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April16, 2006 - [India Thinkers Net] Posts 6-12 >> |
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---------------------------------------- HAPPY EASTER TO ALL THINKERS india thinkers net ----------------------------------------- [1] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Sat Apr 15, 2006 Subject: Nepal Parties Reject King's Offer [History has shown, time and again, that monarchy and democracy cannot cohabit in Nepal. Moreover, Gyanendra appears to be by far the worst of the lot. In Nepal, where Hinduism is the state religion, the King is considered as the God incarnate. The massive protests on the streets all across the Himalayan kingdom amply establishes that Gyanendra has lost all his legitimacy in the eyes of his people. Under the circumstances, the monarchy must go. An election must be held to elect a constituent assembly to draft a new (republican) constitution. A new government must be brought into being as per the provisions of the new constitution. The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) must be disbanded. All sections of the insurgents must lay down arms. A new army is to be formed under the joint supervision of all the pro-democracy political forces. In the interim, deployment of UN peacekeeping force, reporting to the local command constituted of all the pro-democracy political forces, may be considered. The police force needs be overhauled. The judiciary and bureaucracy be reconstructed as per the new constitution. A reconciliation commission may decide the fate of the King and others charged of mass murder. One must also specifically guard against the possibility of recurrence of Pol Potism with all its spinechilling consequences. Any attempt to restore 'constitutional monarchy' at this stage would be disastrous. In such an event the major organs of the state, the RNA in particular, will remain in tact. Under such circumstances, the Maoists will refuse to lay down arms. A civil war will again ensue rather sooner than later.] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4908988.stm BBC NEWS Nepal parties reject king's offer Nepal's main political parties have rejected an offer by King Gyanendra to participate in talks which the king says could pave the way for elections. In an address to the nation, the king said he would open up a dialogue with the opposition and hold elections. But the opposition said the king's offer contained nothing new and protests would continue. Home Minister Kamal Thapa said he hoped the security situation would improve enough to hold elections within a year. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu said the king's offer - delivered in a new year's speech - was short on substance. His call to all political parties to join in a dialogue was something he had always advocated and he had spoken of holding general elections without delay many times before, our correspondent says. Rejection The opposition has accused the king of trying to hold on to direct rule and say he has not taken account of the protesters' demands. "The king has failed to address the protests and the movement for democracy. He is only using the offer for dialogue to try prolong his rule," said Krishna Sitaula of the largest party, the Nepali Congress party. "We will intensify the protests until we get rid of the autocratic monarchy," he said. The king's critics, both domestic and international, say elections in the current climate of instability are impossible. The opposition parties have already said they would boycott them. Clashes this week between anti-royal demonstrators and security forces have left four people dead. --------------------------- [2] From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Fri Apr 14, 2006 Subject: BJP's Call: Damn the ‘Dammed’! I. http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=286232&category=Frontend&Count\ ry=INDIA Dam height review sets up clash with BJP Friday, April 14,2006 NEW DELHI: The government is gearing up to tackle an inevitable clash in the Narmada Control Authority meeting on Saturday, as the BJP slammed its decision to review the increase in the Sardar Sarovar Dam’s height. The NCA’s review committee is headed by the Union water resources minister and includes the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra as well as the Union environment minister. The ratio of warring political parties is 3:3 with the two Union ministers and the Maharashtra chief minister on one side and the chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states on the other. “Rehabilitation and development should co-exist. But we warn the government against any move to stop construction of the additional metres at the dam site,” BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said today. As a way out, the Centre is considering a proposal to let the construction continue but stop the release of the additional volume of water till rehabilitation of the displaced is over. [.....] The Telegraph | II. Narmada Bachao Andolan - 62 Gandhi Marg, Badwani, Madhya Pradesh 451551. Ph: 07290-222464 - C/o B-13 Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Vadodara, Gujarat 390023. Ph: 0265-2282232 - Maitri Niwas, Tembewadi, Dhadgaon, dist. Nandurbar, Maharashtra. Ph: 02595-220620 PRESS RELEASE April 13, 2006 § Health of all three fasters deteriorates § Medha Patkar writes letter to the SHO for her release § RCNCA meeting announced for Saturday morning; NBA states dam construction must be stalled since rehabilitation not done and Report of the Ministers visit should be released § Anna Hazare visits dharna site, also meets Maharashtra Chief Minister § Solidarity actions around the country and the world continue and intensify The health of the three fasters is beginning to deteriorate on their 16th day of indefinite hunger fast. Jamsingh Nargave's is in a lot of pain, especially in his legs. Bhagwati behen is beginning to experience a lot of weakness. Medha Patkar's BP and potassium level continue to fluctuate abnormally and the ketone level is positive. She is experiencing weakness and severe headaches. However, the struggle for justice and the hunger fast continues and will continue unless the people of the Narmada Valley get justice. Medha Patkar has written a letter to the Parliament Street SHO demanding to know what sections she has been charged under, since she was officially not been served any papers at all. Nor has she been produced before a magistrate until now. Yet, she is being held under detention. Meanwhile, noted social activist and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare visited the dharna site today to support the ongoing struggle. He also met Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, to urge him to intervene in this matter as far as the rehabilitation of Maharashtra families is concerned. The meeting of the Review Committee of the NCA has been announced for Saturday morning. NBA welcomes the decision to call the meeting, however, we reiterate that this meeting should have been held one month ago when the construction clearance was given. By now, the dam construction has proceeded upto about 3 metres, illegally! NBA demands an immediate stalling of construction until all affected families are rehabilitated as per Supreme Court directives; with land and shifted six months before possible submergence. Solidarity actions, demonstrations, dharnas and solidarity fasts continue throughout Indian and the world over. 34 individuals and 42 organisations from all over the world including Bangladesh, Australia, USA, Belgium, Thailand, Philippines, Venezuela, Japan, etc, have written a letter of protest to the Prime Minister. The letter states, "...this is a blot on your government...the Narmada struggle is a reaffirmation of the Indian constitution's commitment to democracy and justice". The organizations include Friends of the Earth, Australia, Assembly of the Poor, Thailand, Focus on the Global South, Thailand & Philippines, Center for Economic Justice, USA, Nodo Bolivar Del Observatoria Desc Amazonia, Venezuela and many others. All over the country too there are solidarity actions in Itarsi, Hoshangabad, Bhopal, Indore, Trivandrum, Mysore, Mumbai. Bhopal saw a huge dharna yesterday, including scientists, writers and eminent citizens. The dharna in Indore is continuous with regular relay fasts and they even held a Kavi Sammelan yesterday, showcasing the Narmada poems. Especially in Kerala, hundreds of villages are observing fasts and conducting dharnas in solidarity. Badwani, which being 4 kms from the Narmada river, is close to several submergence villages in Madhya Pradesh and is also the center of the office of the NBA, observed a 100% bandh on 11th April in solidarity with the struggle in Delhi. The bandh was total, and brought together varying groups including Jain community, NSUI, ABVP, several college students, and all the merchants association of this town. Although the M.P. govt claims that Badwani is not in submergence even at 138 m, the life and existence of Badwani depends on the villages around it, which are on the verge of being drowned without rehabilitation. Several of these submergence villages, such as Chikhalda, Kadmal, Ekalra, Ekkalbara, Bhavariya, Kavti that are affected by submergence are observing 'chulhabandi' where the entire village observes solidarity fast. This was also observed in Vadchil, the Maharashtra resettlement site, where families of Nimgavhan, Domkhedi and Surung have been resettled 2 years ago, after immense struggle. In the submergence village Kakrana, all the children of the jeevanshala (school) there observed a fast on 9th April. The villages of Nimad are also daily carrying out 'deep daan', where they release diyas (lamps) into the Narmada river. The largest 'deep daan' as yet has been done by the people of Nissarpur, in special support of Bhagwati Patidar from their village, who is also on her 16th day of fast. Yogini Khanolkar, Kamla Yadav, Siyaram Padvi, Chetan Salve, Dipti Bhatnagar, Ranvirsingh, Noorji Padvi III. · The Decision to review NCA's clearance of March 8th raising SSP height is the first legal step. · Why no report on Ministers visit & no formal communication as yet? · We continue 16 days old fast to save the life of the lakhs of the people. We hear from the media that the committee on Parliamentary affairs, Union of India has declared through Mr Pranab Mukherjee and Mr Safuddin Soz that it has decided to review the decision of the Narmada Control Authority, permitting raising the Sardar Sarovar Dam height to 121.92 m. This decision is welcome and was bound to happen since the NCA decision is both illegal and inhuman. We have, however, not received any formal communication from the Government and there is no clarity about the time, modus operandi and the level of the promised review. The Government would and should have used all legal avenues to review the decision of March 8th before since the dam construction that is completed & is on, has already made partial submergence of many villages, a few thousand families irreversible, in contempt of the Supreme Court. We have not received any report from the three ministers who visited the valley and met thousands of affected people & heard hundreds of the, although they avoided the areas already affected yet not rehabilitated such as the Adivasi communities in the three states, MP, Maharashtra, Gujarat. We hope they would not breach the trust & break the written promise to make the report public. We are committed to save the life of lakhs of people whose homes &farms, schools and shops...will be drowned, coming monsoon. Whatever is achieved due to struggle by the people & our lakhs of supporters need to be taken ahead. We three Jamsingh Bhai & Bhagwati Bai Patidar from the valley & myself continue the fast till the final result and we appeal to the nation & the conscience of the civil society to strive & support till justice accrues. Medha Patkar ---------------------- [3] Asian Age, 14 April 2006 DON'T DAMN NARMADA by Angana Chatterji Dams are not the temples of India, they have become its burial grounds. In dissent to the brutal refusal of state and Central governments to honour the legally-bound commitment to resettlement and rehabilitation of adivasi and other disenfranchised peoples who are made refugees by the Sardar Sarovar dam, Jamsingh Nargave, Bhagwatibai Patidar and Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) began an indefinite fast on March 29, 2006. On April 4, police forcibly took Patkar and Nargave into hospital custody charging that they were attempting suicide, and assaulted and arrested 300 Andolan activists in New Delhi. The dam stands at 110.64 metres. On March 8, 2006, the Narmada Control Authority approved raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar to 121.92 metres. This, as per the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited, will require 1.75 lakh cubic metres of concrete and cost an additional Rs 125 crores. Following a petition by the NBA in1995, the Supreme Court of India limited construction of the dam to 80.3 metres. Since 1999, the court has allowed successive jumps, even as it upheld the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award (NWDTA), mandating land-for-land rehabilitation of impacted families six months prior to any increase in dam height. This has never been enforced. As the dam rises and the reservoir grows in size, more villages are submerged, lives imperilled, displacing memory, difference, history. The Narmada Valley Development Plan, imagined since 1946 and formulated in the late Eighties, designated the Narmada River - 1,312 kilometres through the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat - and her tributaries as the site of 30 large, 135 medium and 3,000 small dams. These dams are turning the river into a series of lakes, devastating 20 million peasants and adivasis who call the Narmada watershed home. Across the Narmada Valley, 35,000 additional families will be impacted at 121 metres, and have not been rehabilitated. The Madhya Pradesh government has offered cash compensation to families, violating the land-for-land mandate of the NWDTA. In Maharashtra, over 1,000 families are yet to receive rehabilitation. In Gujarat, numerous affected families are yet to receive land or have been allocated poor quality land. A ministerial team visited the Narmada Valley, yet the government has failed to act. South Asia is home to the largest grouping of tribal peoples outside Africa, and 84.3 million indigenous peoples live in India. A diversity of cultures named "indigenous" share the ongoing reality of cultural and physical genocide. Indigenous peoples today live in states and statelessness, subject to forces of assimilation and annihilation. As peoples and cultures, the "indigenous" cannot be made uniform or essentialised. Their resistance includes assertion of native identities and traditional culture, as well as efforts to modernise and incorporate. In September 1958, India ratified the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 107 relating to Indigenous and Tribal Populations. Integrationist in character, Convention 107 attests to tribal rights based on a framework of indigenous "populations" rather than "peoples." In 1989, ILO issued Convention 169, concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, accepting indigenous cultures as distinct organised societies with specific identities, recognising them as "peoples." Such acknowledgement allows tribes the right to negotiate for "sovereignty" with states in which they are situated. The Indian state remains reluctant to sign Convention 169, prioritising an assimilative approach to nation building. Adivasi and peasant movements in India reject the assumption that development justifies cultural annihilation and the state capture of the lands and livelihoods of disempowered communities. Between 1970-1990, 45 million people were displaced by India's experiment with large-scale hydroelectric projects. Adivasis are 8.2 per cent of the nation's inhabitants, 40 per cent of the displaced population. The Tenth Five Year Plan states that 8.54 million adivasis were displaced between 1951-1990, from Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The count, activists say, is considerably higher. Only 2.12 million have been resettled. The nation displaces ethics with/for dominance, interning the dispossessed in the process. Patkar and Nargave must be released from hospital custody immediately. The Congress government must accede to the NBA's demand and halt construction of the Sardar Sarovar until the affected are ethically rehabilitated as per the provisions of the NWDTA and Supreme Court orders of 2000 and 2005. For 21 years, people in the Narmada Valley have struggled for justice with inordinate courage. They are the subjects of state violence, immense and egregious casualties of maldevelopment. The indefinite dharna continues, emanating a haunting call that resounds across the world: "Narmada Bachao." Angana Chatterji is associate professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at California Institute of Integral Studies --------------- [4] From: "Arif N. Khan" <ank2000pk@yahoo.com> Date: Fri Apr 14, 2006 Subject: Re: [Pakistan Post] India - Pakistan Rivalry on the Net To appreciate nonsense requires a serious interest in politics! 98% of us Indians and Pakistanis are hard-working people. It's the other 2% that give them a bad alreputation. Then again, they did elect them or siezed power by hook or crook. Anyway every country has the government it deserves. And under Indian democrac people get what they asked for. Purification of politics is an iridescent dream not only in South Asia but all over the world! Arif Khan http://www.netvert.biz/fbo --- Mike Ghouse <MIKEGHOUSE@aol.com> wrote: > If you don't get a chuckle out of this, please let me > know. > > I am posting this because it was sent to me by an > experienced > journalist ... I have no idea who Vikrant, the writer of > this piece, > is; nor do I know anything about this site > pickeledpolitics ... -------------------- [5] From: "Ram Narayanan" <ramn_one@adelphia.net> Date: Fri Apr 14, 2006 Subject: India land of prophets, say Muslim scholars http://www.deccan.com/home/homedetails.asp#India%20land%20of%20prophets,%20say%2\ 0Muslim%20scholars DECCAN CHRONICLE, APRIL 14, 2006 India land of prophets, say Muslim scholars Hyderabad, April 13: Two days after RSS sarsangchalak K.S. Sudarshan asked Muslims to recognise Krishna as one of the prophets of Islam, city scholars have declared that India is the land of holy prophets and the place where the Divine Message was first received from Allah. "Islamic traditions hold that the first Prophet of Islam and the progenitor of humanity, Hazrat Adam, descended on Sarandeep Island (now in Sri Lanka) after he was sent down from Heaven (after he ate the forbidden fruit at Eve's urging). Since India is one of the oldest civilisations, many prophets may have been sent to guide humanity," Mufti Sadiq Mohiuddin of the department of fatwas of 135-year-old Jamia Nizamia Islamic University, told this correspondent. The Mufti told this correspondent that early Islamic personalities including Ibn Asakir and Allama Ibn Saad had mentioned in their sayings (Riwayat) that Adam had landed on Indian soil. Even the famous Arab traveller Ibn Batuta had mentioned in his travelogues of visiting Sarandeep island where the first prophet of Islam had descended from the Garden of Eden. Muslims believe that God had sent about 1.24 lakh prophets to all parts of the world. However, the names of only 25 prophets are mentioned in the Quran. Mufti Sadiq Mohiuddin pointed out that while Islamic scholars are of the view that India was the land of prophets, they were divided on whether Rama and Krishna were prophets of Islam. "They may or may not have been prophets. We want to remain silent on the issue. But it is the duty of every Muslim to respect the religious personalities of other religions," he said. According to All-India Muslim Personal Law Board general secretary Abdur Raheem Qureshi, some Indian Islamic scholars believe Dhul-Kifl, one of the holy personalities mentioned in the Quran, refers to Gautam Buddha. "There is no 'p' sound in Arabic. Dhul Kifl means resident of Kifl or Kapil (Kapilavastu, where Buddha was born) Some scholars also hold that the Jain guru lord Mahavir was also a prophet. Islamic scholar Hafiz Shujat Hussain refers to the writings of the eminent thinker Moulana Tayyab Qasmi of Darul-Uloom Deoband, who had held that Rama and Krishna could also be prophets. "We should give utmost respect to Hindu prophets as we give respect to prophets from Hazrat Adam to Hazrat Muhammad, including Hazrat Musa (Moses) and Hazrat Isa (Jesus)." City Muslim scholars also quote from Subhatul Marjan Fi Tarikhe Hindustan, written by the Islamic scholar Allama Ghulam Ali Azad Bilgrami in Arabic, which describes India as the first domicile of Adam. "In Ayodhya, the birth place of Rama, there is a long grave. This is said to be the burial place Adam's son Prophet Hazrat Shish," Hafiz Shujat told this correspondent. Though Islamic scholars hold different opinions on the prophethood of Rama and Krishna, they all agree that since India is the place where Hazrat Adam had descended, it had acquired the status of the first capital of entire humanity. Since Adam received angels and revelations from God, India could be called the first land where man ever received enlightenment. "Indian Muslims have always believed that God had sent His prophets, messengers and guides to India. We all hold Rama and Krishna in high esteem, not because Sudarshan advises us to do so but because the Quran and Islamic traditions want us to. There are Islamic traditions that Prophet Mohammed used to say that he gets the fragrance of Paradise from India," says Peerzada Syed Shabbir Naqshbandi, president of the All-India Religious Leaders' Association. ---------- ( Cont'd) |
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