to ward off the youths when a huge chunk of glass hit him on his head. He was rushed to a nursing home. His condition was stated to be stable.
Hearing the commotion, acting postmaster Laldeo Singh rushed in to pacify the youths. He said that they were only following government rules. But the youths did not pay any heed to Singh’s pleas. They continued with the rampage till the police arrived.
Later, the employees of the post office lodged an FIR against the activists at City police station for causing obstruction in government job and attacking government employees. The post office was modernised and reopened on January 23 this year
Singh told TheTelegraph that there was nothing abnormal in selling Valentine’s Day cards. “The VHP workers attacked the office for reasons best known to them,” he said.
Officer in-charge of City police station Ratan Deo Singh said: “We have arrested three persons for ransacking the post office, forcefully stopping work there and injuring an employee. We have decided to depute a police team at the post office to avert such incidents in the future.”
Film Review: Firaaq
From: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/
February 11, 2009
Firaaq' Holds a Mirror to National Healing
The Current Discussion: The Academy Awards are coming, and an Indian movie, "Slumdog Millionaire," could win best picture. But what are we overlooking? What's the best non-Hollywood movie you saw this year?
Danny Boyle's film "Slumdog Millionaire" presents a lively, fast-paced image of the plucky lives of the millions who live in the urban slums of India. It is exaggerated, it is melodramatic, and the coincidences that build its plot are more Bollywood than Hollywood, but the larger truth that the movie represents is not far removed from reality.
But for a truly realistic view of what happens to vulnerable people in urban India during times of strife and turmoil, I would suggest Nandita Das's absorbing, gripping, shocking, and harrowing film, "Firaaq" -- an Urdu word which can mean 'separation' or 'quest.' "Firaaq" is set in 2002, around the ghastly events that took place in Godhra, in the Indian state of Gujarat, when the compartment of a train burned, killing 58 Hindus. In retaliatory violence, Hindu mobs subsequently killed hundreds of Muslims.
With the film, director Das -- herself an accomplished actress whose credits include "Fire" and "Earth," -- unveils a mirror to Gujarat's society. And the image that it reveals is debilitating - that is, if Gujaratis care enough to see what the film attempts to show. Das creates scenes of the horrific aftermath of violence: gutted homes, destroyed hopes, futile plans to wreak revenge; the timidity of the perpetrators, the sullen anger of the victims, and the calmness of the guilty. The cast, which includes some of the greatest names in India's new wave cinema movement - Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal and Deepti Naval - gives the film a bone-chilling quality. In showing the moral acquiescence of those who witness violence and do nothing about it, Das takes the film beyond Gujarat, making it a searing indictment of everyone who chooses not to speak out against violence.
Since 2002, the Godhra incident has acquired a Rashomon-like quality, with various versions claiming to be the real story. Hindus have claimed that a Muslim mob torched the train in Godhra, whereas others dispute this, with some official inquiries suggesting that the fire may have been an accident. What is undisputed is that the compartment burned, and that it had among its passengers Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya, where they had gone to campaign for the building of a temple for Lord Rama, the site where they believe he was born thousands of years ago.
The underlying root of the controversy was that a 16th-century mosque stood at the site in Ayodhya until 1992. That year, Hindu activitsts destroyed the mosque, insisting that a temple had once existed there and that Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, had destroyed it in the 16th century to make way for the mosque. Hindus want to rebuild a temple on that site. The dispute continues today: In the lead-up to Parliamentary elections to be held soon in India, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has already called for the temple's construction on the disputed site.
But Das's film shows that none of that matters in the context of what happened later. The day after the Godhra incident, in early March, 2002, Hindu mobs went on a rampage throughout Gujarat, and the authorities encouraged, if not facilitated, the violence that by official counts would leave 1,042 dead, including 784 Muslims. Not only was the retaliation an affront to justice, but the killing, rape, burning and mutilation had a stomach-churning cruelty about it. Within a month, Human Rights Watch produced a report entitled "We Have No Orders to Save You," which exposed the state's complicity. Subsequently, dogged campaign by activists and a few publications like the Indian magazine Tehelka (Sensation) has brought more gory stories to light. And yet Hindu opinion firmly backed Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, who has since been re-elected to office.
The film's strength lies in focusing on ordinary Hindus and Muslims whose lives were affected by the riots. One is Aarti, a housewife who is silently haunted by the image of a Muslim woman begging for sanctuary. Another is Khan Saheb, a renowned musician who lives in a Hindu area, and teaches classical music. He cannot understand the destruction of his familiar world, and naively assumes that it is possible for the two communities to live together. There is also Muneera, who hides with friends during the violence, and returns to her home to find it burned to the ground. And there is Sameer, a young, dashing, wealthy Muslim married to a Hindu, who is torn between the dilemma of staying in Ahmedabad or leaving for another city where he and his wife might be safer. Lastly, there are the stories of other hapless Muslims, who make incompetent plots to take revenge.
What is surprising is that Das rarely shows violence in "Firaaq." Its fear, anger and anxiety are all understated. But there is no happy ending, as there is in "Slumdog Millionaire," where the poor Muslim boy from the slums wins the Hindu girl of his dreams. Das shows us the uncomfortable truths and painful reality in which the people of India must live, as they set about repairing the destroyed trust between these communities. This stirring film shows that even if those tales are buried, they will only remain right beneath the surface, and "Firaaq" makes the viewers feel that simmering tension. For Das, life in India isn't a fairy tale.
That Gujarat today is one of India's most prosperous states adds to the complexity. The state attracts large amounts of investment from businesses, implying that all is forgiven, and that bygones are bygones. (Recently, leading industrialists endorsed Gujarat's chief minister Modi as the next Prime Minister of India. Modi has been denied a visa to enter the United States by the State Department for his role in those riots).
"Firaaq" is about Gujarat, but it could just as easily be about other communities that have seemingly erupted in violence - Serbs and Bosniaks in the Balkans, Zulus and the "foreigners" in Soweto, or Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. By showing us how the lives of those who survive violence are changed forever, Das reminds us why healing takes a very long time.
Posted by Salil Tripathi on February 11, 2009 2:17 PM
February 11, 2009
Firaaq' Holds a Mirror to National Healing
The Current Discussion: The Academy Awards are coming, and an Indian movie, "Slumdog Millionaire," could win best picture. But what are we overlooking? What's the best non-Hollywood movie you saw this year?
Danny Boyle's film "Slumdog Millionaire" presents a lively, fast-paced image of the plucky lives of the millions who live in the urban slums of India. It is exaggerated, it is melodramatic, and the coincidences that build its plot are more Bollywood than Hollywood, but the larger truth that the movie represents is not far removed from reality.
But for a truly realistic view of what happens to vulnerable people in urban India during times of strife and turmoil, I would suggest Nandita Das's absorbing, gripping, shocking, and harrowing film, "Firaaq" -- an Urdu word which can mean 'separation' or 'quest.' "Firaaq" is set in 2002, around the ghastly events that took place in Godhra, in the Indian state of Gujarat, when the compartment of a train burned, killing 58 Hindus. In retaliatory violence, Hindu mobs subsequently killed hundreds of Muslims.
With the film, director Das -- herself an accomplished actress whose credits include "Fire" and "Earth," -- unveils a mirror to Gujarat's society. And the image that it reveals is debilitating - that is, if Gujaratis care enough to see what the film attempts to show. Das creates scenes of the horrific aftermath of violence: gutted homes, destroyed hopes, futile plans to wreak revenge; the timidity of the perpetrators, the sullen anger of the victims, and the calmness of the guilty. The cast, which includes some of the greatest names in India's new wave cinema movement - Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal and Deepti Naval - gives the film a bone-chilling quality. In showing the moral acquiescence of those who witness violence and do nothing about it, Das takes the film beyond Gujarat, making it a searing indictment of everyone who chooses not to speak out against violence.
Since 2002, the Godhra incident has acquired a Rashomon-like quality, with various versions claiming to be the real story. Hindus have claimed that a Muslim mob torched the train in Godhra, whereas others dispute this, with some official inquiries suggesting that the fire may have been an accident. What is undisputed is that the compartment burned, and that it had among its passengers Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya, where they had gone to campaign for the building of a temple for Lord Rama, the site where they believe he was born thousands of years ago.
The underlying root of the controversy was that a 16th-century mosque stood at the site in Ayodhya until 1992. That year, Hindu activitsts destroyed the mosque, insisting that a temple had once existed there and that Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, had destroyed it in the 16th century to make way for the mosque. Hindus want to rebuild a temple on that site. The dispute continues today: In the lead-up to Parliamentary elections to be held soon in India, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has already called for the temple's construction on the disputed site.
But Das's film shows that none of that matters in the context of what happened later. The day after the Godhra incident, in early March, 2002, Hindu mobs went on a rampage throughout Gujarat, and the authorities encouraged, if not facilitated, the violence that by official counts would leave 1,042 dead, including 784 Muslims. Not only was the retaliation an affront to justice, but the killing, rape, burning and mutilation had a stomach-churning cruelty about it. Within a month, Human Rights Watch produced a report entitled "We Have No Orders to Save You," which exposed the state's complicity. Subsequently, dogged campaign by activists and a few publications like the Indian magazine Tehelka (Sensation) has brought more gory stories to light. And yet Hindu opinion firmly backed Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, who has since been re-elected to office.
The film's strength lies in focusing on ordinary Hindus and Muslims whose lives were affected by the riots. One is Aarti, a housewife who is silently haunted by the image of a Muslim woman begging for sanctuary. Another is Khan Saheb, a renowned musician who lives in a Hindu area, and teaches classical music. He cannot understand the destruction of his familiar world, and naively assumes that it is possible for the two communities to live together. There is also Muneera, who hides with friends during the violence, and returns to her home to find it burned to the ground. And there is Sameer, a young, dashing, wealthy Muslim married to a Hindu, who is torn between the dilemma of staying in Ahmedabad or leaving for another city where he and his wife might be safer. Lastly, there are the stories of other hapless Muslims, who make incompetent plots to take revenge.
What is surprising is that Das rarely shows violence in "Firaaq." Its fear, anger and anxiety are all understated. But there is no happy ending, as there is in "Slumdog Millionaire," where the poor Muslim boy from the slums wins the Hindu girl of his dreams. Das shows us the uncomfortable truths and painful reality in which the people of India must live, as they set about repairing the destroyed trust between these communities. This stirring film shows that even if those tales are buried, they will only remain right beneath the surface, and "Firaaq" makes the viewers feel that simmering tension. For Das, life in India isn't a fairy tale.
That Gujarat today is one of India's most prosperous states adds to the complexity. The state attracts large amounts of investment from businesses, implying that all is forgiven, and that bygones are bygones. (Recently, leading industrialists endorsed Gujarat's chief minister Modi as the next Prime Minister of India. Modi has been denied a visa to enter the United States by the State Department for his role in those riots).
"Firaaq" is about Gujarat, but it could just as easily be about other communities that have seemingly erupted in violence - Serbs and Bosniaks in the Balkans, Zulus and the "foreigners" in Soweto, or Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. By showing us how the lives of those who survive violence are changed forever, Das reminds us why healing takes a very long time.
Posted by Salil Tripathi on February 11, 2009 2:17 PM
Moral Police breathing down our neck
Tehelka, 13 February 2009
'Loving' to Hate
Ram Puniyani
This Valentine day this year is also threatened by the threat of acts of intolerance, violence by the 'Moral Police' of Shiv Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shri Ram Sene and ABVP etc. Violence including the attacks on shops selling Valentine and other mementoes has been reported too often. On the eve of the Valentine day and on the day itself one is watching in utter disgust the action of this moral police in vandalizing the events of the day. Valentine day has come to be synonymous with the exchange of messages of love all over the world. To keep company with 'our' own moral police similar groups in Saudi Arabia, and Dukhtarane millat types are also on the rampage. Many functions planned for this day have regularly been cancelled and many others just do not dare to plan any function in the light of experience of vandalism of previous years.
The ground on which these moral police operate holds no water. It is being said that such an open expression of love is 'un-Indian', this celebration is not in keeping with Indian culture, multinationals are promoting 'nude revolution' etc. Real reasons for this intolerant behavior have to be looked for in their overall agenda to curtail liberalism, pluralism and to constrain the democratic ethos of the country.
The circumstance under which this day came to become a memorable one, are very interesting and have a deep message. Valentine Day has an ancient legacy. It seems that the early Christian Church had at least two saints bearing this name. As per one story Roman emperor Claudius II forbade young men to marry in the year 200's A.D., as he had strong military ambitions and he thought that single men made better soldiers (As 'our own' RSS believes that single men make better Pracharaks (Propagators) for Hindu Rashtra, and accordingly one can not be a high level RSS pracharak if one not a 'bachelor boy'). A priest by the name Valentine protested and disobeyed the orders of the King by solemnizing the marriage of young couple's. According to another legend, Valentine was an early Christian who was very affectionate to young children. He refused to worship Roman Gods and on that count was imprisoned. Children missed his affection and love and tossed the notes containing love messages across the prison bars. According to many stories he was executed on 14th February. This day in due course came to be celebrated in his memory, as a tribute to his courage in defying the inhuman orders of the ruling kings and people started sending greetings and messages of love to their loved ones'. The origin of the customs is slightly shrouded due to its being very ancient. Also these customs started taking local hue in different countries wherever this day began to be celebrated.
So why is the Hindutva brigade opposed to Valentine day, which is symbolic of love? Is it because the multinationals are involved in the card trade? We do remember the enthusiasm of Shiv Sena-BJP combine few years ago to dump the Enron in the Arabian sea as an electoral promise, but after coming to power they not only ratified the same but approved the further stage of the project as well! The NDA rule has seen the BJP leading the pack to bow to the multinationals, more than others. So aversion to multinational corporations is not the real reason. Is it because this day smacks of immorality and our 'moral brigade' cannot tolerate this exchange of symbols of love, which is obnoxious according to them? We do recall here that one of their ilk; B.L. Sharma had termed the rape of nuns as an act of Patriotism! So what are these scales of morality? As far the event being an un-Indian one, let's just give a thought to the process of evolution of the customs, traditions and culture. With the world being reduced to a global village there is a percolation of different festivals and events across the globe. We have seen that even in Indian context in medieval times there was a thick intermingling of cultures and people of the society imbibed the one's coming from different parts of the continent. People belonging to different religions overcame the boundaries to celebrate each other's festivals and customs. The average people of the society, those who do not have vested interests celebrate diversity and enjoy it thoroughly. Muslims participating in Holi, Hindus participating in Tazia processions are some very few examples from the vast cultural interaction, which was the norm of the times, before the rise and institutionalization of communal politics.
Strangely those practicing politics in the name of religion seem to be averse to this basic human longing of love, friendship and sisterhood/brotherhood. While asserting that they are open minded and believe in Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (Whole World is my family), or 'Aa No Bhadra Kratvo yanto Vishwtah!' (Let the noble thoughts come to us from all the universe) for the sake of arguments, these Religious Nationalists are most close-minded and permit the customs and other cultural symbols as per their political convenience. The similarities between 'our' own fundamentalists (RSS progeny and associates) and those across the border and slightly far away are very striking. Taliban regime had imposed similar codes for the people in general and for women in particular. Who will wear what color of dress, what type of dress etc. everything is dictated. The Hindutva bandwagon has been drumming up the 'patriotism' by various dictates. One remembers this brigade's attacks on films (Water, Fire), their attacks on Gazal concerts (Gulam Ali), painting exhibitions (M.F.Husain) from the recent past. BJP's Mr. Rajnath Singh, the Chief Minister of UP, had passed the fatwa, well endorsed by his patriarch organization RSS, which told couples not to go for honeymoon, which opposed cutting birthday cakes and burning candles etc.
The Sangh Parivar volunteers in the past have opposed the wearing of jeans by girls. The fanatic MP brigade, belonging to most religions is especially watchful of the 'women's conduct' or whatever can affect that. As the protectors of 'their' women, on whose back the community identity and all the baggage is loaded, are especial target. It is by dictating women that the 'real' traditions are preserved and percolated in this scheme of things. One cannot miss the type of issues, which those playing politics in the name of religion undertake. All the issues they take for ramming the society have to do with emotional cords and spread of hatred against some 'other'. The real issues pertaining to the material lives, human rights of the weaker sections etc. don't mean a thing for these self proclaimed 'super patriots', whose patriotism gets manifested only in burning books, cards, and in intimidating whosoever violates their fatwas. Nothing surprising, again this is in tune with what Mullahs do in some so-called 'Islamic republics'.
All this goes against the democracy and plural ethos of our country. Those working for Hindu Rashtra mercilessly trample on people's choices about various things in their lives. Their wavelength does match with those who are imposing 'Islamic state' in many Middle East countries or even with Mullahs across the border. This moral policing by the followers of Thackeray and Golwalkar derives cheers from the Talibans of yesteryears. They do have company of the Mullahs in Saudi Arabia even today. In this intimidating game where the vandals of these outfits take the law in their hands, the 'sympathetic' BJP govt. smiles in its sleeves with silent approval. In a way incidents like this are a test of our democratic principles, how far we can and will uphold them? How much this MP will dictate our social and political lives remains to be seen. It is at one level not just a question of burning of Valentine cards, the issue has do with the choices of average people, women in particular. Can the people at large have the democratic freedom to live their lives as they please or do they have to take approval from the self appointed guardians of Religion, morality, culture etc. breathing down our neck in our personal, social and political life? •
Posted on Feb 13, 2009
'Loving' to Hate
Ram Puniyani
This Valentine day this year is also threatened by the threat of acts of intolerance, violence by the 'Moral Police' of Shiv Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shri Ram Sene and ABVP etc. Violence including the attacks on shops selling Valentine and other mementoes has been reported too often. On the eve of the Valentine day and on the day itself one is watching in utter disgust the action of this moral police in vandalizing the events of the day. Valentine day has come to be synonymous with the exchange of messages of love all over the world. To keep company with 'our' own moral police similar groups in Saudi Arabia, and Dukhtarane millat types are also on the rampage. Many functions planned for this day have regularly been cancelled and many others just do not dare to plan any function in the light of experience of vandalism of previous years.
The ground on which these moral police operate holds no water. It is being said that such an open expression of love is 'un-Indian', this celebration is not in keeping with Indian culture, multinationals are promoting 'nude revolution' etc. Real reasons for this intolerant behavior have to be looked for in their overall agenda to curtail liberalism, pluralism and to constrain the democratic ethos of the country.
The circumstance under which this day came to become a memorable one, are very interesting and have a deep message. Valentine Day has an ancient legacy. It seems that the early Christian Church had at least two saints bearing this name. As per one story Roman emperor Claudius II forbade young men to marry in the year 200's A.D., as he had strong military ambitions and he thought that single men made better soldiers (As 'our own' RSS believes that single men make better Pracharaks (Propagators) for Hindu Rashtra, and accordingly one can not be a high level RSS pracharak if one not a 'bachelor boy'). A priest by the name Valentine protested and disobeyed the orders of the King by solemnizing the marriage of young couple's. According to another legend, Valentine was an early Christian who was very affectionate to young children. He refused to worship Roman Gods and on that count was imprisoned. Children missed his affection and love and tossed the notes containing love messages across the prison bars. According to many stories he was executed on 14th February. This day in due course came to be celebrated in his memory, as a tribute to his courage in defying the inhuman orders of the ruling kings and people started sending greetings and messages of love to their loved ones'. The origin of the customs is slightly shrouded due to its being very ancient. Also these customs started taking local hue in different countries wherever this day began to be celebrated.
So why is the Hindutva brigade opposed to Valentine day, which is symbolic of love? Is it because the multinationals are involved in the card trade? We do remember the enthusiasm of Shiv Sena-BJP combine few years ago to dump the Enron in the Arabian sea as an electoral promise, but after coming to power they not only ratified the same but approved the further stage of the project as well! The NDA rule has seen the BJP leading the pack to bow to the multinationals, more than others. So aversion to multinational corporations is not the real reason. Is it because this day smacks of immorality and our 'moral brigade' cannot tolerate this exchange of symbols of love, which is obnoxious according to them? We do recall here that one of their ilk; B.L. Sharma had termed the rape of nuns as an act of Patriotism! So what are these scales of morality? As far the event being an un-Indian one, let's just give a thought to the process of evolution of the customs, traditions and culture. With the world being reduced to a global village there is a percolation of different festivals and events across the globe. We have seen that even in Indian context in medieval times there was a thick intermingling of cultures and people of the society imbibed the one's coming from different parts of the continent. People belonging to different religions overcame the boundaries to celebrate each other's festivals and customs. The average people of the society, those who do not have vested interests celebrate diversity and enjoy it thoroughly. Muslims participating in Holi, Hindus participating in Tazia processions are some very few examples from the vast cultural interaction, which was the norm of the times, before the rise and institutionalization of communal politics.
Strangely those practicing politics in the name of religion seem to be averse to this basic human longing of love, friendship and sisterhood/brotherhood. While asserting that they are open minded and believe in Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (Whole World is my family), or 'Aa No Bhadra Kratvo yanto Vishwtah!' (Let the noble thoughts come to us from all the universe) for the sake of arguments, these Religious Nationalists are most close-minded and permit the customs and other cultural symbols as per their political convenience. The similarities between 'our' own fundamentalists (RSS progeny and associates) and those across the border and slightly far away are very striking. Taliban regime had imposed similar codes for the people in general and for women in particular. Who will wear what color of dress, what type of dress etc. everything is dictated. The Hindutva bandwagon has been drumming up the 'patriotism' by various dictates. One remembers this brigade's attacks on films (Water, Fire), their attacks on Gazal concerts (Gulam Ali), painting exhibitions (M.F.Husain) from the recent past. BJP's Mr. Rajnath Singh, the Chief Minister of UP, had passed the fatwa, well endorsed by his patriarch organization RSS, which told couples not to go for honeymoon, which opposed cutting birthday cakes and burning candles etc.
The Sangh Parivar volunteers in the past have opposed the wearing of jeans by girls. The fanatic MP brigade, belonging to most religions is especially watchful of the 'women's conduct' or whatever can affect that. As the protectors of 'their' women, on whose back the community identity and all the baggage is loaded, are especial target. It is by dictating women that the 'real' traditions are preserved and percolated in this scheme of things. One cannot miss the type of issues, which those playing politics in the name of religion undertake. All the issues they take for ramming the society have to do with emotional cords and spread of hatred against some 'other'. The real issues pertaining to the material lives, human rights of the weaker sections etc. don't mean a thing for these self proclaimed 'super patriots', whose patriotism gets manifested only in burning books, cards, and in intimidating whosoever violates their fatwas. Nothing surprising, again this is in tune with what Mullahs do in some so-called 'Islamic republics'.
All this goes against the democracy and plural ethos of our country. Those working for Hindu Rashtra mercilessly trample on people's choices about various things in their lives. Their wavelength does match with those who are imposing 'Islamic state' in many Middle East countries or even with Mullahs across the border. This moral policing by the followers of Thackeray and Golwalkar derives cheers from the Talibans of yesteryears. They do have company of the Mullahs in Saudi Arabia even today. In this intimidating game where the vandals of these outfits take the law in their hands, the 'sympathetic' BJP govt. smiles in its sleeves with silent approval. In a way incidents like this are a test of our democratic principles, how far we can and will uphold them? How much this MP will dictate our social and political lives remains to be seen. It is at one level not just a question of burning of Valentine cards, the issue has do with the choices of average people, women in particular. Can the people at large have the democratic freedom to live their lives as they please or do they have to take approval from the self appointed guardians of Religion, morality, culture etc. breathing down our neck in our personal, social and political life? •
Posted on Feb 13, 2009
February 13, 2009
News Report on Delhi event: Freedom of Expression and Women’s Rights
The Hindu, 14 February 2009
Arundhati decries Mangalore pub attack as “class war on women’s agencies”
Parul Sharma
“They want to stop us from breathing. We need to reclaim the air”
— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
ASSERTING WOMEN’S RIGHTS: Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy addresses a meeting against moral policing in New Delhi on Friday.
NEW DELHI: A month after the much talked about Mangalore pub incident where Sri Ram Sene activists humiliated women, Delhi University students and teachers gathered on the North Campus on Friday to speak out against moral policing.
Joined by eminent writer Arundhati Roy, they assembled at the Vivekananda Statue to celebrate “Freedom of Expression and Women’s Rights,” an event organised by the All-India Students’ Association and the All-India Progressive Women’s Association.
Students and teachers read out passages on the theme of freedom of expression and women’s rights from the works of eminent personalities such as Tamil iconoclast and social reformist Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, social scientist Friedrich Engels, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, Pakistani poets Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib, Kannada poet-saint Akka Mahadevi, and various gay and lesbian writers.
One teacher read out a poem on the Mangalore schoolgirl who committed suicide this past week and another on the protest by the Manipuri women after the alleged rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama by Assam Rifles personnel.
Arundhati Roy read out an excerpt from her Booker Prize-winning book “The God of Small Things.”
Addressing the audience, she said: “When you define love, you limit it. To me, love is everything that I am fighting for. I support every kind of love.” Referring to the Mangalore pub incident, she said there seemed to be a “class war on women’s bodies.”
“We have seen in Afghanistan, Iran and some parts of Pakistan how easy it is to shut women down.… I ran away from home when I was 16, not because I was suffering. But to me, the idea of growing up in a small village was intolerable. I ran away to be able to be happy, to be free…They want to stop us from breathing. We need to reclaim the air. We need to do this every day. It is important to challenge and celebrate, daily, the struggle for freedom and democracy….”
Rajendra Yadav, who edits the Hans literary monthly, asked why the entire burden of maintaining Indian culture and traditions was on women and not men. “Does Indian culture teach us to beat up women and restrict them to homes? Are we aping the Taliban? Who decides what is Westernised or not? They [the saffron brigade] conveniently pick up things from the Western world that suit them and want to ban others. This is not the era of Westernisation but globalisation,” he said.
Rameshwar Rai of Hindu College spoke about love as a form of rebellion from times immemorial, quoting the poetry of Mirabai. “We are holding this event because we want to tell every woman, every man — please refuse to be humiliated, take strength from collective protest, and resist the fascists. We will not allow the “morality police” to dictate our morals,” said AIPWA national secretary Kavita Krishnan.
A little-known group called Youth Unity for Vibrant Action (YUVA) tried to disrupt the proceedings by shouting slogans against the organisers and Ms. Roy.
“We oppose what Sri Ram Sene did in Mangalore but at the same time we are also against the “Pink Underwear Campaign.” That is not a dignified way of lodging your protest,” said Varun Sharma, an activist of the recently formed group.
Arundhati decries Mangalore pub attack as “class war on women’s agencies”
Parul Sharma
“They want to stop us from breathing. We need to reclaim the air”
— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
ASSERTING WOMEN’S RIGHTS: Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy addresses a meeting against moral policing in New Delhi on Friday.
NEW DELHI: A month after the much talked about Mangalore pub incident where Sri Ram Sene activists humiliated women, Delhi University students and teachers gathered on the North Campus on Friday to speak out against moral policing.
Joined by eminent writer Arundhati Roy, they assembled at the Vivekananda Statue to celebrate “Freedom of Expression and Women’s Rights,” an event organised by the All-India Students’ Association and the All-India Progressive Women’s Association.
Students and teachers read out passages on the theme of freedom of expression and women’s rights from the works of eminent personalities such as Tamil iconoclast and social reformist Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, social scientist Friedrich Engels, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, Pakistani poets Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib, Kannada poet-saint Akka Mahadevi, and various gay and lesbian writers.
One teacher read out a poem on the Mangalore schoolgirl who committed suicide this past week and another on the protest by the Manipuri women after the alleged rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama by Assam Rifles personnel.
Arundhati Roy read out an excerpt from her Booker Prize-winning book “The God of Small Things.”
Addressing the audience, she said: “When you define love, you limit it. To me, love is everything that I am fighting for. I support every kind of love.” Referring to the Mangalore pub incident, she said there seemed to be a “class war on women’s bodies.”
“We have seen in Afghanistan, Iran and some parts of Pakistan how easy it is to shut women down.… I ran away from home when I was 16, not because I was suffering. But to me, the idea of growing up in a small village was intolerable. I ran away to be able to be happy, to be free…They want to stop us from breathing. We need to reclaim the air. We need to do this every day. It is important to challenge and celebrate, daily, the struggle for freedom and democracy….”
Rajendra Yadav, who edits the Hans literary monthly, asked why the entire burden of maintaining Indian culture and traditions was on women and not men. “Does Indian culture teach us to beat up women and restrict them to homes? Are we aping the Taliban? Who decides what is Westernised or not? They [the saffron brigade] conveniently pick up things from the Western world that suit them and want to ban others. This is not the era of Westernisation but globalisation,” he said.
Rameshwar Rai of Hindu College spoke about love as a form of rebellion from times immemorial, quoting the poetry of Mirabai. “We are holding this event because we want to tell every woman, every man — please refuse to be humiliated, take strength from collective protest, and resist the fascists. We will not allow the “morality police” to dictate our morals,” said AIPWA national secretary Kavita Krishnan.
A little-known group called Youth Unity for Vibrant Action (YUVA) tried to disrupt the proceedings by shouting slogans against the organisers and Ms. Roy.
“We oppose what Sri Ram Sene did in Mangalore but at the same time we are also against the “Pink Underwear Campaign.” That is not a dignified way of lodging your protest,” said Varun Sharma, an activist of the recently formed group.
February 12, 2009
Say NO to the 'Morality Police'! (AISA and AIPWA protest on Feb 13/14 in Delhi)
AISA and AIPWA organised protest on Valentine's day in Delhi.
Say NO to the 'Morality Police'!
On February 13, on the eve of VALENTINE'S DAY
Join
Rajendra Yadav, Arundhati Roy, teachers and students of DU, Jamia Millia, JNU, activists of cultural and women's groups
to Celebrate 'Love in Our Times'
with poetry, music, readings
Vivekananda Statue, Arts Faculty, Delhi University, 12 noon
and
On February 14,
Gather to Celebrate Our Right to Live and Love in Freedom!
Come with Banners, Placards, Songs, Skits
to march at public spaces in and around the North Campus and Kamla Nagar market
Assemble at Vivekananda Statue, Arts Faculty, Delhi University, 11 am
Dear friends,
The Sangh's moral police brigade has been intensifying its assault on individual liberties and particularly on women's freedoms. The assault in the Mangalore pub was the latest in the series of attacks by the Sanghi Taliban – many of them on friendships and relationships (especially inter-religious ones) between women and men, on women's freedom to interact with men in public spaces (not just pubs, but even schools, colleges, buses, streets, restaurants etc...). More sinister is the fact that even leaders of the Congress, Chief Ministers of several states and worst of all, a member of the NCW, also lent their voice to the Sangh-inspired smokescreen of the imagined dangers of 'pub culture,' 'women wearing semi-nude clothing' and 'boys and girls walking hand in hand.'
These assaults in the name of 'morality,' of course, resonate with many other attacks in our society – the killings of inter-caste couples in the name of 'honour', the tragedies of same-sex couples committing suicide, the draconian Article 377 in our law books, the many voices that, when a woman is raped, declare that she herself – thanks to her clothes, her lifestyle, her being at the 'wrong place, wrong time' – is guilty...
This Valentine's Day, as the saffron brigade openly declares its agenda of vandalism and violence, we hope you'll join us for some defiant celebration – of our right to live and love freely, of freedom of expression and women's hard-won rights, of all our ongoing struggles for a better, freer world.
All India Students' Association (AISA)
All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA)
Contact: Pooja, AISA DU, (9968321240),
Kavita, AIPWA, (9868112252)
Say NO to the 'Morality Police'!
On February 13, on the eve of VALENTINE'S DAY
Join
Rajendra Yadav, Arundhati Roy, teachers and students of DU, Jamia Millia, JNU, activists of cultural and women's groups
to Celebrate 'Love in Our Times'
with poetry, music, readings
Vivekananda Statue, Arts Faculty, Delhi University, 12 noon
and
On February 14,
Gather to Celebrate Our Right to Live and Love in Freedom!
Come with Banners, Placards, Songs, Skits
to march at public spaces in and around the North Campus and Kamla Nagar market
Assemble at Vivekananda Statue, Arts Faculty, Delhi University, 11 am
Dear friends,
The Sangh's moral police brigade has been intensifying its assault on individual liberties and particularly on women's freedoms. The assault in the Mangalore pub was the latest in the series of attacks by the Sanghi Taliban – many of them on friendships and relationships (especially inter-religious ones) between women and men, on women's freedom to interact with men in public spaces (not just pubs, but even schools, colleges, buses, streets, restaurants etc...). More sinister is the fact that even leaders of the Congress, Chief Ministers of several states and worst of all, a member of the NCW, also lent their voice to the Sangh-inspired smokescreen of the imagined dangers of 'pub culture,' 'women wearing semi-nude clothing' and 'boys and girls walking hand in hand.'
These assaults in the name of 'morality,' of course, resonate with many other attacks in our society – the killings of inter-caste couples in the name of 'honour', the tragedies of same-sex couples committing suicide, the draconian Article 377 in our law books, the many voices that, when a woman is raped, declare that she herself – thanks to her clothes, her lifestyle, her being at the 'wrong place, wrong time' – is guilty...
This Valentine's Day, as the saffron brigade openly declares its agenda of vandalism and violence, we hope you'll join us for some defiant celebration – of our right to live and love freely, of freedom of expression and women's hard-won rights, of all our ongoing struggles for a better, freer world.
All India Students' Association (AISA)
All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA)
Contact: Pooja, AISA DU, (9968321240),
Kavita, AIPWA, (9868112252)
India: Shameful arrest of newspaper editor/publisher in the name of religion
The Statesman Editor, Publisher arrested
Staff Reporter
Kolkata: The Editor and Publisher of the city-based newspaper, The Statesman, were arrested here on Wednesday on the charge of insulting the religious sentiment of a minority community.
An article published by the newspaper last Friday led to mass protests and acts of violence in different parts of the city in the past few days.
“We arrested Ravindra Kumar, Editor , and Anand Sinha, Publisher, from their residences acting on a complaint,” Pradip Kumar Chattopadhyay, city police’s Joint Commissioner (Administration), said here on Wednesday. The complaint was made under Section 295A (maliciously insulting the religions or the religious belief of any class) of the Indian Penal Code.
Both Mr. Kumar and Mr. Sinha were produced before a metropolitan magistrate and were granted interim bail.
o o o
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-why-should-i-respect-these-oppressive-religions-1517789.html
The Independent
Johann Hari: Why should I respect these oppressive religions?
Whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents say they're victims of 'prejudice'
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
The right to criticise religion is being slowly doused in acid. Across the world, the small, incremental gains made by secularism – giving us the space to doubt and question and make up our own minds – are being beaten back by belligerent demands that we "respect" religion. A historic marker has just been passed, showing how far we have been shoved. The UN rapporteur who is supposed to be the global guardian of free speech has had his job rewritten – to put him on the side of the religious censors.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated 60 years ago that "a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief is the highest aspiration of the common people". It was a Magna Carta for mankind – and loathed by every human rights abuser on earth. Today, the Chinese dictatorship calls it "Western", Robert Mugabe calls it "colonialist", and Dick Cheney calls it "outdated". The countries of the world have chronically failed to meet it – but the document has been held up by the United Nations as the ultimate standard against which to check ourselves. Until now.
Starting in 1999, a coalition of Islamist tyrants, led by Saudi Arabia, demanded the rules be rewritten. The demand for everyone to be able to think and speak freely failed to "respect" the "unique sensitivities" of the religious, they decided – so they issued an alternative Islamic Declaration of Human Rights. It insisted that you can only speak within "the limits set by the shariah [law]. It is not permitted to spread falsehood or disseminate that which involves encouraging abomination or forsaking the Islamic community".
In other words, you can say anything you like, as long as it precisely what the reactionary mullahs tell you to say. The declaration makes it clear there is no equality for women, gays, non-Muslims, or apostates. It has been backed by the Vatican and a bevy of Christian fundamentalists.
Incredibly, they are succeeding. The UN's Rapporteur on Human Rights has always been tasked with exposing and shaming those who prevent free speech – including the religious. But the Pakistani delegate recently demanded that his job description be changed so he can seek out and condemn "abuses of free expression" including "defamation of religions and prophets". The council agreed – so the job has been turned on its head. Instead of condemning the people who wanted to murder Salman Rushdie, they will be condemning Salman Rushdie himself.
Anything which can be deemed "religious" is no longer allowed to be a subject of discussion at the UN – and almost everything is deemed religious. Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union has tried to raise topics like the stoning of women accused of adultery or child marriage. The Egyptian delegate stood up to announce discussion of shariah "will not happen" and "Islam will not be crucified in this council" – and Brown was ordered to be silent. Of course, the first victims of locking down free speech about Islam with the imprimatur of the UN are ordinary Muslims.
Here is a random smattering of events that have taken place in the past week in countries that demanded this change. In Nigeria, divorced women are routinely thrown out of their homes and left destitute, unable to see their children, so a large group of them wanted to stage a protest – but the Shariah police declared it was "un-Islamic" and the marchers would be beaten and whipped. In Saudi Arabia, the country's most senior government-approved cleric said it was perfectly acceptable for old men to marry 10-year-old girls, and those who disagree should be silenced. In Egypt, a 27-year-old Muslim blogger Abdel Rahman was seized, jailed and tortured for arguing for a reformed Islam that does not enforce shariah.
To the people who demand respect for Muslim culture, I ask: which Muslim culture? Those women's, those children's, this blogger's – or their oppressors'?
As the secular campaigner Austin Darcy puts it: "The ultimate aim of this effort is not to protect the feelings of Muslims, but to protect illiberal Islamic states from charges of human rights abuse, and to silence the voices of internal dissidents calling for more secular government and freedom."
Those of us who passionately support the UN should be the most outraged by this.
Underpinning these "reforms" is a notion seeping even into democratic societies – that atheism and doubt are akin to racism. Today, whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents immediately claim they are the victims of "prejudice" – and their outrage is increasingly being backed by laws.
All people deserve respect, but not all ideas do. I don't respect the idea that a man was born of a virgin, walked on water and rose from the dead. I don't respect the idea that we should follow a "Prophet" who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year old girl, and ordered the murder of whole villages of Jews because they wouldn't follow him.
I don't respect the idea that the West Bank was handed to Jews by God and the Palestinians should be bombed or bullied into surrendering it. I don't respect the idea that we may have lived before as goats, and could live again as woodlice. This is not because of "prejudice" or "ignorance", but because there is no evidence for these claims. They belong to the childhood of our species, and will in time look as preposterous as believing in Zeus or Thor or Baal.
When you demand "respect", you are demanding we lie to you. I have too much real respect for you as a human being to engage in that charade.
But why are religious sensitivities so much more likely to provoke demands for censorship than, say, political sensitivities? The answer lies in the nature of faith. If my views are challenged I can, in the end, check them against reality. If you deregulate markets, will they collapse? If you increase carbon dioxide emissions, does the climate become destabilised? If my views are wrong, I can correct them; if they are right, I am soothed.
But when the religious are challenged, there is no evidence for them to consult. By definition, if you have faith, you are choosing to believe in the absence of evidence. Nobody has "faith" that fire hurts, or Australia exists; they know it, based on proof. But it is psychologically painful to be confronted with the fact that your core beliefs are based on thin air, or on the empty shells of revelation or contorted parodies of reason. It's easier to demand the source of the pesky doubt be silenced.
But a free society cannot be structured to soothe the hardcore faithful. It is based on a deal. You have an absolute right to voice your beliefs – but the price is that I too have a right to respond as I wish. Neither of us can set aside the rules and demand to be protected from offence.
Yet this idea – at the heart of the Universal Declaration – is being lost. To the right, it thwacks into apologists for religious censorship; to the left, it dissolves in multiculturalism. The hijacking of the UN Special Rapporteur by religious fanatics should jolt us into rescuing the simple, battered idea disintegrating in the middle: the equal, indivisible human right to speak freely.
Staff Reporter
Kolkata: The Editor and Publisher of the city-based newspaper, The Statesman, were arrested here on Wednesday on the charge of insulting the religious sentiment of a minority community.
An article published by the newspaper last Friday led to mass protests and acts of violence in different parts of the city in the past few days.
“We arrested Ravindra Kumar, Editor , and Anand Sinha, Publisher, from their residences acting on a complaint,” Pradip Kumar Chattopadhyay, city police’s Joint Commissioner (Administration), said here on Wednesday. The complaint was made under Section 295A (maliciously insulting the religions or the religious belief of any class) of the Indian Penal Code.
Both Mr. Kumar and Mr. Sinha were produced before a metropolitan magistrate and were granted interim bail.
o o o
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-why-should-i-respect-these-oppressive-religions-1517789.html
The Independent
Johann Hari: Why should I respect these oppressive religions?
Whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents say they're victims of 'prejudice'
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
The right to criticise religion is being slowly doused in acid. Across the world, the small, incremental gains made by secularism – giving us the space to doubt and question and make up our own minds – are being beaten back by belligerent demands that we "respect" religion. A historic marker has just been passed, showing how far we have been shoved. The UN rapporteur who is supposed to be the global guardian of free speech has had his job rewritten – to put him on the side of the religious censors.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated 60 years ago that "a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief is the highest aspiration of the common people". It was a Magna Carta for mankind – and loathed by every human rights abuser on earth. Today, the Chinese dictatorship calls it "Western", Robert Mugabe calls it "colonialist", and Dick Cheney calls it "outdated". The countries of the world have chronically failed to meet it – but the document has been held up by the United Nations as the ultimate standard against which to check ourselves. Until now.
Starting in 1999, a coalition of Islamist tyrants, led by Saudi Arabia, demanded the rules be rewritten. The demand for everyone to be able to think and speak freely failed to "respect" the "unique sensitivities" of the religious, they decided – so they issued an alternative Islamic Declaration of Human Rights. It insisted that you can only speak within "the limits set by the shariah [law]. It is not permitted to spread falsehood or disseminate that which involves encouraging abomination or forsaking the Islamic community".
In other words, you can say anything you like, as long as it precisely what the reactionary mullahs tell you to say. The declaration makes it clear there is no equality for women, gays, non-Muslims, or apostates. It has been backed by the Vatican and a bevy of Christian fundamentalists.
Incredibly, they are succeeding. The UN's Rapporteur on Human Rights has always been tasked with exposing and shaming those who prevent free speech – including the religious. But the Pakistani delegate recently demanded that his job description be changed so he can seek out and condemn "abuses of free expression" including "defamation of religions and prophets". The council agreed – so the job has been turned on its head. Instead of condemning the people who wanted to murder Salman Rushdie, they will be condemning Salman Rushdie himself.
Anything which can be deemed "religious" is no longer allowed to be a subject of discussion at the UN – and almost everything is deemed religious. Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union has tried to raise topics like the stoning of women accused of adultery or child marriage. The Egyptian delegate stood up to announce discussion of shariah "will not happen" and "Islam will not be crucified in this council" – and Brown was ordered to be silent. Of course, the first victims of locking down free speech about Islam with the imprimatur of the UN are ordinary Muslims.
Here is a random smattering of events that have taken place in the past week in countries that demanded this change. In Nigeria, divorced women are routinely thrown out of their homes and left destitute, unable to see their children, so a large group of them wanted to stage a protest – but the Shariah police declared it was "un-Islamic" and the marchers would be beaten and whipped. In Saudi Arabia, the country's most senior government-approved cleric said it was perfectly acceptable for old men to marry 10-year-old girls, and those who disagree should be silenced. In Egypt, a 27-year-old Muslim blogger Abdel Rahman was seized, jailed and tortured for arguing for a reformed Islam that does not enforce shariah.
To the people who demand respect for Muslim culture, I ask: which Muslim culture? Those women's, those children's, this blogger's – or their oppressors'?
As the secular campaigner Austin Darcy puts it: "The ultimate aim of this effort is not to protect the feelings of Muslims, but to protect illiberal Islamic states from charges of human rights abuse, and to silence the voices of internal dissidents calling for more secular government and freedom."
Those of us who passionately support the UN should be the most outraged by this.
Underpinning these "reforms" is a notion seeping even into democratic societies – that atheism and doubt are akin to racism. Today, whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents immediately claim they are the victims of "prejudice" – and their outrage is increasingly being backed by laws.
All people deserve respect, but not all ideas do. I don't respect the idea that a man was born of a virgin, walked on water and rose from the dead. I don't respect the idea that we should follow a "Prophet" who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year old girl, and ordered the murder of whole villages of Jews because they wouldn't follow him.
I don't respect the idea that the West Bank was handed to Jews by God and the Palestinians should be bombed or bullied into surrendering it. I don't respect the idea that we may have lived before as goats, and could live again as woodlice. This is not because of "prejudice" or "ignorance", but because there is no evidence for these claims. They belong to the childhood of our species, and will in time look as preposterous as believing in Zeus or Thor or Baal.
When you demand "respect", you are demanding we lie to you. I have too much real respect for you as a human being to engage in that charade.
But why are religious sensitivities so much more likely to provoke demands for censorship than, say, political sensitivities? The answer lies in the nature of faith. If my views are challenged I can, in the end, check them against reality. If you deregulate markets, will they collapse? If you increase carbon dioxide emissions, does the climate become destabilised? If my views are wrong, I can correct them; if they are right, I am soothed.
But when the religious are challenged, there is no evidence for them to consult. By definition, if you have faith, you are choosing to believe in the absence of evidence. Nobody has "faith" that fire hurts, or Australia exists; they know it, based on proof. But it is psychologically painful to be confronted with the fact that your core beliefs are based on thin air, or on the empty shells of revelation or contorted parodies of reason. It's easier to demand the source of the pesky doubt be silenced.
But a free society cannot be structured to soothe the hardcore faithful. It is based on a deal. You have an absolute right to voice your beliefs – but the price is that I too have a right to respond as I wish. Neither of us can set aside the rules and demand to be protected from offence.
Yet this idea – at the heart of the Universal Declaration – is being lost. To the right, it thwacks into apologists for religious censorship; to the left, it dissolves in multiculturalism. The hijacking of the UN Special Rapporteur by religious fanatics should jolt us into rescuing the simple, battered idea disintegrating in the middle: the equal, indivisible human right to speak freely.
Hindutva's condoms campaign against the pink chaddis campaigners
for more information on this campaign by the hindu right see their blog
February 11, 2009
Suicide follows humiliation by suspected Hindutva moral police
The Hindu
February 12, 2009
Schoolgirl commits suicide
Sudipto Mondal
MANGALORE: A 15-year-old schoolgirl hanged herself to death at Mulky in Dakshina Kannada on Wednesday morning after she was publicly humiliated by a suspected Hindutva fringe group, according to eyewitness accounts. Superintendent of Police N. Sathish Kumar, however, denied the involvement of any group in her death.
According to Rafique, a helper in a bus, the victim and another girl boarded the bus at Kinnigoli village at 12 noon on Tuesday. The girls, both students of the Aikala PU College, got off at Moodbidri along with Abdul Salim, with whom one of the girls was friendly. As they were walking towards Venoor, a group of suspected Hindutva youths allegedly accosted them. The girls were berated for being friendly with someone from another religion and all the three were beaten up. The bus, on its return journey, was stopped by another group that dragged Rafique out and thrashed him. He was taken to the place where Salim and the girls were held.
The captors then called Moodbidri SI Bharathi G., who took the four to the police station. The parents of one of the girls were summoned and Salim was allegedly forced to write a letter of apology. The girl and her family were said to have been humiliated at the station by a mob.
The next morning, the girl committed suicide. After her death, Salim was arrested following a complaint by her father of rape and abetting in the suicide of a minor.
February 12, 2009
Schoolgirl commits suicide
Sudipto Mondal
MANGALORE: A 15-year-old schoolgirl hanged herself to death at Mulky in Dakshina Kannada on Wednesday morning after she was publicly humiliated by a suspected Hindutva fringe group, according to eyewitness accounts. Superintendent of Police N. Sathish Kumar, however, denied the involvement of any group in her death.
According to Rafique, a helper in a bus, the victim and another girl boarded the bus at Kinnigoli village at 12 noon on Tuesday. The girls, both students of the Aikala PU College, got off at Moodbidri along with Abdul Salim, with whom one of the girls was friendly. As they were walking towards Venoor, a group of suspected Hindutva youths allegedly accosted them. The girls were berated for being friendly with someone from another religion and all the three were beaten up. The bus, on its return journey, was stopped by another group that dragged Rafique out and thrashed him. He was taken to the place where Salim and the girls were held.
The captors then called Moodbidri SI Bharathi G., who took the four to the police station. The parents of one of the girls were summoned and Salim was allegedly forced to write a letter of apology. The girl and her family were said to have been humiliated at the station by a mob.
The next morning, the girl committed suicide. After her death, Salim was arrested following a complaint by her father of rape and abetting in the suicide of a minor.
U R Ananthamurthy Interview: Use anti terror laws to curb Mangalore attackers
Rediff.com
http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/29-apply-anti-terror-laws-for-mangalore-attackers.htm
The Rediff Interview/U R Ananthamurthy
Apply anti-terror laws against Mangalore attackers: Ananthamurthy
January 29, 2009
Karnataka has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this week. After the dastardly attack on women in a Mangalore pub last Saturday by members of the Shri Ram Sena, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa declared that he would not allow 'pub culture' in the state.
Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, one of India's greatest novelists, a leading figure in contemporary Kannada literature and recipient of the prestigious Jnanpith Award, is "saddened and disgusted" by the moral policing in his beloved state. He tells rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa that moral policing is a parental duty -- not a governmental one.
What is your reaction to the recent moral policing?
I feel sad and I feel disgusted. This is not the Karnataka I know.
Do you think the Shri Ram Sena is justified in seeking a ban on pubs to 'protect Indian culture'?
Banning pubs is not the solution. Such incidents are like terror attacks -- they will not stop even if you shut down pubs. I think that the new anti-terror laws should be applicable to the perpetrators of such attacks.
Do you think the Shri Ram Sena should be banned?
Banning the Shri Ram Sena is not the solution. A ban on the entire Sangh Parivar would help prevent such incidents in the future.
Do you feel the Bharatiya Janata Party is finding it difficult to handle the Sena and curb its activities?
The BJP created this monster, which will end up devouring the party and Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. The BJP had created Narendra Modi [Images], and one day he will devour (BJP y prime ministerial candidate) L K Advani [Images].
Advani feels bad about the demolition of the Babri Masjid, but Modi would never be apologetic about such an act.
Are we at a point of no return?
The solution is to elect a liberal party to power -- the BJP is a reactionary party. Such incidents will recur and at the moment, I do not see any hope.
You have been unusually quiet about the Mangalore incident. Usually, you are the first person to speak up against such horrific incidents.
Talking about it makes me feel sad. I feel that Karnataka is no longer the Karnataka I have known. Ours has been a land of great personalities and great writers.
I have been abused every time I have raised my voice against such atrocities. Personal allegations have been made against me. And tell me, did mediapersons like you bother standing up for me when such allegations were being leveled against me?
I only raised my voice about legitimate issues when I felt that society was being wronged. I feel as though I am living in exile in my home land.
Do you think that such an incident would not have taken place under a non-BJP government?
Such an incident would not have taken place had there been a proper government in power. We need governments that believe in progress to form a better society, not reactionary parties like the BJP.
The Shri Ram Sena believes women frequenting pubs in skimpy clothes is not part of our culture. Don't [Images] you think that someone ought to do something to preserve our culture, which is fading fast?
Why should it be anybody's problem? If a girl goes to a pub, then why should you and I bother? Their parents should deal with such issues. If I have a problem with my daughter going to a pub, then it is my problem and I have to deal with it. I should advise her about what is right and what is wrong.
Such issues are not the concern of the Shri Ram Sena or the government. The job of the government is to uphold the law and maintain peace, not act as moral guardians of society.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/29-apply-anti-terror-laws-for-mangalore-attackers.htm
The Rediff Interview/U R Ananthamurthy
Apply anti-terror laws against Mangalore attackers: Ananthamurthy
January 29, 2009
Karnataka has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this week. After the dastardly attack on women in a Mangalore pub last Saturday by members of the Shri Ram Sena, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa declared that he would not allow 'pub culture' in the state.
Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, one of India's greatest novelists, a leading figure in contemporary Kannada literature and recipient of the prestigious Jnanpith Award, is "saddened and disgusted" by the moral policing in his beloved state. He tells rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa that moral policing is a parental duty -- not a governmental one.
What is your reaction to the recent moral policing?
I feel sad and I feel disgusted. This is not the Karnataka I know.
Do you think the Shri Ram Sena is justified in seeking a ban on pubs to 'protect Indian culture'?
Banning pubs is not the solution. Such incidents are like terror attacks -- they will not stop even if you shut down pubs. I think that the new anti-terror laws should be applicable to the perpetrators of such attacks.
Do you think the Shri Ram Sena should be banned?
Banning the Shri Ram Sena is not the solution. A ban on the entire Sangh Parivar would help prevent such incidents in the future.
Do you feel the Bharatiya Janata Party is finding it difficult to handle the Sena and curb its activities?
The BJP created this monster, which will end up devouring the party and Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. The BJP had created Narendra Modi [Images], and one day he will devour (BJP y prime ministerial candidate) L K Advani [Images].
Advani feels bad about the demolition of the Babri Masjid, but Modi would never be apologetic about such an act.
Are we at a point of no return?
The solution is to elect a liberal party to power -- the BJP is a reactionary party. Such incidents will recur and at the moment, I do not see any hope.
You have been unusually quiet about the Mangalore incident. Usually, you are the first person to speak up against such horrific incidents.
Talking about it makes me feel sad. I feel that Karnataka is no longer the Karnataka I have known. Ours has been a land of great personalities and great writers.
I have been abused every time I have raised my voice against such atrocities. Personal allegations have been made against me. And tell me, did mediapersons like you bother standing up for me when such allegations were being leveled against me?
I only raised my voice about legitimate issues when I felt that society was being wronged. I feel as though I am living in exile in my home land.
Do you think that such an incident would not have taken place under a non-BJP government?
Such an incident would not have taken place had there been a proper government in power. We need governments that believe in progress to form a better society, not reactionary parties like the BJP.
The Shri Ram Sena believes women frequenting pubs in skimpy clothes is not part of our culture. Don't [Images] you think that someone ought to do something to preserve our culture, which is fading fast?
Why should it be anybody's problem? If a girl goes to a pub, then why should you and I bother? Their parents should deal with such issues. If I have a problem with my daughter going to a pub, then it is my problem and I have to deal with it. I should advise her about what is right and what is wrong.
Such issues are not the concern of the Shri Ram Sena or the government. The job of the government is to uphold the law and maintain peace, not act as moral guardians of society.