Equal Rights And Opportunities -(Article by Nishikant wagmare)

Equal Rights And Opportunities

By Nishikant Waghmare

05 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org

"An India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country, in whose making they have an effective voice, an India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people, an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony"
-Mahatma Gandhi.

In a country, where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, where as every day we read in news papers that " Dalits are denied right to Food: Report today's DNA Mumbai November 3, 2007 page13,I am sorry to state that every day there is some News Item or TV channel report on dalits atrocity, when we the people of India as a civil society will change our mindset and treat all human beings as equal and give them dignity.

A Nation of more than 1.15 Billion People, where Untouchables(Dalits)are treated as animals, they have no right despites policies for social inclusiveness and equality, those belonging to the upper castes are still at the top of the social order and the dalits are at the bottom of the heap, With disparity and their right to food, water, education, temple entry, many Dalit families are facing starvation in India.

Globalisation has brought nations closer. It has triggered IT revolution, racism is a new social issue the world has come to debate. Slowly the issue of caste too will become just as debatable. India will soon emerge as a formidable world economic power, applauded and celebrated, the country will also have become a subject of social auditing.

Although the practice of "Untouchability" was abolished in 1950, it remains and is very much alive in India. The caste system in India is over 2,000 years old and is tied with the religion of Hinduism, so it is not going down easy. India has one of the world's largest democracies but the "Untouchables" do not generally feel that they have been given fair treatment.

There is no nation on earth that Human beings are treated as animal due to practice of caste system. This way we cannot develop as a Nation if there is no social peace, justice and social economic. Our civil society as a whole with a problem of inequality and oppression faced by a Dalits the most vulnerable section of our society. India cannot truly prosper and progress unless these issues are addressed with justice.

Our UPA Government's Common Minimum Programme wish to give Humane Face to underprivileged people of India and better life to all citizens by 2020. . Independence India @ 60Dr.Manmohan Singh, became the first sitting Indian Prime Minister to openly acknowledge the parallel between the practice of "Untouchability" and the Crime of Apartheid you described. "Untouchability is not just Social Discrimination; it is a Blot on Humanity."

Why the upper castes are not interested in giving up caste? Because caste (jati) helps him to exploit his fellowmen better — as it has a theological sanction under the Hindu religion. If the law of the jungle is that a strong animal shall devour the weak (otherwise called laissez faire or the survival of the fittest), in the jungle of Hinduism this law has the blessings of its sacred scriptures. That is why in India wealth is getting accumulated in the bands of top 10% to 15% of the upper castes and the rest are getting pauperised. And yet there is no public debate on the merits of caste anywhere, not even among our university eggheads.

If any body raises caste issue in any "intellectual seminars" such a fellow is dubbed biased, prejudiced if not a nuisance-monger–and laughed at. Every avenue of debate–media., public platform—is in the hands of the upper castes who gained a lot by holding on to caste. So we can't expect this upper caste nation to put a dagger into its own stomach. That means the future is gloomy.

Ambedkar answered this long time ago. He said that the Hindu society was incapable of producing a Voltaire. Caste, it is claimed is being pushed into the political arena. But by claiming that caste and race are two different things (they are as every student of sociology knows - but casteism is akin to racism - and this is what is being denied by implication) the Indian anthropologists have voluntarily jumped into the political arena.

Unfortunately what Ambedkar said many years ago is still true even today.

Babasaheb was also the first person in India to tell the world that untouchability is part of the caste system. And caste is the foundation on which Hindu religion stands. So all those persons like Vivekananda, Gandhi etc., who wanted to reform Hinduism, failed because Hinduism is not amenable to reform. One cannot reform Hinduism keeping intact the caste. If you touch caste, the whole edifice of Hinduism collapses, because Hinduism is nothing but caste. Gandhi failed because he wanted to abolish untouchability keeping caste as it is. Caste is an extension of untouchability with one Hindu caste (jati) being untouchable to the other. In Karnataka, there is a sub-caste (Satanis) among Brahmins which is treated as untouchable by the rest of Brahmins –forming the apex of the caste pyramid.

Gandhi knew this but did not like to put his hand into this beehive because he knew the bees will bite him all over. He wanted to reform Hinduism without touching the privileges that caste confers on its title-holder.

Ambedkar, was the first person in India to point out these unpleasant facts. That is why he became the most hated person in India, while Gandhi was elevated as Mahatma. We leave it to history to pronounce its judgment on Untouchability, therefore, is not confined exclusively to the Untouchable (Dalits).

In India there are approximately 280 million Dalits. This means that nearly 28% of the population is Dalit. It also means that in a country, where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, one out of 4 persons is condemned to be Untouchable. "You can't do much about your family you are born into. You can do something about your own educational qualifications but you can't change your family. And if that is going to be held against people, it is going to be a long road indeed."

In general one can say that being a Brahmin means that you are more privileged. This can imply having a good education and, accordingly, a more powerful position in the society. Being born as a Dalit you will be less well off and because of less education you will have a less good job. In daily life there are a lot of consequences of being a Dalit .

United States Congressman Christopher Smith, said that for all the progress India has made over the years, it was highly regrettable that the lot of these 'untouchables' remained in such a terrible state as they continued to be victimised under the yoke of a shameful caste system.

Dalits are poor, deprived and socially backward. Poor means that they do not have access to enough food, health care, housing and/or clothing (which means that their physiological and safety needs are not fulfilled). They also do not have access to education and employment. With deprived we would like to underline the injustice they face in every days life. Officially, everybody in India has the same rights and duties, but the practice is different. Social backwardness, lack of access to food, education and health care keeps them in bondage of the upper castes.

The reason for the success of India's multicultural society is that there is no glass ceiling. Everyone, whatever his religion or language, can aspire to the topmost position. Thus, India today has a Hindu President, a Muslim Vice-President, a Sikh Prime Minister, a untouchable Chief Justice of India and a Christian as the President of the ruling Congress Party.

The human history will forever remember Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar as the emancipator if the millions of downtrodden people languishing for centuries in ignorance and all-pervasive destitution. It was Dr.Ambedkar whose singular and relentless fight against the oppression and exploitation bred by the age-old caste system and untouchability that became the source of inspiration to millions of his followers world-over and showed them the path of liberation.

"I have never claimed to be a universal leader of suffering humanity. The problem of the untouchables is quite enough for my slender strength. I do not say that other causes are not equally noble. But knowing that life is short, one can only serve one cause and I have never aspired to do more than serve the Untouchables." Bodhisattva Babasaheb Dr. B.R.Ambedkar.

I (author) would like to see in near future "My One wish in life [is] that during my Lifetime [the] Caste System from Indian society must go and all humans are treated as one." One Human family.

"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive ..." - Eleonora Duse

Create A Global Wave of Compassion!

Wisdom and compassion – The way forward!

May Peace Prevail on Earth!

With Much Love,

NISHIKANT WAGHMARE nishinirvana@yahoo.com

Director-Asia & Pacific -Airline Ambassador UN NGO

Peace Representative- The World Peace Prayer Society UN NGO

22 Rajnigandha, Juhu Scheme, Mumbai-40004,Cell: 9820228023.

www.worldpeace.org www.arlineamb.org November3, 2007.

wHY IS IT CALLED DIFFERENT NAMES IN TWO STATES?

The magnitudes, territorial extents and patterns of State sponsored violence in Gujrat2002 and Nandigram2007 may still be incomparable though, the similarities between them certainly are not to be missed:
1. The leaders openly have gone on record assuring impunity to the gangs. This became instrumental in raping, looting and killing and terrorizing people .
2 In their acts of unspeakable cruelties and gory crimes committed by these so-called cadres, they are fully exonerated by their patrons.
3.Despite the horrendous crimes committed in Gujarat and the meticulous proof of many leaders right from Modi having directly involved, Secular Institutions like Rajeev Gandhi Foundation, India Today Magazine and the leading business organizations have the least feeling of guilt in having seen Narendra Modi as the best Chief Minister capable of bringing "Development".
Similarly, leaders of CPM in Nandigram are openly advocating curbing of people's resistance in Nandigram against dispossessing of them from livelihood by forcibly setting up of a SEZ involving 19000 Ha of fertile land; this is also being done in the name of Development.
This means that Development, for these political classes is one without caring for the less privileged or even something that involves dispensing with sections of poor, minorities, dalits, etc with no more Constitutional obligation to respect human rights.
4.In both situations, intervention of concerned sections from elsewhere was attempted to be crushed by force.

Why is it that in Gujarat it is fascism, and in W.Bengal, it's called Marxism?

The Pathology Has Deeper Etiology Than What's Apparent

TEHELKA EXPOSE AND AFTER; FASCISM AND 'NORMALITY'



Business Standard

Tehelka and after

CRITICALLY INCLINED
Sadanand Menon / New Delhi November 02, 2007

Every bully is also a braggart. It was a matter
of time before architects of the 2002 Gujarat
pogroms would sing like parrots and boast of
their brutalities. That a Tehelka kind of exposé
would happen was inevitable. Enough criminal acts
had been perpetrated by enough number of people
for it to continue to remain under the wraps for
any extended length of time.

The Tehelka team did manage a convincing
orchestration of their material and its
dissemination. Their special issue, last week, is
a compelling document of infamy, packing in the
on-camera testimonies of some 20 lead players in
the Gujarat riots as well as an inspired
editorial by Tarun Tejpal. Obviously, he and his
colleagues are shaken by the evidentiary material
on tape. The editorial warning, "Read. And be
afraid," rings true. It is the voice of someone
who has seen the 'face of fascism' and got
politicised.

A few questions follow. One is, what made such a
large number of Narendra Modi acolytes come
clean, even if on spy-cam? What made them
describe so graphically the unspeakable acts they
committed? You don't find rapists or murderers
easily confessing their crimes. So, why did this
set of mob leaders feel compelled to talk?

The other question is, despite a 48-hour media
buzz, why has the exposé been unable to provoke
any mass reaction either in Gujarat or in the
rest of the country? Will anyone be punished?

Some explanations can be attempted. One is based
on Jean-Paul Sartre's celebrated cautionary, in
his introduction to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched
of the Earth. Confronting his countrymen with the
excesses of French soldiers in Algeria, Sartre
writes, "It is not right (for a soldier) to be
obliged to torture for ten hours a day; at that
rate, his nerves will fall to bits, unless the
torturers are forbidden in their own interest to
work overtime." The Hindutva 'laboratory' in
Gujarat allowed their cadre to carry out
unrepentant rampage on minorities for too long.
What we are witnessing on the Tehelka tapes now
is a process of the fraying of nerves. It's the
guts spilling out. The only way the arsonist can
handle his conscience is by exaggerating it as an
achievement. It is an exhibition of unbridled
libido. You have to flaunt it. Babu Bajrangi,
Haresh Bhatt, Arvind Pandya, everyone has been
bursting to announce it. All they needed was the
promise of a secure listener. That was what the
undercover Tehelka reporter represented.

Of course, it is not as if anyone was trying to
hide this planned savagery. I have travelled to
Gujarat many times since March 2002. Each time I
have been told how recordings of rape and
killings are now part of video lending libraries
in the state, regularly taken on loan to be
'enjoyed' in the comfort of average middle class
homes. The story circulates of how private video
studios in towns and villages (usually making a
living out of recording local marriages) were
willingly or otherwise drafted and how several
acts of violence were done 'for camera'.

So, the Gujarat events are not about the
barbarity of one political figurehead or his
trusted cronies. While they were certainly
instrumental, as the tapes show, one cannot
anymore disregard the role of the 'masses'.
"Fascism," German psychologist Wilhelm Reich had
explained, "differs from other reactionary
parties, inasmuch as it is borne and championed
by masses of people." In Gujarat, it is clear
that, as Shubh Mathur's brilliant The Everyday
Life of Hindu Nationalism (Three Essays
Collective, forthcoming) has it, "the cultural
logic and institutional power of Hindutva have
become deeply entrenched in everyday life itself."

She quotes Columbia University anthropologist,
Michael Taussig: "Torture and institutionalised
terror is like a ritual art form; far from being
spontaneous and an abandonment of what are often
called 'the values of civilization', such rites
have a deep history deriving power and meaning
from those values."

I have often argued that, in the daily sphere,
this is made possible by the galloping growth of
popular mysticism. In Gujarat, it manifests in
the horizontal spread of the satsang. Subsequent
to the demagogic successes of sadhvis like
Rithambara and Uma Bharati, an epidemic of
satsangis has captured Gujarat. Morari Bapu,
Asaramji Bapu, Rameshbhai Oza, Atmagyani Niruma,
Pramukh Swami - a long list of interpreters of
Hindu tenets who pepper their discourses with
provocative contemporary political issues. Seldom
do they have audiences of less than a hundred
thousand. They are conduits through which
borderline Hindutva circulates.

It is an error to read fascism as an abnormality;
one should, in fact, seek the links between
fascism and 'normality'. Shubh Mathur's insight
is important, "A 'culture of terror' is the
cultural logic of Hindutva, and is central to its
imagining, enactment, and retelling." It is
crucial that individuals, collectives and
institutions act to dismantle that logic.
Otherwise, a sullen backlash is certain.

o o o

Nandigram -Protests Growing Against Planned Attack On Medha

Aparna Sen boycotts Kolkata film fest to protest Nandigram

http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8460&Itemid=88

Kolkata, Nov 8 (IANS) In a major jolt to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, internationally acclaimed city-based filmmaker Aparna Sen Thursday boycotted the 13th Kolkata Film Festival organised by the state government to lodge her protest against violence in Nandigram. "She (Aparna Sen) has boycotted the festival to protest the continuing violence in Nandigram. This is a kind of self-censorship as we artistes are taking our own decision driven by our own conscience," noted playwright and actor Kaushik Sen told IANS.

"Aparna Sen is a big name and her move matters of all persons. So it sends a strong message to the government," Kaushik Sen said.

Aparna Sen and several others are part of the Artists, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals' Forum (ACAIF), which is spearheading a civil society movement against the ongoing political violence in Nandigram constituency.

While Aparna Sen has boycotted the inauguration of the festival on Nov 10, she declined to inaugurate the film market of the festival Thursday.

"Aparna Sen said she is heart-broken and perturbed by the Nandigram incidents and so she decided to take this stand since the festival is organised by the West Bengal government," ACAIF member Amitava Chatterjee said.

Several intellectuals, along with Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, were attacked Thursday by supporters of the state's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday when Patkar was on way to trouble-torn Nandigarm.

Intellectuals under the banner of the ACAIF also held a demonstration at Gariahat in south Kolkata to protest fresh turmoil in Nandigram.
------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Medha Patkar assaulted on way to Nandigram

Thursday, 08 November , 2007, 17:41
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14557742

Nandigram:Social activist Medha Patkar was on Thursday assaulted allegedly by CPI(M) activists at Kapaseberia in East Midnapore district while on her way to strife-torn Nandigram here.

There were CPI(M) men carrying red flags who blocked my car and some other vehicles which were going along with mine to Nandigram. I was hit on the face and they tried to pull my hair and was about to drag me out of the car," Patkar told PTI over phone from the spot.

Patkar said she and her associates squatted on the road in protest against the attack.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order), West Bengal, Raj Kanojia said in Kolkata that one of the vehicles in Patkar's convoy was damaged.

Patkar said policemen escorting her convoy in four jeeps and a pilot car remained "silent spectators" and did not take any action when she was attacked.

She said social activist Anuradaha Talwar and intellectual Tarun Sanyal were also accompanying her to Nandigram in separate vehicles.

Describing the incident as "horrifying", she said, "It is unimaginable that a riot-like situation is existing and people in Nandigram are crying as the CPI(M) has started its operation for retrieving lost ground at Nandigram."

"How is it that as citizens of the country we will not be allowed to go to Nandigram ? It is unimaginable. Is this the kind of example of the state machinery functioning?"

"Peace-loving people of Nandigram are crying for help. What is going on in the name of development?" Patkar ask



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Action Against SEZ

Unity of anti-SEZ forces - an appeal from Lokshashan Andolan - November 3, 2007

LOKSHASHAN ANDOLAN

‘Samata’, C-48, Pashan Road, Pune – 411 008.
Email : lokshashanandolan@gmail.com
3rd November 2007
Sub: Initiative For An Effective All India United Movement Against SEZs,
Land Grabbing and Displacement

Dear Friends,

Uprooting of massive population from their lands and livelihoods for establishment of large sized ‘industries’, infrastructure projects and SEZs has become a country-wide phenomenon. With the enactment of the SEZ Act 2005 this process of land grabbing and displacement has gathered momentum. The implementation of the SEZ policy is creating exclusive enclaves where no laws of the land that protects the rights of the labour and that of the people at large will be applicable, which indicates near total lack of sovereignty of our country. This great offensive of anti-people forces within and without is against whatever rights the workers, peasants and the masses had earned due to their relentless struggles. The people who are struggling against such policies and the people in general have begun to understand the implications of these pro-imperialist industrial and SEZ policies. Massive unemployment, fall in food grain production, exhausting of country’s mineral resources (vital for the development of our country and safeguarding of country’s strategic interests) in the next 20-30 years, plundering of forest, water and other natural resources, handing over of the reigns of the Indian economy to the MNCs and their Indian agents, massive destitution of Indians and the spectre of slavery are some of the most drastic consequences of the policies of the Government. A path of industrialisation that converts the vast masses as destitutes and serves imperialist forces is no path of industrialisation for India. Industrial development has to be in the interest of the vast masses of India and to satisfy their needs i.e. catering primarily to the home market of products of mass consumption. The policies of pro-imperialist industrialisation and SEZs that is being thrust on the people of India have to be therefore rejected.

Rightly, therefore, the affected people are resisting such projects and have launched powerful movements against such mindless, anti-people ‘industrialisation’ and SEZs. Anti-SEZ and anti-displacement movements such as in Raigad, Kalinganagar and Nandigram have shown the path to all such movements across the country. The Anti-Posco movement in Erasama of Orissa against the proposed SEZ by South Korean company Posco, Singur Movement against land grabbing and other anti-SEZ, anti-land grabbing movements across the country have come into forefront. By resorting to state repression in the form of lodging hundreds of false police cases, by resorting to terrorising the local population and resorting to firing on the unarmed protesters all the state governments have demonstrated that they do not care for the democratic rights of the people to protest. In spite of such repression mass movements against SEZs, Land Grabbing and Displacement are cropping up across the length and breadth of the country. People are rising against the Government and the corporates across the country and are prepared to lay down their lives to protect their lands and livelihoods. This upsurge of mass movements is perhaps unprecedented. The political forces that continuously work amongst the people are raising their voice against pro-imperialist, anti-people industrialisation and SEZ polices of the Government. Many of these political forces are also active in some of the mass movements. Many political forces have launched campaigns against these policies. The mass movements and the political forces have also come together in a few conventions (Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Delhi and Kolkata) with the objective of highlighting the issue and the need for united action. However, we all will agree that effective All-India united action, which is the need of the hour, is yet to materialise.

Our experience in anti-SEZ struggle in Raigad in particular and the anti-SEZ and anti-land grabbing movements in general has underlined the importance for concerted effort to unite all these struggles to launch an effective all-India united movement against SEZs, Land Grabbing and Displacement. In this regard we believe that we have to understand the dynamics of each mass movement concretely and appreciate the realities of the situation and the tactics followed to stall the land grabbing projects in question. All struggle committees opposed to SEZs, Land Grabbing and Displacement and the underlying policies have to be involved and their suggestions considered for arriving at the much needed effective all-India united movement against SEZs, Land Grabbing and Displacement. Similarly all genuinely pro-people political forces who are continuously engaged in movements against the pro-imperialist policies and other anti-people policies of the Government of India and that of the various state Governments have to be involved and their suggestions taken into consideration. Many distinguished Individuals would have to be involved and their views taken into consideration. Past experiences of such initiatives have to be also taken into consideration. Although launching an effective All-India Movement is extremely urgent we understand that such a process may take some time.

To be clear about the forces to be involved in this initiative I may offer the suggestion that we make efforts to involve all struggling forces and political forces who would support the main demand “Scrap SEZ Act 2005 and state SEZ Acts, Scrap All SEZs declared/established so far, stop land grabbing & displacement and return grabbed land”. It would be worthwhile to point out that foreign funded NGO’s and the forces implementing pro-imperialist policies under the garb of mass movements would not be invited. Our effort should be to build the broadest possible effective alliance of mass movements, political forces and individuals against SEZs, land grabbing and displacement so that genuine and effective united action at the all-India level can be launched.

With all humility we suggest that all the forces described above come together for a preparatory meeting where all the suggestions can be discussed and a course of action can be chalked out. we hope you will agree to this suggestion and send your representative to the first preparatory meeting. Since we may have to discuss several questions on the issue and a significant amount of time may be required for arriving at consensus on several aspects we suggest that we meet for 2 days some time in the middle of December 2007 (or as per the suggestion of the different forces being invited) in Delhi. The venue of the meeting can be fixed later on and can be communicated separately once the date is finalized based on the suggestions of invitees. May we request you to please acknowledge the receipt of this letter through return post or e-mail and send in your suggestions (including a list of organizations who according to you should be invited) for the preparatory meeting in advance (say by end November 2007). If thought appropriate by the invitees we will venture to circulate a background note separately before the preparatory meeting. We would request you to formulate your suggestions for the proposed Effective All India United Movement so that the same can be placed in the first preparatory meeting when it is held. We sincerely look forward to receiving your views/suggestions and opinions in this regard.

The people of India are faced with a historic challenge to launch a determined struggle against the economic policies that is subjugating India’s workers, peasants and masses. Hope we all can together rise to this cause and accept the challenge with all the forces at our command. With the creative effort of all of us the proposed effective all-India united movement against SEZs, Land Grabbing and Displacement can be made into a reality which will be a historic one.

We sincerely look forward for your response.

With warm regards,

P. B. Sawant
(Retd. Supreme Court Judge)

Founder – Lokshashan Andolan.
Advisor – Mahamumbai Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti, Raigad, Maharashtra.

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Recent articles

• Attempts at Anti-SEZ Left Unity - conventions, documents, times
• Unity of anti-SEZ forces - an appeal from Lokshashan Andolan - November 3, 2007
• Massive violence in Nandigram - Evolving News
• Nandigram under siege - State prepares for CRPF deployment

Recent blog posts

• Penetrating the Retail Sector in Bengal - the Reliance Juggernaut (Blog article, open for comments)
• Chronological progress of Nandigram case (PIL filed by Association of Lawyers of Calcutta High Court against the State)
• Nandigram and the Unravelling of Social Democracy - Blog article (open for comments)
• Some questions about agrarian structure in contemporary India - Blog article, open for comments
• Critique of Frontline article Index of Equity on Land Distribution in West Bengal - Blog article open for comments
• Development and Venezuela - A Story
• From Raichowk to Singur - Notes on Industrialisation
• Globalisation of Capital: Some Questions
• The real debate over economic reforms in India
• Factoring Globalization into the virtuous spiral - Partho's comment on Dipankar's article

Article On Gujrat (By Shoma Chowdhury)

Gujarat: Silence Of The Lambs

By Shoma Chaudhury

01 November, 2007
Hindustan Times

We are all tempted to forget. Tempted to shake
our heads at 'mind-numbing' horror and get sucked
back into the urgencies of our own day. Tempted
to impute sinister motives or just look the other
way. We are tempted, but we must not give in.
Because what Tehelka's investigation last week
showed is not just about Narendra Modi and some
lumpen Hindus. It's about you and me and who we
are as people.

It is true that 'Operation Kalank' is about
things we already knew: mass murder, rape and
barbarous cruelty, all planned and executed by
the unforgivable sanction of the State. But the
unthinkable has happened. What was earlier
allegation by victims and their defenders has now
been corroborated by the perpetrators themselves.
And what is our response? Nothing.

Operation Kalank cannot be dismissed as the empty
bragging of anonymous men. The men caught in the
eye of the camera range from the Advocate General
of Gujarat to BJP MLAs, senior functionaries of
the VHP and RSS, influential lawyers and the
actual foot-soldiers of hate: not the bit players
cheering from the outer circle, but the hacksaws
themselves. And what the TV channels have shown
is only the broadstrokes. Tehelka documents an
even vaster and more detailed nightmare world of
thwarted justice and failed institutions,
including the fire on the Sabarmati Express.

Yet, in the face of all this, our story has only
been met by empty counter-arguments and
conspiracy theories. Why was the story timed for
now? Is Tehelka a Congress front? And even more
ludicrously, has Modi paid Tehelka to do the
story to consolidate the Hindu vote ahead of
elections? As one of the founder members of
Tehelka, these theories bring an exhausting sense
of déjà vu. We have been here before. Six years
ago, when Tehelka broke Operation Westend, the
investigation about corruption in defence
procurement, the same fantastic theories had
greeted us, each contradicting the other. But the
truth outlived it all.

Now it's happening again. Journalistic stories of
this nature can never be timed. Operation Kalank
began by sheer accident - we did not set out to
do it - and it took six months to nail down. If
it had taken three, we would have released it in
August; if it had taken ten, we would have
released it in January, post the election.
Imagine what conspiracy theories that would have
yielded.

Duck the truth and look for some new depravity to
explain it away: that's become our habitual
response as a people. We think it makes us
worldly and knowing. We think it makes us
sagacious. But in truth, it displays our fallen
nature. It displays the bankruptcy of our
emotions and the poverty of our conscience. We no
longer believe anyone can do anything without a
motive. The fact that cynical backroom games are
more easy to believe in than purity of intention
says something enormously disturbing about where
we have reached as a society. We can be shown a
man gloating over a foetus ripped out of a
mother's womb, but we would rather embroider why
we are being shown this than react with honest
emotion to the fact.

But what is far worse is the unremorseful
responses of the BJP and people who state that
the genocide is no longer an issue because it is
five years old and Modi has been voted back to
power since then. As if a mere assertion of
majority can nullify the fundamental cry for
human justice. What is far worse also are the
people who are trapped in the suicidal dialectic
of Godhra and Gujarat - action and reaction:
Muslim provocation and Hindu retribution. As if
Death leaves its aching footprint in shades of
green and saffron, one less painful than the
other.

It seems so simple to understand - crime has no
communal colour. The State should have identified
and arrested the Muslims who were in the mob at
Godhra and punished them instead of unleashing a
pogrom against innocents. Why engineer a communal
death embrace that neither community can ever
loosen itself from?

But of all the responses, what is by far the
worst is that everybody seems unperturbed by the
fact that Gujarat is a failed state. Modi may
have been re-elected post-2002, but Operation
Kalank is proof that every fundamental
institution that underpins the idea of a
democratic and civil society has been subverted
there: the police, the judiciary and the
political establishment. And yet we are all
content to continue with the charade of treating
Gujarat as a democratic state facing an on-coming
election.

Nations are built by the words men use to
describe it. Societies are shaped by the
collective rules men agree to live by. The India
we inherited, the India in which we all have a
right to life, liberty, livelihood, expression
and religion is not some self-perpetuating magic
State. It's a State that was articulated by the
heroic imagination of our founding fathers, a
State we all have to struggle and fight to
retain. If we are faced with something like
Operation Kalank and do nothing, we will turn a
dangerous corner as a nation. Our certitudes will
slip away from us. We will become morally
rudderless.

For me then, the most frightening thing about
Tehelka's investigation is not Narendra Modi and
his cold, unalloyed evil. It is not even the
animal violence of his henchmen. It is the
X-factor that seems to have paralysed everybody:
the fear of the 'Hindu vote'. This fear and the
unquestioning acceptance that it will blow in
Modi's favour if anybody speaks out against his
depraved state has made a mockery of every check
and balance that lies at the heart of a
democracy. It has made the media cautious. And it
has made timid marionettes of the Congress.
Neither the Prime Minister, nor the Home
Minister, nor any senior minister has spoken out.
Is Gujarat no longer a part of India? Doesn't the
same Constitution apply? Are we doomed to have
leaders whose heads are only trapped in the
abacus of electoral numbers?

The real faultline in India today is not between
Hindus and Muslims. It is between Hindus and
Hindus. If the Hindus of Gujarat are going to
re-elect Modi after being confronted with visual
proof of what he stands for, we have to
aggressively reclaim what being Hindu means. The
problem is too few people seem to have a stomach
for that fight. It is not a fight that can be won
by burning and slashing. Or ducking. It requires
words and eloquence and conviction. The Hindu
vote in Gujarat could swing both ways in the
years to come because the curious thing about
human beings is that they are always willing to
thrum to a nobler note. Someone just has to have
the courage to sound it.

Shoma Chaudhury is Editor, Features, Tehelka.

BRING TO BOOK THE CULPRITS OF GUJRAT 2002

[3] [CITIZENS SPEAK UP FOR ACTION TO BRING TO BOOK THE KILLERS OF GUJARAT]

(i)

PROMINENT CITIZENS PUBLIC STATEMENT FOLLOWING
TEHELKA EXPOSE OF THE "GUJARAT RIOTS" OF 2002


The recent Tehelka expose of the "Gujarat riots"
of 2002, demonstrates very starkly that these
were neither "spontaneous" nor "riots", but were
in fact mass murder, loot and mayhem orchestrated
and organized by the top echelons of the Gujarat
units of the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, and the BJP
with the full connivance and complicity of the
Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi. The
Tehelka tapes show senior functionaries of these
organizations and of the government bragging and
confessing to their having committed and
participated in committing heinous crimes like
brutal mass murder, rape, burning, looting etc.
Many of them claim and boast about how Narendra
Modi explicitly encouraged the carnage and told
the killers and rioters that they were being
given a free rein of three days. These people
also claim how several senior police officials
not only aided and abetted these killers by their
actions and inaction but in many cases themselves
participated in the carnage.

These senior functionaries who boast about having
committed these crimes also claim how Modi
provided shelter to these people and even got
inconvenient judges changed to ensure that these
mass murderers got out on bail. They also boast
about having successfully subverted the integrity
of the Nanavati Commission. In short, the tapes
reveal a horrific state of affairs in Gujarat,
which seems to have gone beyond the pale of the
rule of law, and the most basic norms of
humanity. And that it has become a state where
the government is not being carried on in
accordance with the Constitution.

It has become imperative that a special
investigating team be immediately constituted to
investigate the involvement of Narendra Modi and
other senior functionaries in his government and
the police in the killings, their abetment and
the shelter and help given to the criminals. This
SIT can be constituted by the Supreme Court and
should be monitored on a regular basis and asked
to compete their investigation within a few
months. This would be one of the most important
investigations ever undertaken in this country.

But most immediately, the persons shown on tape
confessing to having committed crimes must be
immediately arrested and those of them who are
serving officials, must be placed under
suspension. If the state government shows any
hesitation in doing this, that will only
reinforce the overwhelming evidence of their
complicity in the Carnage.

The pending cases of Naroda Patia, Gulbarga
society etc. which have been stayed by the
Supreme Court, pending hearing of the
applications for their transfer outside Gujarat
for the last 4 years, must be immediately taken
up by the court, ordered to be expeditiously
reinvestigated by an independent agency and cases
tried expeditiously.

We therefore call upon the central government and
the Supreme Court, whose duty it is to enforce
the rule of law and protect the Constitution, to
immediately take the above steps. We also call
upon all right thinking people of Gujarat to come
out in support of these demands. What is at stake
is not merely the survival of Constitutional
values and the rule of law but the survival of
civilisation itself in this country.

Signed by:
Admiral R.H.Tahiliani (Former Navy Chief,
Chairman Transparency International, India)
S.P. Shukla (Former Finance Secy, GOI)
Shanti Bhushan (Former Law Minister)
Muchkund Dubey (Former Foreign Secretary, GOI)
Ramaswamy Iyer (Former Water Resources Secy, GOI)
E.A.S. Sarma (Former Power Secretary, GOI)
B. George Verghese (Senior Journalist)
Madhu Bhaduri (Former Ambassador, GOI)
Medha Patkar (Social Activist)
Aruna Roy (Social Activist, Former member NAC)
Arundhati Roy (Writer, Social Activist)
Arvind Kejriwal (RTI Activist, Magsaysay awardee)
Sandeep Pande (Social Activist, Magsaysay awardee)
Major Gen. S.G. Vombatkere (Retd. Mysore)
Prof. Amit Bhaduri (Former Professor of Economics, JNU)
Prof. K.M.Shrimali (Department of History, Delhi University)
Arun Kumar (Professor Economics, JNU)
Prof. Girijesh Pant (School of International Studies, JNU)
Prof. Pramod Yadava (Professor, Dean, School of Life Sciences JNU)
Prof. Sujata Patel (Dept. of Sociology, University of Pune)
Prof. Achin Vinayak (Professor, Third World Academy)
Nasir Tayabji (Director, Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia
Milia Islamia)
Jean Dreze (Visiting Professor, Allahabad University)
Arshad Alam (Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Milia Islamia)
Shailesh Gandhi (Convenor, NCPRI)
Vikram Lal (Director, Common Cause)
Shabnam Hashmi (Social Activist, ANHAD)
Dunu Roy (Social Activist and Director, Hazard Centre)
Ravi Chopra (Director, People's Science Institute)
N. Bhaskar Rao (Director, Centre for media studies)
Dr. Ajay Mehra (Director, Centre for public affairs)
Manoj Mitta (Journalist)
Sundeep Dougal (Journalist)
Ajit Bhattacharjee (Journalist)
Sudhirendra Sharma (Journalist)
Smitu Kothari (Dir. Centre for Intercultural Resources, Co-Founder Lokayan)
Himanshu Thakkar (Centre for Water Policy)
Nandini Oza (Social Activist, M.P.)
Ashish Kothari (Founder Member Kalpavriksh)
Vinod Raina (Founder Eklavya)
Rohit Prajapati (Social Activist, Baroda)
Trupti Shah (Social Activist, Baroda)
S. Srinivasan (Baroda)
Sanjay Kak (Filmmaker)
Arshad Amanullah (Documentary Filmmaker)
Nikhil Dey (Social Activist)
Ashok Rao (Secy. National Confederation of Officers Association)
Kamini Jaiswal (Lawyer)
Prashant Bhushan (Public Interest Lawyer)


(ii)

CITIZENS FOR PEACE

PRESS STATEMENT - 26TH OCTOBER 2007

The expose showing perpetrators of the 2002
carnage in Gujarat boasting about their crimes is
an open challenge to all citizens of India. It is
an urgent reminder that we must renew efforts to
prosecute those who commit such crimes against
humanity.

We, Citizens for Peace, in particular appeal to
the people of Gujarat to break silence and oppose
the politics of hatred and terror. It is possible
that many residents of Gujarat may have been
unaware of the enormity of crimes committed in
their state with open state support in 2002.
Others may have hesitated to confront a truth so
bizarre. Now, after the confessions, silence is
equal to endorsement of the chilling crimes.

Justice delayed is better than justice denied
altogether. It will make a difference if citizens
from all walks of life, across India, stand
emphatically opposed to the continuing
miscarriage of justice in Gujarat.

We urge all citizens to:

1. Write to the Prime Minister and Union Home
Minister demanding that they take immediate steps
to prosecute the culprits of the carnage.

2. Write to all national political parties in
India asking how and why the constitutional
crisis, of a dysfunctional judicial system in
Gujarat, is allowed to persist and urging them to
address this grave threat to the idea of India
with utmost urgency.

3. Write to the BJP, impressing on them that this
is their chance to dissociate themselves from
those responsible for these crimes, and to help
this country make a new beginning towards justice
for all.

For the text of our letters please see these posts on our website.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing."

Citizens for Peace is a Mumbai based non-party
group of volunteers committed to working for
communal harmony and a vibrant secular polity.
The Trustees of CFP are: Julio Rebiero,
B.G.Deshmukh, Titoo Ahluwalia, Rina Kamath, Tariq
Ansari, Dolly Thakore and Cyrus Guzder. The
Managing Committee consists of: Titoo Ahluwalia,
Tariq Ansari, Dolly Thakore, Dilip D'Souza, Gulan
Kripalani, Pervin Varma, Rajni Bakshi and Devieka
Bhojwani.

(iii)

Association for India's Development (AID)
Contacts:
Aniruddha Vaidya (Bay Area): 650-996-8249
Prof. Mohan Bhagat (College Park): 301-345-5308
Nirveek Bhattacharjee (Baltimore): 410-627-7679

E-mail Contact: info@aidindia.org
Web: aidindia.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Park, MD.
Oct 31, 2007.
AID STATEMENT ON TEHELKA EXPOS? ON GUJARAT VIOLENCE

The Association for India's Development (AID)
views with great concern the various revelations
in the Tehelka expos? of October 25th 2007
regarding the planning and execution of the
Gujarat pogrom in 2002 and how a systematic
effort is going on to deny justice to the victims
and survivors of these violent events in which
over 2000 people were killed according to human
rights organizations.

The tapes reveal several prima-facie
incriminating statements by the perpetrators
themselves of how the pogrom in Gujarat was
planned, how administrative cover was provided by
the state, confessions of brutality, rape and
murder; statements to the effect that they will
murder again if opportunity arises; statements
indicating subversion of law by law officers such
as by a prosecutor and another person
representing the State of Gujarat in front of
judicial commission investigating the violence;
and bragging by a Gujarat MLA about how bombs
were made at a place in his control and arms
procured and distributed.
The tapes provide fresh evidence implicating
those involved in the Gujarat government at the
highest levels of the political establishment,
administration and law enforcement who colluded
with the key perpetrators of the violence. The
tapes also correlate with various statements
regarding the scale and the nature of violence as
well as attempts to subvert justice previously
made by various human-rights organizations in
India, and by eminent persons and activists who
were in Gujarat in the immediate aftermath of the
violence in 2002 to independently investigate and
provide relief and assistance to the survivors.
The violations of law and order recorded by
Tehelka are heinous in the extreme and cast a
most egregious blot on the very core of civic
society. Every effort must be made to immediately
bring the perpetrators and their supporters to
justice. Such crimes should not go unpunished for
such lengths of time by the judicial system, if
we are to ensure that they don't ever repeat in
Gujarat or elsewhere, and that people's faith in
the rule of law is restored. It is shocking to be
reminded that some of the most egregious violent
incidents such as the Naroda Patiya and Gulbarga
Society are still pending hearing for the past 4
years, not the least because of the way the state
government handled the prosecution.
Following the expos?, the administration in
Gujarat has responded by ordering a media
black-out of the Tehelka tapes in that state.
This goes against the Constitutional right of
freedom of speech and expression and the
fundamental tenets of the RTI Act of 2005 that
says in its preamble: "democracy requires an
informed citizenry and transparency of
information which are vital to its functioning."
We demand that new evidence brought to light by
the Tehelka expos? be rapidly looked at and
action taken to arrest and bring to justice those
who perpetrated, aided and abetted the violence;
and that the pending cases be heard and resolved
by the Courts in an expedited manner. Further,
all Constitutional means should be considered to
ensure that the Gujarat administration does not
continue to subvert the rule of law in delivering
justice to the victims. All the survivors and
families affected in Gujarat in 2002 should be
adequately compensated and rehabilitated, and
clear steps taken to end the isolation and
ghettoization of the communities affected by the
riots. We also demand that the media black-out of
Tehelka Tapes on televisions in Gujarat be lifted
immediately.
We appeal to the people of Gujarat to maintain
public order and peace as they look at the
evidence and demand that the Indian law
enforcement and judicial system bring to justice
all those who are implicated.

______