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).
THE DANGER OF FUNDAMENTALISM TO SOUTH ASIA
Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
The murder of Salman Taseer, the governor of the Punjab province of Pakistan, by his bodyguard is generally seen as a Pakistani phenomenon. Because the killer was the bodyguard of the Governor, some commentators have likened it to the assassination of Indira Gandhi because in her case also the assassin was her bodyguard. But that similarity is superficial. In political terms, the murder of Salman Taseer is more like the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by the Hindu zealot Nathuram Godse. In both cases, religious extremists were the murderers.
THE PROBLEM WITH PAKISTAN
Vaqar Ahmed
The problems that Pakistan faces today are a direct and logical consequence of the basis of the creation of the country.
PAKISTAN: THE MURDER OF LIBERAL THOUGHT AND TOLERANCE
Kiran Omar
The barrage of bullets that fatally ripped through the body of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer murdered more than a political and public figure. They rent apart the lingering myth that space still existed in Pakistan for liberal thought, religious tolerance and inclusive politics.
HOW CAN THE PAKISTANI LEFT BECOME RELEVANT?
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Pakistani society owes much to numerous progressive left-wing individuals, as well as small groups. They unionized industrial and railway workers, helped peasants organize against powerful landlords, inspired Pakistan’s minority provinces to demand their rights, set standards of writing and journalism, and raised voices for peace and against militarism. Often this was at enormous personal cost. Leaders and workers belonging to worker and student groups have been targeted, victimized, beaten, and sometimes killed.
But the truth must be the told secular, liberal, and left groupings has never had a national presence in Pakistan and, even at their peak during the 1970’s, could not muster even a fraction of the street power of the Islamic or mainstream parties.
ARE ZIA’S MONSTERS DEVOURING PAKISTAN?
Kaleem Kawaja
General Zia ul Haq was one of the presidents of Pakistan in the mid 1970s to mid 1980s. That was also the Ronald Regan era in US and the era of the soviet occupation and war in Afghanistan. Zia collaborated fully with Regan and the US military machine to use the Pakistani soil to bring in huge supplies of arms to help Afghans fight the soviets. Together Regan and Zia encouraged religious militancy in NWFP and in Afghanistan, using and exploiting Islam to fight the soviet war machine. Many a Muslims in Pakistan were radicalized using Islam for this purpose. After the soviets left Afghanistan, US also pulled out of the war ravaged Afghanistan and left it to internal civil wars among Afghan factions that lasted over a decade, literally destroying Afghanistan.
LOOK AT PAKISTAN AND BE HAPPY
Dipankar Gupta
Our grief at Salman Taseer’s assassination has a schadenfreude aspect to it. We are sad that a brave man died unjustly, but we are happy this happened to our neighbor next door. True, Taseer was part of the establishment, but he had a change of heart when it came to the blasphemy law.
DEMOCRATS TO THE RESCUE
Dipankar Gupta
When Binayak Sen was arrested it gave a much-needed boost to the Maoists. As they advocate violence to achieve their ends, it is like oxygen for them every time the state commits a travesty of justice. It is worth remembering that armed movements, of whatever variety, have succeeded only in autocratic, dictatorial and monarchical states, but never in democratic ones.
SWAMI, SANGH AND TERROR LINKS
Ram Puniyani
Investigating acts of terrorism have multiple complex issues as things are mired in secrecy. To add to the problem is the mindset of investigating authorities and those in power. The acts of terror, which have been inflicted on the country, have been mainly attributed to the Jehadi Terror and mostly the theory which has been guiding the police authorities has been to work on this understanding.
NEPAL: IDENTITY POLITICS AND FEDERALISM
Federal restructuring of the state has emerged as a major demand of ethnic and regional activists in Nepal. The debate about it is extremely politicized. Federalism is not simply the decentralization of political power; it has become a powerful symbol for a wider agenda of inclusion, which encompasses other institutional reforms to guarantee ethnic proportional representation and a redefinition of Nepali nationalism to recognize the country’s ethnic and cultural diversity.
MAOISTS IN NEPAL: THE DIFFERENCES WITHIN
Prashant Jha
At a recent meeting, the Maoists expressed their commitment to peace and the constitutional process but also decided to prepare for a revolt.
UNEQUAL INDIA-NEPAL ACCORDS NEED TO BE RENEGOTIATED
Shirish B Pradhan
Nepal Maoist chief Prachanda sought to allay India’s concerns that his party was strongly anti-Indian, but underlined that the two countries need to redefine the ‘unequal’ accords of the past given the dramatic changes of the past few years.
SHARING SHOULDERS
(Daya Varma, Pervez Hoodbhoy and Vinod Mubayi)
CORRESPONDENCE
PEOPLE’S SAARC CONFERENCE CONDEMNS MURDER OF SALMAN TASSER
A resolution condemning murder of Salman Taseer Shaheed by a religious extremist was unanimously adopted during Peoples SAARC meeting/conference in Dhaka on January 18-19, 2011.
SUPREME COURT FOR RELIEF OF VICTIMS OF SALWA JUDUM, SECURITY FORCES OR NAXALITES
(Source: SACW January 18, 20111; abridged)
Justices Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar responded to the petition by Senior Counsel, Mr. Ashok Desai, and ordered the Chhattisgarh government to vacate security forces from all educational institutions, disband Salwa Judum camps and offer relief to all victims of the violence regardless of perpetrator.
GET RID OF ILLEGAL SHRINES: SUPREME COURT TO STATES
Bhadra Sinha
Taking exception to states’ dilly-dallying on the removal of illegal religious structures, the Supreme Court threatened to summon the respective chief secretaries if they failed to comply with directions to remove or relocate places of worship built on public land.
HUMAN RIGHTS HELP FROM UNLIKELY SOURCES
According to a news item in the Times of India (Jan 23, 2011), a seven-member delegation of the European Union has requested permission to watch the trial of Binayak Sen at the Chhatisgarh High Court. The decision of the High Court to allow these observers is yet not known. BJP MP Ram Jethmelani is appearing on behalf of Binayak Sen.
CHRISTIAN COUNCIL SATISFIED WITH VERDICT FOR KILLERS OF GRAHAM STAINES
The decision of the Supreme Court of India on January 22, 2011 to uphold the life imprisonment of Dara Singh and his accomplice Mahendra Hembram convicted of killing Graham Staines and his two young sons in January 1999 has been welcomed by the All India Christian Council.
(Based on an item by John Dayal)
PROTEST DEMANDING RELEASE OF MUSLIMS HELD IN MALEGOUN JAIL
More than 40 Muslim organization held a protest meeting at Azad Maidan, Mumbai demanding release of all Muslim youth held in Malegoun jail on charges of bomb blasts in the wake of confession by Swamy Asmanad in front of Delhi judge.Speakers included Abu Asim Azmi (MLA) Samajwadi Party, Amjed Ullah Khan Corporator MBT party, Sheik Abdul Kaleem (who was arrested in Mecca Masjid Blast), Moulana Syed Khaled Ashrafi, Moulana Mastakim Ahsan Azmi (Jamat Ulema,Maharastra), Nazir Md Madoo (Amir Jamaat E Islami,Maharastra)and Moulana Syed Ather Ali
IN DEFENCE OF ARUNDHATI ROY: DEMAND TO UPHOLD FREE SPEECH AND EXPRESSION
Statement by Academics and Activists from India and Abroad
We condemn the demand of the BJP to take the strongest possible action against Arundhati Roy for her seditious comments at the seminar, Azadi: The only way held in New Delhi, October 21, 2010.
BANGLADESH: THE ILLEGAL ARREST OF LABOR RIGHTS ACTIVIST
William Gomes
Dhaka: Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the Bangladesh’s Military Intelligence is behind the arrest of labor rights activist Moshrefa Mishu, a leftist political activist and President of the Garment Workers Unity Forum (GWUF), a labor rights organization of the readymade garment factories of the country. Confined in Dhaka Medical Hospital (DHMC) by highly armed police officials Moshrefa Mishu exposed the horrific torture description the in several undercover interviews to Srilanka guardian.
FIRST MUSLIM ARRESTED AFTER MECCA MASJID BLAST RELEASED ON BAIL
Abdul Kareem released on bail in crime No: 658 of 2010 of Kushaiguda Police Station. He furnished sureties of Twenty thousand rupees. He was earlier arrested after Mecca Masjid blast and tortured in private farm house.
GUJARAT GOVERNMENT AFTER HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties) strongly condemns Gujarat Government’s campaign of calumny against and attempt to frame under false charges human rights defender Teesta Setlavad, of Citizens of Justice and Peace, lawyer M.M. Tirmizi, victims survivors of Lunwada massacre and media person Rahul Singh for exposing Gujarat Police’s callousness and cruelty in the Lunwada massacre and mass burial case.
KABIR FESTIVAL HELD IN MUMBAI
To honour the great medieval poet and saint Kabir, a nine day long festival from January 14 to 23 was organized in Mumbai.
INDIAN PRIME MINISTER SLEEPS WHILE THE COUNTRY DRFITS INTO ANARCHY
Daya Varma
According to news reports (January 24, 2011), Maharashtra police arrested hotel managers who did not inform the police about hosting foreign delegates attending a Women’s Conference organized by Illina Sen, wife of Dr. Binayak Sen at the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University at Wardha. The police used an archaic law, the Foreigners Act of 1946, to harass Illina Sen as well.
TOTAL CAPITULATION
Tariq Ali
The ‘Palestine Papers’ being published this week by al-Jazeera confirm in every detail what many Palestinians have suspected for a long time: their leaders have been collaborating in the most shameful fashion with Israel and the United States. Their grovelling is described in grim detail. The process, though few accepted it at the time, began with the much-trumpeted Oslo Accords, described by Edward Said in the LRB at the time as a ‘Palestinian Versailles’. Even he would have been taken aback by the sheer scale of what the PLO leadership agreed to surrender: virtually everything except their own salaries. Their weaknesses, inadequacies and cravenness are now in the public domain.
SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY OF THE ASIA TO GAZA SOLIDARITY CARAVAN
From Rajghat in Delhi, through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. The caravan, in its journey of over 7000 km, collected $1 million worth of aid supplies including four ambulances, medical supplies and essential food supplies.
CHINA BRICS UP AFRICA
(Abridged from an article by M K Bhadrakumar, a career diplomat and supplied by Prof Sam Noumoff)
There can be no two opinions that Beijing made a smart move. Its decision to anoint South Africa as a new member of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will be projected as based on economic grounds, but there are any number of other dimensions.
ANNOUNCEMENT
The Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG or the Calcutta Research Group) in collaboration with various other institutions has held in the in the last six years three critical studies conferences. The first conference held in 2005 was on What is Autonomy? The second conference held in 2007 was on Spheres of Justice . The third conference held in 2009 was on Empires, States, and Migration . The aim of these exchanges of ideas and scholarly works has been to promote critical thinking on issues affecting our lives. These exchanges have been inter-disciplinary, intense, and directed towards new thinking and ideas.
OBITUARY: KANDALA GOPALSWAMY KANNABIRAN (1929-2010)
Personal memories of the man by Vithal Rajan
An obit that would do justice to this Just Man would occupy a fair-sized book. I am sure a compilation in memoriam’ will be attempted soon by learned people, who worked for him, and alongside him. I was a bystander most of the time, and I can offer only a few personal glimpses of a man, whose name and fame and work filled over three decades of India’s human rights struggle. He was lean, taut, and spry, and his commitment to universal justice blazed forth as from a pulsar. But at other moments he was a genial companion, learned and impish in turns, with an ineradicable sense of humour even about what he held sacred his work and an ever-green childlike romantic ideal till the very end of days.
K.G. KANNABIRAN, INDIA’S “LEADING CIVIL LIBERTIES LAWYER FOR THE LAST FOUR DECADES”
Many of Kannabiran’s writings are collected in a 2004 book, The Wages of Impunity: Power, Justice and Human Rights. His funeral was conducted quietly soon after he passed away, as his wife, Vasanth Kannabiran, explained in a guest post on Kafila:
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