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Subject: [India Thinkers Net]SANSAD Circular, Apr.15,04 Hindutava March to Fascism - April17, 2004



From: Hari Sharma <sharma@sfu.ca>
Date: Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:53am
Subject: SANSAD Circular, Apr.15,04, Hindutava March to Fascism  

Dear friends:

This Circular on "Hindutava's March to Fascism" has five items. All
pointing to the enormous inroads fascism has already made in India. A
warning to those who still believe that what has been happening is a
mere abberation in history which would and could be corrected in due
course; that India has survived serious crises before, and would deal
with this one too.

The coming national elections should be of much concern to all those
who take pride in the composite culture and civilization Indian
society had weaved over many centuries.

There has been Gujarat; where the Sangh Parivar fascists used the
state power to commit the most horrendous genocide in India's
history. Now there are Madhya Pradesh of Uma Bharati, and also
Rajasthan - both under the rule of BJP.

The items listed here are:

1. Punimia Tripathi's "Frontline" article on Madhya Pradesh.
2. An editorial from the most recent issue of Communalism Combat
3. Kavita Srivastava on the BJP rule in Rajasthan
4. Angana Chatterjee, on the Hindutava forces operative in Orissa.
5. A short excerpt from the editorial by Rajendra Yadava from the
Hindi magazine HANS

In the midst of all this is the elating news of the Supreme Court
verdict on the acquittal of Best Bakery murderers, arsonists, and
rapists. They will be tried again and in Maharashtra. A bit of a
victory of the people craving for justice. More on it in the next
SANSAD Circular.

hari sharma
for SANSAD
**********************

>Frontline
>Volume 21 - Issue 08, April 10 - 23, 2004
>
>COMMUNALISM
>A law unto itself
>
>PURNIMA S. TRIPATHI
>in Gwalior
>
>With a friendly dispensation in place, the Hindu
>Right in Madhya Pradesh is enforcing its dictates
>aggressively.
>
>Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharati hugs a
>calf in a gaushala that was opened at her
>residence in Bhopal.
>
>
>BE careful of what you say or do once you set
>foot in Madhya Pradesh. You can be terrorised,
>humiliated publicly, jailed and even hounded out
>of the State on the slightest pretext. The
>law-enforcing agencies will look the other way
>and the party in power will feign ignorance. Ever
>since a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government
>took office in Madhya Pradesh, the State has slid
>into the hands of lumpen elements from the
>Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
>
>What is disconcerting is that the law-enforcing
>machinery appears increasingly to be an
>accomplice in the destructive Hindutva project.
>This is what the family of a retired insurance
>officer, who has been living in Gwalior for the
>past 50 years, discovered on March 14, when
>members of the Bajrang Dal and the VHP and its
>women's wing Durga Vahini descended on their
>house in order to punish the daughter for
>insulting Ram, Sita and Laxman. According to VHP
>activists, the daughter, who teaches at the
>Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel
>Management, a Central government institute,
>directed a play lampooning Ram, Sita and Laxman.
>
>The play was staged on February 21 at the
>institute's annual day function. The girl pleaded
>innocence, and said that she regretted if
>anything wrong had been done. However, the
>activists wanted to blacken her face in public in
>order to teach her a lesson. When her father,
>brother and sisters protested, they were beaten
>up, shoved and dragged around the house.
>Furniture was destroyed and flower-pots were
>smashed. Said an eyewitness: "All the while the
>police remained a `mute spectator' only trying to
>ensure that fatal injuries were not inflicted."
>When all the damage was done, the police arrested
>six persons and chased away the rest.
>
>On March 9, VHP activists blackened the face of
>the institute's director, Devendra Singhai, a
>senior Indian Administrative Service officer.
>Chief of the Gwalior unit of the VHP, Narendra
>Pal Singh Bhadoria, proudly takes the credit for
>"teaching a lesson" to those who dared to insult
>Hindu gods and goddesses. He warns: "This was
>nothing. We can do much more if anybody dares
>repeat such things again. Ram ka apmaan bardash
>nahin hoga (we will not tolerate an insult to
>Ram)."
>
>According to Bhadoria, the play was sacrilegious
>because the characters Ram, Sita and Laxman were
>shown singing Hindi film songs and Sita was shown
>wearing a pair of jeans. Bhadoria says he was
>happy that he had succeeded in his aim of
>"creating fear in those who dared insult Hindu
>gods and goddesses". However, according to
>students at the institute, the play was a
>"harmless" skit called "Kal Aaj aur Kal" in which
>Ram, Sita and Laxman were made to sing lines from
>popular Hindi songs. "There was nothing insulting
>and such plays have always been staged in
>colleges," a student said. But Bhadoria has
>justified the resort to "direct action".
>
>Following the incident, Singhai is incommunicado
>and the girl has gone into hiding. The other
>family members, after having been warned against
>speaking up in public, are scared to go out into
>the city alone.
>
>A.M. FARUQUI
>
>VHP activists being arrested when they tried to
>force the closure of shops in Bhopal on March 17
>to protest against the arrest of their leader
>Acharya Dharmendra in Ujjain on March 16 for
>making incendiary speeches.
>
>What is amazing is that an incident involving the
>director and faculty member of a premier Central
>government institute has not even come to the
>knowledge of BJP leaders in the State or the
>Tourism Minister under whose jurisdiction the
>institute falls. "I have no information on this,"
>said Union Tourism Minister Jagmohan. Senior
>State BJP leader Maya Singh, who is also the
>party's election-in-charge in the State, was
>unaware of such an incident.
>
>Significantly, several such incidents are being
>reported from other parts of the State. In
>Indore, for example, in February, activists of
>the VHP and the Bajrang Dal attacked and
>demolished a car shop owned by Sajid Carwalla, a
>Muslim youth who had eloped with a Sindhi girl.
>The girl kept pleading that she wanted to marry
>the man, but activists of the Bajrang Dal and the
>VHP separated the couple by force. According to
>the local police and the municipal corporation
>who assisted in the demolition, the shop stood on
>encroached land. Sajid is in jail on charges of
>intimidation and kidnapping. The local VHP chief
>J.C. Jain justifies the action against Sajid. "He
>was an anti-social element luring Hindu girls and
>forcing them into wrong deeds. By punishing him
>we have done a great service to society because
>despite complaints against him, the police not
>taking any action. They took action only when we
>intervened," Jain said. He added that the girl's
>family members had come to the VHP for "help".
>The "anti-social element" theory, is, however,
>not substantiated by the police. "We have no
>records of him on this. But he is in jail on
>charges of kidnapping and intimidation. The girl
>has given a statement against him," says the
>Superintendent of Police.
>
>According to reports in the local newspapers,
>initially the girl kept saying that she wanted to
>marry him and later changed her statement. Says a
>local journalist: "It is a fact that Bajrang Dal
>and VHP people have become very aggressive ever
>since Uma Bharati became Chief Minister." He
>cites an incident on December 31, when activists
>of the two outfits staged a noisy protest against
>the staging of a fashion show at a hotel in
>Indore. In most of these incidents, the police
>are seen as not having stopped the perpetrators.
>
>Is Madhya Pradesh becoming yet another laboratory
>for the Hindutva forces? This streak of
>intolerance, as opposed to the benign tolerance
>of Hinduism, is more in evidence now than ever
>before among the votaries of Hindutva.
>
>Another case in point is Maharashtra BJP leader
>Gopinath Munde's demand to ban Jawaharlal Nehru's
>Discovery of India for its "defamatory remarks on
>Shivaji". According to Munde, "the book refers to
>Shivaji as a dacoit. This is a great insult to
>the king. If the book by James Laine can be
>banned for defaming Shivaji, then the same
>yardstick must be applied to Discovery of India".
>Munde's remarks came a day after State Home
>Minister R.R. Patil demanded an apology from
>Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his
>appeal to lift the ban on Laines' book, Shivaji:
>A Hindu King in Islamic India. The issue led to
>an uproar in the Maharashtra Assembly on March 17.
>
>But the occurrence of such incidents in Madhya
>Pradesh is hardly surprising. Uma Bharati's
>fetish for Hindutva was obvious right from the
>day she was sworn-in in the presence of
>saffron-clad sadhus. She went on to inaugurate
>gaushalas (cowsheds) all over the State as the
>cow, according to her, was associated with the
>"agrarian culture of India". While people were
>largely amused at these actions, her move to ban
>liquor and non-vegetarian food in the religious
>towns of Ujjain, Amarkantak, Onkareshwar and
>Maheshwar resulted in a rash of protests from the
>local people. Given that the cities are located
>on the banks of rivers, it was feared that the
>move, if implemented, would render a large number
>of local fishermen jobless.
>
>However, she remains resolute and the ban
>continues to be in force. She told Frontline:
>"The ban is definitely on. Sale of non-vegetarian
>food and liquor in the vicinity of religious
>places is prohibited. I have even told those
>managing the mosques and churches to see to it
>that such shops do not come in their vicinity."
>She admitted that sporadic incidents involving
>Bajrang Dal and VHP activists had come to her
>notice and "strict action has been taken against
>those responsible". However, there is no evidence
of any "strict action".

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communalism Combat February-March 2004 Year 10 No.96
Editorial
Day of the Bully
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/mar04/edit.html

The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory
against forgetting.

- Milan Kundera.

PM Vajpayeeji wants Indian Muslims to forget Gujarat and forgive for
he who forgives is nobler than he who is forgiven. Whether he would
also like the Supreme Court of India, the National Human Rights
Commission and millions of Hindus who do not approve of the sangh
parivar's hate politics to forget, he does not say. And, forget the
dead and the gone, what about the thousands of Gujarat's devastated
Muslim survivors, who have received no compensation worth the name
and who still face severe socio-economic boycott? Vajpayeeji has
forgotten about the Rajdharma he once reminded Narendra Modi of.

Advaniji, his No. 2 for whom Indian Muslims are obviously nothing but
the 'Pakistan within', the communal climate within the country has
never been better because there are signs of improved relations
between the two countries. What happens to Indian Muslims if Indo-Pak
relations were to deteriorate for whatever reason? Advaniji is silent
on that.

Venkaiahji, the BJP president, has suddenly remembered that his
grandfather was named after a Muslim saint! What does he think of his
party and government's determination in newly captured MP to rename
the sangeet academy named after one of India's greatest classical
singers, Ustad Alauddin Khan, because "Alauddin was a Bangladeshi"!
Or what does he have to say to the Muslim who was nearly lynched by
the Saffron Brotherhood and whose garage was razed to the ground by
the civic administration last week simply because he fell in love
with a Hindu woman who loved him too? We do not know.

Nonetheless, we have in the last few weeks witnessed the sorry
spectacle of a number of Muslim leaders proclaiming 'Lab baik!'
('Here we come!') to the Saffron call. By getting Vajpayee to release
a Hindi translation of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's commentary of the
Quran in the presence of a visibly uncomfortable Advani, in front of
TV cameras, Najma Heptullah has established the Saffron Brotherhood's
love for all things Muslim. Arif Mohammed Khan's, "I am surrendering
to the sangh parivar" was more straightforward.

We must question the motives of the self-seeking Heptullahs and Khans
who, having enjoyed power and pelf in secular India for decades, now
seem to be acting like vultures, fattening themselves on the carcass
of the very community in whose name they speak? But, what of ordinary
Muslims with little chance for self-aggrandisement who, too, are
starting to line up in front of Saffron Gate ('Advani ke ghar pe
Hajiyon ka hujoom!')?

Should one take solace in the fact that, after all, only a small
number are switching over? Or, should secular India not feel truly
ashamed and ask itself an honest question: When the Bully batters and
badgers the weak and the vulnerable and there is none to speak out
against the tyranny, what does the victim do? So why be surprised if
groups of Muslims here and there make peace with the Enemy.

For the opportunist Heptullahs and Khans who seek "better prospects"
using "surrender" as alibi, we need have nothing but contempt. But
political parties who project themselves as the torch-bearers of
Indian secularism must hang their heads in shame for having taken
India to where Hindutva wants it to go: "The goodwill of the majority
can be the only guarantee of the minority's security." (RSS soon
after Gujarat).

Back to Vajpayeeji and his fellow swayamsevaks. So, what's new? You
are offering a "new deal" to India's Muslims - education, employment.
Isn't this exactly what the BJP, under the presidentship of Advani
had sworn to deliver to Muslims at its national meet in Goa 10 years
ago (April 1995): Taleem (education), Tijarat (employment), Tanzeem
(organisation).

Even better: "The BJP will protect (Muslim) lives and they will enjoy
equal justice," Advani had promised Muslims during a press conference
in Ahmedabad in January 1993. In June 1997, he reiterated in elegant
prose his promised "to create a riot-free, violence-free and
discrimination-free India when the BJP comes to power at the Centre".

Those were mere promises. What Muslims actually got on the ground was
unprecedented hate crime whose "chief author and architect" ('Crime
Against Humanity', Concerned Citizens Tribunal) was none less than
Advani's own blue-eyed boy, Narendra Modi. Clearly, the offer now
stands revised: Forget "equal justice", accept the "protection" of
the Bully.

Vajpayeeji wants Muslims, and the rest of India, to forget Gujarat.
For a glimpse of what they can expect under Saffron Raj in the near
future, please read the chilling report in this issue of Angana
Chatterji on Orissa.

With elections in the offing, our cover story this month focusses on
the aspirations and demands of other weaker and vulnerable sections
of society for whom not just the BJP but most of the political class
has little time: children, women, dalits, tribals.

- EDITORS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJP rule in Rajasthan:
Going the Gujarat way
Communalism Combat February-March 2004 Year 10 No.96

Barely three months after coming to power in Rajasthan several
official and unofficial steps by the BJP and sangh parivar cadres
expose a virulently anti-minority agenda


BY Kavita Srivastava

In December 2003, the BJP won the Rajasthan state assembly elections
with a thumping majority. It returned to power after a gap of five
years with 120 MLAs out of a total of 200. The Congress was reduced
from a majority of 155 members to a mere 58. The return to power of
the BJP has already seen extra-constitutional control over levers of
power in the state and hegemony in the social sphere by the RSS and
its front organisations, particularly the VHP, Banvasi Kalyan
Parishad, Bajrang Dal, etc. In sum, it has meant an active
translation of the RSS agenda on the ground. Serious efforts are
being made to infiltrate the state machinery with persons
ideologically sworn to the RSS worldview.

In the last three months, several violations have been brought to the
notice of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan. The
longest list of complaints is from southern Rajasthan and includes
threats by the Tribal minister of the Rajasthan government to
denotify Christian Tribals. Active efforts are also being made by the
Banvasi Kalyan Parishad to alienate Tribal Christians since Christmas
2003. The recent incident of rape in Jhabua has been falsely reported
and pamphlets carrying inflammatory and false reports of the events
at Jhabua have been circulated.

(Kavita Srivastava is general secretary, PUCL, Rajasthan).

The full article could be read at:
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/mar04/sreport2.html


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communalism Combat February-March 2004 Year 10 No.96
Hindu nationalism and Orissa:
Minorities as other


BY ANGANA CHATTERJI

In October 2003 Angana Chatterji wrote a report on Orissa for
Communalism Combat about the political economy of Hindutva in the
state. In this article, she continues to map the entrenchment of the
sangh parivar. Information used in this article is derived from
multiple sources, including interviews with persons affiliated with
sangh organisations. As relevant, quotations are anonymous or
pseudonyms have been used, and place names changed, listed or
omitted, at the request of the contributor. Insertion(s) within [] in
the quotations are the author's.


Your god has no eyes. He cannot have a soul. Your god is violent,
just like you are.' A Hindu neigh-
bour charges Hasina Begum. With her technician husband, Hasina's is
the only Muslim family in a housing society in a small town in
Orissa. They relocated in 2003. Hasina and her husband are isolated
with few acquaintances in the area. Geeta, a Hindu woman, befriended
Hasina only to be confronted by others about such association with
Muslims. Geeta slowly withdrew, saying. 'We like you but we have to
live in society here, do we carry you with us, or carry them? What
choice do we have?' Geeta and Hasina do not speak any more.

Hasina Begum tells me, "We know that many Hindus hate Muslims and I
know that Hindus are in power. I am afraid for my daughter. I want
her to stay at home with me. She does not listen. So many times I am
afraid for her, I beat her to make her stay at home. She has marks on
her back from my beating her. I am ashamed. I feel isolated. If
something happens to us, if someone attacks us, robs us, who will be
with us? We are asked, 'You have no idols, so who is your god? Are
you godless?' I know that we are not welcome here. There are stories
about us 'Pathans' that circulate in the market place. We have heard
about Gujarat." People tell Hasina that nothing has really happened,
that she has not been attacked, that she is overreacting. She
replies, "Fear is attacking me. I feel that they are watching me."

The full article could be read at:
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/mar04/sreport1.html
-------------------------

Rajendra Yadava, editorial in the March 2004 issue of the Hindi
literary magazine, HANS.
(excerpt, translated from Hindi by Hari Sharma)

".....We should now stop saying that what is happening today is a
warning for the fascism on the way in; no Sir, fascism has arrived
fully. The experiment in the Gujarat laboratory was successful; the
rest is standing outside the doors waiting for the Lok Sabha
elections. Time has come for us to forget about preventing fascism to
arrive, but to prepare the war strategies to fight the massive tidal
waves already in the house. ...
... Do you know that in the Jhandewalan office of the RSS (in New
Delhi), there are already lists of such undesirable people whose
houses will be marked with a cross, a list which is updated daily?
... Included in such lists are names of people in the fields of art,
culture, literature and journalism, who are opposed to the Hindutava
agenda of BJP. I am included in the list. The entire list is
frightening. Muslim artists, actors, directors are prominently there.
The list identifies the "crimes" committed by each person, and what
punishment has to be meted out to them......"
 








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