CIA, Justice review of destroyed tapes
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
CIA, Justice review of destroyed tapes
By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department and the CIA's internal watchdog announced Saturday a joint inquiry into the spy agency's destruction of videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists as the latest scandal to rock U.S. intelligence gathered steam.
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The review will determine whether a full investigation is warranted.
"I welcome this inquiry and the CIA will cooperate fully," CIA Director Mike Hayden said in a statement. "I welcome it as an opportunity to address questions that have arisen over the destruction back in 2005 of videotapes."
The House Intelligence Committee is launching its own inquiry next week. It will investigate not only why the tapes were destroyed and Congress was not notified, but also the interrogation methods that "if released, had the potential to do such grave damage to the United States of America," said Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, on Saturday.
"This administration cannot be trusted to police itself," Reyes said.
The Senate Intelligence committee is also investigating.
Hayden told agency employees Thursday that the recordings were destroyed out of fear the tapes would leak and reveal the identities of interrogators. He said the sessions were videotaped to provide an added layer of legal protection for interrogators using new, harsh methods authorized by President Bush as a way to break down the defenses of recalcitrant prisoners.
The CIA's acting general counsel, John Rizzo, is preserving all remaining records related to the videotapes and their destruction. Kenneth L. Wainstein, an assistant attorney general, asked that they be handed over along with any relevant internal reviews.
Justice Department officials, lawyers from the CIA general counsel's office and CIA Inspector General John Helgerson will meet early this coming week to begin the preliminary inquiry, Wainstein wrote Rizzo on Saturday.
Helgerson has been highly critical in classified reports of the agency's treatment of detainees. In October, the CIA confirmed that a close Hayden aide was reviewing his work, raising concern on Capitol Hill that the independence of the office was under attack.
The White House had no immediate comment on the inquiry. On Friday, presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino said the White House would support Attorney General Michael Mukasey if he decided to investigate.
Angry congressional Democrats had demanded the Justice Department investigate. Some accused the CIA of a cover-up.
The man now at the center of the storm is Jose Rodriguez, who retired as head of the CIA's clandestine directorate of operations in August 2007, but will leave the agency at the end of the year. Rodriguez decided the tapes should be destroyed, one former and one current intelligence official told The Associated Press. A career spy, Rodriguez was promoted to the job by then-CIA Director Porter Goss.
Goss learned of the tapes' destruction "a couple of days" after it happened, a government official familiar with the events said. The official said Goss did not order an investigation or inform Congress.
Goss was upset by the tapes' destruction but did not take any action because the decision was within Rodriguez's authority, a former intelligence official told the AP. The CIA's spy service has broad latitude to take actions to protect operational security.
"Though Goss believed this was a bad judgment it falls within prerogatives of the directorate of operations," said the former official, who like other current and former officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The tapes were destroyed shortly after The Washington Post in late 2005 revealed the existence of secret overseas prisons, which angered the cooperating governments.
Another intelligence official said Rodriguez was concerned the tapes would leak and the interrogators seen in the tapes would be targeted by al-Qaida. "Rodriguez felt he had good reasons to deep-six the tapes. They had people's faces on them. It's not like a name getting out," the official said.
The Justice Department and CIA inspector general inquiry is expected to focus on whether Rodriguez had the inherent authority to destroy the tapes or had the endorsement of CIA legal advisers or any senior officials.
There are more than 100 attorneys inside the CIA, and it is possible those inside the clandestine service arrived at their own conclusions about the advisability of destroying the tapes.
"The operations people size up their lawyers to make sure they are not always going to say no," said John Radsan, who was assistant general counsel at the CIA from 2002 to 2004 and now teaches at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn.
"It looks like Rodriguez is being pushed over the deck on this. Will he grab other people?" he said.
Rodriguez destroyed the tapes at a time of national debate over interrogation practices involving suspected terrorists. He could not be reached for comment.
In December 2005, Congress passed legislation that prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of all U.S. detainees, including those in CIA custody. Earlier in the year, the Senate Intelligence Committee was trying to determine if CIA interrogators were complying with interrogation guidelines. The CIA refused twice in 2005 to provide the committee with its general counsel's report on the tapes, according to the current chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
Detainees' treatment was also an issue before the Supreme Court in the fall of 2005. The court heard a case involving the legal rights of detainees held at the Navy's base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It decided in June 2006 that al-Qaida prisoners are protected by the Geneva Convention's prohibitions on torture and cruel treatment. At the time, the CIA also was concerned that its operatives involved in interrogations might be subject to legal charges over the treatment of detainees. Some agency employees have bought liability insurance as a hedge against that possibility.
The tapes showed interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee taken by the CIA in 2002. Zubaydah, under harsh questioning, told CIA interrogators about alleged Sept. 11 accomplice Ramzi Binalshibh. The two men's confessions also led to the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who the U.S. government said was the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The other taped interrogations showed Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead. He and Zubaydah are now being held at Guantanamo.
Then-CIA General Counsel Scott Muller told the leadership of the House and Senate intelligence committees about the tapes and the intention to destroy them. That included then-Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Rockefeller, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Goss, who was then House Intelligence Committee Chairman. None ever requested to view the tapes, according to the government official.
The White House was scrambling this weekend to determine who in the administration knew about the tapes and when, including Harriet Miers, who was a deputy White House chief of staff in 2003. Miers became White House counsel in early 2005.
Bush "has no recollection" of hearing about either the tapes' existence or their destruction before being briefed about it Thursday morning, White House press secretary Perino said.
Bush has "complete confidence" in Hayden's handling of the matter, Perino said.
Hayden took over the CIA in 2006.
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Well it certainly appears that Bush/Rumsfeld/ Cheney/Ashcroft gave the green light SS interrogation tactics, most likely figuring that the people they kidnapped were never getting out of Gitmo anyway.
So the CIA put the screws, literally, to everyone they captured or kidnapped.

Then something went wrong...the Brain of Bush is prone to have that happen.

The CIA then destroyed all the TAPES they made and it came out somehow.

NOW it appears they won't have trials because they CAN NOT BE PROSECUTED

tell me two things:

HOW can they blame all this on ANYTHING besides OUTRIGHT CRIMES BY US?

Second, WHO COULD MAKE UP SHIT THIS FREAKING CRAZY???

I guess the next step, after the Secret Prisons of course (you remember them, right?) is a Soviet Gulag system.

Inquiry Begins Into Tapes' Destruction

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: December 9, 2007
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8

Politics Of Demography
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
The region that is now West Bengal was a part of a number of empires and kingdoms during the past two millennia. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, served for many years as the capital of British India. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947 into two separate entities, West Bengal - a state of India, and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) belonging to the new nation of Pakistan. It is india's intellectual state.
Following India's independence in 1947, West Bengal's economic and political theatres were dominated for many decades by intellectual Marxism, Naxalite movements and trade unionism. From late 1990s, economic rejuvenation led to a spurt in the state's economic and industrial growth.[1] An agriculture-dependent state, West Bengal occupies only 2.7% of the India's land area, though it supports over 7.8% of Indian population, and is the most densely populated state in India.[1] West Bengal has been ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front for three decades, making it the world's longest-running democratically-elected communist government. Many notable poets, writers, artists and performers are native to West Bengal.
Demographics
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:E9SoSpUqv88J:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bengal+Demographic+Politics+of+West+Bengal&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=in
The vast majority of the 80,221,171 people of West Bengal[58] are Bengalis.[59] Bihari minority is scattered throughout the state and communites of Sherpas and ethnic Tibetans can be found in regions bordering Sikkim. People of Nepalese origin called Gurkha, a Martial Race, have a large population in Darjeeling district. West Bengal is also home to indigenous tribal Adivasis such as Santals, Kol and Toto tribe.
The official language is Bengali. Hindi and English are also used commonly. Nepali is spoken primarily in the Darjeeling district. Hinduism is the principal religion — 72.5% of the population are Hindus. Muslims comprise 25%; Sikhism and other religions make up the remainder.[60] West Bengal has a population density of 904 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,341.3/sq mi) making it the most densely populated state in India.[61] The state contributes 7.81% of India's population.[62] The state's 1991–2001 growth rate of 17.84% is lower than the national rate of 21.34%.[58] The gender ratio is 934 females per 1000 males.[58]
The literacy rate is 69.22%.[58] The life expectancy in the state is 63.4 years, marginally lower than the national value of 64.8 years.[63] About 72% of people live in rural areas. The proportion of people living below the poverty line in 1999–2000 was 31.85%.[1] Scheduled Castes and Tribes form 28.6% and 5.8% of the population respectively in rural areas, and 19.9% and 1.5% respectively in urban areas.[1]
The crime rate in the state in 2004 was 82.6 per 100,000, which was half of the national average.[64] This is the fourth-lowest crime rate among the 32 states and union territories of India.[65] However, the state reported the highest rate of Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes.[66] In reported crimes against women, the state showed a crime rate of 7.1 compared to the national rate of 14.1.[65] West Bengal was the first Indian state to constitute a Human Rights Commission of its own.[65]
Security implications of demographic aggression
Upendra Choudhury
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/04/28/stories/2003042800230900.htm

ALTHOUGH the continuous arrival of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants has serious security implications for India, the issue has so far been inadequately understood at best or is considered a "local problem'' at worst.
The former Home Minister, Mr Inderjit Gupta, had stated that there were more than one crore Bangladeshis illegally residing in India. According to Mr R. N. Bhattacharya, Inspector-General of BSF, in charge of South Bengal Frontier, "every 15th resident in West Bengal is a Bangladeshi." Each year about two lakh foreigners enter India illegally and settle down. To these, one should add those who enter with forged travel documents or even with valid ones but do not return to their country. The Bangladeshi immigrants are not only found in Assam and West Bengal but have also moved into various parts of India from Punjab to Bombay, from Nagaland to Orissa.
The long and porous borders give an easy passage to the infiltrators. The West Bengal-Bangladesh border 2217-km has over a hundred known points of infiltration. Another reason for the continuous illegal immigration is the absence of any punitive measures against it. Moreover, the language factor, age-old ties, the presence of a large minority population in the border villages, the nexus between the illegal immigrants and the fundamentalist organisations and, above all, the vote-bank politics of the political parties are all responsible for this permissive attitude.
Are immigrants swarming the North-East a security risk? According to a senior Army officer, who served in the north-eastern area, in seven States Hindus are in minority — Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and the five North-Eastern States. He predicts that if the current trend of Bangladeshi infiltration continues, within 10 years, Assam will become the eighth State where the Hindus will be in minority.
The political implications of this are grave. In the not-too-distant future, the infiltrators may well form the majority in the State Assembly. A study by a Kolkata Institute in 1989 found that the Bangladeshi immigrants were in a position to decisively influence over 52 Assembly constituencies, while in another 100, they could appreciably influence the outcome. This means that in about 50 per cent of the 294 Assembly constituencies of West Bengal, the Bangladeshi immigrants could play an important role.
The infiltrators outnumbering the locals too have serious security implications.
At the height of the Khalistan movement in Punjab, thousands of Hindus were turned out to seek shelter elsewhere in India. More recently, lakhs of Pandits have been driven out of Kashmir and hardly anyone espouses their cause.
Moreover, at the rate at which infiltration continues, there is a distinct danger that, in the near future, the infiltrators would demand a referendum on a merger with Bangladesh or set up another Muslim country speaking Bengali predominantly in the eastern part of India. With Bangladesh in the East and South of West Bengal; and Nepal and Bhutan in the North-West and North; and with China straddling the entire region further North, not to mention Myanmar in the East; this region would pose an extraordinary geo-political challenge to India.
Another security implication is that it has given rise to a number of fundamentalists forces, primarily for defending the interest of Bangladeshi migrants. According to Mr T. V. Rajeshwar, former Governor of West Bengal, organisations such as the Muslim Liberation Tigers of Assam, the Muslim Liberation Army and the Muslim Liberation Force have been formed for this purpose.
To him, some of these outfits have even announced their objective of creating an independent Islamic state in Assam. Historian H. K. Borpujari, thinks that these organisations have given the ISI of Pakistan and international fundamentalist forces a solid base to destabilise the country.
Thus, there is no doubt that the Bangladeshi immigrants pose a serious threat to our security. Political parties, in general, and the Centre, in particular, should rise above their electoral interests and take immediate steps on this vital issue to safeguard India's national interest.
(The author teaches India's Foreign Policy and International Politics at the Post-Graduate Department of Political Science, Dyal Singh College, Karnal, Haryana.)
West Bengal turning blind eye to changing religious demographic balance: Advani

KOLKATA, MARCH 26. Accusing the CPI (M)-led Left Front Government of turning `a blind eye' to the `fast-changing' religious demographic balance in the border districts of West Bengal, the BJP president, L.K. Advani, today said such change had affected the communal peace and harmony so also the native culture. ``Such a change has not only harmed communal peace and harmony but also the native culture and social ethos of the areas concerned,'' Mr. Advani said in a letter to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
``We, in the BJP, view this not as a Hindu-Muslim issue, but as an issue that impinges, both in short and long term, on the unity, integrity and security of our nation,'' Mr. Advani said.
The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha alleged that it was regrettable that such an issue, raised by the State BJP chief, Tathagata Roy, in a letter to the State Home Secretary, was not given importance despite it being `a potent danger'.
He expressed hope that the Chief Minister would treat the issue `with the seriousness it deserves'. Mr. Advani was referring to a letter written by state BJP president to the Home Secretary about the 'change in religious demographic pattern' in West Bengal's border districts. — PTI
Class and the Politics of Participatory Rural Transformation in West Bengal: An Alternative to World Bank Orthodoxy
SUDIPTA BHATTACHARYYA 11Department of Economics and Politics, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan 731 235, West Bengal, India1Department of Economics and Politics, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan 731 235, West Bengal, India
Sudipta Bhattacharyya, Reader in Economics, Department of Economics and Politics, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan 731 235, West Bengal, India. e-mail: sudipta.bh@gmail.com
I prepared the draft of this paper during my visit to the Department of Economics and International Development, University of Bath during 2003–4 as a Commonwealth Fellow. I have presented an earlier version of the paper at seminars in a variety of universities and institutions, in the United Kingdom, France and India. They are too numerous to mention here, but the comments received there were most helpful. I am grateful to the following individuals for their observations: Utsa Patnaik, A. K. Bagchi, Madhura Swaminathan, Barbara Harriss-White, Prabhat Patnaik, Geof Wood, John Hudson, Sarah White, Susan Johnson, Peter Davis, Joe Devine, Turan Subasat, Atanu Ghoshray, Hari Lohano, Dibyesh Anand, Indraneel Dasgupta, Raju Das, M. S. Bhat, David Seddon, Rajat Ganguly, Indranil Dutta, Matthew McCartney, Bernard Conte, Ben Rogaly, Daniel J. Rycroft, Jos Mooij, Crispin Bates, Anand P. B., Martin Ricketts, Hugh Goodacre, Manik Bhattacharya and Niloy Ghosh. The editors of this journal, especially T. J. Byres, and the journal's referees, were very helpful. I thank the editors for their detailed editorial help. The usual disclaimer applies.
Keywords : West Bengal, Panchayat Raj, peasant social differentiation, social capital, participatory rural developmentAbstract
Based on a primary field survey and secondary sources of information, this study analyzes the West Bengal experience of participatory rural transformation in relation to the changing class structure in a differentiated rural economy, the rise in class-consciousness among the rural poor and the participation of different classes in the political process of decision-making. Utsa Patnaik's (1987) labour exploitation criterion is used in order to rank rural households in class terms, alongside the standard acreage groupings. This study strongly refutes the neo-liberal (World Bank) idea of social capital and civil society as sources of ‘people's participation’. It is argued that ‘people's participation’ is a meaningless concept, since the ‘people’ as a category includes different classes with conflicting interests. Though subordinate classes in West Bengal have achieved a higher level of class consciousness than in the past, and have resisted extra economic coercion, and while their political participation has risen, their involvement at the grass roots level of administrative decision-making is very weak. Panchayat Raj has so far failed to initiate a second phase of institutional reform in West Bengal, encompassing education, gender justice and above all the co-operative movement. This partial failure is the outcome of short-term electoral benefit being given priority over and so undermining class struggle.
The demography of politics
Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 21, 2004
When the Muslim votebank frowns, politicians get into a frenzy. Reacting with alacrity to Muslim ire at Census revelations of the community's steep growth rate, the UPA government reverted Commissioner J.K. Banthia to his parent cadre for not consulting the Union Home Ministry before releasing data on religious demography. Congress President Sonia Gandhi jumped into the fray, promising an inquiry into so-called statistical errors, and the message heard loud and clear across the country was that there is be no public space for the legitimate concerns of the Hindu community.
First reports gave the Muslim growth rate as 36 percent in the decade 1991-2001. Later, adjustments factoring in the absence of data from Jammu and Kashmir in the 1991 census and from Assam in 1981, scaled this down to 29.3 percent, a decline of 3.6 percent from 32.9 percent growth in the 1991 census. Questions have legitimately been raised about the original and the "adjusted" figures politically extracted from the Census Commission.
Certainly the "adjusted" figures have a higher comfort value. They show that instead of the decadal growth rate of Muslims increasing by 1.5 per cent in 2001, it actually fell by 3.6 per cent. Yet these figures surely hide the true extent of India's Muslim population, as both Jammu & Kashmir and Assam are States with a high Muslim population. Hence, when the figures for both States are added, we will have to admit having a much higher total Muslim population in the country, and a higher percentage of Muslims to the total population. This reality cannot be evaded.
Hindus have long had a latent fear that the Muslim community will exterminate it from its homeland through demographic aggression in the form of over-breeding and illegal immigration. There is a secret dread, articulated by former Director General of Police, Mr. R.K. Ohri (Long March of Islam, 2004), that Hindus in India will meet the fate of the Christians in Lebanon and parts of the Balkans, where sharp demographic changes over a span of a few decades reduced the majority community to minority status. The warning is not without merit. The population of indigenous religious groups in the country has steadily fallen in percentage terms over the past 110 years, from 1881 to 1991, and this trend has accelerated after Partition. The present controversy over Islamic injunctions against family planning has only added to Hindu discomfort.
The Census 2001 statistics have attracted so much attention partly on account of the security and economic implications of illicit immigration from Bangladesh, and partly because the growth rate of most native religious groups has stagnated or declined. The Muslim community scored poorly on development indices such as literacy and employment, and virtually confined its contribution to the national kitty to demographics. This has understandably frightened the Hindu majority, especially since the Minister of State for Home, Mr. Sriprakash Jaiswal, went so far as to demand a ban on release of population figures of different religious groups. Some politicians even foolishly asked the rationale behind collecting such figures.
Actually, as Dr. J.K. Bajaj of the Centre for Policy Research, Chennai, has pointed out, this is not the first time that the Census has released data on the relative population of different religious groups. Right from the first Census of 1871, data regarding religious demography has been made public and is in fact, the most keenly awaited census data. What is unique about the 2001 figures is that this is the first time since Independence that the Census has tabulated religious demography against socio-cultural factors like literacy, age distribution, employment status, female child ratio, and so on. This has enabled scholars to examine the causes of the changing demographics of different religious communities. As of now, it appears that the Muslim population in India is unlikely to stabilize at normal replacement levels. From 10.43 percent in 1951, Muslims have risen to 13.43 percent in 2001.
It is relevant that even the "adjusted" figures of 29.3 percent put the Muslim rate of growth well above the national average, and also above that for other major communities such as the Hindus (20.3 percent); Christians (22.6 percent) and Sikhs (18.2 percent). It bears mentioning that the Hindu growth rate in the previous decade declined by as much as five percentage points, to 20.3 percent. Hence, the nine percent officially admitted lead enjoyed by the Muslim community has understandably sent alarm bells ringing across the nation.
Since independence, Hindus as a community have been declining in percentage terms. In 1951, Hindus comprised 85 percent of the population. By 1961 itself they had fallen to 83.4 percent; they were 82.7 percent in 1971 and 80.5 percent in 2001. In sharp contrast, the Muslim community stood at 9.7 percent of partitioned India's population in 1951, but rose steadily to 10.7 percent in 1961, 11.2 percent in 1971 and 13.4 percent in 2001. The missing censuses of Jammu & Kashmir (1991) and Assam (1981) hardly detract from this trend.
The situation is especially alarming when we look at particular States. In Kerala, Muslims comprised 17.9 percent of the population in 1961, but were a formidable 24.7 percent by 2001. In Assam, Muslims comprised 25 percent of the population in 1961, but were 30.9 percent in 2001. In West Bengal, Muslims rose from 20 percent in 1961 to 25 percent in 2001. In Maharashtra, they marched from 7.6 percent in 1961 to 10.6 percent in 2001. These increases in percentage are unlikely to be reversed in the coming decade. Conversely, the proportion of Hindus has declined in each state.
Muslims are now the majority or near-majority community in the districts of Assam and West Bengal that border Bangladesh, several key districts in eastern Bihar, western Uttar Pradesh, and northern Kerala, and of course Kashmir. This rapidly changing population profile of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is a matter of legitimate national concern. Today, with 30.7 million Muslims in a truncated Uttar Pradesh, 20.2 million in West Bengal, 13.7 million in a truncated Bihar and 10.2 million in Maharashtra, India is sitting on a demographic tinderbox.
In the eight decades from 1901 and 1991, Assam witnessed a steep fall in the percentage of native religions, from 84.55 to 68.25 percent, while Muslim population nearly doubled from 15.03 percent to 28.43 percent. Dhubir, Barpeta, Hailakundi and Karimganj are reportedly Muslim majority districts. In West Bengal, Muslims are the majority in Malda and Murshidabad, with West Dinapur and Birbhum slated to follow. In Uttar Pradesh, Rampur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Bareilly are close to becoming Muslim majority districts. In Bihar, Muslims have overwhelmed Kishanganj (65.91 percent), and dramatically increased their numbers and percentage in Araria, Katihar, Sahibaganj, Darbhanga and Pashchimi Champaran.
The census must also be viewed in the context of India's neighbourhood. In 1941, Hindus and Sikhs jointly constituted 19 percent of present-day Pakistan, but fell to one percent by 2001. In 1941, Hindus were 29 percent of present-day Bangladesh, but declined to 18 percent in 1961, 14 percent in 1974, 12 percent in 1981 and 10 percent in 1991. Dhaka's sustained ethnic cleansing of the past few years can only have accelerated this trend. The conclusion is inescapable: the region is being Islamized. This has obvious implications for national identity and security.

Marx, money, vote & madrasas
West Bengal a typical case of soft state
Hari Jaisingh
A number of complexities in today's terrorism-infested world must have been beyond the wildest imagination of Karl Marx, Lenin and, for that matter, even of Mao. Their stress was on class war leading ultimately to the withering away of the state. The state has not withered away, but the Soviet Union as a unified nation has collapsed. The communist ideology could not hold the Soviet Union together because what Marx taught failed to stand the test of human weaknesses and susceptibilities.
Civilisational traits of different races, their religious preferences, prejudices and cravings for riches are part of human complexities which go beyond any set doctrine. Even Stalin's younger daughter Svetlana took to astrology while deciding to marry an Indian Marxist ideologue, Brajesh Singh, elder brother of former External Affairs Minister Dinesh Singh. Their marriage was secretly solemnised in accordance with Hindu rituals.
I am giving the above information to put the Marxist-ruled state of West Bengal's ideological paradoxes in right perspective. West Bengal does not belong to the also-ran category state. It is a class apart from the other states not only for certain ideological continuity of the ruling alliance there but also for political stability which is a unique plus point in itself.
Mr Jyoti Basu was the longest-serving Chief Minister of an Indian state. He bowed out gracefully in favour of Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who was the unanimous choice of the CPM Politburo.
The new Chief Minister has not only established himself but has also shown certain welcome signs of flexibility both in political approach and governance of the state. He is not a rigid person. He is more pragmatic than Mr Basu was. He understands that changing times demand changing responses. I am saying this after a wideranging interaction with a number of thinking persons and leaders in Kolkata last week.
Of course, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya cannot have his way in all matters. As a disciplined person, he has to be guided by the party as well as the allies of the CPM in the state. Still, within the given framework, he is a forward-looking person who wishes to make West Bengal an economically vibrant and politically ideal state. But then he is not without numerous problems. Perhaps, the CPM thrives on problems.
The influx of Bangladeshis has added to his woes. What has particularly made things go out of hand is the increasing use of Bangladeshis as votebank investment. For that matter, the demographic profile of West Bengal as well as of the entire north-eastern region, including Assam, is changing alarmingly. The country is paying a heavy price for the actions of our self-seeking, visionless and petty-minded politicians.
What has made all this more disturbing is the activities of ISI agents who are very much part of the groups sneaking into the region. They pose a serious threat to the country's security.
The seriousness of the problem has come to the fore in the wake of the shoot-out incident outside the American Center in Kolkata on January 22. It has given a severe jolt to sensible politicians. They now talk openly of the presence of ISI agents in West Bengal and how the influx of Bangladeshis threatens the state's security and well-being.
Though India as a nation is a soft state, West Bengal's is a typical case of being a soft state because of its ideological hangover. And the elements of this softness flow from a misplaced Marxist ideology coupled with a set concept of secularism, cash-and-carry vote-bank politics and low-level corruption.
"You just pay Rs 200 to Rs 400 and get a ration card which entitles you to vote," a well-informed police officer belonging to the West Bengal cadre told me in Kolkata. This should be enough to understand the serious nature of political drift in the state. Unlike in this part of the country corruption in that state is a low-cost operation. Of course, political parties here are more interested in the infiltrators’ votes than their notes.
I talked to Union Home Minister L.K. Advani about this infiltration. He is well aware of the problem but is very cautious in stating the truth lest he should be accused of being communal. Herein lies the Indian malaise. The question of communalism and secularism has virtually become a matter of political convenience.
A Marxist probably sees no evil in Pakistani or Saudi-funded terrorism foisted in the name of Islam. No wonder, there has been a mushroom growth of madrasas in the state. There are as many as 505 government-recognised madrasas in West Bengal against over 400 which operate freely without due recognition. The madrasa tag has become a political symbol. Because of the high level of illiteracy religious leaders enjoy tremendous clout during elections and hence the political patronage.
After the January 22 shooting incident the West Bengal Chief Minister is, however, a disturbed person. He has already ordered a survey of the madrasas and asked for a database. At a meeting with senior officers of Murshidabad district the other day, Mr Bhattacharya said: "I would like to see the survey findings and database within the next fortnight."
Incidentally, the border district of Murshidabad has the heaviest concentration of madrasas. There are several other districts where madrasas have been set up without permission. Mr Bhattacharya's action was also prompted by the arrest of a madrasa teacher, Habibur Rehman. A Bangladeshi national, he had been teaching Arabic at a madrasa in Lalgola. He is suspected to have links with the ISI.
It is no secret that ISI agents are active in the border districts with the sole aim of alienating Muslims from the mainstream. "This is dangerous. I urge my Muslim bhais not to listen to these divisive forces because this will lead to disaster," the Chief Minister told the CPM's Murshidabad district conference on January 28.
The Chief Minister's order to survey all madrasas has, meanwhile, upset some of the CPM allies. They are so obsessed with their vote bank politics and corrupt practices which go with it that they do not seem to realise the serious implications of infiltration in the state and dubious activities of the ISI.
In tackling the problem of terrorism, there must not be any ideological tilt one way or the other. What is tragic is that a progressive state like West Bengal, known for its secular credentials and progressive land reforms, should become a convenient playground for highly communal politics.
It will be educative to recall some findings and recommendations of the six-member A.R. Kidwai committee which was set up to look into the working of madrasas and suggest remedial steps. (Mr Kidwai is a former Governor of West Bengal)
The committee has already submitted its interim report which is now being scrutinised by the state government. It has not only admitted the mushroom growth of illegal madrasas in the border districts and adjoining areas but has also pointed out how some vested interests are encouraging people from across the border to come to West Bengal.
At many places, village panchayats give shelter to them for their political gains. They are granted ration cards which help them get their names listed as voters. In some cases, the Muslim League, the Jamat-i-Islami and other communal forces are using these migrants for their communal politics.
During last year alone, over 10,000 Bangladeshis crossed over to West Bengal. Of these, roughly 4,000 could be pushed back. But the rest managed to slip into the interiors and mixed themselves with the locals.
Interestingly, the 1991 census reveals that in the past few years the population in nine border districts of the state had gone up by 30 per cent while in other areas the increase has been on an average of 5 to 7 per cent.
It is also no secret that some terrorist outfits backed by the ISI are using Bangladesh as their hideout and spread their activities across the border.
It will be worthwhile to note some of the recommendations of the Kidwai committee report.
One, proper guidelines must be evolved for granting recognition by the Madrasa Board.
Two, the Madrasa Board needs to be reorganised by inducting representatives from various competent bodies and drafting of appropriate curriculum.
Three, corruption and corrupt practices prevailing in madrasa education must be checked.
Four, steps must be taken to guard against the fanning of communalism.
Five, a protective shield has to be provided against criminalisation with a view to rooting out various vested interests of communal nature.
Six, no unauthorised madrasa should be allowed to function, but new rules can be framed to grant permission to more madrasas.
Seven, adequate funds must be earmarked for madrasa education.
West Bengal is indeed faced with a very serious problem which will require shedding of old ideological tilts and mustering of political will to nip the evil of communalism and terrorism in the bud. The Chief Minister understands the range and dimensions of the problem. But he has to act swiftly and firmly in the interest of his state and the nation as a whole.
Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is not only a forward-looking Marxist but also a forward-looking nationalist. All that he has to do is to put his nationalist step forward and silence politico-ideological ragas of his partymen and allies. For this he will have to educate and reorient the mindset of his Marxist colleagues and ruling partners.
He must not allow the delicate demographic profile of the state to be disturbed. Secularism is not a blind alley. It is a two-way highway where there must be free flow of ideas and concepts which are to be guided by the nation's interests.
Terrorism has no ideology. Nor can distorted Islamic teachings strengthen the country's secular creed, especially when funding and directions for terrorist activities come from the enemies of the nation.
Gujarat will decide general election date
Arun Nehru
The Gujarat elections have been dominating the media, with estimates and surveys being conducted. Depending on your preferences you can interpret the findings. Given the "wide" safety margins given by most forecasts, it is safe to assume that you will be both right and wrong within the same figures. The betting market is also giving odds, and I must admit that these figures are perhaps a little more accurate of the trends which change on a daily basis. The fight is tough, but the Gujarat chief minister is way ahead in the race, and estimates vary between 80-95 for the BJP and 70-80 for the Congress with 8-12 seats going to Independents. Political estimates indicate that Narendra Modi attracts crowds between 10,000 to 15,000 on an average in the rural areas (this is very good), while other BJP leaders struggle with numbers between 500 to 1,500. Clearly, the campaign strategy has to be based on the personality and performance of the chief minister.
Arun Jaitley will, as usual, run a good campaign, and the tactics of the last ten days will be vital. As things stand, the campaign will hinge around Narendra Modi for the BJP, and Sonia Gandhi and Rahul for the Congress. Large meetings of both parties are well attended, but these numbers can be confusing, as many facilities are offered to the crowds to assemble. Electoral trends are best assessed in the interiors where the responses of the voters are spontaneous and results easier to predict.
We will see a tough fight, but I think the results will be decisive. I don’t think the people of Gujarat will have to depend on individual MLAs and their tantrums for the future. A Congress win in Gujarat will be a political "upset," but if this does take place, the party’s position in the UPA coalition will be stronger than before, and an early election will be on the cards. The BJP will suffer a terrible psychological blow if it loses and this can affect the party worker and public sentiment for the short term. For both sides, the results of the Gujarat election will have a very decisive effect for the future. These results will determine the timing of the next Lok Sabha electi

Census and Nonsense
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Undocumented Migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal

Pranati Datta, Swati Sadhu, B. N. Bhattarchaya and P. K. Majumdar
Population Studies Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
The Population Studies Unit conducted a qualitative survey during 2002-03 on the effects of undocumented migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal,. A semi-structured schedule was canvassed to collect perception of professionals ? political leaders, economists, demographers, journalists, health personnel and so on ? to explore causes, consequences and policy issues regarding undocumented migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal. In this study undocumented migrants are defined as those who have entered West Bengal without valid documents in post-1971 period
The study reveals that though undocumented migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal has been a continuous process, the peak period was during and after the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. Immediately following Mujibur Rehman?s assassination on 15 August 1975, too, migration took place extensively. The main reasons for this massive migration during the period of 1971-80, as discerned from the multiple responses of different professionals are:
liberation war in Bangladesh
Mujibur's assassination in Bangladesh
political instability in Bangladesh
lack of safety and security for Hindu families mainly due to war
religious issue and communal tension affecting mainly Hindus during regime of Ziaur Rahman (1975-81).
economic and job opportunity in West Bengal
Undocumented migration from Bangladesh has contributed to increased fertility and child population in West Bengal due again to a number of factors:
illiteracy of migrants belonging to lower strata
migration by family
unawareness about family planning
lack of easy access to scientific family planning methods
sexual abuse and unwanted children
Settlement of migrants mostly in unhygienic conditions coupled with poor nutrition, improper medical and health care facilities, lack of safe drinking water and sanitation, poverty, illiteracy, social unawareness, the new environment, unsettled conditions have contributed to morbidity and child mortality in West Bengal. Economic depression, lack of industrialisation, social insecurity, demographic explosion, political instability, the domination of religious fundamentalists in Bangladesh, cultural similarity, and homo-ethnic climate in West Bengal are the main motivating factors behind the migration phenomenon.
The agricultural sector in West Bengal was improved wherever migrants have settled. Being hardy and industrious they helped to improve farming and production of food crops in West Bengal. Household industry including bidi, pottery, mat, candle, kantha stitch, ganjee factory, and Shantipuri tant have improved since illegal migrants provide cheap labour. Two factors have worked against local workers. One is the easy availability, and readiness of the migrant worker to work at a very low wage rate. The other is the general impression that the migrant workers are more hardworking. The continuous inflow of migrants has also aggravated the unemployment problem in the unorganised informal sector. Deforestation, land grab, trade grab, illegal occupancy of pavements and railway platforms by undocumented migrants are creating pressure on natural resources. Pre-existing slums have also grown.
Different political parties at different periods gave illegal migrants protection due to which local administrations could not impose strict law and order. Illegal migrants are enrolled in voters list and used as vote banks. Indian politicians have often therefore, encouraged Bangladeshi migration. It is now almost impossible to separate them from India citizens. Though many migrants came with the intention of getting permanent jobs, circumstances have often forced them to grab whatever opportunities came their way and to take shelter in the underworld economy to gain a livelihood.
The main antisocial activities illegal migrants are involved in include smuggling, robbery and associated crime, prostitution, beggary, and trafficking in women and children. The kind of social tension created by immigrants in Assam and Tripura has not been seen in West Bengal. Social tension regarding the occupation of alluvial land among the old and new settlers of Bangladeshi origin is however, a point of note. The circulatory nature of these illegal migrants in the border area has resulted in dual citizenship of these migrants.
Regarding policy matters some argue that the immigrants should be absorbed on humanitarian grounds. Granting special work permits in some cases is also required. Repatriation may be a solution in other cases. Fencing and strengthening BSF presence can minimise infiltration to some extent with the help of local cooperation. It requires proper implementation and monitoring of fencing with efficiency and transparency, political commitment and strong goodwill. About 70% of the respondents do not support granting of resident permit to the illegal migrants since India is already overcrowded with existing population and believe that they should be deported as quickly as possible. Providing support to the migrant population is not a solution, though it may be needed at some stage. Bipartite agreement and policies to improve the economic well-being of Bangladesh may be the long-term solutions.

SEASONAL VARIATION OF BIRTHS IN RURAL WEST BENGAL: MAGNITUDE, DIRECTION AND CORRELATES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UMA CHATTERJEE a1 and RAJIB ACHARYA a2
a1 International Institute for Population Sciences, Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai – 400 088, India
a2 ORC Macro, Calverton, Maryland, USA
Abstract
This paper examines seasonal variation of births in a rural community of West Bengal, India, by exploring data from the 1992–93 National Family Health Survey. Suitable time series analyses were used to determine the seasonal pattern of births and to estimate peaks. The trigonometric regression technique was used to carry out this objective. The study attempted to link the results of the regression analysis to the atmospheric temperature of the region during 1987–91, the distribution of respondents’ husbands’ occupations and the marriage pattern of the community. It was found that, in the study population, conceptions were numerous in the first quarter of a calendar year and the distribution of conceptions over calendar months was negatively associated with the average monthly temperature. In addition, the marriage pattern of the community and the occupational distribution of the fathers also had a significant effect on the distribution of births over calendar months. It is hoped that the findings will boost the development of needs-based maternal and child health (MCH) and family planning programmes in the community.

Census and Nonsense:
The Sangh's Communal Demography
A comedy of errors was played out when the Census Commission first raised the cry of spiraling Muslim growth rate and falling Hindu growth rate, only to rectify their schoolchild-like error by admitting that the growth rate was not adjusted against the 1991 census figures, when the solitary Muslim majority state was not included. So in fact now, with the adjusted figures, Muslim population was not rising at the rate of 36 per cent as declared earlier but at the rate of 29.3 per cent— down from 32.9 per cent in 1991 . Indeed the Muslim growth rate registered a decline greater than that of Hindus, which stood at 3.6 and 2.8 per cent respectively. Further, the decline in Hindu growth rate could have been possibly triggered not by falling birth rates but because several large communities who had previously been recorded as Hindus – the Jains, Veershaive/ Lingayats in Karnataka and the Sarna in Jharkhand - insisted on a separate identification this time.
But the Hindutva brigade would not be pacified. Praveen Togadia was particularly miffed at the ‘adjusted figures' and threatened to move court over the change whereby the Hindu population “jumped from 80.5 per cent to 81.4 per cent”. He saw it as a conspiracy to “hoodwink” the Hindus about the actual growth in Muslim population, which was poised, according to him, to become a majority by 2111, unless checked . Venkaiah Naidu announced that high Muslim growth coupled with “demographic invasion” by Bangladeshi infiltrators should be a “cause of grave concern for all those who think of India 's unity and integrity in the long run”, namely the RSS and its affiliates. For Ram Madhav, the RSS spokesperson, even the earlier unadjusted figures do not measure up adequately. According to him, “our own study has shown much higher growth [for the Muslims]”.
‘Our own study'? True, the Organiser routinely lists horror stories about the rising Muslim population, but none of these lay claim to being a ‘study'. The study under question, one can hazard a guess, is Religious Demography of India by A.P Joshi, M.D. Srinivas and J.K. Bajaj (Centre for Policy Research, Chennai, 2003). With its plethora of tables and statistics on census between 1881 and 1991, it is a supreme example of how figures divorced from all socio-economic contexts may be harnessed in the service of a dangerous ideology. The basic thesis of the ‘study' is thus: The population of ‘Indian religionists' is steadily declining while that of other religionists, namely Muslims and Christians, is steadily rising, resulting in a fall of about 11 per cent points for the former. The downward graph of the Indian religionists and the upward, resurgent curve of the non-Indian religionists “will intersect at 50 per cent mark just before 2061”, following which the Indian religionists will be rendered a minority. (There is obviously no consensus in the Hindutva camp about the precise date of the Doomsday: Togadia predicted 2111)
How do Messrs. Joshi, Srinivas and Bajaj arrive at this calculation? Simple. They take liberties with conceptual as well as geographical boundaries!
According to them, ‘Indian religionists' include not only Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists—which were in any case defined by Article 25 of the Indian Constitution as Hindus—but much more remarkably, also, Jews, Parsees and Bahais. It is therefore only a residual category, including under its denomination all those who are not Muslims and Christians.
India , for them, is not the Indian Union but in true Akhand Bharat style, subsumes India , Pakistan and Bangladesh ! By their own calculations for the Indian Union, the fall in the population of Indian religionists is only about 2 percent—nowhere as dramatic as 11 per cent. Though by itself 2 per cent is not significant, what worries them is that while Indian religionists have been able to rebuff the advance of Islam and Christianity and continue to form an overwhelming majority in large swathes of areas, there are certain regions where the Indian religionists are under great pressure (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam) or turning into a minority (Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Northeast).
The existence of pockets of Muslim and Christian influence, say the authors, “formed the demographic basis of Partition of the country in 1947”, thus hinting that a rising Muslim and Christian population signals another impending partition. L.K. Advani who has written the Foreword to the book, in his own words, was a “victim” of religious demography and thus urges all to take serious note of the findings of the book.
The spectre of ‘Muslims overtaking Hindus in India ' is not of recent origin. It is as old as the census itself and the communalist mythmakers drew sustenance from it. For instance, O'Donnel, the Census Commissioner for 1891 calculated on the basis of the sluggish growth rates of the Hindus in comparison with that of Muslims the ‘exact' numbers of years it would take for the Hindus to disappear altogether. H.H. Risley, Home Secretary, Govt. of India, wondered if the figures of the last Census were a “forerunner of an Islamic and Christian revival which will threaten the citadel of Hinduism” (cited in P.K. Datta's “‘Dying Hindus': Production of Communal Commonsense in Early 20 th Century Bengal” in EPW , June 19, 1993 ). Over the years, it has become a vital component of the communal commonsense. Best encapsulated in Modi's infamous, “ Hum paanch, hamaare pachchis ” insinuation. (Does he even recognise the kind of sex ratios that would be required in the Muslim community for realising his fantastical ‘hum paanch'?). These canards though are easily disproved through reference to actual facts: Pune's Gokhale Institute in the 1990s had calculated that the Muslim population will remain fixed at 14.2 per cent of the total even if the same trends persist for the next 100 years. The myth of Muslim polygamy was punctured by the Survey conducted by Registrar General of India in 1961, which established the incidence of polygamy as lowest among the Muslims.
What is completely lost in population data based on religious distinctions is that communities are not homogenous monoliths but are riddled with internal socio-economic divisions, factors that actually determine population rates. It has been well established that development is the best contraceptive and population rates directly reflect a people's access to a host of factors such as education, employment, nutrition, health etc. High population rates are only an indictment of the Indian State 's inability, nay unwillingness to ensure a just and equitable distribution of the country's resources. Therefore, when a Venkiah Naidu or an Arun Jaitley preaches to the Muslims to adopt family planning measures, they are not only bolstering the commonsense about Muslims as a community that traditionally shuns family planning but are also cleverly shifting the burden of its backwardness on to the community. Notice how Maulana Sayed Kalbe Sadiq was hailed as a model reformist when he called for a discussion on the issue of family planning in a forthcoming meeting of the AIMPLB. Precisely because it trained the spotlight on the community and its alleged need to ‘reform' rather than on the State's failure to deliver the goods. The Congress of course, having burnt its hands once over the forced sterilization drive under Sanjay Gandhi's directions sang the song of ‘voluntary' family planning.
What is as disturbing as the cry of the Islamic population bomb is the silence over the real bombshell of the census—the abnormally skewed sex ratios across communities, reflecting a marked preference for sons. Again, if one were to go beyond the religion-wise data, we find that in Haryana, for instance, the sex ratio in lower income families is an astonishingly high 1000, while in high income families, it is a mere 600! Clearly, the model ‘ hum do hamare do' high-income (mostly Hindu) families follow their own population control by killing girl foetuses. The RSS, naturally, is silent on this murderous trend in patriarchal Indian society.
Between 1991 and 2001, Hindus added to their population numbers equivalent to the total Muslim population. Why then this paranoia? It is more than a simple matter of creating and sustaining stereotypes or keeping the fires of communal antagonisms simmering: at its heart lies the project of fashioning society and State in the mould of a fascist vision. The model of “One People, One Culture” conceives of a seamless Hindu civilization based on Sanatan Dharma, which countenanced ‘difference' or heterogeneity for the first time with the arrival of Islam and Christianity. It is only the followers of the Indic/ Indianist/ Vedic/ Sanatani religion—into which melt the heterodox faiths of Buddhism, Jainism, animist religions of the Adivasis and powerful anti-Brahmanical movements—who are the true inhabitants of the nation. In We or Our Nationhood Defined , Golwalkar had declared that “the Hindus alone are the nation and the Moslems and others, if not actually anti-national are at least outside the body of the nation.” Thus, if the nation is to be preserved, the contaminating presence of the non-nationals and anti-nationals has to be mitigated.
In his Foreword to Religious Demography in India, Advani says, “… The growth and decline of population play a crucial role in the rise and fall of nations … That is why active and alert societies … keep an eye on the changing demographic trends within themselves.” However, as the sham demographers of the RSS, Joshi, Srinivas and Bajaj tell us, defending the demographic balance also requires a vigilante State . Gujarat perhaps provided the best example of how ‘active' and ‘alert' societies and an interventionist State may keep an eye on the demographic trends. Genocide, after all, is the preferred mode of ‘population control' for the fascists – recall how the saffron mobs of Gujarat specially targeted the wombs and unborn foetuses of Muslim women.
Manisha Sethi
EMERGING LEARNING
Collectively, the preceding case histories illustrate a pattern of grassroots environmentalism emerging in India's villages. While struggle, conflict, and inequities are part of the social process redefining authority and control of the nation's natural forests, an increasing stabilization and restoration of natural forest ecosystems have been a fundamental outcome. Given worldwide concern over deforestation and resource depletion on our increasingly overcrowded planet, forest conservation efforts in some of India's poorest villages are encouraging. Concluding remarks attempt to draw lessons from their experiences.
Lessons for Communities
The evolution of forest management institutions within Indian communities is, by definition, a sequential process (see Figure 9). In these cases, the process typically begins with growing concerns among village leaders and members over deteriorating forest conditions. This is followed by a series of interactions among local leaders and members where forest protection needs and options are discussed. As a consensus for action emerges, forest protection activities appear, characterized by volunteer patrols and watchers, with systematic development of rules and fines. Once forest protection activities are firmly established in one area, they often begin to be adopted by neighboring villages that share the same or nearby forest patches. Many JFM study areas in India are witnessing the spread of protection systems to neighboring areas. In some situations, like Kudada, community groups begin forming informal or even formal apex bodies to resolve conflicts and facilitate communication and coordination with government agencies, especially the forest department. Older, more established forest protection committees like Kaimati, Shimli, and Kudada are moving beyond simple resource protection to explore how forest production might be increased through ecological manipulation, as well as improved processing and marketing.
Figure 9
Joint forest management transition processes
In the cases considered here, forest protection group operations are determined by independent communities based in one or two hamlets. Their only administrative identity is as component settlements within a multihamlet village panchayat. Currently, only the forest department can recognize a hamlet's rights and responsibilities as protectors of public forests. In interviews, representatives from FPCs often stress the importance of gaining legitimacy from the forest department. Without recognition, their authority to control previously open access forests can be constantly questioned by neighboring communities, migratory graziers, commercial interests, as well as forest department staff. In some areas, like Kudada, communities are distrustful of the forest department. Yet, increasingly communities are requesting that their FPCs be recognized through registration documents, demarcated maps of their protected areas, and other more immediate symbols of authority such as uniforms, badges, whistles, and staves. Further, some communities are requesting the authority to collect fines from offenders, a right exclusively held by the forest department.
This need for formal authority over public forestlands is a fundamental motivation driving community collaboration with forest departments. Currently, the forest department's capacity to formalize relationships is limited. While enabling policies allow legitimization, and a growing number of divisional forest officers and field staff are effectively interacting with community forest management groups, the departments still lack the broader capacity to map, register, and otherwise involve and delegate management responsibilities to forest communities. In most parts of India, even the location of forest protection groups has yet to be identified. The process to bring traditional and emerging systems of forest management into the governance domain has just begun.
Some communities, like Shimli and Kudada, are also expressing needs for technical assistance from forest departments to enhance forest productivity. While FPCs now have the right to protect forests, they generally lack the authority to manipulate them through enrichment planting, cleaning, and thinning, and have limited technical knowledge regarding methods to generate higher product flows.
The emergence of apex organizations, like Kudada's, which strengthens FPC interactions with the outside world, mediates conflict, and facilitates forest production and marketing systems, is already occurring in some parts of India. While apex organizations offer the valuable functions previously noted, they also provide opportunities for politicians or local elites to gain control over these fledgling resource management groups. Studies of FPC apex organizations may reveal how their positive features may be enhanced, while reducing the likelihood of manipulation by outside interests.
The relationship of FPCs to local government also needs clarification. Many FPC leaders stress the need to keep politics out of forest management. They note that community unity is a key element in reaching a consensus regarding forest management. Panchayats are often highly politicized, and many FPCs find the party factionalism can undermine their efforts at community organizing, as demonstrated in the cases of Rupabalia and Kaimati. Maintaining FPC autonomy appears the most popular position among members, yet pressures remain to bring FPCs under panchayat control. Ultimately, issues of how to relate small community resource management groups to local governance structures will need to be addressed.
Gender equity in FPC decision making remains a issue in many states. Many rural Indian communities limit women's participation in hamlet councils, including emerging FPCs. Yet, women are often primary forest users and rely heavily on forest products. Male and female priorities for forest production also differ. JFM resolutions and guidelines that simply mandate women's participation, however, may not be effective. New ways need to be found to create opportunities for women to play greater roles in FPC leadership and decision making, especially as protection activities take on greater management functions.
Lessons for JIM Policies and Programs
Supportive, enabling actions, both at the policy and field levels, that empower local communities as resource managers appear to encourage the spread of forest protection. "Enabling" actions refer to policies and programs that permit, authorize, and encourage communities to manage public forests. Enabling actions should possess flexibility, extending decision-making authority to communities regarding ways to organize, control, and utilize the resource. Enabling actions can be differentiated from "directive" actions, which are characterized by a retention of control by forest departments or government agencies, and where permissible activities are highly specified and rigid.
At both the national and state policy levels, enabling orders authorize forest officers to encourage communities to initiate protection activities. While existing JFM policies are generally regarded as imperfect instruments that are overly specific and rigid, their very existence allows the state forest departments to proceed with the devolution of rights and responsibilities for public lands. Prior to the existence of these policies, progressive foresters who attempted to involve communities in management were open to criticism by their colleagues.
Rigid JFM policies and project activities that empower government agencies to direct and control community management efforts generally fail to either enhance or encourage the spread of grassroots resource stabilization efforts. Policies and guidelines that dictate specific organizational structures and management prescriptions for FPCs have been poorly received by village communities. Since community groups are informal and reflect local traditions and leadership patterns, organizational structures vary significantly among participating villages. Imposing rigid standards undermines community authority to establish functioning management systems. Uniform sharing agreements may also not reflect variations in the productivity of the forest resource.
Quantitative targets for the formation or registration of FPCs have generally failed to accelerate the emergence of viable groups. In Orissa, many of the FPCs formed after politicians set targets were later found to be nonfunctional. Targets may send the wrong message to forest field staff who often feel under pressure to meet numeric goals, rather than help set a management transition process in motion.
In India, development strategies often assume that material incentives have to be provided to encourage communities to participate in programs. Community forest protection actions indicate that this is not necessarily the case. Emphasizing material incentives to "motivate" communities to manage forest resources may erode indigenous efforts to stabilize resources and establish resource control systems.
There is a need to adjust existing government JFM policies to encompass local social, cultural, and ecological variability. Feedback from community groups to the government regarding ways to improve policies is badly needed. Through the establishment of better communication channels and discussion platforms, better policies and more supportive programs could be developed.
Lessons for Forest Departments
Most large government bureaucracies tend to be conservative and resistant to change. It can be argued that due to the long growth periods required for trees, forestry institutions need to maintain stable policies and programs. The rapidly changing demographic, political, and economic conditions in developing countries, however, are demanding dramatic transformations within forest departments. How then do forestry agencies adjust to these new needs? In India, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, forest departments were under heavy attack by academics, NGOs, and rural communities for their perceived lack of responsiveness to needs for conservation and rural priorities. Criticism tended to unite foresters in a defensive posture, forcing them to find arguments to support past and existing practices, while rejecting even constructive critiques.
In the three states studied, political changes in recent decades raised expectations among rural communities regarding their forest rights, while eroding the authority of the forest department. Elected officials have encouraged the forest department to place greater priority on community needs. Forest depletion and conservation policies resulted in the weakening of commercial interests. New resources for forest departments increasingly came from large social forestry loans. While social forestry plantation schemes yielded mixed results, they encouraged forest departments to give greater emphasis to community oriented programs.
Forest departments are not well organized to implement participatory programs. India faces the challenge of retraining more than 150,000 foresters to respond to this broad-based shift in forest management. Just as the evolution of community forest protection systems is a sequential process, so too will be the development of forest department support programs. This analysis suggests that forest departments initiating JFM strategies may want to phase in activities and build new institutional mechanisms gradually (see Figure 9). Donor assistance in this sector will need to reflect a sequential strategy of institutional development. Investments in staff reorientation and research and development programs to create new planning and service delivery systems require priority attention.
Initial experiences with JFM support activities, including microplanning and registration, indicate that the process is complicated and slow. Forest departments are still struggling to develop new information systems, educational programs, and methods for boundary demarcation. There is also a need to establish participatory research programs that explore new ways to meet community requirements for a sustainable flow of forest products. In India, most forests under JFM are simply protected rather than managed intensively. Given the need for forest products, job creation, and income generation, intensive forest management will be desirable.
The transition from protection to intensive management implies the development of new institutional capacities as well as technical skills. At present, knowledge at the community level, and even with the forest departments, remains limited regarding the range of management objectives that should be considered and the types of pollarding, pruning, thinning, enrichment planting, and harvesting procedures to achieve them. While it is desirable that communities should attempt to optimize the productivity of their forests in a sustainable way, much applied research, both by communities and outside groups, will be needed to identify procedures to achieve this objective. It may be necessary for hamlet-based FPCs to cooperate with one another, as well as with outside institutions, especially the forest departments, in developing applied research programs. Most important, there is a need to recognize that communities need both support and authority to develop management capabilities.
Lessons for Non-Government Organizations
In recent years NGOs have played a number of roles in the growth of JFM. At the field level, some grassroots NGOs conduct environmental education camps, hold meetings with villagers, and are involved in efforts to raise awareness regarding the need for forest conservation. Some NGOs also conduct technical extension work to support non-timber forest product processing and marketing. Finally, some local NGOs act as advocates for forest-product collectors in their dealings with forest departments and commercial firms, as well as mediating conflicts.
Several Indian NGOs are also developing specializations as trainers for forest department staff. Separate programs are developed for senior officers and for field staff. NGOs involved in forest department training need to interact and share experiences with approaches to staff reorientation and curricula.
At the state and national levels, larger NGOs conduct applied studies regarding social, economic, and ecological issues emerging as a result of transitions to decentralized forest management. One NGO currently acts as the facilitator of the national support group (NSG) for JIM. This agency acts as a clearinghouse and analysis body for field-level studies. The NSG holds periodic meetings of NGOs in the research network, allowing members to discuss methods and findings, as well as their implications for program strategy. The NSG is currently attempting to establish a national working group on JFM within the Ministry of Environment and Forests. This group would review findings and recommendations forwarded by the NSG, allowing the office of the Inspector General of Forest to provide new implementation guidelines to state forest departments based on emerging field learning.
During this early stage of JFM program development, effective feedback is important to guide new policies and programs. The NGO community has the flexibility to assist with establishment of learning mechanisms, relying on coll

We want fair election in 2008 & Withdrawal of emergency state-Join the campaign
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
We want fair election in 2008 & Withdrawal of emergency state-Join the campaign "Md.Hasibul Hassan" to me
show details 10:35 pm
Dear Sir

Torture and extrajudicial killings in the form of alleged "crossfire killings," were serious problems before the caretaker government came to power, and have continued under its administration ::
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/bangladesh1206/
Other violations, which stem from emergency rules that undermine basic due process rights, or the large number of arbitrary arrests and detention without proper judicial oversight, are a direct result of the caretaker government's policies. While certain restrictions on some rights during properly declared states of national emergency are permitted under international law, it is far from clear that the measures under the government

Hindraf appeals to India for support
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
50 million Bibles printed in China
Beijing: A China-based Christian group has said it has printed 50 million Bibles meant mainly for believers in the mostly atheist nation.
Official statistics on Christianity in China show there are 16 million believers, whose numbers are expanding in the Communist nation which also has 18 theological schools, with about 1,800 students.
"The Chinese government respects and protects religious freedom and supports, as always, printing and publishing Bibles in China", Ye Xiaowen, head of the State Administration for Religious Affairs said at a ceremony, according to Xinhua news agency.
During the Beijing Olympics 2008, Ye said, local religious groups would provide help and service to overseas tourists, including Bible copies.
Olympic organisers had last month reacted angrily to reports that Bibles and other religious items for personal use would not be allowed at the Games.
A notice on the Beijing Olympics Web site explaining entry procedures had said, "Each traveller is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China".
Religious services Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist will be available to athletes in the Olympic Village next summer, Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympics media centre had said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry had also dismissed as "irresponsible rumours", reports that China would ban Bibles from the Olympic village during Olympics and said it respected and guaranteed the freedom of religion within the framework of its law.

Hindraf appeals to India for support
Kuala Lumpur: Having "exhausted" all legal avenues and other channels against alleged marginalisation, Hindraf, spearheading the protests by ethnic Indians in Malaysia, has appealed to New Delhi to stop the "ethnic cleansing" in the Muslim-dominated nation.
Hindraf had exhausted all legal avenues and all channels. "So we are going international. Now I want to go to mother country (Indian) to ask for help, what else can we do, where else do we go," P Uttayakumar, a founder member of the Hindu Rights Action Front (Hindraf), told PTI in an interview in Kuala Lumpur.
The lawyer-turned activist said ethnic Indians here were by and large "fear riddled, timid and scared", but the largest ever demonstration by the community last month showed that they wanted to be free from years of oppression and be heard.
"To me it is 50 years of marginalisation, suppression and oppression. It has been years of permanent colonisation of Indians in Malaysia. The floodgates just broke with the demonstration," Uttayakumar said.
Sitting behind a desk piled up with files and with the statuette of a blindfolded woman carrying scales of justice, Uttayakumar said the government was persecuting Hindraf for leading the protest. "That is why they are persecuting and prosecuting Hindraf supporters," the lawyer said as his phones continuously rang.
He defended his statement about "ethnic cleansing of Indians in Malaysia" which had sparked angry reaction from the ruling party saying the situation was worse than the one in Bosnia where members of a community were selectively killed.
"In ethnic cleansing 'a la Malaysia' it is worse because you are living and suffering," Uttayakumar said.
Uttayakumar alleged that Hindu temples were relocated near sewerage tanks and Indians were not given opportunities or had no upward mobility.
A police crackdown on at least 10,000 people during the November 25 protest against the alleged marginalisation of ethnic Indians had sparked uproar with India summoning the Malaysian envoy.
Malaysian government has vehemently rejected allegations of discrimination against the community with Minister of Works Samy Velu, himself an ethnic-Indian, saying that the unemployed members were either "lazy or choosy. He also alleged that were lured by money to join the anti-government protest.
Uttayakumar, however, denied that the large turnout at the rally could have been prompted by people's hopes of getting a million US dollars each.
"The November 25 rally caught the government by shock. I believe they would take stock but to what extent we have to wait and see," the Hindraf founder said, adding "we are asking for a change in mindset. We want to meet the prime minister."
"We will close down Hindraf if anyone can show that we promised them millions of dollars," he said. He said that his brother Wyathamoorthy had in his speeches across the country to ethnic Indians talked about the four trillion dollar demand but not promised any money.
Uttayakumar said the 31 Indians arrested on charges of attempted murder after the protest near Batu caves "did not make any sense." "These people were all inside the temple praying and 500 policemen were outside. How could 31 people attempt to murder one policeman," he asked.
The protesters wanted to march to the British High Commission to hand over a memorandum. The memorandum blamed the British for bringing Indians to Malaya 200 years ago as indentured labourers and exploiting them. "The memorandum asked the British Government to give the ethnic Indians in Malaysia British citizenship or give four trillion US dollars in compensation," Uttayakumar said. This amounts to almost one million dollars per Indian in this country.
He felt India could help ethnic Indians secure seats in Medical and IT institutions there and offer scholarships to Malaysian Indians for IT training. He felt that if India offered a dual citizenship with a repatriation clause "many lower rung Malaysian Indians may want to go back and live with dignity there."
He added that he was proud to be a Malaysian Indian.
Malaysian activist asks India to impose sanctions
New Delhi: India should impose trade sanctions on Malaysia to pressurize the latter to adopt affirmative policies to improve the conditions of its citizens of Indian origin, says a Malaysian leader of a movement demanding better opportunities for Indians.
P Waytha Moorthy, president of Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), was one of the chief organisers of a protest by Indian origin Malaysians Nov 25 in Kuala Lumpur against alleged government discriminatory policies, which was met with stiff resistance from the authorities.
The protest march was also in support a $4 trillion lawsuit filed in London in August by Hindraf, demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as indentured labourers and exploiting them.
Along with his elder brother and another lawyer, Waytha Moorthy was charged with sedition and then discharged. But, there are now reports that the prosecution may be again filing charges against them in a higher court.
Meanwhile, Waytha Moorthy has made India the first stop in his multi-national journey across United Kingdom, Netherlands and United States to garner pressure against the Malaysian government.
Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that the issue was a matter of concern.
But, Waytha Moorthy said, "India could do much more". "As an outsider, India is an economic superpower. I can tell you that Malaysia respects India due to business interest," he said, urging India to impose trade embargo against the Southeast Asian country.
Moorthy believed that it would not be interference in Malaysia's internal affairs. "It is a member of United Nations and if there is any violation in any state, then the international community should take action," said the Malaysian Indian lawyer.
He also asked Human Rights groups to send fact finding missions to Malaysia, as well as petition the Malaysian Attorney General to drop charges of attempt to murder against the 31 Indians.
The lawyer-turned-activist asserted that he was a Malaysian first. "While our parents may consider themselves immigrants, we are born and brought up in Malaysia and therefore want to fight for our rights," he stressed.
Waytha Moorthy had earlier in Chennai met with the Tamil Nadu chief minister, K Karunanidhi, his daughter and leaders of AIADMK and MDMK. After arriving in New Delhi, he met BJP leaders, L. K. Advani and Jaswant Singh.
"I briefed Mr. Advani about our plight and he told me that he will take it up," he said, but added that he was unable to meet Congress leaders so far. He leaves Friday for London.
Indian-origin citizens constitute eight percent of the population in Malaysia. Several Malaysian Indians activists claim that Indians have been at a disadvantage at various levels due to affirmative policies for Malays since Independence.
No threat to Tamils in Malaysia, say Tamil writers
Coimbatore: There is absolutely no threat to Tamils or their language in Malaysia, according to a group of ethnic Tamil writers from that country.
Though Indians were arrested in Malaysia for taking out a procession without permission, there was "no threat to Tamil language and Tamils in our country," P Rajendran, president of Tamil Writers Association, told reporters here tonight.
Tamils, constituting about 85 to 90 per cent of 20 lakh Indians in Malaysia, were safe as of now, Rajendran, who was heading a 34-member delegation, which is on a visit to the state to spread Malaysian Tamil Literature and culture, said.
When asked about the attitude of the government towards Tamil, he said, "with 523 Tamil schools, we have the liberty to study Tamil from the elementary level to Phd."
Asked whether Tamils were totally happy there, Rajendran said that though Indians were happy, there existed some problems and demands, as was in any other country.
In a fast develping country like Malaysia, the schemes and benefits were not equally distributed among all the population he said, adding, "it (demands) has come out in the open, since Indian-origin people are in minority."
The comments came in the backdrop of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi taking up the issue of marginalisation of ethnic Tamils in Malaysia with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which drew angry reactions from Malaysian Minister Nazri Aziz who asked the DMK chief to "lay-off".
The writers' association has plans to go to Sri Lanka and European Countries, where Tamils live in large numbers, Karthigesu, its vice president said.

No infiltration of terrorists in TN: Army Officer
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
No infiltration of terrorists in TN: Army Officer
Vellore (TN): Naxalite activities have been reported in Tamil Nadu but the state is free of infiltration of terrorist groups, a top Army official has said.
"There is no infiltration of terrorists in Tamil Nadu," Commander of Southern Army Command Lt. Gen. Nobel Thamburaj said here apparently referring to reports about movement of LTTE cadres and a recent e-mail that said that bomb explosions would occur in some areas of the state.
Talking to reporters here, he, however, said there was "movement" of naxalites in the state.
"The state police is keeping a strict vigil and conducting combing operations in sensitive areas, particularly border areas of the state like Vellore," he added.
His comments come even as a prominent Andhra Pradesh-based Maoist leader Pandurangan Reddy and his wife were arrested last week in Chennai.
On incidents of firing on Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy personnel, he said the fishermen must not cross into Sri Lankan waters while fishing as this would help them avoid coming under fire.
The Lt.Gen, on a maiden visit to his native place after assuming charge as the Commander of the Southern Army Command, also said he would take steps to set up a sainik school here.
Noting that Vellore District had been sending a number of people to the Army, he said it was high time a sainik school was set up for the benefit of children of ex-servicemen and those in service.
SC notice to former Madras High Court judge on trust row
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued a notice to a former Madras High Court judge, who is the chairman and managing trustee of an educational trust, over alleged grabbing of the trust's properties.
A bench comprising Justices B N Aggrawal and H S Bedi issued the notice to J Kanakaraj on an SLP filed by T Verghese George, who is associated with the trust, challenging the Madras High Court's refusal to appoint a receiver for the trust and removal of Kanakaraj and certain trust members from their posts.
The trust runs a host of educational institutions in Tamil Nad