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[1] Salwa Judum: Unreported India's Hidden War By Madhu Chandra 10 September, 2007 Madhuchandra. org Have you heard about Salwa Judum, India’s hidden war in tribal dominated area of central Indian state Chhattisgarh? I am sorry! I haven’t until I attended at a People’s Convention at Hindi Bhavan, New Delhi organized by Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chhattisgarh (CPJC)! Sociologists, activists and scholars have condemned Salwa Judum as State Machinery’s license to its people to kill its own people in the name of counterfeit encountering Red Corridors. Can you believe it happens in central part of this vast country, known and proud of being world’s largest democratic nation! Indian Medias of both print and electronic are known of their capability to unearth but it seems they are na?ve on India’s hidden war against tribal communities of Chhattisgarh that makes India’s hidden war still hidden from nation’s eyes and ears. CNN IBN in 2006 March warned the nation provoking the Home Ministry by exposing the Red Corridor of Naxals (Maoists) in tribal dominated areas of Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhan, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. A documentary film “India’s Hidden War” produced by reporter Sandra Jordan and Director James Brabazon was screened and left its images of deep wound and violation against the innocent tribal communities of Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh who used to live peacefully in their own world. Sandra and James traveled deep into the Indian jungle to expose how India’s aspirations for a superpower economy are resulting in an increasingly bloody civil war. Government funded militias are battling red guerrillas of Naxal for control of India’s mineral resources. Hundreds of thousands of tribal villagers are caught in the crossfire between Red Corridors and Salwa Judum. Salwa Judum in Gondi term means a peace campaign merged by capitalists, traders, land owners and elites to fight against Naxalites from mid 2005, often supported by state machineries, state police forces and politicians. Ever since Salwa Judum merged, the lives of people, particularly Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, where 90% of its habitants are tribal communities, became turmoil. According to CPJC, the leaders of Salwa Judum have empowered sections of tribal communities with bows and arrows, swords, axes and arms, marched from village to villages to ethnic cleanse from Naxalites. Villagers who refuse to join Salwa Judum have been treated as members or pro-Naxalites. Tribal villagers are forced to relief camps run by Salwa Judum and those who refused were severely beaten even murdered by Salwa Judum activist with support state police forces and Naga Regiments.(1) Salwa Judum leadership composes from top political leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress. They appoint the Camp leaders, mostly from non-tribal communities. Under political leaders and non-tribal camp leaders, recruits the hot blood youngsters with indoctrinations of hate campaign into State Police Officers, who are trained and paid by Government machineries to join hands with ordinary innocent tribal villagers to loot, burn and rape in the name of retaliating Naxalites. Over 500 lives have been killed by Salwa Judum, Naxalites and Security Forces ever since the merge of Salwa Judum in Dantewada district alone. Violation against women includes the gang rap, custodial rape, mutilation of private parts, murder, continuous sexual abuse in villages, police stations and even so called relief camp of Salwa Judum. The lowest 70,000 to maximum 100,000 Villagers are forced to internal displacement and migration to neighboring states of Orissa, Jharkhan and Andhra Pradesh, who there suffer pathetic life situations. (Photo: Sanitary image of Relief Camp) Government of Chhattisgarh has setup 20 Salwa Judum camps in Dantewada district where it is reported to have 47,500 villagers taken shelter. The fact finding team of CPJC reports that most of the relief camps face acute shortage of food, water and amenities. People are forced to live in extremely unsanitary conditions and did not allow tribal villagers to return back homes. In some of the relief camps, Government is trying to convert into permanent villages of which many villagers are worried that their villages and cultivation lands with rich mineral resources would be one day turn into the clutches of capitalists, traders and elites to convert into mineral factories. Challenging the constitution validity of Salwa Judum, the Supreme Court of India issued notice to Chhattisgarh government in May 2007 to stop Salwa Judum committing atrocities in the pretext of countering the Naxalite movement and urged to order impartial enquiry into atrocities committed by this group.(2) The state machinery’s crime against its own people has been desperately kept hidden to the nation and world. The victims testified in People’s Convention that state machineries intentionally didn’t allow Medias to come and report on India’s hidden war of Salwa Judum. (Picture: Children without acute food and amenities) Deep in India’s central jungle, weaker section of India’s tribal societies who already suffered socio-economic and educational backwardness, remains unheard of their man made and state sponsored crime on humanity. The People’s Convention demands from Chhattisgarh Government 1. Disband and disarm Salwa Judum immediately. 2. Stop appointing Special Police Officers. 3. Stop Recruiting children and adolescents below 18 years of age. 4. Allow tribal communities to return to their villages. 5. Government to rebuild burnt and broken homes. 6. Stop harassment and allow free access to journalists, civil society organization, and medical camp and education workers. 7. Repeal the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 8. Create a conductive atmosphere for dialogue to find political resolution to political issues. 9. Stop arrest, detention and false implication of Human Rights Activists, Social Workers etc. and release all such persons. The People’s Convention demands from Government of India 1. Stop aiding and abetting Salwa Judum in the name of promoting “local resistance groups.” 2. Institute a high level independent enquiry into all acts of violence-rape, arson, loot, murder and disappearances by Salwa Judum and paramilitary forces and initiate criminal proceedings. 3. Recognize the right to live and dignity of internally displace people living outside Chhattisgarh and ensure their safety. 4. Create a conductive atmosphere for dialogue to find political resolution to political issues. People’s Convention demands from Naxalite 1. Stop all forms of violence 2. Create a conductive atmosphere for dialogue to find political resolution to political issues. 3. Stop recruiting children and adolescents below 18 years of age 4. Allow safe return of villagers to their home including Salwa Judum supporters. 1. Salwa Judum: Civil War in Chhattisgarh, CPJC, New Delhi, 2007, p. 6. 2. The Hindu, May 20, 2007 ---------- [2] From: syed rahman <surahman2000@yahoo.com Date: Sat Sep 15, 2007 Subject: Curfew in Udaipur after two sects of Bohra community clash Curfew in Udaipur after two sects of Bohra community clashed http://www.khabrein.info/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=6292&Itemid=8\ 8 Udaipur, Sep 15 (IANS) Curfew was clamped in a locality of Udaipur, the city of palaces, after some members of two sects of a Muslim community clashed over offering prayers in a mosque. ---------- [3] From: syed rahman <surahman2000@yahoo.com Date: Sat Sep 15, 2007 Subject: Contempt notice to police over Raje's goddess poster Contempt notice to police over Raje's goddess poster http://www.khabrein.info/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=6298&Itemid=8\ 8 Jodhpur, Sep 15: A court here has issued a contempt of court notice to police for not taking action against those behind a controversial poster depicting Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as a goddess. A lower court here Friday issued the notice to the Udai Kothi police station here for not registering a first information report (FIR) after some fans of the chief minister brought out a controversial poster depicting her as a goddess. -------- [4] From: rkurian@bgl.vsnl.net.in Date: Sat Sep 15, 2007 Subject: War Zone India.. Vishnu Bhagat http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/op-ed/war-zone-india\ .aspx War zone India By Vishnu Bhagwat When the opposition to the India-US nuclear deal added up to a majority in Parliament — because of substantive, cogent reasons, as it compromises India’s sovereignty and independent policies — a media blitz was launched to camouflage the real motives of the July 18, 2005 Manmohan Singh-George Bush joint statement. The statement had talked of "a global partnership based on two nations committed to the values of freedom, democracy, rule of law, prosperity and peace throughout the world … to enhance our ability to provide global leadership in areas of mutual concern and interest…" It requires a genius to figure out how a strategic, albeit unequal partnership with the world’s hegemon can be forged, a hegemon which has demonstrated time and again its belief in pre-emptive warfare, has violated international law, the UN Charter, and according to the Nuremberg Principles has committed the supreme war crime of invading another country. The US nuclear doctrine holds out threats of launching a nuclear war on 1,200 targets in Iran inside 72 hours, despite the latest IAEA certification that Iran does not have a weapons programme. Successive US administrations have attacked, invaded or bombed 66 countries, post World War II, not counting the "Black Operations," assassinations of leaders and regime changes. Now the US administration is using the strategy of ushering in democracy through corporate funded NGOs and orange, tulip and cedar revolutions. Vietnam took place over three decades ago, but how can a Congress party-led government, reconcile itself to the gen ocide in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that of the Palestinian people by Israel? The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the NSSDs, issued since 2001, all proclaim US and international finance capital’s intent of militarisation as an adjunct to free markets. Thus this ideology seeks to control the world economy, its financial institutions and all primary and energy resources. Though West Asia has been the greatest prize for it, Central Asia, Russia and China are also in its cross-wires. US state department officials state that the United States and India have a common approach towards Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, all part of the US’ "Failed States Index." Foreign and defence policies are two sides of the same coin. India, which has been coerced with the carrot of the nuclear deal, has already voted once in the IAEA to report Iran to the UN Security Council, and a second time to impose UN Charter Chapter VII, Article 41 sanctions on Iran, saying that Iran is a threat to peace. Should the US desire, there is no way that India will not vote a third time recommending the use of military force against Iran (Chapter VII, Article 42). The Indo-US Defence Framework Agreement of June 28, 2005, preceded the Bush-Manmohan Singh joint statement of July 18, 2005, with Pranab Mukherjee, prior to flying to Washington DC, assuring MPs that these were just exploratory talks. The agreement states "in pursuit of this shared vision of expanded and deeper US-India strategic relations our defence establishments will undertake joint operations when in mutual interest; …continue strategic level discussions by senior leadership, promoting shared objectives and developing common approaches…" In 2001, the government offered the US three military air bases: Awantipur (J&K), Adampur and Bhuj. The US chose Pakistan’s military bases, as Pakistan was its most important non-Nato ally. The Indian government, after ordering the nation’s biggest military mobilisation ever in January 2002 — which resulted in nine months of self-inflicted attrition and compromise of the electronic order of battle — was all ready to dispatch a division of the Army to Iraq, as cannon fodder as in World War I and II, to serve imperial interests. But it had to retreat due to pressures from the public and the Army’s general staff. However, delusions of "great power" ambitions and dreams remain. The media has failed to convince the people that Malabar 07 in the Bay of Bengal is just another naval exercise, like past exercises with China, Russia, Oman etc. The foreign minister has questioned the "fuss" about the exercise, to which the response should be, "Go, tell the marines this." Flowing from the Defence Framework Agreement, the war games in the Bay of Bengal are a substantive step towards integrating India’s military with the US’. How else can "joint operations" in third countries be undertaken as underlined by the Defence Framework Agreement? To cap it all, US aircraft carrier Nimitz, back from its flagship role as part of the US expeditionary nuclear strike force off the Persian Gulf, and Kitty Hawk and a nuclear armed submarine fitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles (the ones that were launched in 2001 on Afghanistan) are integrating for future joint operations with the Indian Navy. After these "exercises" or war-games, these US warships will re-deploy off Iran. Navies are instruments of state policy. It insults our common sense to hear frivolous statements that India has been conducting similar "exercises" with China, Russia etc. Everyone knows the difference between token, flag-hoisting drills or simple turns of two or three ships undertaken after goodwill visits, and the joint war-games just executed, as also the steps that will follow pursuing the strategic partnership under the Defence Framework Agreement with the US. Malaysia and Indonesia have maintained a stoic silence, however they resent the anti-piracy patrols in the Malacca Straits undertaken earlier at US initiative by the Indian Navy. The message to our neighbours and to the NAM is clear and the consequences unpredictable. But Indians will not accept adventurism in the name of their security. They understand the implications of the proximity to US and its military embrace. Dr Arjun Makhijani, president of US Institute of Energy Research, aptly stated in the context of the Indo-US nuclear deal: "I believe for the Indians to have submitted to this … at this time is not very strategically or politically appropriate specially if India aims to continue as a leader of the nonaligned world. It would be throwing away that leadership for something I don’t believe it’s going to get from the United States." Does the government implicitly endorse a nuclear war on Iran? And after such a war will it say that, just as in Iraq, the war was "a mistake"? The Iranians have never attacked another country in five or more centuries. There is a common saying in our villages: "Those who assist people to destroy a neighbour’s home and hearth are likely to invite sparks that set fire to their own homes." Pakistan’s NWFP and Waziristan are bearing the brunt of the Afghan war spill over, with Pakistanis being bombed by Nato and US aircraft, despite their nation being a close US ally. India is being steadily co-opted as the base on which US’ security architecture in Asia is being built. US military presence in Asia is deeply destabilising and divisive. Let those who hold the temporary reins of government, listen to the voices of sanity and reason in and outside Parliament before they hurtle India into a "war zone" and into a military alliance which the time tested policy of nonalignment was formulated to prevent. Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat is a former Chief of the Naval Staff ----------- [5] From: rkurian@bgl.vsnl.net.in Date: Sat Sep 15, 2007 Subject: How to Sweep Hyde Out... http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/opinion/how-to-sweep\ -hyde-out-.aspx How to sweep Hyde out By Pran Chopra The Hyde Act is a burden cast on India by the domestic politics of America. But the Act has also created a precedent which India can use for shifting the burden back. Can use it, that is, if our own political parties allow the voice of our Parliament to be heard clearly. To be heard by India itself to begin with, and then by the world. We can do this without causing any harm to our energy prospects. We need to clearly pose a question to America first and then to the rest of the world: Does America accept the 123 Agreement? It was urged in an article on August 20 (The Curious Silence on Hyde, The Op-Ed Page) that India must help the world — and first of all must help Indians themselves — to see quite clearly what are the limits of what India and America have mutually agreed upon, who is trying to cross those limits, who should be blamed if the 123 Agreement broke down, whether both should be blamed, being joint custodians of the agreement, or America should be blamed for bringing down the agreement through its unilateralist insistence upon the Hyde Act. Unlike the agreement, the Act is wholly an American product, and on top of that it is partly a product of the domestic politics of America. Therefore, the blame should lie upon America if the agreement is shown to have been killed by the Act. Little of the Hyde Act was publicly known to have figured in the Indo-American negotiations in which the 123 Agreement was hammered out. But those negotiations were mostly with a Republican presidency which also controlled Congress. However, before they could be completed the negotiations came under the shadow of several internal rifts in America. For example, the many countrywide rifts between the Republicans and the Democrats on domestic issues; and next the rift between a Republican presidency and a Democratic Congress; and next, between some pro-India Republicans and the many non-proliferation ayatollahs of the Democratic party; and between the power of the presidency to make a treaty and a congressional itch to put legislative curbs upon it. Hence, the drastic intrusions of Clauses (B) and (D) of the Hyde Act into the purposes of the agreement. These clauses can deny certain benefits of the agreement to countries which, among other things, have a foreign policy which is not "congruent to the foreign policy of the United States," or which do not give "greater political and material support to the global and regional objectives" of the United States in respect of nuclear non-proliferation and anti-terrorism. In general terms, these may seem to be harmless requirements for India to meet, and in fact the Act itself states that India has met them already. But if they are applied selectively to particular regions or countries on particular issues they can become severe restrictions on India’s diplomatic choices. In his detailed statements recently in Parliament on all that goes under the name of a "nuclear deal" between India and America, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was outstandingly eloquent in defending the agreement. But equally eloquent was his total silence on the Hyde Act, confirming what the whole country knows by now, that large and very vocal sections of Indian opinion have serious problems with the Hyde Act. Since then, Mr Kapil Sibal, India’s minister of state for science and technology, has spoken in about the same as the Prime Minister. As one of the few ministers who has tried to confront the avalanche of public criticism of the Hyde Act, he wrote recently that the "Hyde Act cannot possibly override the provisions of the 123 Agreement" because the former, he says, is "the last expressions of sovereign will." But as they stand, the silence of the Prime Minister about the Act, and Mr Sibal’s accolade for the agreement as an "expression of sovereign will" do not constitute a sufficient safeguard against what someone else may posit as the sovereign will of another country. Mr Sibal does not tell us in whose "sovereign will" he sees such a "safeguard," and in which document of which government has the "sovereign will" found "expression." However, there have been some recent developments which show which way India should go if it is to develop suitable "safeguards" of its own, and there have been joint statements by some leading scientists which affirm that such safeguards can be entirely viable, and some prominent political opponents of the "deal" have indicated that the ideas given by the scientists will not lack the political backing they may need to make them India’s own "sovereign will" in this matter. Some of the way ahead lies parallel to the precedent set by the US Congress in passing the Hyde Act. The rest lies in a more cool assessment of what are our present energy needs and capabilities and what they can become in future; and whether the gap between them can be closed by other means less expensively than by immediate submission to the Hyde Act; and what part nuclear energy must play in this strategy, in addition to what other sources of energy can realistically contribute; and what view may be taken of this strategy by other countries when they are shown what part has been played by India and what by others in bringing us to the present pass. Some views on all these issues are mostly floating at present on the power of phrases. India must of course remain faithful to what it has openly and freely agreed upon in transparent negotiations with any other country or countries. But it must carefully weigh any obligation that is sought to be thrust upon it by purely unilateral declarations such as the Hyde Act. Similarly, in accepting whatever it decides to accept it must also put down, perhaps in its own equivalent of the American 123, what it should not be assumed to have accepted. We should do that without being crippled by fears or hopes of reactions in one country or another. Some indications of what may be attainable have surfaced of late. India’s external affairs minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who now speaks on these subjects with prime ministerial authority, said recently, "We have initialled separate texts of the 123 Agreement." He did not say with whom, or what are the differences between the two texts. But his silence is not without meaning in the given context. A more recent report in a reputed newspaper has said that in signing its own 123 with US, "China has managed to incorporate a provision that neither side would invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to observe the principles of a treaty." Are these precedents too high for India to quote? ----------- [6] Setusamudram Canal- Good Project, Bad Politics By Mirza A. Beg http://www.countercurrents.org/beg150907.htm Unfortunately by unnecessarily questioning the historical veracity of Lord Rama the government and the politics is being battered on the shoals and Monkey business of religious exploitation by the feudalistic pseudo democratic parties Why India Should Join UNITAID? By Stanzin Dawa http://www.countercurrents.org/dawa150907.htm The civil societies and people living with HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are calling the Government of India to change the course of history by signing UNITAID to ensure access to treatment more precisely access to second line treatment to bolster prevention efforts and improve overall health systems throughout the country. Comprehensive Treatment and care of people living with HIV/AIDS and effective prevention cannot wait. People living with HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are demanding for real Access for All ----------- [7] From: syed rahman <surahman2000@yahoo.com Date: Sat Sep 15, 2007 Subject: Mayawati to defend Mulayam's recruitment of 13,000 Urdu teachers Mayawati to defend Mulayam's recruitment of 13,000 Urdu teachers http://www.khabrein.info/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=6304&Itemid=8\ 8 Lucknow, Sep 15: The Uttar Pradesh government will appeal against an order of the Allahabad High Court quashing the selection process for appointment of 13,000 Urdu teachers in the state, a top official said Saturday. "We will make an appeal before the Supreme Court," a senior official and aide of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati told IANS on the condition of anonymity. --------- [8] From: kashif-ul-huda <kaaashif@gmail.com Date: Sun Sep 16, 2007 Subject: Farzana to get free education for saving five Farzana to get free education for saving five By IANS http://www.twocircles.net/2007sep15/farzana_get_free_education_saving_five.html Patna : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has rewarded 15-year-old Farzana with free education for saving five persons from drowning in a flooded river two days back, officials sources said Saturday. "Nitish Kumar ordered Purnea District Magistrate to arrange free education for her," official sources in his office said. Farzana, a school dropout, rescued a woman, three children and a man Thursday, when a boat carrying nearly a dozen people and two motorcycles capsized in the flooded Panar river in Purnea district. "Farzana jumped into the river without wasting time, after she heard them cry for help," said Jamil Ahmad, the proud father of Farzana. Farzana, who is an expert swimmer, learnt swimming at a very young age, Ahmad said. Farzana has become a household name here after the incident and the state government has decided to recommend her name for the National Bravery Awards for children --------- |
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| << September14, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net] TN reservation policy ,Regi & Mishra posts etc |
September16, 2007 - [India Thinkers Net]Gandhian sant Singh ,Ram idol ,re-Adam's bridge etc >> |
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