Awaaz - South Asia Watch News |
||
| News and information provided in conjunction with South Asia Citizens Wire and other sources Tuesday, September 16, 2003Posted by: Awaaz / 9/16/2003 06:10:25 AMALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL President: Dr Joseph D' Souza Secretary General: Dr. John Dayal Conviction of Dara Singh in Staines murder welcomed Delay in justice has helped growth of communal cults PRESS STATEMENT NEW DELHI, 15 September 2003 [The following is the text of the Press statement issued by Dr John Dayal, Secretary general of the All India Christian Council and National Vice President of the All India catholic Union after the conviction today by a Bhuvaneswar, Orissa, court of Dara Singh and his accomplices for the murder of Australian leprosy worker Graham Stuart Staines and his young sons Timothy and Phillip in January 1999] The Khurda district and sessions judge in Orissa has at last convicted Dara Singh and his 12 accomplices of the well planned and horrendous murder of Graham Stuart Stains and his young sons Timothy and Philips who were brunt alive as they slept in their jeep in the Manohurpur forest village on 22nd January 1999. A 13 year old boy, Chenchu has already been convicted and sentenced by a juvenile court in the same conspiracy. While there is a sense of satisfaction that Justice has at last been done, the Christian community agrees with Graham’s widow Gladys Staines, that `neither vengeance nor vindication matter any more.’ Gladys had, at the funeral of her husband and her sons, publicly forgiven the killers as she vowed to continue the work with victims of leprosy and tribals that her husband had launched decades ago in Orissa’s forest areas which are still unreached by modern medicine. The judge is yet to pronounce sentence. The law of the land is clear. This is the rarest of the rare cases which calls for the ultimate penalty. However, it is not for us to demand the ultimate penalty. I myself, as a pro-life activist, am opposed to the death penalty for any crime, even murder as horrific as this. The delay in bringing the criminals to justice and the protracted case, the manner of the enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigations, and the attitude of the State and Central government over the years have however had their impact reaching far beyond the state of Orissa. First of all, the almost four years since the crime have allowed the extreme Hindutva fundamentalist forces to create a Dara Singh cult, a `Dara Army’ and generally deify the murderer. Dara in fact bid bold to try to contest the last Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections from jail, and it was public outrage which made the authorities reject his nomination. This cult has since then unleashed a reign of terror against Christians in the rural and forest areas of Orissa, which together with Gujarat today tops in crimes against religious minorities. The authorities have themselves exploited this situation to further sharpen the draconian anti conversion laws which make the police force and district authorities the final arbiters of an individual’s freedom of choice in matters of his faith and his choice of religion. In turn, other states including Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have copied the Orissa laws and there are indications that the Central government may soon bring about similar nation wide legislation. The full official machinery had been used to give a clean chit to the murderous Bajrang Dal with the CBI gratuitously claiming, following the statement in 1999 by Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani, that there was no link between the Sangh Parivar and Dara Singh, a professed and well known activist, who had been a major political campaigner for these same groups in the past. This has successfully shifted focus from the gravity of the hate crimes of the Sangh Parivar, which had, to begin with, poisoned the mid of people like Dara Singh and turned them into murderers. The Parivar and its doctrine of hate against religious minorities is the ultimate criminal, and it remains un-indicted, and un-punished. ENDS. The Guardian [UK] September 15, 2003 Heart of darkness by Luke Harding As a young backpacker Luke Harding found India charming and eccentric. Fifteen years later he returned as the Guardian's correspondent. Now, after finishing his time there, he recalls how one terrible incident of secular violence in Gujarat brought his love affair with the country to an end I can identify the moment I fell out of love with India quite precisely. It happened at the end of last February. Riots had just broken out in the western state of Gujarat, after a group of Muslims attacked a train full of Hindu pilgrims, killing 59 of them. In Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad, trouble was brewing. Hindu mobs had begun taking revenge on their Muslim neighbours - there were stories of murder, looting and arson. Arriving in Ahmedabad from Delhi, I found it impossible to hire a car or driver: nobody wanted to drive into the riots. But the trouble was not difficult to find: smoke billowed from above Ahmedabad's old city; and I set off towards it on foot. There were rumours that a mob had hacked to death Ahsan Jafri - a distinguished Indian former MP, and a Muslim - whose Muslim housing estate was surrounded by a sea of Hindu houses. A team from Reuters gave me a lift. Driving through streets full of burned-out shops and broken glass we arrived half an hour later outside his compound, surrounded by thousands of people. Jafri had been dead for several hours, it emerged. A Hindu mob had tipped kerosene through his front door; a few hours later they had dragged him out into the street, chopped off his fingers, and set him on fire. They also set light to several other members of his family, including two small boys. There wasn't much left of Jafri's Gulbarg Housing Society by the time we got there: at the bottom of his stairs I discovered a pyre of human remains - hair and the tiny blackened arm of a child, its fist clenched. Two police officers in khaki told us the situation was dangerous, and that we should leave; they seemed resigned or indifferent to the horror around them, an emotion I had encountered before during what would turn out to be more than three years of reporting on India for the Guardian. Later that afternoon, in the suburb of Naroda Patiya, we watched as a Hindu crowd armed with machetes and iron bars attacked their Muslim neighbours on the other side of the street. All of the shops on the Muslim side of the road were ablaze; smoke blotted out the sky; gas cylinders exploded and boomed; we were, it seemed, in some part of hell. "We are being killed. Please get us out," one Muslim resident, Dishu Banashek, told me. "They are firing at us. Several of our women have been raped. You must help." When we asked a senior policeman to intervene he merely smirked. "Don't worry, madam. Everything will be done," he told a colleague from the Times mendaciously. We left. It was too dangerous to stay. The causes of the rioting - India's worst communal violence for a decade - became clearer the next morning, when I returned to Naroda Patiya - now a ruin of abandoned homes and smouldering rickshaws. Virtually all of the Muslims had fled: I found only a solitary survivor, Narinder Bhai, standing by the charred interior of his home. "Everything is finished," he said, showing off his ruined fridge. "Many people have been killed here. My wife and children have disappeared." Just round the corner, down an alley, I spotted a neat bungalow that had apparently escaped the chaos. It was only on closer inspection that I saw its owner: the charred and mutilated remains of a Muslim woman had been laid out in the front garden and framed by a charpoy. Round the back I found an address book - which identified the woman as Mrs Rochomal; next to it, the Nokia phone she had used in a doomed attempt to summon help. Her son's washing was hanging on the line, in the morning sunshine; inside there was a neat kitchen and black-and-white family photos. Mrs Rochomal's flip-flops were still by the front door, next to a swing-seat. Five minutes later, her mobile phone rang. I didn't answer it. Her body was less than 60 metres away from the local police station. The police had not, it was obvious, bothered to rescue her: they had, I was forced to conclude, been complicit in her death. Fifteen years earlier I had visited India for the first time as a backpacker, only dimly aware of the country's inflammable religious politics. I knew that India was a Hindu-dominated, though officially secular country. I also knew it had a large Muslim minority, which had failed to migrate to Pakistan at the time of partition. But the charming aid workers I spent four months with in the cool hills of Tamil Nadu, Madam Preetha and Babu Isaac Daniel, were eccentric and devout Christians; while the family friends I visited in Bombay were wealthy Parsis. It seemed also that India's Congress party - led by the secular Rajiv Gandhi - was destined to stay in power for a long time; the party had, after all, governed India for most of the period since Britain left the subcontinent. Two years later, however, an arms corruption scandal forced Gandhi out of office and a new ideological movement began to dominate the political landscape - the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or India People's Party. The BJP rejected the idea that India should be secular; its more extreme supporters wanted to turn the country into a Hindu state, a sort of Indian version of Pakistan, an India-stan. By the time I arrived in New Delhi for the Guardian, the BJP was firmly established in power; and the multi-faith India of Mahatma Gandhi and Jarwarharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, was, it seemed, in big trouble. Mahatma Gandhi still appeared on India's banknotes, of course. But nobody seemed to talk about him any more, and his vision of an inclusive India was under threat from something darker and arguably fascist. Driving last year around Ahmedabad, in Gandhi's home state, I found a group of Hindu men standing jubilantly around the ruins of a small brick tomb. They had just demolished it. The tomb had belonged to Vali Gujarati - Muslim India's answer to Geoffrey Chaucer, and the grandfather of Urdu poetry. In its place, the Hindu youths had erected a tiny petal-strewn shrine to the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman. "We have broken the mosque and made a temple," one of them, Mahesh Patel, told me. What should be done with India's Muslims, I wondered? "They should not live in India. They should go and live in Pakistan," he told me. This is clearly a tricky proposition: India has 140 million Muslims, out of a population of more than a billion. It is, paradoxically, the world's second-largest Muslim country after Indonesia. The Muslims I talked to during the Gujarat riots pointed out that they were Indian. They said that they didn't want to go anywhere. Returning to Delhi after a harrowing week in dry Gujarat, where it is almost impossible to get a drink, I found dozens of emails from incensed BJP supporters in Britain and elsewhere. Like most commentators I had heaped blame for the riots on Gujarat's BJP government, and its chief minister, Narendra Modi. I wrote that Modi had condoned and encouraged what was in effect an anti-Muslim pogrom by instructing his Hindu police force to do nothing. The hate mail came flooding in. One email accused me of "anti-Hindu sentiment", and announced that dozens of demonstrators would gather outside my flat in the leafy Delhi colony of Nizamuddin the following day. They didn't show up. Another pointed out, correctly, that Britain had chopped the subcontinent in half and looted "trillions of dollars in goodies from India" - including the Kohinoor diamond. He signed off: "I piss on your dead whore Queen Mother." More ominously, though, I was summoned to meet Mr Kulkarni, a special adviser to India's ostensibly moderate BJP prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. As dusk fell, we sat on wicker chairs in the garden of Kulkarni's government flat, just opposite the prime minister's bungalow in Race Course Road. I had failed to understand the nature of Hindu society, he politely suggested over a cup of tea. It would, perhaps, be an exaggeration to say that the worsening Hindu-Muslim divide in India threatens to tear the country apart, but certainly relations between the country's two major communities are as bad as they have ever been. Indian Muslims are now in the unenviable position of being cast as fifth columnists for Pakistan, India's Muslim neighbour and - for most of the time - its enemy. Nehru's India appears to be dead. Islamic extremists inside India, meanwhile, are taking their own form of bloody revenge - killing more than 50 people, for example, last month in two gruesome car bombings in Bombay. The origins of the violence ultimately go back to Ayodhya, a small, sleepy temple town in north India, where cannabis grows in the ditches, and sadhus, or Hindu holy men, mingle with large gangs of monkeys. It was here in 1992 that Hindu zealots tore down a mosque on a site they claimed was the birthplace of Lord Ram, Hinduism's most important deity. The episode propelled the BJP to power, provoked widespread communal riots and severely damaged India's secular credentials. The issue of whether a temple should be built on the disputed site - and India's hostile relationship with Pakistan - continue to dominate Indian public life. In the meantime, little attention is paid to the plight of the country's 400 million poor. Late last year I travelled to Baran, an impoverished district in Rajasthan, where dozens of low-caste tribal people had reportedly starved to death. I found plenty of villagers who were still eating grass; the rumours of starvation were true. There was, it transpired, plenty of food in government warehouses - it was merely that corrupt local officials had taken it for themselves. In his latest book, India in Slow Motion, Mark Tully blames India's problems on the "neta-babu raj" - the alliance between politicians and bureaucrats to hang on to power. Tully is probably right. But it is not just in rural India that the pace of change has been slow. Faced with bankruptcy in the early 90s, India embarked on a programme of economic liberalisation. Delhi now boasts Marks & Spencer and Pizza Express. The biggest change in Delhi during my tenure in India has been the arrival of the coffee bar, and the admirable coffee chain Barista. It is now possible to buy a latte or espresso in India's big metros - in a country famous for its tea. But in general, India's infrastructure is as creaking and run-down as ever. During the monsoon, the phone lines crack up; and in the infernal summer months, the power fails. Maintaining electrical appliances - fax machine, water purifier, back-up power supply - is a full-time job. In the quiet periods after last year's Gujarat riots I thought often of Mrs Rochomal, lying burned and mutilated in her neat front garden, and of the horror of her last few minutes. Did her children stumble on her body? Did the people who killed her feel any remorse? I shall return to India, but not for a while. ENDS. CENTRE FOR STUDY OF SOCIETY AND SECULARISM REGD, TRUST No. F18744 (MUMBAI) Correspondence Address: 9/B, Himalay Apartment, 1st Floor, 6th Road, Santacruz (East), Mumbai - 400 055. Ph : (O) 6149668 / 56987135 / (R) 6630086 Fax: 0091-022-56987134 E-Mail: csss@vsnl.com Asghar Ali Engineer DATE : 15/09/2003 CHAIRMAN Appeal for Donations Dear Sir/Madam, As we are all aware Mumbai City faced few horrendous bomb blasts on 25th August 2003 resulting in death of not less than 60 people, the Executive Committee Board of the Centre has therefore decided to extend some help and support to the victims of these bomb lasts. This is a kind request from the Centre's side to you to please donate generously for the kind cause. The Checks may be drawn by the name of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism Thanking in anticipation of yours help and support. Yours sincerely Pooja Mohanty (Admn. officer) Regd. Address: Irene Cottage, 2nd Floor, 4th Road, Santacruz (E), Mumbai - 400 55 ENDS. Daily Times [Pakistan] Sept. 12, 2003 Op-ed Women's Commission and Hudood Ordinances Asma Jahangir The contradictions of the Whipping Ordinance are surpassed only by its absurdities. It attempts to make humane what is manifestly inhuman The Women’s Commission has again reminded us of women’s suffering on account of oppressive laws. The Hudood Ordinances are the worst in this regard, though they have been equally harsh on those who have restricted access to justice or choose to disobey traditional values. In practice, all criminal-legal systems discriminate against the underprivileged. In this country such gaps are wider still because of laws like the extremely discriminatory Hudood Ordinances. The law, its interpretations and the procedure are all flawed in a number of crucial areas. This results in gross injustice to the marginalised sections of society. It is far easier to fabricate charges of a crime like the offence of Zina, than to cook up a story of murder or injury where the complainant needs to at least produce the victim to be taken seriously. Anyone can allege Zina and get his adversaries apprehended without a convincing story. A number of people have been arrested on secret information received by the police or on mere unsubstantiated allegations. Most supporters of the Hudood laws recognise the problem of false allegations against innocent people but brush the issue aside on the plea that injustice is the norm in our society; moreover, in the case of Zina the law of Qazf within the Ordinance operates as a safety valve against false accusations of Zina. A former Chief justice of Pakistan said that in over 80% of Zina cases, the accused victim eventually won. The statement seems to imply that finally justice was being served. Such assertions only show that support for the Hudood laws is either based on a poor knowledge of the legal system and social realities or on an ill- founded belief that all statutes made in the name of Islam must be kept regardless of the consequences. The Ordinances are a compilation of five separate laws: offences of theft and armed robbery; Zina and rape; Qazf; use and sale of alcohol; and, lastly, the procedure for whipping. It prescribes two sets of punishments: Hadd and Tazir. The Hadd punishment requires very specific evidence based either on the confession of the accused or the testimony of a specified number of eyewitnesses. In the case of Zina, the number of eyewitnesses must be at least four. All witnesses for the Hadd sentence must be adult male Muslims who are “truthful persons and abstain from major sins.� If the accused is a non-Muslim the witnesses may also be non-Muslim. The law either presumes that non-Muslims will only rob or rape non-Muslims or the lawmakers wanted to leave less room for non-Muslim offenders to escape the Hadd punishment. Punishments under Hadd are severe: stoning to death in the case of rape and Zina or amputation of hands for theft of a particular type. So far Hadd has never been executed, though it has been awarded in a number of cases. A total of 26 punishments were awarded until 1988. All of them, except one, were reversed by the superior courts. Zahid Iqbal was convicted for stealing goods worth Rs. 11000 and awarded amputation of his right hand [Jail Criminal Appeal no. 163 of 1982.] He mysteriously escaped from prison after an uproar in the international media. Hadd punishment for theft can be awarded for stealing a clock from a mosque but not applied to a person accused of embezzlement of millions of dollars from the exchequer. The testimony of women is not considered for Hadd punishment even though she may be the victim, as in cases of rape. Since Hadd has never been executed, the obvious discrimination in the law gives the impression that the State considers women and non-Muslims as unreliable citizens. It is the punishment of Tazir which practically impinges on the lives of ordinary people. The procedure in Tazir trials is the same as in all other punishments. Women and non-Muslims may testify. Practically all the offences were brought from the Penal Code or enacted on the same pattern except that additions were made in the offences of Zina and Qazf. Prior to the Hudood Ordinances, adultery was punishable only for the male partner and rape on a minor wife was punishable. Post-Hudood altered the very scheme of the law, making all forms of Zina punishable with a maximum of ten years of imprisonment and infliction of 30 lashes. Raping a wife was made legal and the law of Qazf was added to the list of offences. At a superficial level these changes may appear to promote morality but in reality have only given unscrupulous elements in society and the law enforcement agencies a handle to exploit women’s vulnerability. Under the old law women could not be convicted of adultery. Since the law made women culpable, thousands have been imprisoned under the Hudood laws. A very large number of women have been tortured, molested and raped by the police with impunity. From 1980 to 1987 the Federal Shariat Court alone heard 3399 appeals of Zina involving female prisoners. This is only the tip of the iceberg, given the number of women arrested and released before reaching the appeal stage. Once a woman is accused of Zina she stands stigmatised regardless of subsequent acquittals. Apart from a couple of isolated women prisoners, the majority of them come from extremely disadvantaged sections of society. These figures beg some compelling questions: Was there less Zina before the promulgation of the Hudood law? How is it that once women are made punishable under the law thousands of complaints are filed as against hardly any under the old law which protected women? Why are nearly all women accused of Zina poor and illiterate? Are they more promiscuous than the rich and the famous living in our society? In many cases, women alleging rape have been arrested and convicted of Zina. The accused men are given benefit of the doubt and acquitted by the Federal Shariat Court. The present trend is to arrest all married couples who contract a nikah without the blessings of their families. The female is pressurised by the police and by some judges to abandon her husband. She stays in a bind. Denial exposes her to the risk of being prosecuted for Zina and acceptance keeps her from securing bail. The defenders of the Hudood Ordinances argue that such miscarriages of justice are relatively low. That is incorrect. Secondly the relief comes too late and only after the woman has been imprisoned and humiliated. Also, the judiciary only reluctantly and partially accepted the gender viewpoint and that too after years of struggle by women activists. False charges of Zina are hardly prosecuted. Only one percent of victims dare to enter the legal maze again. In all such cases, they have had to face innumerable legal hurdles in prosecuting anyone on the charge of Qazf. Allegations of Qazf need to be overly precise. A former husband alleged that his wife was abducted by her second husband for the purpose of committing Zina. His former wife and husband were apprehended on charges of Zina but the complainant was given benefit of the doubt on the grounds of not having actually witnessed the marriage. A husband cannot be awarded Qazf even if he falsely accuses his wife of adultery before a court of law. A number of Pakistani couples perform Nikkah without a formal “rukhsati�. In recent years many incidents have been reported where the parties fell apart before rukhsati but the groom raped the bride to seek vengeance. Under Pakistani law it is no offence. The contradictions of the Whipping Ordinance are surpassed only by its absurdities. It attempts to make humane what is manifestly inhuman in terms of who can administer the punishment, how it is to be administered, what weather conditions must prevail, how must the convict be dressed and so on. In short, a Mediterranean climate, with a made-to-order whip, Victorian courtesies and a special dress code are needed for the execution of whipping! Women have argued their case well for the repeal of the Hudood Ordinances. They still face a formidable opposition but a principled position eventually does triumph. The Women’s Commission must continue to press for the repeal of this law. Asma Jahangir is a human rights activist and former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan ENDS. PAKISTAN FACTS SHEET Issue No.50 (September 14, 2003) Editorial Note: Safeguarding the Women' Rights It is heartening that we have fair-minded elements in Pakistan who are able to analyze the situation of women objectively and make sensible suggestions. That can be said about the committee set up by the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) to look into the Hudood Ordinances. On the basis of the committee's study, the NCSW has recommended to the government to repeal the Hudood Ordinances and draft a new law in their place. This is not the first time such a proposal has been made. But the commission's report certainly carries more weight. It has not been made off the cuff in a fit of emotionalism. It is based on the deliberations of 18 members who are legal experts and also have an understanding of the problems women face in our society. Since General Ziaul Haq promulgated the highly controversial Hudood Ordinances in 1979 this law has operated in a one-sided way against women. The number of female prisoners in Pakistan's jail suddenly shot up in the years following the introduction of the Hudood law and more than half of these were on zina charges. The widespread abuse of this law was apparent even then from the high rate of acquittal. But no government that followed made a serious attempt to change the law. So strong was the propaganda describing the law as an integral part of religious jurisprudence and so powerful were the vested interests defending Hudood that the country continued to be burdened with legislation that was patently unjust, with enormous potential for abuse. A simple example of how the Hudood law has provided an opportunity to men to use it to oppress women is the fact that the Qazf provision has generally not been invoked though it requires a man bringing false charges against a woman to be prosecuted. Let us hope that the NCSW will be forceful in following up its recommendations to repeal the ordinances. The commission does not appear to be very optimistic about its recommendation being accepted given the political equations that exist in the corridors of power today. But it needs to show greater commitment in this matter. The chairperson is right when she says the commission's mandate is to make recommendations on certain issues. But she is wrong when she claims that what happens next is not the commission's business. The commission was set up in 2000 in response to a long-standing demand of the women of Pakistan. The idea was to have a watchdog body to monitor the government's policies and the laws enacted to ensure that they did not hurt the interests of women. The commission may not have judicial powers but it can play a moral role in safeguarding the rights of women. In other countries where such bodies have been set up and their commitment and motivation have been strong, they have used pressure on the government to get a law changed. Why should the NCSW not enhance its own stature and display the courage to uphold what it believes to be right? ENDS. Dawn [ Pakistan] 12 September 2003 Demo held for repeal of Hudood Ordinance By Our Staff Reporter KARACHI, Sept 11: A demonstration was organized by the Joint Action Committee for People's Rights (JACPR) for the repeal of Hudood Ordinance and certain other laws regarded as discriminatory against women , minorities and marginalized sections of the society. Addressing the participants of the demonstration, held in front of the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, speakers claimed that the Hudood Ordinance was being misused by vested interests, In this regard, they observed that the number of women prisoners had increased manifold since the promulgation of the ordinance. The speakers demanded an immediate repeal of the ordinances and other discriminatory laws as well as an unconditional release of all women prisoners convicted/arrested under them. They spoke of the agonies and ordeals a woman faces after being accused of violating Hudood Ordinance and pointed out that such women could never regain their grace, dignity and prestige in the society even if they are exonerated from the charge. They regretted that political parties, including the PPP, PML and Muttahida, did support women's rights groups and also kept criticizing the Hudood Ordinance and discriminatory laws, but none of them came out with some practical measures that could lead to their abolishment. The speakers pointed out that even a resolution calling for the repeal of Hudood Ordinance could not be moved in the parliament or any of the provincial assemblies. To the contrary, they added, the NWFP Assembly had adopted a resolution in favour of it. They alleged that the women belonging to lower class were being targeted by the vested interests who were out to exploit the laws. The speakers vowed to mobilize masses and put up strong resistance against the ordinance and the laws in order to "prevent spread of fanaticism". They were of the view that the laws had been promulgated by a military dictator who didn't have public support. He, they alleged, had misguided people and misused religion to perpetuate his illegal rule. They observed that various commissions and committees, set up by successive governments, had found the ordinance and laws ill-intentioned, badly conceived and badly drafted. Two religious scholars, who are members of the sitting review committee of the National Commission on Status of Women, have also expressed their reservations against the laws and endorsed the ideas of certain other eminent religious scholars that the laws needed to be amended, they said. ENDS. The Daily Star [ Bangladesh] September 15, 2003 Editorial Disturbances in Kushtia Religious fantacism must be countered vigourously The incident in Kushtia in which local people clashed with the members of the Hizbut Towhid is an indication of religious fanaticism trying to rear its head. It is also a pointer to the resistance being put up at the popular level. It appears from the reports that members of the Hizbut Towhid were trying to distribute leaflets containing its own interpretation of Islam. The locals tried to resist the move and the clashes that ensued left at least one person dead and many others injured. This was clearly a case of excesses committed in the name of religion. Bangladesh is known as a moderate Muslim country having a long tradition of religious tolerance. This tradition is something that we can duly be proud of. Hence, we cannot allow the fanatic forces to subvert it. The equanimity that we have in regard to all other religions is part of our fundamental ethos. The ethos are rooted in history and primarily oriented towards maintaining inter-communal harmony. So the fanatic forces which are trying to disrupt this balance through means violent are actually showing an utter disrespect for the values and norms that form the very basis of our society. Besides, they are also threatening to upset social equilibrium. The question is: how should we deal with the problem. Have we taken the right stance to counter it? The government stand on the issue should be clear and unequivocal-- religious fanaticism cannot be entertained. We should learn from the experience of other countries and avoid underestimating the extremists who may have the strategy of transforming society according to their own agenda. The Kushtia incident could well be the tip of an iceberg. The BNP and the Awami League, which could have been a force in countering the threat, are busy playing their favourite blame-game. The fanatic forces are actually capitalising on the major parties' failure to address this common threat to society and polity. People in general are showing due sensitivity to the problem. Now, the government must adopt a vigorous strategy to prevent religion being exploited for obscurantist political purposes. ENDS. The Hindustan Times [India] September 15, 2003 Editorial And now, Mr Modi? When Narendra Modi presided over the collapse of law and order in Gujarat for one-and-a-half months from the end of April last year, he could not have imagined the extent of his future infamy. As the riots raged while the chief minister and the governor, both belonging to the BJP, remained virtual spectators, they presumably had no idea how India's other institutions will ultimately prove to be the standard-bearers of justice and castigate the Modi government in no uncertain terms. This realisation may not have dawned on Mr Modi even after the riots had ended. As the Best Bakery case showed, witnesses were threatened into retracting their initial statements against the rioters. These acts of intimidation could not have taken place without the blessings of the police. Mr Modi's initial response to any criticism was to trash the critic. He crossed all limits of decency when he charged the Chief Election Commissioner with bias on account of being a Christian, and Mr Modi's admirers in the BJP had no hesitation in calling the National Human Rights Commission "anti-Hindu" when it took up the cases of the hapless witnesses of the Best Bakery case. Even now, the counsel for Mr Modi had the temerity to insinuate before the Supreme Court that his master's shortcomings be forgiven since he had been democratically elected. Little wonder, the judiciary's riposté was that the suggestion did not mean that the guilty could not be prosecuted. Mr Modi's must be the only government whose malfeasance has attracted criticism from so many institutions - the Election Commission, the NHRC, the National Commission for Women and now the Supreme Court. The last has been the most stinging in its indictment, literally asking the chief minister to resign. "You quit if you cannot prosecute the guilty," Chief Justice V.N. Khare has said. The basis of his displeasure is the same aspect of governance in which Mr Modi has been found wanting - the observance of raj dharma, which was pointed out to him by Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his visit to the state after the riots. In all these months, Mr Modi has shown no inclination to abide by this basic doctrine of fairness in administration. Because of him, Gujarat's otherwise bright image is beginning to suffer. ENDS. The Statesman [India] September 15 2003 Editorial Stop Modi! Gujarat has introduced a unique amendment to the CrPC which translates as a tool to abuse and harass the beleaguered minorities of the state further. The amendment allowing the police to bypass the provisions of section 167 of the CrPC that make it mandatory for them to produce a detainee in person before a magistrate within 24 hours, was passed in the assembly after loud protests from the Opposition. The situation in the state is far from normal since the anti-Muslim pogrom engineered by the ruling party and abetted by the administration. There are already complaints from the minorities of police harassment. Muslim youths are indiscriminately picked up and often kept in the lock up, beaten and not produced before a magistrate or formally charged. The excuse is that they are being "questioned'' about the Godhra carnage, or the Akshardham incident or the murder of Haren Pandya. More often they don't even need an excuse. Relatives are then forced to pay huge bribes just to get them out of jail. Thanks to the amendment, what was until now illegal detention is sought to be given legal sanction. Until now the police terrorised minorities by invoking Pota, now they don't even need to do that. Narendra Modi's Gujarat is becoming more and more fascist - a place where minorities have no rights - and more importantly no one stops him. What was the need for such an amendment? No one attempts an answer. Pandya's father has been shouting that his son was killed as part of a political vendetta pointing the finger in Modi's direction but he is ignored. The Jammu and Kashmir police have claimed that the mastermind behind the Akshardham attack was caught by them, but Modi says it was Gujarati Muslims who did it and arrested five people, two of whom are well-known local citizens who ran relief camps during last year's violence. Everyone knows what Modi feels about relief considering he did not visit a single camp until obliged to accompany the Prime Minister. He had called the camps baby-making factories. Giving such sweeping powers to a police force which has not exactly shown itself to be either non-partisan or above political manipulation is dangerous. Human rights activists have spoken out against the amendment as a tool to harass and oppress the minorities. On the evidence we extend them our full support. Modi may not be listening; the country is! ENDS. Hindustan Times [India] September 2, 2003 NOT A TREASURE HUNT Nayanjot Lahiri Archaeology can be made to serve many masters. Most of us use it to satisfy our curiosity about crumbling cultures and mysterious monuments. But there are others who see the exercise of digging into dead ruins only as a means to an end. For one thing, a judge of the Allahabad High Court wanted to use archaeology as a means to adjudicate upon a dispute concerning property rights. Archaeology, he believed, would be able to throw light on whether there was a temple or structure below the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya whose demolition by a well armed mob, I shamefacedly saw on a television screen on December 6th 1992. Other occasions have generated similar anguish. But the reason why Babri Masjid remains sharply etched is because as one who teaches archaeology, I had scarcely imagined that I would witness such a willful wanton destruction of the defenceless past, presided over by powerful politicians and perverse persons pretending to be 'pious' protectors of Hinduism. But coming back to the question in hand, my own understanding is that the archaeological issue of the previous existence or nonexistence of a temple of any kind at the Babri Masjid site is irrelevant to the judicial dispute. The logic of why an excavation was ordered, thus, eludes me. The fact, though, is that it was ordered and following judicial orders (and not because they were "in desperate search" of evidence of a temple), the Archaeological Survey of India dug ninety trenches in five months and submitted its report three weeks after the excavations ended. As the report observes, "this is an unprecedented event in the history of one hundred and forty two years of the existence of the Survey". The ramifications of doing archaeology under court directions are likely to be troublesome and wide ranging. My competence, however, is only limited to professionally examining the findings in 'Ayodhya: 2002-03', the report of the Archaeological Survey. But, first, let me say that it would be wise to take some of the criticism that has appeared in newspapers with a large pinch of salt. We've been told that the report has neither provided interpretations of the structural activities nor has it identified excavated animal bones. The interpretation of results can take a pretty long time and it is unfair to imagine that any organization or individual can make detailed inferences in the three weeks that the High Court gave them to submit their report. Now that the basic report has been submitted, I seriously hope that in due course, such interpretations and analysis of animal remains, soil samples etc. will appear. Again, I am surprised that the Survey's critics think that it is with the establishment of the Sultanate that what they call "Muslim" glazed tiles and pottery came to be used. As early as 1864, in the section sunk by Alexander Cunningham within the Multan fort, glazed tiles were found from the eleventh century onwards. More recently, a pre-Sultanate familiarity with glazed ware has been demonstrated for Tulamba by Tanvir Hasan. As for the excavations, by taking apart segments of the Babri Masjid mound, from top to bottom, the remains of human activities, going back to three thousand years or so, have been revealed. Just as today, in the past, a great deal of rubbish was generated by the mundane activities of everyday existence. Pots got broken, bones were thrown away after the meat on them was consumed and structures collapsed or were demolished to make way for newer constructions. Such debris, over the centuries, tend to accumulate and form artificial mounds of the kind which has now been dug. But what can they tell us about the character of life and beliefs, especially those which connect up with religion, in this part of Ayodhya? My reading of the report shows that those who are claiming that the excavations have 'proved' the existence of a Hindu temple, are claiming more 'proof' than the evidence justifies. To begin with, there is nothing in this report which would allow an early or a specific association of this spot with the hero of the Ramayana. Rama is a much loved god but, as with other such figures, his historicity cannot be archaeologically established. But since the epic where his exploits are described is considered by many to have been composed in the first millennium BC, we can certainly ask if there was any structure or icon in the excavated levels which would suggest that people then associated this spot, in some way, with him. There are two cultural periods that fall in that time range but, what to say of a religious structure, there is barely any structural evidence at all. Some of the excavated artefacts can indeed have a religious meaning such as female figurines and votive tanks but these are ubiquitous objects that are frequently encountered in the arena of folk worship. There is nothing specifically 'Hindu' or 'Buddhist' or 'Jaina' about them. Such worship could also exist alongside the worship of higher deities of the pantheon but, in archaeology this can only be clarified by the context in which they occur. So, for instance, excavations at ancient Bhita near Allahabad, revealed a shrine area in a house with a cluster of objects that included a votive tank, terracotta statuettes of seated women and an image of Siva and Parvati. In the case of Ayodhya though, there is no such contextual association. In the later centuries, some of the structures at the excavated site appear to have had religious functions. The circular brick structure (7th-10th centuries AD) which was damaged by subsequent constructional activities, can be described as a shrine because it is provided with a pranala or waterchute from where the water used for the abhisheka of the presiding deity/deities used to drain out. The absence of any images, though, prevents us from saying who was worshipped here. Worship areas where the deities have disappeared have been found in excavations but their specific identification has only been possible where there is an accompanying inscription. That Narayana was worshipped in a stone enclosure in Nagari in eastern Rajasthan is known to us because this is stated in an inscription of c. first century BC from there. What about the ruins of the pillared complex which lie beneath the Babri Masjid ruins? The Report tells us that what has survived of this structure is a 50 m long wall and a large number of pillar bases. The seventeen rows of pillars appear to add up to one or two pillared halls. Here too, there can be no specific religious identification. In medieval north India, there were pillared mosques and pillared temples - not just Hindu structures but Buddhist and Jaina temples as well. The criteria for archaeologically demonstrating a mosque is simple - a wall correctly oriented towards the qiblah or Black Stone within the Ka'bah in Mecca. For example, at Mansura in Sind, all the remains of the mosques, one of which is pillared, have mihrabs in this position. No such evidence has been mentioned in the report on Ayodhya. If this is a temple, how do we, archaeologically speaking, understand its affiliation? There can be epigraphs that mention this. In a Hindu temple, there can also be images that were presumably installed there just as in a Buddhist temple, there should be Buddhist imagery and in a Jaina shrine, representations of tirthankaras. The excavations have not found any such images or identifying inscriptions. This does not surprise archaeologists because they generally work with fragments from the past but would be highly unsatisfactory to those in search of proof. The symbols on the architectural fragments are not unambiguous in their associations either. Fragments with floral decorations like lotus petal motifs and the lotus medallion, are found in various religious structures including Buddhist ones. One square slab has a Srivatsa motif which is a symbol that is frequently found on the chest of a Jaina tirthankara. For those of us who wish to satisfy our curiosity about the material culture of the various groups who occupied this spot at Ayodhya, there is lot to be learnt from the report. But for those who are trying to 'fit' archaeological data with the requirements of 'proving' or 'disproving' the historicity of religious figures and of temples constructed in their honour, the report is not likely to as 'useful' as the current public posturing around it suggests. Nayanjot Lahiri is Reader, Department of History, Delhi University. ENDS. The Indian Express, September 11, 2003 Raped, child & family killed, she's told take a walk Harish Salve fights to re-open her case, refuses Modi's brief to oppose NHRC in Best Bakery coming up tomorrow Manoj Mitta New Delhi, September 10: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his sympathisers will find it hard to dismiss Harish Salve as a ''pseudo-secularist'' whining over the riots. The former Solicitor-General defended Modi in the Supreme Court when he wanted early elections soon after the violence. And just this week, Salve was the counsel for the Modi government arguing against bail to the Godhra accused. But in a stinging rebuff to the Gujarat government, Salve has refused to appear for it against the National Human Rights Commission in the Best Bakery case which comes up in the Supreme Court on Friday. Instead, Salve has taken up the case of a 22-year-old woman called Bilkis Yakub Rasool, a case which NHRC chief Justice A S Anand referred to him and in which the Gujarat government was put on notice by the Supreme Court two days ago. ''I took up her case because it represents the failure of the system,'' Salve told The Indian Express, ''the failure of the police and of the courts in Gujarat...When Justice Anand asked me to appear in this matter, I went through the records and decided to fight this injustice.'' The records tell a horrifying story. Of how a woman, five months pregnant, was raped and saw 14 of her family killed, including her three-year-old daughter. And her two sisters, mother and two brothers. Of how the court closed her case without giving her a hearing- despite a senior police officer putting on record serious ''shortcomings'' in the investigation. What makes it more compelling is that these records aren't NGO statements or lawyers' arguments but official Gujarat police records culled out by the NHRC, in a brief, a copy of which is with The Indian Express. These records say: * On March 3, 2002, Bilkis, then five months pregnant, was on the run with 16 family members after violence broke out in their Singwad village in Dahod. n Eight women in the group, including Bilkis, were raped in a forest. Bilkis lost consciousness. * When she woke up, Bilkis found she was naked, injured and alone amid the bodies of her relatives. She spent the night in the forest and the next morning she came across a tribal woman who gave her a ghagra to wear. * She then walked up to the road from where she was taken in a police jeep to the Limkheda police station. * It was then that Bilkis lodged an FIR. The police conducted an inquest on March 5 with three independent witnesses who examined the crime scene and recovered seven bodies. The inquest report confirmed, in chilling detail, evidence of rape. * The next day, March 6, she named the accused in a statement recorded before a Godhra magistrate. On March 7, she lodged a second FIR naming three people who she says raped her. * On April 24, 2002, a forensic report confirmed that Bilkis was raped. * Yet, instead of arresting the persons accused by Bilkis and filing a chargesheet, the police submitted a final report to the court in January this year saying ''the offence is true but undetected.'' * This despite the fact that in November 2002, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Limkheda division, R S Bhagora, pointed out serious ''shortcomings'' in the case papers. Bhagora noted that the forensic report confirmed Bilkis was raped and yet no medical examination was done of the accused she had named. ''You are directed to take lawful steps against the accused after conducting detailed investigation into the offence.'' * That didn't happen. Instead, the police filed a final report in January 2003 telling the court that ''in the absence of any evidence and independent proof against the accused named in the complaint... no action has been taken.'' * The police claimed that Bilkis had given ''contradictory statements.'' And that in the first FIR she said she hadn't been raped. However, in an interview to The Indian Express (see story http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=31332), Bilkis claims that she did name names in the first FIR itself but the police didn't record them. That she was raped was subsequently confirmed in the forensic report. * The police also disbelieved the names mentioned by her because they are ''respectable persons in the village.'' * On March 25, 2003, the magistrate of Limkheda allowed the police to put Bilkis's complaint in cold storage without giving her a hearing. Hence, a writ petition filed by Bilkis asked the Supreme Court to set aside the magistrate's order and direct the CBI to investigate the case afresh. The petition also sought a direction to take action against the police officials found to have abused their powers. When the petition came up for hearing on Monday, Salve recalled the law laid down by the Supreme Court in 1996 that in cases of sexual molestation, minor contradictions or insignificant discrepancies should not be a ground for closing the investigation and that conviction can be founded on the sole testimony of the victim. ENDS. The Hindustan Times September 12, 2003 A monumental mistake AG Noorani The ASI's report on its excavations at Ayodhya amply confirms the fears expressed when the Allahabad High Court ordered the excavation on March 5, 2003. It is unprecedented, devoid of jurisdiction and violates flagrantly a unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court. No sooner was the Babri masjid demolished than the VHP jumped into the fray with its 'kar sevak archaeology'. It drew strong censure on February 15, 1993 from the 53rd session of the Indian History Congress: "The Indian History Congress is deeply perturbed at the way in which, in two distinct rounds, the kar sevaks have been permitted to dig up the ground, destroy evidence of stratification, and remove or destroy materials like the mosque inscriptions. The kar sevaks have claimed 'discoveries' that by their own admission have been made in the total absence of archaeological control and of independent observers." Fundamentally, "the Congress wishes to express its grave concern at the principle implicitly accepted by the Government of India in its reference to the Supreme Court, namely, that a monument can be destroyed or removed if there are any grounds for assuming that a religious structure of another community had previously stood at its site." This was a reference to an issue that the president had referred to the Supreme Court for an advisory opinion under Art. 143 (1) of the Constitution, namely, "whether a Hindu temple or any Hindu religious structure existed prior to the construction of the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri masjid (including the premises of the inner and outer courtyards of such structure) in the area on which the structure stood." Nani Palkhivala expressed grave doubts on the reference: "Never in the history of any country have courts been approached to deal with the type of questions which are now suggested as fit to be referred to the courts in connection with the incidents at Ayodhya." He added: "It would thrust upon the court a task for which it is not qualified by training or experience. Courts can deal with questions of law or of fact. They are not qualified to deal with questions in other fields like archaeology or history." Impropriety would be compounded with futility: "Even a finding on this single-point issue would leave at large various other questions which are bound to crop up, irrespective of the court's finding on the question referred for its consideration: should any religious place of worship be razed to the ground because a structure pertaining to another religion stood in its place? [...] http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/120903/detIDE01.shtml ENDS. Dawn [Pakistan] September 14, 2003 Textbooks that brainwash By Omar R. Quraishi There are some books that teach and there are some that brainwash students into become submissive receptors of the dominant national/religious ideology of the state and of its authority. Unfortunately, many books included in our national curriculum do the latter and go against the vision of a progressive, moderate and modern Islamic state that our president wants the country to have. Riddled with references to religion and patriotism (and this includes even books that purport to teach English or Social Studies), they glorify war and teach students to take almost militaristic pride in their faith and national identity. This feeling of superiority that the textbooks try to instill in the students comes at the expense of people of other faiths and national identities who are consequently looked down upon. Instead of containing topics that relate to the growing inter-dependence between nations in today's world especially in the fields of, say, economics, culture or travel, these texts have references to military battles, martyrdom, and the deficiencies of other cultures/nations. What is even more worrying, no one seems to be bothered about this situation, notwithstanding the ministry of education's professed attempt to revise syllabuses (if they are being revised then it would be a good idea to publicize them). Possibly, those troubled by this have their children studying in O and A level schools so the hatred and division preached by the textbooks doesn't directly affect them. As for those whose children are exposed to this kind of propaganda, they perhaps don't know any better, don't care or, worse still, prefer to have their kids taught in such a system. This is not to say that products of the matric and intermediate system are all intellectually challenged morons with mediocre IQs and marginal analytical skills. But, if you were part of this system, then chances are that you would have been exposed to the worst kind of subtle - and sometimes not-so-subtle - propaganda which would have made even Goebbels proud. Perhaps, those who came out of this system unscathed became intellectually stronger than those who studied through the O/A level system. A colleague, a well-known cartoonist and a graduate of the NCA, proudly says that he ran away from school and did matric on his own. After that he directly entered arts college, because in that time, 1973, you didn't need to have an intermediate certificate to get enrolled in higher education. And he says that he is probably better off because this way at least he avoided having to study all these texts. Detractors who think that too much is being made of a trivial matter here should think again. Thanks to some excellent work done by A. H. Nayyar and Ahmed Salim there is now a detailed study available of textbooks in Pakistan's schooling system. It analyzes in detail the content of many of the texts most-used by students and the conclusion reached is evident in the study's title: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan: The Subtle Subversion (Sustainable Development Policy Institute - partially supported by the Eqbal Ahmed Foundation). The summary to the study says: "A close analysis by a group of independent scholars shows that for over two decades the curricula and the officially mandated textbooks in these subjects [Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics] have contained material that is directly contrary to the goals and values of a progressive, moderate and democratic Pakistan." It goes on further to say that the revision of curricula in March last year by the curriculum wing of the ministry of education was cosmetic, "did not address the problems that existed in earlier curriculum documents and in some cases, these problems are now even worse". The survey found that the curricula and textbooks: (1) are riddled with factual inaccuracies, and omit historical events and/or facts that "serve to substantially distort the nature and significance of actual events in our history; (2) are "insensitive" to the country's religious diversity; (3) incite students to militancy and violence, including encouragement of jihad and shahadat; (4) introduce perspectives that "encourage prejudice, bigotry and discrimination towards fellow citizens, especially women and religious minorities and other nations; (5) glorify war and the use of force; (6) omit "concepts, events and material that could encourage critical self-awareness among students"; and (7) place a premium on the use of "outdated and incoherent" methods of teaching which serve to act as substantial barriers in the development of "interest and insight" among students. One chapter of the study is devoted to historical distortions and inaccuracies in Pakistani textbooks. Ahmed Salim quotes from a research paper, Language Teaching and Worldview in Urdu Medium Schools, by well-known linguist and scholar Dr Tariq Rahman on this: "The state's major objectives - creating nationalism and support for the military - are attained by repeating a few basic messages in all the books. First, the non-Muslim part of Pakistan is ignored. Second, borrowing from Hindu culture is either ignored or condemned. Third, the Pakistan movement is portrayed mostly in terms of the perfidy of Hindus and the British and the righteousness of the Muslims. After partition, Hindus are reported to have massacred Muslims while Muslims are not shown to have treated the Hindus in the same manner. India is portrayed as the enemy, waiting to dismember Pakistan. The separation of Bangladesh in 1971 is portrayed as proof of this Indian policy rather than the result of the domination by West Pakistan over East Bengal. The armed forces are not only glorified but treated as if they were sacrosanct and above criticism. All eminent personalities associated with the Pakistan movement are presented as orthodox Muslims and any aspect of their thoughts and behaviour which does not conform to this image is suppressed. Indeed the overall effect of the ideological lessons is to make Islam reinforce and legitimize both Pakistani nationalism and militarization." The study says that before the 1971 war Pakistani textbooks did contain substantial material on ancient non-Muslim history and culture. The starting point was the ancient civilizations of Moenjodaro, Harappa and Taxila (as opposed to 712 AD now, the time when Mohammad Bin Qasim invaded Sindh). Textbooks like Model Tareekh-e-Hindustan for High Classes (Mian Abdul Hakim, Lahore, 1947), Mufeed Tareekh-e-Pak-o-Hind (Choudhry Rehmat Khan, Lahore, 1952) or Tareekh-e-Pakistan-o-Hind Part II (Ghulam Rasul Mehr, Lahore, 1951) were fair to Indian leaders, especially Gandhi and acknowledged the role he played during Partition in saving the lives of many Muslims in Hindu-majority areas. The study says that the change began to happen not when Gen Zia came into power but before him during the time of Bhutto. The change however was not sudden, the study points out, because as early as 1947 a national education conference was convened to recommend and formulate guidelines for future educational policies. The arrival of Ziaul Haque brought in the element of Islamization, which served the interests of those who wanted the textbooks to be changed. Detailed chapters on Moenjodaro, Harappa, Taxila and content on India's leaders or the region's pre-Islamic or Hindu past were deleted and replaced with "distorted stories of pre-Islamic India, falsified accounts of Muslim kings, ... , Muslim heroes and discussions of the superiority of Islamic principles". Perhaps forgetting the fact that at least one province in Pakistan had always had a substantial Hindu minority, the revised textbooks portrayed them as backward, superstitious and ridden by caste concerns. They were shown as inherently cruel (and this shows up time and again even in many Pakistani dramas - with Hindus being shown normally when the topic of the show relates to Kashmir) people who burnt their widows. Students were told of concepts which do not even really exist. For example, the social studies book for Class VII (Punjab Textbook Board, Lahore) contains the ubiquitous term 'Muslim world'. It has chapters titled 'Mountains of the Muslim World, 'Seas of the Muslim World' and so on. However, such terminology is not used by geographers anywhere in the world so one wonders what is the point of inventing it and employing it for use (read indoctrination) by Pakistani students. The same thing happens in these textbooks in the case of Islamic society. The books talk about 'Islamic society' as if there were a single such monolithic society existing in the world. Clearly that is not the case, and many divisions and differences exist within the Islamic world and these differences have more to do with socio-economic factors than faith. So, by telling students that there are no points of divergence or disagreement within the Islamic world, the textbooks (a) do not tell them what is quite obvious to a sensible follower of current affairs and (b) more importantly, deprive them of an opportunity to debate such differences in an academic setting. Mohammed Bin Qasim, the study notes (perhaps with a hint of sarcasm), is the first Pakistani citizen. The social studies textbook for class VI (Sindh Textbook Board, 1997) says that "the Muslims knew that the people of South Asia were infidels and they kept thousands of idols in their temples". Is this something that should be of any concern to an eleven year-old-child, and should school textbooks be discussing such contentious matters? The following quote is from the civics textbook for use in classes IX and X (Punjab Textbook Board, Lahore, 2001). "The conquest of Sindh opened a new chapter in the history of South Asia. Muslims have everlasting effects of their existence in the region [sic]... For the first time the people of Sindh were introduced to Islam, its political system and way of government. The people had seen only the atrocities of the Hindu Rajas... The people of Sindh were so much impressed [sic] by the benevolence of Muslims that they regarded Mohammad Bin Qasim as their saviour... Mohammad Bin Qasim stayed in Sindh for over three years." Quite incredibly, the study managed to get hold of a textbook that is being used in government schools (A Textbook of Pakistan Studies, by M. D. Zafar, Lahore) which said the following: "... as a matter of fact, Pakistan came to be established for the first time when the Arabs under Mohammad Bin Qasim occupied Sindh and Multan in the early years of the eighth century, and established Muslim rule in this part of the South Asian subcontinent." As for more recent events, especially those preceding the Pakistan's birth, today's textbooks contain insidious distortions of the truth. The study quotes Rubina Saigol's work on this (from her book Civics of Pakistan) to suggest that the difference between the All-India Muslim League and Congress is always presented as one based on religion. The result is that the creation of Pakistan is justified on religious grounds alone and the obvious social, economic and political factors for its coming into being are conveniently ignored. Gandhi is presented as a fundamentalist and extremist which would hardly explain why a follower of the RSS would have assassinated him for being too tolerant of the Muslims. The massive killings and displacement that happened during partition are presented only from the Muslim point of view. As Khurshid Hasnain and A H Nayyar point out (Conflict and Violence in the Educational Process in Makings Enemies, Creating Conflict): "The partition story has also been described with self-serving half-truths. The authors of Mutala-i-Pakistan (for Classes IX and X, NWFP Textbook Board) state that after the establishment of Pakistan the Hindus and Sikhs created a day of doom for the Muslims in East Punjab. Didn't the Muslims create a similar day of doom for the Hindus and the Sikhs in West Punjab and Sindh? Communal killing on a large scale took place in Rawalpindi in February-March 1947. As for Pakistan's own development after achieving independence, the textbooks present important changes as events not worthy of any debate or examination. A case in point, according to the study, is the Objectives Resolution of 1949 which is "presented unproblematically even though it took sovereignty away from the people and, quite contrary to Jinnah's views expressed during his life, made a move toward a theocratic state. This should be taught critically and not as 'the truth'. Similarly the formation of One Unit is not discussed as an encroachment upon provincial or regional rights; there should be a critical analysis of One Unit (homogenization, centralization) and how it was against provincial rights and how such centralization cannot be imposed on a diverse and plural polity. The unification of West Pakistan is wrongly termed as unity of the nation" (in Civics of Pakistan for Intermediate Classes, by Mazharul Haq, Lahore, 2000). Even the tragedy of 1971, where Pakistan lost its eastern wing is glossed over, and the blame is again passed on to the Hindus. No acknowledgement is made of the injustices committed by West Pakistan-centred establishment against East Pakistan and no attempt is made to understand the actual reasons for the country's dismemberment. This deliberate distortion borders on the criminal because it hides from people what they must know about their past, especially the mistakes made by policymakers so that at least some lessons may be learnt. The social studies textbook (in Urdu) in the NWFP (Muashrati Ulum) says this about the creation of Bangladesh: "After the 1965 war, India, with the help of Hindus living in East Pakistan, instigated the people living there against the people of West Pakistan, and at last in December 1971 herself invaded East Pakistan. The conspiracy resulted in the separation of East Pakistan from us. All of us should receive military training and be prepared to fight the enemy." And this, by the way, is a textbook for students of class V. Writer's email: omarq@cyber.net.pk ENDS. India Currents 14th Sept. 2003 Distorting History of Freedom Struggle: Modi on Shyamji Krishnavarma Ram Puniyani Shyamji Krishnavarma is very much in the news. Mr. Narendra Modi, who brought the urn containing his ashes, went on to say that Krishnavarmas contribution is next only to Subhashchandra Bose. At the same time, BJP ally, George Fernandes lamented that barring Nehru family all other freedom fighters are being ignored. As such the way freedom fighters are given emphasis or are ignored gives an idea of the politics of those currently projecting them. How come suddenly the swayamsevak Modi has started remembering the freedom movement, with which his ideology and his alma mater RSS had nothing what so ever to do with. To begin with, Fernandess lament that barring Nehru family all others have been forgotten does not hold any water since one knows that people pay homage to Bhagat Singh, Subhashchandra Bose, Gandhi and Patel with deep reverence. It is true that the state may not be having official functions on the anniversaries of all the freedom fighters but the Nation does fondly remember these contributors to our Nation building. Mr. Modis ranking of Subhaschandra Bose and Krishnavarma as first and the second in the list is a bit puzzling. Can the freedom fighters be ranked in such an order? Indias freedom struggle was a complex process in which many a tendencies participated. The major stream, which spearheads the movement, was the one led by Mahatma Gandhi, the movement of Indian National Congress. Theirs was a broad platform in which many a tendencies were present. From Socialists like Nehru on one side to soft Hindutva elements on the other side were a part of this. The streams, which kept aloof from freedom movement, were the ones which based their politics on the Religion. The declining classes-Landlords, Kings and the ideologues representing the feudal social relationships, initiated these streams. They were together in the United India Patriotic Association and later this association and this ideology of Religion based nationalism gave way to Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS on the other. Muslim League called for an Islamic country since Muslims are a separate Nation, while the Hindutva ideologues stated that since this is a Hindu Nation, the foreign races have to accept this Hindu Nation and accept the norms of Hindu Nation. Since at deeper social level the landlords-Kings survived in alliance with the British rule there was no question of these ideologies struggling against the British rule. To criticize Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS for not participating in freedom struggle is unwarranted. They did not aim for democratic nationalism, they did not aim to struggle against British rule so why should they be criticized for something which was not their goal at all. These ideologies represented social groups who survived on the land revenue, which they shared with the British. Merrily this stream survived, at no time being the subject of British repression. Amongst the streams, which stood for Indian nationalism and the accompanying values of Liberty, Equality, Community and Justice, mainly three groups can be identified. The first and the major one was that of the one led by Gandhi. He converted this movement into a mass movement in which all the sections of society could participate. It could transcend the religion, caste and region to integrate whole of the country into a single Nation. It was the biggest mass movement of the twentieth century. Its three major goals were to throw away the British rule, to build a modern India. Its accompanying values were support to equality of caste and gender. Innumerable leaders contributed to this stream. From W.C. Bonnerjee, Annie Beasant, Phirozshah Mehta, Jawaharlala Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai and a host of people coming from all religions came forward in this movement. While some claim that Hindus mainly fought the struggle, an analysis of those who participated in this cuts across all the religions in equal proportion. The second group is that of revolutionaries who struggled to put pressure on the British to leave India. In this group most of them were inspired by the Socialist ideals and the biggest revolutionary organization was Hindustan socialist republican army. Bhagat Singh, Chadrashekhar Azad, Ashfaqulla, Surya Sen were prominent in this group. Pre 1923, Savarkar was also anti British but after giving undertaking to British to get released from Andamans he practically capitulated and remained aloof from Anti British struggles. Role of Subhashchandra Bose was remarkable. After he left Congress he formed Azad Hind Fauz (Free Indias Army) and took up the battle against British. Nehru donned his lawyers robes to protect those from Azad Hind Fauz, who were charged with sedition against the British rule. People like Shyamji Krishnavarma are in a unique category. Inspired by Russian revolution and the principles of modern plural democracy they served the struggle from abroad. And one has to understand their principles and role while paying eulogy to them. Hindutva ideologue like Shourie have thrown mud on Dr. Ambedkar and dalit movement in pre Independence India for being Pro-British. As a matter of fact Ambedkar and his movement were the backbone of the for social transformation, which was the base, on which the freedom movement stood. The total picture is very revealing and one has to see the diverse pieces falling to make the whole, which constituted the totality. It is true that Gandhi stood tall and being the unquestioned leader of the mass movement, which was at the center of the struggle, is the father of Indian Nation. Nehru because of his vision and foresight built the modern state despite being riddled with the odds of society in the grip of feudal norms and in the grip of Brahminical values. Today when the Hindu right is on the offensive, it wants to erase the Gandhis legacy. This has become easier for this movement as Gandhi has been reduced to an icon bereft of his values and principles. Nehru is currently on the firing line as Hindu Right wants to do away with. Since RSS itself has nothing in the form of contribution to freedom it tries to project Savarkar. As Savarkars 1923 undertaking and the post 1923 attitude does not help the matters much. So in order search for icons, which can serve its purpose, revolutionaries like Krishnavarma, who are totally for secularism, socialism are being propped up. In case of Varma the advantage is that people at large do not know much about him so he can just be presented as an icon. As such Shyamji Krishnavarma was close to Communist Gadar party and was for pluralist society. But how does that matter? His principles can be hidden under the garlands since any way they are not known to the people. So this clever move by the shrewdest Hindu Right swayamsevak serves the Hindutva politics very well. This also can kill many birds in one stone. Ranking of revolutiories and freedom fighters is being done deliberately. It is too well known that Gandhis place, as Father of the Nation and the foremost contributors to freedom could not be questioned. Up until now it was only in RSS shakhas that a whispering campaign against Gandhi was on and one of the ex Pracharks of RSS, Godse went on to kill Gandhi. That was also the time when RSS followers distributed sweets to celebrate his murder. Now with the new found confidence in the wake of Gujarat carnage where RSS progeny BJP could win the elections despite the blood on its hands, its confidence is growing by leaps and bounds and Modi and his ilk can gradually create a new Father, and series of new figures who can be shown as the real ones in contrast to Gandhi and Nehru. In case of Krishnavarma, one cannot underestimate his contribution. Krishnavarma lived in London and for his campaign for Home rule he got into trouble with British authorities and had to shift to Paris. He was running a magazine, Indian Sociologist and set up an India House to support Independence struggle. Later he moved on to Geneva, where he lived till his death. One is personally uncomfortable with ranking of the freedom fighters and the misuse of such occasions to play the politics for ones agenda. All those who contributed in their own way must be given respect and honor. But to use such occasions to subtly downplay those like Gandhi and Nehru who were at the forefront of this struggle is something one abhors. Remembering freedom fighters and their contributions is something which a grateful Nation should do. Their values and principles are a bacon light for us. The way Modi, Advani and company are projecting Shyamvarma, Patel etc. is more to down play the legacy of Gandhi and Nehru, the central figures of our movement. Advani and co. also wants to suppress the fact that people like Krishnavarma and Patel had nothing whatsoever in common with the Hindutva ideology in whose name they are trying this political game. ENDS. European Parliament Adopted: 4 September 2003 Rapporteur: Bob van den Bos European Parliament resolution on human rights in the world in 2002 and European Union's human rights policy (2002/2011)INI) Referring to India, Pakistan and India-related issues (including caste discrimination) AI. whereas traditional peaceful relations between religions have been disturbed by power struggles e.g. in the Balkan region, the Moluccas, Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan and India, where clashes which have principally affected the minority are witnessed between Muslims and Christians, or Hindus and Muslims and other religious minorities, AW. whereas religious extremism may nurture other religious extremism, as is the case e.g. in the Asian sub-continent, where for instance in Pakistan, Indonesia and India extremism of one religion provokes extremism of another and vice versa, AX. whereas fundamentalism is a growing threat to equal constitutional rights and access to justice for millions of people in India, especially for Muslim and Christian minorities, AY. whereas anti-conversion laws, such as those adopted or proposed in India and Sri Lanka, could easily be abused in practice to suppress religious minorities, 133. Calls on the Council and the Commission to discuss, under the political dialogues with the Indian Government, the threat posed to human rights, and in particular to religious freedom, by the current 'anti-conversion laws', an abuse of Hinduism for nationalistic purposes, and the situation in Gujarat; 147. Underlines the key role of education in deepening mutual understanding and respect for different religions; calls, therefore, on the Commission, by means of a constructive but impartial attitude towards religions, to foster mutual acceptance among citizens of differing faiths; takes the view that incitement to hatred should be a criminal offence, including when it occurs in the sphere of education; calls on the Commission, Council and Member States to ensure that they do not fund school books and other material which promotes religious or other hatred; considers that access to modern communications technologies and language courses can facilitate inter-cultural exchanges, tolerance and understanding for other religions within and outside the European Union; 161. Calls on the Council and the Commission to support the fight against slavery in affected countries, including specifically the situation of bonded child labour, and urges the governments of these countries to investigate the full extent of the problem and institute measures for the eradication of this gross violation, such as mechanisms for release and rehabilitation; 162. Calls on the Council and the Commission to address and take concrete measures on the issue of caste discrimination in political dialogues and in EU development and trade cooperation with the countries concerned; calls for the establishment of bilateral consultative mechanisms on the issue and support for the emancipation of the Dalits through external assistance programmes; urges the EU to avail of every opportunity to ensure that the General Recommendation XXIX on Descent-based Discrimination, adopted by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in August 2002 be given the widest recognition in terms of implementation; 163. Calls on the Council to include in its Human Rights Report an analysis on caste-based discrimination, as well as factual reports and a critical assessment of the effectiveness of the EU's Human Rights Policy in terms of addressing caste discrimination; 165. Supports the efforts undertaken by the ILO to bring about a permanent elimination of forced labour in all countries concerned; reiterates its call to the Council to strengthen its common position so as to include a foreign investment ban in order to stop international business from profiting from the widespread and systematic use of forced labour; From: Explanatory Statement Religious intolerance is taking different forms : - totalitarian attempts to control and suppress religious belief or practice is seen in Burma, China, Cuba, North-Korea and Vietnam; - discriminatory legislation or policies towards minorities and non approved religions is the case in Brunei, Bulgaria, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Jordan Laos Peoples's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan; - state neglect of the problem of discrimination against, or persecution of, minorities (including lower castes) or non approved religions can be witnessed in: Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Nigeria. Of the 30 conflicts in the world in 2002 claiming more than 1000 casualties, 12 are linked to religion. Violent clashes are for instance perceived between Hindus and Muslims in India in particular in Kashmir; between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia, Eritrea, Ivory Coast; between Muslims and Jews in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Religious extremism has in several cases provoked extreme violence and disruption, it has inflamed civil wars and has even by some taken the form of international terrorism. To give just two examples: the terrorist attacks on September 11 in the US have been attributed to militant muslim extremists. The US has reacted with a War on Terrorism which amongst others has led to military action in Afghanistan. The massacre of 2000 muslims in March 2002 in the Indian State of Gujarat has been committed by Hindu fundamentalists. This tragedy is unfortunately one of many assaults committed by these extremists against religious and ethnic minorities which they consider to be a threat to Indian national unity. There is no doubt that the world-wide phenomenon of religious extremism is dangerous, it breeds hatred and violence and causes wide-scale human suffering. Thereby it can nurture other extremism. In India for example Hindu fundamentalism is provoking reactions from Muslim fundamentalists and vice versa. On Pakistan specifically: AT. whereas in several countries with a strong Muslim population, such as (the North of) Nigeria, Sudan and Pakistan, the re-establishment of Sharia and other practices that are perceived to be contrary to universal human rights can be witnessed, 123. Deplores the violence directed against members of minority communities in Pakistan and, in particular, those from the Christian and Ahmadi communities and the government's failure to protect those individuals; deplores also the arbitrary application of the law of blasphemy; 130. Expresses deep concern at the growth of religious extremism in Pakistan and the imposition of Sharia law in the North West Frontier Province by an alliance of religious fundamentalist parties; From: Explanatory Statement Islamic fundamentalists are developing counter cultures of political radicalisation. With a view to persuading people, they deploy grassroot activities that meet social needs left untended by the State, in particular in the fields of education and health. We see this in Pakistan but also in Indonesia where not only moderate islamic scholars teach in Madrasas but also extremists which propagate fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran and intolerance towards other religious communities. ENDS. Dawn [Pakistan] 6 September 2003 How one man has changed Gujarat By Kuldip Nayar What is the difference between dictatorship and democracy? In the first, one man changes the people; in the second, the people change him. When I read about the treatment meted out to Mrs. Zakia after she had deposed before the Nanavati-Shah Commission at Ahmedabad on the killing of her husband, former MP Ehsan Jafferey, I wondered how one man, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, had changed the people in Gujarat. True, those who mobbed Mrs. Zakia and the media men interviewing her were the Sangh Parivar activists. But I know of no person of substance in Gujarat who has condemned the incident. Even earlier I did not find any protest against the case which was initiated against Nafisa Ali, a social activist, who went to Ahmedabad from Delhi to talk about communal harmony. In the long list of men and women from the world of film, media and academic who have sent a joint letter to the President of India on the immediate withdrawal of the case against Nafisa, I did not find the name of anyone living in Gujarat. It seems as if the Gujaratis have been brainwashed by Modi to believe that the country is oblivious to their sensitivities. They have to fend for themselves. And even for a small incident they are held responsible because they are always in the dock. Fear of Modi's annoyance may also be the reason for the Gujaratis' silence. It is like the emergency days when the mere mention of Mrs. Indira Gandhi's name would cast terror. Yet the Gujaratis must remember that, as Martin Luther King has said: "The day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin to die." It is sad that the same Gujaratis who responded to the refrain of 'Ishwar Allah Tere Nam' in the song that India's tallest man, Mahatma Gandhi, liked, flare up at the suggestion of Hindu-Muslim amity. Gandhi was a Gujarati and he said at the height of rioting between Hindus and Muslims in the wake of partition: "Hindus and Muslims are my two eyes." Instead, the BJP workers decorated the other day Gandhi's statute by tying saffron bands on the hands and in the neck. The occasion was to celebrate the return of ashes of Shyamji Krishna Verma from London. The effort of Modi, who brought the ashes, was probably to find an icon other than secular Gandhi to make them feel better. There is a smouldering hatred which is consuming the best in the Gujaratis. Many believe they have not got the recognition which is due to them. Parochialism is not what they like but this is something that has been imposed on them. Modi keeps stoking fires. What happened at Godhara was unforgivable. But the pre-meditated reprisal in several parts of the state was no less beastly and brutal. I do not want to go over the story of murder and worse, and of men and women migrating from their places with bundles on their heads and the fear-stricken children trailing behind. Time should have been a healer. But even after 18 months of the tragedy, the process of conciliation has not begun. Many victims wanting to return to their villages have been stopped. They have been told first to take back their FIRs they had filed to narrate what the mob had done to them and their family. The rehabilitation is a farce because the state has washed its hands off the task. How much of the prime minister's special grant has been spent on putting back the affected on their legs is anybody's guess. I wonder if the PMO has ever sent a query. Surely, I have not seen anything by the PM on the behaviour of the Sangh Parivar activists towards Mrs. Zakia. I do not expect Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani and BJP president Venkaiah Naidu expressing regret because they are cast in a different mould. But somehow I go on indulging in wishful thinking, like many others in the middle class, that Vajpayee will speak out to condemn the saffron crowd for having humiliated Mrs. Zakia. Once again the police behaved in the same manner as it did during the carnage. The force stood as spectators when Mrs.Zakia was mobbed by the Sangh Parivar activists. Her car was kicked. Still the police stayed distant. This fitted into the description of the accounts published on the Gujarat massacre: Even then, most of the government machinery, including the police, was on the side of the mob. The Concerned Citizens Tribunal confirmed this in a two-volume report: "Despite the mass crimes committed against large sections of the population of Gujarat, the police response to the crimes was such that justice was not done. This is evident from the fact that mass FIRs were filed, often even panchnamas were not recorded and an investigation of forensic evidence was not undertaken." It should not, therefore, come as a surprise when the court throws out the Best Bakery case because of lack of evidence. What the National Human Rights Commission went through to get a copy of the court's judgment is a story of Gujarat government's deliberate policy to withhold anything relating to the carnage. The judgment was sent after many reminders and that too in Gujrati, without the English translation. The Supreme Court is yet to decide whether to order a retrial in the Best Bakery Case or to transfer the cases arising out of the carnage to courts outside Gujarat. The important thing is how to stop witnesses changing their testimony under pressure. Probably one way to do so is to record the evidence on an audio-visual tape. The real problem that confronts the nation is how to ensure justice to the victims in Gujarat. More than that, how to make the Muslims feel at home in the state. The administration is not cooperating. The Centre is not evincing any interest because Modi is the BJP mascot for the coming elections. There is no use demanding President's rule since the governor is from the RSS. There is no option other than making an appeal to the Gujarati community. Some among them should assert themselves - poor Malika Sarabai did so at the cost of making her friends strangers - to see how the "blot on the nation" can be removed. Gujarat is still thrown at you wherever you go abroad. I am disappointed that Vajpayee did not do anything although he went on calling the carnage "a shame." The party interests pushed out human considerations. The poison of communalism, which is the politics of hatred and division will take us to the road to disaster. The Gujaratis should know that. Shamefully, some Muslims have come to believe that they must avenge the killing of their brethren wherever it takes place. They have formed groups of terrorists. The Mumbai bomb blasts were their handiwork. They do not realize the harm they are doing to their own community. They cannot afford to indulge in violence. They are playing into the hands of Hindu fanatics who are dividing the society on the lines of religion. The battle against communalism cannot be fought through communalism. Pluralistic approach is the only way out. The writer is a freelance columnist based in New Delhi. ENDS. Human Rights Watch http://hrw.org/press/2003/09/india090503.htm India: Protect Gujarat Activists Now (New York, Sept. 5, 2003) The Indian government must protect three activists harassed and intimidated for their efforts to protect witnesses to last year's massacres in Gujarat, Human Rights Watch wrote in a letter to the Indian government today. "The Indian government must demonstrate that it's on the side of justice, not those who organized this massacre. These three activists are trying to stand up to a state government that has done little to bring about accountability for thousands of victims and now they themselves are targets." Brad Adams Executive Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch "The Indian government must demonstrate that it's on the side of justice, not those who organized this massacre," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "These three activists are trying to stand up to a state government that has done little to bring about accountability for thousands of victims and now they themselves are targets." Teesta Setalvad, Rais Khan Azeezkhan Pathan and Suhel Tirmizi have received anonymous telephone calls threatening their lives if they continue their work. On August 29, Pathan was threatened by a group of Hindu nationalists as he escorted witnesses to an official inquiry into the massacres. The communal violence in Gujarat began on February 27, 2002, over allegations that a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra had attacked and set fire to two carriages of a train carrying Hindu activists. Fifty-eight people were killed. Over the next three days, a retaliatory killing spree by Hindus left hundreds dead and tens of thousands homeless in Gujarat. A Human Rights Watch report on the violence (We Have No Orders to Save You) concluded that Gujarat state officials were directly involved in the killings and engaged in a massive cover-up. A follow-up report by Human Rights Watch (Compounding Injustice: The Government's Failure to Redress Massacres in Gujarat), published in July 2003, concluded that the massacre's ringleaders were still at large. Human Rights Watch has asked the Indian federal government to take over investigations in cases where the state government has hampered litigation. Although the Indian government initially boasted of thousands of arrests following the attacks, most of those arrested have since been acquitted, released on bail with no further action taken, or simply let go. Even when cases have reached trial, Muslim victims faced biased prosecutors and judges, harassment and intimidation. In one case, 14 people were set on fire and killed in the Best Bakery in Vadodara, Gujarat. A Gujarat state court acquitted 21 people accused of the killings after witnesses withdrew statements they had given to the police identifying the attackers. A prime witness in that case, Zahira Sheikh, told India's National Human Rights Commission she was forced to change her testimony as a result of threats against her during the trial. Setalvad, Pathan, and Tirmizi have provided protection and legal assistance to Sheikh and her family members, including moving them to a secure location in Mumbai. On August 20, the three human rights defenders requested police protection from Gujarat's chief secretary and director general of police and the police commissioner of Ahmedabad. There has been no response to date. The defenders also filed an application for protection before the Supreme Court of India on September 1. In the letter, addressed to Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Human Rights Watch called on the Indian government to: * Immediately provide proper and adequate protection to Teesta Setalvad, Rais Khan Azeezkhan Pathan, and Suhel Tirmizi; * Ensure a retrial of the Best Bakery case outside Gujarat and provide adequate protection for witnesses in the case; * Direct federal authorities to take over cases of serious, large-scale human rights violations where the state government has hampered investigations, including the Godhra, Naroda Patia, and Gulbarg Society massacre cases. ENDS. HRW Open Letter, September 05, 2003 http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/india090503-ltr.htm Advani: Protect Human Rights Defenders (September 05, 2003) Dear Deputy Prime Minister Shri L.K. Advani, We write to express our serious concern about the safety of three human rights defenders facing escalating intimidation because they have tried to ensure accountability for the communal violence in Gujarat. Teesta Setalvad, Rais Khan Azeezkhan Pathan, and Suhel Tirmizi have faced increasing verbal and physical threats in response to their efforts to protect witnesses and preserve evidence about the massacres that took place in Gujarat in February and March 2002. As members of the civil-society organization Citizens for Justice and Peace, the three defenders have helped document and expose the participation of the police and other government officials during the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat. They have also assisted the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its inquiry into the massacres, in particular the so-called "Best Bakery" case. As you are aware, in that incident fourteen people were set on fire and killed in a bakery in Vadodara, Gujarat at the height of the violence. In the ensuing litigation, a Gujarat state court acquitted twenty-one people accused of the killings after witnesses withdrew statements they had given to the police identifying the attackers. A prime witness in the case, Zahira Sheikh, has detailed how she was forced to change her testimony as a result of threats against her during the trial. She spoke before the NHRC on July 11, 2003, accompanied by Teesta Setalvad. Following Sheikh's testimony, the NHRC filed a special petition before the Supreme Court asking for a retrial of the Best Bakery case outside of Gujarat, and for a transfer of nine other key cases arising from the massacres to venues outside Gujarat. Setalvad, Pathan, and Tirmizi have provided protection and legal assistance to Sheikh and her family members, including moving them to a secure location in Mumbai. In response, they have received a number of threats by telephone from anonymous callers threatening their lives if they continue their work. On August 29, Pathan was surrounded and physically threatened by a group of Hindu nationalist supporters while he was escorting witnesses of the Gulbarg Society massacre to a hearing of the Commission of Inquiry into the violence in Gujarat. The three human rights defenders requested police protection from the chief secretary, the director general of police, and the commissioner of police in Ahmedabad, on August 20. To date, there has been no response from the Gujarat government. On September 1 the three human rights defenders filed an application for protection before the Supreme Court of India. We call on the Indian government to: * Immediately provide proper and adequate protection to Teesta Setalvad, Rais Khan Azeezkhan Pathan, and Suhel Tirmizi; * Ensure a retrial of the Best Bakery case outside Gujarat and provide adequate protection for witnesses in the case; * Direct federal authorities to take over cases of serious, large-scale human rights violations where the state government has hampered investigations, including the Godhra, Naroda Patia, and Gulbarg Society massacre cases. The increasingly strident tone of those attempting to obstruct the course of justice in Gujarat requires an immediate and strong response from the Indian government. We look forward to your leadership on this important matter. Yours sincerely, Brad Adams Executive Director Asia Division Human Rights Watch cc: Shri Narendra Modi Chief Minister of Gujarat Justice A.S. Anand Chairperson National Human Rights Commission ENDS. The Times of India Riots in Godhra during Ganpati immersions TIMES NEWS NETWORK [FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 05, 2003 06:22:14 PM ] VADODARA: Communal violence broke out in the sensitive Godhra town on Friday evening. Heavy stone pelting was reported in the town during Ganesh immersion processions. According to sources, trouble was reported in the Neelam Lodge and Rani Masjid areas of the town. The incident took place at about 5 pm when processions to immerse Ganesh idols in the Ramsagar pond were being carried out. The processions have to pass through a stretch, which is dominated by the minority population. At this time some participants in the procession allegedly raised slogans which were instigating in nature. Stone pelting was reported in the area. Teargas shells were lobbed as rival groups clashed. Police was on tenterhooks right since Thursday since most of the immersions were planned for the following day which was a Friday -- an important prayer day for muslims. Curfew was imposed in certain police chowky areas around 6 pm. ENDS. The Daily Times [Pakistan] September 05, 2003 EDITORIAL: Yet another Women's Commission The National Commission on the Status of Women under the chairmanship of Justice Majida Rizvi has once again recommended that the Hudood Law be repealed as it degraded women, deprived them of their full rights and made the law of evidence iniquitous. Two members of the Commission - one of them is understandably Dr S.M. Zaman from the Council of Islamic Ideology - have not agreed to the recommendations as against 16 members who have backed them. The Commission was given the task of improving the status of women in Pakistan in May 2002. Its chairman says: "For the last more than two decades women have been the worst victims of this most unscrupulous legislation by the then military regime". The Commission has recommended not only the repeal of the Hudood laws but also repeal of sections of the Penal Code that carry enabling provisions. The Commission's report will go before the National Assembly where, needless to say, it will be torn to shreds. The opposition there is combined and is subservient to the strong clerical presence forming the spearhead of the PPP and the PML-N whose leaders are in exile. The MMA will have none of it and therefore the Jamali government might decide to shelve it and not cause more fireballs to be thrown on his already overcrowded plate of unresolved issues. The PPP will be embarrassed because a similar commission was set up by it in 1994 under Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid but whose recommendations had landed before the next party in power, the PML-N, who did not even acknowledge that they existed. Looking at this situation, one of the members of the Commission has wisely stated that General Musharraf, instead of forming another Commission, should have quietly implemented the recommendations of the earlier Commission and made the whole thing a part of his famous LFO. The 1997 recommendation came out of a Commission set up by the PPP government. Before that a kind of jurisprudence was established on them by Begum Zari Sarfaraz who was made to head the Commission by General Zia. The pile on the 'rejected' shelf of the concerned ministry grows by another inch in 2003. Let us look at what the earlier commissions demanded. The most unjust provisions against women exist within the ambit of Criminal Law because under it women attract the mischief of the FIR. In cases where a woman is witness to murder, her testimony is half that of a man's under 'hadd'. If the same case is heard under 'tazir', the judge can impose maximum punishment without reducing her testimony to half. Logic (qiyas) and 'ihsan' (human sympathy) say that 'tazir' is a better mode of Islamic adjudication than 'hadd' wherein the judge is bound by the law of 'shahadat' (witness) and can't use his discretion to maintain justice. If a woman is raped she is under obligation to bring four male pious eye-witnesses to prove her charge. Rape is equated with fornication whereunder Islam wants to prevent wrongful accusation. If the victim can't prove rape she is punished under 'qazf' (wrongful accusation). This really means that a raped woman is ill-advised to make an accusation under the Zina Ordinance. The Supreme Court is on record as saying that 95 per cent of the cases thus brought against women are finally decided in their favour but the movement of the case from the lower courts to the Supreme Court takes years during which the accused woman suffers. In one 'thana' prison (Karachi South) earlier examined, 80 per cent of the imprisoned women were facing charges under the Zina Ordinance. Most cases pertained to marriage of choice which the accusing party wanted to undo through the Zina Ordinance. The police exploited the FIR and hunted the lawfully married woman down under the assumption of Islamic justice. The Hudood Laws "were conceived and drafted in haste and are not in conformity with the injunctions of Islam". 'Tazir', which is bound by Qanoon-e-Shahadat (1984), is applicable to all laws. Financial support is possible to the divorced woman under the Quranic injunction: 'For divorced women a provision in kindness: a duty for those who ward off evil' (2:241). This provision was supported during General Zia's Islamic dictatorship by an Islamic scholar of note, Rafiullah Shehab. The point has been forcefully made by Pakistan leading lawyer Ms Rashida Patel in her recent book 'Woman versus Man: Socio-Legal Gender Inequality in Pakistan'. The relevant 'ayat' compensates for the totally un-Quranic way the husband is allowed under Islam to divorce his wife with three simultaneous pronouncements of 'talaq'. The state should also stop the current malpractice in the courts to demand evidence from women asking for 'khula' (divorce), which the Quran forbids. 'Ijtehad' on two well-known Quranic references to polygamy, including the one which says, 'Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women even if it is your ardent desire', (Nisa:129) is urgently needed. This interpretation has been made the basis of the ban on polygamy in Tunisia and Turkey. The 'ulema' in parliament will start fuming and will treat the Commission Report as 'haram' because they don't believe in studying the ground facts. They never study social statistics and have absolutely no idea of the extent of injustice that these laws have exposed the poor female population to. * ENDS. Panel Wants Discriminatory Laws Scrapped Reuters, Arab News ISLAMABAD, 3 September 2003 - A government-appointed commission in Pakistan called yesterday for the abolition of laws that rights activists say discriminate against women. The Islamic Hudood Ordinances were passed in 1979 under the rule of Gen. Ziaul Haq and cover a range of crimes. One of the most controversial provisions states that a woman must have four male witnesses to prove rape, or face a charge of adultery herself. Men and women found guilty of adultery face stoning to death or 100 lashes. "We have come to the conclusion that these laws should be repealed altogether," Majida Razvi, chairwoman of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) told Reuters by telephone from the southern city of Karachi. Razvi, a former judge, said the commission was preparing a report based on its recommendations, which would urge the government to conduct a public and parliamentary debate before passing new laws. The Hudood laws have long been opposed by political parties, civil rights and women's groups, who argue that rape and violence against women have soared since they were passed. But successive governments have failed to change the laws because of stiff opposition from powerful conservative groups, who have traditionally been close allies of the military in Pakistan. Nilofar Bakhtiar, adviser to the prime minister on women's development, said the government would take action after receiving the report. "We have asked them to expedite it because we also want to do something about it," she told Reuters, without elaborating. According to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, there were 2,200 women in prison in the country in 2001-2002, most of whom were either awaiting trial or had been convicted under the Hudood laws. Indian Express, September 05, 2003 BEST BAKERY [Case] : Can't comply with SC order: Gujarat Express News Service New Delhi, September 4: The Gujarat government has said it is ''rather impossible to comply fully'' with the Supreme Court's directions to protect witnesses in riot cases in the wake of the Best Bakery controversy. In its counter affidavit to the petition filed by the NHRC, the state urged the apex court to modify its order of August 8 as it is ''extremely difficult'' to provide ''full and complete protection'' to the witnesses, their families and relatives. The state had claimed in its counter affidavit on Monday that it had ''complied'' with the court's directions and offered protection to 1,187 witnesses in the nine serious cases shortlisted by the NHRC. But it asserted that most of those witnesses had refused to accept protection for the time being and instead asked to be provided the same at a later stage. As regards the Best Bakery case, the Narendra Modi government has asserted that no witness ''had complained to police or the state government about threat or coercion extended to them.'' [...] FULL TEXT AT: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=30951 ENDS. ahmedabad.com [India], 1 Sep 2003 3 ASSISTING ZAHIRA FACE THREAT CALLS Three persons assisting Zahira Sheikh, the prime witness in the Best Bakery case, have sought the Supreme Court help in asking the state government to provide armed protection to them as they "apprehend serious threat to their lives". Mumbai-based human right activist Teesta Setalvad, Gujarat high court advocate Suhel Tirmizi and city-based social worker Raees Khan Azeezkhan Pathan, filed a special leave petition on Monday in the court of Chief Justice of the Apex Court V.N. Khare, justice Ashok Bhan and justice S.P. Sinha claiming that their life is under threat for their involvement in the Best Bakery case. Advocate Shanti Bhushan moved the petition on behalf of Citizens for Justice and Peace , hearing of which has been scheduled on September 12. The Supreme Court had recently directed the state government to furnish documents of major riot cases in the state and ensure the safety of witnesses. Monday's petition states that the trio involved in the protection and rehabilitation of Zahira Sheikh in Mumbai have been receiving threatening calls over the phone in the last fortnight. The petition states that Ms Setalvad has been threatened of dire consequences if she continues to provide legal aid and pursue the Best Bakery case. The petition further claims that Mr Pathan was gheraoed and threatened by a mob owing allegiance to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal on August 29 when he was escorting witnesses of Gulbarg Society massacre to the Justice Nanavati and Justice Shah Inquiry Commission where the latter were to depose. The petitioners stated that despite an application filed by them on August 20 seeking urgent police protection, no police cover has been provided to them. ENDS. The Times of India, September 4, 2003 Best Bakery case: Protect witnesses, says Amnesty TIMES NEWS NETWORK [WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 03, 2003 08:52:03 PM ] NEW DELHI: Amnesty International has expressed concern for the safety of human rights activists Teesta Setalvad, Rais Khan Azzezkhan Pathan and Suhel Tirmizi, who are working on behalf of key witnesses of Best Bakery case Zahira Sheikh and Sehruneesa Sheikh. According to Amnesty, the three activists have received telephone threats from annonymous callers, warning them that their lives would be in danger if they continue to work on behalf of the victims of communal violence, particularly those affected in the Best Bakery case, in which 14 people were killed. Amnesty has alleged that on August 29 while Pathan was escorting witnesses to a hearing of the commission of inquiry into the violence in Gujarat, in Ahmedabad he was surrounded and physically threatened by a group of supporters of right-wing Hindu political groups. AI in a statement also said that despite repeated requests for police protection made to the Gujarat government, there has been no response. On September 1, the three activists have filed an application in the Supreme Court requesting protection. ENDS. The Hindustan Times, September 5, 2003 Rights activists move SC Three human rights activists have moved the Supreme Court seeking protection following threats to their persons for working on behalf of the victims of communal violence in Gujarat. ENDS. The Times of India, September 2. 2003 MINORITY REPORT At a crowded meeting in Mumbai last week, the city's Muslim intellectuals spoke about the community's disapproval of terrorist acts. But film, stage and TV actor Farooque Shaikh questioned the necessity for Muslims as a community to condemn every act of terrorism. Shaikh, who's active in citizens' peace initiatives, spoke to Jyoti Punwani about his irritation at his community's tendency to proclaim ''what should be taken as given'': Your speech at the meeting raised quite a few eyebrows. What exactly did you say? All I said was we are wasting our time and energy stating the obvious every time. I would have preferred us spending time in helping those who suffered in the blasts by either raising funds or organising a blood donation drive. Condemnation of such incidents has come to be expected of Muslims. But how many times must we do so? Every time something happens, must we undergo this trial by fire? Should it become part of our social psyche? I think the fact that we do condemn terrorism has been shown enough. After all, aren't we equally affected? If you are an average Muslim, living in the vitiated climate generated by such blasts, you're doubly affected. When a bomb goes off, it does not discriminate who it's going to strike. In the recent incidents, as many Muslims were hurt as Hindus. An average Muslim also suffers the ignominy of the perpetrator being spread to the whole community. That makes him twice as vulnerable as the next citizen. It's common sense that he would condemn it. In the context of the 1993 serial blasts, it was assumed that many Muslims approved of them... Much water has flown under the bridge since then. The total picture of those times is known to everybody. If anyone still doesn't know, he should just pick up a copy of the Srikrishna Commission report. The blasts were a consequence of the '92-'93 riots. If you give people the ground to sow poisonous seeds, that's what's going to grow, and it takes time to weed them out. That could be taken as a justification of the blasts. It is not. Consider this: A mass movement has been going on against the police all over the country for decades. Police stations have been blown up. There's been insurgency in the north-east for five decades now. Should we allocate blame to whole communities involved in these movements? Only the mischievous and ill-informed would do so. What do you make of the participation of Muslim areas in the Shiv Sena bandh after the Ghatkopar blasts? Muslims said had they not participated, they would have been accused of not sharing in the city's grief. Exactly, that's the kind of psyche we are generating. That bandh was totally uncalled for. If the Ghatkopar blast cost us a few lakhs, the bandh cost us Rs 150 crore. The bandh amounted to saying: 'You chopped off my nail, so I'll chop off my entire foot'. But the participation of Muslims in the bandh was as widely hailed as their clapping for India in the World Cup tie against Pakistan. That's such a childish attitude. Those who rejoice at such things are either lacking in information or have a deep political interest in spreading misinformation. Wherever India plays, local Indians come out to cheer the team. Should the host country turn against them and ask them to leave the country? As one living in a family of practising Muslims, I cannot count six persons who cheer when Pakistan wins. Which world are we living in when we rejoice at Muslims clapping for India? This time too, headlines were made out of the fact that Muslims had helped the victims and donated blood, as if this was an extraordinary happening. The whole thing should've been reported without singling out any particular community. Mumbai's Muslims were the only ones to agitate against Kargil as a community. That's the kind of psyche I was talking about at the meeting. I think such demons-trations are a waste of time. I've been an Indian and a Muslim all my life and that's what I hope to be for the rest of my life. I don't see any less Indianness in me than in any non-Muslim and that's the truth I see in Muslims around me. Does the assumption that these blasts are the handiwork of Muslims offend you? A criminal is a criminal whatever label he operates under. It doesn't matter to me whether he's found to be a Muslim or a Martian. He must be tried and punished. Does the burden of being involved in insurgency haunt the non-Muslim psyche? Is anybody exploding against all those who bear the name Veerappan?... Fact is, people are becoming aware that most of the ill-will is created by vested interests. This time, Mumbai has sent two clear messages. One was to those diabolical minds who perpetra-ted these blasts: 'You can hurt us, but you won't defeat us'. The second was to the politicians: 'We know you are going to fish in troubled waters but we won't be taken in'. The more we send these kinds of messages, the more we defeat those who want to divide us. Do you think your community will heed your advice at the meeting? Till Muslims feel their security lies in making such statements, they will continue to do so. Politicians whip up this kind of emotion and because we are not well-informed, we get taken in. That's what the Third Reich was all about. ENDS. The Indian Express, September 03, 2003 http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=30834 Please stop branding us terrorists: Muslim areas in Ahmedabad shut down, silently No one knows who called bandh but response is near total Express News Service Ahmedabad, September 2: For the first time in this city since the riots last year, a bandh was observed without any political affiliation-and exclusively in areas dominated by Muslims. The bandh was unique in other aspects as well: there were no statements or appeals by any organisation, no one came out to enforce the bandh and yet virtually every one complied, shops remained closed and people stayed indoors. And by evening there was no one claiming success for the near-total bandh. The bandh was provoked by an anonymous leaflet circulated in Muslim neighbourhoods. This leaflet claimed that the entire Muslim community is being branded as terrorists and that innocents were being targeted, a reference, police said, to the five local residents arrested in connection with the Akshardham strike. ''The tone and language of the leaflet was not at all crude; In fact, it was quite well-written. The tone was not inflammatory, it just made a bandh appeal,'' said a senior police officer. ''I don't know who called for the bandh but by participating, I am doing what little I can do to help those who are trying to raise the government from its slumber. I certainly feel that the government is just not bothered about us,'' said Hanif Sheikh, who owns a provision shop in Dhabgarwad. The news of the leaflet spread last evening prompting the police to make security arrangements in the Muslim-dominated areas of Dariapur, Kalupur, Shahpur, Mirzapur, Teen Darwaja, Dhabgarwad, Karanj and Vejalpur. ''We did not want to take any chance when we heard of the anonymous leaflet. The bandh was peaceful and there was no untoward incident. No one was arrested,'' Joint Commissioner of Police (Sector I) P C Thakur told The Indian Express. Though no one knew who issued the leaflet, word spread like wild fire this morning that all residents of Muslim areas are observing a bandh in protest against the arrests. By afternoon, even shops in markets which were open in the morning downed their shutters. Shops and business establishments in areas like Jamalpur, Raikhad, Gaekwad Haveli and Khamasa which had opened this morning closed down by afternoon learning that shopkeepers in other Muslim areas in the city were observing a complete bandh. Interestingly, a row of shops owned by Hindus in Teen Darwaja also remained closed. In the afternoon, residents of Kalupur and Dariapur, mostly women and children, assembled near Relief Road to take out a rally to protest against the arrests. However, after an appeal by Thakur, they dispersed peacefully. The women who gathered to take out the rally too did not know who had given the bandh call. ''All I know is that the bandh is in protest against the arrest our religious leaders and others who have been wrongfully detained by the Crime Branch in the Akshardham case. I joined in to show my solidarity,'' said Nafissabanu of Dariyapur. ''This kind of arrests have been going on for quite sometime and I believe that many of those arrested are innocent,'' said Roshanbibi, another protestor. As all the shops in these areas remained closed throughout the day, supply of essential commodities was hit. ''I had learned about the bandh call last night and knew things will not be available today so I stocked up milk for my little daugther yesterday night itself,'' said Mohammed Zuber. ''And even if we had to undergo some inconvenience, it's okay because the protest was against the illegal acts of the government and the police.'' ENDS. Ganesha does what politics couldn't PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR TIMES NEWS NETWORK [TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 02, 2003 03:17:50 PM ] AHMEDABAD: People of Vadodara are out on a pilgrimmage tour, having vowed to take the blessings of Lord Ganesha installed at every pandal this festival. But what is hard to miss is Narendra Modi sharing the limelight with Lord Ganesha in major pandals in the city. If Modi makes a guest appearance in a wedding sequence in one of the pandals, he is sharing the dais with Prime Minister Vajpayee, even as both watch Lord Ganesha 'punish' Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf. At another traffic island, Lord Ganesha descends to give 'darshan' to Modi amidst chanting of Ganesha Stotra. Adorning the colourful, decorated pandals are political leaders and monuments like Akshardham. If mythological and philosophical themes are a rage, politics seems to be carving its niche in festivities too. At Bajawada Chakaniya Pol, there is a pandal housing a gigantic idol of Lord Ganesha flanked by Modi and Vajpayee on either side. Ganesha is depicted holding Pervez Musharraf by his neck. A khaki clad Vajpayee and a saffron clad Modi are already drawing huge crowds, while banners which read 'Aatankvadiyon ka sardar, Musharraf ka naash karenge Shree Ganesh' (Leader of the terrorists- Musharraf, will be destroyed by Lord Ganesh), gives a political ambience to the pandal. At a traffic junction overlooking Sursagar, Ganesha descending to Earth has been a major attraction, which is also leading to chaos and traffic jam. Even as the traffic police helplessly try to clear the bulging crowd, Lord Ganesha appears before Modi 'chanting' Ganesha Stotra. The list of political figures includes Sonia, Vajpayee and Modi, who are shown as part of a 'baraat' (wedding party). If Lord Ganesha is perceived as an omnipresent god, with depiction of 'Ashta Vinayak', he is also personified as other Gods - Shreeji and Lord Shiva. At a majority of pandals, the backdrop has a narration of mythological stories. Surprisingly, a few pandals have a backdrop of Akshardham. The speciality of this pandal at Bagikhana, housing a giant replica of Akshardham is that, artists from Mumbai were specially invited to make them. In Ahmedabad, sculptors say they had received orders to do sculptures of politicians, but could not take up the orders fearing police harassment. "We had thought about doing a tableau with a political theme. However, post riots, the police have prohibited us from working on displays that could inflame passions and threatened us with dire consequences. So none of us have been able work on these themes," said a Moreshwar Pitade, a sculptor. [...] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=161320 ENDS. The Times of India VHP to educate people about designs of terrorists ANIL PATHAK TIMES NEWS NETWORK [MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2003 12:52:09 AM ] AHMEDABAD: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has plans to set up its own network to create awareness among masses about sinister designs of terrorists who are bent on creating disturbances like the twin Mumbai blasts which claimed 52 lives last week. VHP international general secretary Pravin Togadia discussed the fresh initiative on the proposed campaign with senior functionaries during his two-day stay in the city.He told TNN that the VHP would soon constitute a separate wing comprising retired police and Army officials who would give training to VHP activists in big cities and towns on precautionary and remedial measures to be taken to foil the designs of terrorists. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=155742 ENDS. The Indian Express, 02 Sep 2003 VHP prepares kar seva kit for Saurashtra HIRAL DAVE RAJKOT, SEPTEMBER 1: Saurashtra unit of the VHP, buoyed by the recent ASI report [...]. http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=30766 ENDS. Back to top of page |
Home About Awaaz Projects and Campaigns Latest News Press and Media Reports | |