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Communal divide |
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On Record Profile
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Communal divide The Muslims, who were the target in the 2002 riots, have tried, gulping down their loss and pride, to normalise the situation-they are still doing so-but they continue to be barred by Hindus from every activity. Many Muslims went back to their villages but returned because they found some others occupying their land and houses. The administration did not intervene. Nor does it want to do it now. In some cases, even original village records had been fudged to transfer ownership. The uprooted Muslims took refuge in the already over-populated localities and some even in “kabristan” (graveyard). A few have gone to courts but the cases are yet to be decided. The worst hit is the labourer who faces discrimination. He does not get any employment. Vendors find it hard to go back to their place from where they sold fruits, vegetables or such other things. Even when some have braved hardships to go there, they have met with an economic boycott which the BJP stalwarts bless. They want the ethnic cleansing to stay as it is. What is surprising is the freezing of division between the two communities as if something permanent has taken place. In every state, even in Delhi after the 1984 Hindu-Sikh riots, the ousted people have gone back to their home and business places to restart life. Gujarat is the only state where the victims have not been allowed to return, the government probably proving that the line delineated between the two communities in 2002 will not change. Six years ago, I saw the scenes which I had witnessed while leaving my home at Sialkot in August 1947-refugee camps, scared children, weeping widows and lots and lots of people, just sitting on the roadside staring at the future with little hopes. The Muslims are no more in camps. But conditions in which they live are no different. The ravages of mini-partition in 2002 still hit you with all poignancy. Take the Bombay Hotel area at Ahmedabad. This is the place where the city’s waste is dumped. Children play in its midst. The government has no plans to shift it anywhere else. As for facilities, there is no hospital in the vicinity. Some deliveries have taken place on scooters. The nearest school is a private one, and it is 3 km away. Heavy fee, rather the distance, keeps children at home. Imagine the atmosphere in which they are growing up. They were five or six years old when they saw the fury of rioting. It is still etched on their minds. Now they are at the sensitive age of 11 and 12. Some parents told me that whenever a lady with a sari had come visiting the area, they whispered to each other: a Hindu. When there is no mingling and when there are not even educational facilities, it may be a hostile community in the making. Some Muslims were shifted to a place near the camp of the state reserve police. The force was aggressive and made the migrants feel unwanted by taunting the community and even beating up some children. The “aabadi” went back to the Muslim locality. That there is no remorse in the Hindu society does not surprise because I have read about it in the Press and heard it from some activists who are doing a tremendous job despite unending difficulties and depleting funds. A few Hindus who saved Muslims during the riots and some more — altogether 2 per cent of the population — are helping the activists courageously and going to courts to narrate what they witnessed. But justice is slow to come and the Nanavati Commission appointed to go into the whole gamut of riots is nowhere near the completion of its assignment. The disgusting part is the fear of Modi and his administration. None dares to speak out in public. Even at a closed-door meeting, where some 200 academicians, lawyers and others present, when I asked them if they felt suffocated in Gujarat, all of them nodded their head in assent. But only a few of them were willing to join issue with the Modi government. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise to me that the Gujarat government has slapped sedition charges against Ashish Nandy, a political psychologist, for an article which Modi considers critical. The article is factual and does not criticise the government for the carnage or non-rehabilitation of Muslims. Nandy only points out to the misuse of state machinery. Nandy’s real attack is on the middle class, which he correctly denounces for not realising even after so many years that secularism and communalism are two different ideologies and cannot be mixed like water and fire. That a phrase like “the media and education have become hate factories” may not be to the liking of the middle class. But Nandy is known for making understatements, not exaggerating things. A Mexican philosopher had perceptively observed that the difference between dictatorship and democracy is that in the first, the top man changes the people and in the latter, the people change the top man. Modi has changed the very thinking of Gujaratis. Even the Gujarati NRIs have sacrificed Indian-ism at the altar of communalism. There has been very little outcry against the government’s action on Nandy’s write-up. But for a few academicians from India and abroad, none particularly from among the media hands, has spoken in his defence. At stake is the “freedom of expression.” Today, it is academician Nandy; tomorrow it could be a journalist. We had imagined that we had learnt a lesson from the Emergency for not speaking out when we should have. I personally think that the day when one sees the truth being attacked and keeps quiet is the day when one begins to die. Nandy will come out of the ordeal unscathed. But it will be yet another case of our insensitivity. The society seems to be losing in its battle against
communalism.
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If anyone tells you he is never afraid, he is a liar or a Gurkha! — Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw — Ghulam Nabi
Azad, J&K Chief Minister This (all-party meet) should have been called before the order was issued.
It is too late now. People want the order to be the revoked. The government must revoke the order. — Mufti Sayeed, PDP patron — Salman Rushdie, who has been knighted for his services to literature — CPM general secretary
Prakash Karat We would definitely term as unfortunate and regrettable any attempt to communlise a national issue like the nuclear deal. — Congress spokesperson
Jayanthi Natarajan Left parties have been exposed. The CPM says Mulayam Singh will anguish Muslim voters if they supported the nuclear deal. This is the line they have been pursuing all the time and they are communal. — BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu — Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi
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On Record To follow his passion of improving the environment, he now proposes to set up an NGO or collaborate with an existing one that has a focus on Punjab’s environment. He wants to spend his life to help rid its water of all impurities, restore forestation and curb industrial and all other forms of pollution. Excerpts from an interview: What does the delimitation commission do? Delimitation is a necessary process, as important as the elections themselves. There can be no election without delimitation because election that does not have true representation of the people serves no purpose for a democracy. Delimitation is enshrined in the Constitution to take place after every census so that all parliamentary and state assembly constituencies are re-drawn on the basis of population. Since the population keeps on shifting, it is necessary to readjust the
boundaries of constituencies. Though, delimitation is supposed to take place every 10 years, in 1976 a parliamentary amendment prohibited further delimitation till 2001. Since delimitation directly affects politicians in power, don’t they resist their constituencies being altered? The report of the delimitation commission is final and binding. No government can make any changes or choose to alter it. It cannot be challenged before any court either. Therefore, politicians can only make a legitimate request by appearing before the commission, but cannot force their way in any manner. There must have been tremendous pressure on you from various quarters? No. There were many politicians who came and appeared before the commission, but none dared to influence or browbeat me. Perhaps, they were aware of my reputation and background. We did a very fair job as a result of which many senior politicians lost their constituencies. some of these include Bolpur (Somnath Chatterjee), Latur (Shivraj Patil), Shillong (P R Kyndiah), Bulandshahr (Kalyan Singh), Bikaner (Dharmendra), Faridkot (Sukhbir Singh Badal), Dasua (Sachin Pilot), Shahjahanpur (Jitin Prasada), Agra (Raj Babbar), Tura (P A Sangma) and Gopalganj (Sadhu Yadav). Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency has got “de-reserved” as is Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh, which was earlier held by Chief Minister Mayawati. There have been three delimitation commissions in 1952, 1963 and 1973 before yours in 2002. How was your task different? The country’s population has increased 88 per cent in 30 years since the last delimitation. Constituencies almost everywhere (both assembly and parliamentary) have become uneven in terms of population distribution. Besides, the number of seats in Parliament and assemblies have been frozen (we cannot increase or decrease them). Therefore, we had to take out areas from one constituency and add this to another. The population in the outer Delhi segment has increased to 38 lakh, while Chandni Chowk has only 3.5 lakh voters. So, we had to take out 20 lakh from outer Delhi and add 14 lakh to Chandni Chowk. Each constituency in the country has to be monitored individually. In Punjab the total SC population has reached 38 per cent, so we had to reserve four parliamentary seats of Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur and Faridkot. Has delimitation work been completed across the country? We have submitted our report for 513 Lok Sabha constituencies out of 543. We have reserved 79 seats for the Scheduled Castes and 41 for the Scheduled Tribes. After holding 130 public sittings in 67 cities and towns across India, we have also completed the delimitation work in 3,726 state assembly constituencies. However, four north-eastern states – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland – and Jharkhand are excluded due to local resistance to the delimitation exercise. While delimitation in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland has been stayed by the Guwahati High Court, the appeal of the Centre in respect to Manipur is pending in the Supreme Court. The plea of the local people is that since the census data available there is inaccurate, the delimitation should only be undertaken after authentic census data is available. Do you feel satisfied with the job you undertook? Absolutely. The first result of my exercise has come out clear in the recently concluded polls in Karnataka, where the poll process went on very smoothly. Now, the forthcoming polls in states like Delhi and the next parliamentary polls will further prove that we did a good job. With your delimitation commission work over, what do you intend to do now? I have been waiting for this time to go back to my passion for protecting the environment (Justice Kuldip Singh was nicknamed as “green judge” due to several pro-environment judgements as a judge of the Supreme Court. A practising lawyer in Chandigarh, he was directly inducted into the Supreme Court due to his legal acumen). What exactly do you propose to do for environment preservation? I am contemplating to start an NGO to work for the environment, especially in Punjab. I am also looking at the possibility of collaborating with an existing NGO working in this field. Besides, I also intend to write some legal books with a special focus on the environment. My biography too has been waiting for many years. There are several concepts in my mind. I only need to give them a concrete shape. And, I will do this shortly. Can you recollect some judgements where the judiciary helped conserve the environment? Many. Starting from the Taj Mahal case, where the court forced the UP government to ban fossil fuel and switch to gas. It saved taj Mahal. Over 300 stone-crushers were successfully thrown out of Delhi. The closure of the hazardous industry in the national Capital, protected 40 acres of forest land from kamal Nath, saved the Beas from changing its course case involving tannaries in Tamil Nadu, switching to CNG for commercial vehicles in Delhi; examples are countless. Being a former Supreme Court judge, what are your comments on the current national debate on judicial activism and judicial accountability? The Constitution provides everything on the functioning of the judiciary. There is no harm in creating a body to look into charges of misconduct against judges, but this authority must primarily consist of members of the judiciary
itself. Any attempt to bring outside influence will erode the independence of the judiciary. A lot has been said about judicial activism, but I say that even if activism exists, it has only done good without bringing harm to anyone. So what’s wrong with it.? As a parting shot, what do you have to say about judicial system? As far as improving the pendency of cases is concerned, there is a lot that needs to be done. With regard to the higher judiciary in India, I would say they are by and large very upright and judicious. There is some problem at the lower level with regard to integrity and competence. For this I can only say that while appointing judges, only persons with integrity, competence and a good reputation at the bar should be considered. Unfortunately, some appointments made on extraneous considerations like race, caste, connections, etc have been alleged. this, if true, must be prevented at all costs.
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Profile There are people of different kinds, of origin and places. The captain and officers of the ship are English and American, then there are some convicts and some armed guards. There are migrant labourers or girmitias – as they are known – going to Mauritius to work. One of the most wonderful things that happened historically with Indian indentured labourers as they went to other countries was that when they were in the ship they began to think of themselves as “jahaz bhais”. So once they would settle down in Mauritius or wherever, that relationship between them lasted as they continued to think of themselves as “jahaz bhais”. It became a family, not a natural family, but a family by accident. Amitav found this concept very beautiful and inspiring. Amitav feels it will be very difficult to make a film based on “Sea of Poppies”. A lot of efforts will be needed. However, he says: “If someone is interested, it’s something I’m open to”. There had been offers from Bollywood for two of his books – “The Hungry Tide” and “The Calcutta Chromosome” – but the projects fizzled out. That doesn’t bother Ghosh. A lot of research was carried out by Amitav before penning his “Sea of Poppies”. While in Mauritius, he spent days at a very beautiful archive called the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, where they have preserved all the papers and things that went with the earliest migrants. It’s very moving to see all the care and love that has gone into the preservation of those papers. Regrettably, in India nothing of the people who had left was preserved. There is no commemoration of the places from where they embarked in old Calcutta. This was Ghosh’s very interesting part of research. According to reports, Amitav has a property in Goa and is returning to India. Kolkata-born, Ghosh has lived in New York with his wife, Deborah Baker, also an author. They have two children – Lila and Nayan. In 1999 he had joined the faculty of Queens College, University of New York, as a distinguished Professor in comparative literature. He has also been a visiting professor to the English Department of Harvard University since 2005. His work “Shadow Lines” won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His another book “The Calcutta Chromosome” won the Arthur C. Charke Award. Ghosh’s fiction is characterised by strong themes that may be somewhat identified with post-colonialism but could be labelled as historical novels. Of the many English-language writers to have emerged from India over the past 20 years, Amitav is, perhaps, the most international. He has written about Bangladesh, Burma, Egypt, Cambodia, Britain and America. His interest in those places where different cultures meet now finds its most exuberant expression in a hugely entertaining novel.
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MY visit to Ahmedabad early this week was depressing. Even six years after the 2002 carnage in Gujarat, the line drawn with blood between Hindus and Muslims remains distinct. The two communities live in two different worlds, in localities which have borders. The places are known as Hindu “aabadi” (habitation) and Muslim “aabadi” and there is no contact between them, either social or economic.
The transfer of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board is a very sensitive issue. I want a permanent solution. I am calling an all-party meeting, every party can express opinion freely.
This is, as I say, an honour not for any specific book but for a very long career in writing and I’m happy to see that recognised. I really have no regrets about any of my work.
President Bush wants to ensure that in the last few discredited months of his presidency at least the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal will remain as a legacy to be taken up by the next President. This will have some certainty if the NSG clearance is got before his term expires. It is this schedule set out by the U.S. which is impelling the Prime Minister to go ahead regardless of the consequences.
I personally feel the resolution of Sir Creek is doable, Siachen can be resolved and the liberalisation of visas is to mutual advantage.
IT is a home-coming for Justice Kuldip Singh. Almost literally on two counts: one he is back in Chandigarh after completing the daunting task entrusted to the Fourth Delimitation Commission that he chaired and two, he is now all set to live up to his reputation of a “green judge” whose several judgements as a Supreme Court judge have done considerable good to the environment and helped undo the imbalance in the eco-system. 
HOW one wishes someone makes a film on Amitav Ghosh’s latest novel “Sea of Poppies”. It has all the right ingredients for a movie set in the 19th century India. It is the story of a group of people who were on a ship of the 19th century and it really tracks the path by which they find themselves on this ship-Ibis-as with any ship in those days.