Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
INDIA: COMMUNAL VIOLENCE BILL- HOW USEFUL TO VICTIMS?
Asghar Ali Engineer
The Government has got clearance from the Cabinet for introducing the Communal Violence Bill in the coming session of parliament. The Bill was drafted originally in 2005 after the 2004 elections in view of the Gujarat carnage of 2002 under the BJP Government headed by Narendra Modi. It was because of Gujarat carnage that Muslims voted for the Congress massively as a result of which NDA was defeated. Will this new Bill guarantee the safety and well-being of India’s Muslims?
INDIA: CAN THE IDEA OF INDIA PASS THE THACKERAY TEST?
Siddharth Varadarajan
The Centre and the Maharashtra government must make it clear to the Shiv Sena that they will not be allowed to engage in “goondaism” as a political technique.
BRUTAL ATTACKS ON PROTESTERS
Mahuva area in Bhavnagar district has among the most fertile lands in Gujarat. Unlike most of Gujarat and especially Saurashtra region farmers grow three crops, and exports mangoes, coconuts and other fruits. Moreover, the numerous onion dehydrating plants & cotton gins provide employment to at least 10 000 people. That is the region the Government hardsells as the ‘silver corridor’ of industrial development.
INDIA: RSS HOPES TO WOO YOUTH WITH 1 LAKH TEACHING JOBS
Piyush Srivastava
The RSS has discovered a new way to deal with the problem of the youth’s lack of interest in its activities – woo them with employment opportunities. Danger ahead!
MUMBAI BOOK CLUB BREAKS UP A CLOISTERED ROUTINE
Taran N. Khan
In a women’s reading club in the northern part of Mumbai, members cast off their burkas and tackle the literary merits of the author-of-the-month. For many, it’s a rare chance to break the cloistered domestic routine.
INDIA-PAKISTAN RELATIONS: ENGAGING PAKISTAN
Praful Bidwai
India must open a broad-horizon dialogue with Pakistan on all issues including Afghanistan to achieve real progress in bilateral relations.
PAKISTAN: ORGAN DONATION LAW
Countries of the South have become a haven for rich patients of the north and south; organs are bought from the poor to be inserted into the rich. This makes the poor of India and Pakistan more vulnerable to exploitation because technical facilities and expertise for organ transplant exist there. Many attempts have been made to remedy the situation. Will the new Law in Pakistan prove adequate in safeguarding the poor from being exploited?
COMMENT ON PAKISTANI ORGAN DONATION LAW
Amalorpavanathan Joseph
It seems that the Pakistani law is largely based on the Indian Model. The fear is that the infirmities of the Indian model may get reflected in the Pakistan Act too.
SRI LANKA: THOUSANDS OF TAMILS STILL IN DETENTION CAMPS
Subash Somachandran & Kamal Rasenthiran
Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians, who fled the fighting in the final days of the military’s offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), remain in squalid detention camps in northern Sri Lanka. The official total is 106,000, with around 80,000 people still in the Manik Farm camps near the town of Vavuniya.
BANGLADESH: WHOSE EKUSHEY, WHOSE BLOOD?
Naeem Mohaiemen
Land grab is more than corporate deal; it is an act of powerful against powerless. Force substitutes for compensation in Bangladesh.
NEPAL: MAOIST CC FAILS TO PICK NEW MEMBERS
The central committee (CC) meeting of the main opposition party Unified CPN (Maoist) failed to take decision on proposed expansion of the party’s CC, politburo and standing committee (SC) on Tuesday as well.
ANNOUNCEMENT: CELEBRATING DIVERSITY
Anhad is planning to organize a cultural program- ‘Celebrating Diversity’ in Mumbai on March 6, 2010 at the St Andrews College Auditorium, Bandra.
INTERNATIONAL: ISRAEL
Editors, INSAF Bulletin
From time to time, INSAF Bulletin carries articles of political significance dealing with issues in other parts of the world besides South Asia.
ISRAEL: NOT A JEWISH STATE, A ZIONIST STATE [Extracts]
Akiva Orr
The Zionist movement and its State—ISRAEL, do not represent the Jewish people. They never did. They represent a particular trend within the Jewish people, namely—the nationalist trend. To find out whether Israel is a Jewish State or a Zionist State one need only ask any religious Orthodox Jew anywhere. His answer will be unambiguous: a Jewish State must be ruled by Jewish religious law—“Halakha.” Israel is not ruled by “Halakha” laws, but by secular laws. Therefore Israel is not a Jewish State. The fact that it provides refuge to Jews does not make it a Jewish State. Zionism and Judaism are different entities. They have contradictory qualities.
OBITUARY: NIHAR MUKHERJEE (1920-2010)
Gopal Kundu
Comrade Nihar Mukherjee, General Secretary, SUCI (Socialist Unity Center of India)-Communist, a great revolutionary, freedom fighter and comrade-in-arms of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, Founder General Secretary of the Party, after prolonged illness, breathed his last on 18 February, 2010 at 11 p.m. at the Calcutta Heart Clinic & Hospital. He was suffering from, among other serious ailments, sepsis with multi-organ failure, COPD and Parkinsonism. Comrade Mukherjee was 90.