By Ram Puniyani,

Communal violence has been the bane of Indian society, more so from last three decades. One can see its coming up prominently from 1893 to begin with and then it went through different phases. It became stronger after 1937, peaked in 1946 and then the post partition holocaust shattered the lives of lakhs of people. After a gap of a decade it started coming up again from 1961, Jabalpur violence, later anti Sikh violence of 1984 was not just violence, it was genocide. At different levels after this we see the big surge, Meerut, Maliana, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, Gujarat (post Godhra) being the worst of them. Pre partition it was both communal parties Muslim League-Hindu Mahasabah, and the communal patriarch RSS, which were major players in this dastardly game. This phenomenon led to the polarization along religious lines. This polarization was the hallmark of this violence which kept going up. The stereotypes about ‘other’ community kept worsening up; still the intercommunity rupture was not total or complete. The intensity about adverse sentiments about ‘the other’ went going up gradually, remaining at subcritical level till probably 1992, after which the ghettoisation of minorities started becoming a prominent urban phenomenon, and the misconceptions about minorities became a major part of social common sense. The other observation was that the communal violence, which is the superficial manifestation of politics in the name of religion, is predominantly and urban phenomenon. Many a social scientists made it the fulcrum of their understanding and blamed urbanization as the bane of our society, which was responsible for this type of violence.

As the matters stand after the recent Muzaffarnagar violence, it is clear that communal violence being a major phenomenon in urban areas was just a phase of this process. Having polarized the urban populations, the agenda of communal outfits has now targeted the rural areas. Its implications surely are going to be more disastrous for our nation as a whole and it is time that the dangers are assessed of the trajectory of this process. There are many factors about Muzaffarnagar violence, which should make us sit up and take notice. So far the communal violence in different parts of the country benefitted the RSS-BJP in a major way and the litmus test of this was the increased social presence of RSS affiliates in those areas affected by violence and increase in political strength of BJP in electoral arena. Gujarat is a classic case where after the post Godhra violence, BJP has dug its heels in the state, and RSS affiliates are ruling the streets.

As the political players calculate on the political chess board, this time there were two players who thought they will benefit. On one side from the usual beneficiary, the BJP associates, which in the aftermath of 84 Kosi Parikrama, activated its workers in this game of polarization. The other player the Samajvadi party probably calculated on the similar lines, if Hindu polarization benefits BJP, Muslim polarization should benefit Samajvadi party was their thinking, which let the violence happen. It is also true that since Samajvadi party came to power a year and a half ago, communal violence has gone up in Uttar Pradesh.

In this case of Muzaffarnage violence as the three boys got killed on the pretext of teasing of the girl or a skirmish on the road (there are two versions of the beginning of the episode). There was enough time to see the dangers of such an inter-religious violence and control the same. But that was not to be. The officers in violation of the rules and even the imposition of 144 in the area let the Mahapanchayat of over a lakh people take place. The caste-communal outfits are patriarchal to the core and slogan-theme ‘Bahu Beti Bachao’ (save daughters and daughters-in-laws) was enough for the village Jats to turn up in large numbers with weapons. Communal propaganda is taken to the higher pitch. And so the communal violence enters the villages. And here the BJP communalizes the social space. Though it did not have much base amongst Jats, this occasion was cleverly manipulated to introduce divisive politics. Two factors were made use of. One the image of Modi as the savior of Hindus. Now Jat goes from the caste identity to Hindu identity. In communal politics religious identity is the foremost. The Muslim crowds also confront, play some role in violence but as is the usual case the partisan police machinery does not do its job in an objective manner and the result is a lopsided violence more against minorities, displacement and increase in the sense of insecurity amongst minorities follows.

The Samajvadi party’s gamble will pay or not, time alone will tell. During the reign of Samajvadi party the monster of communal violence has been permitted to come out as is obvious from the observations that during Akhilesh Government every month nearly two acts of violence have taken place. How come during previous regime of BSP, the monster of communal violence had been restrained? Same officers, same people. Surely it is up to the ruling Government to let the violence take place or not. Communal forces, BJP and company, always keep instigating it and looking for opportunity to unleash violence. In UP the additional factor of course has been the presence of Amit Shah, who is on bail and who has the experience of Gujarat carnage, his role will have to be watched, but as such the RSS-combine machinery is in place and can take such assignment on the drop of a hat. While at one level, the instigation used was to propagate that ‘our’ daughters, daughters-in-laws are not safe, on the other hand a BJP MLA uploaded a video clip showing some people dressed like Muslims killing two young men brutally. This was a video shot few years ago in Pakistan when two young persons were lynched by the mob with the suspicion that they are dacoits. It went viral on the social media, which is reaching villages in good measure, and created a hostile atmosphere.

As such earlier Jats and Muslim has affable relations, but from some years few tensions cropped up and the recent violence drove a deep wedge amongst these two communities and violence could spread to the villages. The tragic factor is the propagation of Modi, as a ‘strong’ leader who can save us (Hindus). The major back up of communal forces is to promote an autocrat, on the backdrop of the massive propaganda that majority community is not safe due to the miniscule minority. So Modi is supposed to fill the gap of a powerful leader which can protect the majority community. All this is far from true but popular perceptions have gone on and on and the contestation to these misconceptions has neither been effective nor far in reach.

Lesser said about the role of police and administration the better. The administration has powers enough to ensure that such violence does not take place and if at all it takes place, it can control it in a day or two. Many of those in top echelons of administration-police have a biased mindset, and this if supplemented by the calculating Government, that violence will benefit their electoral prospects, the tragedy takes no time to flare up. UPA Government had promised to bring a Communal Violence Prevention bill. The subcommittee of NAC did lot of home work has submitted a draft of the bill. Surely there may not be a consensus on the draft, but probably by putting it to the grill of different mechanisms, the grain of the draft can be saved from the chaff to ensure that the officers and those in seats of power who do not do their job as per the norms of Constitution are punished. The provision for punishment to the officers guilty of dereliction of their duties, acts of commission and omission are a must. The political leadership has to be taken to the task for its inaction at the crucial time. The communal forces have to be combated at ideological, social and political level if we wish to have the country with communal peace and amity.

(Ram Puniyani was a professor in biomedical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and took voluntary retirement in December 2004 to work full time for communal harmony in India. He is involved with human rights activities from last two decades.He is associated with various secular and democratic initiatives like All India Secular Forum, Center for Study of Society and Secularism.)

By M Ghazali Khan,

Only once have I heard Narendra Modi telling the truth and admitting, in a television interview to a British filmmaker few weeks after the Gujarat genocide in 2002 and admitting, indirectly though, that he is not a fool. “Koi moorakh mukhya mantri hi apne rajya men arajakta phelwai ga (only a foolish chief minister will allow rioting and lawlessness in his state).” Modi was denying his role in the dance of death and destruction demonstrated on the streets of Gujarat under his rule. Not that he is now a reformed man and regrets his foolishness in allowing that program. The fact is that, as the old saying goes, “everybody is wiser after a bad experience”, Modi realised the blunders of his strategy only after facing condemnation from all over the world. There is no change in his anti-Muslim stance in the least. He is still spreading the misconception that Muslims are being, “appeased”. Praising and congratulating himself he still insists, as he has been saying in his speeches and interviews that his Gujarat experiment has proved, “appeasement ke baghair bhi sab ko saath le kar chala ja sakta hai” (without being appeased any, everyone can be taken aboard).

The narrow-mindedness and foolishness of Modi and his party hardly needs any comment. However, what is really strange is the lack of vision and wisdom of someone like Mulayam Singh who has allowed his solid Muslim support, especially in western UP to evaporate.

Mulayam Singh Yadav [Courtesy: The Hindu]

His courtship with Hindutva group — praise for Advani, meeting with VHP leaders, allowing anti-Muslim riots, 104 in his one and half year rule in UP, and now the bizarre display of complete disinterest and shameful unwillingness in controlling one of the most horrific riots in the state—is in sharp contrast to the praise he had showered upon Muslims after his overwhelming victory in assembly elections a year ago. Not only had he thanked the Muslims for their support but had even asked his party workers to keep this fact in mind.

But then there is nothing new about this coquettish behaviour of once “Mulla” Mulayam Singh. Before the elections he had flirted with Kalyan Singh, much to the annoyance of his party’s Muslim face Azam Khan and making some of his MLAs to say goodbye to his Samajwadi Party. Realising how damaging this courtship could be for his party, Mulayam parted his ways and was accused by Kalyan Singh of being an opportunist. What the readers would, however, be surprised and shocked to learn is that even few days after ordering the shooting on karsevaks in Ayodhya in 1990, Mulayam Singh was seen embracing with great warmth Mr Kalyan Singh inside the parliament building. This was reported by none other than M. Afzal, now Congress’s spokesperson, who used to edit Urdu weekly Akhabar-e-Nau. According to Mr Afzal when he expressed his astonishment at what he was witnessing, Mulayam Singh lost his temper and dared him, “aap ko jo likhna hai likh lena.” (Go on, write whatever you want to write).

His Government destroyed all the proofs of Varun Gandhi’s brazenly anti-Muslim speech delivered in Pilibhit in 2009 and thus helped him in being exonerated by the court.

Far from keeping his pre-election promise to release innocent Muslim youths languishing in jails for the fabricated terror charges, his government suppressed the publication of Nimesh Commission’s report on the arrest of Tariq Qasmi and late Khalid Mujahid. His Government went out of its way in protecting guilty officers in Faizabad riots.

Muzaffarnagar riots did not flare up suddenly. Hindutvaites have been busy in polarising the social and political climate in western UP for the last one or two years. Urdu newspapers have been constantly reporting on the provocative activities of Hindutvaites in the region. Few of such events that I can recall are: a maha panchayat and highly poisonous speeches in Manki, a village near Deoband; two Muftis of Darul Uloom Deoband travelling from Roorkee to Deoband, dragged out of a bus and beaten up resulting in tension and violent incidents in the town; two maha panchayats in Deoband and highly provocative speeches made, including by a former BJP MLA; riot between Muslims and Valmikis in Kairana; attack on Tableeghi ijtima in Kairana; a man from Khatauli attacked in a train and his beard shaved off; Muslims stopped from offering Shabeena prayers during Ramazan outside a mosque in Meerut leading to a riot like situation; and students of Darul Uloom travelling to and from Deoband assaulted in trains.

With the only exception that so far there is no proof of Mulayam Singh or his son Akhilesh having directly manoeuvred his foot soldiers to, ‘teach Muslims a lesson’. With certain angles there seems no difference between Gujarat in 2002 and Muzaffarnager in 2013: In Gujarat Sabarmati Express tragedy was used to incite anti-Muslim frenzy and organise pogroms, in Muzaffarnagar eve teasing has been used to polarise communities and commit atrocities; in Gujarat charred bodies of karsevaks were allowed to be taken out in a procession, in Muzaffarnagar rabble rousers were allowed to organise Mahapanchayat; in Gujarat mobile phones were used to coordinate attacks on Muslims, in Muzaffarnagar incitement was spread through social media and distributing fake CDs; to prove his efficiency in Gujarat, Modi controlled any reaction after the attack on Akshdham, in UP Mulayam Singh stopped VHP’s Yatra and tried to re-establish himself as the saviour of Muslims; Gujarat witnessed killings, arson, rapes and forced migration of Muslims, as time passes more and more similar stories are emerging from Muzaffarnagar. While Gujarat genocide 2002 had all the hallmark of being a well prepared pogrom, the manner in which a fake CD, reportedly shot two years ago in Pakistan, was edited and distributed and the manner in which provocation of Muslims had been going on in the area for more than a year gives every reason to assume that Muzaffarnager pogrom was premeditated and well planned.

In this background Mayawati’s comments that, "Every time elections are near, Mulayam Singh and the BJP and its affiliates, come together and plan political strategy," cannot be dismissed.

By Faraz Ahmad for TwoCircles.net

Jyoti Punwani (The Hindu, September 19, 2013) has hit the nail on the head today asking what if Muslims for Narendra Modi’s Jaipur rally had not turned up in their traditional skull caps and their women in the burqa (veil)?
As she pointed out, Muslims have had to bear the brunt of discrimination and being singled out because of their skull caps, their beards and the veils of their womenfolk, be it Bal Thackeray in Mahashtra/Bombay or our latest PM aspirant Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi. Bal Thackeray poured venom on Muslims, specially mentioning ‘Dadhi, Topi and Burqa’ describing all such beings as traitorous Pakistanis and singled them out for atrocities during the Dedcember 1992/January 1993 anti-Muslim pogormin Bombay.

Modi himself in his public speeches has identified Muslims with Pakistan by subtly calling them all ‘Mian Musharraf.’ In his last Sadbhvna Mission fair of 2011, ostensibly to extend a friendly hand to Muslims, he made a big show of inviting Muslims but when a Muslim made a gesture of offering him a skull cap, he immediately resiled in full public view. Yet in the Gujarat Assembly elections the BJP claimed that a good section of Muslims voted for the same Modi!. It defies logic, but there has been no attempt by the TV channels running Modi campaign day and night to explain how come even after that open show of disdain for the Mian variety, the Mians developed an inexplicable love for the Butcher of 2002?

Thankfully for Modi no opposition exists in his state. The official opposition ,the Congress party in Gujarat, is in tatters and so badly fragmented that it behaves more as His Majesty’s (read Modi) Loyal Opposition what with the Ahmed Patels and C P Joshis, all beholden to Modi’s biggest corporate strength, Mukeshbhai Ambani.

Burqa, Topi, and Darhi are regular features of all Modi's public meetings. [TCN Photo]

Only the other day while addressing a rally in Pune, Modi hit out at Muslim women’s Burqa evoking a very notable derisive full throated laughter from the Sanghi audience listening to him attentively. Modi’s strength is his derision of Muslims, with the epithets Paanch, Pachis (they are five and produce 25). Only the highly communalised Sanghi or closet Sanghi variety can possibly fall for Modi and I am not too sure about all of them. Still suddenly there is this great rush to buy Topis, Ddhis and Burqas for the Muslims, make them wear pointedly and then make them sit in the front row for the TV cameras to sharply focus on them and thus create the impression that a good section if not all Muslims have accepted Modi and he is no more perceived as a divisive figure as Arun Jaitely has tried to convince us recently in the Indian Express Idea Exchange programme that Modi as PM would be different from Modi the Gujarat CM. Ah well!

The Indian Express also carried a five column story yesterday about Modi’s Sadbhavana mission of Tuesday, his birthday inviting 2,200 Muslims, (how did the Express reporter know the exact numbers?) all with Topi and Dadhi coming all the way to Gandhinagar Town Hall to greet Modi on his birthday and having forgiven Modi. Modi too hinted why like Hitler he has suddenly decided to display the Topiwallas at his public do, because he announced that “The next general elections are perhaps the most awaited general elections in the history of India.” The Express report clearly pronounced that the Muslims are anxiously awaiting the next elections to vote Modi for PM. That was the message sent through that public display of Topis and Dadhis.

Jaipur is not alone. Similar Topis, Burqas and if I may add Dadhis, are being bought in larger quantity for Modi’s Bhopal show and so on and so forth. It was left for former Gujarat chief minister Suresh Mehta to expose through an RTI how the area officers were being made to make bulk purchase of these Topis and Burqas and of the beards as well. Actually Modi is not original here either. After the demolition of Babri Masjid when Narasimha Rao became highly unpopular with the Muslims and needed to repair his secular image, he contracted Maulana Jamil Ilyasi to buy up Topis, Dadhis and Sherwanis to go and meet Rao.

Why, what is the purpose here?. Obviously to claim that Muslims have been won over. Even if Gujarati Muslims out of exasperation may be willing to buy peace with this Fascist, can anyone imagine Muslims in UP or Bihar voting for Narendra Modi? That too after the Sanghis and Modi’s factotum Amit Shah have made big plans to polarize the coming elections on sharp communal lines, a taste of which we got in Muzaffarnagar communal where they successfully tore apart generation of camaraderie between Jats and Muslims. No. Then why this charade? The only plausible reason appears to be that the Sanghis have made big preparations for selectively rigging the next elections and claim that even a section of Muslims, say 20 per cent have voted for Modi. Towards that end we will soon see the surveys and analyses being animatedly argued on TV channels on how a good section of Muslims disgruntled with the secular parties have gone over to Modi who symbolizes a “new hope.” Let us see who takes the first step to declare this Arnab Goswami or Rajdeep Sardesai or Yogendra Yadav or Shekhar Gupta? But let me forewarn this is coming as a precursor to large scale rigging through your select Sanghi poll officials at marked polling booths and once the polls are over these same fellows will gloat, “I told you so.”

--
Faraz Ahmad is a Freelance journalist with past association with several national dailies.

By Habib Siddiqui,

“Muslim appeasement” is nothing but a political myth. There is a discontent in the majority community or at least some factions of the majority community which is manifested through the social media, that Muslims, because of their vote bank get pampered and looked after by political parties and Muslims, with this effective weapon are getting or trying to get undue benefits.

Mr. Debang Nanavati, a very well known person within BJP, whose oratorical and articulacy skills are admirable and is a confidant of Mr. Narendra Modi does not get tired of rhetorical statement, "Development of all, appeasement for none" which I think is a correct way to go, but he indirectly implies that others are engaged in so called Muslim appeasement.

The suffering and marginalization of the Muslims from the mainstream is evident from the Sachar Committee Report (1), even before the publication of the report, it was widely believed, that Muslims were faring worst in human development indices. But the report findings put an official seal on the belief and a perception became a reality.

Lets start with Education...

The four indicators of the educational progress, namely, literacy, proportion of population attaining certain level of education, mean years of schooling and enrollment rates give a holistic picture of the situation.

Indicator ------------------- %Muslims ------------------- % National Average

Literacy-------------------59.1------------------- 65.1
Matriculate-------------------17-------------------26
Graduate-------------------4-------------------7
MYS*-------------------3.2-------------------4
Share in IITs-------------------1.7-------------------**
Share in IIMs-------------------13-------------------**
Share in Premier Colleges (UG)-------------------4-------------------**
Share in Premier Colleges (PG)-------------------2-------------------**

* Mean Years of Schooling
** Data is out of the total

The figures are shocking, with respect to Dalits, who at the time of independence were the most marginalized, in 1965, only 72% of the Dalits were enrolling in schools but that figure rose remarkably and in 2000 we have 90% Dalits boys being enrolled for the schools. In contrast, Muslim enrollment in school was same as that of Dalits, that is 72% in 1965 but in 2000 the figure is 80%, a disparity of 10 percent point compared to the rise in Dalit enrollment. Similar disparity is evident from the school enrollment of the girls. This clearly shows, while Dalits have progressed because of affirmative actions of the government, Muslims have slipped into deeper abyss.

Let us see the employment situation..

Muslims Work Population Ration (WPR) is 47.5% compared to the national average of 51.7%. Muslims are mostly self employed in unorganized sectors and participate poorly in salaried organized sector jobs. More than 12% of the Muslims work on the street compared to the national average of 8%, whopping 41% of the people employed in tobacco industry are Muslim males. The representation in other government agencies is given below

Agency/ Department -------------- % Representation
IAS -------------- 3
IFS -------------- 1.8
IPS -------------- 4
Healt Department -------------- 4.4
Transport -------------- 6.5
Education -------------- 6.5
Home -------------- 7.3
Police Constables -------------- 6

This is against the population share of 14%.

Now, let’s have a look at economic condition...

Although the share of Muslims in the overall bank accounts is quite decent at 12%, the amount outstanding is only 4.7% which indicates Muslims do not easily get credit and if they do, the amounts are small. While the average amount outstanding per account in the priority sector is nearly Rs. 57,940, Muslims obtained only Rs. 21,823 and other minorities have obtained Rs.43,954. Small Scale Industry Bank of India (SIDBI) provides assistance to SMEs, the share of amounts disbursed to Muslims is abysmally low, at just 0.5%. The story is similar with, NABARD. Mean Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE) which actually indicates standard of living is Rs 635 for Muslims against a national average of Rs 712. 31% Muslims are poor compared to the national average of 22.7%.

Let’s briefly see access to infrastructure...

Sachar Report laments, 'there is a clear inverse association between the proportions of the Muslim population and availability of the educational infrastructure in villages' and 'about third of the villages with high concentration of Muslim population do not have educational institutes. The same situation is with respect to the medical infrastructure, 'fall in medical infrastructure availability with rise in Muslim population', Muslim villages lack asphalt covered roads and normally do not have bus stops, access of Muslims towards pucca houses is relatively less and access to proper sanitation is also less than average, albeit it is better than SCs and STs.

Conclusion:

Do these numbers show, appeasement or special favor?, certainly not. They show betrayal of trust and deceit of Congress and others who have always begged Muslim votes for their election pragmatism and political compulsions but have given them nothing in return, it also shows marginalization, suffering, and exploitation but no appeasement. These political parties merely do a lip service that these problems exists and need to be solved but either there is no action or their action are superficial at the most.

Congress government allocated funds for minority development, which ended up not being utilized, and if they have been utilized the major chunk of it actually goes to non-minorities which has been recently pointed out by TOI (2), they have promised Waqf Board reform but did nothing about it and now they are trying to do this which is a kind of superficial varnishing, they have declared programs but did not take care of their effectiveness. There has been absolutely no progress whatsoever in the Muslim community in 65 years rule of the Congress and Muslims are quite aware of it.

The only 'appeasing' thing that these appeasers, namely Congress, SP, RJD, TMC and others do is that they talk about the problems of Muslims but they not only shy away from resolving them but also do not have any commitment towards these problems. BJP cannot term these as appeasement rather these are breach of trust of Muslims who voted for these people.

In conclusion, there does not exist 'Muslim Appeasement' rather there exists, 'Muslim Marginalization', 'Muslim Political Symbolism', 'Muslim Vote Bank Greed' and much more. There is no favor or appeasement.

--

Habib Siddiqui works in Dubai, he can be reached at habib872@gmail.com

References:
1. http://www.minorityaffairs.gov.in/sachar
2. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-16/india/42113259_1_...

Extract from written legal submissions submitted to 11th Metro Court Judge BJ Ganatra on dt.18.9.2013

Introduction:-

The Zakia Jafri Criminal Complaint against Narendra Modi and 59 Others, supported by Citizens for Justice & Peace, Mumbai, was ordered to be investigated by the Supreme Court, first on 27.4.2009 and thereafter through subsequent orders. Zakia Jafri & CJP have been attempting to get serious criminal charges registered and investigated since 8.6.2006. The Special Investigation team (SIT) originally asked to further investigate None Major Trials was assigned the task (27.4.2009). An Amicus Curiae was also appointed to assist the Court. The SIT in its reports from 2010 onwards arrived at the conclusion that while several of the allegations were found to be correct , there was not sufficient material to prosecute the accused.

In stark contrast, the Amicus Curiae senior advocate Raju Ramachandran looking at the same evidence collected by the SIT, came to a contrary conclusion, stating clearly that there was evidence enough to prosecute Narendra Modi. Faced with this dilemma of two contrary assessments, the Supreme Court remanded the matter to a lower Court directing SIT to file its Final Report there. The SC specifically directed that if the SIT filed a closure report, the Complainants were fully within their legal rights to file a Protest petition and access all Investigation papers/documents. (This is a right under Indian law but was specifically outlined by the Supreme Court in its final judgement dated 12.9.2011).

Predictably, the SIT filed a closure report on 8.2.2012 and remained adamant against making Investigation papers available to the Complainants in contempt o the Supreme Court order. The Magistrate granted the Complainant her right to the Investigation Papers on 10.4.2012 but it took Zakia Jafri & CJP another year to access all the Investigation reports of the SIT submitted to the Supreme Court. The SC directed this on 7.2.2013 after which the Protest Petition was filed on 15.4.2013. From June 24-August 29, 2013 rigorous arguments in support of the Zakia Jafri Protest Petition were made before Judge Ganatra, 11th Metropolitan Magistrate, Ahmedabad. The final day of arguments on behalf of the Complainant took place on 18.9.2013. Detailed Written Submissions on Legal and Factual Aspects were submitted to the Court today. Now the Judgement of the Magistrate will be awaited.

Narendra Modi faces Fifteen Serious Charges of :-

· 1. Willfully Ignoring Messages from State Intelligence about the Violent Repercussions of the RSS-VHP called ‘Mahayajna’ before the tragic Godhra incident on 27.2.2002 and deliberately not initiating precautionary measures that are imperative under Standard Operational Procedure; messages from 7.2.2002 to 25.2.2002, including specific ones that stated that batches of 2,800 and 1,900 kar sevaks had left for Faizabad-Ayodhya and had been behaving provocatively and aggressively against minorities on the way. As cabinet minister for home and chief minister, he is directly responsible MOS Home Gordhan Zadaphiya is a constant Co-Conspirator.

· 2. Deliberately concealing knowledge of the provocative, anti-Muslim sloganeering by kar sevaks at the Godhra station when the Sabarmati Express reached five hours late on 27.2.2002, which information had been sent to him directly by DM/Collector Jayanti Ravi and willfully failing to take stern action and allowing violent incidents to escalate after the train left Godhra by about 1.15 p.m. especially at Vadodara station where a Muslim was attacked and killed and at Anand where the train stopped hereafter ensuring that the state allowed a hate-filled and threatening atmosphere against Muslims build right up to Ahmedabad where the train finally reached around 4 p.m. and where bloodthirsty slogans were being shouted. FIRs in 19 brutal incidents against Muslims are recorded on 27.2.2002 in Ahmedabad itself. Curfew was not imposed despite these incidents resulting in deaths breaking out.

· 3. Conspiring with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to plot and allow reprisal killings all over Gujarat. The first phone call that Modi makes after DM Ravi’s fax reaches him is, not to appeal for peace and calm, but phone secretary VHP, Gujarat, Dr Jaideep Patel and direct him to Godhra. The Conspiracy between Modi and the VHP is hatched and unfurled to cynically ensure state-wide reprisal killings. Phone call records show these phone calls between PA to Modi AP Patel and Jaideep Patel immediately after the chief minister receives news of the Godhra tragedy. Phone call records made available by Rahul Sharma (IPS, Gujarat) also show that Powerful Accused were in touch with the chief minister’s office (CMO) and the landline numbers of the chief minister.

· 4. Brazenly supporting the Bandh call called by the VHP and allowing the streets and public spaces of Gujarat to be used for mass attacks and violence. By 12 noon on 27.2.2002, state intelligence and the police were aware of the Bandh call; the bandh was uses by the police machinery to clear the streets of ordinary citizens so that aggressive mobs could target minority populations and their establishments.

· 5. Cynically, and illegally allowed Post Mortems Illegally out in the Open at the Railway Yard, Godhra where the burnt and mutilated corpses were laid in full view of an aggressive and irate crowd of RSS and VHP men and women, who were gathered there in violation of Curfew Orders @ Godhra. Deliberately allowing photographs of the burnt corpses to be taken and widely circulated by the RSS-VHP and media in general, despite it being prevented under law;

· 6. Personally instigating individual RSS-VHP men and women at the railway yard at Godhra assuring them that enough time will be allowed by the Modi-led government and administration to extract a revenge for Godhra.

· 7. Directing that the unidentified bodies of Godhra train victims should be handed over to Jaideep Patel, a non-governmental person, that too belonging to a supremacist and communal VHP to be brought to Ahmedabad where aggressive funeral processions in full public view were allowed. Modi directed this at a meeting at the Collectorate in the evening of 27.2.2002 before he returned to Gandhinagar. Jaideep Patel was allowed to be present at an official meeting at the Collectorate. Jaideep Patel is a co-conspirator and also facing trial for mass crimes in the ongoing Naroda Gaam case. Modi is specifically guilty of allowing the escalation of violence from Godhra to other parts of Gujarat and taking decisions contrary to law.

· 8. Specifically instructing his top policemen and administrators not to act evenhandedly in the days to follow and “allow Hindus to vent their anger.” Two senior bureaucrats present at the meeting have stated that cabinet ministers were present at a meeting that went on well past midnight. Haren Pandya, a minister in Modi’s cabinet in 2002 had given evidence of this to the Concerned Citizen’s Tribunal headed by Justice Krishna Iyer and PB Sawant in 2002 itself. Later in 2009 a serving officer from the state intelligence, Sanjiv Bhatt also gave the same evidence before the SIT and the Supreme Court.

· 9. Preventing the Imposition of Curfew. Curfew was deliberately not imposed at Ahmedabad while over 3,000 RSS workers were allowed to gather at the Sola Civil Hospital where Jaideep Patel arrived with the bodies of the Godhra victims at about 4 a.m. The crowd was aggressive and violent as proved from the police control room records. No steps were taken to disperse the crowd that attacked the hospital staff and doctors, a High Court judge, Violent funeral processions were allowed to wind through the streets of Ahmedabad for several hours at two locations; worst Acharya Giriraj Kishore was given police escort to come and further provoke the aggressive mob; the cremations took place only in the evening and attacks on Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gaam and Gulberg Society where over 200 persons were massacred (and rapes allowed) in broad daylight on the same day, 28.2.2002, while violent and aggressive funeral processions were willfully allowed by Modi and the police and administration.

· 10. Making pretence of verbally calling in the Army on the late evening of 28.2.2002 but not actually allowing its deployment in Ahmedabad, Godhra and Bhavnagar and Varodara until 2.3.2002 and 3.3.2002. Worse badly affected districts like Mehsana, Panchmahals, Dahod, Anand, Kheda were not given ant Army or Paramilitary at all.

· 11. Fourteen out of Gujarat’s 25 districts were allowed to burn as Ministers were specifically deployed by Modi to interfere with Police functioning and sit in the State Control Room and Ahmedabad City Control Room; in Eleven Districts where Violence was controlled, the Police Officers in Charge were given Punitive Transfers to send a Political Message. Modi heads the Home department that bends the Police Bureaucracy and Police to his Will.

· 12. Modi allowed violence to continue unabated until early May 2002 when KPS Gill was sent by PM Vajpayee to the state; the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), April and July 2002 and Central Election Commission (CEC) were misled about the spread and intensity of violence. This was willful subversion of the justice system. The Subversion of the Home Department under A-1 in which co-accused, Gordhan Zadaphiya, MOS Home, A-5, Ashok Narayan, ACS Home, A-28, and K Nityanandam, Secretary, Home, A-34 played an active part included deliberately misinforming the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India about the extent and spread of violence:- Correspondence exists to reveal how senior VHP and RSS men were being kept out of the FIRs and charge sheets related to serious massacres being filed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch; how violence was recurrent and was being allowed with even ministers like Bharat Barot directly involved.

· 13. Partisan prosecutors belonging to the RSS-VHP were appointed to ensure that cases were killed in their infancy; bail was easily granted to powerful accused until the Supreme Court stepped in, in 2003 and 2004. Two trials, the Best Bakery trial and the Bilkees Bano cases were transferred out of the state.

· 14. Hate Speech was indulged in by Modi himself, on 27.2.2002 and right until the infamous Becharaji speech made top set off his election campaign on 9.9.2002 and also cynically permitted by the Home Department under him to spread poison and incite violence against Muslims and Christians. The State Intelligence under ADGP-Int RB Sreekumar had specifically recommended prosecution of the VHP for a series of incendiary pamphlets but this was ignored. SP Bhavnagar, Rahul Sharma too had recommended the prosecution of Sandesh, the Gujarati mainstream newspaper for publishing false and provocative photographs and reports. Both the NHRC and Editor’s Guild had also strongly recommended prosecution of those guilty of hate speech. Modi had, instead sent congratulatory letters to those newspapers who had spread lies and venom. RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt are among the officers persecuted by the Gujarat government under Modi (home minister).

· 15. Modi is guilty of ordering the Destruction of Crucial documents including Wireless Intercepted Messages, Vehicle logs, Police Control Room records and others on 30.3.2008, four days after the Supreme Court appoints the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on 26.3.2008. He has headed the Home ministry portfolio since that date.

Medha Patkar and NBA Team

Response by Narmada Bachao Andolan to the recent statement by Shri Jairam Ramesh that there shall be no more Sardar Sarovar Projects in India (Statement of Shri Ramesh and pictures of his visit to SSP affected villages in May, 2013 attached)

We welcome the recent statement of the Union Minister of Rural Development, Shri Jairam Ramesh that there would be no more Sardar Sarovar like Projects in India. The reasoning and the rational that such gigantic projects lead to massive displacement of not just families, but whole communities, following forcible acquisition of generations-old land and properties is quite understandable and acceptable. Although a delayed statement, it is definitely one that shows a realization of the reality of such large project and their impacts. Not only the inter-state conflict that the Minister refers to, but also the permanent conflict between the State and its citizens is also a reason for review of such conflict-ridden projects.

Dam induced submergence in Village Chikalda – August 2013 – Fish workers’ hamlets under waters

While the lessons learnt from Sardar Sarovar and the people’s struggle over the last 28 years have gone a long way to partly change the perspective and also the water resource planning by the World Bank first and our own governments later, it is unfortunate that in the name of Sardar Sarovar and other Narmada dams, Chief Minister and officials of Madhya Pradesh, as Mr. Ramesh acknowledges, could ‘convince’ him to exempt irrigation projects from two of the significant provisions in the new Land Acquisition Bill, 2013. Those include allotment of 1 acre land per family in the command area as well a pre-condition of Social Impact Assessment before a project is sanctioned as a Public Purpose Project.

It is equally unfortunate that the real reason behind Sardar Sarovar like Projects being non-feasible or impractical is not just the mind-boggling social and ecological impacts, but also the incapacity, corruption and lack of political will of successive governments and their officials that have led to massive escalation in costs and minimal realization of even the projected benefits. This needs to be brought on record since neither Sardar Sarovar nor the conflict and struggle has yet become a tale of the past, but continues till date, raising extremely critical questions for the entire development paradigm of this nation.

Jairam Ramesh addresses public gathering at Chikalda

It is in the inter-state Sardar Sarovar Project where the people – adivasis, farmers, fish workers, potters, landless, artisans, shopkeepers etc. highlighted all issues including social and environmental impacts as well as unjustifiable costs, exaggerated benefits and unfair distribution of the same, including water allocation and sharing within Gujarat. An objective analysis of each of these aspects would lead to one and only one conclusion and that is: Even today SSP stands to be a perfect case for suspension of further dam work and reviewing the Project itself. There continue to be 2,50,000 people residing in the submergence area in the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat till date, fighting not just for their rights, but for the right kind of development. It is true that during the 3 decades of struggle, this is the only dam where 11,000 families have got land for land in Maharashtra and Gujarat and about 300 resettlement sites had to be established for the thousands of families in the three states. However, not less than 7,000 – 8,000 families remain to get alternative land which is their legal entitlement. Madhya Pradesh, with the largest of submergence has been callously avoiding to provide cultivable land to displaced persons, whether in SSP or other large dams in the Narmada valley, while in the same state, huge chunks of land and resources are diverted to the corporates!

Over the years, the Andolan has exposed a huge corruption scandal in the rehabilitation, worth about Rs. 1,000 crores. Not less than 3,000 fake registries in the name of land purchase and 8,000 fake documents claiming livelihood based rehabilitation of landless has meant wastage of crores of rupees from the state exchequer. Who are the culprits? The Report by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, which has been investigating, for the past five years, as per Orders of the M.P. High Court will bring out the truth.

Minister, MoRD enters Chikalda

Severe non-compliance on various environmental aspects such as command area development, catchment area treatment, impact on health and fisheries, downstream impacts, archeology, seismicity etc. has been reported by not one but many official committees including the latest Dr. Devendra Pandey Committee appointed by MoEF. Mr. Ramesh as the then Environment Minister had himself written to Mr. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister, Gujarat on the various aspects of non-compliance. There are, to this day, millions of trees, hundreds of temples, mosques and other monuments, small and large of immense cultural significance in the submergence area. Can the State restore the generations old archeological remnants that lie underground in this oldest of the civilizations in the world? Can anyone ‘rehabilitate’ this heritage ever?

While Gujarat, supported by Madhya Pradesh, ready to sacrifice its own people and villages has been justifying all destruction, in the garb of ‘development, one really has to look at the benefits front to see if all the displacement is actually serving any ‘public purpose’? The financial cost of the project itself has escalated from Rs. 4,200 crores (1983) presumed for economic appraisal to Rs. 6,488 croes (1988) approved by the Planning Commission to the peak of 70,000 crores in 2012. What is the Benefit-Cost ratio today needs to be looked at in utmost seriousness. Even the Planning Commission could have but has not, never reviewed the same. Pushing the dam ahead from 122 mts to 139 mts, but not building the canal network over 30 years has resulting in irrigation falling behind and no use of the reservoir waters already ponded and available.

Jairam Ramesh pays respects at Gandhi Samadhi

The dam with 1450 MW of firm as power generation capacity would generate only 415 MW firm power and the same would also go on reducing as and how the irrigation comes into being and takes water allocated for the same purpose. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, however, are not entitled to even a drop of water from SSP, but only 27% and 56% of whatever power is generated at every level of the dam height respectively. While official data shows that power generation at SSP, commenced since 2004, Maharashtra and M.P. have not received the exact amount of the power they are entitled to.

Is it fair for a Project, built and pushed ahead in the name of needy farmers and villages of Kutch and Saurashtra to divert waters, on a large scale, to corporates, urban municipalities and cities in Gujarat? Is the decision of the Modi Government to exclude 4 lakh hecatres of land from the command area and reserve the same for corporates, SEZs, SIRs etc. a ‘farmer-friendly’ move or a fatal blow to the farmers in the state? How has the cost benefits ratio been affected by these changes is for anyone to imagine. Is the sacrifice of the Narmada valley necessary and justifiable for satisfying corporate greed and political vested interests, by changing the very plan of Sardar Sarovar? No doubt, M.P. and Gujarat are deliberately indifferent to the huge losses that have occurred due to submergence since 1993 to 2013, to the lives and livelihoods of 2.5 lakh people, to the thousands of houses, schools, dispensaries, shops, markets, temples, mosques, adivasi religious structures, lakhs of trees, all that is part of thriving village-life in the valley till date and all that is doomed to be drowned if the 17 mts gates on Sardar Sarovar are to be installed.

Will the Rural Development Minister who visited one of the villages (Chikalda) in the valley, a few months ago live up to his promise of ensuring justice to the 48,000 families? Coincidentally it at was Chikalda where the Asia’s foremost farmers were born, that Mr. Ramesh announced commitment by his government to ensure justice to the valley. Barely months after his visit, Chikalda witnessed its worst dam-induced submergence, with over 350 houses hit by the dam waters and hundreds of acres of land, with standing crop submerged. Will the Minister take the initiative to ensure justice to review the project? Will he ensure lawful rehabilitation of the thousands of families already affected and save the rest of the habitations and heritage in the valley?

19th September, 2013

By Saeed Naqvi, IANS,

The Cuban missile crisis produced great scholarship. A classic of the period, "Essence of A Decision" by Grahame Allison, is a study of decision making in the Kennedy administration during a crisis when the world came close to a nuclear collision.

By that reckoning, research proposals must be in the process of being cleared as to who ordered the two ballistic missiles towards Syria which Russian intercepts brought down in the Mediterranean? The whole episode is frightening.

It was, therefore, a chastened Barack Obama who turned up at the G20 Summit in St Petersburg. The Russian suggestion that Syria sign the chemical weapons convention and surrender its chemical weapons was a practical idea which would also be a face saver for Washington which had painted itself into a corner on surgical strikes in Syria.

In the whispering gallery of diplomatic leaks, it has been suggested that if Syria acquiesced in some highly restricted missile attacks on its territory, to satisfy US, Israeli and Saudi hawks, the crisis would be over. Bashar al Assad said he would have none of it. Unspecified retaliation would follow.

Why has Assad now agreed to surrender his strategic chemical weapons?

First, the advantage in his willingness to surrender the nasty arsenal is clear in Putin’s article in the New York Times and later in Obama’s weekly address to the nation.

Putin said: “No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists.”

Putin then issued a warning. “Reports that militants are preparing another attack, this time against Israel, cannot be ignored." This last sting is enough to set the cat among the pigeons. The implication is straightforward. Having failed to provoke foreign intervention after the Aug 21 chemical attack in Ghouta on the periphery of Damascus, the Syrian opposition were planning an even bigger provocation by attacking Israel. Putin clearly knows more than he has revealed. Note his cocky assertiveness a few days ago: “It is a sly provocation by the Syrian opposition.”

That is how worrisome the Syrian chemical arsenal has become. The opposition can either use its existence as a cover to obtain supplies of lethal agents like Sarin from across the border or to find defectors from the regime with access to Syrian chemical weapons.

It, therefore, becomes a critical item in its inventory that Syria is surrendering.

In his address, Obama said: “Until recently, the Assad regime would not admit that it possessed chemical weapon. Today, Syria has signaled a willingness to join with 189 other nations, representing 98 percent of humanity, in abiding by an international agreement that prohibits the use of chemical weapons." And, Obama proceeds to pay a compliment to Moscow. “Russia has staked its own credibility on supporting this outcome."

Washington’s new found reliance on Moscow to navigate it out of the Syrian minefield is a historic new development. For this very reason it is a fragile arrangement. Israel and Saudi Arabia, for instance, would scream murder if a Washington-Moscow entente sidelined their interests in the eventual outcome in Syria. How does Washington square this circle? This is the pressure on Washington.

Now that clouds of war have cleared a bit, Syria is beginning to feel self confident with the hand it has been dealt to play. So what if it has to surrender its chemical weapons. The gesture will enhance Russian profile in the region which is useful for the entire team - Hizbullah, Iran.

In any case, the strategic shortfall on account of its chemical weapons would be made up by Russian SS300s or 400s, which have already shown their effectiveness in bringing down US missiles over Syria.

This one act of statesmanship will be seen to have saved West Asia from a calamitous conflict. Would it not boost Assad's regional profile? Within Syria, he will seen to have defeated the regime’s opponents and as a national leader who prevented the breakup of his country into autonomous regions.

All of it seems to be fitting nicely into the Russian aim of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, an aspiration which has implications for Israel too. Iranian Supreme leader Ayatullah Khamenei obliged on this score at a meeting with commanders and officials of Revolutionary Guard Corps. He said Iran’s opposition to the possession of nuclear weapons was based on the beliefs of the Iranian nation. This was more or less reiterated by President Hassan Rouhani who, while in the US for the UN General Assembly, is also expected to meet President Obama.

Does the script appear to be proceeding advantageously for one side?

To restore balance, how does Russia work closely with the US in ensuring Israeli security, which is the cornerstone of US policy in the Middle East? Moves of interest to Saudi Arabia could be in the works after US diplomat Jeffrey Feltman turned up in Teheran recently wearing a UN cap.

After all, Teheran and Riyadh have been on talking terms some years ago. Remember the Mecca Summit?

(20-09-2013-Saeed Naqvi is a commentator on political and diplomatic affairs. The views expressed are personal. Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeed.naqvi@hotmail.com)

By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,

Even as Narendra Modi greeted rows of Muslims in skull caps in Ahmedabad as they sought reconciliation with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party's fiery leader, Uma Bharati, who was portrayed in 1992 gleefully watching the demolition of the Babri Masjid, was standing shoulder to shoulder with the BJP legislators in Uttar Pradesh who were accused of instigating the recent Muzaffarnagar riots.

But for the violent outbreak, which saw a return to the venomous, anti-Muslim rhetoric of the 1990s by the BJP, the party might have been able to evolve a coherent line on its attitude towards the minorities. The communal conflagration, however, seems to have queered the pitch for it.

When the riots took place, they were expected by the BJP to consolidate the Hindu votes in the state in its favour as previous riots, notably in Gujarat in 2002, have done. Since the BJP has been on a weak wicket in the state ever since the attack on the Babri Masjid, cynics even saw a sinister conspiracy in tandem with the Samajwadi Party behind the outbreak.

As Uma Bharati's pugnacity shows, it may take time for the communal temperatures to cool, especially since the Akhilesh Yadav government has proved singularly incapable of handling the situation. But the gulf between the BJP's aggressive postures in Uttar Pradesh and its efforts to reach out to the Muslims elsewhere is obvious.

It is not surprising that Modi is behind the friendly initiatives. He is evidently engaged in a makeover bid to bury his anti-Muslim image linked to the 2002 riots. The projection of a gentler, kinder personality is indispensable for his prime ministerial ambition. In the process, he may be overplaying his hand.

For instance, the party's advice to Muslims to attend Modi's rallies in skull caps and burqas (veils) is not only odd but also unprecedented. Never before has a party asked its potential supporters to visit its shows dressed in the distinctive attire of their communities. The BJP has reportedly even handed out skull caps and burqas for the purpose.

If the intention is to show Modi's "popularity" among Muslims to television audiences, the ploy is unlikely to succeed in the present age of instant and widespread communication since it will be known that the Muslims are only following the BJP's advice to look like Muslims and not doing so on their own volition.

Besides, the insistence on particular items of dress will tend to stereotype Muslims as "backward" since skull caps and burqas are not worn by members of the community belonging to the more progressive sections of the community.

Whatever the pros and cons of these PR gimmicks, they at least show that Modi is aiming at bridging the decades-old gap between the BJP and the minorities. But can he make any headway if a tragedy like the one in Muzaffarnagar is seen to reveal the party's real face ?

It is not without reason that Modi has remained silent about the incident. Both he and his party have been taking pride for the decade of peace in Gujarat since 2002. They will be uneasy, therefore, if Muzaffarnagar serves as a reminder that nothing has changed in the BJP.

True, the BJP is not the only guilty party in Uttar Pradesh. As the arrest warrants against the suspects have shown, the ruling Samajwadi Party, as also the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress, too, were involved. But it is Modi's efforts to refurbish his image which will suffer the most.

Intriguingly, the BJP in Uttar Pradesh will be hamstrung if its functionaries at the lower levels have to distance themselves from the riots in the near future to accommodate Modi's new line. Will it be possible for Uma Bharati to tone down her rhetoric along with another preacher, Sadhvi Prachi, who has come to the fore after the riots?

Even as Modi goes barnstorming across the country to showcase his talent for solving the country's problems, the question will be asked if he is in control of his own party. It is not only dissenters at the top like L.K. Advani who pose a problem, but the Uma Bharatis and Prachis lower down who have been reared in the belief that India is of, by and for Hindus and that Muslims are aliens, having invaded the country in the medieval ages.

Since the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological head of the Hindu nationalist groups, propounds this thesis, it will not be easy for Modi to steer the BJP in a new direction, which is unfamiliar to most of its grassroots cadres and supporters.

Modi has been banking till now on the anti-Congress mood in the country and his own reputation as a development-oriented, decisive leader. By extending a friendly hand to the Muslims, he has also sought to underline his suitability for a multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic country like Indiaz.

But his real challenge will be to douse the long-prevalent, intensely anti-Muslim sentiments not only in the BJP but also in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal among other saffron political affiliates.

(21-09-2013-Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)

By Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam,

The anti-Muslim riots in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas are already being compared to Gujarat 2002. As many as 50,000 people have been officially reckoned to have become internal refugees. According to official records, 85 people have died, but unofficial estimates put it at a much higher figure.

Police and administrative laxity, and sometimes police’s criminal collusion with rioters, have brought on this sorry state of affairs. Above everything else the murky dealings of Samajwadi Party leadership with the Sangh had a paralysing influence on the state machinery and encouraged goondas to indulge in rape, loot, arson and murder. Many Muslims have “disappeared”, many of their young women have been kidnapped and whisked away to places where they cannot easily be found.

Like Gujarat, it was a well-planned operation. Police in several areas have been seen to be hand in glove with rioters. These riots need a more comprehensive case study. The following is an account of some of the facets of these riots.

Role of Media

By now the riot methodology has been perfected. Disinformation, rumor mongering - the usual ammunition in every fascist armoury - are important components of this machinery. They have always been used with lethal effect in anti-Muslim riots all over India.

The post-Godhra riots began with a major news item in the two most important Gujarati dailies. The prominently-displayed news said Muslims in Godhra had raped two Hindu women and cut their breasts. This inflamed Hindu feelings beyond control. Later it was found that no such event had taken place.

However, by the time the truth came out, it was too late and hundreds of Muslim women had been raped and killed.

Several riots in UP in the past have been fuelled and aggravated by such false reports in Hindi newspapers. One such riot spread quickly after a Hindi newspaper wrote a story on the front page. The banner headline screamed: “Chaar sau bachche ghar nahin lautey” (Four hundred [school] children did not return home). The falsehood was known only after the damage was done.

Yet another vicious riot in Aligarh was aggravated by a false report in a Hindi newspaper that said Hindus in AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College hospital had been poisoned by Muslim doctors.

In Muzaffarnagar, newspaper stories of a Hindu girl’s “molestation and rape” worked as petrol on fire. Subsequent investigations and reports by major publications found that the reports were not true. By then many people were killed and maimed, homes and shops burnt down, people in their thousands driven out to seek shelter in refugee camps.

The role of a section of media turned out to be as vicious this time as in the past.

The Muzaffanagar police complained that media had been reporting events that did not take place. That had a devastating effect. So far, media has gone completely untouched for its role in aggravating mass violence. This is a long record of impunity. Nobody ever dragged them to court for their crimes against humanity. Enough is enough. Victims must give a serious thought to legal action against these offenders.

The Press Council of India is aware of these transgressions, but being a toothless body all that they can do is after a proper investigation name and shame the offenders. However, it does not work as the offenders are shameless.

Small Changes

The larger pattern of anti-Muslim riots is intact, but smaller changes have been introduced into it to make such riots more deadly.

Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s the anti-Muslim riots began with somebody pelting stones at Hindu processions. Once the stones were pelted systematic attacks on Muslims began and riot apologist would invariably argue that the riot was “started by Muslims”, taking it for granted that those throwing stones were Muslims.

On the other hand, Muslims knew well that it was the handiwork of agent provocateurs hired by the riot organisers. The simple logic for Muslim innocence was that they did not stand to gain from the riots.

“Muslim casts the first stone” theme has given way to “riots begin with Muslims molesting and raping Hindu women”. That was the alibi in Pratapgarh riots earlier this year and Muzaffarnagar riots earlier this month. In both cases, the media propagated this false news with devastating consequences for Muslims. In both cases it later turned out that no molestation or rape had taken place.

Other measures of disinformation and provoking the majority community included wide distribution of a video in which a mob was lynching someone. The mischief makers said the video showed Muslims lynching Hindu youth in Muzaffarnagar, while the fact was that it was an old video of violence in Afghanistan.

In some areas, young men were seen distributing pamphlets in “Muslim dress”, while in fact they were not Muslims. This was another way of provoking violence and blaming it on Muslims.

For years we had witnessed riots erupting after the discovery of cows’ heads and other parts in temples. Miscreants had regularly used this tactic to provoke riots. Over the years it has lost much of its effectiveness. That is why the new narrative involves “Hindu naari ki izzat par hamla” (attack on the modesty of Hindu woman). As it has worked well so far. We should expect more of it in days ahead.

(Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam Chairman Institute of Objective Studies.)

By Rajendra Shende, IANS,

When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched India's National Action Plan on Climate Change in 2008 and its target to reduce energy intensity, he was hailed as a global leader for taking bold steps to address the issue. More recently, India has received a wake-up call from climate-driven tragedies such as the floods in Uttarakhand and the dire droughts of 2012 and and Manmohan Singh is once again returning to a leadership role.

Earlier this month, the Indian prime minister joined Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Barack Obama and the other G-20 leaders to support "full implementation of the agreed outcomes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)" and its ongoing negotiations towards a new UN climate treaty by 2015. India and the other G20 leaders also agreed to support "operationalization of the Green Climate Fund" and to "support...using the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)...," leaving HFCs within the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol for "accounting and reporting of emissions."

There are many benefits to India from supporting the Montreal Protocol strategy. First, with India's leadership, it will now be possible to quickly complete the consensus to phase out HFCs, providing the world with significant near-term climate protection through a treaty that never fails.

The HFC phase down will avoid the equivalent of 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050 and up to 0.5° C of warming by the end of the century.

Second, the HFC amendment will catalyze improvements in the energy efficiency of refrigerators, air conditioners (both stationary and in vehicles), and other equipment using HFCs as refrigerants.

This means using less electricity to operate refrigerators and air conditioners, which means lower fossil fuel use and lower carbon dioxide emissions, giving this strategy a double climate benefit. These efficiency gains will save money for consumers and reduce India's import burden of fossil fuels and the current account deficit, a key parameter for India's recent financial crisis.

Third, the HFC amendment will reaffirm the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" for climate protection. This is a central principle for India and indeed all developing countries during all climate negotiations. Simply put, this principle means that all countries must do their part to solve climate change - our common responsibility - but that some have greater responsibility and capabilities to do more, sooner - the differentiated responsibility.

All parties to the Montreal Protocol fully follow this principle. Developed countries act first to phase out their production and use of the CFCs and other ozone-depleting gases, while developing countries are given a grace period of several years to continue their production and use. At the end of the grace period, the developing countries are required to take their own actions to phase out controlled chemicals, with the developed countries paying the agreed incremental costs of implementing the transitions to environmentally friendly substitutes in the developing countries.

The Montreal Protocol's dedicated funding mechanism was set up with India's diplomatic leadership in 1990, and so far has paid more than $3 billion dollars to developing countries, including funding to support national ozone offices in all 147 developing countries. The Montreal Protocol's approach to solving the threat to the ozone layer has phased out nearly 100 dangerous chemicals by nearly 100 percent, saving millions of lives and preventing untold other damage to the planet.

Fourthly, success with the HFC amendment under the Montreal Protocol will help build the trust and momentum needed to conclude a successful agreement under the UN climate negotiations in 2015. Leadership on climate policy must come from the heads of state, and the leaders of the large economies must work together to pave the way forward for all countries of the world. The agreement by India, China, and the US, along with the other G20 leaders, shows this is possible.

Manmohan Singh is now preparing for a bilateral summit with the US and talks with President Obama end-September. He has an opportunity to demonstrate his leadership in climate change in a renewed way.

This year India is reclaiming its rightful place as a leader among nations for the essential task of protecting our common climate and the future of humanity.

(22-09-2013- IIT aluminus Rajendra Shende is the founder and chairman of Pune's TERRE, an environmental think tank promoting sustainable development. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at shende.rajendra@gmail.com)

By Habib Siddiqui,

Recent rise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) core team as he become member of Central Election Committee and his subsequent nomination as the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate has left his supporters enthralled but many more worried. Modi has been seen more in Delhi than in Gandhinager, he has been speaking more Hindi than Gujarati which shows he wants his office to be shifted to Delhi.

Modi's rise in BJP has been attributed to his back to back election victories in Gujarat, he has emerged as a ‘savior’ of India from çorrupt’ Congress.

Not everyone is jubiliant on Modi's rise. It is a fact that you cannot make every one believe in the same thing, but democracy is all about making consensus and altering, modifying and changing things to try to create a consensus. Modi has been seen as a polarizing figure, for some he is a hero who can save this country from the corrupt and bad governance of UPA and for some, he is a person, who can marginalize them or worse go after their security. There exist vast amount of material to support his development agenda, efficiency of the governance and professionalism, so lets not add one more document into the pleothora and rather, I would like to give a perspective why he is being so vigorously and vehemently opposed by some, even though it is believed to have been so successful in his state of Gujarat in terms of development and growth.

It is indisputable that Modi enjoys formidable support among Indian youth, the reason for which has more to do with bad governance of UPA than good governance of Modi or his ideologies. It will be tenacious task for for him and as well as for BJP to convert this support which is extremely hard to measure before going for ballot box, into an election victory. It will be difficult because the people are supporting him due to inefficiency of the Congress but to change the result he will have to make people believe and agree with his ideology. Still going with the hysteria and cacophony, we may say that he is 'the most popular leader' for the BJP and must get his share of national political stage, as the BJP chief Rajnath Singh pointed out. Then the question arises, why there exists a part of the society which is trying by its tooth and nail to prevent him from national politics or the politics all together.

The answer to that question comes from his actions and inactions, from his spoken and unspoken words. BJP is a national party which derives its ideology from Sangh Parivar whose role in demolition of centuries old Mosque is as discerning as black and white. The sister organization of Sangh, RSS, VHP and Bagrang Dal have been many times accused of instigating, propagating and abetting communal riots across the nation, number of times their members have been convicted of these charges and many of their loosely bound organizations have recently been charged with terrorism. The top leader of BJP, Mr. LK Advani, who opposed appointment of Modi on the key position and reasoned that, it will not help party because of his polarizing image, has been indicted by Liberhan Commission into Babri Masjid demolition.

But it is not all about BJP, though BJP does not share any love with Muslim community, community has not come out with such a decisive will and opinion about the party but addition of Narendra Modi has certainly shifted opinions of Muslims far away from them. The shift of opinion comes from Narendra Modi's personality, which has certain specific traits, some of which he carries with great confidence, which includes, poster boy of development, roll model of good governance and youth icon etc. But there are few notions of his image which pose a great challenge for BJP and to him. The second category of colors of his image create a wide chasm between his supporters and his opponents. These can be named as, strong pro hindutva leader, closeness by Sangh Parivar and his response to Gujarat Riots of 2002. On the question of development, progress and governance he can create a consensus but the equation does not end there, the later parts create problems and shift opinions.

So, why these wearers of 'Muslim Caps' as Chetan Bhagat refers them to, oppose with so much zeal, a leader who is so competent to become prime minister. The answer lies, in his image, the spoken and unspoken things and things which were done and also things, which were not done. I can point things from his handling of Gujarat riots, his statements, his actions and inaction which prove he does care about some but show apathy to some or even worse conspires with people who commit genocide.

Following are my reasons for opposing him:

1. The riots exploded and carefully propagated by the incident of Godhra. Narendra Modi, released a message on Door Darshan in which he described the incident with great passion, and requested people to maintain law and order. He promised that complete legal actions will be taken against those who are guilty and even went on to say, "An example will be set, so that nobody in future dreams to do such heinous act". I accept his anger, because 56 citizens of his state were burnt alive by criminals, and I also applaud his responsible and sensible address to his people to maintain calm and peace. But after Godhra, there were number of massacres, just under the nose of control rooms but Modi failed to give any such address to his state. He was still a CM of every person of his state and this was his 'Raj Dharma' as Vajpayee the PM at that time mentioned, to come again on TV and say, 'even now I will set an example, so that nobody in future dreams of committing acts like masscare in Naroda Patia, Gulbarg socieity and many other places'. He failed to give assurances and sense of security to those affected in the riots.

Why he did not condemn those acts with the same passion and emotions. Clearly he saw his citizens with two eyes. Some were closer to him than others, some were more important to him than others, few drops of blood was dearer to him than others. He was partial in his response without any doubt.

2. Gujarat government declared a compensation of 200,000 rupees for the people burnt in Sabarmati Express and 100,000 for the people killed in riots. This was gross misconduct of CM and betrayed his sympathy towards few and his apathy towards some. Later because of the hue and cry from citizens of India the government managed to revised the compensation to 150,000. No amount of PR activity or explanation can absolve these crimes of partiality when it was clear the worst affected were the people of riots and not the burning of the trains. Modi showed his true face with his action.

3. The partiality does not end here, 131 accused of Godhra train burning were charged with POTA, equating the a criminal act by act of terrorism and waging war against nation. POTA was thrown away from the case by both Gujarat high court as well as Supreme Court of India. It was very clear that Modi was on the path of 'setting an example'. But his 'professional and efficient administration' did not do the same with any accused of riots. This was clearly double standard adopted by Gujarat administration, the responsibility of which does go to Narendra Modi.

4. In response to the Godhra carnage, VHP the 'pacifism' and 'kind heart' of whose is known to every one called for Gujarat Bandh which was supported by Modi. The Bandh actually acted as fuel for the riots in the days to come. It clearly allowed people conspire, group and 'vent their anger' against innocent civilians. Why Mr. Narendra Modi, did not behave with more prudence and competence and with his all influence on VHP requested them to cancel the bandh.

5. Many mosques and dargahs were destroyed in riots, restoration of these were serious questions. The tomb of the eighteenth century saint, Wali Gujarati was leveled and paved over by road, the following day by the council. As these shrines were destroyed in riots Gujarat government had every responsibility to help in the restoration but the government actually tried to go away from citing that construction of religious places is not under the responsibility of state government and when directed by Gujarat High Court to do so, they appealed against the judgement in Supreme Court which reminded Gujarat government that restoration of damaged religious places, is not act of 'appeasement' as BJP likes to put it, rather it is responsibility of state government to do so. I think shying away from this responsibility and showing apathy towards Muslims in a situation where they felt most insecure, was gross breach of trust of the whole community.

6. The carnage left many people homeless and as the pogrom progressed these internal refugee numbers swell. . The official number of internally displaced people was 1.09 lakh and unofficial accounts said, it was 2.5 lakhs. These displace people were living in 101 relief camps set up by Muslim community with the help of NGOs and assisted by State government. Not even a single camp was set up by state government. Even worse, NGOs and camp organizers allege that about 100 such relief camps, were never recognized by the state government for the assistance. It was duty of Narendra Modi to assuage the pain of the people by proper rehabilitation, compensation and moral support. But he looked the other way and tried to find ways to circumvent his duty.

7. BJP and Modi supporters have always defended Modi from criticism of national NGOs and have many times labled them as being pro Congress and biased towards them, many human right activists are branded as paid by congress, by general BJP sympathizers. So, lets leave national NGOs and Human Right Organization and go to the international organizations which cannot come under the mighty influence of Congress. Among-st the most respected international organizations for Human Rights is Human Rights Watch (HRW) and it produced in depth report on the 2002 riots and criticized the state government, state police, BJP, VHP and RSS. The report can be found at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india/. The HRW published follow up report ten years later http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/02/24/india-decade-gujarat-justice-incomplete, which accused state government of taking different stands on crimes of Godhra and aftermath of Godhra. Gujarat government received similar harsh criticism from Amnesy International as well.

8. On the top of everything, sting of operation of Tahelka, conducted by Ashish Khetan explained the riots bit by bit by the criminals themselves. Based on Tahelka tapes Maya Kondnani was sentenced to 28 years in prison in a Naroda massacre. One should not forget that she was women and child development minister in Modi government. In her judgement, Hon'bl Justice Geeta Johri said that she received help of government and efforts were made to avoid her name appearing on list of accused. It was also noted by Hon'bl court that she was favored by investigating team before SIT. Court also criticized police for not policing in riots and deliberately conducting poor investigations.

Tahelka sting operation was otherwise very carefully overlooked by Modi and his administration. Investigative agencies with such huge amount of information and unforced confessions failed to bring about strong cases against criminals, and against Modi. I can accept that people in the tape may have over stated or boasted about the scale of their actions but conformity of information, independently coming out from different people was a strong evidence of their involvement and complicity of Modi in the violence. This was gross failure on the part of Modi.

A lot of time has passed, more than eleven years since the carnage began, it is said, 'time heals everything'. BJP has argued that Congress has successfully seeded idea of Modi and BJP being anti Muslim in the minds of Muslims. I accept there exist a serious effort from Congress to paint BJP and Modi as being pro Hindutva and anti Muslim but it is absolutely not true to say that Musims have just accepted the Congress's narrative without their own cognitive assessment. Specially, Modi being anti Muslim is widely accepted among st Muslim community quite independently and across the various factions of the community. Modi being a mature politician with all his PR activities have failed to gain considerable acceptance with Muslims. There exist a serious question, why after more than eleven years of massacre, he failed to get support of Muslims. The answer for that lies in his character which never allowed to him to go to the Muslims. His approach towards Muslim community does not go hand in hand with his trait of hard line hindutva leader and may be this trait of him is dearer to him than the community of Muslim itself.

I have lead my argument through facts and very strong established evidences, I have refrained from mentioning anything which is contentious, for example the comment of 'action and reaction', even Mr. Vajpayee's comment about 'Raj Dharma'. These are my reasons to believe that Narendra Modi behaved in most unprofessional way in handling the riots, he failed to give Muslim assurances in similar ways he gave to others, he supported activities which proved to be detrimental for the peace and harmony of the state, he carefully sidelined many of his duty.

Mr. Ranjnath Singh and Sri Sri Ravishankar, can always say that Muslims should forget about 2002 because its very easy for them to say as no one from their family have been burnt, hacked, raped or looted. These people should restrain their tongues as they are public figures, their comment hurt many who are still denied justice.

(Habib Siddiqui works in Doha, he can be reached at habib872@gmail.com)

By Mohammad Sajjad, TwoCircles.net,

In the post-independent India, more specifically in Bihar, educational institutions emerged more because of private initiatives, often by landlord politicians. Subsequently, these High Schools and Colleges were aided by the provincial government, and finally taken over by the government. These institutions often recruited employees along caste-lines; these employees also acted as electoral resource persons and "booth-managers" of the landlord politicians.

A look at history reveals that very few Muslim landlord politicians ventured to this exercise, despite the Constitutional facilities under Articles 29 and 30.
The Waqf resources fell victim of gross mismanagement and even appalling irregularities, became known more for corruption, fake-sales of landed properties, and many other ills. [For more on this aspect see my forthcoming book Contesting Colonialism and Separatism: Muslims of Muzaffarpur, Bihar, since 1857].

Syed Tafazzul Karim (1886-1964) however stands apart as a highly inspiring figure. Born in Nagpur, son of Syed Abdul Wahab Husaini, an army man, who shifted to Cuttack, Tafazzul Karim was educated in the Ravenshaw College, but later shifted to enterprising business of leather dying, then became contractor, and subsequently emerged as film distributor and Cinema Hall Entrepreneur with chains of Cinema Halls in Jamalpur, Monghyr, Darjeeling, Asansol, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur (Tatanagar).

In 1928, Tafazzul Karim settled in Jamshedpur where he constructed three Cinema Halls, viz. the Jamshedpur, the Star and the Karim Talkies.

He adopted the madrasa attached with the Gaushala Masjid of Jamshedpur and fenced and renovated the Sakchi Qabristan of Jamshedpur, besides donating Rs 1000/- for a High School in Kharagpur.

In 1945, he created a Trust, the Karimiya Trust, which started an elementary school, High School and in 1961, the Karim City College. The earnings of the Cinema Halls were earmarked for the Trust. Indeed a unique way of financial basis for an educational mission! While supervising the construction of these buildings he also worked as labourer. Growing from strength to strength, the Karim City College, added post graduate courses, B.Ed courses, LLB (now abandoned, which probably needs revival), and more recently graduate courses in Computer Science and Masscommunication. It has recently added one more campus for itself in Jamshedpur.

This college has recruited quite a few Aligs as its faculty, and undoubtedly the managing qualities as well as the in terms of quality education it imparts, it must be one of the best managed Muslim minority educational institutions of India.

In the horrific riots of 1964, Tafazzul Karim had given shelter to large number of people offering meals often co-cooked by him also.

[Inputs from Dr Fakhruddin, Alig, who teaches Economics in the Karim City College, Jamshedpur]

(Mohammad Sajjad is an Assistant Professor at the Centre of Advanced Study (CAS) in History, Aligarh Muslim University.)

Title: Highway 39: Journeys through a fractured land

Author: Sudeep Chakravarti

Publisher: Fourth Estate, Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

Publication Year: 2012

ISBN 9789350293348

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

Pages: 388 Pages

By Abdul Kalam Azad,

“Do you want an honest answer? I don’t consider myself an India”In 2002 or 2003, a first generation entrepreneur from Manipur, Neichute Doulo who was born in 1972, gives an honest answer that she doesn’t consider herself as an Indian as like as she doesn’t consider herself as an American or as a Chinese.

The book “Highway 39: Journeys through a fractured land” Published in 2012 and writer Suddep Chakravarti started working in 2008. He traveled the ‘fractured land’ through the attributes of National Highway 39, which starts from Numligarh of Assam. Numaligarh the place, which is famous for oil refining, for some of the Assamese it is the sign of economic exploitation by the Indian state as well!

In 2013, Supreme Court of India strikes down the demand of Inner Line Permit for Manipur. Why after so many years of independence, people of the fractured land want to be isolated? Why they are in a dilemma to take Look East Policy whole heartedly? What are the reasons behind?

First Prime Minister of the country Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru described Manipur as the ‘Jewel of India’. After more than half a century, why the people of that ‘Jewel’ feels alienated from the mainland India? Why the women went necked to register their agony through the slogans like “Indian Army Rape Us!” Why Irom Shormila is on indefinite hunger strike for over a decade now?

To find answer of these entire questions, perhaps Sudeep Chakravarti’s Highway 39 may be your best companion. Sudeep Chakravarti, the author of the “Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country”, a well articulated book with a narrative journalistic approach. He also authored at least three fictions. His debut novel Tin Fish is a bestselling book. He is basically a hardcore journalist. He started his career with The Asian Wall Street Journal, then held senior position in Sunday, India Today and HT Media. He has now settled in Goa and is busy in serious and long writings. His critics say that, he is now exposed to the actual ‘field’ of journalism!

Highway 39 is the result of his enthusiastic journey into the deep hinterlands of Manipur and Nagaland. This is basically a travelogue, which narrates, almost everything that matters the people of this region. He vividly describes the beauty of the region as well in his book.

Vidyarani, a sixth standard girl student was illegally detained by the Indian military and the Manipur Police to nab her parents. She was kept captive from 14th August to 18th August until her parents surrendered before the police. Sudeep Chakravarti finds out how the horrific incident changed the life of a little girl. Vidyarani fears, perhaps her parents are being tortured. She can’t speak or play with her friends any more. Sudeep remembers his own little girl child who is having a beautiful childhood!

The brutality, there is no limit in fact! The author describes in a chapter, an alleged active member of PLA (People’s Liberation Army) was given electric shocks eight times in his private parts! Rape, murder, detention, harassment are the everyday day business. In another chapter “Find a scapegoat, frame him, kill him. Then, kill some more” the author describes how a former PLA associate Sanjit was framed and killed. Sanjit was twice arrested and freed. His family insisted to distract him from his former comrade and was working in private hospital since 2006, but he was framed and killed in 2009.

Author remembers the article headline of Tehelka “Murder in Plain Sight: In Manipur death comes easily”. The police also killed a pregnant woman Rabina and had given explanation that she was killed accidently when police fired at the “fleeing youth” (Sanjit). Sudeep Chakravarti meets the family of Rabina, gets down into the pain and suffering of the family. He discovers two and half years old Russel was accompanying his mother when she was killed. Sudeep’s description is vivid and heart touching!

People allege that Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) has given licence to the armed personals to harass them, kill them and rape them. Irom Sharmila is fighting to repeal the law since long time. Government is not heading to her demand; on the other hand she is being prosecuted under the India Penal Code alleging that she trying to suicide? What an irony! The Act which was designed by the colonial government to suppress the Indians, now that Act is being used to oppressed the Indians! The Justice JS Verma committee formulated after Delhi gang rape case, recommended to repeal the black law and also suggested to make the senior official responsible for committing rape by his/her subordinate. But the government didn’t accept the recommendations for the reasons best known to the government only!

Sudeep Chakravarti not only recorded the brutality of the armed forces alone; he also shown how a parallel administration is being run by the militants in this region. The people have to pay the taxes to the militants as well to live in the society. Otherwise consequences are imaginable. He also described the fights and killing among the factions of the militant groups. Once they were comrades has become deadly enemies now. The militants are fighting each other for mere ego also!

He extensively traveled Kohima, Senapati, Imphal, Thoubal, Ukhrul, Moreh and the interior villages of those areas. He met militants, police administrators, civil administrators, victims, human rights activist, social activists and the people in general during his journey. He talked to them and tried to find out where the problem lies. He talks to the leadership of NSCN. He met Thuingaleng Muivah and discusses about their movement, development and future roadmap of Naga Movement.

He describes how the people feels alienated from the mainland India due to the inhuman atrocities by the police and military as well economic stagnation. He tries to find out the aspiration of local people, economic prosperity of this region. Geographically, this area is a wonderful place for tourism development. The beautiful lake like Loktak can attract thousands of tourists. But it is not being possible. In a chapter “Who told you this is a tourist place?” the author ironically asked a young couple from Delhi who visited Imphal for the first time “How many checkpoints did you count?” The young lady answered “I lost count after five”. In this scenario can we expect tourism development? Another important point is that this place is neighbouring to international border of Myanmar. Moreh, the last point of Highway 39 is a business centre. But it is not developed as it can be expected.

At the conclusion, two statements of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru are wondering in my mind. First statement I have shared in the very beginning of the discussion, he termed Manipur as ‘Jewel of India”. After so many years of oppression, subjugation and exploitation perhaps Indian state couldn’t identify that “Jewel”. God knows how many years they will take to at least understand that the people living in that “Jewel” are also human being! They have human right and deserve a life with dignity! And the second statement of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is on Naga movement, he said “it would be a matter of few days for the Indian armed forces to crush the Nagas”. But after 60 years of this statement Nagas are still fighting for their rights and dignity.

I would recommend the book as a must read, especially for those who are working or intended to work in the field of peace and conflict resolution and ethnicity as well.

(Abdul Kalam Azad is currently doing Masters of Arts in Social Work with specialisation in Community Organisation and Development Practices from prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Before joining TISS, he was working as a Branch Manager with Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, a leading Microfinance Company in India.)

By Vijay Naik, IANS,

On a recent visit to Nairobi, I along with my wife visited Westgate, an upscale mall thronged by scores of shoppers, most of them foreign tourists. The visit was provoked by an attractive full page advertisement in the in-flight magazine, The Traveller Msafiri, distributed by Kenya Airways. The full-page advertisement described the mall as a ''world class shopping destination" and boasted that it is open seven days a week with ample parking and 24-hour security.

The mall has over 80 stores of some of the best known brands. As we entered the mall, I took out my camera to take a few snaps of the exquisite interiors when suddenly a security guard sprang up and prevented me from taking pictures. Although, disappointed a bit, I was happy that the security of the mall was alert. The mall does not have armed pickets. Shoppers were coming in droves.

Westgate is surrounded by a number of eateries which serve Kenyan, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese food. This place is full of students and Indians. With an attack on Westgate, a number of Nakumatt chain of malls owned and managed by the Indian expatriate Atul Shah stand exposed to terror attacks, unless timely protection is provided to them.

That Somalia's Al Shabab militia has owned up responsibility for the attack indicates what is in store for the newly elected government of President Ohuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. Both continue to face criminal charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for fomenting violence in general elections held in 2007. Uhuru Kenyatta has rejected the jurisdiction of the court and refused to appear before it. What can be termed as an expression of tacit support, the African Union has expressed the view that they could be tried within the country.

As we landed in Nairobi, the only road connecting the airport with the capital was jam packed, as a result of which the journey to our hotel which should have taken merely 45 minutes took three hours. On way, one could see, hundreds of young people wandering aimlessly or chatting at various corners. A source in Nairobi told us that hundreds of Somali youth sneak in to Kenya daily in search of jobs, many of whom later join Al Shabaab. A number of cells of this organization work secretly in Kenya and get funds from unknown sources. This poses a duel challenge for President Kenyatta's government. First, the challenge of providing jobs to the burgeoning young population and second, to protect the country from terrorist attacks which can bring economic activity to a halt.

In an article titled ''The time bomb that is millions of jobless youth", published in a popular tabloid of Nairobi, The Standard of June, 8, 2013, Moses Michira said: ''Kenyan youths are now facing a serious unemployment time bomb. The country's number of jobless youth stands at 2.3 million. Church leaders have warned this 'demographic trap' could see more crime, militant gangs, terrorism, labor unrest and political violence. "

He said that social scientists have warned that the "youth bulge", the large number of people nearing adulthood notable in demographic charts, presents the biggest hurdle in tackling violent crimes. According to UNDP, ''Every year, another 500,000 young Kenyans enter job markets from schools, colleges and universities. ''

Thus the challenge on this front remains formidable for President Kenyatta. Come night, and you are warned not to venture alone on the streets of Nairobi, lest you may become victim of soaring crime.

With the increase in terrorist activities, Kenya's major foreign exchange earner, tourism, might face an enormous challenge. As for most of the international tourists, the first leg of journey begins with Nairobi, then to the Great Rift Valley, to Amboseli and Naivasha. It ends with a visit to the world famous game park, Maasai Mara. This traffic may shift to neighboring Tanzania, which has breathtaking sights, such as Mount Kilimanjaro and the equally famous Serengeti National Park.

Borders of Kenya have become vulnerable to constant attacks by Al Shabaab militia since 2011. An article in the Daily Nation of Nairobi, by a columnist Muchemi Wachira, notes that before the outbreak of the attacks, Al Shabaab had vowed to take revenge against the "occupation" of their country by the Kenyan military, which has so far managed to take over Kismayu (a port town in Somalia). They had sworn that, once the port, which served as the main outlet for their smuggled goods from Middle East and Asia, is taken over by the KDF (Kenyan Defence Forces), they (Al Shabaab) would turn Kenya into a lawless state - starting with the border town of Garissa in north western Kenya.''

Due to persistent attacks by the Al Shabaab militia, Garissa has since become a ghost town, as most of the population has deserted it. Kenya shares a 700 km border with Somalia, which has become quite porous, although there are only three designated entry points at Liboi, Wajir and Mandera. The question that Wachira has posed is, as to why the Kenyan security forces have failed to contain Al Shabaab. Or are they losing the war to the terrorists? This needs an answer after the ghastly attack on Westgate.

(Vijay Naik is a senior Indian journalist. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at vijay.p.naik@gmail.com)

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,

It would not be wholly appropriate to state that the Jatland of western Uttar Pradesh always remained free of communal violence and that everything was hunky-dory till the recent riots. Some media analyses created confusion; so things should be seen in proper light.At the same time, it may be true that perhaps never before the riots spread so fast in the rural areas of Jat heartland as this time.

One of the most infamous communal riots took place on August 13, 1980, that is on the Eid day, when police opened fire on 50,000 strong namazis in the Eidgah after a pig strayed inside it. More than 100 people died in firing and stampede. The violence continued till November in which over 400 people were officially killed, while unofficial toll was put at 2,500.

Though initially Muslims did retaliate on Dalits as the pig belonged to the nearby slum the riots took a Hindu Muslim turn. The Provincial Armed Contabulary (PAC), a special police force of the state which has sizeable Jat representation, earned a lot of notoriety for its role in the riots.

As the riots took place after the return to power of Indira Gandhi in January the same year to be followed soon by the election of V P Singh as the new chief minister it was then interpreted by the media-pundits that the collapse of Muslim-Jat political alliance woven by the then Bharatiya Lok Dal leader, Charan Singh, might have aggravated the situation. While Jats remained loyal to Charan Singh––who served as the prime minister of the country between July and December 1979––Muslim votes largely shifted to Indira Gandhi-led Congress in the Lok Sabha poll held at the fag end of 1979.

The Moradabad riots was followed by a series of incidents of communal violence in western UP, the most prominent one in Aligarh, which had in fact witnessed riots in 1978 and 1979, when the Jat leader, Charan Singh, was the Home Minister of the country. The May 1979 violence in Aligarh was different because it took place on Aligarh Muslim University campus area.

The situation in west UP remained tense and uneasy almost throughout 1980s. In May 1987 it was the turn of Meerut to explode. The Hashimpura and Maliana (both in Meerut) massacres of Muslims by PAC are still fresh in the mind of many people. In Hashimpura alone 42 Muslim youths were picked up during curfew hours, taken to a remote place and shot dead by PAC. Their bodies were then thrown into a canal. Almost similar was the case in Maliana.

As these places were only a few kilometres away from the outer boundary of the national capital the walled city area of Delhi too witnessed communal tension and clashes then.

Incidentally, the BJP had only two MPs all over the country in 1987 yet the Jatland saw horrible incident of riots.

Moradabad, Aligarh and the adjoining areas have a history of communal trouble even in 19th century and after partition. So to say that they were oasis of peace would be an exaggeration.
Ironically, it was during the same V P Singh era in late 1980s that a new alliance of MAJGAR was floated. The acronym stood for Muslim, Ahir (Yadav), Jat, Gujjar and Rajput. This alliance played a key role to make V P Singh the prime minister in late 1989. MAJGAR withered away after the implementation of Mandal Commission in August 1990 and subsequent developments, which led to the collapse of the V P Singh government.

Jat-Muslim relationships have come under strain in the past with both the communities voting for different parties, especially during the Ram Janambhoomi movement years. What is ironical is that the region witnessed more big communal violence in early and mid-1980s when the BJP was weakest and much less in immediate pre- and post-Babri Masjid demolition years when the saffron party was really strong. Aligarh, however, remained a troubled spot after Babri Masjid demolition too while clashes and tension were reported in Moradabad, Agra etc. But then they were not very big riots.

In spite of communal violence in several western UP towns in 1980s the Jat-Muslim relationship in many rural areas remained more or less cordial, though at times attempts were made to disturb it. They both have a sizeable population in the region.

However, what is different this time is that those interested in vitiating the situation in the rural areas had succeeded.

Political contradictions notwithstanding, there are many who see a ray of hope of situation fast returning to normalcy. If the region could remain largely peaceful after the demolition of Babri Masjid––in spite of such a bloody 1980s––it can be hoped that sanity may soon return. But then that is possible only when the vested interests are kept away.

By Irfan Engineer

Year after year there are major riots in the country. Yet the UPA is sitting over Communal and targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill! How many lives must be lost before the UPA Govt. wakes up to the reality that special situations require special laws? There have been more than 40,000 casualties since the year 1950 in Hindu-Muslim riots alone. Yet, hardly any foot soldier has been punished and the conspirators, abettors and orchestrators of the riots climb up the political ladder and become ministers and chief ministers instead of finding them behind bars.

When security of all Indians is threatened through bomb blasts, the response of the state is to immediately come with special laws like TADA, POTA and UAPA. Security forces are given free hand to target innocent members of minority communities with impunity under protection of laws like Disturbed Areas Act and AFSPA. When women are sexually assaulted, the response of the state is to issue an ordinance (and rightly so), which if implemented in right spirit, could ensure that offenders would be brought to justice. However, when security of minorities is under threat, they are advised to behave better and forget the incident in the interest of “national integration” and “peace”. Poor relief for survivors of riots, negligible compensation to a few survivors, reluctance to bring riot entrepreneurs to justice, and worsening condition of riot survivors encourages the riot entrepreneurs to orchestrate, plan and execute even larger and more vicious riots. Riot entrepreneurs are acquiring more and more capability to inflict larger casualty in shorter duration, whether or not they are in power. Lack of will to legislate a special law to ensure access to justice and right to reparations for riot survivors is viewed by the riot entrepreneurs as an enabling environment to orchestrate riots and a politically desirable goal.

Last year, (in the year 2012) the country witnessed major riots in Bodo areas of Assam state, UP witnessed 9 riots – Kosi Kalan and Pratapgarh (both in Mathura), two in Gaziabad, Sitapur, Bareilly, two in Faizabad and Bijnor. Maharashtra witnessed communal riots in Pachora, Buldhana, Raver (Jalgaon) and Akot. In Andhra Pradesh, communal riots occurred in Sangareddy and Hyderabad. In Gujarat, communal clashes broke out in Vadodra and Damnagar (Amreli). This year too had witnessed several riots in Dhule (Maharashtra), Nawada (Bihar) Kishtwar (Jammu), UP, and other states. Given the election year, the riots are becoming more frequent and larger in scale with the Kishtwar and Muzaffarnagar acquiring national attention. Every election, a few members of minority communities must be killed to ensure a few more seats for communal parties. On the one hand Narendra Modi is pretending to confine his election campaign supposedly on the issue of development and good governance, while the other fraternal organisations of the Sangh Parivar like VHP are busy looking for issues to polarize the electorate and to politically mobilize the diverse Hindu communities and attempt to convert them into a political community and vote bank. The 84 kosi parikrama during election time when there was no religious tradition by the VHP is a case in point. Sangh Parivar has used communal violence as a policy instrument to widen its base and strengthen its organisation.

The Muzaffarnagar Riots

According to the Times of India (TOI) dated 17/9/13, on August 27, there was a minor scuffle in Kawaal village of Muzaffarnagar between Shahnawaz and Gaurav over crossing of motorbike and bicycle, when Shahnawaz allegedly slapped Gaurav. Gaurav mobilized his accomplices and killed Shahnawaz. People witnessing the incident caught hold of Sachin and Gaurav among those involved in killing Shahnawaz and they were in turn beaten to death. The version of Jats as reported in the TOI was that locals gathered during the incident and in the melee some Muslim by mistake stabbed Shahnawaz. The Jat version does not seem very credible, but it is for the police to investigate, if at all they investigate impartially and thoroughly without any fear or favour.

A fake video of some other incident which the police say was recorded two years ago in Pakistan was circulated through social networking sites and mobile phones purporting it to be video of the incident of killing Gaurav and Sachin. The fake video allegedly circulated by BJP MLAs seemed to have evoked a lot of revulsion and consequent urge to take revenge. Interestingly, Jats were not first to react to the incident. It was the Sainis who traditionally are supporters of BJP, took lead in reacting to the killing of Gaurav and Sachin and mobilised the Jats. A BSP leader and other politicians mobilized Muslims for a meeting on 30th August. Four BJP MLAs organised Jat Mahapanchayat. The Mahapanchayat was attended by thousands of Jats armed with guns, swords and other lethal weapons in spite of ban on assembly. How the police allowed them to assemble with arms in spite of orders prohibiting assembly is for the police to explain. In all three Mahapanchayats were organised and inciting speeches were given. Allegedly provocative slogans were in the air during the Jat Mahapanchayats and one of them reportedly were “Musalman ke do hi sthan – Pakistan ya qabristan”. The rest is history as they say.

Several houses burnt, more than 40,000 in relief camps, 43 killed according to affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by the UP Govt. One TOI report dated 15-9-13 quoted doctors conducting post mortem on 53 bodies were shocked by the brutality with which the murders were carried out, including mutation of female genitals. The web edition of the Daily Bhaskar (Anwar & Khan, 2013) reports “Scores of women, including minor girls, were raped, gang-raped and sexually assaulted in Lisarh, Lank, Bahawadi, Hasanpur, Mohammadpur, Baghpat and many other small villages of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Panipat districts of Uttar Pradesh. The rape took place when the people were leaving their villages to save their lives and honour, say victims.” The police, as usual, were mute spectators while all the violence and burning was happening, even as the survivors were desperately crying for help. This is criminal negligence on the part of the police and administration in allowing the Jat Mahapanchayats and inciting speeches. The BJP leaders used the three murders over an inconsequential issue to incite communal passions and violence for electoral gains and the Samajwadi Party seems to have played along to gain electorally too.

Concerns and issues

The rioters usually act on a doctrine of collective culpability of the community in any wrongdoing by any member of the “other” community. They have borrowed this doctrine of primitive times when any violation of taboo by any member of the rival tribe could be attributed to every member of that tribe in the nature of collective guilt and could be avenged by collectively punishing entire tribe or any member of the tribe. It is a primitive and barbarous way of thinking to impute guilt to someone for the action of another. Collectives do not have moral faults, since they don’t make moral choices and cannot be ascribed moral responsibility. Thus every member of Muslim community is culpable for the perceived offence allegedly committed by any of them, even in the distant past – namely demolition of Hindu temples. A collective punishment in the form of communal riots is handed down in order to deepen and polarize communal identities within members of both communities. With the polarization, they would be permanently in conflict with each other and larger numbers of the majority community could be mobilized more easily in this “war”. When will communal forces overcome this primitive instinct?

Collective Punishments, cultural nationalism and authoritarian state

Collective punishments are calculatedly inflicted by communal forces to obliterate the multiple identities within every individual that makes her unique. For example, this author is a Gujarati ashraf,/em> Muslim born in and domicile of Maharashtra, a male, Indian, advocate, influenced by liberal left ideology, loving books etc. etc. Individuals make sense of their world through these identities. They sometimes consciously transcend some of these primordial and acquired identities. It is on this edifice of individual having multiple identities that the concept of citizenship is based. Citizens are invested with liberties and rights that enable them to live these multiple identities and still be treated equally disregarding their identities and ideologies that they chose to follow, so long as they are not in conflict with laws of the land. The communal forces target particular community to make given primordial identity salient in the individual marginalizing others. For example, if Muslims are targeted only because of their religion, this author’s all other identities (like Gujarati, domicile of Maharashtra, male, ashraf, following liberal left ideology and book loving) become inconsequential except the fact that he is Muslim, which otherwise may not be salient in him. However, large scale violence does not only obliterate multiple identities within the targeted community. It marginalizes multiple identities even within the members of the community on whose behalf the violence is perpetrated, and brings to salience mirror identity within them for fear of violent reprisals.

By targeting Muslim community, communal forces want to make Hindu identity salient within members of their community, and in the process, marginalizing say for example caste, regional, ethnic, gender, professional, neighbourhood based and hobby based identities. Through this process, the religious Hindu is converted into a political Hindu requiring authoritarian cultural state privileging certain religion and suppressing others. Thus Jats and Muslims, which communities shared the regional culture, dialect, traditions, value systems, now fear each other. It is because of these shared culture and traditions that Charan Singh could politically mobilise the two communities together to vote for his party RLD. The Muzaffarnagar riots have divided the two communities Jat Muslims and Jat Hindus deepening communal identities within them and marginalizing their shared regional and caste identity. The Jat Muslims will now have to live with, and become more of “Muslims” seeking communal solidarity of the Syeds and Pathans of the region and likewise Jats will have to seek communal solidarity, unity and identity with the Sainis and the Hindu upper castes. How this process plays out in future remains to be seen. However, this process leaves space only for communal forces on both sides to flourish – RSS and Sangh Parivar, including the BJP in an election year on one hand and Majlises, Jamiats and Mushawarats on the other hand, who become arbiters of Muslim votes. The Hindu Jats will now be subjected to communal propaganda like “all terrorists are Muslims”, that “Muslims are pro-Pakistanis and anti-nationals” etc.

Spread of communalism in rural areas

Even if theatre of communal riots had already shifted to rural areas from urban areas, for example in Bhagalpur, Nellie, Gujarat and BTAD, they were more of extension of urban based conflict. However, the theatre of violence this time in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Meerut is predominantly rural. The large scale displacement cause by the violence in Muzaffarnagar is unprecedented for UP with survivors stating they will never be able to return to their villages again. This is a dangerous and worrisome trend. The brutality reflects the revulsion caused by the circulation of fake video and the likelihood of hatred that will be premised on the revulsion on long term basis unless there is effective intervention strategy from secular and democratic forces to reconcile the communities.

Women’s bodies continue to be the battleground on which communal violence played out. The Jat Mahapanchayats emerge as strengthened and hegemonic force. What does this mean for Jat women, already facing several Talibani restrictions like the one on possession of mobile phones, restrictions on their dresses, choice of male friends and the timings and localities in which the restrictions would operate. The male-female ratio is highly skewed and women excluded from inheritance in practice. Women’s organizations were struggling for equality and inclusion. Strengthening of Jat Mahapanchayats and Majlises, Jamiats and Mushawarats would push the achievement of the struggle of these women’s organisations how many years behind is to be seen. There are already reports of women being pulled out of educational institutions, particularly Muslim girls against their desires due to communalization and consequent security issues for women. The riots were according to one report, started with sexual harassment of a woman, though the TOI report dated 17-9-13 denies any such sexual harassment.

How far the caste based voting pattern is affected and how far Hindu votes consolidate across all castes in UP and outside the state is another issue of concern. For communal polarization would help poll campaigners for Modi. In this communally charged atmosphere, the voters suspend their judgments even more and prone be misled by Modi’s campaign managers’ exaggerated and even false claims. Better performance in UP for BJP is crucial for Modi’s PM ambitions. BJP is the biggest beneficiary of the Muzaffarnagar riots making itself popular among the Jats. BJP is incessantly attacking Samajwadi Party, hoping to displace BSP as the principal opposition party. However, that chance seems too too remote.

For the secular and democratic forces, the main concern is ensuring organisation of relief camps, that compensation reaches the victims, reconciliation and rehabilitation and peace with justice. Secular democratic forces have learnt to force the Govt. to bring the guilty to justice. Exposing the design of communal forces and making people of India accept individual liberties, equality and social justice for all citizens of India irrespective of their religion is urgent priority. To ensure justice, we will have to demand with renewed vigour legislation on Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill be enacted immediately.

--
Irfan Engineer is associated with Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.

By Shamsul Islam,

Last week ended in the horrible bloodshed of innocent people in two separate and faraway parts of the world, Nairobi and Peshawar, the blood of innocent children, women and men was spilled for none of their fault. However, in both the carnages, the perpetrators came from organizations linked to Talibaan and Al-Qaeda. They claim to represent true Islam and avenge the wrongs done to Muslims by the West and its allies.

Peshawar in Pakistan is a historic city where stands one of the oldest churches in the (Indian) sub-continent, All Saints Anglican Church. This historic Church built in 1883 inside the Kohati Gate within the walled city of Peshawar is part of the Parish of the Church of Pakistan. It is an impressive and architecturally unique place of worship with minarets and a dome that bears a striking synthesis of Saracenic architecture; a combination of Mughal & British designs.

This historic Church draws large number of worshippers and tourists on every Sunday when prayer is held. On September 22, 2013 when hundreds of worshippers were coming out of the Church two suicide bombers exploded bombs strapped to their bodies. The explosions instantly killed around 80 worshippers and onlookers including 37 women & 7 children and more than 150 people were wounded, most of them critically. It may raise the death toll to more than 100.

The group, Jandullah (Soldiers of God), a terrorist group once financed by Pakistan Army and linked to Pakistani Taliban admitted that it carried out the bombing. Ahmad Marwat, the Jundullah spokesman said that his organization “carried out the suicide bombings at Peshawar church,” and “will continue to strike foreigners and non-Muslims until drone attacks stop.”

According to press reports large number of friends and relatives of victims gathered outside the Church and denounced the Pakistan government for not being able to control terrorist activities in the country. Protests were held in all major cities of Pakistan in which thousands participated.

At Nairobi, capital of Kenya and the largest city in the country was targetted by another terrorist group Al-Shabab (the Youth) based in Somalia and linked to Al-Qaeda again. A group of well-armed terrorists entered a popular upscale shopping mall on Saturday (September 21, 2013) afternoon throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons. Till Sunday, more than 70 innocent visitors to the mall had been killed and around 200 people had been injured. It is believed that a large number of visitors to the mall were under the captivity of the armed bandits so number of casualties is bound to rise. Shockingly, at the time of attack a programme focussed on children was being held and the death toll of children is feared to be very high. The victims were not only Kenyans. French, Dutch, South African, Indian, Australian, British and Canadian visitors also lost lives. Shedding of blood of innocent children, male and females continued through Monday.

Prominent Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor who was attending a literary festival in Nairobi and visiting the mall too became victim of this terrorist attack and died on the spot. His poetry represented African voice against western imperialism, its stooges in Africa and militarism. He symbolized fight against apartheid.

According to press reports Al-Shabab defended this gruesome carnage holding that it was carried out the attack in response to Kenyan military operations against Muslims in Somalia.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called it “an absolutely sickening and despicable attack of appalling brutality”. US President Barack Obama was quick to call Kenyan President Kenyatta to express condolences and promised “US support for Kenya's efforts to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice”.

These gestures are welcome but we need to ask them: Is not it a fact that West created Talibaan and helped Al-Qaeda to grow in face of rising secular challenge to the Western exploitation and hegemony in areas populated by Muslims in 1970s. The Jihadi Islam was created and nurtured by the Western intelligence agencies to counter socialist and nationalist movements in ‘Islamic world’.[i] If predecessors of David Cameron & Barack Obama had not created these monsters and helped them to grow world could be a better place today. The Western hypocrisy continues even today. Alex Lantier writing on World Socialist Web Site on September 23, 2013 said, “The horror of the Westgate attack underscores the criminal character of the support offered by the United States government and its allies to Al Qaeda-linked opposition militias in Syria. These forces have carried out hundreds of terrorist attacks in that country, according to US officials, killing large numbers of innocent civilians”.

However, despite this de-humanised and questionable parentage, the criminals of Jandullah and Al-Shabab cannot be absolved of their diabolical crimes against humanity. These gangs of criminals defend their acts arguing that they are fighting to ‘Save Islam/Muslims’ from Christian/non-Muslim adversaries. Their grouse is that in the name of fighting terrorism the West is targeting all Muslims and see what these self-appointed guardians of Islam are doing. They are killing and maiming innocent people who have nothing to do with rulers of any creed or hue. Thus there is no difference between these two.

They want to kill non-Muslims. It’s idiotic to think that bombs and bullets are programmed to first verify from the victims his/her religion before striking. They forget that on this earth almost everywhere people professing different religions stay and work together. Both at Peshawar and Nairobi they have put to death number of Muslims.

And how do they justify killing of a renowned atheist poet in Nairobi? He did not believe in Christian God or any other God. The fact is that they choose soft targets; the common people. By such acts these terrorists do not weaken the West but help the latter to behave in a more draconian manner.

These terrorist swear by the name of Allah, the God. We are told that Allah loves children but these soldiers of Allah have no remorse in killing children. These terrorists believe that fight is between Muslims & others. What about persons like Noam Chomsky (and millions others like him) who have spent life time in opposing West’s criminal designs. And what about Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey etc. who have worked for generations as foot-soldiers of the West? The fight against Western Imperialism requires unity of all suffering people. By indulging in mindless theocratic violence these Jihadi terrorists are only further dividing the people. They are the best friends of the West.

For Jihaadi terrorists, it is difficult to comprehend that human civilization did not start with the advent of Islam. It developed through millions of years. There were conflicts but synthesis was the rule and Islam too developed as synthesis of many cultures and religions. Also, no religion can claim that its followers make a monolithic whole. Islam versus others or any similar call by any religion is a hoax propagated by all kinds of Fascists. May God give such elements some common sense to understand complexity of human society!

This spate of theocratic violence against common people once again reminds us of prophetic words of Dr John Joseph, Bishop of Faisalabad (Jhang) in Pakistan. He shot himself to death on May 6, 1998, while leading a protest march against Blasphemy Laws in the Sahiwal (Montgomery) town of Pakistan. Six days before he sacrificed his life at the altar of bigotry being indulged in the name of Islam in Pakistan, Bishop John Joseph wrote an open letter to his friends world over. In his letter, the Bishop underlined the fact that religious bigotry is created and nourished by the rulers but once it is able to settle down it turns into a monster capable of consuming the creators. But the heaviest price is paid by common people. He warned that we should not believe that blood-thirsty cult of religious violence will go away by itself or rulers who created and fanned it would like to see its end. He pleaded that “each one of us has to get involved and play our role”. We have not learnt any lesson from Dr. John Joseph’s martyrdom. Unfortunately, we the commoners have become mere spectators. If we wish to challenge the theocratic violence we need to become activists to unmask the criminals who spill blood in the name of religion.

--

Shamsul Islam is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science of Satyawati College, University of Delhi.

By TCN News,

Kandhamal justice and Karnataka rising persecution of Christians raised; call for SC rights to Dalit Christians.

[The following is the text of the Statement by All India Christian Council Secretary General Dr. John Dayal in the meeting of the National Integration Council, held on 23rd September 2013 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi and presided over by the Prime Minister, Dr. Man Mohan Singh. Dr. Dayal called for the enactment of a Communal and Targetted Violence Prevention Act. He also called for fresh investigation and trial of murder cases in Kandhamal in 2008, and Scheduled Caste rights for Dalit Christians. Dr. Dayal brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and the NIC the rising trend of persecution of Christians in the rural areas of Karnataka in recent months].

Honourable Prime Minister, Honourable Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Honourable Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and other Members.

Greetings from my community and my organisation, the All India Christian Council, which was founded in 1998 in the wake of large-scale persecution of our community in several parts of the community at the hands of misguided fringe elements of a militant right wing fundamentalist and hyper-nationalist organisation that seeks to convert this secular democracy into some sort of a mono culture theocracy.

Thank you, Prime Minister, Sir, for convening this meeting, but after such a long gap. A meeting of the NIC, of course, is not a panacea for the violence against, and general persecution of, religious minorities, Dalits, Tribals and other marginalised people. But frequent meetings – at least once a year would be the bare minimum – would send a signal to the victim groups that the nation at large, present here in the presence of the leaders of the Union and State governments, had not forgotten them, was deeply concerned about them, and was determined to end their trauma and restore them to a life of peace and happiness.

In recent days, I have once again witnessed the aftermath of targetted mass violence. I was part of a Fact Finding group organised by the Centre for Policy Analysis, which a week ago visited Muzaffarnagar, and in particular its villages, make-shift refugee camps, burnt out mosques and its despairing people. Earlier, at a People’s Tribunal in Bangalore, victims and witnesses told us of the widespread persecution of Christians in the villages of Karnataka since 2008, attacks on small and home churches and the molestation of women, which was continuing.

Muzaffarnagar and Kandhamal, Odisha, in 2008 have striking parallels – the spread of violence to the villages through a sustained hate campaign carried out by extremist political vested interest, and the involvement of politicians.

Anti-Christian violence is also visible in Andhra, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and specially Madhya Pradesh. Karnataka is now reporting an anti Christian acts of violence every third day. In all cases, the police look on passively, or was itself complicit in the violence. Senior officers chose to remain deaf to the warnings of growing communalism and tension, and imminence of violence.

Both Kandhamal, 2008, and Muzaffarnagar, 2013, saw large scale attacks on places of religious worship in the villages. There was massive internal displacement, with village upon village purged of all presence of the minority communities. Police and governance systems were found wanting before, during and after the violence. In both cases conditions in refugee camps were dismal and inhuman. And in both cases, killers and fomenters of violence roamed about free, taming both victim and police.

Kandhamal has also seen a gross miscarriage of justice and extremely tardy and incomplete rehabilitation and reparations. In 32 of the murder cases – the total according to the survivors is more than 100 – there have been only two convictions. An MLA accused in nine of these cases and convicted in one is roaming free on bail in a highly questionable judicial decision.

It is no surprise therefore to go through the agenda of this meeting of the NIC, and learn from it that there has been a steady rise in recent years in the number of communal violence cases, and the number of dead and injured. We learn there were 640 cases of actual violence and 716 of communal tension in 2012, which left 2012 killed and 2,129 injured across the country. In the nine months of 2013, we have already seen almost 490 cases of violence and 433 cases of tension, with 152 injured. These are including the separate figures given for Assam and the North East. These figures do not reflect the cases of anti Christian violence. The police for their own reasons do not register them under the “communal” heading.

These call for urgent action. Short term response from the government and long term correctives which have still not been put into place after more than six decades of experience with communal violence need to be devised and activated,

SUGGESTIONS:

1. The long-term solution is to have a comprehensive and effective Act against Communal and Targetted Violence, which favours the victim and has a national Code to standardize the current Relief, Rehabilitation and Reparation. Impunity must end, and officials must be held accountable. I was part of the last exercise under the National Advisory Council to formulate such a Bill. I was a witness when the draft Bill was targetted and all but destroyed in the last meeting of the NIC by some States and political leaders. The Union government did not intervene at any stage to disclose its mind. Civil society feels this Bill is imperative if communal violence and its aftermath are to be averted, and victims rehabilitated with human dignity. The Bill was not against any particular community. Nor was it meant to encroach on federal values. With the protection of victim at the centre, and as the reason, of its theme and jurisdiction, Civil Society is willing to listen to governments and other stakeholders to device an acceptable version of the Communal and Targetted Violence [Relief, Rehabilitation and Reparation Bill] which is implementable and which will punish the guilty and hold police and civil officials responsible for their actions, or their failure to act.

It is also important that:

2. The guilty are arrested, including those who were part of the hate campaign by spreading rumours an false information through posters, word of mouth and social media

3. Government identify and prosecute and stop those involved in communalizing and radicalizing innocent people, specially in the villages by perverted concepts of identity formation.

4. Government Provide adequate and well equipped and well trained police with arms and communication equipment and transport in communally sensitive villages. There must be some code of postings to ensure that police are biased in favour of their own community.

5. Government ensure Rapid action police at block level

6. Government hold village panchayat leaders culpable for communal violence in their region, and hold block and district senior officers of the police and administration, similarly, responsible for the occurrence of communal violence.

7. At the state and national level, police reforms and training continue to be a work in progress, and progress is exceedingly slow. Ensure commensurate presence of minority and marginalised in police forces.

8. In Muzaffarnagar, ensure government takes over all relief camps and makes them humane with adequate security, medical relief especially for women and children including newborn babies, with adequate provisions and sanitation. The survivors must understand they are under the government’s protection and care.

9. Ensure that detailed FIRs are registered and the crimes investigated painstakingly with adequate modern forensic scientific methodology, supervised by senior police officers, and tried in special courts so that justice is swift. There must be witness protection in place.

10. Every internally displaced person must be resettled in his or her home village with a sense of security and compensated adequately to rebuild his and her home and life. If required, employment must be provided. Special care must be taken for the rehabilitation of women victims of gender violence.

11. In Karnataka and other states, ensure that violence against Home churches, Pastors and others is registered and investigated as an act of communal violence.

12. In Kandhamal, ensure fresh investigation of all murder cases by trained investigating officers, followed by fresh trials of these cases. Witness protection systems must be put into place to reassure victims and survivors. Government must also help survivors rebuild their lives, and provide jobs to those now forced to work in distant places as casual labour.

The Christian community has been distressed at the government attitude to their demand that Dalit Christians be given the same rights as are given to Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh Dalits. In affirmative action, there cannot be any discrimination on basis of religion. Government must issue an ordinance to remove Article 341 Paragraph 3 as soon as possible.

Government must also ensure an end to the so called Freedom of Religion Acts in some states which encourage extremist and fundamentalist elements to harass, torment and persecute innocent Christians.

Thank you

Dr. JOHN DAYAL

John Dayal
john.dayal@gmail.com
www.johndayal.com

By Faraz Ahmad

There is one thing I find peculiar about the BJP/Narendra Modi and his NRI supporters. These NRI variety keep lecturing us on how we should live in our country and who we should vote and choose as our leader. Of course it pleases immensely people like Narendra Modi and generally most BJP leaders when this crowd, which dominates the social media plugs for Modi, Sadly nobody seems to mind their meddling in our country.

Actually BJP has all along had a good deal of support among this NRI variety. But who are these guys, by the way? They are those who fled this country for the lure of big money and comfortable lifestyle, when we were all struggling hard here to improve our lot and our nation’s as well.

The BJP questions Muslim affinity with Pakistan and I agree with the BJP. Indian Muslims should not have any affinity with Pakistan, nor do the Pakistanis have a right to question anything happening in India and vice versa. Fair enough. Most Muslims who left their homeland to migrate, did so largely for better opportunities. It is another thing that not even a small percentage actually benefited from this migration. But once there the Jana Sangh and the BJP have been arguing that they have no business to look back and question how India is run. Nor is there any reason for the Indian Muslims to look across the border. But does this apply only to Muslims? What about all those BJP/VHP sympathisers who migrated to England and the USA in the 1960s, 70s and even later. Every Winter vacation they would come to India and flaunt their wealth, the clothes they wore, the cars they drove and the dream homes they lived in to us the poor cousins and we poor fellows would gape apologetically at them. However the BJP/Jana Sangh found never anything amoral about this. On the other hand they consistently approached them for support and ran to London and New York to set up friends of Jana Sangh/BJP in the aftermath of Emergency, as they were to be our saviours. But why?

And now again while Rajnath went dashing to the USA, Modi is anxiously awaiting the day he gets a visa for London and New York. I wonder why does it not embarrass this so-called ’Hindu nationalist’ Narendra Modi and his party the BJP, why they dont hold their heads in shame when the NRIs on social media go around lobbying for Modi. How can such a person claim to be a Hindu nationalist? And as for those NRI worthies, now that they have chosen USA or England or wherever their homeland, they should get involved and take serious interests in the politics and development of that nation, instead of looking back at India. And my advice to the countries where these people are living, be it the USA or UK or any other West European nation, all such imported citizens, if they turn back and look at their nation of origin with undue interest, be it Pakistan, or Bangladesh or an Arab land or India, all such people ought to be repatriated immediately to their nation of origin, without the riches they have acquired there. I guarantee all the Jihad there and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad would vanish in no time. But then those guys have a different agenda, they nurture such elements and outfits and these elements thrive on such nurturing. Only such elements be they there or here have no business to swear by the defence of Islam in Muslim countries or call themselves Hindu nationalists here.

--
Faraz Ahmad is a Freelance journalist with past association with several national dailies.

By Ravi M. Khanna, IANS,

It is heartening to note that at last wisdom prevailed and despite stiff opposition from the hawks in the power corridors of New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to go ahead and meet with Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This will be their first meeting as heads of government.

The hardliners are justified in their own way because Pakistan has shown no signs of taking any steps so far to ease the tension created by the situation at the Line of Control in Kashmir, there has been no progress on giving the MFN (most favoured nation) status to India and of course the Pakistani have shown no sign on speeding up the trials of the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks or on shutting up Hafiz Saeed.

The anti-talks elements are also right when they claim that India should first determine the relationship between Mr. Sharif and the Pakistani Army because Sharif may not be in a situation to deliver on his promises that involves the army. It is the same army, they contend, which removed Sharif from power during his last term. But they should also factor in the fact that General Kayani, known for his staunch attitudes towards India, will be retiring within months.

And the point is that how can an Indian leader assess the real strength and intent of a Pakistani leader without engaging him in talks. In case of Sharif, there is no doubt that he genuinely wants to improve relations with India, as he did during his last term. But last time the Kargil conflict engulfed his benign leadership and this time he has inherited a lingering legacy of the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

But India has no choice but to talk with Pakistan, because there is no such issue between the two traditional rivals that will just vanish with passage of time. All of them have to be resolved through persistently tough talks. The talks have also become a must because of a new issue on the horizon, once the US forces withdraw from Pakistan next year.

Both sides must sit on the table to convince each other that there is no need to fight a proxy war in Afghanistan and assure each other that they will not use the Afghan soil for terror attacks in each other's country. It will not be easy but there is no other way because it will not be futile and too costly for either country to open another area of conflict with the solution of the Kashmir problem still years away, if at all.

Several foreign policy experts in Pakistan have also been talking about the futility of continuing the proxy war in Afghanistan after the US departure from there creates a vacuum, saying the consequences of such a war will be devastating for regional peace. Such a conflict, they say, would be debilitating not just for Afghanistan but for Pakistan and India, and it would draw their energies in a negative direction.

India alleges that militant attacks on its diplomatic missions and citizens in Afghanistan are orchestrated by the Pakistani spy agency, the ISI. Islamabad, in turn, blames New Delhi for using its presence in Afghanistan to fund acts of terrorism on Pakistani soil, particularly in the southwestern border province of Balochistan, where Baloch militants are waging a low-level insurgency.

I believe that if both sides try to win each other's trust in Afghanistan, which is a Herculean task, it will go a long way in resolving some other issues.

Pakistan must also realize that its latest argument that it itself is the biggest victim of terrorism is no excuse for not controlling anti-Indian forces operating from its soil. India, in fact, has never negated the fact that Pakistan is a bigger victim of terror. So the situation should create a common ground for the two neighbours to cooperate in containing terrorism from wherever it originates.

Some longtime observers of India and Pakistan relations, such as Mani Shankar Aiyar, MP, believe there are enough compelling reasons for both Islamabad and Delhi to sit across the table and try to normalize relations in their own interests. Pakistan has already realized, he says, that security arrangements with third countries aimed at India are not protecting Pakistan at all and therefore Pakistan is wanting to have a more independent foreign policy, to be a frontline state in its own interest instead of being a frontline state in someone else's interest. And India, he says, ought to realize, if it has not already done so, that it can never play the role that it can on the international stage if it has the albatross of hostility with Pakistan around its neck.

However, no one expects that the New York meeting between Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif will bring any surprises, but it will definitely be a baby step in the right direction after the recent change in the government in Islamabad. After all, Sharif, who won the Pakistani election twice by including "improved relations with India" in his election agenda, will be meeting Singh for the first time. So the two leaders, at least, can break the ice and create a rapport by freely speaking with each other in Punjabi.

(Ravi M. Khanna is a former South Asia Bureau Chief of Voice of America who now free lances from New Delhi. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ravimohankhanna@gmail.com)