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| << March17, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net]Nandigram ,Re-Sukla,Panda, letter from Krishna Iyer |
March18, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net] Regi's replies to 5 messages >> |
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[1] From: syed rahman <surahman2000@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Mar 17, 2007 Subject: Over 90 Samjhauta passengers 'unaccounted' a month after Over 90 Samjhauta passengers 'unaccounted' a month after http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=996&Itemid=66 By Jaideep Sarin, People offering namaz for Samjhauta victimsPanipat (Haryana), March 17: A month after twin blasts on an India-Pakistan peace train left 68 people dead and the two nations aghast, over 90 passengers of the train shockingly still remain 'unaccounted' for. Call it the apathy of the Indian Railways or simple carelessness on the part of its officials, hardly any efforts have been made to take stock of these 90 passengers who boarded the Pakistan-bound train from Old Delhi railway station Feb 18 night. Read full story http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=996&Itemid=66 ------------ [2] From: Abhiyya 2006 <abhiyya@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Mar 17, 2007 Subject: Books on traditions of intellectual debate in Islam “India had a glorious tradition of creative thinking on Islam” http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20070323001207900.htm BOOKS Ferment within A.G. NOORANI --------------- [3] From: WebXpurt <webxpurt@yahoo.com> Date: Sun Mar 18, 2007 Subject: TASLEEMA NASREEN -- by Kushwant Singh http://www.socialcause.org/getarticlefromdb.php?id=368 Tasleema Nasreen -- Kushwant Singh Some kind of assurance should be given to Tasleema Nasreen that she need not worry. Millions of Indians must have been relieved to hear that Tasleema Nasreen's visa which was due to expire in a week has been extended by six months. There is a strong case for it to be extended to her life-time so that she can become a citizen of India. A fatwa pronounced by some Bangladeshi bigots for her turning a free thinker has put her life in jeopardy in Bangladesh. Thousands Bangladeshis have been illegally sneaking in from their country to India, found means of livelihood, got ration cards and voting rights. We have not been able to do anything about them. Here we have a case of an eminent novelist who came to India legally, and is threatened with expulsion. Her only crime is that in her novel Lajja she exposed rampant corruption and religious skulduggery in her homeland and reneged from her faith. She has every right to do so. Mullahs pronounced the sentence of death on her. It is our sacred duty to protect her from harm. We gave refuge to the Dalai Lama and thousands of his Tibetan followers. They proved to be law-abiding and hard-working citizenery. Though the Chinese government has often upbraided us for granting them asylum , the rest of the world has applauded our extending hospitality to them. One can understand our government's reluctance to act in haste lest it offend the government of Bangladesh but some kind of assurance should be given to Tasleema Nasreen that she need not worry. She can stay in India for as long as she likes. An article published in The Outlook, Tasleema exhorted Muslim women to burn their burqas". It created an uproar in orthodox Muslim circles. The Koran and the Hadith were quoted in support of as well as against women wearing burqas. It is assumed that it is a matter which concerns Muslims only. This is not so: it concerns all of us because Muslims are an integral part of our society. Non-Muslims would like to be closer to the Muslims, their families visit Muslim homes and receive them in theirs. This is not possible if bigoted Muslims persist in segregating the women and bullying them to wear burqas when they step out. Segregating women is a relic of the medieval past and should be discarded in the interests of the Muslim community. I fully support Tasleema's call to burn burqas. Other Muslim nations are fast getting rid of them. Pakistan and Bangladesh have had women Prime Ministers and Ambassadors. Pakistan, Tunisia, Libya and many other Muslim countries have women soldiers. Who are these mullahs and their female counterparts to tell us that wearing burqas is a religious obligation? It is not? It has become an emblem of Jehalat - ignorance and backwardness. Courtesy: http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=edit\ orials&xfile=February2007_malice_standard178&child=malice ------------- [4] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Mar 17, 2007 Subject: Subject: Re: You're invited! Join Hindutva today & Re- Online petition Mr. Panda It is not my paranoid but a Hate monger like you trying to hide yourself into the Secular Mask is exposed. At no point I said anything against Veda or any scripture but I am questioning Paranoids like you trying to use Veda, Ayurveda, Yoga, Kamasutra like Indian property as greatness of your religion which is the root cause of destruction of all these above said subjects. One more thing I like to point Mr. Panda to make your PARANOID in its full strength. Most of the Sacred Books are written by Dalit Indians. How it end up treating that same DALITS under your religion UNTOUCHABLE while promoting the same BOOKS written by Dalits? This is a VERY important evidance that Hindutva is not the authorised dealers of anything related to India. You stolen these books from Dalits and made them Untouchables. This prooving that these books are written by Indians and Hindutva made them UNTOUCHABLES. Destruction of the greatness of India started under Hindutva only. Read below "How the pen at the hand of Dalits became brooms today?" (Dr. Udit Raj – National Chairman of All India Confederation of SC/ST) the sacred book Ramayana and others are believed to have written by Maharishi Balmiki and other Dalit saints from untouchable communities. If so, then question of Dr. Udit Raj, "How the potential writing of Dalits became the brooms today" remains mystic. the sacred book Ramayana and others are believed to have written by Maharishi Balmiki and other Dalit saints from untouchable communities. If so, then question of Dr. Udit Raj, "How the potential writing of Dalits became the brooms today" remains mystic. Was it destined to Dalits by their own choice or they were made? India is not poor and illiterate nation but rich and literate but made desperately poor and illiterate by exceedingly rich and pseudo literate. Many Dalit and social activists have figured enough that dominate caste Hindu population is minor representing only 15% of Indian population, yet enjoyed dominations over 85% remaining population on caste structure of Hinduism ever since their invasion on Indian soil. Dalit movement to quite caste religion will fear that dominate caste Hindu could become minor in socio and religion-political structure some day. Dominate caste Hindus' motives of opening ups for Dalits to reconcile, could it be because Dalits have taken the footpath of lesser known Mahatma Jyothi Rao Phule and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who set example to quite the religions that discriminate them and embrace other? World that we live in never remains as a glove in Information and Technology era but it has become a flat world that the plights of Dalits hidden for centuries has started opening in the eyes of the world. Few days ago, United Nation has told India to halt caste discrimination to Indian Dalits. Equal access should be granted to Indian Dalits in the place of worship, hospital and education, reports Reuters. Dr. Kancha Ilaiah – Dalit activist and Political Scientist defines Hinduism, "Religion that teaches that human beings are not created equally is the fascism. Hinduism teaches men are created unequally." Therefore he strongly feels that democratic religion only able to set the Dalits liberated. He defines it, "Democratic religion is that human beings are created equally with equal opportunities. " Casteism and Hinduism is knitted together. Therefore can Hinduism survive without casteism or Casteism without Hinduism? Will Hinduism really survive without casteism, if not, will Dalits be really liberated from caste and able to reconciled with dominate caste Hindus? >>>>>>>>>>> That way Christians have started slavery, racism/apertheid, nationalistic clashes, World Wars. I never highlighted them. panda >>>>>>>>>>> Panda you start talking with Hindutva authority on Indian culture and end up accusing Christians on Slavery, Racism, Apartheid etc... PARANOID! Panda if the above said Slavery, Racism/Apertheid, Nationalistci Clashes, World Wars etc are products of Christianity Then Microsoft is a product of same Christianity isn't it? What about Internet It is too a product of Christianity. Please stop using this Christian tool Panda! What about Indian Railway Lalu's 20,000 Crore profit making Inc. It is too a Christian Product isn't it? What about the Indian Military? Loard Mount Batton is the owner of it isn't it? Hindutva is not protector of India it is the destructor of India Panda. By the way Hindutva was supporting British Rulers (Your Christians) at the time of Freedom Struggle. regi. From: "kalyan_panda" <kalyan_panda@yahoo.co.in> Date: Fri Mar 16, 2007 Subject: Re: You're invited! Join Hindutva today & Re- Online petition Magadha kingdom 1700 BC. Veda 2500 BC is accepted. It's other name is Shruti/Trayee(originally 3). Rhat's in the name Regi? I had to debate with you as you wanted to emphasize something else. All the names are given by modern men. Why are you so paranoid about Veda? That way Christians have started slavery, racism/apertheid, nationalistic clashes, World Wars. I never highlighted them. panda ------------- [5] Pakistan's President At His Dictatorial Worst By Tarek Fatah http://www.countercurrents.org/pak-fatah170307.htm The chief justice had been seen by the military regime as a direct threat to the implementation of their economic, political and social agenda. He was removed because he stopped the privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills and was an obstacle in the American neo-liberal agenda for the region -------- [6] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Mar 17, 2007 Subject: Nandigram, SEZ and CPIM POLITICS-INDIA: 'Neo-Liberal' Left Behind Peasants' Massacre Praful Bidwai NEW DELHI, Mar 16 (IPS) - By ordering police to open fire on peasants trying to protect their land from being acquired for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the communist government of West Bengal state has indicated the crumbling away of the last bulwark in India against neo-liberal and free market policies. At least 15 people died and over 50 were injured by police firing on Wednesday in Nandigram leading to serious rifts within the Left Front coalition that is supposed to rule West Bengal but where power is monopolised by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). Since the firing, Nandigram has witnessed unceasing confrontation between the state police and CPI-M cadres, on the one hand, and local residents organised under the banners of various political parties and non-party groupings, on the other. After the initial shock and fear that sent them fleeing, people belonging to five villages in the Nandigram area, about 150 km from West Bengal's capital Kolkata, have regrouped and are now fighting the police and demanding to know the whereabouts of their missing relatives. "The people claim that the number of those killed is much higher than the official figure of 15, and that the police and CPI-M cadres are burying bodies under rubble and building roads and culverts over them," said Aditi Chowdhury, a Kolkata-based social activist who has been following developments in the area, where trouble first erupted two-and-a-half months ago over the acquisition of land for the construction of an SEZ. Speaking with IPS over telephone Chowdhury said: "Thousands of armed policemen surrounded the villages, and on many occasions they fired at eye-level to kill. TV footage showed trucks carrying bodies with their legs dangling out. The brutality was chilling.'' She added that state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's brazen defence of the firing, as part of an attempt to restore law and order in the area, has only occasioned more public anger. The Nandigram events, in particular the police firing, have seriously dented the image of the Left Front, which has ruled the state for an uninterrupted three decades -- considered a global record in democracy and electoral politics. The CPI-M's main partners in the Left Front -- which includes the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Forward Bloc, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) -- are livid and have publicly deplored the resort to repression. They are alarmed at the blatant contradiction between what the Left preaches at the national level, and what it practises in the states where it is in power -- West Bengal and to a lesser extent in southern Kerala. Like West Bengal, Kerala has also been looking to foreign investment to help generate employment for its skilled workforce. But its Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan, once a factory worker himself, has stuck to transparent functioning and a pro-poor approach in dealing with foreign investors keen to set up software parks in the 100 percent literate state. In West Bengal, Bhattacharjee advocates the zealous pursuit of industrialisation at any cost, if necessary by offering concessions and tax breaks to investors, of a kind which the Left Front has always regarded as "crony capitalists". CPI general secretary A. B. Bardhan strongly condemned the police action in Nandigram as "unheard of" in the Left Front's history and a black-mark in its record. The party's West Bengal secretary Manju Majumdar called it "brutal and barbaric." Forward Bloc general secretary Ashok Ghosh said the incident "has tarnished the image of the Left Front." And senior RSP leader Kshiti Goswami rhetorically asked: "Does democracy exist in this state or not?" Together these partners hold a total of 51 seats in the 294-strong legislative assembly, as compared to the CPI-M's overwhelming 176 seats. They have long complained, usually off the record, that they are not consulted by the CPI-M while taking major decisions on behalf of the government. But Nandigram has given them a new voice. The dissidents in the Left Front have found a strong supporter in the grand old man of West Bengal politics, CPI-M politburo member and former chief minister Jyoti Basu. He told the Left Front chairman Biman Bose that the CPI-M was running "one-party rule in this state. It doesn't look like a coalition government at all?" Basu has asked the Chief Minister to own up responsibility. Clearly there are serious misgivings about Nandigram and Bhattacharjee's industrialisation policy within the CPI-M too. These are voiced in private by party leaders and especially intellectuals who are bitterly but cogently critical of neo-liberal or free-market policies. Bhattacharjee is inured to such concerns. He has been rooting for private sector-led industrialisation as a panacea for the state's economic woes. He is pushing through an automobile factory for the Tatas, one of India's foremost business groups, at Singur in the face of staunch opposition from peasants who are being forced to sell their land under the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Nationally, the Left Front demands abrogation of this law because it allows the state to expropriate land to be used for private profit. The Tatas are also being offered huge subsidies at Singur, of the order of one-fourth of their capital investment. Bhattacharjee shelved land acquisition plans for the Nandigram SEZ because of powerful protests in early January, and because the CPI-M politburo asked him to put all SEZs on hold in line with the central government's own decision to do so until after a national rehabilitation policy is finalised. But, as the influential Times of India daily pointed out in an editorial on Friday, ‘'the offer to withdraw the notification for land acquisition and shift the SEZ project elsewhere seems like a ruse meant to distract the villagers who had barricaded the area''. SEZs have become intensely unpopular in India because they are widely seen as "sweetheart deals" which offer huge tax breaks and privileged treatment to promoters and exporters at the expense of the public exchequer. Even the World Bank has expressed misgivings about SEZs. Originally, 10,000 acres of land were meant to be acquired for the Nandigram SEZ to be awarded to the Salim conglomerate of Indonesia, which is believed to be a front for the super-corrupt Suharto family. There is a great deal of unease in the CPI-M and the Left Front about favouring this group. Why did Bhattacharjee resort to draconian police action after the Nandigram SEZ was shelved? He claims the state had to reestablish its writ and law-and-order, which had broken down; the area was blockaded to government functionaries for two-and-a-half months. "The rest of the answer lies in the CPI-M organisational structure in West Bengal," says Tanika Sarkar, a modern Indian historian who visited Nandigram to inquire into the violence there in January. Speaking with IPS, she explained that the CPI-M cadres control the entire area and have a stake in all major economic transactions. ‘'It won't brook any challenge to its monopoly of power. Yet, when the protests against land acquisition broke out on Jan. 7, and the cadres tried to suppress them, they faced the people's anger. Many were driven out. The have been itching to return and reestablish their hold." Sarkar said the CPI-M cadres knew that they could only return to Nandigram by relying on police support. ‘'That's what the latest operation was all about. Brutalising ordinary people and denting the party's credibility as a pro-poor organisation is the price the CPI-M had to pay to please its local cadres." Nandigram has major implications for the Left's future in India. Of the country's many political parties, the Left alone has a coherent critique of neo-liberal policies, which are creating havoc through their vicious dualism, contribution to widening disparities, and callousness towards the poor. If the Left embraces neo-liberalism in West Bengal, and tries to attract corporate investment irrespective of whether it generates employment and skills, that will damage its credibility, and weaken its ability to act as a progressive pressure-group to rein in the aggressively pro-liberalisation Manmohan Singh government at the centre. It is in pursuit of the pressure-group role that Left Front supports the Singh government from the outside rather than join in the federal government. India's Left parties today enjoy their highest-ever representation in Parliament. Their credibility and respect far exceeds their membership or political representation. They are best placed to develop an alternative model of development that is not predatory on people's livelihoods. "But this won't happen unless the Left, in particular the CPI-M, stops its own rightward drift," argues the noted political scientist Achin Vanaik. ‘'If it fails to correct course, it will undergo rapid decline,'' said Vanaik who teaches political science at Delhi University. (END/2007) ---------- |
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| << March17, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net]Nandigram ,Re-Sukla,Panda, letter from Krishna Iyer |
March18, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net] Regi's replies to 5 messages >> |
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