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[1] From: yogi sikand <ysikand@yahoo.com> Date: Wed Feb 1, 2006 Subject: human rights violations in india: atrocities on muslims 2005 HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS BULLETIN January 31, 2006 HUMAN RIGHTS & LAW UNIT (HRLU) INDIAN SOCIAL INSTITUTE Centre for Reseach, Training and Action for Socio-Economic Development and Human Rights Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003 (INDIA) Email: hru@unv.ernet.in, Phone:24622379/ 24625015 Web Site : http://www.isidelhi.org.in For free subscription of HR News Bulletin, Please send us an email to hru@unv.ernet.in . News Clippings on MINORITIES - MUSLIMS ?? 2005 1. Poorest Biharis are Muslims (7) 2. Stormy affair: Muslim board to take up birth control issue (7) 3. Muslims harassed by Congress: SP (7) 4. Bhopal youth kept away from Hindu wife even after SDM order (7) 5. Bhopal youth, fighting for Hindu wife??s custody, murdered (7) 6. Call off tour if Pak won??t play here: Gujarat cricket body (7) 7. Madrasa board chief draws flak on cultural nationalism (7) 8. Gujarat Muslims on US radar (7) 9. Muslim group favours uniform civil code (7) 10. Activists laud move on Modi (1) 11. Censure motion in US House over Modi visit (7) 12. National Commission for Backward Sections constituted (7) 13. Fatwa fury on communists (7) 14. 60 years on, Govt tries to understand Muslim mind (7) 15. BJP to focus on rise in Muslim numbers (7) 16. Muslim leaders protest demolition of mosque (7) 17. RSS conversion claim refuted (7) 18. High-level panel to prepare report on Muslims?? status (7) 19. Muslim growth rate is highest but falling: Panel (7) 20. Muslim board adopts Nikah-nama (7) 21. AMU Muslim, quota: VHP will go to court (7) 22. Mob sets fire to 2 mosques after acid attack (7) 23. Burnt by kin, nursed by villagers (7) 24. To 'protect' Hindu girls, BJP govt orders 2 colleges to swap buildings (7) 25. Panel urges more credit access for Muslim youths (7) 26. `Separate census an insult to Muslims' (7) 27. 5% quota for Muslims in Andhra (7) 28. Stay away from hardliners: RSS tells Muslims (7) 29. Quota for Muslims dangerous: Swamy (7) 30. Quota for Muslims politically motivated: Sharad Yadav (7) 31. Muslims not a minority: RSS chief (7) 32. Muslims fear backlash after hate mail deluge (7) 33. Mosques, madrasas attacked in UK (7) 34. IUML, Bajrang in Mataram war (7) 35. Builders want to demolish mosque(7) 36. Curfew imposed on Dhar after 2 die in communal violence (7) 37. Muslims angry over VHP plea to vacate houses near mandir (7) 38. Jamiat asks Muslim ministers to quit (7) 39. Raje Govt plans to relocate madarsas out of mosques (7) 40. Scared, Muslims flee workplaces (7) 41. ???UP Muslims insecure, deprived?? (7) 42. Muslim bodies defensive on Shariat (7) 43. 'Muslims denied rights, feeling insecure' (7) 44. Urdu 'sidelined' in Jharkhand, allege Muslims (7) 45. Rajasthan lets Sangh target Muslims, says PM??s team (7) 46. Muslim Board disagrees with SC (7) 47. Indian Muslims say they don't feel safe post 9/11 (7) 48. BJP assails fatwa, vote-bank politics (7) 49. Muslim girls' fight against odds (7) 50. Muslim law board to seek PM aid (7) 51. Minority Commission urges madarsas to upgrade syllabi to university standards (7) 52. RSS man Rajasthan Waqf chief (7) 53. AMU loses its minority status (7) 54. Respect minority character of AMU, says Congress (7) 55. 'Govt tried to make madrasa in Aligarh?? (7) 56. Girl convert appears in court with MIM MP (7) 57. Muslim bill dismissed (7) 58. Muslims enraged by order (7) 59. BJP renders cleric fatwa on divorce unlawful (7) 60. Muslims worst-hit by globalization (7) 61. Jaya: Survey of Wakf properties completed (7) 62. Arjun's latest: Muslim quota in IITs, IIMs (7) 63. Student shown door for burqa (7) 64. Hindu woman fights for Muslims?? cause (7) 65. Bengal Muslims need our help: CM (7) ---------------------------- [2] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Wed Feb 1, 2006 Subject: Help That Hinders -Arundhati Roy Help That Hinders Arundhati Roy BECAUSE of globalisation the distance between decision-makers and those who endure the effects of those decisions has never been so great (1). Gatherings such as the World Social Forum allow local activist movements to reduce that distance and get to know their counterparts from wealthier countries. When the first private dam was built, at Maheshawar, links between the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the organisation Urgewald (Germany), the Berne Declaration (Switzerland) and the International Rivers Network (Berkeley, US) made it possible to divert many banks and international companies from the project. That would not have been possible without solid local resistance and international support to allow the local voice to be heard globally, which led to investors withdrawing from the project. One problem faced by mass movements is the NGO-isation of resistance. It will be easy to twist what I say into an indictment of all NGOs, but that would be false. There are NGOs doing valuable work; there are also fake NGOs set up either to siphon off grant money or as tax dodges. But it??s important to consider the NGO phenomenon in a broader political context.In India the funded NGO boom began in the late 1980s and 1990s, coinciding with the opening of India??s markets to neoliberalism. At the time the state, in keeping with the requirements of structural adjustment, was withdrawing funding from rural development, agriculture, energy, transport and public health. As the state abdicated its traditional role, NGOs moved in to work in these areas. But their available funds are a minute fraction of the cut in public spending. Most wealthy NGOs are financed and patronised by aid and development agencies, funded by western governments, the World Bank, the United Nations and multinational corporations. Though they may not be the same agencies, they are certainly part of the same political formation that oversees the neoliberal project and demands the slash in government spending. Why should these agencies fund NGOs? Could it be missionary zeal? Guilt? It??s more than that. NGOs give the impression that they are filling a vacuum created by a retreating state. And they are, but in a materially inconsequential way. Their real contribution is that they defuse political anger and dole out as aid or benevolence what people ought to have by right. NGOs alter the public psyche. They turn people into dependent victims and blunt political resistance. NGOs form a buffer between the sarkar and public (2). Between empire and its subjects. They have become the arbitrators, the interpreters, the facilitators. In the long run NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They are what botanists would call an indicator species. The greater the devastation caused by neoliberalism, the greater the outbreak of NGOs. Nothing illustrates this more poignantly than the phenomenon of the US preparing to invade a country while simultaneously readying NGOs to clean up the resultant devastation. To ensure their funding is not jeopardised and that the governments of the countries they work in will allow them to function, NGOs have to present themselves in a shallow framework, more or less shorn of a political or historical context (an inconvenient historical or political context anyway). Apolitical - therefore extremely political - reports of distress from poor countries and war zones eventually make the (dark) people of those (dark) countries seem like pathological victims. Another malnourished Indian, starving Ethiopian, Afghan refugee camp, maimed Sudanese in need of the white man??s help. They unwittingly reinforce racist stereotypes and reaffirm the achievements, the comforts and the compassion - the tough love - of western civilisation. They??re the secular missionaries of the modern world. Eventually, on a smaller scale, but more insidiously, the capital available to NGOs plays the same role in alternative politics as the speculative capital that flows in and out of the economies of poor countries. It begins to dictate the agenda. It turns confrontation into negotiation. It depoliticises resistance. It interferes with local peoples?? movements that have traditionally been self-reliant. NGOs have funds to employ local people who could be activists in resistance movements, but instead feel they are doing some immediate, creative good while earning a living. Real political resistance offers no such short cuts ------------------ [3] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Wed Feb 1, 2006 Subject: Resurgent NDA Resurgent NDA Arvind Sinha Those who had started to see the decline and disintegration of NDA after its defeat at the centre, and the Jinnah controversy inside BJP leading to clash between Advani and RSS, and began dreaming about revival of the so-called ???Third Front?? as an alternative to both UPA and NDA, are proving to be utterly wrong and pipe dreamers. Advani-RSS conflict has been resolved through a difficult compromise for both sides leading to change in BJP leadership and revival of Hindutva issues, so closed to the heart of RSS. JD (U)-BJP alliance has won the Bihar Vidhan Sabha election with comfortable majority. And now Karnataka is also likely to fall in the NDA kitty due to changing of sides by a so-called secular party, JD (Secular) towards BJP. The Congress government in Karnataka is bound to fall, especially, after the limitations imposed on Congress in their wheeling and dealing techniques because of the Supreme Court judgement in Bihar assembly dissolution case. Buta Singh??s head has fallen, but the BJP is demanding the resignation of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi. The ghost of Bofors has again surfaced after the shameless act of the central government in giving clean chit to Quottrochi and allowing him to withdraw millions of dollars from his frozen account in London bank. This has thoroughly exposed the central government and discredited it in the eyes of the people. Not only that, a bolt from the blue has come in the form of warning from the side of Mulfold and Rice on the Iranian question. The weak and demoralised response from the Indian government has further eroded the credibility of the central government. All these factors has given a new lease of life to NDA, which was lying dormant and was in disarray after its defeat in last parliamentary election. It has started a new offensive against Congress-led UPA government at the centre with a new confidence. As the economic policies of both UPA and NDA are the same, the only issues which they raise is trivial issues against each other. In fact, both are trying to prove more capable than the other in implementing the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation which suits imperialist world order. CPI (M) tried to rekindle the fire of ???third front?? to gain central position in national political scene utilising the temporary disarray in NDA. CPI (M) leaders had serious talks with TDP leader Chandra Babu Naidu and Mulayam Singh Yadav in this regard. In CPI (M)??s game plan it was possible to again revive the ???third front?? with help of Lalu Prasad led RJD, Mulayam Singh led Samajvadi Party, TDP, DMK, etc. They thought that NDA would not succeed in reviving itself. So, it was possible to regroup regional and so-called social justice parties around them, and capture power at the centre utilising the disenchantment of the people due to anti-people, anti-poor policies of the government. They conveniently forgot that CPI (M) led government in West Bengal is also implementing the same imperialist globalisation policies. No only that all the regional and ???social justice?? parties are implementing the same economic policies wherever they are in power. Indian people are not politically so immature that they will be convinced by hollow slogan shouting and posturing of ???left front?? leaders that they are genuinely anti-imperialist. What is needed in India is a revolutionary left and democratic alternative opposing imperialism, feudalism and comprador big bourgeoisie. But forces like CPI (ML) Liberation create a confusion in the minds of the people that JD (U) and LJP may become part of ???third alternative?? to serve the interest of the people in opposition to both Congress and BJP. The only condition they wanted to be fulfilled was that JD (U) severes its relationship with BJP and LJP severes its ties with Congress. They conveniently forgot the fact that both JD (U) and LJP leader Ramvilas Pasvan have been in central government for long time and implemented imperialist globalisation policies fully. So the regional parties like JD (U), Mamta Banerjee led TMC, TDP, DMK, AIADMK, AGP, etc. are all full partners of imperialism in their respective areas of influence and represent comprador ruling class sections of our country. They are totally unfit for any genuine and meaningful struggle against imperialism. But the ruling class parties and the leaders are expert demagogues, and they know how to hoodwink the people. They critisise even those policies, when not in power, which they themselves implemented when they were in power. A case in point is Salim issue in West Bengal. Mamta Banerjee was a minister in Vajpayee government which championed privatisation and Foreign Direct Investment in our country with full gusto. BALCO was handed over to a private capitalist in spite months of strike by BALCO employees and opposition from large section of the people. Mamta prettily sat with Vajpayee government and NDA and helped in the implementation of all anti-people policies of the government. But now, she is trying to pose as the champion of peasants and workers interest and oppose to MNCs and FDI. For this she utilised the opportunist policies of the ???Left Front?? to invite MNCs and FDI in West Bengal. Some forces opposed to the opportunist and anti-people policies of the ???Left Front?? government are influenced by hypocritical stand of Mamta Banerjee and are eager to join hands with her to oust the ???Left Front?? government. But the people of Bengal will definitely not be fooled by Mamta led TMC and defeat her diabolical designs. In todays world there is no middle path. You either have to fight and defeat imperialism lock, stock and barrel, or be a slave of imperialism and serve them. There can be no ???human face?? of the present globalisation. So the need of the hour is to develop through arduous struggles a peoples alternative to the ruling class alternatives in the form of UPA, NDA, Third Front, Left Front, etc. For the creation and development of such an alternative the communist revolutionaries, patriotic, democratic and genuine left forces should join hands and launch powerful peoples?? movement against the present socio-economic system. People alternative will emerge out of this fiery struggle. ---------- [4] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Wed Feb 1, 2006 Subject: Asbestos Ship Asbestos Ship Capt. K.S. Rajwar Its winter season in Mumbai and if you step in any GP clinic, you will notice a big queue of patients, awaiting their turn. Most of them are coughing, sneezing and wheezing. Simple home remedies do not work, so the Doctors treat them for lung related ailment, the cough can become pretty nasty, causing pain in the chest and headache and last for several days. If untreated for long may lead the patient to suffer from Asthma, Chronic Bronchitis, Pulmonary hypertension, Pneumonia, or worst the lung cancer. The main culprit for this the fluctuating temperature , warm moist air during day and cool dry air during night, the cool air being dense with pollution. Thanks to large growth in city traffic, this city is choking in its own fumes! But imagine what will happen to the people in Alang and its neighboring areas, where soon we have an Asbestos Ship , the 27,300 tonner French Navy Aircraft Carrier ???Clemenceau??? coming to Alang ship breaking yard in Gujarat with 130 tons or more asbestos, plus other toxic wastes including radio-active waste to be dumped into our back yard. For 35 years this ship served French Navy and was named after Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister during 1906-07 and 1917-20. Ironically it is Georges Clemenceau who once commented ???in order to act, you must be somewhat insane. A reasonable sensible man is satisfied with thinking!??? Sure enough the French Govt. is acting now by violating all norms including Basel Convention on Transboundry Movement of Hazardous Wastes, which prevents export as well as import of hazardous substances. Both France and India are signatory to the Basel Convention. Moreover France was the first country to recommend the ban on use of Asbestos on board ships, to the Maritime Safety Committee during 42nd session of sub ?? committee meet of IMO on 8th-12 Dec.1997 . So why is Asbestos a dangerous waste? Its is the name given to a group of naturally occurring minerals used in certain products, such as building materials, insulation material and vehicle brakes. It includes chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite asbestos, anthophyllite asbestos, actinolite asbestos and are chemically treated and bound. So long it is intact it may not be harmful but when the surfaces are disturbed, for example scratched, cracked or broken in pieces then the loose fibers can be dangerous. The problem with asbestos fibre is, it??s very fine and not seen with naked eyes and if inhaled by the workers it can lead to serious disease of the lungs and other organs that may not appear until years after the exposure has occurred. Asbestos fibres can cause a buildup of scar like tissue in the lungs and result in loss of lung function and often progresses to disability and death due to cancer of lungs, both small and large cell, mesothelioma-a cancer of lining of the chest and abdomen, or cancer of the gastroinstestinal tract. On our part, we have been ever obliging to bring business home without the prior thought of the danger, the toxics like asbestos can pose to the health of poor shipbreaking workers at Alang, where the working condition for the skilled is not fully industrialized and regulated. Welders, cutters, fitters, riggers and other man power are not provided adequate safety and protective gears. Toxics are manually handled, the disposal facility being inadequate and still primitive, causing pollution to the adjoining areas and the sea. Until it was banned for industrial use on board ships, the older ships prior to nineties, used asbestos as insulation to resist heat and corrosion. Therefore one would find a lot of asbestos laggings in cumbersome locations on ship for example in the engine room, bilges, tanks, boilers spaces, fireproof bulkheads and narrow pipe ducting. Alang workers will have to physically creep in the these narrow spaces which may not be well ventilated and break asbestos in very close proximity of their face, thereby offering themselves as human sacrifice. I am very skeptical about the one week asbestos handling training that the French have given to some of the workers, who had gone to France recently. It??s more like a short cut to Safety! Shipbreaking may me profitable business for the few but at what cost? In order to do good and profitable business Alang or for that matter other ship breaking yards in the country must redefine ship breaking as country??s frontline and modern industry and not just a private garbage yard. It must review its work culture and must provide its employees with upto date training first, and in particular provide asbestos awareness training from the certified experts in the industry. Must also establish decontamination areas and hygiene practices for its employees. For any employee who is exposed to airborne concentrations of asbestos that exceed a Permissible Exposure Level, which must not exceed 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air, averaged over an 8 hour shift (ref US Dept of Labour Occupational Safety and Heath Administration ) , they must be provided with fully protective clothing and respirators. Must place warning labels on all asbestos products, containers and any installed construction materials. Medical checks on the workers to be carried out on regular basis by specialized physicians and record maintained. Workers to be insured and awarded a decent life befitting the risky job they undertake. It becomes very essential for our country to have a highly placed autonomous Govt. body strictly dedicated to regulate State Pollution Control Boards , and to ensure that there are sufficient trained, specialized and motivated personnel who can work with independent mind, understand the consequences of various kinds of toxic wastes on land and at sea and take responsibility to ring alarm before its too late ----------------------- [5] From: "sanjeev nayyar" <exploreindia@vsnl.net> Date: Thu Feb 2, 2006 0:13pm Subject: Re: [indiathinkersnet] Gandhi Murder Revisited sukla yu might want to read my article why was gandhi killed. http://www.esamskriti.com/html/essay_index.asp?cat_name=why&cid=577&sid=119 with prem sanjeev |
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