NEWS HEADLINES

'Outside intervention in Gujarat not needed'
The Hindu.
By Our Special Correspondent

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002052201761300.htm

CHENNAI May 21. The Chairperson of the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC), J. S. Verma, today made it
clear that there was no need for outside intervention
in Gujarat.

In an informal chat with presspersons here, he said
outside intervention was not considered appropriate
unless there was a deficiency in the national
mechanism. But there was no such deficiency or
inadequacy, particularly when the Supreme Court and
the NHRC were considered not only within the country
but also by everyone else as the best in the world.

When the best institutions in the country were there
along with a vibrant democracy, involved citizenry and
NGOs, there was no need for outside intervention, he
stressed.

Earlier, addressing a regional consultation conference
of the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) of Tamil
Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and
Pondicherry, he emphasised the need for the NGOs to be
wary of the possible misuse of the human rights
programme.

``We have to be careful that the human rights
programme is not hijacked by vested interests.''

Besides preventing commercialisation of the programme,
the NGOs should ensure that there were no black sheep
among them.

The caution was necessary as any spurious institution
might hijack the human rights agenda and create a bad
name in the public.

Mr. Verma said the main function of voluntary
organisations was to constantly monitor the
performance of all institutions so that the quality of
governance was maintained.

The State was responsible for all human rights
violations whether committed by State agents or
non-State actors. The NGOs had to maintain a constant
vigil on not only violations, but also omissions,
which facilitated human rights violations.

He referred to the incorporation of protection of
human rights in the new code issued by the Medical
Council of India for physicians and said this was
another area for voluntary organisations to play a
vital role by monitoring doctors' performance.

He pointed out that when the concept of ``global
village'' was picking up, rights violation in any part
of the world was the concern of the entire humanit.
But care should be taken to ensure that this thinking
did not erode national sovereignty.

K.R. Venugopal, Special Rapporteur, NHRC, said the
conference's objective was to identify thrust areas
relating to human rights for intervention by the NGOs
and areas of cooperation between the organisations and
the Commission.

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu.

Gujarat yet to submit report to NHRC
HT Correspondent
Hindustan Times,
(New Delhi, May 21)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/220502/detNAT21.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gujarat Government has failed to submit before the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) the
comprehensive report on communal violence in the state
even after the expiry of the deadline fixed by the
panel.
The NHRC had directed the state Government to submit
the report by May 15. The panel later granted more
time to the state administration to file the report.

However, the state Government failed to comply with
the NHRC directive and did not even abide by the time
frame.

Meanwhile, NHRC chairman Justice J.S. Verma said in
Chennai that there was no need for foreign
intervention on the human rights violations in
riot-torn Gujarat.

"We have a well-built internal mechanism for taking
corrective actions. We have the NHRC, the Supreme
Court and a vigilant and vibrant democracy to take
care of such things. There was no need for any foreign
intervention on this," said Justice Verma, who was in
Chennai to interact with NGOs on human rights.

The comment was in response to concerns expressed by
the EU and some other Western countries on the
situation in the state.

©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997.

VICTIMS RAISE WALL OF DISTRUST
The Telegraph,
FROM BASANT RAWAT

http://www.telegraphindia.com/national.htm#head7

Ahmedabad, May 21:
When trust is low, the walls rise higher.

Unsure of their safety, residents of Burhani Apartment
in Saraspur, who have returned home from the swarming
relief camps, have decided to raise the height of
their apartment’s boundary wall from six to nine feet.

At the back of their mind is the horror of April 24,
when a bloodthirsty mob surrounded the 36 families
living in the block and another 60-odd in Dosumiya ni
Chawl.

“They won’t be able to jump over the wall so easily,”
says Yusufbhai Dorajiwala, who fled his home four
times in the last two months and returned on Sunday
under police protection.

After spending three weeks in relief camps or with
relatives, the families have come back to their homes
to rebuild their broken lives. But the nightmares
refuse to go away.

The locality would have turned into another blazing
inferno if a Border Security Force patrol had not come
to their rescue. “It was around 11.30 pm when a mob,
armed with crude bombs surrounded the locality. We had
to resist the mob and at the same time evacuate the
residents,” said a BSF officer who was forced to open
fire. He himself had a providential escape — a bomb
thrown at him did not explode.

Because of the BSF’s presence the mob could not do
much damage to the apartment but exacted their revenge
on 20 houses in Dosumiya which were looted and
torched. “We could not protect each and every house
despite regular patrolling,” the officer said.

But the residents are not complaining. Instead, they
are all praise for assistant commandant G.S. Gupta
who, they claim, saved their lives and protected their
properties. But they hate the men in khaki.

Contrary to what the police claim, the 50-odd families
from Burhani Apartment and Dosumiya, who had taken
shelter at the relief camp in GM Compound, say they
were forced to return home because of the searing heat
and unhygienic conditions at the camp. “We came on our
own. The police played no role. We do not trust the
police,” says Usmalbhai Khabula, a resident of
Dosumiya.

“In fact, we have not come back in the true sense,” he
said. “We still go back to stay in the camp at night
where we eat as we have nothing left in our house
which was looted and burnt. Only during day we are at
home.”

The residents say it is because of Gupta, not the
local police, that many of them decided to return.
“Officially”, however, it is the police that persuaded
them to go back.

Gupta’s efforts, however, ruffled feathers in other
quarters. The officer was “blamed” for helping the
minority community and the VHP wanted him transferred
out of Saraspur, but the then police commissioner put
his foot down.

Now that he is returning to the border, where he was
posted till March 1, residents of Dosumiya and Burhani
Apartment are once again apprehensive.

“We felt safe with Gupta around because. Whenever we
contacted him, he was here within five minutes,” says
Dorajiwala.

So the walls of distrust are rising higher.

(c) 2002 The Telegraph. All rights reserved.

Army being withdrawn for border duty
The Hindu,
By Manas Dasgupta

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002052201821300.htm

GANDHINAGAR MAY 21. After doing duty for about 80
days, the Army is being gradually withdrawn from
Ahmedabad and other riot-hit areas of Gujarat to
return to the borders with Pakistan in view of the
heightened tension there.

Following the decision announced in Delhi that the
Army units posted in Gujarat were being recalled, an
official spokesman of the State Government said the
process of withdrawal had started and was expected to
be completed in a day or two.

K.P.S. Gill, security adviser to the Chief Minister,
does not feel that the withdrawal of the Army would
have any impact in the strife-torn State where peace
is gradually returning.

In an informal chat with mediapersons, Mr. Gill said
the Army was kept as a stand-by and was not involved
in the peace process. So its withdrawal would not
create any void.

The Ahmedabad city Police Commissioner, K. R. Kaushik,
thanked the Army for its "timely assistance'' to bring
the situation under control. It would not be difficult
for police to handle the situation now that people of
both the communities themselves were co-operating.

Asked about the "magic wand'' that helped stop
violence within days of his taking over as security
adviser, Mr. Gill said there was no magic. Peace had
returned because the people co-operated. More than the
police lathis, it was the opening of a dialogue with
the leaders of the two communities that helped
normalise the situation. The posting of some police
officers belonging to the minority community in some
sensitive areas also helped. He stressed the need for
"modernisation'' of the State police.

With no untoward incidents reported from any part of
the State in the last 10 days or so, the situation is
fast returning to normality. The arrival of additional
companies of the Central Reserve Police Force and
other paramilitary forces will also help fill the void
that may be caused by the Army's withdrawal.

In many places, the minorities in the relief camps
have started returning to their homes and in many
rural areas, Hindus themselves have escorted their
Muslim brethren back from the relief camps to
reinstall them at their homes. In villages at Kheda
and Anand districts in central Gujarat, almost all the
Muslims have returned to their homes with the help of
their Hindu friends.

At Viramgam town in Ahmedabad district, at the behest
of the local judicial officials, Muslims stood
guarantee for the Hindus accused and vice-versa in the
riot cases setting an example of communal harmony.
Cheques for compensation in the riot losses were
handed over to the victims by the representatives of
the other community to remove any sense of bitterness
against each other.

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu.

Army withdrawal will have no adverse effect: Gill
PTI [ TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2002 6:01:35 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=10575559

Gandhinagar: K P S Gill, Security Adviser to Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday asserted the
withdrawal of Army for deployment along the border
would have "no effect" on enforcement of law and order
in the violence-ravaged state.

"It will have no effect," Gill told newspersons in an
informal chat during a luncheon meeting here.

"We have adequate para-military forces to take care of
the situation," added State Director General of Police
K Chakraborty. "We will take care of the situation if
the Army has been withdrawn."

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights
reserved.

Riots probe panel restructured
Press Trust of India

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php3?id=10030&type=India&theme=A

Gandhinagar, May 21. —The Gujarat government tonight
restructured the one-man commission probing the
communal violence in the state following demands for
setting up of a judicial commission under a sitting
Supreme Court judge.
The judicial commission, set up in March under the
Inquiry Commission Act and headed by retired High
Court judge Mr Justice KG Shah, has been enlarged by
the government to include Mr Justice GT Nanavati, a
retired judge of the Supreme Court, according to an
official release.
The government had appointed Mr Justice KG Shah to
head the judicial commission to probe the carnage and
post-Godhra violence “but people with vested interests
dragged it into one controversies after another”, it
said. “The judicial commission has been restructured
and enlarged so that there remains no doubt regarding
sincerity of the state government in alleviating the
pain of violence-affected people, to maintain the
dignity of the commission and it was also done in
public interest,” the release said.
NHRC no to foreign monitors: There was “no need” for
foreign intervention on the alleged human rights
violations in Gujarat as “we have the National Human
Rights Commission, the Supreme Court and a vibrant
democracy for taking corrective actions,” NHRC
chairman Mr Justice JS Verma said in Chennai today.
Modi’s assurance: Mr Narendra Modi, today assured
protection to the riot victims who chose to return to
their homes from the relief camps where they have
taken shelter.
Speaking at a relief camp at Panpur Patia near
Himmatnagar, he said the government would take all
required steps for the protection of the people
returning to their homes.
The government would deal very firmly against those
who are trying to create wedge between different
communities by resorting to violence, the chief
minister said.
Mr Modi made a surprise visit to the relief camp to
appraise the progress and state of relief measures
envisioned for violence-victims, particularly from the
the minority community.

(c) 2002 The Statesman.

RIGHTS SNUB TO US TEAM
FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, May 21:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/1020522/index.htm

A US delegation led by assistant secretary Michael
Parmly met officials of the National Human Rights
Commission and the National Commission for Minorities
to get their perspective on the Gujarat riots.

However, rights commission chairman J.S. Verma,who was
attending a workshop in Chennai, said there was no
need for foreign intervention.

“We have a well-built internal mechanism for taking
corrective actions. We have (the) NHRC, (the) Supreme
Court and a vigilant and vibrant democracy to take
care of such things. There is no need for any foreign
intervention on this,” Verma told reporters when asked
about the concerns expressed by the European Union and
some other countries on the rights violations.

“You wait for my next order,” he said when asked about
the continuing violence in the state.

Rights officials told the US delegation that India was
“quite capable” of looking after its minorities. The
US, in fact, should have a similar commission, they
said. The delegation met commission member Virender
Dayal in the absence of Verma.

India is capable of dealing with the issue because it
is a vibrant democracy and it has a “pro-active
judiciary”, the US delegation was told.

Sources said the Gujarat government had failed to file
a comprehensive report to the rights commission on the
communal riots even after the expiry of the extension
sought by it.

The rights commission had given the state government
time till May 15 to file its response to its
“confidential” observations on the situation resulting
in the riots. However, the government had sought an
extension of 2-3 days to file its response, sources
said.

The US delegation called on members of the minorities
commission yesterday and wanted to know about various
issues pertaining to the minority communities in the
country.

Parmly, who deals with racial affairs and human
rights, and his team discussed the recent events in
India for 90 minutes. The minorities commission
members told them there was no problem as such and
isolated incidents such as Gujarat could not be seen
as a permanent phase in the country.

Anti-India heat in UK
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is under pressure
from labour MPs to impose economic sanctions on India
“if (the) Gujarat government continues to adopt a
policy of discrimination against minorities in its
relief and rehabilitation programme”.

Addressing a meeting on Gujarat in Boston, the labour
legislators and a member of the European Parliament
also asked the government to immediately release its
report on the violence, Lord Adam Patel told PTI.

`OPINION`

The women in Gujarat's camps — I
By Vasudha Dhagamwar
The Hindu,
May 22, 2002.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002052200351000.htm

The perennially helpless condition of women, ever
dependent on their men, was exacerbated several times
over.

AROUND THE first week of April, the Chairperson of the
National Commission for Women, Poornima Advani, asked
me to join her fact-finding committee to Gujarat.
Initially, I had some hesitation about joining the
committee. But the NCW is a statutory body, and if no
NGO had accompanied the fact-finding team we would
have been the first to criticise it on that very
count. I found that the team consisted of Dr. Advani,
Nafeesa Hussain, member, Reba Nayyar,
member-secretary, two Supreme Court lawyers, Pinky
Anand and Anees Ahmed, one retired Inspector-General
of Police, Ramamohan, Pam Rajput, an academic
activist, and myself.

The visit was from April 10 to 12. As a fact-finding
visit, it was not long enough but some of the members
could not have managed to spare more time. We had also
decided that the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, was
not our direct concern.

Even before I was on the Committee, I had met Elaben
Bhat in Delhi. She said that SEWA was busy taking work
to women in the camps, as she had done after the
earthquake. In Ms. Bhat's experience women always
asked for work to keep the family and themselves
going. Work brought them money and also took their
minds of the horror of their situation. During our
visit we met NGOs and women citizens, the latter were
mostly Hindus. We visited several camps in Himmat
Nagar (Sabarkantha district), Ahmedabad, Godhra and
Kalol (Panchmahal district), and Vadodara, mostly
Muslim and some Hindu. We also visited the burnt train
carriage.

Our strategy was to speak with women to the exclusion
of men. The subject of rape was very much on our
minds. But while the women said there had been many
cases of gang rape and violence they also said that
the raped women had also been killed... The
sister-in-law of one woman brought her forward in the
Godhra camp and said she had been raped. The woman
immediately denied it. I have to say that only three
women admitted to having been raped.

It is possible that as an official delegation we might
not win the trust and confidence of the women... But
there is also the social reality. An Indian, a
subcontinental or perhaps even an Asian woman who
admits to being raped stands the very real chance of
being abandoned for the rest of her life. That every
woman who had been raped was also killed seemed a
little difficult to accept. That is not to say that I
believe there were few rapes. One criticism was that
the report did not tell exactly what happened to the
women. Several visits by NGO groups and print
journalists, and by electronic media and do we still
need more graphic stories? What about the women who
were not anxious to share those experiences?

The women recounted everything else but rape. They
mentioned the assaults and the murders and the mayhem.
They told us how they had run away and had hidden in
the shrubs or jungle or fields — and even in a well —
for hours or even days before finding their way to a
camp or a relative who brought them there. They said
they did not know where their men were when they ran
or came to the camp... Some of them still did not know
where their men were... Altogether, the perennially
helpless condition of women, ever dependent on their
men, was exacerbated several times over. The men were
as helpless as them.

Not only the Muslim but even Hindu women (I was told
by team members), spoke about their extreme fear of
the State police; especially of the State Reserve
Police (SRP). The report remarks that the police
credibility was very low. In any riot situation, the
SRP is uniformly found playing a devilish role. One
has seen Bhils, Santhals and Dalits complaining in
other States that the SRP had helped the landowners.

What did the women wish to do after peace was
restored? The camps were clearly a short-term option.
Many had no homes left to which to return. The women
whose men had died or were still missing were even
more unsure. Some women expressed a willingness to go
back to their homes if they had protection from the
Army or the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Notably this answer came from the Kalol camp inmates.
Many of the inmates were farmers. They said they had
returned with police protection to harvest whatever
remained of the crops.

As Kalol is in a tribal district we asked them who the
culprits were; one of the men said with black humour,
"good caste people, that is why they did such good
work".

Although we spoke with women on their own, it cannot
be said that the women were speaking their own minds.
I got the feeling that with regard to the decision on
going back home, the women were following whatever
line their men decided.

Farmers and businessmen had a stake in their villages;
they would go back. The women from landless
agricultural families did not wish it. Landless
labourers are often more mobile or less attached to a
place, especially if they do not even own their homes.
The authorities as well as the activists seem to be
taking the camps for granted. No thought seemed to be
given to the future.

How long could anyone stay in the camps? The
temperature was already 43 degrees. In the next few
weeks it would soar to 47 or 48 degrees. There were
babies, infants and newborns under the canvas. There
were pregnant mothers, the old, and the ailing. Water,
sanitation and privacy were in short supply. There was
no privacy during waking or sleeping hours, to feed
the baby or change one's clothes. The situation was
mired in pathos and humiliation.

Even in the camps the women and men did not feel
secure. Well away from the Kalol camp we heard some
commotion. Immediately a wave of fear ran over the
camp. While we had police escorts the camps were
defenceless. They needed protection given by the CRPF
or the Army.

No one seemed to have asked questions related to
rehabilitation. What efforts were being made to make
their homes and localities safe? Or to determine, in
consultation with them, where the women without men
folk or children without parents would go? The problem
of widows and orphans cannot be solved except on a
case-to-case basis.

But the problem of families needing to return home has
to be dealt with, not by peace marches, but by going
to the village, slum, suburb and town and making
vigorous and sustained efforts in two directions: one,
to impress the will of the law with the Army and the
CRPF and criminal prosecutions; two, by talking with
the communities who have, after all, lived side by
side for generations. Peace marches may do good to
politicians; they serve no purpose for the people.

On one point everyone was in agreement. The old man
from Porbandar had courage beyond our capabilities.

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu.

Violence of an insecure people
Indian Express,
May 22, 2002.
Ravinder Kaur

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=3091

The English press has done an exemplary job in
exposing the role of the administration and the police
in the events after the Godhra tragedy. But what is
‘the people’s’ role in the events in Gujarat? Are they
a homogeneous lot? Are they innocent by virtue of
being ‘the people’?

The evidence doesn’t point towards their innocence.
Let us go back to the Godhra tragedy. The immediate
provocation was a trainful of people returning from
Ayodhya. Hence it is related to the Babri Masjid-Ram
Janambhoomi issue. The occasion for their travel was
to perform ‘kar seva’ for laying the foundation stones
of the Ram mandir.

Pilgrimage travel has been the only known form of
leisure travel for most ordinary Indians. And kar seva
has been known only among Sikhs as the voluntary
labour of devotees in repairing and maintaining
gurdwaras. But the Hindu kar-sevaks and their travels
to and from Ayodhya have taken on a meaning that is
anything but spiritual. It has become an exercise in
loud militancy on the part of the so-called ‘kar
sevaks’ and their minders.

Who are these kar sevaks? Are they ordinary Hindu men
and women who just want to build a temple to Ram at
his birthplace? Why are they willing to engage in
violence for the cause of Hinduism? Why are they armed
with swords, trishuls and other weapons? Are they
‘attackers’ of other communities or ‘protectors’ of
the Hindu community and the Hindu religion?

An examination of the social background of ‘kar
sevaks’ reveals that they are generally from among the
lower Hindu castes. Historical and ethnographic
research on the north Indian cities of Kanpur,
Allahabad, Lucknow and Benaras by an Oxford historian,
Nandini Gooptu, shows that many are rural migrants to
the cities. Pushed off the land to towns and cities to
seek employment, they face competition from entrenched
interests. Hostility towards the entrenched Muslim
emerges from economic competition combined with the
perception of religious differences.

With the Hindus, they face a further challenge of
being ‘lesser Hindus’. There is a clear socio-economic
divide among these low-caste migrants and the more
settled, upper castes Hindus. The Brahmins, the
Baniyas and the Kshatriyas are patrons of major
religious festivals such as Ram Lila, Dussehra and
Holi. Their sponsorship of such festivals strengthens
their economic and social standing in civil society.

But who provides the mass following, the numbers that
make a public success of these celebratory festivals?
These are our present-day ‘kar sevaks’, members of
Hanuman Dal and Bajrang Dal and other militant groups
sponsored by the VHP, Shiv Sena, RSS and BJP. The
military nomenclature of senas and dals is not lost
upon the ‘kar sevak’ who feels valorised at being
entrusted with the responsibility of being a protector
of his religion. Sponsored by the high castes or their
tilak anointed leaders, the kar sevaks become the
instrument to carry out the upper caste agenda of
ethnic cleansing and demolition of a syncretic ‘live
and let live’ culture.

Why do ‘kar sevaks’ allow themselves to be co-opted by
an upper caste Hindu agenda that may not be their own?
Jan Breman, a sociologist who has studied Gujarat,
argues that the closure of the textile mills in
Ahmedabad has thrust large numbers of textile mill
workers into the insecure world of unorganised labour;
it has created a large reserve of disaffected
semi-unemployed people whose demoralisation makes them
susceptible to calls to religion to validate their
sense of worth. Other scholars have directly linked
the militancy of the lower castes to their need for
acceptance within the Great Tradition of Hinduism.

In a society still fractured by the deep divisions of
caste, allegiance to a religious identity dependent on
fighting the ‘other’ or defending itself against the
‘other’ is a dangerous glue. The co-opted lower castes
need to be rescued from the tyranny of upper-caste
Hinduism that is giving them a fragile and false sense
of security. Economic security and the recognition of
common interests with members of other religions is
needed to transcend the separate niches of caste and
religion and prevent the poor lower castes from being
condemned as lumpen masses responsible for
perpetrating heinous acts of violence.

(The writer teaches in the Department of Humanities
and Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi)

© 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All
rights reserved throughout the world.