IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – June 15th, 2009

by on August 11, 2009

IN THIS ISSUE

COMMUNAL HARMONY

NEWS HEADLINES

OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

COMMUNAL HARMONY

RALLY TAKEN OUT FOR PEACE IN KANDHAMAL (JUN 13, 2009, THE HINDU)

People in large numbers took part in a rally organised by Kuidina Shanti O Nyaya Pratistha Manch on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg here on Friday demanding immediate measures for restoration of peace and harmony in Kandhamal district. Many people, who took part in the rally, were men and women from the villages of Kandhamal that had been badly hit by the anti-Christian violence in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati last year.

Holding banners and placards, the participants came in a procession to the meeting place on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg. They demanded that peace should be restored in all parts of Kandhamal for the benefit of the people belonging to all sections of society. Several social activists and leaders of different political parties addressed the gathering urging the government to take all possible measures to stop politics in the name of religion and caste and strengthen peace and communal harmony in the strife-torn district.

The speakers demanded that the administration initiate all possible measures to keep the communal and divisive forces at bay to improve the law and order situation in Kandhamal. They also demanded proper investigation in the cases pertaining to the last year’s communal violence as per the law and arrest of the guilty.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/13/stories/2009061353110300.htm

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MASS MARRIAGE OF HINDU, MUSLIM COUPLES HELPS FOSTER COMMUNAL HARMONY (JUN 7, 2009, TIMES OF INDIA)

The mass marriage of 81 couples from Hindu and Muslim communities in Junagadh on Sunday was a unique occasion to be cherished. Over the years, this initiative has helped the two communities to narrow down their differences, and is a great example of communal harmony in Saurashtra. The invitation card for the ceremony bore names like Mufti Naushadsaheb, Mufti Daudsaheb Fakira, Maulvi Ibrahim Pasaliya, Haji Gulam Mohammed Durvesh, Fareed Durvesh, Faisal Durvesh, Mahant Gangdas Bapu, Mahant Indrabhartibapu, Muktanandgiriji, Guru Maheshgiriji, Vasantgiriji, Mahadevgiri and Guru Sarasvatiji.

The couples from across Saurashtra reached the venue, Narsinh Mehta School Ground, for the wedding ceremony. The event was funded by the trusts promoted by Faisal Durvesh, independent corporator of Junagadh Municipal Corporation, and a Mumbai-based Muslim religious leader Mufti Naushad. The newly-weds and guests were treated to a grand feast. The trusts later gifted the couples items needed to start a new home. Durvesh told TOI: "Years ago, I had participated in a mass marriage for Muslims at Mangrol. That is when I got the idea of organising mass marriages for Muslim and Hindu couples together. For Hindu rituals, we had sought the help of Nirav Purohit, an advocate. Before deciding the date of mass marriage, we take care about kamurta’."

Purohit said "We have been organising these mass marriages for the past five years. Every year, about 90 couples participate in this programme, which is a great example of communal harmony. Last year, the scion of former Nawab of Junagadh sent us a letter from Karachi congratulating us for keeping the princely state’s culture alive." Durvesh said "We provide food to 22 members along with bride and groom. The newly weds are given a kit of 112 items worth Rs 22,000 and it includes kitchenware, bed, storewell etc."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4628782.cms

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NEWS HEADLINES

PROBE AGAINST MODI, OTHERS AS PER LAW: SIT (JUN 10, 2009, INDIAN EXPRESS)

Investigation against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others is being carried as per law, Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials said in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. SIT officials replying to a petition filed by a former BJP MLA, Kalubai Hirabhai Malivad in the Gujarat High Court, requesting to stay the investigations against Modi and others, said it raises ‘frivolous points’.

Malivad, who also figures in the list of 63 persons, contended in his petition that Apex Court had asked SIT to ‘look into’ the complaint, and this doesn’t empower it to investigate the case as per provisions of CrPC, as there was no FIR registered in this case. Gujarat High Court has issued notices to the State government and all SIT members and asked to file a reply by June 16. The Supreme Court had last month ordered SIT to probe within three months a complaint made by ex-MP Ehsaan Jaffrey’s widow Zakia Jaffrey that Modi, his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted post-Godhra riots of 2002. "The Apex Court has said in its order to probe the complaint as per law and that is what we are doing. The petition filed in the High Court have raised some frivolous issues. We will be submitting reply in the court soon," they added.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/474382/

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VARUNS REPUGNANT WORDS DID BJP GREATEST DAMAGE (JUN 12, 2009, INDIAN EXPRESS)

As the BJP grapples with the growing internal chorus questioning its failed strategy in the general elections, Brajesh Mishra, former National Security Advisor and one of the closest aides of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has come out with the first categorical denunciation of Varun Gandhi’s hate speech in Pilibhit saying it caused the "greatest amount of damage" to the party’s electoral fortunes. Speaking to Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Indian Express’ Shekhar Gupta for NDTV’s Walk The Talk – to be broadcast on Saturday – Mishra said the BJP committed a mistake by not censuring Varun Gandhi’s "repugnant" statements. The right course for the BJP would have been to "completely dissociate itself from him and not give him a ticket," he said. Asked how Vajpayee would have handled the situation, he said, "He may have called him and advised him. But I am sure he would not have liked it."

Although not formally associated with the BJP, Mishra was considered extremely influential in the NDA government, mainly because of his proximity to Vajpayee which he continues to enjoy to this day. Underlining that the continuance of BJP as a major political party was good for the nation, Mishra put his critique in context. "I want the BJP to survive and thrive," he said. "This country needs the BJP. It needs two national parties. Otherwise if BJP were to, God forbid, disappear, then within four to five years, regional forces will once come to the fore and we will again be faced with very very unstable situation," he said, adding that not just the BJP but its ideological parent, the RSS, too, needed to reassess its strategies and bring moderation in the ranks.

Mishra said the BJP had come to power, with the help of allies, only by moderating its agenda and people had accepted that. He said the top leadership of the party had not moved away from that moderate agenda but in these elections, however, the impression went out – "through the voices of Varun Gandhi and Narendra Modi" – that the party stood for a very strident form of Hindutva which was exclusivist in nature. "I am absolutely clear that the Varun episode did the greatest amount of damage to the BJP…his speech and his behaviour…The BJP should have totally moved away from him," he said, adding that such statements did not go down well with the masses. "The kind of statements Varun Gandhi made people were completely taken aback. They also thought that as soon as a BJP government came to power in Karnataka, organizations like the Ram Sene came out in the open."

"The Hindu ethos does not allow people to go beyond a limit," said Mishra. "The impression going out was that this was not Hindutva. This was something else," he said, adding that the inclusive nature of Hindutva had affected other Indian religions as well. "That is why today you cannot say that more than, say, 0.0001 per cent of Muslim population would be jehadis." Clearly, your (BJP’s) message of Hindutva, howsoever you may define it, did not get across to the voters who voted for the Congress, and for stability," he said.

Mishra also faulted the BJP for unnecessarily attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying the strategy only helped in consolidating support for Congress and the Prime Minister. "By calling the Prime Minister weak, more publicity was given to him than he himself could arrange. It also resulted, for the first time, in the Congress announcing that so and so would be its Prime Ministerial candidate. This benefited the Congress and gave strength to Manmohan Singh," he said. Mishra said instead of running a highly negative campaign, the BJP should have concentrated in telling people how it could have performed better than the UPA government. "The negativeness was not liked. The BJP could have run a positive campaign and concentrated on telling people that it could have done much better on bijli, sadak, paani issues," he said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/475230/

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HINDUS SHOULD REGRET BABRI DEMOLITION: KULKARNI (JUN 8, 2009, EXPRESS INDIA)

BJP’s former national secretary Sudheendra Kulkarni, who resigned amidst controversy over his attack on the RSS, has demanded that Hindus and Hindu organisations express ‘sincere regrets’ to their Muslim brethren for the demolition of Babri Masjid which was a ‘shaming molestation of basic Hindu tenets.’

"Hindus and Hindu organisations should express sincere regrets to their Muslim brethren for December 6 1992, recognising that what happened on that day was a shamming molestation of basic Hindu tenets, of the secular canons of the Indian Constitution, of the idea of India, and of God’s commandment to mankind to live in brotherhood and harmony.

And hereafter, no re-opening of any Mandir-Masjid issues", he said in a hard-hitting article in The Indian Express.

http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=50293

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TENSION PREVAILS IN ORISSA TOWN (JUN 8, 2009, THE HINDU)

Exodus of non-tribals continued in Narayanpatna block in Koraput district following attacks and threats by the tribal organisation Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh (CMAS). According to sources members of CMAS continued to attack the houses of non-tribals at Bikrampur and Balipeta villages during past two days. They have damaged more than 10 houses. Burdened by these attacks people especially the males have started to leave the area. Since last month more than 100 families have left their homes in this block to take shelter in villages in adjoining Andhra Pradesh and at Narayanpatna town.

The efforts of the administration to bring in peace in the area have not yet brought any major result. In recent past the Koraput district Collector, Bichitrananda Das had held dialogues with the leader of CMAS, Nachika Linga. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were also deployed in the Narayanpatna block to avoid escalation of tension. Yet the terrorisation of non-tribals by the CMAS activists continued in the area.

The rise of CMAS in recent past has made the Naryanpatna block tense. This organisation is dominated by the tribals and some social activists. The CMAS had made tirade against alleged exploitation of tribals by non-tribals its main plank for increasing base. They had opposed tribal land grabbing by non-tribals and large scale illicit liquor trading in remote tribal pockets. The activists of CMAS have also taken over patches of agricultural land in Podapadar, Bhaliaput, Basanaput by force, which according to them had been taken over by non- tribals by deceit. The Sundhi community of the area is also their targets as people of this community are traditionally attached with liquor trade.

The CMAS had tried to show up its strength during elections by holding a rally against polls in protest of lack of development in Narayanpatna area. Yet they also had one Srikant Mohanty as their candidate from the Laxmipur Assembly segment. They destroyed a large nursery of the Forest Department in Narayanpatna area with allegation that this nursery was enabling non-tribals to take away rights of tribals on forests. In May the CMAS activists attacked and killed a 40-year-old man Nitya Melka at Gotiguda village of Narayanpatna block. Although the CMAS activists deny it yet there are allegations that the CMAS has Maoist links. It may be noted that Narayanpatna is also a major hub of Maoists in Koraput district.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/08/stories/2009060855720800.htm

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CHURCH ATTACKS: BAJRANG DAL BLAMED (JUN 9, 2009, EXPRESS BUZZ)

Victims of church attacks have urged the state government to provide security from the violent mobs and compensation for the loss incurred. Appearing before the Justice BK Somshekhara Commission which is conducting a probe on attacks on Christian prayer halls across the state at the Circuit house on Monday, 13 victims who submitted their affidavits urged for immediate action. In the absence of Justice Somshekhara, Commission’s legal advisor Hemalatha Mahishi conducted the hearing.

Appearing before the Commission, resident of Kalladka and shopkeeper Ronald D Silva complained that on September 15, 2008, a few miscreants attacked him and his shop. "I underwent treatment in Father Muller Medical College. I want compensation and protection from such attacks," he stated. Melvil Pinto, a founder of Janadani organisation, submitted four evidences, including a CD with visuals of Kulashekhara, Permannur and Milagres Christian prayer hall attacks.

He presented a teargas shell which had passed its expiry date before the Commission. "Due to the explosion of tear gas shells which had passed their expiry dates, I was admitted at Wenlock hospital as an inpatient. Even now I am facing its consequences. I received four threat calls from anonymous numbers," Pinto alleged. B a p t i s t R o d e r g a s Belthangady submitted an affidavit over damages incurred to the church. "Miscreants who attacked the church shouted slogans like ‘Jai Sriram,’ ‘Jai Bajarang Dal’ and ‘Yesuvige Dikkara.’ I firmly believe that the miscreants belongs to the Bajrang Dal," Rodergas alleged. There were no women police during the lathi-charge, Bajpe resident Missilla D’Souza alleged.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=xv1pl/njyP0=

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POST-POLL VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN BENGAL (JUN 11, 2009, HINDUSTAN TIMES)

The elections are long over but post-poll violence between the two main political parties in West Bengal refuses to die down. The ‘cleansing operation’ launched by the Trinamool Congress on May 24 in three districts of south Bengal – where it won all the Lok Sabha seats – is alive and kicking. Thursday too saw clashes between cadres of the two sides. The trouble dates back to the battle for Nandigram in East Midnapore district in 2007, when the Left Front government decided to allow an Indonesian firm to set up a chemical hub in Nandigram. That led to an armed resistance by the villagers, backed by the Trinamool.

The main trouble spot has since shifted to Khejuri, a village separated by a canal from Nandigram, about 70 km southwest of Kolkata. Khejuri was allegedly used by CPM cadre in 2007 as a launching pad for attacks on Nandigram, occupied by the Trinamool. On Thursday, Trinamool supporters continued to ‘cleanse’ Khejuri of arms collected by the CPM. They also set fire to two CPM party offices and ransacked the homes of several of its leaders.

In view of the continuing attacks, the police have shifted CPM supporters who’d taken shelter at the local police station to an undisclosed destination. The administration announced that five police camps would be set up in the area. The Trinamool has till now managed to recover a huge cache of arms and bombs. Blood has been spilt too. In Hooghly’s Arambagh subdivision, a CPM leader was hacked to death four days ago. In Bongaon on the Indo-Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas, a Trinamool leader was shot dead, allegedly by CPM men. Trinamool workers retaliated by lynching a local CPM leader.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=10979453-b4ef-49e4-b0b0-460c2bca94f7

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FRESH INITIATIVE TO RECOVER MISSING BABRI PAPERS (JUN 13, 2009, THE HINDU)

With seven important documents related to the Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya reported missing from the Uttar Pradesh government records, fresh directives have been issued by the State Home Department to search and retrieve them. The search for the papers has been going on for the last five years but to no avail. According to informed sources, State officials have put in more than 1,000 hours for retrieving the documents. The documents related to the exchange of letters between the State government and the Faizabad district administration immediately after the idols of Lord Ram were installed by some persons in the disputed Babri Masjid complex on the night of December 22-23, 1949.

Among the documents is a radiogram sent by the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Pandit Gobind Ballabh Pant. Nehru had expressed his anger at the move and even volunteered to visit Lucknow and Faizabad, but was dissuaded by Mr. Pant. Special Secretary (Home) R.P. Mishra told journalists here on Friday that the exercise to retrieve the documents was under way. The renewed initiative by the State follows the stern view taken on the subject by the Special Bench of the Allahabad High Court, which had summoned Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta and Principal Secretary (Home) Kunwar Fateh Bahadur, during the course of a hearing in the case recently.

The government was pulled up for failing to retrieve the documents even after five years. The court directed the government to search the documents and produce them before it. The plea for producing the documents was made by the Sunni Waqf Board in 2002. In 2004, the High Court directed the government to submit the documents. The search for the documents has been continuing since 2004. A search was also conducted in the office of the Faizabad District Magistrate and the Commissioner of Faizabad Division. When the idols were installed in the disputed mosque complex, K.K. Nayyar was the District Magistrate of Faizabad. Mr. Nayyar reportedly declined to remove the figurines, with the plea that the administrative action would cause communal riots in Ayodhya and Faizabad. His wife, Shakuntala Nayyar, was thrice elected MP from Kaiserganj on Jana Sangh ticket.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/13/stories/2009061355090500.htm

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QUOTA FOR MUSLIMS IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD: KHURSHID (JUN 8, 2009, INDIAN EXPRESS)

In contrast to predecessor A R Antulay who maintained a studied silence on the the issue of reservation, newly-appointed Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has called quota for Muslims a "double-edged sword" which could create "envy, hostility and resistance". He has instead advocated affirmative action as a tool to "inject an ability to compete" rather than make them "constant beneficiaries of additional help". In an interview to The Indian Express, Khurshid said it was time to explore "angles" other than reservation. He said it was his intention to roll out some "quick impact" schemes and fine-tune delivery of recommendations made by the Justice Rajinder Sachar committee.

"You don’t want to try and please somebody and not get them the comfort of actually getting any relief. I think it is much better to get substantive relief, substantive opportunity rather than stick your mind only on one particular way of doing it." "If you can get them what they want by another method. what they want is opportunity, why should we just follow a standard line of reservation. There may be a better way. If there isn’t then, we will come back to discussing reservation. Let us look at other angles," Khurshid said when asked about implementation of the Ranganath Mishra committee report which he maintained he had not read. "I don’t think we have clarity on reservation. There are expectations and demands for reservation of all kinds. I think what we need to do is look at affirmative action a little more seriously. Reservation is a double-edged sword for Muslims. Must not do anything that creates envy, hostility and resistance," he said.

His comments come at a time when there is a clamour among Muslim organisations for implementation of the Ranganath Mishra Committee report which suggested, among other things, 15 per cent reservation for minorities (of this 10 per cent should be for Muslims) in education and employment. The report has been gathering dust at the Minority Ministry for the last two years. The Mishra commission for religious-linguistic minorities had also demanded SC status for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. Khurshid said it was time to "look at affirmative action a little more seriously" with a view to "inject an ability to compete rather than becoming constant beneficiaries of additional help". In this context, he said the list of institutions, where scholarships would be awarded, should be expanded to include some outstanding private schools as well.

"The biggest scheme is scholarship. But the scholarship today is largely empowerment scholarship. I think we need to have greater emphasis on excellence. We don’t want to fall into the Macaulay trap of creating clerks. It is important to move from being peons to being clerks. But we want to make CEOs as well," he said. Besides fine-tuning implementation of the Sachar committee recommendations, he said his immediate priority would be to identify some "quick-impact" schemes like setting up big medical centres and universities in rural areas.

"If you come up with a housing project in Bhadohi it will have an impact, identified clearly as an outcome of our efforts to implement the Sachar committee report. I think a major big hospital in eastern Uttar Pradesh will have an impact. A hospital is not going to treat Muslims only, it will treat everybody. But there will be a sense, if it comes, that Muslims are not just asking, but they are giving," he said. "Whatever we do must convince people that it is effective and it has an impact. It should not be and must not appear to be window-dressing to fulfill some goody-goody behaviour expectations. It must have grassroot impact," he added.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/472881/

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MCA STUDENT ENDS LIFE AFTER BEING RAGGED BY SENIORS (JUN 9, 2009, HINDUSTAN TIMES)

Fed up with the "ragging" by his seniors at an engineering college, a 22-year-old MCA student committed suicide, police said on Monday. Devender Kumar, a second-year student of Vasavi Engineering College, Ibrahimpatnam in Hyderabad, ended his life by jumping before a running train near Dharamaram village here yesterday, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Warangal town, Venkateshwar Rao said.

A suicide note found from Kumar’s pocket said that he was taking the extreme step as he was finding it difficult to put up with the ragging by his seniors, Rao said. The deceased, a native of Chopadandi village in Karimnagar district was returning to write his Semester Exam slated on June 9 in Hyderabad when the incident occurred, the police official said.

His body was found near the railway tracks of Dharmaram yesterday following which his parents were informed, he said. Later, the body was identified and taken to the MGM hospital for postmortem, police said, adding further investigations are on.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=14d5da80-1764-481d-923d-e7c5c5ca2160

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WOMAN ENDS LIFE OVER DOWRY HARASSMENT (JUN 11, 2009, TIMES OF INDIA)

A 26-year-old housewife from Madh village in Malad committed suicide, allegedly due to dowry harassment. Reshma Shaikh died at KEM Hospital on June 9, three days after she consumed poison at her residence. Reshma’s husband, Amjad (27), was arrested on Wednesday on charges of dowry harassment and abetment of suicide. The police is also looking for Amjad’s mother, Farida and sisters Sammu and Naseem in the case.

According to the police, Reshma married Amjad in May 2003. They have two children-a son aged five and a two-year-old daughter. "Reshma’s family had given her jewellery, a television set and a bike, among other things at the time of her marriage.

But Amjad sold it all within two months and demanded that her father transfer one of his shops in his name. When Reshma refused, Amjad and his family started harassing her," senior inspector Jaywant Hargude said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4642026.cms

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OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS

THE IRON MANS MELTDOWN – BY SWAPAN DASGUPTA (JUN 20, 2009, TEHELKA)

Apolitical party like the BJP doesn’t exist for the gratification of a self-perpetuating leadership. It is sustained by a vibrant dialogue involving the leadership, activists, stakeholders and above all, its supporters and voters on the ground. It is a measure of the deep commitment of large numbers of Indians to the ideas driving the BJP that the 2009 defeat has generated a passionate and spontaneous debate over the party’s future. Without waiting for the leadership to first read a report on the debacle by three unnamed notables and then determine the ‘line’ in a closed door chintan baithak, well-wishers of the party including many who gave quality time to the party during the long election campaign have taken matters into their own hands and have already initiated a debate the party leadership can’t afford to ignore.

Contrary to the perception that it is some sort of a cadrebased body operating along Leninist command-and-control lines, the BJP actually approximates a political movement. This accounts for both its strengths and its weaknesses. Like much of Hindu society, a strange cocktail of idealism, ideology, pragmatism and selfinterest governs the BJP. Sudheendra Kulkarni’s "candid insider account" (TEHELKA, June 13, 2009) is a welcome addition to the ever-growing literature on the BJP’s 2009 election experience. As the driving force behind LK Advani’s campaign for the prime ministership, Kulkarni has been refreshingly forthright in positing his reasons why the campaign to regain power went so horribly wrong. For its own reasons, the party leadership may have taken a dim view of a kiss-and-tell story by an ‘insider’ but these concerns don’t invalidate either the importance of his intervention or the efficacy of his observations. Some of Kulkarni’s observations are unexceptionable. In 2009, the BJP-led NDA was missing in action from 143 seats of eastern and south India. These also happened to be precisely the areas where the Congress and its allies performed best – at the cost of the Left and the Third Front.

Secondly, it is also undeniable that the BJP coupled its uneven geographical spread by not being on the radar of Muslims and Christians who are 14 per cent of the population but whose enthusiastic participation in voting gives them a political clout far greater than their number. Kulkarni’s argument that belligerent and ugly expressions of Hindutva have limited the BJP’s reach among both minorities and moderate Hindus is also one that will have many takers within the party and even the RSS. The BJP’s complete misreading of the post-Kandhamal mood in Orissa and the adverse fallout of Varun Gandhi’s tasteless remarks on the rest of Uttar Pradesh add weight to Kulkarni’s suggestion that the BJP must clarify "what formulations of Hindutva are not acceptable to it." I would, in fact, go a step further and reaffirm my argument (made in the Times of India, June 4, 2009) that it is time for the BJP to reconsider the very use of the H-word. The hideous baggage of Pramod Muthalik and Praveen Togadia that ‘Hindutva’ carries negates its use as respectable shorthand for a wholesome ‘way of life’.

Unfortunately, this is where my agreements with Kulkarni cease. In suggesting that "Never in the history of the Jana Sangh or the BJP was the party enfeebled by so much disarray at the top," he has questioned the competence and integrity of those who were at the organisational helm of the party. As an expression of frustration, this blame game may be in order but the organisational shortcomings – particularly the appointments of inappropriate state presidents – were known to Advani in December 2007 when he was named the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. What was done in the intervening period to put the right people in charge? Kulkarni doesn’t answer the question and instead blames the Sangh Parivar and the party for not throwing their collective weight behind Advani, thereby making "a strong leader like Advani

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