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http://planningcommission.gov.in/reports/publications/rep_dce.pdf

Nani A Palkhivala Award 2006 Acceptance Speech

Friends,

As I stand here to accept this award given in memory of a man who has
been described alternately as a passionate democrat, a patriot and
above a good human being I cannot but recall how this one man
institution associated with us, Communalism Combat, in its nascent
years. In response to one of the darkest moment this great metropolis,
Mumbai (then Bombay) has lived through, December 1992 and January
1993, he sat alongside the inimitable and unique, the late Mr HM
Seervai to speak to the then President of India to `call in the army'.
When a subsequent government in the state reaped the benefits of hate
politics and in a stroke of executive arrogance scrapped the Justice
Srikrishna commission of inquiry investigating the mass murder and
police complicity behind the violence, Mr Palkhivala stepped down from
Bombay House and along with another captain of industry Mr SP Godrej
joined us in the nationwide protest that was one of the citizens'
actions that eventually led to the reinstatement of the commission.
That was January 30, 1996. A year earlier, two judicial decisions –one
of the Bombay High Court and the other by the Supreme Court had shaken
the common man's faith in the judiciary. Citizens had challenged the
hate writing in the Saamna, and through a writ petition urged for a
judicial directive to compel the state government to prosecute the
author of these speeches a man who went unchallenged by the law and
order machinery in this great city, Mr Bal Thackeray. Mr Palkhiwala
said the future of India was at stake if the court did not compel the
state to intervene and take action against this kind of journalism.

Today, in 2007 we see a glittering and glamorous India everyday,
through the media and parts of our large cities –an India that
suggests growth and wealth and prosperity yes, but only for a section
of our population. A third of Indians reel under rural hunger where
the lack of access to nutrients in their diet should be a matter of
national shame. Narrow and aggressive definitions of patriotism
coupled with rank unprofessional, if not biased conduct in the
intelligence services and the law and order machinery, have `othered'
many sections of Indians, reducing them to irritants, trouble makers
or rank anti-nationals.

It is a moment of profound test for all our institutions. The
paradigms of fair play, equal rights to life and ownership of private
property, make both the shock of farmers being shot dead in communist
West Bengal and the shame of the mass victim survivors of the Gujarat
carnage of 2002 a living reality. Closer home, in Maharashtra,
protests following the brutalization and murder of a Dalit family in
Khairlanji allowed the Nagpur police to pull out 55 year old women and
other protestors from their homes and thrash them into silence. In
Amravati a rickshaw driver protesting was shot point blank in the head
by the police.

Does the Indian state need to answer, any more, to the largest number?

Does the executive initiate and take decisions of economic and social
policy after due consultation, through the vote, in a democratic manner?

Have our Courts shown due and democratic concern to issues of economic
and social access, equity and non-discrimination?

Does our media, television and print reflect news at all, leave aside
news and views of the majority of Indians?

Do institutions of Indian democracy adhere to the word and spirit of
the Indian Constitution?

Is India a living and breathing democracy?

Be it West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra or Orissa lands belonging to
voiceless Indians are being seized, without adequate debate,
transparency or Constitutional accountability. (Quote) "Globalisation"
(unquote) has come here in partnership with vengeful and vindictive
state terror and repression. State force at its most brutal is being
used to stifle democratic protest and dissent. As I look forward to
the memorial lecture by an icon of modern India, a captain of
industry, I urge this prestigious audience here to ask some of these
difficult questions. Of themselves.

Friends, next month is the fifth anniversary of the Godhra mass arson
and the post Godhra genocidal killing. Justices VR Krishna Iyer and PB
Sawant—both retired judges of the Supreme Court-- who headed a
citizens tribunal into the Gujarat carnage, have observed that (quote)
"the post Godhra carnage was an organized crime perpetuated by the
state's chief minister and his government" (unquote) and held
Gujarat's CM Modi to be (quote) "the chief Author and Architect of all
that happened in Gujarat after the arson of February 27, 2002."
(unquote). The National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court
of India have drawn similar conclusions about the head of the state of
Gujarat.

Today for the same captains of industry who see the vision of a
glittering India exemplified in the "strong political leadership of Mr
Narendra Modi" –I refer to the recent investments promises to the
state— I would like to place this reminder on record. All and each of
us, especially those who hail from Gujarat would like to see Gujarat
vibrant, and prosper. The community that Mr Palkhivala hailed from was
first given refuge within what is today known as Gujarat when the
Parsis migrated to India, from Persia. Strength, cohesion and
prosperity can be built through an enlightened administration and
polity that respects the rights of all, harbours dissent and respects
the struggle for rights and justice, a state of affairs that supports
the natural order of things.

However, when (quote) "normalization" and strength" (unquote) are
equated with a vindictive administration and political repression,
when brute compromise is thrust, when acknowledgement of the horrors
of mass crime are denied hundreds of thousands of victims, when
villages, cities and mohallas are divided by borders, when the victim
survivors and human rights defenders who stand up for justice are
threatened arrest and torture, it is repressive strength and state
power that we are talking about. Civil liberties, the struggle for the
defence of which I am being honoured here today, are severely trampled
upon.

Friends, even what actually happened at Godhra railway station on
February 27, 2002 is hotly contested today. There is absolutely no
proof of the theory perpetuated shrilly by Mr Modi to justify state
sponsored mass rape, killings and murder. As we approach the fifth
anniversary of a truly bleak period in Indian post-Independence
history, I request each one of you present here, to remember. The
struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against
forgetting.

As I acknowledge the huge contribution of my family to my work, I
would like to laud the joint vision of my comrade in arms, Javed Anand
that launched us into this collective battle since 1993. Colleagues at
Sabrang and the board of trustees of Citizens for Justice and Peace
and its myriad supporters (even from captains of industry) who have
the vision to support the dissenting voice, Raisbhai and Suhel, my
tribute. Top lawyers of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, masters
in their field, continue to offer pro bono services for the causes
that we plead.

Our work of a decade and a half has made us experience the relentless
attempts of the system to tire out the protestor, the dissenter, the
victim. Therefore today's award, I dedicate to one man within the
Indian system, who stood (and still stands) mighty in the face of a
murderous and vindictive Gujarat administration. Mass murder, mass
rape and mass arson were allowed in Gujarat by a complicit and
participatory administration and police force. Many police officers
stood out. But only one man has remained a stoic and principled
dissenter until today, refusing to cave in even as weeks lapsed into
months and months into years. This man that I dedicate today's honour
to is not a victim, he did not loose a dear family member. He does not
hail from the victim community. His only quality-- that many but his
co-travellers have seen as a fault-- is that he refused to sit by and
let the mass crimes planned at the highest level go unchallenged. He
documented the illegal and unconstitutional orders spat out by Mr Modi
in a meticulously maintained personal diary. He filed well-documented
affidavits before the ongoing Nanavaty-Shah Commission. He suffered
for these acts by being denied due promotion to the post of Director
General of Police, Gujarat, the highest post in his field that as a
policeman and thrice Presidential Award winner for bravery, he would
and should aspire to. He faced attempts to browbeat him in and out of
the courts. He and his wife live socially and politically ostracized
in a state that captains of industry tell us is vibrant and shining
due to (quote) "a strong and , political leadership favouring rapid
growth" (unquote)…..Mr RB Sreekumar, Additional Director General of
Police, the state of Gujarat, I salute you.


Link at
http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-setalvad100207.htm

Justice for Afzal Guru

"Afzal Guru's hanging will reinforce the perception of two sets of
legal norms prevalent in

a society polarising fast on communal lines."



To find out more about the Afzal Guru case  go to this link:

http://www.justiceforafzalguru.org



ACTION ALERT


**** Sign Our Open Letters ****

- Letter to the Indian President
http://www.petitiononline.com/ekta1/petition.html
To read and endorse this letter click the link above.

- Letter the Indian National Human Rights Commission (NHRC.)
http://justiceforafzalguru.org/private/nhrc2.html
To read this letter, click the link above.

You can also send endorsments for both the letters to:
admin@...

Partial list of endorsors so far include Anand Patwardhan, Noam
Chomsky, S. A. R. Geelani,

Ved Bhasin, Ziauddin Sardar and Praful Bidwai.


Send in your endorsments today!


Sandeep

hi..,

Good Afternoon... I'm happy on becoming a member in the group. But i'm
pretty sad about the activity in the group. The mail last dropped in
the group was only on the 2nd of Aug 2006, its 3 months since then.

Friends... pls try to take out some of your valuable time to drop
something in the group, immaterial of how important it is.

keep in touch.

Take Care.

bye.

mohan

Dear friends,

   I got a mail from www.patrikalu.com. We can browse Telugu Patrikalu (Weekly)
on the web. Please have a look at this -

   www.patrikalu.com

   Regards


---------------------------------
Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.  Great rates
starting at 1˘/min.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Following is an article by Manoranjan Mohanty, at

http://www.himalmag.com/2005/september/analysis_1.html
::::

The course of Naxalism


by Manoranjan Mohanty

After an experiment with a ceasefire and abrogated talks, the ban on
the Communist Party of India-Maoists was re­imposed by the
government
of Andhra Pradesh on 17 August. This followed the killing two days
earlier of provincial lawmaker C Narsi Reddy, a septuagenarian leader
of the ruling Congress party, and eight others in Narayanpet in
Mehboobnagar district. The attackers arrived on motorcycles and
showered bullets at a public function, killing also the town's
municipal commissioner and the Reddy's son, among others. The ban
was
said to have had the concurrence of the central government, even
though its spokesman in Delhi described the matter of law and order as
a `state subject' under the Indian Constitution. Some might
have
welcomed this reference to the Constitution, however opportunistically
it might have been used. But the fact is that the Centre has been
closely coordinating anti-Naxalite operations throughout the country,
and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had assured all support to
related measures taken by the Andhra Chief Minister YS Rajashekhar
Reddy.

The Hyderabad government's ban order under the AP Public Security
Act
of 1992 listed seven mass organisations of workers, peasants, youth,
students and writers associated with the Maoist party. They include
the Radical Youth League (RYL), the Radical Students Union (RSU), the
All India Revolutionary Students Federation (AIRSF), the Rythu Coolie
Sangham (agricultural workers' organisation), the Singareni
Karmika
Sangham (a powerful trade union in the collieries), the Viplava
Karmika Sangham (another trade union), and the Revolutionary Writers
Association popularly known by its Telugu acronym Virasam. More than
the ban on the parent party, it is the outlawing of the mass
programmes of these affiliate organisations which will have serious
repercussions on the ground. These groups have widespread membership,
with regular programmes and publications.

The poet P Vara Vara Rao and writer G Kalyan Rao, leaders of Virasam
who together with legendary poet-singer Gaddar were the Maoist party
emissaries to the peace negotiations, were arrested. They had quit
their charge in April 2005, expressing futility of the role in view of
the growing repression by the state. Meanwhile, interestingly, the
women's organisation affiliated to the rebels was not banned.
Similarly, the Jana Natya Mandali people's theatre group led by
Gaddar
was not included in the list, though the expectation is it might be
entered subsequently.

New phase of confrontation
The ban per se would not have been all that significant because the
CPI-Maoist, like its former avatars, the People's War group (PWG)
and
the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), was already functioning as an
underground party. The leaders of CPI-Maoists and the CPI-ML
Janashakthi who had come to Hyderabad for the peace talks in October
2004 had emerged from the forests and returned there after ten days of
open presence, including four days of peace talks. The 15 August
killing was exceptional, but not altogether unprecedented. Every time
the police killed some important Maoist leader, the rebels have
declared their intention to take revenge.

However, the current ban represents the start of a new phase in the
confrontation between the Naxalite movement and the Indian state. The
outlawing came after the chances of resumption of peace talks had
effectively disappeared, and the police had intensified its operations
to kill Maoist leaders and cadre, and to capture or harass
sympathisers. The Maoists, too, had resumed retaliatory action of
kidnappings and killings. Above all, the approaches by the mediators
in the Committee of Concerned Citizens (CCC) received little response
in recent months. The civil society in Andhra Pradesh had pinned great
hope on the CCC's initiative to organise a second round of talks
so as
to reverse the intensifying climate of violence.

The re-imposition of the ban indicated the determination of the
Hyderabad government to withstand civil society pressures and to
resume its armed operations to suppress the Naxalite movement. This
decision condemned by most of the political parties including the
allies of the Congress, the TRS (Telengana Rajya Samithi ), Mazlis,
the CPI and the CPI-M. Only the Telugu Desham Party and the BJP
supported it, maintaining that it had been mistaken on the part of the
Congress government to have let the ban lapse in July 2004 in the
first place.

The new phase in the confrontation was also indicated by the Union
Home Ministry's initiative to coordinate the anti-Naxalite
operations.
A 30 July 2005 meeting of the chief ministers and the directors
generals of police from the nine Naxalite-impacted states agreed to
set up a task force to launch joint operations. A policy of "zero
tolerance" towards the Maoists was announced. The Tamil Nadu
government had already banned the Maoist Party on 12 July, and the
Karnataka government had also earlier launched joint operations with
the Andhra police. That action had led to the killing of many PWG
leaders as well as Saketh Ranjan, editor of the RSU's journal.

Paradoxically, the resumption of the ban reflected an admission of
failure by the Indian state to tackle the challenge of the Naxalite
movement over the past 38 years. The capacity of the movement to
survive and to spread having been made clear, the hope was that the
authorities may at long last look to address the root causes of the
rebellion. There had also been the hope that the new Congress-led
government at the Centre and the new Congress government in Andhra,
which came to power after people rejected Chandra Babu Naidu's
repressive regime, would adopt a political approach to the Maoists
rather than treat them merely as perpetrators of terrorist violence.
But apparently nothing had changed, and here was the government, once
again resorting to prohibition, combing operations in villages and
forests, and encounter killings.

Nature of challenge
The Common Minimum Programme (CMP) which the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) adopted in May 2004 when it came to power at the Centre
supported by the left parties had an important perspective statement
on the Naxalite challenge. The relevant paragraph was listed under the
section on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, thus emphasising
that this movement was essentially connected with the problems of the
socially oppressed sections. It said: "The UPA is concerned with
the
growth of extremist violence and other forms of terrorist activity in
different states. This is not merely a law and order problem, but a
deeper socio-economic issue which will be addressed more meaningfully
than has been the case so far. Fake encounters will not be
permitted."

This statement had raised hopes for a new approach to be taken by the
UPA, especially in comparison to the earlier BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) government with L K Advani as Home Minister,
and Chandra Babu Naidu as chief minister in Andhra. Indeed, the
reference in the CMP to the deeper socio-economic issues was on
target, for the Maoist movement revolves around the issues of agrarian
transformation, especially the problems of the landless and the small
peasants.

It was the peasant resistance to landlords in Naxalbari in West Bengal
in May 1967 under the land-to-the-tiller slogan that provided a name
to the Maoist phenomenon in Indian politics – Naxalism. The
movement
underwent much churning in the succeeding decades, organisationally
and politically, but the focus on agrarian revolution has remained at
the core. The very fact that land reform as a state objective has
disappeared from Indian policy-making in the age of economic
liberalisation has kept the Naxalite agenda alive. The state's
anti-poverty programmes such as the NDA's Food-for-Work or the
UPA's
recently established Employment Guarantee Programme hardly meet the
basic demand for land rights in rural India. The rise of backward
castes to power in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere, even though it
may have democratised certain aspects of the polity, has had the
paradoxical effect of freezing land relations.

The Naxalite movement is mostly active in the tribal areas spreading
from Bihar to Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra, and also covering parts
of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka. This spread is linked only to the inaccessible hilly
terrain of these regions, but a conscious decision by the Naxalites to
take up the issues affecting the tribal people, who are among the most
exploited in society. India's development process has led to
commercialisation of forest resources, reducing the traditional access
to forest produce. Alienation of tribal land to non-tribals has been a
steady trend despite legal strictures. Mining-based industries and the
construction of large dams have caused extensive displacement of the
tribals, besides destroying their natural environment. A central
Naxalite agenda is for tribal self-determination, asserting the rights
of the tribals over local resources.

The government programmes of tribal development have ended up creating
a new elite in the tribal areas even as increased poverty leads to
massive out-migration. The recent bill for safeguarding land rights,
introduced by the UPA, has been a case of too little, too late. The
extension of the Panchayati Raj programme to tribal areas, giving
greater power to the tribal village assembly is a modest measure in
the right direction, but unless structural measures are undertaken to
restore rights over land and forest, the Panchayati Raj structures
will continue to be manipulated by local elites.

The Andhra government's decision to have a special tribal
battalion of
some 1,200 men, a `Girijan Greyhound" to fight the naxalites
is
indicative of the approach guiding the present policy.

During the 1980s, the Naxalites linked themselves with the nationality
struggles in the Indian Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhatisgarh,
Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere. This strategic decision had a
significant impact on both, the agrarian movement as well as the
autonomy movements. Each was a complex struggle involving class and
nationality, as well as caste and gender. The decision therefore
involved making choices on supporting autonomy movements led by the
bourgeoisie, such as in case of Telugu Desham in [Karnataka], the Asom
Gana Parishad in Assam, the Akali Dal in Punjab and the DMK in Tamil
Nadu.

The formation of the smaller states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and
Uttaranchal was a welcome step in terms of providing people with more
say in their affairs, but the new states were created keeping the
overall power structure intact. As a result, the nationality struggles
in these areas continue as integral parts of the agrarian and the
broader democratic struggle. Interestingly, the government understood
this linking of the Naxalites with other movements only in terms of a
network among militants for training, supply of weapons and
coordination against state operations.

During the 1990s, Indian politics and economy saw major upheavals
linked to globalisation on the one hand, and communal politics on the
other. The Gujarat riots of 2002 were symbolic of the magnitude of the
latter trend. The processes of privatisation of public enterprises and
retrenchment of workers have continued unabated in the recent years.
While the ruling parties, the BJP and the Congress, were fully
committed to the agenda of globalisation, the CPI and CPI-M tried to
keep the critique alive on behalf of workers, the lower middle classes
and the rural poor who suffered tremendously and largely silently
under the process of economic reforms. But the main resistance to
globalisation was put forth by the Naxalites, which has considered the
stress on anti-imperialism paramount at a time of growing
collaboration between the government of India and the US government.

Overall, therefore, the Naxalite challenge rests upon the issues of
agrarian transformation, tribal people's rights, the nationality
movement and resisting imperialism and globalisation. All this adds up
to what they characterise as the people's democratic revolution to
change the very character of the Indian state. Because of the issues
they pursue, the Naxalites have a social base which sustains them
despite a variety of repressive measures pursued by the state. In
fact, over the past decade the movement has spread to new areas such
as southern districts of Orissa and West Bengal as well as parts of
Uttar Padesh and Rajasthan.

If the Naxalite movement is seen as a coming together of many streams,
then they can be said to have a presence in all parts of the country.
Of them the two major streams are the CPI-ML (Liberation) which
participates in electoral politics and the CPI-Maoist which pursues
armed struggle. The former has a strong base in Bihar and it has had
seven to ten Members in the Legislative Assembly. It has an all-India
organisation with state units and an active trade union and a
women's
organisation. Its powerful student wing, AISA has often won the
leadership at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

The CPI-Maoist, which emerged with the merger of the PWG and MCC in
October 2004, had earlier taken into its fold the Party Unity of Bihar
region. Liberation condemns the PWG as left adventurists pursuing
squad actions which invite further state repression. The Maoists
dismiss the followers of the Liberation line as revisionists taking
the same path as the CPI-M, which has held on to power in West Bengal
since 1977. These two formations are so mutually antagonistic that
they rarely come together to fight any issue. Between them are placed
a number of other Naxalite groups such as Janashakti which has worked
together with the Maoist party in the peace talks in Andhra, the
CPI-ML (New Democracy) which has been active in Jharkhand and Assam
and lately in Punjab and Orissa on tribal and workers' issues,
and the
CPI-ML (Provisional Committee) which is ostensibly trying to bring the
various groups together.

The pre-organisational character of the Naxalite movement that was
evident in the 1970s, the subject of this writer's work
Revolutionary
Violence (1977), remains to some extent. For this reason, the movement
as a whole remains mainly as an ideological force in Indian politics,
whose appeal remains rooted in the concrete condition of the people.
Meanwhile, the two main formations have emerged as organised parties,
whose leaders are subjected to attack by state agencies and they
suffer substantial losses. Overall, the question remains as to why the
spiral of violence and counter-violence by the Naxalites and the state
agencies never seem to end in the heartland of India.

Violence and peace in democracy
The oft-repeated plea that there is no place for violence in a
democracy indicates a desirable norm for seeking peaceful
constitutional response to fulfil a people's aspirations. But
when the
coercive power of the state is used to defend the interest of the rich
and the powerful or to eliminate resistance to injustice, the same can
sound like a hollow claim. Social violence has grown in India with
landlords' armies in Bihar, factional murders in Andhra's
Rayalseema,
and upper caste atrocities on dalits all over – to mention but a
few
examples.

Democracy is indeed meant for bringing about peaceful change through
people's representatives. But the fact is that existing power
centres
in society do not allow that to easily happen. Groups fighting for
democratic rights have been pointing this out for over three decades
now. The state response to the Naxalite movement was to capture and
kill activists them by staging `false encounters'. Human
rights groups
which go under the acronyms APCLC, PUDR and PUCL, have investigated
many such incidents in Andhra, Bihar and elsewhere. They have demanded
that rule of law be applied to all such cases, and all persons
suspected should be tried according to law rather than be eliminated.
When the state itself violates the constitutional obligations with
impunity, then the violation of law and civic norms becomes
widespread.

When the talks between the Maoists and the Hyderabad government took
place in October 2004 following a three-year initiative and protracted
negotiations by the CCC (led by S R Sankaran, a respected former civil
servant who had himself been kidnapped by the PWG some years ago), two
things were clear. One was the acknowledgement by the state that the
Naxalite movement was not just a law and order problem, but had
socio-economic roots that could be discussed on the road to reducing
violence. Second, it was brought home to the Maoists to recognise that
the realm of the present Indian state did provide some space for
socio-economic change despite its class character, and that if the
space indeed opened up, the need for resort to armed struggle may be
reviewed.

It was on the basis of this understanding that there was a ceasefire
in Andhra for more than six months, when the common people were spared
the dual pressures of violence from the Naxalites as well as the
police. The historic talks that took place between the rebels and the
government proved that dialogue was an essential element of democracy
through which each side was called upon to recognise underlying
truths. In these peace talks Indian democratic opinion saw prospects
of mutual appreciation of each other's positions in the spirit of
"truth and reconciliation". As in case of the Naga peace
talks, or
those between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, in this case too
the hope was to proceed with the dialogue with the hope of suspending
armed action by the two sides. But there were elements among the
political circles and the police, both locally and nationally, which
considered the policy too `soft', which would only strengthen
the
Naxalites. In other words, the UPA government's statement as
contained
in the Common Minimum Programme was not the only perspective guiding
state policy.

During the peace talks and press conferences, the Maoists were
confronted with many issues raised by democratic rights groups in the
recent years. Could the Maoists be said to be respecting the norms of
revolutionary violence when the common people were subjected to
killings and torture by them, or when public property was destroyed?
How did they explain individual annihilations by their squads, and did
this reflect the Maoist norm of `mass line'?

On the issue of armed struggle, the Naxalite movement remains sharply
divided. The CPI-Maoists have a People's Guerilla Liberation Army
mostly armed with weapons seized from the police, some of which are
sophisticated weaponry such as the AK-47 rifles. Their small
formations confront the police and paramilitary forces such as the
Central Reserve Police Force and Indo-Tibetan Border force, taking
advantage support of the villagers as well as the jungle terrain. How
effective their armed resistance can be against the armed strength of
the Indian state remains the major question.

Did the Maoists also reflect upper caste attitude and behaviour in
their political practice? How far are they concerned with the rights
of dalits and other backward classes? In the 1990s, after the upper
castes opposed reservation for backward classes, the Maoists
spearheaded the campaign for dalit and `other backward caste'
rights
in many parts of India. But the caste issue is still not fully
integrated with the class understanding of politics. Similarly,
feminists have pointed out the prevalence of patriarchal values and
behaviour in the Maoist parties. Moreover, the rebel women's
organisations have not been on the forefront of the variety of
women's
struggles in contemporary India. One can legitimately raise the
question whether the Naxalites have dialectically integrated class,
caste and gender any better than the rest of the Indian communists,
whose record on this matter remains poor.

Human rights activists have also challenged the Maoists, asking
whether they practice democracy and civil liberties within their
movement, which should after all be the embryo of their `ideal
society'. Factionalism and splits have famously characterised the
Naxalite movement, which is why there are over two dozen groups in
existence at any given time. And so the natural question, are the
comrades guilty of sectarian politics when they should be developing a
united front? There was a time the intolerance of divergent opinion
within the party was so stark that it led to killings – a tendency
that seems to have subsided in recent years. The communist groups seem
to resort all too easily to the mechanical understanding of
revisionism and dogmatism. The revolutionary tradition of inner-party
democracy – the minority accepting the decision of the majority
while
the majority respects the point of view of the minority – seems a
fragile heritage.

The common people whose cause the Naxalites claim to represent
confront day-to-day livelihood issues – of making a living out of
agriculture and forestry, of finding water for their fields, access to
affordable credit, market for their produce, and ways and means to
access education and health. Such ground-level issues do not seem to
figure prominently in the Maoists' formulation of political
strategy.
Many of these activities which concretely help the poor are dismissed
with terms such as `reformism', `welfare work' or
even `ngo action'.
The idea that cultural and educational work form an integral part of
revolutionary strategy, together with political and military tasks,
seems to have been relegated to the background. In the recent years,
the Naxalite leadership has indeed tried to respond to these issues,
but not entirely satisfactorily.

The issue of revolutionary creativity – the ability to assess the
emerging national, local and global environment and adjusting to the
evolving while pursuing one's ideological goals – thus
remains a
challenge for the Naxalite movement in India. It is important not only
to learn from the Chinese and Vietnamese revolutions, but also from
the experience of the Philippines, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and
Nepal.

Meanwhile, the Naxalite movement continues to spread despite suffering
losses in terms of fighters as well as – from time to time –
operational areas. The do represent a powerful challenge to the
existing political economy in its phase of capitalist globalisation.
To cope with this challenge the democratic forces of India must
pressure all states authorities which are confronting Naxalites to
return to political dialogue, and to stop treating the rebellion as a
law and order problem. In Andhra Pradesh, the ground created by the
peace talks of 2004 has now collapsed, and the state government and
Centre both now demand that the Maoists lay down arms before resuming
talks.

Indeed, the policy makers, be it in Delhi or Hyderabad, are now guided
by a unified understanding of global terrorism. They are excitedly
formulating a strategy of counter-terrorism US software, Israeli
hardware and some Indian brands added. This strategy cannot see the
difference between the CPI-Maoist operating in Andhra and Bihar, from
the CPN-Maoist currently fighting the autocratic monarchy in Nepal. No
doubt, they are revolutionary communists in solidarity with one
another, but they are fighting different battles in their own
countries. After all, these are Maoists who believed the great
helmsman when he said that the people of each country must formulate
their own strategy derived from their unique local conditions. Leaders
of the Indian state must try and comprehend the nature of the Maoist
challenge and address the socio-economic issues at its heart, so that
another spiral of intensified violence in India can be avoided and
prospects of peace and democracy enhanced.

Dear sir,

Dated: 17 August 2005.



For AP Civil rights group:



The gruesome killing of MLA Chittam Narsi Reddy alongwith 8 others allegedly by
the Moists is not really very disturbing.  The MLA (and his son) belonged to the
liquor lobby like many other Congress leaders and has already been warned by the
Maoists against ‘being bourgeoisie resorting to high handedness’.  This murder
was probably intended to serve as yet another ultimatum to the Congress
leadership to submit… But would they, however?  Do the Moists really believe
that actions such as this would help their cause in any one single way? I find
it very surprising that they claim they do.



Various civil rights groups in the state including the PUCL appealed to the
government to resume peace talks.  The revolutionary Bard reminded the
government that such incidents did not take place when the peace talks were
going on. (Huh! You mean the talks should go on forever?!).  Mr.Kalyan Rao, the
emissary insisted that the government should own up responsibility for this
event, for, had the government not been what it was, would this have occurred? 
(Nice argument, Mr Rao!)



One may not have to be overtly perturbed by the untimely demise of the Father
and the Son, believing what the Maoists observed was true, and hoping also that
the Maoists gave the father and the son a fair chance to defend themselves in a
Court of  People, that a judge of unquestionable caliber and concern for people
presided over that court and passed the death penalty as per some written law,
that there was no other punishment less severe which could have brought in a
‘change of hearts’ in them.



But what about the remaining six people who died?

Under the cover of a perverse intellectual justification, six more lives passed
off silently, for no fault of theirs.. or rather, for one fault-  that they had
attended a public function along with the father and the son.  Earlier we had
the privilege of some post mortem PWG analysis and justification for the
executions it carried out- and a lot of times we had it apologizing too,  but
after the Moist title we hear no such stuff.. it has become a war of
retribution, ‘and the government has to take responsibility for anything we do,
because it did not permit the talks to continue then!’



There is a clear change too, in the method of PWG.  One may not prefer to call
it the ‘Bihar effect’ yet- but are you sure, sir, that it is wrong to say so? 
The penalties have turned more gory, for some reason. Here I also remind you of
another less publicized act, where Saleema, a cook in an elementary school in
Kacharam, Karimnagar district was beaten to death in public.  The Maoists chose
to do this in the middle of the day.  Saleema was charged to be a police
informer.  It is yet to come from the pens of the revolutionary poets that gore
is also a laudable virtue., but sir, I sincerely feel that it is surely
something   that is neither considered civil, nor human.



We are concerned about the police turning inhuman.  So are we about the other
turning bestial.  Sorry, we don’t think being inhuman is a virtue.












---------------------------------
Check out Yahoo! India Rakhi Special for Rakhi shopping, contests and lots more.
http://in.promos.yahoo.com/rakhi/index.html

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mr Subhashan Reddy has been reportedly made the Chairman of the State
Human Rights Commission. I do not know whether any norms exist on the
contributions made by a person to enable somebody to occupy such a
position. I would think it is reasonable to have a person who has
contributed in terms of knowledge or inputs added to human rights-
related jurisprudence or actual field work done for upholding human
rights or for work involving disadvantaged groups of the society. I
think it is high time we had such norms.

Hey everyone,
   This seems like a very interesting group.  As someone born and
raised in the US, I'm looking forward to having more light shed on the
issues I'm aware of and those that I'm not aware of.

Radhi

Dear friends,
It has been an interesting experience to be involved with this egroup.
I am grateful for the members who have been patiently participating in
these discussions.
I am not in a position now to devote time for this.
I invite any of the present members who may be interested and who can
devote some time to volunteer, so that the group can carry on.

While the article is analytical and shows the insight acquired over
long years of work in advocacy of human rights, I think it underplays
the strong current of public opinion in favour of talks. It also
gives an impression as if the talks came about automatically,simply
as a part of the moves to justify routine pre-election promise, and
it underplays a significant role performed by the 'Committee of
Concerned Citizens'. The humorous tone adopted by the author in
narrating the whole sequence of events adds to the overall feeling of
drama, cut off from real life, while it ridicules the same.The two
sections of the article titled 'Give and take' and 'Distribution of
fallow land' have very perceptively pinpointed the concrete need for
the talks, which was perhaps the basis justifying the whole effort.
But we should recall how the need was painstakingly articulated over
long years of TDP Government by the CCC and how the CCC went through
series of discussions with all political parties at various levels,
when the political environment was not conducive at all for the idea
of talks. CCC contributed a great deal in raising it to a level where
it could not be ignored in the pre-election campaigning by political
parties.The pre-election promise was thus extracted and was not given
simply as a mistake. Similarly, the author has considered only two
theoretical alternatives for a rational justification. One is when
the rebel group is so battered that they lay down arms and come for
talks. The other is when the rebel group is so powerful that they
make governance impossible. The first one is the mirage for which 12
years of TDP Government searched but could not be found. The second
one is the mirage which so many splintered groups all over the world
have been chasing, without success. Whatever was considered as
success in some parts of the world turned out to be like George
Orwell's Animal Farm. I think at least in theoretical discouse, it
should be possible to include the third alternative of a rebel group,
with a genuine grass roots mass base, taking a rational decision to
enter mainstream politics as a political party. May be I am being too
naive. But I think there is a need to enhance people's participation
in governance, to uphold right to information, to reduce
corruption,to devise ways and means of getting the information right
(which may require for example, that PDS retail agent gets reasonable
profit so that he can have his livelihood without having to cheat and
a junior engineer can reflect the legitimate expenditure without fear
of audit and so on, to develop entrepreneurship, to develop
competition and in a nutshell, "to make government more participatory
and the market more competitive". This cannot be done if we are
bogged down only by a vision of just the two alternatives.These two
alternatives are also very expensive in terms of the devastation they
inflict on people's lives. I think the third alternative cannot be
dismissed.

The artcle published by EPW dated 26 March to 1 April issue can be seen
on EPW website and a link to it is provided on this site, on the left
side.

I found this url surfing, http://blogs.ardice.com
But can someone explain to me what a blog is?   -   Dunixi300v

When one has not yet recovered from the shock of one of the most
gruesome acts of so-called retaliation by CPI Maoists in Vemepenta of
Karimnagar district, the so-called encounter of Manala of Nizamabad
district has happened, which is alleged to be more gruesome. I think
the time has come when both the sides have to come out openly and
declare, "The talks are dead", rather than pretending that the talks
are on. It is true that public opinion had greatly facilitated the
talks when they began,but it is doubtful if both the parties were
actually sincere in responding to the challenge. It is clear that
this kind of historical opportunity may not come again, with a
credible group of individuals offering to mediate and pushing both
the warring sides to the negotiating table.Gandhiji had said, "The
attitude of an eye for the eye will only lead to the world of the
blind".Is there some hope left still?

This message is about Human beings, Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis,
Islam, Kurds, Human rights, Respect, Money, Donations, Angelina Jolie,
Pavarotti, Giorgio Armani, Donors, Peace, History, Campaigns and about you if
you care about these words.

Hi there,

I am SAM, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon at the moment; I have spent the
last 10 years of my life as a refugee registered with the UNHCR in Beirut. The
last 4 years, I have spent as an activist for peace and human rights (especially
refugees and asylum seekers) on the Internet; I'm also books author and ebooks
publisher. I have launched many campaigns to improve our situation as refugees
in Lebanon and hopefully bring more understanding to our problems worldwide. I
helped make many changes and improvements at the UNHCR office in Beirut; I used
the Internet as the field for my activities (you can read more about that in my
free ebook 'MY CAMPAIGNS'). All my ebooks could be download from my websites,
all my ebooks are free.

This is my newest campaign, it's about the illegal and humiliating actions of
the UNHCR, who using photos of refugees as banners and human-buttons to collect
money. This is an abuse of the dignity and humanity of the refugees and must
stop immediately and a clear public apology present by The United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees. My friends, I am talking about the pictures you can
see here:  http://unhcr.4t.com/human-buttons.htm where you can read the rest of
this message as web page. For more info about UNHCR and life of refugees you can
read my free ebooks. I invite you as fellow humans and members of the world
community to support my campaign by reading my article on my site and see the
human-buttons on http://www.unhcr.ch

Together we will build better world.

You could reach me fast via this form: http://unhcr.4t.com/email_me.htm and if
you like to know more about me, you can google for my name 'osam altaee'.

Thanks
THE TRUTH WARRIOR
http://unhcr.4t.com

VIOLENCE AND COUNTER VIOLENCE: END OF AN ERA



"An era of violence has ended" says a local daily.  "The Sun (Ravi) sets"
declared another.  Paritala Ravi, don of a third of Andhra Pradesh, powerful
representative of the 'faction', ex-naxalite, ex-minister, present member of
Legeslative Assembly, accused in tens of Criminal offenses, and not even so
in hundreds more, finally fell to the bullets of "the enemy".
Had the same logic applied to him that applied to Kanchi Sankaracharya of
late, he would not have walked on the streets for so many years, would not
have contested, would not have committed more mistakes, and would not have
faced the miserable death that greeted him.  But alas, no charge worth life
imprisonment was on him, even as he was charged with conspiracy, murder,
kidnapping, extortion, electoral and other malpractices, not once, but
several times, ever since he entered politics, that was long ago.  So he
could not be confined to the four walls of custody like the Paramacharya
could.



One expected the TDP leadership cry foul and hold congress responsible for
the murder, but look, we see no other than the revolutionary bard, Gaddar,
weeping at the news, recalling how affectionate the man was.  The sun of
revolution meets a gruesome end.  But was it not a long forgotten story,
Mr.Gaddar?  Or, had he been a friend, and probably a financier even after he
joined and 'revolutionized' the mainstream politics?  (Well, all human
relations are indeed economic relations, aren't they?) But no,-May nothing
bad be uttered about the dead: that is our culture, is it not? So the
dailies speak of eras, sunsets and wailing people.



As he fell, Mr.Ravi shouted "gun men, gun men" as he sought their help, like
Bapu
cried "He Ram", seeking Him, the Lord Almighty, as he fell.  How my heart
mourns Gandhi at this hour, when even the last thoughts of our great
leadership are bombs and guns, and violence and retribution.



And a bird's eye view of the area then apparently offered a sight: of all
ordinary people running away- away from the site, away from that accursed spot,
away
from the town, away to the sanctuary of their homes.  Not only there, 60
Kilo meters away, we all decided to flee our work places for the safety of
our homes, for "who knows what may happen?"  And soon we see flames going
up, as two APSRTC busses,( well they are not 'ours',) burn away, and rest of
them drawing up into the Police Station complex for safety.  We think of
children and friends stranded in various village bus stops and hope for
their safe passage, even as we offer stay for travelers of long distance
who could go no further owing to the violence around.  For, really, "who
knows what may happen"?  So terrorized is the place, that 24 hours after the
incident, there are few vehicles plying on NH-7, and the stranded long
distance travelers continue to be our guests.  All of us want to stick to
our sanctuaries, our homes, thank God they, atleast, remained so.  For one
can feel the tension in the air outside, and "who knows what may happen"?
And one, sitting in the confines of one's home, is left to ponder the news
papers describing how people voluntarily shut down all shops and
establishments- yes Sir, we did, 'Voluntarily" so, for we confess, we were
(and still are) scared- "who knows what may happen"? -And please don’t glorify
our weaknesses.


And what of faction?  The proud revolutionary in his youth, takes upon the woes
of the down-trodden on himself and destroys the entire families of two
feudal lords, save one fellow.  And that fellow, now jailed and humiliated,
gets his retribution, by getting him, who has by now become himself rich,
powerful and a violent dictator, killed.  Not very different from the
popular film plots of yours, Mr.Hari Krishna!  Have you yourself not been
kindling the ‘self esteem’ and evoking in the innumerable youth of Rayalaseema a
sense of retributive justice through your films?  Don’t you see this as an
inevitable consequence of your efforts?


And is it also not a real life story to learn from, dear "Maoist" friends, that
power could corrupt even the best of Men?  How come that you, of all, mourn
the death?  When one chooses to tread the path of thorns, one would not be
shocked at the thorn-pricks as they come- for it is one's own choosing.  And
when I choose a path of violence, so should I face it. One can't cry foul and
weep that one's comrades are killed, after one having declared a war. That is a
law of violence: that it breeds violence, hatred and animosity and strengthens a
chain of retribution. And one wonders, whenever you cry foul at the false
encounters, if YOU were always that right. That has been the moral justification
for the Police, for their violations of human rights.  And the same has been the
point which various human rights groups are unable to explain to the middle
class. May Mr.Ravi's sad end result in a quiet moment of pondering to all the
factionists, and more so, to the Maoist friends: for, from revolution you have
come now to glorify retribution- and retribution is what you got into now, ever
since the never hopeful talks" "failed".


May there be peace.  May retribution not again raise its dirty head.  May
love become the order of the day.  May the leaders realize that we all seek
peace and happiness- not violence and counter violence- not at the moment,
no for ever.




Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The killing of SP, Mongher and six other police personnel in Bihar by
CPI Maoist cadres has once again raised the fundamental question:
"Is there any law or set of norms (even by their own standards) the
naxalites follow for taking out the right to life of somebody, ?"
Can they kill anybody whom they like totally arbitrarily and say that
it advances the cause of the revolution? In the instant case, the
S.P. who has been killed happens to be from Andhra Pradesh and from a
tribal community. This oficer does not seem to have any report of any
particularly anti-human-rights track record. Therefore, it appears
the killing has been done just because he is a police officer
discharging his lawful duties. Now, desptie all its limitations, the
police is accountable. At least there is a modicum of accountability.
There could be reports in the press, departmental enquiry by the
police organisation, there could be a judicial enquiry, there could
even be a prosecution theoretically and in case of conviction,
punishment is not within the domain of the executive and the
judiciary conducts the trial as well as awards the punishment. If the
police takes somebody's life, there is at least a theoretical edifice
in place. What is the theoretical protection in case of a killing
like the one of Surendra Babu and six other policemen by the
naxalites?
1. Is there any internal document or assesment showing how the cause
of revolution will be advanced and by how many degrees by killing X
rather than Y or Z?
2. Is there any difference or relative weightage for killing a tribal
or a SC person who happens to be a police officer vis-a-vis a forward
caste person?
3. Is there any relative weightage between taking the life of
somebody who has a continuous history of human rights violations, of
torturing people in custody, of killing people in fake
encounters etc vis-a-vis a professional police officer who is known
to discharge his duties as per law?
4. Before declaring somebody to be unfit to live, is there any effort
to bring the facts to the person's notice and giving him an
opportunity to explain his version of facts?
5. Can right to life be allowed to be extinguished so easily?
6. How will this advance the cause of the revolution, with tribal
people learning a lesson that they should not have high aspirations
in life and police officers learning a lesson that it does not matter
whether you discharge your duties professionally without fear or
favour, being sensitive to human rights, or whether you chose to
adopt brutal methods and bend backwards to please the masters,
because either way you have the same probability of losing your life?

The point is well made that just as capital punishment is to be
opposed, arbitrary execution by anybody should be opposed. But, I am
not sure if these two are to be treated identical.There is a 'class
angle' in practice, the manner in which the law and the system
operate. Because of this practical class element, there is a
difference in the manner in which the judicial system responds to the
case of cinema actor Harikrishna and the way it does to that of
Manohar, who is alleged to have killed his classmate SriLakshmi.
Whether we like it or not, the rich and influetical people are able
to make use of the opportunities afforded by the law, while the
underpriveleged are not able to do so. In theory of course, there is
right to equality and the same law applies to everybody.But in
practice this problem is a real one. So, I would say that of course,
there should be more introspection among the armed-struggle-oriented
people on the methods adopted by them. Definitely they need to look
for more dignified solutions rather than mere terror. Overall social
mobilisation, bringing up awareness levels of the people on various
socio-economic issues are all important tasks. But at the same time,
if we single out 'counter-violence' by the armed groups as the most
important factor, we would be indirectly supporting exploitation.

IF YOU ARE A HUMAN

This article is about Human beings, Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis,
Islam, Kurds, Human rights, Respect, Money, Donations, Angelina Jolie,
Pavarotti, Giorgio Armani, Donors, Peace, History, Campaigns and about you if
you care about these words.

Hi there,

I am Sam, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon at the moment; I have spent the
last
9 years of my life as a refugee registered with the UNHCR in Beirut. The last 3
years, I have spent as an activist for human rights (especially refugees and
asylum seekers) on the Internet; I'm also a books author and ebooks publisher. I
have launched many campaigns to improve our situation as refugees in Lebanon
and hopefully bring more understanding to our problems worldwide. I helped
make many changes and improvements at the UNHCR office in Beirut; I used the
Internet as the field for my activities (you can read more about that in my free
ebook 'MY CAMPAIGNS' http://www.umacr.org/truth/free_ebooks.htm).

My latest campaign is to stop the UNHCR from conducting illegal and humiliating
actions, by using photos of refugees as banners and human-buttons to collect
money. This is an abuse of the dignity and humanity of the refugees and must
stop immediately and a clear public apology present by the United Nations High
Commissioner of Refugees. My friends, I am talking about the pictures you can
see here: http://www.unhcr.info/if_human/if_human.htm

As I'm a refugee and an activist for human rights, I feel that the problems of
refugees are not being solved by the UNHCR in fact their policies are worsening
them. I have been saying this since the first day I started my activities and I
said
then that "If we want to improve the situation of the refugees in the world we
must
start with changing the policies of the UNHCR," I even wrote this in my books.

The people of the UNHCR have used these pictures as banners and buttons to
collect money from donors. As a human being and a refugee, I felt these pictures
represent a bad and offensive example of the disrespect for our humanity as
refugees and asylum seekers. It does nothing to represent the meaning and the
principles that were mentioned in the UN51 convention. It fills me with pain and
sorrow to see this disrespect to our dignity and humanity and also how they are
deceiving the community with these pictures.

Unfortunately, the people who work at the UNHCR are working hard to present to
you a portrait of a refugee as a poor human being who's problem will end when
you donate a few $$$. Please look at their website (just google for the unhcr)
and
look at the pictures there. Everywhere on the site you'll just see pictures
about
poor people!

They have worked hard to establish a deep-rooted connection between poverty
and refugees. Everywhere in the world now if you ask anyone what the word
'refugee' means the answer will be "a poor person who has lost his home" does
any one of you know another meaning for the word?

They have showed you just one thing: poor people as refugees and they made it
clear that by paying some money to them, the problem will be solved; all it
needs
is financial resources! When you look directly at their websites, the pictures
of
poor people will grab your attention straight away! For UNHCR, the problem is
the money only! We're all as humans need money, but not only the money! There
are many things in the life not only the money, for example things like what you
could read in my free ebook 'REFUGEES FARM'
http://www.umacr.org/truth/free_ebooks.htm

When I started to post in Yahoo groups mentioning I'm a refugee, many people
didn't believe me, and they asked, "how it was possible for me to have access to
the Internet?" I was astonished at the beginning but afterwards I understood the
reality of what they were saying and started to post messages telling the truth
and because of this the UNHCR declared war on me. So then I started to call
myself "The Truth Warrior" because I am struggling to tell you the truth.

The people of the UNHCR emphasized the connection between the refugees
and poverty and drew a foggy picture of refugees, creating a strong impression
about their poverty, more than the fact they were stateless refugees. They also
put forward the idea it was the poverty creating the reality of them being
refugees
in the first place. Now it is an accepted idea in the world community that a
refugee is just a poor person looking for a better life, well this is just not
true! The
majority of the world doesn't even realize that it is even possible for a
millionaire
to have to flee his home and be a refugee.

Article 1 of the Convention defines a refugee as "A person who is outside
his/her
country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of
persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a
particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to
avail
himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear
of
persecution."

There is no mention made of the financial situation of the refugee or the degree
of poverty he is experiencing, in plain simple words 'poverty does not make
someone a refugee'. As I said before "the link between poverty and being a
refugee is another thing entirely". Most of the time the situation of the
refugees is
bad because they have no security, no opportunities to get work and this then
does create poverty! Its clear that giving money will not solve the problem,
what's
needed is real understanding of the problems that refugees are facing and they
need global co-operation to solve this. This inspired me to adopt as my motto:
Justice brings peace, freedom brings democracy
Understanding is the way.

Let me share with you some figures published by the UNHCR itself.
The table is on my site here: http://www.unhcr.info/if_human/if_human.htm

From that table, we can see the total private donations in year 2003 were US$
20,072,010. Now let's analyze that number, Anyway if we consider the total
numbers of asylum seekers and refugees and others of concern to the UNHCR
which was 20,556,781 people published on their table on the 1st of August 2003.
Now we need to divide that amount on the number of refugees
20,072,010/20,556,781 guess what? It's equals $0.97!

So then each refugee will have a grand sum of $0.97 every year from these
donations!!! Yes my friend, they humiliated us for less than $1 a year. Now let
me
think what I can do with this amount of money in one-year m'mmmm, maybe I can
buy 2 bars of Lebanese candy! I registered with UNHCR more than 8 years ago
now and until this day I have not received one cent from them! So according to
that table they owe me $7.80, a fortune!!! I declare now that I don't want this
money ($7.80) I just want them to remove these humiliating pictures and make a
public apology.

The big question is: Does all this money come from these human-buttons asking
for donations on the UNHCR'S site? Does Pavarotti or Giorgio Armani need
these human-buttons to make donations? If they need these buttons and it's a
good way for collecting money for the UNHCR why don't they use their own
pictures this way to bring more money in for the UNHCR. Also about Angelina
Jolie, she is a goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR and she has worked hard to
collect money for the UNHCR, she is pretty and attractive and her picture would
make an excellent human-button. They could write on the Angelina Jolie button
"make a donation and be like Angelina" or Send a donation to receive thanks
from Angelina" do you think that would offend her or the others we spoke about?
Why would it do you think??? Her pictures are everywhere so let them use these
as a human-button to collect money if they feel it is inoffensive and not
dishonorable to her.

The last thing about these numbers is the percentage of the amount that
different
governments contribution to the UNHCR. I read in one table the total is
$928,865,984. So what will happen if the UNHCR loses the 20 million that
comes from private donors, if they remove the human-buttons of refugees? OK,
they will have $908,865,984, but they would be giving respect to the refugees of
the world, do you think they care?

$0.97 a year makes no difference to a human being but if we divide the same
amount between the number of people working for the UNHCR, I believe they
have about 5000 employees… so 20,072,010/5000=$4014.40 more than
$4000 a year don't you think that makes a difference?

I have finished now about the numbers, let us continue about the pictures, and
the
idea of using the Angelina Jolie, maybe you will say that her picture is already
being used on the site of the UNHCR and you would be right! But there are a few
differences between her picture and the pictures of the refugees. Angelina's
picture isn't used to collect money; it's used to show how much she cares about
people and her help for the UNHCR. When you click on her picture, you read
about Angelina, but when you click on the human-button of the refugees you find
a form to donate money.

The important difference being this, Angelina's picture gives you her name,
dates and history. The human-buttons, say nothing about the people on them, no
names, no dates, nothing! This pushed me to find out more about these human-
buttons. I found out the truth about the picture on the Iraqi banner in the page
about Iraq, and the button on this page to donate money. I wrote about it in my
book "THE TRUTH WARRIOR" I could tell you quickly about it now, for more
details please look in the book.

This is a picture of a Kurdish family, and it was taken in 1991! So that was 13
years ago!!! The funny thing is that they used it to illustrate and draw
attention to
an event that happened last year, writing on it "IRAQ EMERGENCY" strange to
speak about an emergency and use a 13 year old picture don't you think?

Do you know why they used that picture? Because it was easy… they had it
already, no new refugee crisis happened during the last war with the USA on Iraq
in 2003! Guess what? This picture shows a Kurdish family fleeing by crossing
the border near Suleymaniye in the north of Iraq! The problem now, of course is
the returning of refugees who left during Saddam's rule. The age of the picture
and the fact it was taken for a different reason, it's deceptive and dishonest
act.

I would have thought that a big organization like the UNHCR would be able to get
a more modern picture of what is happening. They receive information daily and I
am sure they don't need to resort to 13-year-old pictures; this information is
from
the last century!!! Maybe now there are not any pictures of Iraqi refugees to
encourage donors to click the human-button! What a pity for the people of the
UNHCR and for the refugees, especially the Iraqis. I wonder, how old the other
pictures?

Do you feel that the picture shows the real situation of Iraqi refugees now? Are
the Iraqis still fleeing and seeking refuge outside Iraq? The truth is always
painful.
The UNHCR has stopped receiving new applications form Iraqis seeking help,
and when an Iraqi goes to the UNHCR in Beirut to ask for assistance they are
told that the only help they can get is repatriation to Iraq. At the moment
Iraqi
refugees are scattered around the world, Many countries are offering to help
return Iraqis home. These countries governments mostly finance these plans. For
example in England the government has offered $1000 plus the cost of their
flight
home to each refugee.

In Lebanon, we are not sure about the amount of financial support for those
wishing to return home, but someone who had gone home that it was about $40
informed me, the source of the money was also unclear. Some people are
saying that this money is from unknown Iraqi parties and some say the Iraqi
Embassy in Beirut. I am currently looking for more information on this matter.

Anyway I don't feel the $40 dollars given to refugees in Lebanon is worth
anything. Especially when viewed against the $1000 given by most European
countries. The question is this: If there is no refugee crisis in Iraq and the
financial support is being paid for by the governments where these people are,
why is the UNHCR still asking for money using pictures of Iraqi refugees?

One more important question about that picture, do you think that the people who
work for the UNHCR know anything about this woman or her family? Are they
registered refugees? What is her name and where are they all now? Do you think
she agreed to have her picture put on the web and used as a human-button?

I would love to know the answers to these questions, but unfortunately I can't
ask
the people at the UNHCR even though I tried many times over the years. They
never answer any questions! Instead they have tried to hurt me and even tried to
get my ISP to cut my connection! I hope one day you get the chance to ask them,
and that maybe they will answer you. They didn't answer any of my friends who
sent them messages. So please if you like, let us play their game and be a
little
cheeky. I hope that one of you can contact them and tell them you want to donate
money to help the family they showed in the picture. Not telling them of course
that you know the picture is old. Just tell them you want to sponsor that
family.
Notice that they wrote on it 'Emergency' so it's good to help them out! I'll
wait
with baited breath to hear their answers.

What do you think the answer will be? What do you think she would feel like if
she
saw her picture used like that, and what if her family sees her like this or
someone in her village? She is a Moslem woman and to expose herself like this
is a sin in Islam. Did you notice she uses two pieces of cloth to cover her
head.
the UNHCR using pictures of Moslem women on the net as a banner and as a
human-button to collect money where millions of men could see her!!! That is a
very big sin in Islam.
As I'm a Moslem and I am sure the UNHCR haven't asked the woman's
permission to display her picture publicly like they are doing now, I am asking
them to respect the Islamic religion and apologize to the woman and remove her
picture immediately. Also I am asking each Moslem person reading this article to
express their concern about this sin, which is being committed by the UNHCR for
the sake of this woman and her family. Every Moslem knows what sin is, and it is
also a sin to be silent when you see a wrong being committed. I am asking each
Moslem to contact the UNHCR and express your opinion as we are guided to do
by Islam.

There is a legal point of view for this subject:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established by the
U.N. General Assembly in 1950. According to the UN51 convention and the
Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(G.A. res. 428 (V), annex, 5 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 20) at 46, U.N. Doc. A/1775
(1950)).

"CHAPTER II. - FUNCTIONS OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER

10. The High Commissioner shall administer any funds, public or private, which
he receives for assistance to refugees, and shall distribute them among the
private and, as appropriate, public agencies which he deems best qualified to
administer such assistance.
The High Commissioner may reject any offers which he does not consider
appropriate or which cannot be utilized.
The High Commissioner shall not appeal to governments for funds or make a
general appeal, without the prior approval of the General Assembly.
The High Commissioner shall include in his annual report a statement of his
activities in this field."

As you can see the UNHCR must have permission from the General assembly
for any general appeal for money. The question is: Did the General Assembly
agree to use these pictures to appeal for funds?

I would sincerely love to receive an answer, I am a refugee and I feel it is an
abuse of our humanity as refugees in this world. Its not just abuse of our
humanity
but for the humanity of all humans.

We appeal to you to support this campaign to remove these abuses and to
provide more respect for all refugees worldwide. Our situation in the world
worsens day after day without any new polices to help or improve our situation.
The UNHCR uses us as human-buttons and baits to collect money! Our problem
is not only because of poverty it's because the general abuse of the meaning and
the principles of UN51 convention because of these money collectors in UNHCR
and other organizations.

This abuse must stop immediately. If UNHCR needs money so badly, there must
be other respectable and honorable ways to make general and public appeals
for money. For example using buttons like paypal provides for donation without
any humiliating pictures of humans at all.

I'm not saying that the people of UNHCR are all bad, they're just part of a
system
and they have their procedures and regulations. I just wanted to explain some of
our feelings as refugees. To offer my understanding of the relationship between
the refugees and the UNHCR. I'm an eyewitness to that relationship, trying hard
to improve the relationship using my campaigns, my books and my unanswered
questions.

I feel sad because the UNHCR has failed in the past 3 years to answer my
questions. Until this day they failed to answer even one question! I'm not
asking
for the impossible. I just want some answers, as I'm a refugee, as I'm a human
and as I'm an activist for human rights. All that gives me the right to ask and
to
have my questions answered.

I invite you as fellow humans and members of the world community to support my
mission by asking the UNHCR to remove these abuses and to provide some
reasonable answers for the questions that you have read in this article.

This invitation is a very important as part of the collective efforts to enhance
human rights, respect and global peace. The UNHCR represent an important
constituent of our community, as humans and any failure in its performance will
weaken the harmony and peace of the world.

We're living in a time where wars are declared to liberate people from
despotism and further democracy and human rights. Blood is being shed now to
try and improve democracy, human rights and respect. Do we need wars and to
shed blood every time we face disregard for human rights and democracy?! Isn't
there any peaceful way?

I have heard many people claim that they're working to help the refugees and
human rights activists and some of them are collecting money also. I'm asking
these people: What are you doing to help refugees and enhance human rights
and respect? I'd like to know, and if you have nothing to do now, you can start
work and help refugees by working to remove these abuses and humiliations for
all humans. Contact the UNHCR and ask them about these pictures and tell them
that these pictures are an abuse of refugees' dignity and humanity, when you can
do this then we can see that you really care about refugees.

I don't have any money to pay you but if you would like to help us in our
struggle
and you respect our humanity as refugees in the world, then we would be very
thankful for this help. I'm an E-book publisher and I will be publishing many
more
E-books in the future. I would like to have answers to the questions in this
article
and since the people at the UNHCR refused to answer my questions, I declare
now that I'll give free access to all of the E-books I will write in my lifetime
to the
first person who will find the answers to my many questions concerning the
UNHCR. He/she will be a hero of all refugees and I'll write about them what they
would like. I can't give them a medal now, but we will give them our love and
our
thanks as refugees.

Please, if you think this issue is important and needs acts, you can send
messages to the UNHCR and your government to speak your opinions
according to your rights and democracy. Here are some emails:
ecu@...,inquiries@...,Hqpr00@...,tb-
petitions@...,info@...

Notice that you can find more emails here: http://www.umacr.org/truth/emails.htm
or you can brows for more on the net or to find more ways for contact them like
phones or faxes.

Together we will build better world.

You could reach me fast via this form: http://www.unhcr.us/email_me.htm

Thanks

THE TRUTH WARRIOR
OSAM ALTAEE
http://www.unhcr.info

Many human rights groups have rightly opposed the death sentence
given to Dhanunjay Chatterjee. He was convicted of raping a minor
girl and murdering her fourteen years ago. Of course the
establishment believes that death sentence provides necessary
deterrence so that others will learn a lesson and do not indulge in
such acts in future. All the groups and individuals who opposed made
it clear that no doubt, he did an inhuman and brutal crime. The
grounds for opposing the death sentence varied: 1) Why should state,
representing a civilised society, do the same inhuman and brutal act
like the criminal? Some other less brutal punishment should be given.
2) There are imperfections in the judicial system. There is a finite
probability that the criminal is not fully responsible for the whole
act. Any other punishment can be attempted to be reviewed. But death
sentence is irreversible. 3) The theory of deterrence is not borne
out by facts, as crimes continue to take place whether you have death
penalty or not. 4) He has already suffered 14 years of death and
uncertainity. Life imprisonment will be commensurate with his crime,
as the state should not really adopt the theory of `eye for an
eye
and tooth for a tooth'. 5) Crime is committed by the individual
but
created by the society. The whole society including you and me are
responsible for the advertisement-driven culture to show woman as an
object for man's pleasure; even for selling men's toiletry
items, you
need the picture of a half-naked woman. By our connivance or silence,
all of us are part of this culture, which caused the overall
environment for the crime. Therefore, singling out the criminal for
punishment of such an ultimate nature is not fair. Now, are all these
grounds genuine? If these grounds expressed by the human rights
groups are genuine, what about the death sentence awarded by
arbitrary means by armed groups working for different causes? If
Dhanunjay, who faced trial, repeated appeals and finally had an
opportunity for a mercy petition cannot be hanged, how can a
`class
enemy' be killed?

July 15 issue of 'Down to earth' carries an interesting article about
village Punukula in Khammam district. For about two years, the
village has avoided using chemical pesticides, the most expensive
input into its cotton crop. They follow 'non-pesticide-management' of
pests, with the help of an NGO SECURE based at Gattaigudem. SECURE
got technical support from Centre for Sustainable Agriculture,
Hyderabad. For pest control, the village uses hormone traps and trap
crops, sprays of chilli-garlic, neem seeds and cow-dung-urine. Cost
of cultivation of cotton crop fell down from Rs 60,000 per hectare to
Rs 10,000.The bigest coup was when N Venkateshwar Rao of village
Pullayagudem, owning 30 Hectares of land and having a pesticide shop
of his own, gave up using pesticides for his cotton cultivation and
saved Rs 6 lakh. It appears the yield has reduced marginally, to
about 10 quintals per acre, which is not bad at all.If profitability
of agriculture can be improved by reducing the pesticide cost and at
the same time if environmental protection can be ensured,it is an
ideal thing to achieve.

The Hindu carried an editorial titled 'Women in Science' on
12/6/2004.It mentions,"Women account for 30 per cent of the doctoral
degrees that are awarded by Bangalore's Indian Institute of Science
(IISc), one of the premier scientific institutions in the country. It
appears they might constitute actually 50 per cent of those taking
biology doctorates from some of the leading centres. Yet women on the
faculty and in senior decision-making positions at universities and
research institutions are a relative rarity. At IISc, for instance,
they occupy only about eight per cent of the faculty positions
(assistant professor, associate professor, and professor). The
situation is believed to be similar in other major research centres.
Family issues play a big part in deterring well-trained women
scientists from pursuing science as a career."
  Full editorial can be seen at
http://www.hindu.com/2004/06/12/stories/2004061202851000.htm
Now, what kind of family issues play the big part?
Coming to my own case,I confess I became a party to dowry-giving in
my own life. Despite all my pretensions of being 'liberal', I found
myself cornored. Well, the girl was highly educated, got an
attractive offer to pursue further studies abroad etc.At such point
of time, she also came across a marriage proposal that could enable
her to pursue further studies. Thus career prospects and the marriage
proposal were together. But,when the moment came in a
normal arranged marriage negotiation, an explicit demand for dowry
was made, I chickened out.(Not that there was no attempt to resist.
But the feeble attempt was further weakened by analysing the girl's
limitations--- The society has not changed. One has not prepared the
girl to see for herself the alternatives and be bold to say an
unequivocal 'no' to dowry. At the moment of choice, can one impose
one's own convictions on the girl who wanted a break and did not feel
any strong convictions against dowry? If an educated girl has no
qualms about dowry and wants early certanity,clarity in career and
family, is it fair for the liberal family elders to say no to such
proposal?)Thus I became an unwilling party. Now, everybody becomes
an unwilling party perhaps like this. And perhaps every dowry-taker
becomes unwilling party too. How then would the problem of dowry
be eliminated? I really don't know except that I feel ashamed about
my own role.

At least the following 16 laws seem to govern moneylending for
Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh:
1. Andhra Pradesh Pawn Brokers Act, 2002 which has repealed the
corresponding 1349 Fasli of Telengana areas and 1943 Act of Andhra
Areas
2. AP Telengana area Money lenders Act, 1349 Fasli
3. Hyderabad Moneylenders Registration and Licences validation Act,
1961
4. AP Telengana Areas Moneylenders Validity of Licences Act, 1956
5. AP (Andhra Region Scheduled Areas) Moneylenders Regulation, 1960
6. AP(Andhra Areas) Debtors Protection Act, 1934
7. AP (Telengana Area) Agricultural Debtors Relief Act, 1956
8. AP Agricultural Indebtedness Relief Act, 1977 and 1987
9. AP (Andhra Area) Agriculturists Relief Act, 1938, Amended in
1943,1948, 1949 and 1950
10. AP (Andhra Scheduled Areas) Agriculturists Relief Regulation, 1944
11. Agency Tracts Agriculturists Loans Rules, 1933
12. AP Scheduled Areas Moneylenders Regulation, 1960
13. AP (Andhra Areas Scheduled Tribes) Debt Relief Regulation, 1960
14. APScheduled Tribes Debt Relief Regulation, 1960 and 1970
15. Agriculturists Loans Act, 1935
16. Agriculturists Loans Mulberrry Cultivation Rules, 1961

It appears the sum and substance of all these Acts is that in
Scheduled Areas, there is a ceiling on the interest that can be
charged by a registered moneylender. But in non-scheduled Areas,
there is no such limit. Secondly, it appears that there are no
provisions for suo-motto registration of cases. Unless the debtor
applies in the prescribed form within the prescribed time limit, a
case cannot open. Thirdly, it appears that the Government will have
to notify the operation of the Acts, as the old dates seem to have
lapsed after 1957 and the Debt Relief Act needs re-validation.

The issue of increasing number of suicides of farmers cannot be
ignored. It cannot be explained away merely as something prompted by
the new Government's decision on payment of ex-gratia to the family
memebers.It cannot be solely attributed to sudden awakening of
sensitivity on part of the mainstream media.The issue needs to be
addressed as a real issue. Short term and long term solutions need to
be attempted. In the short term, the grass root workers of all
political parties, Panchayati Raj institutions and self-help-groups
will have to organise village meetings and build up confidence
levels.If more than half of women's self help groups in the country
are active in Andhra Pradesh and if so many groups have got NABARD
loan linkage, revolving fund and other interventions of Velugu/SERP
funds, surely it must be possible for the Self-help-groups to support
agricultural credit requirements. Legal restrictions will have to be
imposed on money lending. Excessive interest rates have to be banned.
Cases of inordinately high interest lending will have to looked into
and after due enquiry, the outstanding amount should be waived, with
no liability on the Government to pay any compensation to the illegal
moneylender. For long term, effective steps should be taken to make
agriculture a profitable occupation, as by and large it is clear that
for the small and marginal farmers, agriculture has come to mean a
loss-making but unavoidable proposition.This can only happen if the
terms of trade will improve in favour of agriculture, when the farmer
gets better price for his produce.And finally, the left parties have
the notoriety of championing the causes of organised sector at the
cost of unorganised sector. They should ensure that no more Sixth Pay
Commissions are set up and no more new benefits to government
servants are given till the basic issues of farmers are addressed.

I hope the new Government will assure and ensure that fake
encounters will not continue. Securing human rights is not a one-
time step, but series of steps in the right direction. Right to life
includes right to live with dignity. Is it unrealistic to hope that
issues of social development, poverty reduction and enhancement of
opportunities for people in disorganised sector will receive more
sincere attention?

I too think it is a good idea to have a "none of the above" button in the
Electronic Voting machine.  I am sure a vast majority of indian citizen would
welcome such move.  But I guess it is not implementable right now, in the
present elections.
The electronic voting system poses greater dangers at present..with the fact
that the political parties can now know for sure which poling boths supported
who.  This, if not addressed immediately, is sure to cause ugly post election
violence.
It is needed that the eVmachines are jumbled up before counting.  Election
commission better issue instructructions fast on this subject.



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I agree with your views. I want to suggest that the Law should be
amended to recognise the right of 'dissent' or 'no choice' by making
the following changes:
1. The Electronic Voting Machine should have at the end the choice
of 'none of the above'.
2.In case highest number of voters prefer 'none of the above', re-
election should be announced in that particular constituency, with
the condition that none of the independent candidates in the fray
will be eligible for the next election and also that none of the
political parties in the fray can field any candidate (even a
different candidate) for the next election.
If these two changes are made, some marginal improvements can be
expected. The very fear of likelihood of more number of voters trying
for 'none of the above' option will make political parties more
careful in selecting the candidates.
--- In andhrapradeshcivilrights@yahoogroups.com, velugu_t
<no_reply@y...> wrote:
> So much of violence is caused by armed groups who do not believe in
> the kind of elections we have now.

Yes I agree with u velugu_t.

velugu_t <no_reply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:So much of violence is caused by armed
groups who do not believe in
the kind of elections we have now.This violence ranges from
threatening elected people of the ruling political party to resign,
preventing candidates from filing their nominations,actual violent
acts like killing a minister's husband who happens to be
tribal,preventing campaigning of the candidates and finally
threatening the voters with violence at the time of elections.It is
assumed for a moment that the kind of elections we have is faulty, as
it has great deal of money, muscle power, caste politics, rigging,
booth capturing, lack of economic or political ideology and various
kinds of corruption. At the same time, is it not true that large
number of people go to cast their vote? Despite all the limitations,
if an ordinary citizen finds elections worthwhile to go and cast his
or her vote, the fundamental opponents of election system have a
right to believe in the falsehood of elections and to refuse voting.
But, what right do they have to prevent others from voting? Everyone
has a right to vote or not vote. But using violence to prevent others
from voting cannot be justified even if it is assumed that basically
these elections are farcical. If they are farcical, they can be
ignored!



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Report:
<dastkar1@...>
A public hearing on the yarn crisis in the handloom industry was
organized by Dastkar Andhra on April 3, 2004 at Institution of
Engineers, Khairatabad, Hyderabad.

Weaver representatives from Kurnool, Chittoor, Prakasam and Nalgonda
districts put forth their issues, highlighting the recent increase in
yarn prices and the difficulties being faced in the production
process.  The perspective of mills was also represented.  Key
functionaries from the NHDC, Hyderabad and from the Directorate of
Handlooms and Textiles, Hyderabad were also present.

Responding to these different viewpoints was the panel consisting of
Dr. Shanta Sinha, Magsasay awardee, Dr. D. Narasimha Reddy, Prof of
Economics and Dean of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Dr.
Kodandram Reddy, Osmania University, Sri Smarajit Ray, IAS, Retd
Principal Secretary, Rural Development, GOAP, Dr. Venugopal Sharma,
Registrar, NIRD, Sri Abhimanyu Raja, Marvel Weaves, Hyderabad, and
Sri V. Hanumanth Rao, senior journalist.

The following issues were highlighted during the public hearing on
yarn and recommendations made to overcome the present crisis in the
industry and to strengthen the industry in the long term:

1. Ensuring timely supply of yarn to the weavers in the required
counts from the mills of their preference to produce quality fabric.

2. The main yarn supplier NHDC is overburdened in trying to dispense
yarn to all corners of the State. There is an unavoidable delay, as
the request for yarn from every district has to pass through the
local AD's office before NHDC can formally accept the request.
Then
there is a further delay in the name of transportation. In order to
ensure speedy delivery of yarn, NHDC should consider constituting
local depots managed by the weavers, under the guidance of the
AD's
office.

     There are a few local depots managed by the Apex Co-operative
Society and by NHDC itself.  NHDC and the Dept. of Handlooms and
Textiles should inspect their present status and functioning and
initiate measures for increasing efficiency. Those found guilty of
existing only in name should be asked at once to show causes for
their malfunction.
3. Spinning mills claim that production of hank yarn is unprofitable
as it involves extra expenses after production in cone form.
Government should provide incentives to the mills for hank yarn
production and should also consider setting up of mills exclusively
for hank yarn production. NHDC and DHT should request the Central and
State Governments to start thinking in this direction.

4. Both the State Department and NHDC recognize the phenomenal
increase in yarn prices over the last six months. As they are
intimately connected to the field reality and understand fully the
long-term effects of these increases on the industry, they should
strongly recommend to the Central government to control the prices.
This should be done in such a way that they do not penalize the
already crawling spinning mill industry.

5. The increase in yarn prices has affected both the societies and
master weavers. As we all know there is little difference between the
two categories in many districts where the Co-ops fail to provide
continuous work and the weavers work alternately for the society and
the master weaver.

The government does not have a uniform policy about the master
weavers at present and is extending support to a few organized under
the new Co-op Act, many of whom have expressly come together to avail
the government schemes.  Government while extending support to the
master weavers has to evolve a procedure to see that the benefits of
duty free yarn and such other schemes are being passed on to the
weaver directly in the form of increase in wages.  This will involve
greater vigilance on the part of the Department. It also compels us
to take another look at the structure and functioning of the primary
co-operatives, many of which were formed under the old Act.

6. The master weaver is staking claim to the benefits of schemes like
yarn duty exemption and supply of yarn through Government channels as
he is providing work to the weavers and hence supporting the
industry. These arguments can no longer be ignored especially with
the launch of the new weaver identity card scheme. The present
definition of a weaver not only excludes the wives who share the work
on the loom but also the hundreds of weavers who work on the looms
belonging to the master weaver. This dramatically reduces the number
of beneficiaries and projects a totally false picture of the
magnitude of the industry.  It is imperative that the government
immediately broadens the parameters of the definition of weavers in
order to do justice to the thousands of weavers involved in pre and
post-loom processes.

7. Government has to initiate urgent measures to strengthen the co-
operatives and to introduce new checks and balances to avoid the
malpractices and misuses of government investments that caused the
downfall of many societies. The end user of all these initiatives,
the weaver, has never received the complete benefits of any
government scheme. The new measures have to take this fact into
account and make the schemes as foolproof as possible.

We hope that these recommendations are given positive consideration
and subject to debate involving the government, the weavers, the
master weavers and other organizations and individuals working for
the industry.  We look forward to a joint effort in strengthening the
industry and ensuring a bright future for it.
--------Dastkar Andhra, 95 A, Park lane,Behind sidhamsetty complex,
Secunderabad