Fwd: [Reader-list] Experiments with violence in Gujarat-Aasim's response

Thu May 4 15:08:25 IST 2006

Thanks for your response Aasim.
I do hope it is ok to forward your message as I think it does raise some
pertinent points (I deleted the personal bits, as I saw fit)  to the Reader
List, SARAI as well as to my friend, Meher Mirza, who had originally sent me
Smita's message.
Best,
Aditi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: aasim khan <aasim27 at yahoo.co.in>
Date: May 4, 2006 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Experiments with violence in Gujarat
To: Aditi thorat <aditi.thorat at gmail.com>

Dear Aditi,

My response to this is to in agreement with your views
to a large extent but i have specific point to
make.The politics of this all.why have minority issues
failed to throw up political parties.I mean there is
an absence of political mobilisation and so it falls
in the hands of the NGOs to do all the work but since
they lack mass base often it depends on individual
(like Teesta Setalvad in Gujarat) to prove it all.

YOu know the political question is very
pertinent in Rajasthan.Today the BJP and Congress both
have started resembling each other so much that there
is hardly a debate on the communal question.And it is
not surprising that there is not a single minoirty
political leader in the state who can challange the
communal polarisation today.afterall in South Africa
the movement had clear politcal basis to rest on.

cheers
aasim

- --- Aditi thorat <aditi.thorat at gmail.com> wrote:

> May 3rd, 2006
>
> Dear all,
>
> Greetings to those of whom I have been out of touch
> with. This description
> (not mine, but by Smita Vasudevan, I think) of
> Dionne Bunsha's book (see
> below) really shook me up. Have any of you read it?
> I am not normally a
> supporter of highly emotive reporting on issues
> related to communal
> violence, but here Bunsha has ventured out of
> regular press into a narrative
> form, which allows for more freedom. Again, I find
> it slightly suspect to
> see NDTV take on a crusader role (similar to their
> role in the Jessica Lal
> etc) case, but I am torn between that feeling and
> the feeling that the press
> also do need to take a position. Also, I am not
> clear in the description
> given below, why DSP Pande did not respond to the
> information on violence.
> After seeing something of how states work from the
> inside, I am figuring out
> that these are not necessarily only moral actions of
> individual
> bureaucrats/police men, but could be directly
> related to the way in which
> the bureaucrat/IPS officer-politician nexus/es
> operate, something the
> passage below does capture.
> Therefore my question is are moral judgements useful
> with regard to changing
> these situations?
>
> I am also coming around to a feeling that perhaps
> what we need is more
> forgiveness, more tolerance, more peace, and less
> anger, less violent
> imagery, less hate. And here we all have a role to
> play, I think. The Truth
> and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa was
> based on this premise and
> despite its arguably Christian basis, is it not
> possible to start from
> that/similar premise of forgiveness? Of course, I am
> conscious that I was
> not involved in the Gujarat massacre- I did not lose
> my life or honour or
> property and I speak from a position of privilege
> and wealth and security.
>
> Would be good to hear what all of you think,
> Aditi
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Mirza Meher meher.mirza at gmail.com
>
>
>
>   Last week I read the book 'Scarred – Experiments
> with violence in Gujarat'
> by Dionne Bunsha.
> I read about a pregnant woman whose womb was cut
> open, the unborn child
> pulled out and thrown into the fire before her eyes.
> She was then burnt
> alive. Her crime? Only that she prayed to a
> different God (or the same God
> by another name?).
> Ahsan Jafri was sitting in his house when the mob
> entered. They stripped him
> and cut off his fingers. Half dead, he was paraded
> around the neighborhood
> and asked to say 'Jai Shri Ram'. After which his
> hands and legs were cut off
> and he was thrown in the fire to roast alive. Jafri
> had called up the Police
> Chief Pande, asking for help much before the mob got
> there.
> Pande knew what was happening. But he just let
> innocent people die. Why?
> Perhaps he believed that they deserved to die
> because they were Muslims,
> perhaps it's because the little children being burnt
> alive were not his own
> or just maybe it was because he knew he'd be
> rewarded for this one day. And
> that day has finally come. On the April 28 2006,
> Modi promoted Mr. Pande to
> the position of DSP.
> The only people fighting this injustice are a bunch
> of social workers and
> the families of those killed. In all probability
> this man will go scot-free.
> But it doesn't have to be that way. Not if each of
> us takes a 5 minutes off
> to write to anyone who can do something. Just pick
> up your phone and SMS
> NDTV at 6388. Go to their website www.ndtv.com and
> pen down a note of
> protest in the 'Feedback' section. Make them cover
> the issue in-depth so
> that more people raise a noise. Take 5 minutes off
> to pen down a note and
> send it to letters at thehindu.co.in
> Please forward this mail to everyone that you know.
> The more people protest,
> the more they will be heard.
> Today it was someone else's mother that was raped,
> someone else's sister who
> was burnt alive, and someone else's child that was
> hacked to pieces. What if
> it had been your own?
> Over a 1000 people died in Gujarat. Help their
> families get justice.
>
> - ------------------------------
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>
>
> - --
> " Oh my god! They killed Kenny"
>
>
> - --
> I am Piglet, beware my wrath!
>
>
> - --
> Aditi Thorat
> Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister
> Government of Rajasthan
> 0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax)
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- --
Aditi Thorat
Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister
Government of Rajasthan
0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax)
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