IMC-USA Weekly News Digest - November 9th, 2009
To promote communal harmony, tolerance, understanding as well as to remove prejudices, MS University's arts faculty has built a study centre that will also second as an interactive centre. Swami Sivananda Study Centre, named after renowned spiritual thinker, will be inaugurated on Tuesday. It has been funded by Divine Life Society, which has headquarters in Hrishikesh for educating youth on spiritual and cultural heritage of the country. The centre will be managed by departments of philosophy and Sanskrit in collaboration with Divine Life Society's Vadodara chapter. There will be host of activities taking place at the centre which would include debates, seminars, conferences, elocution, paper presentations and talks. "University was given funds of over Rs 2 lakh to set-up the centre within the arts faculty premises. Efforts will be made to make students and people aware about the ethical principles involved in social background," said dean of faculty of arts and head of philosophy department professor Nitin Vyas. "Regular inter-faith dialogues and competitions will be conducted to bridge the religious divide in the society. We will also invite renowned speakers to deliver lectures and talks to our students to equip them with latest philosophical knowledge and findings," added Vyas. A key witness in the Gulbarg massacre case has told a special court that chief minister Narendra Modi had abused former MP Ahsan Jafri when he called him for help on February 28, 2002. Imtiyaz Saeedkhan Pathan, the first star witness to give testimony, recounted events of that day and said when they asked Jafri why police hadn't come to their rescue, the former parliamentarian told them that he would call up Modi for help. "When I asked him what Modi said, he said there was no question of help, instead he got abuses," Pathan told court. When a mob went on a killing spree at Gulbarg society a day after the Godhra carnage, Jafri, whose home had turned into a refuge, was making frantic phone calls to every one for help. Sixty-nine people were killed in Gulbarg Society including Jafri, whose body wasn't found. A young Parsi boy, Azhar Mody, also went missing from his house, the story of which became a Bollywood film Parzania. This film was banned in Gujarat. Pathan described the gruesome killings in detail how his family members and neighbours were butchered and women raped before his eyes. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5198196,prtpage-1.cms SEE ALSO: The Sanatan Sanstha operatives, two of whom died in the October 16 blast here, had planned to plant four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at different locations in Goa on Diwali eve timed to go off in quick succession, police sources told this newspaper. "Their plan was to trigger off blasts in quick succession in Margao, Vasco, Sancoale and Curchorem in crowded areas to create panic in Goa," a senior police official said. The IED defused at Sancoale, had been planted in a van parked 100 metres from the Shantadurga temple. Vinay Talekar, 27, an MBA from Karwar, and Vinayak Patil, 30, a driver, were arrested on Saturday for allegedly planting the explosive at Sancoale. They told the special investigation team (SIT) they were instructed to head directly to Vasco on their scooter, where they were to meet up with the other two men who died in the blast.Talekar's and Patil's arrests have given the Special Investigation Team an insight into the working of a subversive cell within the Sanatan. The SIT also recovered some incriminating evidence connected to the IEDs from a field in South Goa on Monday after their interrogation. "We have so far been able to establish that they operated as a tight-knit cell within the organisation," police sources said. Talekar from Karwar, and Patil from Belgaum, were close to Malgonda Patil, the administrator of the Sanatan ashram in Goa who died in the Margao blast. Police say the three men had connections that date back some years. "Malgonda came from the Jat taluka in Sangli which is close to Belgaum. Both these men were close friends of his and stayed with him in the ashram frequently," Superintendent of Police A V Deshpande said. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/33918/nabbed-men-confirm-plot-goa.html SEE ALSO: A commission probing the killing of Laxamananda Saraswati and the violence in Kandhamal in its aftermath last year, was today told that activists of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal were allegedly involved in setting afire a police jeep and government offices during a bandh. "I perceive that members of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal were involved in setting fire to a police jeep and offices of the Revenue Inspector (RI) and Additional Tehsildar at Khajurpada in Kandhamal," Gobind Chandra Sethi, Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Phulbani told Justice S C Mohapatra during cross examination. Stating that the three outfits organised a bandh on August 25, 2008, two days after killing of Saraswati, he said, "Since the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal had given a bandh call, it was obvious that they torched police jeep and government offices". The SDPO, however, failed to name the Sangh Parivar members who set fire to the police jeep and government offices. The police officer also told the panel that two BJP leaders, then ministers - Surama Padhy and Golak Bihari Nayak - had visited the district during the bandh on August 25. "While returning to Khajuriapada after escorting the ministers, the miscreants set fire to my jeep," he said, adding that the bandh organisers cleared road blockade for movement of the ministers vehicle. However, the SDPO said that he had no knowledge if members of the Sangh Parivar were involved in torching of Gochhapada police station where one policeman was killed. "I recall that tribals were mostly involved in setting fire on the police station at Gochhapada," he said, adding that as investigating officer of the incident, he had checked antecedents of the miscreants and found no link with the Sangh Parivar. The police officer said alleged fake certificate and land grabbing issues aggravated the violence in which about 40 people were killed besides, burning of thousands of houses and damage to churches. As many as 68 riot cases were registered under four police station areas in Kandhamal, he said. http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?669031 SEE ALSO: Muslim outfits in Kerala today said the 'love jihad', where girls from other religious background are allegedly lured to marriage and converted to Islam, is a "malicious-and misinformation campaign" by Sangh Parivar outfits. The term 'love jihad' is a misconceived notion "raked up" by Sangh Parivar outfits and reference of such a term by Constitutional establishments like the judiciary "is not a good sign", a joint statement by various prominent Muslim leaders here said. "The misinformation campaign against the non-existent organisation in the name of 'Love Jihad' would only lead to vitiating the prevailing communal harmony and create suspicion among various communities and the parties concerned should keep themselves away from levelling unsubstantiated charges," the statement said. The Kerala and Karnataka High Courts had recently directed the police to investigate allegations of 'Love Jihad'. The signatories to the statement include State Muslim League president Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal, general secretary of All India Jem-uth-Ulema A P Abubacker Musliyar, and chairman of Peoples Democratic Party Abdul Naser Madhani. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5189444.cms SEE ALSO: The crisis in the BJP government in Karnataka on Tuesday refused to die down with dissidents still gunning for the removal of chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. "In the interest of BJP and the workers in Karnataka, we need a very good leadership in the state. Whatever my stand is, I am not changing," G Janardhana Reddy, who is leading the oust Yeddyurappa campaign, told reporters after his meeting with senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj. Observing that he had explained the position to senior party leaders including party President Rajnath Singh and others, Reddy said he was "one hundred per cent hopeful that the party will give a very good leadership in the interest of the state". http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5192147.cms SEE ALSO: A court in Bihar on Saturday convicted Kameshwar Yadav, accused of killing a Muslim teenager during the 1989 communal riots in Bhagalpur. Bhagalpur Additional District and Sessions Judge Arvind Madhav found Kameshwar Yadav guilty of shooting dead Mohammad Qayyum, 15. Yadav was charged with firing upon Qayyum while leading a mob of rioters Oct 24, 1989. The police had earlier closed the case against Yadav, citing lack of evidence. He was later even given a citation by the state police in 2004 for maintaining communal harmony. However, the case against Yadav, who was also the prime accused in the killing of a Muslim shop owner, was one of the first in the 27 cases Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered to be reopened for investigation in 2006. Qayyum's father Mohammad Naseeruddin, in his complaint to the police, had said when he came out of his house on hearing sounds of gun shots and bomb blasts, he saw Yadav, along with some other rioters, gun down his son who was trying to run for safety. He also said that the body of his son was taken away by the mob as he hid in his own house due to fear. In 2007, Yadav was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by the court in another case of communal violence in Bhagalpur in 1989. Over 1,000 people, a majority of them Muslims, were killed in the month-long riots in Bhagalpur city in October 1989. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/473943.aspx SEE ALSO: An international human rights group has asked the Indian government to prosecute those involved in 1984 Sikh riots, following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. "The victims of the 1984 massacres have waited for the law to take its course and, sadly, they are still waiting. The Government should prosecute those involved in the riots," Meenakshi Ganguly, senior researcher on South Asia at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said. "Both the militants and the security forces committed horrific crimes, justifying them by pointing to the abuses of the other, and yet those who suffered most were ordinary civilians," she added. Two decades after the incident, victims and their families seeking justice "have been confronted by government opposition and obfuscation, including prolonged trials, biased prosecutors, an unresponsive judiciary, police intimidation, and harassment of witnesses," a HRW statement noted. It further alleged that no senior government officials or politicians have been prosecuted despite evidences of their role in the atrocities. Numerous commissions of inquiry, each with the promise of justice, have produced no tangible results, it added. Widespread killing of Sikhs by violent mobs were triggered after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5191436,prtpage-1.cms SEE ALSO: Jamait-e-Ulema Hind or the JEU on Tuesday issued a fatwa against singing national song 'Vande Mataram'. According to a resolution, Muslims should not sing 'Vande Mataram' as its reciting is against the Islam. The resolution, which was passed at the Deoband national convention meet, says that Muslims should not sing 'Vande Mataram' as some verses of the patriotic song are against the tenets of Islam. The JEU leader said that the some of the line in the song is against Islam. Meanwhile, home minister P Chidambaram addressed a Jamait-e-Ulema Hind conference in Deoband today. Meanwhile, the Muslim Law Board justified the decision saying that (Muslims) can't offer prayers to anyone but Allah. Kamal Farooqui, a prominent leader of the Board said, "We love the nation but can't worship it." http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5191847,prtpage-1.cms SEE ALSO: At least 20 CRPF personnel, returning from New Delhi on the Brahmaputra Mail, were injured after a mob thrashed them for allegedly molesting a woman and assaulting her brother at Fakiragram railway station in Assam's Kokrajhar district on Tuesday. The clash broke out when over 3,000 villagers from Fakiragram and its neighbouring areas rushed to the station following rumours that a woman had been thrown out of a train after being allegedly raped by some security personnel. An eyewitnesses said the mob stoned two compartments carrying the CRPF men and assaulted the jawans. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5170752.cms SEE ALSO: The Jharkhand State Ansari Mahapanchayat (JSAM) has demanded reservation for Dalit-Muslims for their socio-economic uplift. JSAM president Shahab Naiyer Ansari said here on Saturday that it's high time the Dalit Muslims got their dues. He also sought SC status for Dalit Muslims. In this context, he laid emphasis on amending Articles 340, 341 and 342 of the Constitution. At a meeting held here recently, the JSAM had constituted a core committee to create an awareness on the issue. The meet was attended by all the office-bearers of the JSAM. The members of the core committee will tour villages inhabited by Muslims from November 3-15 and try to seek consensus over the issue. The JSAM president said that leaders of all parties frequently refer to the Sachar Committee and the Ranganathan Committee during polls but conveniently forget the implementation of their reports once the elections conclude. The percentage of Muslims in central and state government undertakings is less than 2 percent. Though political parties make tall claims to ensure political, economic and educational uplift of Muslims, especially Dalit Muslims, no sincere efforts are made in this regard once the elections are over, he said. The state executive committee of the JSAM had also raised issues pertaining to the Dalit Muslims at a meeting held in the state capital on November 4, Naiyer said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5207192.cms SEE ALSO: The investigations conducted by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department against former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda are the largest ever against any Indian politician in terms of the number of places and premises raided and the strength of the staff deployed for the purpose. The findings are also among the biggest ever - hundreds of crores in accounted wealth, thousands of crores of illegal money laundering and investments in places like Liberia and Dubai. Investigations show that Koda has a network of people inside the country and outside who formed a web of corruption, illegalities and cheating. He was a labourer with no means before he joined politics 15 years ago and had meagre assets before he became a minister and later the chief minister. It is clear where the wealth that he possesses came from. He was the first independent MLA to become the chief minister of a state. The Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had supported him. Jharkhand is rich in minerals and successive chief ministers and ministers have looted its riches to make private and illegal gains. Political instability has also been exploited to maximise personal returns. One of the country's most notorious symbols of corruption, Shibu Soren, is from the state. The present raids are the result of six months of investigations against Koda and his colleagues, involving even international agencies. Two former ministers are already in jail on money laundering charges. The results confirm the suspicions that politicians have stashed away their ill-gotten wealth abroad. Koda's charge that the raids are an attempt to tarnish his image will not find any takers. The state is going to have assembly elections later this month and Koda has said that he has been targeted because of that. But he has not explained how he has come to possess so much wealth. It is also not known why the investigating agencies have targeted only independents, when leaders of political parties in Jharkhand are also considered to be neck-deep in corruption. What has been revealed might only be the tip of the iceberg in the state where a politician-bureaucrat-contractor nexus is very active. That is one reason for the growth of naxalism in the state. It is necessary to widen the scope of investigations, expedite them and ensure that they lead to punishment of the guilty. Often they are dumped when political equations change. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/34438/mind-boggling-feat.html SEE ALSO: Karnataka has proved to be the latest flashpoint in the BJP's serial of woes. After days of dissident activity in which, ironically, assembly Speaker Jagdish Shettar has been a prime actor, the party high command has declared that Chief Minister Yeddyurappa would not be displaced and that there would be a Cabinet reshuffle to mollify those who are baying for his removal. Considering that there is no positive response from the BJP dissidents, the crisis is by no means over. Mr Yeddyurappa has been at the receiving end of a no-holds barred attack against him by Tourism Minister G. Janaradhana Reddy, and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy, who are brothers and mining kingpins from Bellary. It is no secret that the Reddy brothers were recently admitted to the BJP because of their tremendous money power. They had substantially financed the party's election campaign and clearly are out to extract their pound of flesh in typical fashion. That they managed to rope in the assembly Speaker with apparent lure of making him chief minister is a sad commentary on how the august institution of Speaker stands defiled today. Interestingly, the transfer of some officials close to the Reddy brothers in Bellary district is being seen as the immediate provocation for the revolt against Mr Yeddyurappa. With some cases of irregularities pending against the Reddys, these officials were evidently a veritable shield for them. With the high command now putting pressure on the Yeddyurappa government to rescind those transfers, one shudders to think what effect this would have on the region's administration. Even if the proposed deal comes through and Mr Yeddyurappa is left untouched, it is anybody's guess how long the truce would last. It is time the BJP in Karnataka set its house in order. Work in the secretariat is virtually at a standstill. While there are floods in some parts of the state, the Chief Minister himself admitted that many legislators from flood-hit areas in north Karnataka were pre-occupied with dissident activities in resorts and hotels outside the state. The party is indeed in danger of losing its lone bastion in the South if it continues to ignore governance. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091104/edit.htm#2 SEE ALSO: In a 509-page order on October 29, the Madras High Court indicted the police for the February 19 violence on the court premises. It served contempt notice on four top police officers, including the then City Police Commissioner K. Radhakrishnan, and directed the government to place them under suspension pending disciplinary action. It also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to proceed with the probe into the cases involving the police and lawyers. On February 17, the court complex witnessed unprecedented violence after a group of lawyers allegedly hurled rotten eggs at Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, who had come to the court in connection with a case. Advocates had been boycotting courts across Tamil Nadu at that time in order to highlight their demands on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. A Division Bench comprising Justices F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla and R. Banumathi observed in their "common conclusions and directions" that a prima facie case "is made out against Mr. Radhakrishnan; Mr. A.K. Viswanathan, then Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Chennai; Mr. Ramasubramani, then Joint Commissioner of Police (North); and Mr. Prem Anand Sinha, then Deputy Commissioner of Police, Flower Bazaar, that they have caused obstruction in the course of administration of justice and contempt proceedings have to be necessarily initiated against them." The court ordered issuance of contempt notice under Section 15 (1) read with Section 2 (c) (iii) of the Contempt of Courts Act to these officers on several counts, including deployment of additional armed forces on the High Court premises on February 19 without the intimation/permission of the Registry after Subramanian Swamy had left the court premises around 11-30 a.m., creating commotion "under the guise of attempting to arrest the accused and other advocates", entering different court rooms and the Madras High Court Advocates Association premises "under the guise of chasing the lawyers", causing extensive damage to property on the campus and inflicting injuries on the then sitting judge, lawyers, court staff and the litigant public. Other reasons cited by the court are acts of interference in the course of justice by paralysing the functioning of the High Court and the subordinate courts throughout the State on February 20, 23 and 24 and other judicial fora located on the campus on February 20, 23 and 27, and the failure to withdraw the additional armed forces despite specific and repeated directions of the then acting Chief Justice. However, the court maintained that no case was made out to initiate contempt proceedings against the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Director-General of Police and the then Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order). Although no prima facie contempt case is made out against 12 other police officers in the criminal case, they should be proceeded against in accordance with the law and also by way of disciplinary proceedings if they are charged with committing excesses in the February 19 incident, the order said. The court, through a direction, asked the State government to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the four police officers, as they "are responsible for the incident in the High Court campus on February 19 and the police excesses in violation of statutory provisions including Police Standing Orders". It asked the government to exercise its discretion to place them under suspension pending disciplinary action to enable a fair and unbiased inquiry. It asked the CBI to proceed with the investigation in the cases against the lawyers and the police expeditiously and file the final report within three months. The Bench said that the lawyers had to shed the impression that they were a "law unto themselves" and restore the glory of the profession and their own public image. "We hope that there will be no strike/call for boycott hereafter," the order said. The court also directed that there shall be no procession or meetings on the court verandah or in any part of the premises except within the halls of the association, and that too in a peaceful manner in order to ensure that the proceedings of the court were not disrupted in any way. The court stressed the need to restore security at the various courts in the State as it existed before February 17. It urged the government to earmark Rs.58.25 lakh for the disbursement of ex gratia to the injured lawyers, court staff and others, and for the payment of damages to the Law Association and the Madras High Court Advocates Association. "Both the lawyers and the police, the two wings of the institution, should always work together for the administration of justice," it opined. http://www.flonnet.com/fl2623/stories/20091120262313400.htm SEE ALSO: They may sound silly, the oxymoronic phrase 'Love Jehad' and its twin 'Romeo Jehad', but within a short time religious fundamentalist forces in Kerala have built a unique playhouse on them and started enacting a highly divisive drama. For sure, Kerala has been caught unawares and is at a loss about its dangerous portents. Since it was first used, perhaps tongue-in-cheek then in the context of the arrival in Kottayam of Silja, a Hindu girl from south Karnataka who had left her parents to marry her lover Ashkar, a Muslim youth originally from Kannur, the term 'love jehad' has become a potent weapon, capable of slicing through the secular fabric of Kerala society. The proponents of the expression are, in addition to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, representing the Hindu Ezhava community, and the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC). As intended by these groups, it refers to the delicate issue of mostly campus and workplace romances involving young Muslim men and non-Muslim women. It has eventually come to be used as a metaphor for the highly sensitive allegation that "Muslim fundamentalist groups with funds from abroad are using the services of motivated young men from the community to woo non-Muslim women as a religious strategy for forced conversion to Islam". When Silja's parents arrived in Kottayam with a group of people and the Karnataka Police in tow, all hell broke loose, with allegations in the local media that "Ashkar had kidnapped her with the intention of cheating her into forcible conversion, as he had done with 22 other women earlier". A complaint was filed by Silja's relatives at the Gandhi Nagar police station in Kottayam, and, notwithstanding the repeated denial of the accusations by Silja herself, the Hindu Aikya Vedi organised a dharna in front of the Islamic study centre at Vaarisseri near Kottayam where the girl, by then living with Ashkar in a rented home, was undergoing religious training. The commotion died down only after Silja convincingly stuck to her stand before the police and at the Kottayam Press Club, where she addressed a press conference on September 8 jointly with Ashkar. She said she was marrying Ashkar of her own free will and no one had compelled her to convert to Islam. But by then an uproar had seemingly begun in Karnataka, with similar allegations being raised by Hindutva organisations there and a habeas corpus petition being filed in the High Court by her father. The phrase 'love jehad' soon acquired menacing overtones in the local media when habeas corpus petitions were filed at the Kerala High Court by the relatives of two other girls who were MBA students at St. John's College in Pathanamthitta. The girls, both staying in the college hostel and hailing from Christian and Hindu families in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts respectively, had reportedly grown a fascination for Shahan Sha, the dynamic leader of the Muslim Students' Federation (MSF, the students' wing of the Indian Union Muslim League), who was at the forefront of the agitations against the self-financing college management, demanding proper facilities for students. … An impression soon gained ground that an organisation by the very name 'Love Jehad' or 'Romeo Jehad' had started functioning in Kerala and that it was receiving funds from abroad. There were also wild, unsubstantiated accusations that young Muslim men were being offered money, bikes, trendy attire and other support systems "to woo several non-Muslim women into marriage and beget children" and that these women were later being forced into illegal activities, including "drug trafficking, smuggling, and terrorism". It is a reflection of the competitive communal atmosphere sought to be created in the State through the 'love jehad' controversy that an excerpt from an editorial in the NDF organ Tejas was promptly quoted in a subsequent article in the pro-BJP Janmabhoomi, arguably to raise the ire of its own loyal readers. The Tejas editorial was quoted as saying: "If young men embrace Islam, it is for terrorist activities; if young women do it, it is for 'Love Jehad'. This propaganda is part of a well-planned secret strategy. Here, the police, certain sections of the media, even the courts are becoming tools in the hands of certain vested interests, for implementing their secret agendas. It is part of an evil design indeed that when Islam embraces, it becomes the singular cause for restlessness for some sections and they try to put an end to it. Muslims are mere victims of Hindu fascists. Even then, we are portrayed as the aggressors. Our aim is only to defend [ourselves] against aggression by Hindu fascists. The religious conversions undertaken by us are similar to those carried out by other religious sections. But Hindu fascists are hunting down and attacking those who come to Islam. World over, those who embrace Islam after studying its tenets in depth and being convinced about their higher value are on the increase. The enemies who have understood this fact are the ones who are generating such baseless reports." … In the report filed before the court on October 18, DGP Jacob Punnose said that no organisation or movement called 'Love Jehad' or 'Romeo Jehad' "is so far identified as working in Kerala"; "there is no clear evidence regarding the operation of such an organisation"; "it is not established that any particular organisation is actively engaged in such compulsive religious conversions"; and that there is no clear evidence regarding "financial support from abroad" for any such organisation, or "connection between 'Love Jehad' movement and counterfeiting, smuggling, drug trafficking and terrorist activities". To the question "how many school and college students and youngsters were thus converted to Islam in the last three years?" the DGP said: "Except for the two cases under consideration now, no specific complaints have been received regarding such compulsive love-based conversions" and that in the two cases, "the police have registered cases and are actively investigating the matter". The DGP further said that though "certain allegations have recently cropped up indicating that some organisations have devised plans for compulsive or deceitful religious conversions by winning over girls, no actionable information has been received by the police so far to confirm the fact that any organisation is indulging in such activities".… "Inter-religious romances leading to conversion and marriage could be on the rise in the State. But we have no reliable statistics to show how many, or whether there is an increasing trend, or from which community to the other and so on. But wherever religious fundamentalist groups are active on campuses or where these youngsters come under the influence of such forces outside the campuses or workplaces, there are reports that they do face informal compulsion, especially on issues like marrying out of their fold. It could be happening in a few cases, or a few more. In certain instances, over-enthusiastic individuals take things a bit far, when informal compulsion takes the form of coercion. That is it. There is no discernible pattern in all this. And we do not really know what happens to the women who change their religion for love, whether they are living happily ever after or how many of them return to their parents and so on, until there are complaints. And complaints are rare. The allegations being raised now are definitely not based on facts and are highly exaggerated," a senior police officer told Frontline. The mischief is out of the bag. The effort of the forces on both sides of the 'love jehad' divide is to create such conflicts by promoting fundamentalist positions, projecting isolated incidents as the norm, distorting facts and events, and presenting rumours and falsehood as the truth. It is in fact a 'loveless jehad' that civil society is now witnessing, and it could turn worse rapidly if secular discourse gets submerged and the communal cause wins the stage. http://www.flonnet.com/fl2623/stories/20091120262302800.htm SEE ALSO: The debates raging currently on Maoism are inordinately adversarial. And to go by the battlelines being drawn, the fight is for the right to determine who it is that can speak for the inhabitants of the "red corridor" under the sway of the Maoists. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stepped away from this pointless confrontation, and reconfigured the debate. To those who sympathise with the Maoists, those "who claim to speak for the tribals", he has put forth a simple question: do they actually have any "alternate economic or social path that is viable"? To ask that question is to admit, as the prime minister did, that India has been found wanting in giving its tribal populations a stake in "modern economic processes that inexorably intrude into their living spaces". And he rallied a conference of chief ministers and state tribal ministers on Wednesday to take the benefits of the development process to tribals. It is in this delivery that the darkest, most sinister aspects of Maoism are made evident. On the map of India, the "red corridor" of Maoist influence overlaps neatly with some of the most under-developed parts of the country. These are also areas rich in forests and mineral wealth, and are inhabited by many of this country's diverse tribal peoples. With this overlap, a specious connect is often sought to be made by those who justify aspects of the Maoist agenda - that the Maoists are, with their admittedly regrettable use of violence, somehow filling the void left by the state, that they are heeding a moral duty to deliver social goods unavailable to the local populations. Certainly, the Maoists have found it easiest to raise their flag in areas where the state's footprint is light. But track their record once they are entrenched in an area: it is one of kangaroo courts, extortion, and obstruction to any development work and even to the sparse social services that may be available. It is good that the argument with Maoist "sympathisers" has been joined at the highest levels of government. But re-affirming commitment to vast swathes of India's population is valuable for much more than simply winning that argument. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/538025/ SEE ALSO: The Ekambareswarar temple at Chettipulam in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu, presents an irony. Casteist forces in the village have all along denied Dalits their constitutional right to enter the shrine and offer worship there. And, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi reading the Gita sits on the southern compound wall of the temple as a witness to all this. However, the Dalits' determination to assert their right and the uncompromising stand of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) on the issue resulted in the Collector and other top officials of the district administration leading the oppressed sections into the shrine under tight police security on October 27, close on the heels of the "peace talks" held with representatives of different communities. Interestingly, the temple entry programme coincided with a massive rally held in Chennai on the same day by the TNUEF and several Dalit organisations with the backing of the CPI(M). The issues highlighted at the rally related to the denial of access to the oppressed people at the places of worship and other public places such as burial grounds, and discriminatory practices they face at tea stalls and haircutting saloons. Leaders who addressed the meeting reiterated their commitment to the cause. The rally, among other things, demanded the appointment of a commission headed by a High Court judge to recommend a time-bound programme for the socio-economic uplift of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the State. It called for steps to raise the percentage of reservation for Dalits from 18 to 19 per cent, clear the backlog of vacancies in the S.C./S.T. category, redistribute surplus lands to Dalits, retrieve the panchami lands belonging to Dalits, curb manual scavenging, ensure entry of Dalits into temples and extend internal reservation benefits for all sub-sects of the Arunthathiar community. But the path that led the Dalits into the Siva temple was not strewn with roses. Unprecedented violence was witnessed on October 14. It was aimed not only at Dalits who tried to fulfil their long-felt desire to enter the temple but also at the revenue and police officials who tried to implement the decision of a peace committee meeting on October 8 held at the initiative of the district administration. The TNUEF and the CPI(M), which have led the temple entry struggle at Chettipulam and other places in the State, had made it clear that they would not compromise on the issue. They set October 30 as the deadline for the district administration to find an amicable solution to the issue. Dalits would be helped to enter the temple on November 2 if the administration failed to fulfil its constitutional responsibility, they stated. When Frontline visited Chettipulam, the village wore a deserted look. The majority of the caste-Hindu men, particularly those who were directly involved in the violence, had gone into hiding, and Dalit farm workers were away in neighbouring villages to eke out a living. Most of the shops had downed their shutters. Daily pujas seldom took place at the 80-year-old Siva temple. Police pickets were set up at different places. Recalling the circumstances under which the temple entry agitation was launched in the village, "Nagai" Maali, district convener of the TNUEF, and A.V. Murugaiyan, district secretary of the CPI(M), said a survey conducted in 36 panchayats in Vedaranyam block in November 2008 had revealed that discriminatory practices against Dalits existed in several villages. Chettipulam was only the tip of the iceberg. At Marudur (South), Vanduvancheri, Ayakkaranpulam, Kadinavayal, Panchanathikulam Naduchethi, Kodiyakarai and Pushpavanam, and many other villages, Dalits were denied access to temples, the survey found out. According to the survey, in 15 villages, washermen and hairdressers turned away Dalit customers. In 10 villages, Dalits were forced to do menial jobs such as removing carcasses. Dalits were not allowed to use public ponds or bury their dead at the common burial grounds, they were denied a path to Dalit burial grounds, they were discriminated against with the two-glass system at tea stalls, Dalit children were humiliated in schools, Dalit staff members were insulted at noon-meal centres and Dalit women were sexually assaulted in several villages. In many villages, the survey found that the police were either reluctant to book cases relating to atrocities against Dalits or took no action even after registering cases. After the findings of the survey were released, a special conference was held at Vedaranyam on January 31. It passed resolutions seeking the intervention of the district administration to end the social and economic oppression, increase employment opportunities for Dalits and provide financial assistance to them. In the absence of any worthwhile response from the administration, the CPI(M) and the TNUEF decided to focus on the Chettipulam temple issue and highlighted it in their State-wide agitation, held on September 30, against acts of caste-based discrimination, the TNUEF convener P. Sampath said. The agitation coincided with the death anniversary of B. Srinivasa Rao, the doyen of the kisan movement in the State. Srinivasa Rao had led many a heroic battle against feudalism and atrocities against Dalits since the 1940s. The agitation at Chettipulam assumed significance as the kisan and Left movements were not as strong in the tail end of the Cauvery delta region as they were in the rest of east Thanjavur, CPI(M) Central Committee member G. Ramakrishnan said. V. Duraimanickam, the general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, recalled the powerful struggles launched by the kisan and Left movements in east Thanjavur against the onslaught of feudalism and the brutal punishment "erring farmhands" were subjected to, which included savukkadi (flogging) and saanipal (forced drinking of cow dung mixed in water). These brutalities came to an end through a tripartite agreement in 1942. Another landmark achievement of these movements was the enactment of the Fair Wages Act for east Thanjavur in 1970, enabling farm workers to get wages beyond what was prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act. However, the inhuman treatment of Dalits continued for several years in Vedaranyam taluk, he pointed out. Chettipulam has a population of around 7,000, including 600 Dalits. The village is only 40 km away from Keezhavenmani, where 44 Dalit farm workers were torched on December 25, 1968, by landlords for demanding a paltry wage hike. Even today, almost all Dalits of Chettipulam are either agricultural workers or manual labourers. These landless people have to rely on the caste-Hindu farmers for their livelihood. Some of them migrate to far-off places in search of jobs. The entire village once belonged to the family of Vadapathimangalam Thiagaraja Mudaliar. Settlements between 1965 and 1975 enabled the caste-Hindu tenants to bring most of the lands under their control. Ironically, the erstwhile tenants wanted the Dalit workers to be subservient to them.… Another issue that has caused concern is the State's not-so-impressive performance relating to the implementation of the Protection of Civil Rights Act and the S.Cs and S.Ts (PoA) Act. According to A. Kathir, executive director of Evidence, a Madurai-based non-governmental organisation, from 2004 to 2008 a total of 5,741 cases were registered under the S.Cs and S.Ts (PoA) Act but only 5 to 7 per cent of them ended in conviction. On several occasions, the police had shown reluctance to book cases relating to crimes against Dalits under this Act, he alleged.… The hostility shown by caste Hindus to the temple entry agitation by keeping away from the shrine on October 27 has led to a lot of scepticism about the efficacy of the compromise evolved by the officials. The district administration hopes that normality can be restored after arresting the kingpins of the violence. But one thing is clear: the Dalits of Chettipulam are not prepared to give up their hard-won right. "It is strange and unjust that we have hitherto been denied access to this temple, though the fact remains that the manual transportation of granite stones for its construction was the result of the sweat and labour of our forefathers," a Dalit lamented. http://www.flonnet.com/fl2623/stories/20091120262303400.htm SEE ALSO:
IN THIS ISSUE
COMMUNAL HARMONY
NEWS HEADLINES
OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
COMMUNAL HARMONY
STUDY CENTRE AT MSU TO INSTIL COMMUNAL HARMONY, TOLERANCE (NOV 2, 2009, TIMES OF INDIA)
NEWS HEADLINES
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http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/28/stories/2009102853770300.htm
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=GIhXeygaDZQ=
OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS
MIND-BOGGLING FEAT - EDITORIAL (NOV 6, 2009, DECCAN HERALD)
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne141109coverstory.asp
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http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091103/edit.htm#1
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http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ws141109RamPuniyani.asp
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http://www.flonnet.com/fl2623/stories/20091120262303600.htm
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/32772/why-not-dalit-priest.html
