May 1^st, 2002:

 

               Headlines:

 

·        Gandhi's Gujarat has become Godse's Gujarat: Sonia  ( www.rediff.com )

·        LS debate was 'disappointing': Modi  ( www.rediff.com )

·        We will continue to pressurise BJP for Modi's ouster:
Chandrababu Naidu  ( www.rediff.com )

·        The Rediff Interview/ Ghanshyam Shah ( www.rediff.com )

·        Muslim NRIs In America help Gujarat Victims (The Milli Gazette )

Gandhi's Gujarat has become Godse's Gujarat: Sonia
Nirendra Dev in Porbandar
Wednesday May 1, 2002

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/01train2.htm

.

Charging the BJP with 'behaving like power brokers',
the Congress on Wednesday alleged that the government
machinery in Gujarat had failed to do enough to
control violence with an eye on the forthcoming
assembly elections.

"If the government wanted, the post-Godhra violence
could have been controlled. But they did not do
anything as their target is winning the assembly
elections," Congress president Sonia Gandhi said in
her address at a peace rally in Porbandar attended by
a large crowd from across Saurashtra region.

"Its a matter of tragedy that some people are bent
upon turning Gandhi's Gujarat to Godse's Gujarat," she
said in her first public speech after the defeat of
the opposition's censure motion on the Gujarat
violence in the Lok Sabha.

Gandhi said her visits to Keerti mandir, the
birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, always gave her
inspiration to fight for the downtrodden.

She lamented that Gujarat, a state known for
prosperity and pluralism, has been turned into a land
rooted in fundamentalism communal rage.

Incidentally, Gujarat got full-fledged statehood on
this day 42 years ago.

Gandhi said the 'poison of hatred' would have spread
elsewhere had the Congress not spearheaded a campaign
against the fundamentalism of the BJP.

"The time has come to launch a do-or-die battle on
three fronts - corruption, communalism and
maladministration," she said.

"The overwhelming turn-out at the rally showed that
the people of Gujarat wanted immediate change," AICC
general secretary Kamal Nath said.

"Modi's much talked about 'Apna Gujarat' has turned
out to be a slogan of hatred and communal unrest,"
Gujarat Congress president Amarsinh Chaudhary said.

He asserted that the efforts to saffronise Gujarat
will not yield any result.

Later in the evening, Sonia Gandhi led a march in
Ahmedabad for restoring peace and communal harmony in
violence-ravaged Gujarat.

A large number of women, carrying placards appealing
for communal harmony, joined Gandhi in the peace march
from the Vivekanand statue in Ellis Bridge area to
Sardar gardan in Laldarwaja area.

She was accompanied by AICC general secretary
in-charge of Gujarat Kamal Nath, Delhi Chief Minister
Shiela Dixit, senior party leaders Ahmed Patel, Ambika
Soni, Kumari Shailja, Gujarat Congress president
Amarsinh Choudhary and leader of opposition in the
state assembly Naresh Rawal.

The Congress president also addressed a large number
of party workers.

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All Rights Reserved

LS debate was 'disappointing': Modi
May 01, 2002.
rediff.com.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/01train3.htm

 
Hours after being pilloried in the Lok Sabha, Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday dared his
opponents to get him removed and termed as
'disappointing' the debate on the censure motion in
helping ease the situation in the state.
Addressing a public function in Ahmedabad on the
occasion of the formation day of Gujarat, a defiant
Modi lashed out at the opposition for using the events
in Gujarat to attack the prime minister.

"People want me to be ousted as chief minister. They
can take away my chair. I am neither power hungry nor
was I ordained to be in power forever," he said.

Modi, whose ouster was sought even by some allies of
the BJP in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the
censure motion on Gujarat, said the discussion was
'not objective'.

There were few suggestions that could have been used
to assuage the feelings of the affected persons, he
said.

"Gujarat has been a victim of natural calamities and
the slander campaign by non-Gujaratis in the past few
years," he said.

"Not a single person had died or was injured (in the
attack on Christians) in Ahwa-Dangs in 1999, yet there
was a brouhaha. For years, the Sardar Sarovar Project
has been entwined in controversy," Modi said.

"When the earthquake struck, Gujaratis were shown as
stealing relief material. When even this failed to
break the spirit of Gujaratis, the Godhra carnage was
foisted upon the state to defame its people the world
over," the chief minister said and alleged that the
Congress was responsible for the misinformation
campaign.

Meanwhile, BJP MPs from the state had a meeting with
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee after which a
senior leader ruled out Modi's removal declaring that
the next assembly polls would be fought under his
leadership.

State BJP president Rajendrasinh Rana told reporters
in Delhi after the hour-long meeting that the Gujarat
violence did not figure during the talks, which
revolved around the developmental issues.

The delegation led by former Gujarat chief minister
Keshubhai Patel also thanked the prime minister for
the Rs 1.5 billion (Rs 150 crore) special package for
the state.

Stating that they met Vajpayee on the occasion of
Gujarat Day, Minister of State for Defence Production
Harin Pathak said hike in the royalty for indigenous
crude oil, sharing of profit under the new exploration
licensing policy and raising of the Sardar Sarovar dam
to 110 meters were among the issues that figured in
the discussions.

PTI '

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All Rights Reserved.

We will continue to pressurise BJP for Modi's ouster:
Chandrababu Naidu
Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
rediff.com,
May 1, 2002.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/01train.htm

 

Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party
president N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday morning
vowed to continue the 'fight' for the removal of
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his
culpability in the violence in the state since
February 27-28.

Speaking to mediapersons at the party office in
Hyderabad, Naidu justified the walk-out by his party
MPs in the Lok Sabha just before the censure motion on
Gujarat was put to vote in the early hours of the day.


"We were not satisfied with Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee's reply to the debate," he said.

"From the beginning, the TDP has been firm on four
demands - restoration of law and order in the trouubled
state, rehabilitation of victims, dropping the move to
hold assembly elections at this juncture and
replacement of Chief Minister Narendra Modi," Naidu
said.

The first three were satisfied, but not the last,
Naidu said.

"We requested the BJP to replace Modi in the national
interest. As our demand was not accepted, we boycotted
the voting."

"We will continue to put pressure on the BJP to
replace Modi as there is no let up in the violence,"
the TDP chief said.

Asked how the TDP would go about it, Naidu said: "That
is what we are working on now."

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All Rights Reserved.

The Rediff Interview/ Ghanshyam Shah
May 1, 2002.
rediff.com.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/01inter.htm

 
Political scientist Ghanshyam Shah has studied India's
minorities -- Dalits, Muslims and tribals -- for overr
30 years. Professor Shah, 64, who earlier headed the
Centre for Social Studies in Surat, currently teaches
at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

He shared his experiences with Senior Editor Sheela
Bhatt to provide us an understanding of the Gujarat
riots. The first of a two-part interview:

What was your first reaction when you heard about the
Godhra incident?

I was numbed. I thought it is some kind of terrorist
act. We didn't know at that time that karsevaks were
on the train. It didn't require any great intelligence
to predict that there would be repercussions. By
evening we came to know about the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad bandh. We were sure this would lead to a
series of riots in Gujarat. Godhra was such a shocking
incident.

Any person with a little knowledge of Gujarat could
predict on the evening of February 27 that Godhra
would lead to unprecedented riots. For two reasons.
First, the event itself; second was my reading of
[Gujarat Chief Minister] Narendra Modi. I was sure
this man would aggravate it. Ten years ago, [political
scientist and thinker] Ashish Nandy interviewed Modi.
Nandy was shocked after the interview. He said Modi is
a textbook fascist.

We had an acute sense of helplessness because we knew
it was futile to talk to anyone in the government in
Delhi. Everything was an action replay of past riots.
Many editors invited me to write, but I could not.
What was new to write about?

What were your findings about the 1969 riots in
Gujarat?

One, it was planned. Second, the state Congress-O
government led by Hitendra Desai was ill-equipped and
indifferent. For three full days, the state government
could not control the situation. The military had to
be eventually deployed. Shoot-at-sight orders were
issued. In 1969 I remember Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who
was then in the Opposition, asked in Parliament, 'Who
started the riots in Gujarat?' I asked in The Times Of
India how do you decide who started the Gujarat riots?


I reconstructed the starting point. Six months before
the riots a communal tempo was built up in Gujarat.
Events like the 1965 war with Pakistan, shooting down
of Chief Minister Balwantrai Mehta's plane, Shambhu
Maharaj's anti-cow slaughter movement were used to
raise nationalist and anti-Pakistan rhetoric in
Gujarat. A few months before the bloody riots of 1969
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh arranged a camp in
Ahmedabad where they formed a Dharma Raksha Samiti;
through it the VHP got its agenda.

In Ahmedabad more than one lakh mill workers were
retrenched. In Delhi, instability within the Congress
intensified. All these contributed to the 1969 riots.
In a number of areas a list was prepared of Muslim
homes and they were burnt down. The Government of
India instituted the Reddy Commission to look into the
1969 riots. The commission said the riots were
planned. It said there is a possibility of the RSS and
Jan Sangh's involvement. At that time the Muslims were
not as well organised as they are now. Now you can see
planned retaliations by the Muslims.

In 1969 the country was shocked because these were the
bloodiest riots after 1947. In Ahmedabad alone, 700
people were killed, the majority of them Muslims who
belonged to the working class. The rioters who killed
Muslims and burnt shops were skilled. The majority of
participants in the 1969 riots were from outside
Gujarat, mostly from Uttar Pradesh. But that probably
is not the case today.

At that time [Congress-O leader] Morarji Desai said,
'We were caught unawares." They never imagined this
could happen in Gujarat. After such an experience any
chief minister would have kept the state on alert on
February 27 itself. But the opposite happened.
Bharatiya Janata Party workers were on the streets to
see that shops remained shut on February 28. Some
ministers were on the streets, guiding the crowds.

What are the contrasts and similarities in the 1969
and current riots?

The Congress-O government was ill-equipped to handle
the riots and was in search of an alibi. [Chief
Minister] Hitendra Desai told editor B G Verghese that
the 'foreign hand' was behind these riots. He showed
Chinese currency. When Verghese asked him about the
use of such currency in Gujarat, Desai had no answer.

Inefficiency and indifference were seen in the 1969
riots. Some kind of bias against Muslims was certainly
there, but the government of that time was not party
to the riots. Congressmen were not present in the mobs
on a large scale. They didn't stop the riots, but they
didn't ignite it. Just before the 1969 riots in
Gujarat, [Jan Sangh leaders] Balraj Madhok and
Vajpayee spoke. Madhok was provocative while Vajpayee
spoke about the 1965 Indo-Pak war. He spoke about
Indian nationalism against Pakistan. He raised the
people's sentiments against Pakistan by talking about
rashtra bhakti (national faith) just before the 1969
riots. I have noted the impact of both speeches on the
popular psyche in my studies.

Today, the BJP is very successful in selling
communalism by merging it with nationalism. The BJP
has communalised Gujarat in the name of nationalism.
The recent riots were State-sponsored. That changes
the whole scenario. Rioting was legitimised in
society. The rioters knew nothing would happen to
them. Once the mobs got legitimacy from the State,
everything collapsed. In 1969, one newspaper printed a
story about the rape of Hindu women who were killed
and whose breasts were cut off. The newspaper later
denied the story. It happened the same way this time!
The same newspaper printed the story and later denied
it.

In 1969 I met the reporter who wrote the story about
dead women's breasts being cut off by the Muslims. He
said he had heard rumours and printed it. Two days
later he printed a denial, but it was too late. This
time too it created havoc. A Doordarshan reporter was
following another story last month about the women
allegedly abducted by Muslims in Godhra. She got a
call -- almost threatening -- from a VHP supporrter not
to follow up that story.

How do you look at the Gujarat riots of 2002?

Look at how the BJP built up their support in recent
years. In the 1969 riots Jan Sanghis were involved. In
the 1973-74 Navnirman Andolan [started by Jayaprakash
Narayan] Jan Sanghis took part and penetrated society
further. I have written a book on the Navnirman
agitation. I know for sure that Jan Sanghis tried to
communalise the movement and penetrate society. But
intelligent students didn't allow them to have their
way. When the Babubhai Patel Cabinet in the state
inducted three Jan Sanghis, they started influencing
the government.

In 1985, the anti-reservation agitation turned
communal. That is a well-known fact. In 1990 the
Advani rath yatra intensified the communal influence
on Gujarati minds. The Congress never seriously
applied its mind to combat the spread of communalism.
They were appeasing Muslims and sometimes Hindus too,
but not sincerely trying to become the bridge between
the communities. As a result, for the last 5, 7 years,
the RSS has been institutionalized in Gujarat. It is a
de facto part of the government.

Saffron rule has been institutionalized in Gujarat.
VHP and Bajrang Dal activists have a right to enter
police stations and dictate. They are considered the
boss. The Bajrang Dal wants to dictate the morality of
society. There was a communal riot in Bardoli because
a Hindu girl married a Muslim boy. It is not
acceptable to the Bajrang Dal.

The government in Gujarat has issued an order asking
all inter-community marriages to get registered. A few
years ago in Ahmedabad, a lady from the Barot
community married a Muslim. The couple was harassed by
Bajrang Dal and VHP activists. She was taken into
police custody and later found dead in the VHP office.
How did this happen? This is not hearsay, it has been
reported. It shows the police is working under their
[the VHP's] influence.

Don't you think Muslims have stereotypical images of
Hindus in Gujarat?

That is a problem, but things have not happened
overnight. It started in the 18th century. When the
British established their rule, there were riots in
Surat in 1788. The only difference in the riots before
1850 were that the riots occurred between two
neighbourhoods who happened to be Hindu and Muslim. It
was never between the two societies, meaning all
Hindus or all Muslims were not united to fight each
other. The concept of Indian nationalism that emerged
later polarized Gujarati society.

Along with that came community biases. The community
bias of Muslims against Hindus; Banias against
Brahmins. When I grew up I had a certain bias against
Brahmins. My father had a partnership with a Brahmin
and we had a very bad experience. So I thought oh,
Brahmins are like this. I had the same feelings for
Patidars [Patels]. We are all bonded with prejudices
and biases. We have innumerable proverbs denouncing
the communities. This is bound to be there. You will
find the same kind of biases amongst the British
against the French and vice-versa.

We are habituated to talk in categories, that is a
problem. And how these categories intensify depends on
the openness and closeness of society. If society is
relatively closed, interaction is relatively less;
that society avoids self-analysis; does not have
enough non-communal organisations; does not know more
about the third alternatives and will have many more
biases.

Amongst the Muslims they have biases against the
Hindus. Relatively speaking, Muslim society is a
closed society. Illiteracy, its minority status and
such factors contribute to it. We cannot dismiss the
fact that it is not as open as Hindu society. This is
because Hindus have had more exposure than Muslims in
India.

The dominance of religious leaders and religious
education is much more intensive amongst Muslims than
in Hindus. Brahmins and Banias have had more exposure
than the so-called lower class. Though I don't believe
it, many find Brahmins and Banias more modern and
secular compared to the poor because their third or
fourth generations have enjoyed good education. A
person who lives in a village will have interaction
with his community or class, and that makes the
difference.

To be continued...


Design: Lynette Menezes

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All Rights Reserved.

Muslim NRIs in America help Gujarat victims

By Kaleem Kawaja

The Milli Gazette,

 May 01, 2002.

http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01052002/0105200244.htm

Washington, DC: The recent horrible massacre of

Muslims in Gujarat, and the large scale destruction of

their houses, properties, mosques has been a rude

shock to the about 150,000 Indian Muslims who live in

U.S. In conjunction with some Indian expatriates of

other religious faiths, who have also been shocked by

this horrible anti-Muslim violence, Indian Muslim

groups have organized demonstrations and rallies in

several cities. Also they are busy holding fund

raising campaigns and dinners to collect relief funds

for the victims. The sentiment in the expatriate

Indian Muslim community to help their brothers &

sisters in Gujarat is overwhelming.

Various major American newspapers like New York Times,

Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune,

have provided ample coverage to the news of the

killing of Muslims in Gujarat and the inability of the

government to stop it. At the urging of the American

Muslim Council, the US Commission on International

Religious Freedom - an arm of the US State Department

issued a statement strongly condemning the anti-Muslim

violence. Several American Human Rights groups like

Amnesty International and Human Rights USA, have

issued statements strongly deploring the large scale

violence against the Muslims of Gujarat.

In Washington DC, the Association of Indian Muslims of

America (AIM), organized a peace rally on March 6 in

cooperation with other Indian communal harmony

organizations, in-front of the Indian embassy

building. On March 8, the American Federation of

Muslims from India (AFMI) held a demonstration in

front of the Indian consulate in New York. On March

22, the Indian Muslim Relief Committee (IMRC) joined

some Indian organizations in a rally at the Indian

consulate in San Francisco.

On March 5, AIM led a delegation of 10 Indian Muslim

expatriates to meet with Mr Lalit Mansingh, India's

ambassador to US, to protest the failure of the

Gujarat and Indian government to protect the Muslims

of Gujarat from the violence organized by violent

Hindu groups. On April 1, a 5-member delegation from

AIM held a meeting with four members of Indian

parliament who were on a visit to Washington. The

members of parliament were: PM Sayeed, Deputy Speaker,

Lok Sabha; Gen Shankar Roy choudhry; Anadicharan Sahu;

TN Chaturvedi. The AIM delegation presented a

memorandum to the MPs and lodged a strong protest with

them against the total failure of the Gujarat and

Indian government to protect the Muslim citizens of

Gujarat from violent Hindu groups like Vishwa Hindu

Parishad, Bajrang Dal, who they appealed should be

banned.

International Service Society of Michigan, an NRI

group and some other NRI groups, including AIM, have

joined hands to publish advertisements in major

newspapers in India like Indian Express, Hindu and

Indian community newspapers in US like India Abroad,

asking Prime Minister Vajpayee to take immediate

effective steps to stop the violence against Muslims

in Gujarat, to fully rehabilitate the victims of the

carnage, and to replace the Modi government with

President's rule. In major cities like Washington DC,

New York and Chicago panel discussion and seminars are

being held to analyze the serious problem of political

parties like BJP exploiting religion based violence to

consolidate their vote banks for election.

Students of Indian heritage from diverse religious

backgrounds, in various universities in America, have

organized seminars to discuss what they term the rise

of fascism in the garb of Hindu revival, that

frequently targets the Muslim and Christian

minorities. Even though a substantial number of Hindus

in the US based NRI community frequently sympathize

with VHP and BJP, this time they have been shocked at

the extensive coverage of the anti-Muslim carnage in

Gujarat in the American media, and the across the

board condemnation of the Indian Government for their

failure to stop the sectarian mayhem.

The writer is a director of the Association of Indian

Muslims in America of Washington DC.

Copyright 2002 The Milli Gazette.All Rights Reserved.