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Gone with the Waves

2007-08-01T13:08:00.000+05:30

As the sea eats into the coast of south Gujarat, fishing villages are ruined.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Villagers with bricks retrieved from their old homes in Danti.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Danti is being invaded. More than half the residents have already fled this sleepy fishing village. But it isn't guns and troops that they are running away from. The sea that they revere and fish in has swallowed up the village, making people retreat further back every year.

Only the poorest remain on the edge of the village, with just a sea wall for protection. On one side of the wall are lashing waves. And, on the other are ramshackle, makeshift huts. No one here has permanent brick homes. They have to rebuild every year, after the waters rush in over the wall. The ocean knows no boundaries.

Govindbhai Tandel is the first to face its fury. His hut lies at the tip of the village, closest to the seafront, unprotected even by the stone wall. Govindbhai is back home after eight months at sea on his fishing boat. He returns to Danti in Valsad district during the monsoon, when it's too rough to go out to fish. But there's no rest at home. His family is hard at work filling their porch with sand, trying to elevate the entrance to prevent the tide from coming in. There's not much they can do. Water will flood their home anyways. It's only damage control.

"We have moved back three kilometers in the last 20 years. Our original village was out there – 3 km in the sea. You can't even see it now," says Govindbhai. "Three village wells have been submerged. We've relocated the school thrice. I've shifted home thrice so far. Can you see out there? That's where my last house was," he says pointing to a distant spot in the sea.

The village is long gone but lives on memory. As we walked around the village, most people pointed to various landmarks – all in the water. Nostalgia is the only thing that remains. During low tide, the beach is a hive of activity. Families are hard at work, trying to salvage bricks from the ruins of their old homes.

Salvaging the remains of homes that were submerged by the seaPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
On the sea shore is a brick wall with an arch - the remnants of Damentiben Tandel's house. "It broke three years back. Since then, we have kept moving and rebuilding every year," she says. "When the water comes in every monsoon, it's knee-high. Then, we have to put our kids on the roof in the pouring rain. We don't have the money to buy land and move out, so we remain here."

There's often water in their homes, but none to drink. "Our wells are in the sea. We get drinking water from the tap once every week or 15 days. Otherwise, we have to buy water. Tempos come here and deliver. It's Rs 30 for a barrel that lasts one day," says Damentiben.

Danti is on the coast of south Gujarat, one of the most industrialized areas in the country. It's called the 'Golden Corridor', but has some of the country's worst polluted spots like Ankleshwar and Vapi. Close to Danti is Dandi, the site of Gandhi's historic Salt March. This coast is now colonized by chaotic and toxic industrialization.

A house ravaged by the sea at Kaladra in Bharuch district.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
"The fish have gone further out in the sea because of pollution. And, the water has come further in, so we have suffered. We can't go very far in our tiny boats. We used to get 400 to 600 fish in one night . Now we barely get a hundred," says Shantibhai Tandel, a small fisherman. He has shifted back six times and is now in his seventh house. "I want my kids to study. The only thing is we can't afford donations for their education or bribes to get them a job. If they are lucky, they will find a job, otherwise they will have to stay here, continue fishing and face the hardships." Sandwiched between the sea and salt pans, there's not much further back they can retreat.

Many from the village have moved to other towns or to Dandi 12 km away in the last 7-8 years. But like Mahesh Hari Tandel, those who moved for safety still yearn for the sea. "My boat is still in Danti and I feel I have to go there everyday," he says. "When my father was alive, we shifted our house four times. After he died, our house broke twice and then we moved here. After we lost the mangroves in the last 15 to 20 years, many people had to migrate to big port towns like Mumbai, Porbandar or Veraval to work. Earlier, we could survive by fishing closeby and in the mangroves."

Jayantibhai Rathod repairs his fishing net at New Kaladra, where he resettled after the fishing colony at Kaladra was submerged 15 years ago.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
No one knows for sure why the sea is eroding the coast at such an alarmingly voracious pace. One of the reasons could be a rise in sea level due to global warming. Without even knowing what 'global warming' means, villagers along this coast are 'environmental refugees'. Though they are barely surviving, they are facing the brunt of reckless consumption in more affluent places. Ironically, most of these villages haven't been provided electric meters. People illegally tap electricity from the power cables that run above their homes. They don't know what global warming means. Many of them could not explain why the sea was advancing. Some fishermen guessed that it might be "because there are more storms in the sea."

Geologists from the M.S. University, Vadodara are studying the Gujarat coastline part of an all-India study by the Space Application Centre, ISRO. "Our preliminary observations reveal that the seawater has shifted in by 10-15 meters in 10 years, and at places it has moved around 80 meters horizontally," says Dr Nikhil Desai, who is heading the survey of the Gujarat coast. They are comparing recent satellite images with older Survey of India maps prepared in the '60s, and have observed that the coastline of Gujarat is changing shape.

Several places along India's 7,500 km long coastline are experiencing similar erosion. In the Sunderbans, two islands have already vanished from the map displacing 7,000 people. Twelve more islands are likely to go under due to an annual 3.14 mm sea level rise, which will make 70,000 people refugees. Five villages in Orissa's Bhitarkanika National Park, famous for mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles, have also submerged, and 18 others are likely to go under. India is one of 27 countries identified by the UN as most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming related sea level rise.

"Observations suggest that the sea level has risen at a rate of 2.5 mm per year along the Indian coastline since the 1950s. A mean sea level rise of between 15 and 38 cm is projected by the middle of the century along India's coast. Added to this, a 15% projected increase in intensity of tropical cyclones would significantly enhance the vulnerability of populations in cyclone prone coastal regions," according to Dr. Murari Lal, a renowned climatologist engaged in research related to climate change vulnerability analysis in India. Dr Lal has been one of the lead authors of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports for over 15 years, which collates research about climate change from scientific work across the world.

Children help in raising the level of Govindbhai Tandel's house in Danti as the family braces itself for the onslaught of the monsoon.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
"No local studies have been done in India to measure the precise impact of global warming. But, in the last decade, several factors have contributed to the loss of coastal land due to sea level rise," says Dr Murari Lal. "Arctic ice has melted three times faster than predicted by the IPCC in 2001. Sea level has risen twice more than projected by the climate models. Stronger surface winds and storms have resulted in higher waves, which reach further inland. Human interventions like the removal of mangroves, reclamation and construction along the coast have also led to faster erosion of the coast."

"Sea rise due to global warming could be just one of the reasons for the erosion along the Gujarat coast," says Dr Desai. "Local factors could also be responsible. Neo-tectonic activities - shifts in the level of the sea bed - could also cause the sea level to rise. If there are disturbances in sediment budgeting along the coast, the amount of deposits from rivers, it could also affect the water level." Their study will determine which of these reasons is driving the changes along the coast.

Further north, at the estuary of the river Narmada, Kaladra village in Bharuch district is also being nibbled away by the sea. Several houses are half-broken, hanging on the edge of a cliff of sand that can cave in at any point. A sea wall built twenty years back is now a relic of the past. A road constructed two years back (at a cost of Rs 30 lakh) has been cut like a cake by the lashing waves. "The poorest are the most directly affected by this. Most families here are in a dilemma. They can't afford to shift but they cannot stay here either," said Dr Desai.

A road built two years ago near Kaladra village has been eroded. A sea wall (in the foreground) offered little protection.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Kaladra too has been half-abandoned. The Rathod fishing colony here was washed away around 20 years back. They resettled in 'New Kaladra', just a little higher up the estuary. The fisherfolk have been here for long, but their houses are still temporary. Here too, there's no escape from the advancing water. "For around six days every monsoon, the water is waist deep. Then, we bring our boats to the doorstep, and fill all our stuff in it," says Jayantibhai Rathod, a fisherman.

An eroded road in Kaladra.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
When fishermen are forced to run away from sea, when they don't want their sons to continue their trade, its time to start worrying. "This is a land of sand so you can never tell when it will shift," says Shantibhai Tandel from Danti. "We will keep moving back as far as we can. Then, it's in the hands of destiny." It's total surrender to the forces of nature. But how much of nature's fury has been due to the recklessness of other men? The people of Danti and Kaladra are too busy surviving the onslaught of the sea to dwell on the actions of others. It's the last thing on their mind as they sit on their rooftops in the pouring rain.

WEBLINKS:

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/

- Reducing risks to cities from disasters and climate change by Saleemul Huq, Sari Kovats, Hannah Reid and David Satterthwaite, Environment & Urbanisation, Vol 19 No 1, April 2007.http://www.iied.org/human/eandu/documents/EU19_editorial.pdf

- India’s National Communication to the UNFCC
http://www.natcomindia.org

Frontline, Jul. 14-27, 2007 Also available here

The Holes in our Chappals

2007-06-30T18:32:00.000+05:30

DIONNE BUNSHA
Amreli, Gujarat

Farmers are killing themselves in Gujarat too. But Chief Minister Narendra Modi would like us to believe that they are driving around in cars.

“Gujarat’s farmers aren’t like those in other states. Our farmers drive Maruti cars,” chief minister Narendra Modi declares in his speeches at public meetings. If he met the widows of farmers in Gujarat who have committed suicide, he would probably choke on his words.

Prabhaben Pungalpara was at her sister’s house when her husband Ramesh hung himself from a noose and ended his misery. He probably sent her there to soften the blow. Ramesh’s relatives rushed him to Rajkot hospital but it was too late. Now, Prabhaben’s nightmare was about to begin. “I have two girls and a boy. We will have to manage somehow. I sold off our two buffaloes after he died. My son has gone to Surat to work in a diamond polishing workshop. Ramesh’s brothers have taken care of us,” says Prabhaben from Sarapdar village.

Ramesh and his four brothers have a 20–acre farm. “Our cotton and jeera crop failed for two years, so he was very tense,” said his brother Amarsibhai. But the police report says that he killed himself because of a family dispute. “The first police report said that he died because his crop failed, but later the police changed the story,” says Prabhaben. “They told me ‘you have such a big house, there must be some other reason for the suicide. If we give compensation in one case, people will start killing themselves and we will have to give them all’. The police just want to suppress the case.”

“If the government can help Maharashtra’s widows, then why can’t they help women in Gujarat?” asks Prabhaben. Maybe because it would shatter the chief minister’s delusions? Across Gujarat farmers’ suicides are either unreported or wrongly reported. Ironically, the people raising a voice against this is the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), the farmer’s wing of the ruling BJP.

“The state is hiding the truth about the rising number of farmers’ suicides,” Praful Sanjelia, Gujarat president of the BKS said at a press conference recently. “While the government has declared there were 148 farmers suicides last year, we estimate that there are around 300,” he said. Sanjelia said the police are deliberately concealing the suicides. “The police are not registering an FIR, so many cases go unreported. If they do file a case, they attribute the reasons for the suicide to social tension and domestic disputes. Actually, it is a farmer’s financial crisis that could cause other problems like fights in the family.”

Pahubhai Dakhada, 35, preferred death to a life of debt. His suicide didn't make it to the government's recordsPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
“There are several police reports that say the person was ill and by mistake swallowed pesticide instead of medicine. That’s the ridiculous things they do to disguise the true number of farmers suicides,” says Vinubhai Dudheet, a BKS leader in Amreli. “We are very angry with the BJP government and have launched several campaigns against their policies. They have done nothing for farmers. Instead, now they want to give off our land to industrialists for Special Economic Zones (SEZs).”

But why is the BKS going against their own government? They first rebelled against the Modi’s BJP government when their founder and RSS pracharak, Laljibhai Patel, camped on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad on a hunger strike when the state doubled power tariffs. Since then, the BKS has been on the wrong side of the chief minister. “Most BKS activists used to benefit from being aligned to the ruling party. They had clout with the local administration and used to get contracts etc. Now, it’s not so easy after they have fallen out of favour. So they too have an axe to grind with Modi,” said a local journalist, explaining the split in the Sangh Parivar’s ranks.

The BKS cadre are from the core constituency of the Sangh, basically traders and big landlords. Most of them have businesses ranging from sand mining to stone crushing to hotels. But raising the issues of farmers is crucial to keeping their local political support and clout. That’s why they are doing their best to bring farmers’ concerns into focus and embarrass the government. Whatever the political motives of the BKS, there is no doubt that small farmers in Gujarat are in distress.

Besides the police, families too have not reported suicides of their loved ones. Many widows are scared of dealing with police. “Though his suicide was reported in the newspaper, I didn’t report it to the police. I didn’t want to be harassed. They demand money and I didn’t have any,” said Vajuben Dhakhada (30) from Vadli village, whose husband Pahubhai (35) died on 12 July 2006. “In the past two years, our crop was destroyed. We had a debt of Rs 50,000. He kept worrying about how we would look after three small kids with no money and no crop in the field.”

Pahubhai Dakhada's wife Vajuben has to run the family from the confines of her house because widows in her community should not be seen in publicPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Now, Vajuben depends totally on her relatives for help. By killing herself, her husband confined her to a life of isolation from society. She is a darbar (Rajput) and as a widow, is not allowed to leave the confines of her home, not even to fill water from the well. Her three young children help her with errands outside their home.

In the same village (Vadli), Prassanben, the wife of Anakbhai Dhakada (32) who killed himself on 7 April 2007, has a similar story to tell. She too is in purdah and cannot leave the house. But luckily, she lives in a joint family. And like Vajuben, she was too afraid to have anything to do with the police.

When contacted by Frontline, agriculture minister Bhupendra Singh Chudasama said, “Not a single farmer in Gujarat has committed suicide.” This contradicts his government’s statistic of 148. “The reason for those suicides are family problems. People have many marriages in their families. It is not the government’s responsibility,” he said.

Often, farmers who are heavily in debt worry about how the expenses of getting their children married. Most of them are in a crippling financial crisis because agriculture is no longer profitable. Production costs are increasing, while the prices at which farmers have to sell their harvest are not as lucrative. Their loans and interest burden increase every year, until they finally drown in debt.

The elders of the Kakane family decided to drown themselves in the sea. Vallabh (80), his son Mansukh (40) and their respective wives went to the beach near Somnath and drowned themselves on 3 November 2006. Now their house in Pania Dev village is locked and abandoned. Mansukh’s three sons went off to Surat in search of work. “This tragedy happened because they had run up a huge debt with the moneylender,” said their nephew Nilesh. They borrowed Rs 1.5 lakh at an interest rate of 60% to pay off their power bills. The moneylender was demanding Rs 12 lakh including interest. They offered him their land but he was not willing to take it.”

Grieving relatives of the Kakane family, whose four elder members committed suicide by drowning in the sea off Somnath as a way out of the clutches of the moneylenderPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
“They were under so much pressure that they couldn’t even eat properly. They would sit here in my parents’ house and ask them what to do,” said Nilesh. “Almost half the village is in the grip of the moneylender. They give a loan and then they take everything. Farming is not profitable anymore. The price we get for cotton is not as much as the rise in input costs or the price of living, so we are forced to borrow.”

The most industrialised state, ‘Vibrant Gujarat’, seems more feudal than modern. “The moneylender inflicts terror in the village,” said Nilesh. “They have taken away a Harijan’s home after he borrowed Rs 5,000. But no one will dare to speak. They will even pretend this mass suicide in my family never happened. The moneylenders are thugs and they have the police on their side.”

“Not a single small farmer is doing well. We are all starving. If farmers start doing accounts, we will all leave the farms,” said Kanubhai Ganniya, a farmer with five acres in Malak Nes village. “Many people are leaving the village or getting into other businesses. The cost of inputs like seeds, pesticides etc are rising every year. But the price of cotton does not increase as much.” Farmers estimate that they spend between Rs 7000 to 16000 per acre, but get around Rs 13,000-16,000 for their one-acre harvest.

Until now, Gujarat was considered the rare cotton-growing state that was immune to farmers suicides. Now inflation and the unsustainable commercial mode of cultivation has affected them too. “Earlier, farmers only had to pay for seeds. Now they pay for everything – tractor, power, water, labour. Farming has become more cost-intensive and less viable,” said Dr Sudarshan Iyengar, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapeeth.

Compared to states, Gujarat has a high yield (three times that of Maharashtra, where suicide rates are highest). It also has 44% of cotton farms under irrigation, compared to 4% in Maharashtra, or 18% in Andhra Pradesh, where suicides are the highest. This improves yields and reduces risks. Here, like in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, almost all cotton farmers use genetically-modified Bt seeds. These seeds are inserted with a bacteria that kills the bollworm, a common pest on cotton plants. You can’t find a non-Bt seed variety in any farm input shop here. However, many farmers use illegal home-bred versions of Bt seeds like Navbharat, which are cheaper than the Monsanto-MAHYCO Bollgard brand. While the environmental dangers of this illegal trade of seeds have not been studied, this home industry has reduced seed costs for Gujarat’s farmers in the short term.

Yet, other costs like those of either buying water from borewells or paying for power etc have gone up, and prices haven’t kept pace. “One pair of jeans that weighs around 500 grams sells for Rs 1500-1700 in the designer stores, but we get only Rs 13 for 500 grams of cotton. Those who are processing get all the profit, not those who produce,” said Vinubhai.

When I visited Malak Nes village, a group of farmers were eager to show me their chappals. They threw their chappals on the floor and told me, “Our chappals have gaping holes and are broken. Can you please send them to Narendra Modi? And ask him which farmer in Gujarat has a Maruti? We can’t even afford a new pair of chappals.”

Frontline, June 2-15, 2007 Also available here

Cotton aflame

2007-06-30T17:36:00.000+05:30

By DIONNE BUNSHA
in Yavatmal

The cotton harvest is ready. But the state hasn't yet opened most procurement centres. At the few that are functioning, farmers have been queueing up for days. The frustration has led to violence in Wani.

Finally cotton gets weighed at the Shindola procurement centre after farmers waited in queues for several days.Photo: Dionne Bunsha

A fire was still smoldering under the burned papers and broken furniture in a room at Wani’s agricultural market office. The flame was alive, even three days after the fire was put out and police opened fire to disperse angry farmers who ransacked the office.

Here in Vidarbha, Maharashtra’s cotton belt, the flames were fanned much before 8th December 2006, when the police fired on farmers in Wani. The state government started cotton procurement this month, delaying it by two months after the crop was harvested. In several places, procurement centres are yet to open. With their harvest ready for sale, farmers were restless. The queues piled up at the few places that have opened. One of them was Wani.

“There were around 1,500 farmers were waiting in the cold with their bullock carts for four days. The state government’s cotton federation wasn’t buying all the cotton. Graders would clear one cart and by-pass the next four. Finally, farmers got angry with a Cotton Confederation of India (CCI) grader, Shukla, who refused to buy the cotton saying it was moist. They started fighting with him. He ran into our office and locked himself in. The farmers chased him, set fire and destroyed the office,” says Dr Moreshwar Pande, chairman of the Wani agricultural market committee. “Obviously, the farmers were livid. They were just asking for their rights.” Dr Pande’s organization has suffered the most, yet he is sympathetic to those who ransacked his office.

“It was the fault of the CCI and the state cotton federation, but we had to bear the losses,” says Dr Pande, sitting amongst the ruins in the market yard. “In fact, were on the phone with a government official telling him that the procurement situation was bad and that they should enhance facilities when Shukla came running into the office.” The police was called in. Students from a nearby college joined the brawl. It became even more difficult to control. They fired twice to disperse the crowd. The riot spread to the town centre. Curfew was imposed for three days.

Shukla really shook the town…and the state. It’s the first time that police have fired on farmers here, at a time when the agricultural crisis has reached tipping point. There have been 1,200 suicides reported since June 2005. Around 75 per cent of families (12.75 lakh households) in Vidarbha’s six districts are in distress, says a state survey. With around three to five suicides occurring everyday, bullets will not resolve the unrest.

“What happened in Wani can happen again anywhere if the state doesn’t give us a fair price for our cotton, doesn’t grade it correctly and keeps making us wait for days on end,” said U.N. Sur, a farmer who had been waiting for three days at the Shindola procurement centre in Yavatmal with his three bullock carts. After the Wani tension, there has been a temporary reprieve. “They have stopped private traders from operating here, since there is not enough storage space for state purchasing. Within a day, see how fast they are clearing all the bullock carts. Earlier, they were just harassing us.”

Unloading the cotton harvest after waiting for several days at the procurement centrePhoto: Dionne Bunsha
“In this very yard, the private traders began buying cotton in October, but the government only started now,” said Namdev Nimkar, who had been waiting in the Shindola yard for six days. “If they had started sooner, there would not have been such a crowd. But the state doesn’t want to buy cotton. They want to keep us in the clutches of traders.” Currently, the state is procuring cotton at rates ranging from Rs 1,700 to 1,990 per quintal. Traders are buying at around Rs 1,800 to 1,850. When you agree to sell and unload the cart, they lower the price to Rs 1,750, and over that you have to pay them a commission. That’s why we prefer to sell to the government,” said Sur.

Private traders have already bought 44.74 lakh quintals, while the state cotton federation has only procured six lakh quintals. “This is the game the traders are playing. They buy up all the good quality cotton and then leave it to the state to buy the lower quality and suffer the losses,” said Sudhir Goyal, divisional commissioner of Amravati.

“The traders and corporate sector are to blame. They create a psychology of surplus and exhaust farmers till they accept a lower price. Why don’t the textile mills buy directly from farmers? The textile mill lobby is highly organized and makes sure they get cotton dirt cheap.” A metre of ordinary cheap cotton costs Rs 50, but the farmer gets only Rs 5 of this, he pointed out. “The clothes that we wear are stained by the blood of farmers,” Goyal said.

“In Wani, farmers anger was not directed at us, but at the CCI and private traders. We are unnecessarily being blamed,” said Dr N.P. Hirani, chairman of the Maharashtra State Cotton Federation. “The farmers got angry because CCI does only selective purchasing. On that day in Wani, they purchased only 50 carts while 500 were waiting. It’s not our fault that procurement is low. Farmers prefer to sell to traders and CCI because they get immediate payment while we pay after 15 days. Also, we deduct half their bank loan repayment, while they don’t.” Dr Hirani said that the state could not procure more because of power cuts. “Ginning factories can only work one of three shifts. They are processing the purchases at a quarter of their capacity. There is no place to store the cotton. That’s why we cannot purchase more,” he said.

Maharashtra’s Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme was introduced in 1972 to assure a fair and stable price to cotton farmers and protect them from traders who rigged the market. The state government set up a network of procurement centres to buy cotton directly from farmers and eliminate middlemen. The scheme started making losses after 1995, when the price of cotton collapsed in the world market. The government was buying at a price higher than the market rate. Since then, every government has tried to dismantle the scheme, denying farmers the only protection they had.

At one of the few procurement centres that are functioningPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Procurement prices have been lowered to cut losses. “In 2001, the state government offered upto Rs 2,700 per quintal. Now, it’s less than Rs 2,000. How are farmers supposed to survive when the prices of everything else are rising?” asks Vijay Jawandhia, Shetkari Sanghatana leader.

The Congress-NCP alliance promised a cotton price of Rs 2,700 per quintal before the election. But when it came to power, it lowered the price from Rs 2,250 to Rs 1,750. “What is Sharad Pawar doing as agricultural minister? He is only safeguarding his constituency and the sugar lobby,” said Ganesh Nagure from Mendoli village in Yavatmal.

When the Prime minister toured Vidarbha in July this year, he announced a Rs 3,750-crore ‘package’ for Vidarbh’s 30 lakh farmers in distress, including an interest waiver and an order to banks to issue loans. But the PM glossed over the crux of the farm crisis – price. While the cost of production has risen, prices have fallen. Farmers are finding it difficult to make ends meet and driven deeper into debt. Issuing fresh loans just saved them from the moneylenders this time round. But what happens at the end of the season when the farmer can’t pay back the loan once again? The pressure to pay up drives several farmers to kill themselves, leaving their wives and children to take on the burden.

Dinesh Gogul’s family has been left without a breadwinner for a different reason. He left the village to sell his cotton and returned a dead man, mowed down by police bullets in Wani. His family is still reeling from the shock. “My son is only 12 years, and my in-laws are old. How are we going to survive?” asks Savita, his wife, only 32 and widowed.

The family of Dinesh Gogul, the farmer who was killed in the police firing at WaniPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
When trouble broke out in Wani, Maharashtra’s Home minister R.R. Patil was only three hours away attending the state assembly session in Nagpur. But he didn’t bother to visit the site. Instead, he hosted a dinner party for journalists at his bungalow that night, while the flames in Wani were still being doused. Two days later, he arrived at Savita’s doorstep with a cheque of Rs three lakh.

Dinesh’s son inherits a grim legacy of loss. His generation is likely to witness growing restlessness as deprivation deepens. Wani may be just the beginning. The fire is still quietly smoldering..

Vines of debt

2007-06-30T17:07:00.000+05:30

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Nashik, Maharashtra

Onion or grape, farmers of Nashik in north Maharashtra have very little to choose to escape debt, and now death.

Pandurang Kadam's daughter-in-law Sunita with her children. Burdened by debt, Pandurang set himself on fire in the Lasalgaon market yard.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
While writing out the receipt for Pandurang Kadam’s onion crop, the trader didn’t realise that it would be forensic evidence.

The next day, 20 April 2006, Pandurang returned to the Lasalgaon market and set himself on fire. The town watched shocked as Pandurang burned in the yard where a thousand farmers’ hopes are extinguished everyday. In his pocket, they recovered the receipt. Behind it, Pandurang had written his last words.

“The co-operative society bank’s Rs 23,500 still remains. Electricity bill Rs 4,000-5,000. Ashok Rs 3,000, Champalal Rs 1,000. All the onions went for Rs 151 (per quintal). I could not pay back the loans. My prayer to the state and centre is that farmers must get a price of Rs 300-400. With this prayer, I end my life’s journey.”

It was the harvest season, and Pandurang (60) went to the market hoping this year would be different. But it wasn’t. He wasn’t able to make up the last two years’ losses on his one-acre farm. “The market price was too low for him to recover any of the costs,” says Sunita Kadam, his daughter-in-law in Somthan Desh village. “He had sold one bullock, the cart and even the tractor. But even that wasn’t enough.”

Driving through the lush green fields of Nashik, no one would imagine that farmers here are in the red. The hilly landscape is lined with leafy grape vines reaching up to touch the sky. Lasalgaon is one of the largest markets for onions in Asia. Nashik district is one of the more developed districts in Maharashtra -- called India’s California. But here, dreams have soured as prices have crashed. For the first time, 17 farmers suicides have been reported here. Higher production has actually led to their ruin.

There’s poverty amidst plenty. “Production and exports are reaching record highs every year. But prices are falling, since there is a surplus,” says C.B. Holkar, vice chairman of the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation. “Farmers can’t even recover their costs.”

Onion production all over India has risen from 40 lakh tonnes five years back to 60 lakh tonnes last year, says Holkar. Exports have doubled to almost ten lakh tonnes. But the prices this year have been the lowest in the last five years. The price this year is Rs 200-250 per quintal, while the cost of production is around Rs 350-400. “The government must ensure a minimum support price for perishable goods, just as it does for wheat or oilseeds. Otherwise farmers cannot survive,” says Holkar.

Since onions were a dead loss, several farmers started grape cultivation. Punjaram Thakre’s onion crop has been in losses for many years. Last year, he spent Rs 1.5 lakh to put up a grape orchard. “In the last two years, we weren’t able to recover our costs on the onion harvests. I spent Rs 20,000 to grow onions, but I got back only Rs 8,000. The rate was only Rs 160 per quintal,” says Thakre. “So then, I decided to also invest in a grape trellis. The initial cost was Rs 1.5 lakh. Every year, you have to spend around Rs 50,000 to 70,000 on pesticides, fertilisers, labour. But I got only Rs 40,000 when I sold the grapes.”

Thakre’s bank loans have piled up to Rs 2.5 lakh. “I sold half an acre of land, two bullocks and the cart, my tractor and motorcycle. There’s nothing left to sell, but I haven’t been able to repay the bank for the past two years,” says Thakre.

Punjaram Thakre and his son at their grape orchard. Punjaram's wife committed suicide after the loans they took exceeded Rs.2 lakhs. Their onion crop had incurred losses for several years and forced them to try grape cultivation as well.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
His wife, Shantibai couldn’t deal with the pressure of the paybacks. She jumped into a well on 1st July and ended the ordeal. When we visited Punjaram, they had just completed her 11th day prayer. “For any villager, a ‘lakh’ is a very intimidating figure. My wife had never even spent Rs 500 in her entire life, so we was very worried about how we would pay back more than two lakh.”

Though much more expensive to grow, grape prices were lucrative until two years ago. So, several farmers shifted to grape farming. “In two years, the area under grape cultivation in Nashik district has doubled to 100,000 acres today. The costs of cultivation have also doubled. It’s now Rs 80-90,000 per acre for grapes grown for the Indian market. (Those growing for export spend more than Rs 1 lakh per acre). But the prices have halved from Rs 10-20 per kg three years back to Rs 6-10 now,” says Balasaheb Kshirsagar, from the Maharashtra Grape Producers Association.

“People switched to grape cultivation because no other crop was proving profitable. But now there is greater production, even the price of grapes has fallen. And costs just keep rising. For instance, the price of one pesticide has doubled from last year. And, farmers have to use more than 12 different types of pesticide, and spray six times,” Kshirsagar explains. It costs Rs 11-12 to grow one kg of grapes, but farmers have to sell for Rs 6-10 per kg.

At the market in Niphad, onion farmers, disappointed at the price they get for their crop which is far below the cost of production.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Until now, farmers have been able to muster up the money for such high cultivation costs because this region is more developed than others. Peasants have better access to water and credit. But as they hurl towards bankruptcy, banks are unlikely to give them loans. “Niphad taluka has the highest amount of loans from banks. Around 87% of farmers have taken loans. Credit is not a problem,” says Ramdas Khedekar, Sub-Divisional Officer of Niphad. “There aren’t many moneylenders here. We will never go to them. They charge 10% per month,” says Sakari Dargude, a farmer from Brahman Gaon village.

Sakari’s son, Vijay (19) killed himself by swallowing poison in the cattle shed on 2nd April 2006. “He didn’t want me to sell the cattle to repay our loan instalment of Rs 1.35 lakh. But without repaying, we would not get a fresh loan for the monsoon season. I didn’t get a proper price for my onion crop, so I had to sell the cattle to pay back,” says Sakari. “So I went and sold them without telling him. When he reached the shed and found the animals missing, he was so upset, he swigged the pesticide.”

“Until they give us a fixed price, we will never progress,” says Sakari. “When vegetable prices in the city go up, they create havoc to make it lower. But the state doesn’t reduce the costs for us. When prices in the city go up, we don’t get higher prices. The middlemen make all the profits. And, no one bothers when prices crash during the harvest season and it’s time for us to sell.” He adds, “What is agricultural minister Sharad Pawar doing for farmers? He wants us all to be out of business and hand over the land to US companies on contract.”

“Why is the government willing to import wheat at Rs 1,400 per q, but it won’t pay its own farmers more than Rs 800-900 per q? Why do city people and the media raise such a ruckus if the price of onions or tomatoes goes up?” asks Kshirsagar.

“Can’t they spend Rs 50 per month more for their food, so that those producing it don’t starve?” he asks.

Frontline, Aug. 26 - Sep. 8, 2006 Also available here

Harvest of death

2007-06-30T16:53:00.000+05:30

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Wardha and Yavatmal, Maharashtra

Everyday in Vidarbh, there are three suicides reported. Farmers are living only because they are not dying.

Chandrakant Gurnule (35) had always been the prankster in his family. He would sneak up behind people and scare them, always had a wise crack at hand, entertained the kids. But, on 1st April 2006, he wasn’t kidding when he told his wife that he wanted to commit suicide. He had said it before. No one took him seriously.

She laughed, “When are you going to do it?” That afternoon, Chandrakant doused himself with kerosene and lit a match. In flames, he ran out of the house where the kids were playing. They screamed for help. His brother Prahlad managed to put out the fire and took him to the hospital. But he died there of severe burn injuries. This was no April fool’s prank.

In the last year, Chandrakant’s sense of humour had dimmed as he sank deeper into debt and depression. “Over the years, the farm was making losses. The loans kept increasing. He used to say, ‘There’s no option but to die’. We didn’t take it seriously,” said Prahlad. “We even planned to sell four acres of our 16 acre farm and use the money to start some small business. No one expected him to do this.”

Chandrakant had a bank loan of Rs 1.05 lakh. He had pawned jewellery worth Rs 30,000. His family has no idea how much he owed moneylenders. He couldn’t pay back the debts because farming was no longer profitable. “He spent Rs 60-70,000 on the farm. He got back only Rs 40,000 by selling the cotton crop, of which he gave Rs 15,000 to the bank. The jowar crop failed. There was no grain in the house. Everyone in our house was ill with the chicken guinea disease. He had no money to sow the next crop,” said Prahlad. “He had sold his buffalos, his motorcycle, his thresher machines. Finally, he finished himself.”

There have been 680 suicides up to August 2006 – more than three per day - in Vidarbh, the north-eastern and most neglected region of Maharashtra. The rich, black soil is ideal for cotton – once called ‘white gold’. For a decade, Vidarbh is experiencing a desperate farm crisis. Since 2001, there have been 2,279 suicides. Cotton is no longer profitable. In 1970, one quintal of cotton had the same value as 12 grams of gold. Now, it is a harvest of death.

Vidarbh borders the cotton belt of Andhra Pradesh, where peasants’ suicides have also spiralled. The suicides are the most desperate sign of a much larger agrarian crisis. “There’s not much difference between those who killed themselves and those of us who are still living. Everyone is in the same distress,” said Jitendra Tatte, a cotton and orange farmer, with a huge farm of 60 acres in Lehegaon village, Amravati.

Killing debt is just the consequence, not the cause of the farm crisis. The crux of Chandrakant’s problem was something beyond his control – high costs, low produce prices. The minimum support price for cotton (Rs 1,750) fetches less than one-fourth the cost of cultivation in Maharashtra. “In the last 10 years, the prices of farm inputs have risen dramatically. Urea was Rs 80 per bag, it’s now Rs 280. A bottle of pesticide was Rs 40, but now it’s Rs 240. But, the state government lowered the procurement price from 2,250 last year to Rs 1,750 per quintal. How can we survive?” asked Prahlad.

So, why hasn’t the price kept up with costs? The international price of cotton lint fell from $ 1.10 per pound in 1994 to 38 cents in 1998. There was a gush of imports into India. “Between 1997 and 2003, we imported 110 lakh bales, more than the total volume of imports since Independence,” says Vijay Jawandhia, activist with the Shetkari Sanghatana. So, farmers found no market for their product.

India doesn’t protect her farmers from imports. Cotton farmers are the least protected. The import tariff for cotton is only 10%, whereas it is 60% for sugar and 80% for paddy. International rules allow the government to increase the cotton tariff up to 150%, but it chooses not to. China has protected its farmers by imposing a 90% import tariff.

Farmers in countries such as the US or China can sell at a low price because they receive direct subsidies. Our farmers cannot afford to sell at this artificially lower price and so keel over. For instance, in the US, it costs $1.70 (Rs 79.90) to produce one kg of cotton lint, but it is sold for $1.18 (Rs 55.46). To offset the losses, around 20,000 cotton farmers in the US get more than $4 billion in subsidies – approx. Rs one crore per farmer per year, according to the Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) report on the cotton industry. US farmers get a subsidy of $1 for every kg of cotton produced, roughly the rate of cotton in the world market. Our farmers get no subsidy. Vidarbh’s 30 lakh-odd cotton cultivators spend Rs 3,000 per quintal, but they get only Rs 1,750.

If, like US or Chinese farmers, Chandrakant had been given a direct subsidy payment for every quintal of cotton he produced, he would not have had to pawn his jewellery or borrow from moneylenders at interest rates ranging from 60 to 120 per cent. He would have probably been alive today. If the Indian state can’t give a subsidy, at least it can protect farmers through tariffs. But it is not even willing to raise the import tariff. So, the textile industry can import raw cotton cheap, manufacture with cheap labour and export the finished cloth back. “We have become like slave labour for the export market,” says Jawandhia.

“On the rare occasion that the retail price of tomatoes or tur dal goes up (like they did just before the monsoon), the media flash it on TV all day, and people in the cities complain. But they are quiet when the prices fall soon after. Do they bother to come here and talk to us then when prices crash and we are in a crisis?” asked Prahlad.

If prices are low, can farmers try and reduce costs? Each year, prices of inputs go up. And the chemical-intensive method that farmers use depletes the fertility of the soil. So every year, there are more doses of fertilisers and pesticides needed. It’s a vicious cycle. Maharashtra has the highest area under cotton cultivation in the country, but the lowest yield. The cost of production is Rs 70 per kg - double national average, says the CSE report. The state is supposed to send extension workers to guide farmers on effective farming techniques. But extension officers are rarely seen in the fields. Farmers rely on advice from pesticide dealers, advertisements and each other.

Until now the only technical advice has been from agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and film star Nana Patekar peddling Monsanto’s Bt cotton seeds. They are supposed to prevent attacks from boll worms, but not other pests. So, farmers still spray insecticide, and also spend more on Bt seeds. Of the 634 farmers who committed suicide in Vidarbh (from 1st Jan to 10th July 2006), 450 were cotton growers, and 314 of them had sowed Bt cotton last year, according to a survey done by the Vidarbh Janandolan Samiti.

Several organic farming techniques have been scientifically proven to be effective. They have yielded the same, or better, output without spending much on pesticides and fertilisers. Organic pesticides, fertilisers and growth promoters can be prepared from plants and materials available locally. Only a few NGOs have bothered to promote organic farming. There’s no money to be made by advocating less spending.

If cotton cultivation is unprofitable, why not shift to other crops? Farmers in Vidarbh (and most of India) still practice dryland farming – totally dependent on the monsoon. Besides cotton, farmers here grow mainly soyabean, wheat, coarse grains, tur dal, groundnut and oranges (in some areas). Vidarbh has only 10% under irrigation. “That leaves us with very few options. Besides, prices are low not only for cotton but for most other crops and vegetables. Whatever you choose, there are losses,” said Prahlad Gurnule.

There isn’t enough water for fodder, so dairy, which could provide a regular income, is also not possible. “Earlier, when we grew jowar, there was a steady source of fodder. But, people have stopped jowar because it isn’t profitable, and neither is the dairy business. Now, there are distress sales of our only assets – cattle and land,” said Sanjay Tigaonkar, a farmer from Wardha.

The Prime Minister arrived for a tour of Vidarbh on 1st July, and left with a pathetic Rs. 3,750-crore ‘package’ for Vidarbh’s 30 lakh farmers – one-fifth the cost of the Mumbai metro that he inaugurated a few weeks earlier. He announced an interest waiver on loans and fresh loans to be issued to defaulting farmers. This may offer temporary relief. But what happens at the end of the season when the farmer is left with no money to pay back the loan once again? And, what happens to farmer’s debts with moneylenders?

When the state government suddenly arrested moneylenders in November 2005, farmers were in a financial crunch. Moneylenders are their main source of funds, since banks don’t lend enough. Moreover, it was found that Congress MLA Dilip Sananda and his family are moneylenders with 40 cases registered against them. The government hasn’t taken any action against them, only against the small fry.

The PM promised Rs. 2,177 crore to complete 524 irrigation projects in these six districts over three years. Across the country 40 % of the cotton crop is irrigated, but in Vidarbh, only 3 % of the crop has irrigation. Irrigation schemes here have been incomplete for the last 20 years. One visit by the PM is unlikely to be the magic wand.

One month after the PM left, there were 80 more suicides. Banks had not yet issued loans though sowing had begun a month before. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh admitted that the state has not been able to curb the crisis. “We are doing our best, both the Centre and the State is doing what it can. It's true the suicides are not reducing. Whatever help we are giving, we have not been able to solve the problem or fully control it. We are looking for suggestions,” he said. Several groups in Vidarbh have come forward with suggestions, but the government has ignored the root of the problem.

Textiles are India’s second largest export. Yet, why are at least 3 cotton farmers like Chandrakant Gurnule killing themselves everyday, leaving behind a stunned widow and children? These disparities are growing as India globalizes. Its elite is enthralled in malls, while agricultural labourers earn just Rs 25 a day – less than a parking ticket. One metre of cloth sells for a minimum of Rs 50 per metre. The cotton lint needed to make it costs only Rs 6.

“India is becoming super India and Bharat is becoming Ethiopia,” says Jawandhia. “Farmers are living only because they are not dying.”

It’s a cruel joke called ‘globalisation’.

Frontline, Aug. 26 - Sep. 8, 2006 Also available here

Bt rice trials uprooted

2007-06-30T16:42:00.000+05:30

DIONNE BUNSHA

By uprooting Bt rice trials in Tamil Nadu, farm activists and Greenpeace have stirred up the debate on GM food testing. And they have support from unlikely quarters - rice exporters.

The tranquil routine of Rangaraju’s retired life was in for a rude shock. On the morning of 10th November, people from the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association landed up at his doorstep. They wanted to uproot the harvest in his paddy farm. The farmers told him his rice field had a genetically modified crop whose harvest could contaminate food supplies if it was not destroyed.

A bewildered Rangaraju didn’t know how to react. He asked them for time to consult Mahyco, the company that was conducting a field trial in his plot. But before he knew it, the 150-odd people in the crowd had uprooted the Bt rice crop from his field in Ramanathapuram village near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. In a matter of one day, this unassuming retired schoolteacher found himself in the midst of an international controversy over genetically engineered crops.

“We didn’t know what kind of rice they were growing,” Hemalata, his daughter, told Frontline. “My father signed an agreement with the company, but didn’t study it carefully. We thought it was a hybrid seed, we didn’t know it was something different.” Hemalata’s family feels cheated. “It is fraud by the company. They did not tell us much. Let’s hope it will not put our next crop in danger.”

Rangaraju is not alone. Last month, the Bharatiya Kissan Union (BKU) burned the harvest of Bt rice trials in two farms in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. In Rampura village in Karnal district of Haryana, they burned the field to prevent contamination. When they reached Rudrapur village, Gorakhpur district in UP, BKU activists got the police to seize the grain that was lying in the plot. Along with Panchayat president of the village, they filed a police complaint against Mahyco, the Department of Biotechnology and the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, for several violations found in a GM Rice trial plot.

Here too, the farmers and the panchayat were not aware of that the seeds were genetically modified and had no clue of the likely dangers of growing them in their fields. They had merely leased out the land to Mahyco and signed the agreements without knowing what genetically modified actually means. The company is conducting 10 field trials of Bt rice in six states across the country.

"They are toying with farmers’ ignorance about GM technology,” said Rakesh Tikait, spokesperson of the BKU. “Knowing the unreliable track record of the company and the state regulators, we had to destroy the crop to prevent contamination from the trial plots into the food supply chain where unwary consumers are eating untested products. This is all the more dangerous in a Basmati rice growing belt of the country. The department of Biotechnology’s guidelines require destruction of the GM plant material after the trial. By burning the crop, we have made sure these guidelines are not flouted."

Bt rice is a genetically engineered seed designed to make the crop resistant to pests like stem borer and leaf folder. The seeds are created by inserting a synthetic version of a gene (called Cry1Ac) from a naturally occurring soil bacterium called bacillus thuringiensis (bt) into the plant’s DNA so the plant creates its own toxin to destroy the pests. India has allowed the commercial sale of Bt cotton seeds, and the trials for Bt Brinjal are also underway.

In September this year, the Supreme court temporarily stopped the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) from granting permission for any more field trials for GM crops. The court was responding to a petition which pointed out several irregularities in the regulatory procedures. Currently, Indian rules allow field trials to start even before biosafety tests are completed. Moreover, monitoring of these trials are extremely lax, almost non-existent.

The petition also pointed out the inherent conflict of interest evident in the constitution of regulatory authorities. Senior office-bearers and members of the GEAC are also part of biotech industry-promoted bodies or are crop developers themselves in their personal or institutional capacities. Currently around 150 trials for GE food crops are underway ranging from brinjal to tomato, mustard, maize and of course, rice.

No country in the world has cleared the commercial sale of Bt rice. The impacts on human health have not yet been fully tested. A recent study in Madhya Pradesh found that farm workers exposed to Bt cotton had allergies – skin eruptions, swollen faces. Moreover, the Bt toxin can enter the human digestive system and interfere with the bacteria in the intestines.

The Cry1Ac gene is a powerful immunogen and can prompt adverse reactions from the immune system. Studies worldwide have shown that eating GM food could result in wasteful growth of gut tissues and bacterial proliferation, intestinal tumours, immune system suppression, interference with the development of the body’s vital organs and reproduction. Earlier this year, there were mass deaths of cattle grazing on the remains in harvested Bt cotton fields in Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh.

GM plants could harm the environment and biodiversity. Once out in the fields, there is no way of knowing whether normal plant varieties have been contaminated by the GM variety through pollination, which could lead to the extinction of local crop varieties. Moreover, there is also a danger that insects could develop resistance to the toxin, after which more pesticides would be needed to get rid of them.

Farmers groups aren’t alone in their protest against GM crops. Recently, rice exporters held a press conference with Greenpeace demanding that the government halt field trials. They are worried that if there is any contamination, it could harm exports. In August this year, US rice exports were adversely affected when it was found that certain consignments contained GM contaminated rice. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) admitted that a variety of Bayer’s Liberty Link rice that was not approved for consumption or cultivation in the world (LL rice 601) had been detected in rice intended for export. This raised an alarm in the EU and Japan and adversely affected US rice trade. Indian exporters are scared that our exports could be similarly harmed if there is even a slight doubt of contamination.

“It is shocking and unfortunate that the government is allowing even small-scale, field trials of GE rice in the Basmati-growing region. This is a matter of grave concern for all Basmati rice exporters from this region," said Brigadier Anil Adlakha, Executive Director of the All-India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA). “Any contamination from GE rice field trials will be a death knell for millions of farmers and exporters. We want the government to draw the correct lesson from the plight of the US rice industry and stop further GE rice field trials in this region now. If the government doesn’t heed our warning, it could prove to be a costly and irreversible blunder.”

Greenpeace recently found that GE rice from field trials in China had found its way into imported Chinese rice products in France, Germany and the UK. Indian exporters are afraid our trade will suffer if any part of the harvest from field trials in India finds its way into food supplies. At present, India exports 400 million tones of rice worth Rs 700 crores.

Activists from the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association destroying a GE rice trial crop in Ramanathapuram, 20 km from CoimbatorePhoto: Greenpeace
“Why are they so concerned about exports? We should think of filling our own bellies first. Bt rice will help increase productivity by reducing crop damage due to pest attacks,” M.K. Sharma, managing director of MAHYCO told Frontline. As much as 20% of yield could be lost due to the stem borer pest, which Bt rice guards against, he added. Sharma said that Bt cotton sales have been rising exponentially every year because farmers find them effectively. However, he dodged the fact that the places in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh where Bt cotton use is amongst the highest are also the areas where farmers suicides are the most.

Outraged at the protests on MAHYCO’s field trials, Sharma said, “These people are preventing technology from reaching farmers. They are standing in the way of scientific research. While testing is still underway, how can they say that the crop is dangerous? They have done this for cheap publicity and we have filed a police complaint against them for damaging our trial crop.” He countered the allegation that proper norms were not adhered to. “We have followed all the rules, keeping a 20-metre isolation around the field to prevent pollination outside. The question of contamination does not arise as we were about to burn the field as per the regulations so that there is no trace of any plant material. Moreover, the farmers had full knowledge of the trial. They signed agreements with us in which all the conditions were laid out.”

Environmental and agricultural research groups insist that they too were asking for scientific and transparent research. “While dealing with such technology, we have to follow the precautionary principle,” said Kavitha Kuruganti from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad. “Until independent scientific laboratory studies show that this crop is safe for human consumption, the government should not allow any field trials to take place.” At present, the biosafety testing is done by the company itself.

Even though signatures were taken, field trials were conducted without warning the plot owners about the environmental hazards. “Contamination can take place even beyond the isolation distance. State and local authorities weren’t informed either. Regulatory agencies are not monitoring the field trials properly,” Ms Kuruganti said. During field trials of Bt cotton and Bt brinjal, it was found that untested products from the trials were being sole in the local market, she added.

Often GE technology is pushed as the solution to India’s food security problem. However, environmental groups challenge this assumption, asserting that there are several other indigenous plant varieties that can boost farm productivity. “The real solutions for sustainable rice production already exist in farms around the world. They are based on traditional knowledge combined with cutting-edge technology, and are far more reliable and acceptable than destructive industrial agriculture and imprecise genetic engineering,” said Nammalwar, a well-known organic farming scientist from India.

“The world’s most important staple crop is too important to gamble with. There are as many as 140,000 different varieties of rice, with an enormous diversity of traits, such as resistance to different pests and diseases and capacity to grow in salty or dry conditions,” said Divya Raghunandan from Greenpeace India. “We don’t need genetic engineering to take advantage of these traits – we need to preserve this resource and knowledge and combine it with safe hi tech breeding techniques.” Greenpeace has just released a report called ‘The Future of Rice’ by scientists Dr Emerlito Borromes and Dr Debal Deb which explains that GE technology is unnecessary since other more sustainable options exist to increase rice yields.

Judging by the way field trials are being conducted, it seems like it’s not only the farmers like Rangaraju on whose plots the tests are underway, but also the Indian public, who are left in the dark, clueless of the dangers that GE technology could unleash.

Frontline, Nov. 18-Dec. 01, 2006 Also available here

Back to the Basics

2007-06-30T16:30:00.000+05:30

DIONNE BUNSHA

Organic farming is not the only solution to the problems contributing to the farm crisis. However, it is the only one within the farmer's control.

WITHIN THEIR CONTROL: Farmers can get the same or a better yield without spending on pesticide and fertilizer.Photo: Dionne Bunsha

While hordes of media swamped Vidarbha just before the PM's visit, I was there with two agricultural scientists Vipin and Devang on a different trip.

Vipin and Devang are from Sristi, an organisation that works to develop eco-friendly solutions to local problems. They have a long-term remedy to the farm crisis, one that will go beyond the temporary relief that the PM has doled out. Yes, immediate action is important. It may prevent several suicides. The PM's interest waiver and re-scheduling of bank loans will give people much-needed loans to sow their next crop of cotton and soyabean. But then what? What happens at the end of the season when they can't pay off their loans once again?

Crux of the crisis
They will be in the same dilemma simply because the cost of farming is higher than the pathetic price they receive for their inputs. That is the crux of the farm crisis — spiralling costs, miserable prices. In the last 10 years, the cost of living has risen dramatically, but the price of cotton has fallen. That's why the rural economy is collapsing. All the other symptoms — inadequate bank credit, exploitative moneylenders, the unscrupulous input traders, illness, school dropouts — are aggravated by this basic problem.

There is not much farmers can do to change government policy that determines output prices, trade tariffs, social security and subsidies. That is beyond their control. But the one thing farmers can do is to try and reduce costs of cultivation.

That's where Sristi has a plan. They have developed and verified several indigenous, organic farming practices that have worked. Farmers can get the same or a better output without spending a penny on pesticides and fertilizers. All they have to do is prepare organic pesticide, fertilizer and growth promoters from plants and other material available in their own environment. There's no need for them to depend on a shop owner and get entangled in a web of exploitation and debt.

"In fact, the solution is simple," says Prof. Anil Gupta, founder of Sristi. "Why spend so much resources on pesticides? Go along with animal rearers in your area and look for plants that animals do not eat. These plants are the potential source of pesticides, because animals do not eat them; the toxicity inherent in them." Sristi tries to document, develop and share local solutions, ones that farmers have invented.

Several tried and tested organic techniques may save farmers from the clutches of trader-moneylenders. For instance, farmers can use the whey from buttermilk as a growth promoter. You don't need Bt seeds to ward off the bollworm; you can use whey or lantana extract. This is a two-in-one solution — you control lantana weed and at the same time get a local cheap pesticide. Calotripis or many other such plants found abundantly around the field, uneaten by animals, can be sprayed or even mixed with irrigation water. Farmers in different parts of Gujarat and other states have developed these techniques.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, organic farming doesn't mean low productivity. The output is the same or sometimes more than that of others who use chemical inputs. Sristi makes sure each method they advocate has first been tested scientifically by an independent research organisation before it suggests that farmers adopt the technique.

We met a bunch of farmers in Wardha who have switched to organic cultivation. They are not as anxious as most other farmers here who illogically douse their fields with pesticide and fertilizer. They don't have to worry about how they will get a loan, or how much pesticide to buy in the coming season. Most farmers dread the end of the season — it's payback time. But organic farmers look forward to a good crop that they can sell at the price they choose, not that dictated by exploitative moneylenders.

Pramod Kadam, a farmer and agricultural consultant from Wardha, is still paying off a huge debt he accumulated while using chemical inputs on his 15-acre field. "Now that I have switched to organic cotton cultivation, my costs have reduced from Rs. 5,000-8,000 an acre to around Rs. 3,000 an acre (for seeds, hiring bullock carts and wages for labourers). My yield is higher. The average here is around 2.5 quintals per acre, but I get four." So, he has saved on costs and gained in productivity.

Switch to organic
Many small farmers are apprehensive about the switch to organic. They feel it is too much of a risk, an experiment that can only be tried by big farmers or those who have irrigated land. But many of the organic farmers we met had small holdings. "Small farmers gain the most because we can't afford the high costs of cultivation. Big farmers can afford chemical cultivation," explained Sanjay Tigaonkar, an organic farmer from Wardha.

Organic farming is not the only solution to the problems contributing to the farm crisis. But it is the only one within the farmer's control. All other factors like prices, credit or irrigation are decided by a government that is more concerned about the Sensex than suicides. The farm crisis will continue until the Government decides to protect our farmers like the U.S. and EU protect theirs. Farmers in the EU are paid one dollar a day for every cow they rear — more than the daily wage of agricultural labourers in India. Until we protect our farmers, they will remain on the edge. Organic farming will definitely ease the burden of costs. But if that is not a viable route, will the government spend a fraction of the money it spends on promoting non-sustainable technologies on promotion of non-chemical alternatives?

Technical inputs
Besides monetary inputs, Vidarbha also needs technical inputs. If there were better agricultural advice, there may not have been such a dire demand for credit. There has been no competent agricultural guidance for decades. Few have thought of creative solutions. Even simple things like finding other sources of income like planting trees or rainwater harvesting in a region where only 11 per cent of farms are irrigated.

Until now the only technical advice has been from agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and film star Nana Patekar peddling Monsanto's Bt cottonseeds. Most people can't remember the last time they met an agricultural extension officer. So it's left to the input shop dealer to give advice, pushing the most expensive products to increase his sales.

Despite the massive failure of the Bt cotton crop last year (after which the Government had to compensate farmers), most people still opt for the seeds this year. Why? Simply because the company has lowered the price from Rs. 1,800 to Rs. 750. Now, it's only Rs. 200 cheaper than the hybrid variety. Might as well try it again. Though proven to be more effective, organic methods will never get the kind of hype that surrounds Bt cotton, simply because there is no money to be made from promoting self-reliance.

Vidarbha's crisis shows that we have gone full circle and it is time to go back to the basics. "India aspires to be a knowledge society but in agriculture, there is hardly any effort to draw upon our rich data base of agricultural practices (many of which have been compiled by Sristi for dissemination). How many sites exist where scientists are working with farmers' on their fields? We have to promote farmers' experimentation and innovations to generate sustainable solutions," says Prof. Gupta.

Sometimes the answers are right in front of us, but we can't see them because they are too simple.

For more information: Sristi

The Hindu Sunday Magazine July 16, 2006 Also available here

Weddings in the time of suicide

2007-06-30T16:15:00.000+05:30

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Amaravati, Maharashtra

On the mass weddings in Vidarbha, a phenomenon that has grown due to the agrarian crisis.

Kishan Bansod, 27, greets us as we enter, peering through the strings of plastic beads dangling from his forehead. He is the bridegroom. "You seem very excited," we remarked. "Let's see how long it lasts," he laughs.

The bride, Asmita Wankhede, arrived and they sit at the front of the line of couples waiting to get married. While Bansod continues grinning and joking with his friends Asmita plays the demure bride. They wait patiently to get on stage while an aged woman sings and the master of ceremony invites local leaders on stage to give a speech. Sisters and little nephews and nieces bustle around the couple.

Many other couples are sitting in the line. Most men are in white shirt and trousers, with maybe a small sehra (head-dress). Only one wears a turban. Many have decked themselves up with nail polish and mehndi. The women too are dressed colourfully, but without much jewellery.

We are at a mass marriage in a small school courtyard in Amravati, a district that has witnessed many farmers' suicides. Community weddings are part of the government's rehabilitation package for farmers in this region. "Many of those who committed suicide had borrowed heavily from moneylenders for their daughters' weddings. Several of them can't afford to get their children married," says Vijay Wankhede, a member of the trust that has organised this wedding.

"There are 12 couples here from different communities. As part of the scheme, the government also gives them a mangalsutra, a gas cylinder and some vessels totally worth Rs.10,000." So far, 6,740 couples have been married at mass weddings in the Vidarbha region.

A mass wedding in Amaravati. The State government has sponsored many such ceremonies as part of its rehabilitation policy.Photo: Ranjit Deshmukh
"We came here because the situation in her house is very bad. Her father wouldn't have been able to afford the wedding otherwise," said Kishan. Asmita's father was sitting away from the ceremony, in a classroom on the first floor of the school building.

"I got my first daughter married to my nephew so there weren't too many expenses involved. My niece got married in a mass wedding a few months back," Namdeo Wankhede tells us. "I don't have any money, so we got the wedding done here. I can't even find the funds to sow the next crop, so I have leased out one of my three acres of land. If people with more than 10 acres can't make both ends meet, how are we supposed to survive?"

Many have not survived. There have been 592 suicides since June 2005. Spiralling costs of inputs and falling output prices have meant huge losses. There is high use of pesticides and fertilizers, increasing farmers' costs but not their yield. Flow of bank credit has not kept up with rising costs, so farmers have to borrow from moneylenders at interest rates varying from 60 to 120 per cent. The government has not protected cotton farmers with trade tariffs. Farmers do not get proper advice about agricultural techniques owing to the dearth of government extension work.

Once a rich cotton belt, Vidarbha is now drowning in debt. The State government has neglected the farm crisis here. The rains have arrived a month late and sowing should soon begin, but most farmers are desperate because they have no money for seeds and other inputs.

For Namdeo, there seems no way out of this tight spot. "Every year, we make losses. There is barely any work on the fields so I can't even earn as much as a daily labourer. The banks won't lend us money. And I refuse to take a loan from the moneylender because he asks for my land title deed. Why should I mortgage it to him for a pittance?"

As the men chat upstairs, the marriage continues below. We meet Kavita Athavale and Sachin Vaidya sitting in the queue. "We like this wedding. There are different people from different villages. And most importantly, it saves our parents from spending," says Kavita, an undergraduate student of arts.

Kavita Athavale and Sachin Vaidya, after their weddingPhoto: Ranjit Deshmuk
"My father is a daily-wage labourer. We don't have any land. He doesn't get much work. There is no food at home, and there is lot of tension. We have been waiting for a year to get married. When we read about this in the newspapers, we decided to come here." Kavita will leave her village to join Sachin who works as a security guard in Nagpur. When we ask to meet her father, Sachin says: "He must be somewhere at the back, crying because his daughter will leave."

We find Kavita's father sitting at the entrance, just outside the shamiana. "I'm still paying back the loans I had taken to get my three other daughters married. We get work for only two or three days a week and wages are only Rs.40 a day," says Dayaram Athavale. "I couldn't even give her a gift. It is such a bad time. There is no rain, no work," says Kavita's uncle.

The father of the bride, Dayaram AthavalePhoto: Ranjit Deshmukh
Inside, the couples are finally called on stage, after enduring the speeches. At one end of the stage, there is an array of photos and paintings - the Buddha, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Shahu Maharaj, Shivaji. The ceremony is not too elaborate. A sloka is recited, the couples exchange garlands and a mangalsutra. No priest, no fire, no rituals.

"This is better than my wedding. There weren't so many people at mine and the expenses are much less," Kavita's sister Sunita Ogle says. "I will also get my kids married like this."

To many families in distress the mass marriages have brought some desperately needed joy. And to the grinning groom Kishan who may not have otherwise been able to take home his bride proudly.

Frontline, July 1-14, 2006 Also available here

Biotech Brinjal

2007-06-30T16:05:00.000+05:30

DIONNE BUNSHA

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had a rather unusual bunch of visitors last week - Greenpeace protesters dressed up as sheep and cattle, who camped outside his office. The "animals" were asking for an investigation into the death of 1,600 head of cattle and sheep in Andhra Pradesh in April 2006. The deaths were closely linked to prolonged consumption of Bt cotton stalks and leaves that were left in fields after the harvest.

Bt cotton is the only genetically modified (GM) seed sold in India. In the four years since it has been in use, not only has it failed to live up to its claim of being a `miracle seed', but it has also had harmful effects on biosafety.

At a time when the safety of Bt cotton is highly suspect, the government's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is considering clearance of large-scale field trials of Bt Brinjal. It is the first time that GM Brinjal is being released for an advanced stage of field trials in open conditions anywhere in the world. It is also the closest India has got to sanctioning GM food crops.

If cleared, it will be the first time that the GEAC allows large-scale field trials for GM food crops. Such field trials could lead to the uncontrolled release of genetically modified organisms into the environment, which could contaminate normal varieties of the crop. Japan and several European countries have banned cultivation of GM food crops. But India is allowing it entry without taking adequate precautions.

Greenpeace Activists demonstrate outside Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's residence against GM agricultural products, in New Delhi on June 16.Photo: S.Subramanium
Bt seeds are created by inserting a gene (Cry1Ac) from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into a plant cell. This gene is supposed to protect the brinjal from insects such as the fruit and shoot borer. Bt cotton provides resistance to bollworm because the insect dies after eating the Bt toxin; the toxin disrupts its digestive process.

Biosafety tests for Bt brinjal started in 2002. After two years of greenhouse evaluation, Mahyco, the company producing the seed, started field trials in 11 locations with five hybrids in 2004. The results of the limited field trials have been posted on the GEAC website. The GEAC has invited public feedback before it decides whether to give clearance for large-scale field trials.

Several environmental groups and farmers' associations have appealed against the trials. But the GEAC is dismissive. "We would like some concrete objections based on the data placed before us by Mahyco, not general, emotional arguments," B.S. Parsheera, Chairperson of the GEAC, told Frontline. However, environmentalists opposing the trials say that the data are too sketchy to provide scientific feedback. "This shows how the GEAC takes decisions that affect the health of millions - based on meaningless presentations by companies," said Kavitha Kuruganti from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

Top biotech scientists are also critical of the manner in which the GM tests are being conducted. "It is an absolute scandal for us to allow further trials despite the failure of Bt cotton. The seed should be withdrawn immediately, just like faulty drugs are removed from the market. We are being taken for a ride by the MNC [multinational company]-government nexus. These committees don't even have specialised scientists. They exist only to promote the interests of powerful companies, not of the country. And these MNCs, such as Monsanto which is promoting Bt seeds in India, have a notorious record all over the world," said Dr. Pushpa Bhargava, founder of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, a world-renowned pioneer of genetic engineering in India.

"No country in the world has a satisfactory system of assessing the risks associated with the release of GM plants into the environment. What has happened in this extremely lax environment all over the world is extremely disturbing, " Bhargava explained. "It is shocking that no tests were done to monitor the effects on cattle or sheep if they ate the leaves of the Bt cotton plant, even though in India crop plants are often fed to cattle as fodder. That is why so many animals died in Andhra Pradesh. The main problem is that there is a conflict of interest in using the tests and data provided by the company."

The GEAC denies any such vested interest. "What vested interest? We are following all the norms laid down. Many institutes across the country are conducting the tests," said Parsheera.

The effects on human health are numerous and often unknown. A recent study in Madhya Pradesh found that farm workers exposed to Bt cotton had allergies including skin eruptions and swollen faces. The Cry1Ac gene is a powerful immunogen and can prompt adverse reactions from the immune system. If humans eat Bt brinjal it is possible that the Bt toxin can enter the human digestive system and interfere with the bacteria in the intestines. There are severe limitations to current allergy testing procedures for genetically modified organisms. Many GM crops such as beans and Starlink corn were found to produce allergies after they were sold in the market.

The NptII gene used as a marker in Bt brinjal can affect antibiotic resistance. The cauliflower mosaic virus, a viral promoter used in Bt brinjal, is similar to the hepatitis B virus, and could reactivate dormant viruses. Studies worldwide have shown that eating GM food can result in wasteful growth of gut tissues and bacterial proliferation, intestinal tumours, immune system suppression and interference with the development of the body's vital organs.

Mahyco, however, denied that there were any health risks. "Bt is no more immunogenic than any other protein that human and animals are exposed to," said Mahendra Sharma, managing director of Mahyco Monsanto Biotech and general manager of Mahyco. "It does not have any effect on the gut of mammals. It only kills insects. Studies have shown that if mammals consume 100mg of the toxin for every 1 kg of body weight, there is no adverse effect. We conducted tests on cooked Bt brinjal and they showed that the DNA disintegrated with the heat and there was no harmful effect. There is no risk of antibiotic resistance or risk of re-activating any viruses." None of Mahyco's claims has been verified independently, said Bhargava.

Genetically modified plants can harm the environment and biodiversity. Once out in the fields, there is no way of knowing whether normal plant varieties have been contaminated by the GM variety through pollination, which could lead to the extinction of local crop varieties. This is the reason for the `buffer zone' that most GM crops have rarely followed in India where land is scarce. Moreover, the Cry1Ac gene affects butterflies and moths and alters soil microbiology. Farmers using Bt cotton in India report decline in soil productivity. However, Mahyco said that its tests had ruled out the possibility of any such adverse impact on the environment.

Three varieties of the Bt cotton seed were denied permission of extension by the GEAC, based on the Andhra Pradesh government's analysis that their performance was inadequate. Two more varieties were banned by the Andhra Pradesh government after farmers' crops failed and the company refused to pay compensation. Yet, the GEAC feels that India needs GM technology. "We are far behind the rest of the world in biotechnology. We should catch up or we will face severe food security problems," said Parsheera.

"It is absurd to say that GM crops will bring us food security. Is there no food security in E.U. countries that have banned GM?" asked Bhargava. "It may kill biodiversity. Several organic methods of cultivation have proved far more effective," he said.

Field studies by the Deccan Development Society disproved many of the claims made about the advantages of using Bt Cotton. It is supposed to reduce expenses on pest management and increase productivity, but the study found that organic farmers had higher net returns and lower pest management costs.

The government is racing headlong into the genetic engineering maze, though agricultural studies are showing that natural processes are more effective. In just four years of GM technology, we have seen many disastrous results. Will no one listen as nature strikes back?

Frontline, June 17-30, 2006 Also available here

Villages for Sale in Vidarbh

2007-06-30T15:49:00.000+05:30

To draw attention to their desperation, many villages in the suicide-ridden Vidharbh region have declared that their land and kidneys are up for sale.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Amravati and Wardha, Maharashtra.

'Kidney Sale Centre’: proclaims a banner sprawled across a ramshackle bamboo tent in Shingnapur village in Amravati district. Farmers here are threatening to sell their kidneys.

"We have invited the Prime Minister and the President to inaugurate this kidney shop. They should allow us to sell our kidneys. We are all ruined by debt. Many farmers are killing themselves. Our kidneys are all we have left to sell," says Madhavgir Champat Giri, who sold all his land to pay his bank loan.

Not only Shingnapur, but other villages in Vidarbh – Dorli, Lehegaon and Shivni Rasulapur - have declared they are up for sale. They can no longer survive by living off the land. It’s the first time that people have protested against the suicides here. Everyday, local newspapers report at least two or three more suicides. Since June 2005, around 309 farmers have killed themselves, unable to bear the pressures of huge debts, grim poverty and lost self-esteem.

"Earlier, I even had money to dig a well on my field. Now, I have nothing,” says Madhavgir. “I sold my land. I can’t find work. No one can afford to pay farm labourers. There’s no food at home. We have become hungry and naked, roaming like dogs. We just drink water to fill our stomachs and go to sleep.”

This once-prosperous cotton belt in eastern Maharashtra has been ruined in the last 15 years of liberalisation. Production costs have multiplied three to five times, but the market price of cotton has fallen from Rs 2,500 per quintal in 1991 to Rs 1,785 today. Prices of other crops have also fallen. Most farmers are running up huge losses, and have to borrow heavily to keep afloat. Since many have defaulted on loan repayments, they can’t borrow from banks. Their only recourse is the trader-moneylenders, who lend at 60 to 120% interest. Farmers are trapped in debt.

“This year has been very bad,” says Suryapal Chavan, a Kisan Sabha activist from Shingnapur. “Both the soya and cotton crops were washed out by heavy rains. Worse, the government has lowered the price at which it procures cotton by Rs 500. People are worried about how they will run their homes and get money to sow in the next season.”

It’s the end of the harvest season, but the government hasn’t even opened procurement centres to buy cotton. Yards that were once crowded with bullocks carts loaded of cotton and where farmers would wait for days to sell their produce, are now deserted. Farmers are selling to traders since they are offering a rate only slightly lower than the government - Rs 1500-1700 per quintal. “There was once a time when cart loads of cotton would leave this village. This year, not a single cart has left,” says Giri. Government procurement is just 6.25 lakh quintals of cotton this season, compared to 185 lakh quintals last season, a drop of 96%. Last year, the government had opened 410 procurement centres. This year, there are only 160.

Once, cotton was considered 'white gold', and Vidarbha's black soil was perfect for cotton cultivation. With liberalization, the 'white gold' is now worthless. The government has withdrawn market controls, tariffs and subsidies for agriculture, leaving Indian farmers to compete with farmers in the US and EU, who are protected by trade restrictions and given billions of dollars in subsidies. The US 2002 Farm bill alone gave $ 190 billion to large companies growing cotton, wheat, corn, soybean, rice, barley, oats and sorghum.

"Ten years back, the international price of cotton lint was $1.10 per pound, but now it is 52 cents. The retail price of cotton then was Rs 40 per metre, and it is now Rs 80. Retail prices have doubled but farmers are forced to sell their produce at half the price," says Vijay Jawandhia, Shetkari Sanghatana activist. The government doesn’t even provide proper infrastructure like irrigation or marketing facilities.

The Indian government could protect its producers from imports and crashing international prices by hiking the import duty on cotton. At present, it is only 10 per cent. Import duty on other products like sugar (60%), rice (80%) and second hand cars (180%) are much higher. “The government is willing to protect sugar farmers and foreign car manufacturers here but not cotton farmers. Imports have flooded the market and prices have fallen,” says Jawandhia.

A banner that announces the "sale" of Dorli village.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
The US, EU, Japan and Canada restrict trade from developing countries by keeping tariffs at 350% to 900% on food products. But India provides incentives to agricultural imports. Even within India, the ‘free market’ doesn’t apply to all agricultural goods. Some are favoured more than others. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has ensured that Maharashtra’s politically powerful sugar co-operative lobby remains protected. “The central government regulates the flow of sugar into the market so that the price of sugar is steady. Why don’t they do the same to protect cotton farmers?” asks Jawandhia. Left to their own devices, farmers in are threatening to abandon agriculture and trade in their kidneys.

The flash point in Shingnapur came when suicide struck closer to home, in their village. Now, it wasn’t something ‘out there’ in someone else’s backyard. On the night of 16th December 2005, Jagdish Deshmukh (40) killed himself by swallowing pesticide. “We held a meeting and decided that we have to unite people. So we started this kidney sale agitation. What other solution? People are so desperate that some would really sell their kidneys, if given a chance,” said Chavan,

Jagdish’s wife, Sangeeta is left to look after their three children…and the debt. He owed the bank Rs 11,000, but she doesn’t know how much more he had borrowed from moneylenders. “This season, we got nothing - just 20 kg of cotton and no soyabean. Bank officials came to demand the loan five days before he killed himself. They also came three days after,” said Sangeeta.

Now, she grows vegetables on their farm and sells them to earn Rs 10 to 20 everyday. “We have an electricity bill of Rs 7000. Yesterday, they came and threatened to cut our connection if we don’t pay. If they do that, then I won’t be able to grow vegetables without the water pump. We’ll be left with nothing.” Her son, Sandeep (12) stopped going to the secondary school in Shivni village, four km away, because they can’t afford the Rs 4 bus ticket. Now, he goes around the village selling vegetables. The recession has affected all aspects of village life – children’s education, health, there’s no money to marry daughters, and people are selling off their cattle.

The "Farmers' Kidney Sale Centre" in Shingnapur village.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
For the first time, landless labourers from Shingnapur have migrated to cities. Meet the ‘Mumbai Return’ gang – eight who ventured out to try their luck finding work in the big city. Their first adventure outside their village didn’t last long. “We went to a construction site at Nerul, where we worked for two days. Then, there was no work and two of our friends got malaria, so we spent all our money to put them in hospital. As soon as they got out of hospital, we hopped on a train ticketless and came back home,” said Maruti Ade, a landless worker.

Maruti and his wife Reena’s find it more difficult to get work even once a week. Landowners can’t afford to pay wages. “Many are shifting to soyabean, and cultivating less cotton and jowar because their prices are so low. That means less work for us, because there’s no need for much labour in soyabean harvesting. Cotton harvesting gives women a lot of work, and men are needed for the jowar crop,” said Reena. “Those who used to grow tur and jowar and distribute it to us don’t have grain in their own homes now.”

The crisis has affected all – rich and poor. Meet Anil Tatte, a prize-winning farmer from Lehegaon in Amravati district. He won a Krishi Bhushan award from the state government. His innovative farm techniques made his yield double that of other farmers. Today, Anil is sinking along with the rest of this village. They too have declared that their village is up for sale. “This year, I even tried Bt cotton. It’s expensive. I spent Rs 80,000 on my 10 acres, and got only Rs 50,000. This award-winning farm is now in losses.”

Lehegaon was once prosperous, situated in what was once called India’s Orange County. “In the last five years, there has been very little water. I have had to cut all the 2000 orange trees in my orchard. They all dried up,” says Anil. Like most places in Vidarbh, the problem here is irrigation. Only 10% of land in the region is irrigated. In Lehegaon, even private wells have run dry, as the water table has fallen. “The Upper Wardha dam is near our village, but we don’t get water from it. Pipelines from there go to the adjoining Wardha district.”

The ginning factory in the village, which used to employ 400 people, hasn’t opened this season. Dairy has collapsed. “Ten years back, we had 600 cattle. Now we have 60. The price we get for milk is too low. There’s a bank here. But now only a few traders go there. Recently, the government arrested many moneylenders. Even they have stopped lending. They were the only source of funds for farmers,” says Nilesh Tatte, a young farmer.

Shivni Rasulapur, next to Shingnapur, has also said that they will mortgage the entire village to pay off their debts. “The only time officials visit us is when the bank officers come to collect our loans. Or when the electric board threatens to cut our lines. Otherwise, no one has bothered,” said Purshottom Bansod, a farmer leading the agitation.

“I want to sell my land. But no one has the money to buy it,” says Arun Chambhare, a small farmer from Dorli, the first village to declare it was for sale. “We are living in darkness. They cut my electricity line. My daughter studies for her 12th standard exam with a lantern.” Dorli, a predominantly Dalit village, has 47 families, of which 32 are registered as below the poverty line. Many more are sliding further downhill.

How much longer before the threats and protests to sell land and kidneys become a grim reality?

Frontline, March 11 - 24, 2006 Also available here

Vidarbha in Flames

2007-03-31T17:11:00.000+05:30

A local legislator attempted suicide in the legislative assembly, frustrated by all other methods to alert the state to the farmers suicides

DIONNE BUNSHA
In Vidarbha, Maharashtra

It was time for a reality check. In the safe confines of the legislative assembly, Maharashtra’s politicians witnessed a dose of the real world last week. Gulabrao Gavande, a Shiv Sena legislator, wanted them to wake up to the daily tragedy of the Vidarbha countryside. So, he rushed to the floor of the assembly and poured a bottle of kerosene on himself. Then, he opened a bottle of pesticide and was about to swallow it when other legislators rushed to stop him. Gavande was banned from attending the rest of the session.

His recklessness could have set the entire house on fire - literally. But his shocking suicide attempt ignited a fiery debate about the government’s neglect of the agricultural crisis in the underdeveloped Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra. Farmers’ suicides are on the rise. Everyday, a few more deaths are reported in local newspapers. But so far the state has not addressed this alarming tragedy. A defensive chief minister promised to announce a ‘package’ for Vidarbha’s farmers, but was not willing to say anything more. The opposition too has no creative solutions to offer. Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray rushed to Vidarbha and assured farmers his party’s muscle power to bash up moneylenders and bank officials who harass them.

Meanwhile, in his hospital bed, a visibly shaken Gavande told Frontline, “I don’t know what I was thinking when I did this. I’m very troubled seeing so many people kill themselves. Morchas and protests have had no effect on the government. I wanted to awaken the administration to this crisis.”

Gavande, a local MLA from Akola (and also a wrestler), has been brawling with powerful moneylenders who have been snatching land from farmers. “Moneylenders are taking advantage of people’s desperation. They won’t lend until the farmer signs a document handing over land ownership to them. Then, when the farmer can’t repay they take possession of the land. So farmers land worth Rs two lakh for a Rs 20,000 loan. Moneylenders have captured around 5000 acres of land in this way,” explains Gavande.

A son of the soil, Gavande uses the methods he knows best. “Only I have the strength to fight these thugs because I am a wrestler and have an akhada with me,” he smiles. “I told the villagers not to spare anyone who harasses them. Recently, when a moneylender told one farmer to sell his daughter but pay back the loan, the villagers of Dadham got together and flogged him to death.” In the last few months, the government has cracked down on moneylenders, arresting several of them. But that has also led to more distress since they are the only source of funds available to farmers. Since most of them have defaulted on bank loans, that option is not open to them anymore.

Mounting debts are just a symptom of the crisis in agriculture. The crux of the problem is profitability, not only for the cotton crop, but also for others like oranges, soya, wheat, jowar, chillies or paddy. “The prices of all products have risen dramatically over the years. Our input costs have also shot up. But for the last 10 years, the price we get for our crop has remained the same,” says Jitendra Tatte, a large cotton and orange farmer from Lehegaon in Amravati. Input costs for his 60-acre farm have drowned him in debt. The more he cultivates the more his losses. “Everyone is in the same distress. Some have committed suicide. The rest of us live in agony.”
At a cotton farmPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Tatte rattles off several statistics to prove his point. “In the last ten years, the price of soya oil has increased from Rs 25 per litre to Rs 45. But have been selling soyabean at the same price of Rs 900 per quintal since then. How do you expect us to survive?” he asks. “Why doesn’t inflation apply to our produce? Why do farmers have to starve so that the rest of the country gets cheap food?”

This season, the Maharashtra government has accentuated their dilemma further by reducing the price at which it will procure cotton from approx. Rs 2,200 per quintal to Rs 1,700. The cost of cotton cultivation is Rs 2,200 per quintal, not including the farmer’s own labour and other expenses like bank interest. If the price falls, farmers will suffer major losses of Rs 500 per quintal, no matter how much they produce. This will lead to more distress and more suicides.

At a public meeting in Nagpur recently, deputy chief minister R.R. Patil justified this price fall by arguing, “Last year, the state suffered Rs 1,800 crore losses due to the procurement scheme. Yet, suicides were the highest. This means the money is not going to farmers, but to agents. We will find other ways to make sure the funds reach those who need it.”

“Reducing the price is not going to solve the glitches in the procurement system,” says Vijay Javandhia, farmers activist. “If the government is really interested in making the scheme work for farmers, they should pay the amount up front to farmers, not in installments, that too over a period of one year. And, they should stop deducting loan collections from the payments. Leave it to the banks to recover their loans.”

The procurement scheme is in the red because the international prices of cotton have fallen. Cultivators in western countries receive huge subsidies from their government. They can afford to sell their produce at much lower prices. The Indian government could protect its producers from imports and crashing international prices by hiking the import duty on cotton. At present, it is only 10 per cent, import duty on other products like sugar (60%), rice (80%) and second hand cars (180%) are much higher. “The government is willing to protect sugar farmers and foreign car manufacturers here but not cotton farmers,” says Javandhia.

Maharashtra’s 30 lakh cotton farmers are being told to innovate and diversify. But innovations only increase the burden of debt. And interest is high. Banks charge 12%. But interest for consumer loans are only 7% and a mere 4% to start a sugar factory. Moneylenders, now the main source of credit, charge between 60% to 120%. And, you risk losing your land.

Farm improvements cost Sudhir Tatte his life. He spent more than two lakhs rupees sinking tube wells and installing sprinklers and drip irrigation on his orange orchards and cotton fields in Lehegaon. But nothing seemed to work. The water table had fallen. Finally, he swallowed poison and killed himself in 1998. Seven years later, his family is still burdened by debt. They have given up on agriculture and leased out the fields to others.

Bt cotton is also being promoted as the solution. It costs around 12 times more than other seeds, and has failed to deliver results. “The dealer assured me that I would get 19 quintals per acre from Bt cotton. Not only were the seeds expensive but I also had to spray pesticide. Yet, I got the usual two or three quintals, but I spent so much more. I’m totally ruined,” said Surendra Zane, a farmer in Lehegaon.

“What other crops can we grow?” asks Jitendra Tatte. “The prices of all crops have remained stagnant. We have even experimented with growing herbs, but there is no market to sell them. Moreover, our choice is restricted to only a few crops since we don’t have irrigation.” Only 10 per cent of Vidarbha’s farmland has irrigation. It is difficult to even promote dairy farming as an alternative since it is too dry to grow fodder for livestock.

The chief minister is expected to announce the usual stop gap measures – loan or interest waivers, free power, compensation for families of suicide victims. But these are just band aids. The real issue of pricing and profitability has to be tackled to stop peasants from sliding down further. “Mine will be the last generation of farmers. I don’t want my son to be a farmer and suffer the way I have,” says Jitendra Tatte.

As Vijay Javandhia puts it, “In my next life, I would rather be a cow in Europe than a farmer in India. There, they get two dollars subsidy per day to feed their cattle. Here, our farmers slog in the fields and don’t even get one dollar.”

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A Fate Worse Than Death

It seemed like a normal meagre meal for Dharmi Rathod when suddenly her husband Ramesh started vomiting. He had barely eaten anything. He was choking on the pesticide he swallowed. His friends rushed him to hospital, but he died there on 10th November 2005. Dharmi was left stunned… and without a single paisa with her.

Her village Bongavan in Yavatmal collected money for his funeral. They helped her with food and money. One month later, Dharmi is still reeling from the shock. “I have no idea how much he owed and how many loans he had taken. All I know is that the day before he died, bank officials had come to our hut.” For the last month, the trauma has taken its toll on Dharmi. She is constantly ill and has visited the hospital thrice.Dharmi Rathod with her childrenPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
How does Dharmi manage to look after herself and her two children? “My son works as a farm hand every weekend. From that money, we go to the market,” she says. Even when Ramesh was alive, Dharmi and Ramesh both worked as farm labour earning Rs 20 and Rs 40 per day respectively. They could not survive only by tilling their four acre farm. This season, it will yield less than a quintal of cotton. And, Dharmi doesn’t know the first thing about managing a farm. Unable to cope, she has called her relatives to help her sort out her life.

Ramesh seems to have left Dharmi with a fate worse than death.

Frontline, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005 Also available here

Frog Weddings and Farmers’ Funerals

2007-03-31T16:54:00.000+05:30

Bad rains, family problems, alcoholism, gambling – the government continues to find different reasons for the farmers’ suicides rather than address the crisis. Everyday, a few farmers kill themselves in Vidarbha, western Maharashtra. The globalisation of penury intensifies.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Yavatmal, Maharashtra

Just before the monsoons, farmers in Vidarbha arrange frog weddings to welcome the rain Gods. Villagers make one male and one female frog pose in separate earthen pots for their baraat. The procession finds its way to the local temple where they are married. After the wedding, the married couple is given a send off a local water source and let loose. If they croak, it means that they have been told that the monsoon is near. (Locals believe that frogs are harbingers of rain)

This year, the frog weddings have been followed by several funerals. Not of frogs, but of farmers.

The Vidarbha region of north-eastern Maharashtra has seen a spate of suicides in the last month. It is close to the Andhra Pradesh border, another state where mass suicides have been reported. Many farmers disappointed by the poor rainfall and with many burdens to fulfill have cracked under pressure and killed themselves. Around 45 suicides have been reported since June but the chief minister’s office has awarded compensation to only 8 so far. Almost everyday, a few more farmers commit suicide.

Atmaram Shinde (55) from Pada village in Yavatmal hoped that this monsoon would help him wipe away his accumulated debts. He sowed his field on time. But the seeds dried up - there was no rain. He planted a second round of seeds. But the monsoon did not arrive. The Rs 22,000 he borrowed to spend on seeds and fertiliser went down the drain. On June 26th, Atmaram killed himself by swallowing the deadly pesticide, endosulphan.

“He was very disturbed. For the last two years, the crop had failed. Loans had piled up. We have to get our daughters married,” said his wife, Nirmala. She hasn’t lost hope. She recently borrowed another Rs 4,000 from a local moneylender to sow the field for the third time. But the rains haven’t yet arrived.
Jitru Kannake's family at 13th day ceremony after his death. He committed suicide on July 4Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde visited Vidarbha. Damage control just before the Prime minister’s visit, which he later cancelled. Shinde said that farmers should have no problem getting loans since the government has ordered banks to convert short term loans to long term loans. The CM also instructed district administrations to prepare for the drought situation by starting employment works and providing for drinking water and food grains supply. However, there has been no mention of compensation for crop loss.

But compensation is not a permanent solution. Mass suicides associated with the agricultural crisis have been reported in Vidarbha since 1996. This cotton belt is close to the Andhra Pradesh border, another state where serial suicides have been reported. In 1987, more than 80 suicides occurred. There were 90 suicides reported in 2001. The underlying causes that have led to such distress need to be tackled.

Agriculture is no longer viable for most cotton farmers here. “Whatever we get at the end of the crop goes into re-paying the loans. Yet, every year, we continue to sow the fields, hoping that it will be better. What else can we do? This is the only work we know,” said Namdeo Maraskoche, a farmer from Pada village. Last year, after paying off some old debts, he was left with Rs. 7,000. Hardly enough to sustain his family. They work on other’s fields and earn a daily wage to survive. (The rates for agricultural wages are Rs.40 for men and Rs.25-30 for women, far below the government minimum wage of Rs.90 and Rs.70 respectively.)

After economic liberalisation policies were introduced, agriculture has become unprofitable. The cost of inputs - seeds, fertilisers, pesticides - have risen dramatically. Market prices for farmers’ produce have not kept pace. Even with a good crop, they barely break even. A bad crop could spell disaster.

This vulnerability is heightened due to the absence of sufficient rural credit. Bank interest rates for farmers are around 14%, much higher than urban consumers who pay 4% for car and home loans. Crop loans sanctioned by banks cover barely 70 % of the input costs, say district officials. Farmers claim that bank credit provide for only 15% of their needs. They rely on moneylenders-traders for the rest, who charge interest rates varying between 30% to 120% per year. That’s enough to kill any hope of a surplus.

Vidarbha’s farmers mainly grow cotton, soybean and jowar during the kharif (monsoon) season. Most agriculture here is totally dependent on the monsoon. Only 15% of Maharashtra's gross cropped area is irrigated, as against the national average of 32.9% in 1989-90. Amravati division's share of gross cropped area under irrigation was a meagre 9%, says the divisional commissioner N. Arumugam. Government expenditure on rural infrastructure has also shrunk. Vidarbha has several irrigation projects, which haven’t yet got off the ground. Funds allocated for development of the region haven’t been utilized, says opposition leader Nitin Gadkari.

Yields in Maharashtra, especially for cotton, are low. Farmers keep experimenting with costly new varieties of hybrid seeds in the hope of getting a better crop. Pests have become resistant to pesticide, so farmers keep increasing the doses of deadly pesticides like DDT and endosulphan, which are banned in other countries. The unregulated commercialization of agriculture has resulted in further losses for small farmers.

Maharashtra’s agriculture minister Govindrao Adik denies that the suicides have any connection with government policy. “What can the government do if the rains fail?” he asked. “The suicides occur because of different reasons- some victims were very poor, others had drinking problems, some may have been gambling. What can we do? Are we responsible? In the past also there have been suicides. Why is the media highlighting them now?”

Considered one of Maharashtra’s underdeveloped regions, Vidarbha has seen not only farmer’s suicides but also malnutrition deaths in its tribal areas. It has been a political battleground because the BJP-Shiv Sena has made inroads in this traditional Congress stronghold. In the recent Lok Sabha election, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance won only one of 11 seats.

A few local politicians have also demanded separate statehood for the region. They complain that it is neglected by a state government, which doles out more to western Maharashtra, the domain of politically connected sugar barons. With the state elections in the next few months, the Congress-NDA alliance government has woken up to the suicides.

But how much will that help Jitru Kannake’s family? A farmer from Vadavna Bazar village, Jitru killed himself on 4th July. He sowed his nine-acre farm three times hoping for rain. His debts kept mounting. The recent sowing cost him Rs 29,000. He had other outstanding loans, including one of Rs 50,000 to get his children married in May.

“He had given last year’s entire crop to the moneylender. Still, there was Rs 20,000 more to pay him. Then, there were bank loans pending. And, he borrowed Rs 50,000 for the wedding. There seemed no hope of ever paying back,” said his son Ganesh. “Farmers never have their own money. We have to keep borrowing from somewhere.”

Here, weddings seem to be closely followed by funerals.

--------------------------------

Living with the Legacy of Loans

The minister came and went. But the bank loans remain.

Saraswati Ambarwar’s husband, Ramdas committed suicide in January 1997. After local activists highlighted the plight of indebted farmers in Vidarbha, the then revenue minister Narayan Rane visited the area. He met Saraswati and made several promises - the government would give her Rs one lakh compensation, a waiver of all Ramdas’ bank loans, it would pay for her daughters’ education for three years and for her farm expenses for three years.

The cheque was all she got. The bank loan has doubled from Rs. 25,000 to Rs 50,000 because interest has accumulated. Saraswati keeps getting default notices from the bank. They have also threatened to auction her house. But paying off the loan seems impossible. Saraswati barely has enough to survive..

“After getting so many default notices, I managed to collect Rs 9,000 and partly paid back the debt. That was three years back,” said Saraswati. But the rest of the loan has accrued interest over the years. “My husband owed Rs 40,000 to a moneylender in Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh, just 50 km away. When he came to collect his money, he realised I could not pay and cancelled the loan.”

Saraswati used the government cheque to pay for her eldest daughter’s wedding. One of her daughters slumped into a major depression after her father’s death. The other has been constantly ill. “Last year, I had to take Rs 40,000 from my brother-in-law Arun just to pay for her treatment,” she said.

When her husband died, he left a suicide note asking Arun to look after his family. Since then, Arun helps her to cultivate the 12 acres of land that Ramdas left behind. “Whatever we get from farming is not enough. Arun helps us out when we run short. It may be better if I sell the land,” said Saraswati.

Seven years after Ramdas’ death, the situation in Vidarbha’s countryside has not changed much. Even today, a couple of suicides are being reported everyday. There are several widows like Saraswati who are struggling with the legacy of loans that their husbands have left behind.

Frontline, July 31 to August 13, 2004 Also available here

Sugar Daddies

2007-03-31T14:32:00.000+05:30

Sugarcane has fuelled the corruption of political power in some states of India – the world’s largest sugar producer. But, as Dionne Bunsha reveals, it’s the small farmers who pay the price.

Meet Balasaheb Shinde. He’s wondering how he will abandon his children. Balasaheb is
a small farmer of sugarcane in Beed, Maharashtra. He’s so deep in debt that this year he and his wife will have to migrate to find work as cane cutters. His youngest son will drop out of school and go with them. But his three older children can’t stop their education. He will have to leave them alone in the village.

‘There’s no-one to look after them. For the first time, I am leaving to work as a labourer, even though I have my own farm. It’s not profitable to grow sugarcane any longer,’ says Balasaheb. ‘The loans keep piling up. The moneylenders are demanding repayments. How will I manage?’

Meet Gopinath Munde. His party controls the Ambejogai sugar co-operative where Balasaheb is a member. The factory hasn’t paid outstanding dues to farmers or its workers. Munde is leader of the opposition in Maharashtra, India’s largest sugar-producing state. In the previous government he was Deputy Chief Minister. The factory is situated in his constituency. Its chairperson is an associate from his political party, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Munde recently set up several sugar factories nearby. His wife is the chairperson of one. He is chairperson of another. Politicians control most sugar-processing units in this state, and almost all of them are co-operatives.

Termed ‘the lazy man’s crop’ (because it is so easy to make money from), sugarcane farming was introduced in western Maharashtra by the pioneers of the co-operative movement during the 1950s. They were politicians who pumped huge amounts of government funds into co-operatives, developing roads and cornering a large chunk of the subsidies for irrigation. The region developed far ahead of the rest of the state.
A child joins family members cutting cane.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Politicians like Munde now control not only sugar factories, but also other co-operatives within their constituencies – banks, dairies, irrigation and education institutions. Right from the sarpanch (local representative) at the village level to the Chief Minister, the entire political network is closely linked with sugar co-operatives.

Every link in the chain gets a piece of the pie. Sugar barons appoint their cronies or family members as chairpersons and directors. Often they manipulate government policy in their favour. The ‘loyal supporters’ lower down the line are awarded contracts and employment – patronage politics at its most efficient. For the members of the sugar co-operatives themselves barely a few scraps remain.

In the Ambejogai co-operative they suspect that Munde would like their factory shut down. It would mean more business for the co-operatives nearby which he runs. Munde controls the economy and politics of his constituency. He prospers while the members of the Ambejogai co-operative are on the verge of starvation.

To gain control over a co-operative means to establish a fiefdom, to capture a ‘vote bank’. Politicians from the ruling centrist alliance government control 99 per cent of Maharashtra’s sugar industry. The rival BJP is still trying to break into the syndicate.

Corruption
Today, the industry is in trouble – 56 of Maharashtra’s 163 sugar mills are bankrupt, ruined by corruption and nepotism. Second and third generation politicians have squeezed out all profits, leaving the state government to bail them out. The state government contributed a 30-per-cent redeemable stake in the equity of these co-operatives, but few have repaid the equity. It also stood guarantee for the 60-percent equity taken as loans, some of which haven’t been repaid either.

Last season 19 factories took loans to crush cane. They started production for a short while and then stopped. The aim never was to operate them – merely to take the money and run. They didn’t repay the bank or the few farmers whose cane was crushed.
Are the mills really broke, or have they been made so? ‘The management wants to show losses. Or else how will they make money?’ asks Ramgonda Patil, a small farmer in Kolhapur district. ‘They inflate expenses and siphon off funds. Then they keep borrowing from the banks to pay farmers. The money never reaches us. But we have to bear the burden of those loans. If run properly, the business is profitable.’

Farmers get a very small part of the revenue. Sugar sells at Rs12 ($0.26) per kilo on the domestic market and Rs10 ($0.21) internationally. But farmers get only Rs6.25 ($0.14) or less.

‘The co-operatives are run by those who have no stake in it at all. It should not be the side-business of politicians,’ says Madhav Godbole, a former bureaucrat who has suggested stopping government involvement in this sector.

But who’s listening? So far, a bankrupt state government has shelled out Rs65 million ($1.41 million) to pay off the co-operatives’ bad debts. There’s another Rs4,000 million ($86.96 million) in guarantees yet to be paid.
The long wait for bullock carts delivering to the Ambejogai sugar
millPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Farmers have also felt the blow. ‘The co-operative is ours. But we have no say in the way it is run,’ says Ramgonda Patil. ‘Yes, we have elected the directors. But what choice do we have? They use money and muscle power during the elections.’ Any attempts to challenge their authority are nipped in the bud. ‘If anyone dares to ask a question at the cooperative meetings, he is taken out by their thugs. The directors of the factory run their own goonda raj (gangster rule) here.’

Cane growers are being squeezed from both ends. Sugarcane prices offered by factories have fallen by around 25 per cent in the past five years. Around a third of factories haven’t even paid farmers the Indian Government’s minimum price of Rs695 ($15.1) per tonne. In the season that started in October, industry experts estimate that only five per cent of the factories will be able to pay farmers the minimum price. And even this minimum price is not sufficient to meet farmers’ expenses.

Production costs have risen by around two-thirds in the last five years. There have been huge hikes in power, irrigation and other charges due to economic liberalization. ‘Every year our debts rise by another Rs10-15,000 ($217- 326). Cane prices are not enough to recover our costs. Many factories don’t pay in time. So interest on our bank loans also keeps piling up,’ says Ramgonda. At the end of the 18-month crop, a farmer’s net income is approximately Rs5,000 ($109) per acre – that’s just Rs278 ($6) a month.

Drowning in debt, many small farmers have had to sell part of their land. The moneylenders are raking it in. They charge farmers interest at rates anywhere between 35 and 60 per cent. If the farmer can’t pay, they just take over the land. Earlier, when government and co-operative banks came here, moneylenders lost their hold over small peasants. Now they are back with a vengeance.

Why not shift to another crop? Many have switched to soya beans. But prices of soya too have crashed by a half in the last year. ‘What else can we grow? We have to grow cash crops to get money to pay things like medical bills, school fees. It’s also easier to get a bank loan if you grow sugarcane. Until now it was considered a stable crop,’ says Ramgonda. But this season a huge pest attack has destroyed half the crop. Farmers’ incomes are even more fragile.

Neglect

Peasants in other parts of Maharashtra still protest about being the neglected stepchildren. Their complaints are not unjustified. For example, although sugarcane is grown on only four per cent of Maharashtra’s total cropped area, 60 per cent of irrigated water goes to this crop alone. Bank credit, dairies and other facilities are far more accessible here than in the rest of rural Maharashtra.

It’s from these neglected areas in central Maharashtra that workers migrate to the lush sugarcane belt during the six month harvesting season. Contractors hired by the factory bring them in groups. Some factories haven’t paid contractors’ bills, so these migrants haven’t got their full wages either. Their exploitation is double-edged – both by the factories and by the contractors.
migrant labourers camp out in the plantationsPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Many, like Shivaji, barely get a few hours’ sleep during the cutting season. Yet, after labouring round the clock, Shivaji may not be able to work off the advance he took from the contractor. Before leaving their village in Beed, around 200 kilometres away from the factory, the contractor gave his family Rs20,000 ($435). This is offset against the amount of sugarcane they cut. Like most migrants, Shivaji may return to his village with a debt to repay. ‘If, at the end of the season, we haven’t cut enough cane to offset the advance given to us, we have to pay back the rest. The interest rate is 60 per cent per year,’ he says.

Trapped in a cycle of loans, workers keep coming back to the sugar factories every year. The need for a lump-sum advance for consumption, to marry their children or pay medical bills, makes workers approach the contractor. Families repay the advances by cutting between one to two tonnes of cane per day, at the rate of Rs100-115 ($2.5) per tonne for bullock-cart owners and Rs65 ($1.41) for tractor workers. Often workers are given less, as their unpaid loans are offset against this advance.

In fact Uttam Siserao, a landless labourer from Parbhani, worked for free in the 2001-02 season. He explained: ‘My wife was ill last year and could not work. We had taken Rs10,000 ($217) from the contractor. I worked off Rs5,000 ($107) and the other half was due. After that, she passed away. This year I am repaying her advance.’
Most workers use up their advances in the village itself and buy their daily rations by selling the sugarcane leaves as fodder. They leave with nothing and return home still empty-handed.

Ironically, while millions of sugarcane farmers and workers are starving, the warehouses are overflowing with sugar. Overproduction has resulted in swelling stocks. Factories are desperate to sell them off. To offload stocks, the Government has offered an export subsidy – paying producers to get rid of their sugar. But no-one seems bothered whether the farmers or workers will get a share of the profits.

Shetgonda Patil, a farmer from Kolhapur district, puts it eloquently: ‘We have shares in the factory. We grow the cane. But we don’t get to taste any sugar – not even a pinch.’

New Internationalist December 2003 Available here

The Hutatma Model

2007-03-31T13:53:00.000+05:30

Corruption, mismanagement, political fiefdoms – these are the words usually associated with sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra. Here’s one that’s different.

Dionne Bunsha
In Walva, Maharashtra.

It’s Sunday afternoon. Most people are enjoying their siesta. But, inside the Hutatma Kisan Ahir sugar factory, farmers from 15 villages have travelled here to talk business. There’s lively discussion and debate. The weekly meeting of the sugar co-operative’s Board of Directors is underway. Sugarcane farmers themselves manage India’s most efficient sugar factory in Walva, Sangli district. Who says you need a fancy MBA to run a successful company? You don’t even have to pass high school.

The Hutatma Kisan Ahir Sugar co-operative is different from other sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra. No politician controls its functioning. Farmers take all the decisions collectively. The co-operative’s founder, Naganath Nayakawadi, a freedom fighter and social activist, guides the co-operative’s progress.

Each of the 15 villages, where the co-operative’s members live, collectively selects a director to represent them. Moreover, one Dalit, two women and one poor candidate also have to be appointed directors. All members decide together on major issues like cane prices, purchases etc. Weekly board meetings have an open door policy. Any member can attend and vote. “In all other sugar factories, the management takes decisions behind closed doors. Only here, the system is transparent. Even you can walk in and question us,” says Hindurao Patil, a small farmer and former director of the co-operative.

The ‘Hutatma model’ has reaped rich dividends. For the past 18 years, the factory has received national awards for being the most technically efficient mill. Its recovery rate (amount of sugar recovered from the cane) is the highest in India. The co-operative pays farmers the highest price for cane in Maharashtra. And, payments are prompt.
The weekly meeting of the Board of Directors of the Hutatma Kisar Ahir Sugar Cooperative at the factoryPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
The co-operative makes sure that its prosperity trickles down to the poorest. Each village has a job quota. Members decide who should get factory jobs. At village meetings, people identify the poorest families for employment. More than one-third of factory workers are Dalits. To employ those most in need of work, the factory announced a job scheme for the poorest. “Those who agree to work as cane cutters for two years are given permanent employment after that. Only the poorest are willing to cut cane. That’s how we identified the most needy families,” said Shahaji Bansode, a factory worker. More than 100 people got jobs under this scheme. Factory workers are given free housing, a large bonus and quarter of the surplus generated.

Even migrant sugarcane cutters, who work here during the six-month cane-crushing season, get a 25% share of the surplus. These workers travel from the drought-prone Marathwada region in central Maharashtra to work in sugar fields in the western part of the state. The Hutatma co-operative is the only one to have built houses for cane cutters and a school for their children. Labourers also get free medical treatment.

Yet, the co-operative has money to spare for rural development. Part of its surplus goes towards funding an educational trust, which runs balwadis (pre-primary schools), a high school, a college and a girls hostel. The education and hostel is free. “It’s run so that even the poorest get the opportunity to be educated,” said a director. Many villages have paved roads thanks to the co-operative’s investment in rural infrastructure. Co-operative dairies and banks have also sprouted in the area. The factory is also funding lift irrigation schemes for farmers in the area.

The co-operative doesn’t stop at only looking after its own. It also supports social causes. After the Latur earthquake, the co-operative adopted 108 destitute children and educated them in its school. A part of the surplus is given every year to those displaced by the nearby Warna, Urmodi and Koyna dams. Nayakawadi, popularly known as ‘Annasaheb’, has made sure that the co-operative retains its social conscience. “This factory is named after one of our comrades who was killed by the police in the Quit India movement. Our work today is a continuation of people’s struggle for their rights. The movement started in 1942 when we ran a parallel government against the British Raj. One person can’t do anything. People have to work together,” he says.
Naganath Nayakawadi, the freedom fighter who founded the sugar cooperativePhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Women hold top posts in the present Board of Directors. Nayakawadi ensured that women were appointed chairperson and vice-chairperson. They are daughters and wives of Anna’s old friends. What power they actually have remains under doubt. Finally, whatever Nayakawadi advises is law. He enjoys enormous respect, and lords over a socialist fiefdom of sorts. “They are new, but they will learn,” he says about the women chairpersons. “It is very important to set such examples for others. And, it also boosts women’s self-esteem.” In the past, the co-operative has had a Dalit, Jain and even Muslim chairperson. Each gets their turn. No one can hold a post for more than one five-year term. The board changes completely every five years.

Directors are mainly medium or large farmers. Few small farmers actually get chosen. “Poor people can’t spare the time to go for meetings. We are too busy just working for our survival everyday. Maybe if they gave directors a salary, it would be possible,” said a marginal farmer. “But the directors we elect make sure that everyone benefits from the co-operative.”

Haven’t political parties tried to gain control over this co-operative? “They know there is no scope for corruption here. So they leave us alone. They don’t get involved. They loot their own factories,” said Yashwant Babar, a former director of the Hutatma co-op. “All of us support different political parties. But when we come for a meeting, we leave our politics outside the door. It should not interfere with issues of our livelihood.” Sound logic that has built a strong business.

The Hutatma model may baffle management gurus who believe that only men in suits are qualified to manage corporations. The co-operative’s 8,000 members have crafted a different brand of business. They know what’s best for them. Their final aim is prosperity, not profit.

Frontline, September 13 - 26, 2003 Also available here

Machines that Mow down Migrants

2007-03-31T13:31:00.000+05:30

The arrival of imported cane-harvesting machines in sugarcane fields may push migrant cane cutters deeper in bondage.

DIONNE BUNSHA

“This town rips the bones from your back
Its a death trap, its a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we’re young
‘Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run.”
-- Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run.

Bleary-eyed, Shivaji Randale wakes up in the biting cold at 3 a.m. and makes his way to the sugarcane fields in Baramati along with his toli (group of around 10 workers). He has been able to snatch only two hours of sleep. But sleep doesn’t matter when there’s a loan to be worked off.

By afternoon, he loads his bullock cart with the cane his family has cut, and leaves for the crushing factory. There, he waits in queue until late at night, or even the next day. Yet, after labouring round the clock, Shivaji may not be able to work off the advance he has taken from the contractor. Before leaving their village in Beed district, around 200 km away, his family was given Rs 20,000 by the contractor, which is offset against the amount of sugarcane they cut. Like most migrant workers who travel to western Maharashtra’s sugarcane belt for work from the dry Marathwada region, Shivaji may return to his village with a debt to repay. “If, at the end of the season, we haven’t cut enough cane to offset the advance given to us, we have to pay back the rest. The rate of interest on this loan is 60 per cent per year,” he says.

Recently, the sugar mills have made it even more difficult for migrant workers like Shivaji to shake off their bondage. Ever since the sugar co-operatives imported cane-harvesting machines last year, not only have the number of workers reduced but their working days have also dwindled. “This season, we’ve got work for only 20 days in the month. How are we supposed to pay back the contractor? We’ve travelled so far to work -- not to sit here, twiddling our thumbs,” says Shivaji, who cuts cane for the Shri Chattrapati factory in Sharad Pawar’s constituency, Baramati. This factory, along with Malegaon co-operative in the same region, is among the first to use the harvesting machines. Twelve co-operative factories have decided to purchase 25 cane-cutting machines so far.
A family harvesting cane at a field in Kolhapur.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Sharad Pawar, who controls Maharashtra’s co-operative sugar factory syndicate, has shown a special interest in importing the machines from Germany and Australia, each costing around Rs 1.20 crores. He has even asked the central government to waive the 32 per cent import duty on the machines. Pawar and Maharashtra’s sugar barons, many of whom are Congress (I) and Nationalist Congress Party ministers, have built their fortunes on the labour of more than a million penniless migrant workers, who travel to their factories every harvesting season to cut cane. But now, the sugar lobby plans to replace these labourers with harvesting machines, each of which makes 300 to 400 workers unemployed. As the machines mow down the livelihoods of these migrants, they are also pushing them deeper into debt.

Workdays have reduced in the factories using harvesting machines. Also, workers transporting cane to the factory on bullock carts have to wait longer in queue, for upto 36 hours, as priority is given to the cane cut by the machine. When the machines were first introduced at the Shri Chattrapati factory in January 2001, some workers, frustrated with the long delay, spontaneously held an agitation into the factory. Many were arrested and work in the factory was disrupted.

This wasn’t the first time that labourers fought back. The powerful sugar magnates have effectively squelched many strikes demanding better pay and working conditions. Conditions of work haven’t improved for decades. Every year, after celebrating Divali, the festival of prosperity, groups of workers, leave their villages knowing they will never find it. The migrants, with their cattle and meagre belongings, are herded into trucks and taken from the arid Marathwada region to the lush sugarcane belt of western Maharashtra. In the north, workers from Nandurbar and Dhule travel to Gujarat’s sugar factories. Similarly, many workers from Karnataka cross the border into Kolhapur’s sugar fields to work.
Migrant sugarcane cutters at one of their makeshift huts.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Entire villages are transported – including barbers, shopkeepers and cobblers. Only the elderly and a few children, whose parents prefer to keep them at school, are left behind. But the education of most children is disrupted. “Which school is going to take them? They spend six months here and the rest in the village. Even our children don’t have a way out of this kind of work,” says Sultana Hanif from Parbhani, whose three daughters are with her. There are only 30 schools for migrant children in the state’s 198 sugar factories.

The workers are of two types - bullock cart and tractor workers. While bullock cart workers cut the cane as well as transport it to the factory on their carts, the tractor workers move from village to village harvesting the cane and loading it on the tractors. For both categories, working hours blur from one day to the next. Bullock cart workers wait till dawn outside the factory in the most miserable conditions. “Just look at the state of this yard. We have to sit in the middle of this cow dung all night. They don’t even clean the place or provide basic facilities like water, a shed or even proper pathways for the bullocks,” says Ganpati Shankar Kumbar, a worker from Karnataka who has crossed the border to Kagal in Kolhapur. Tractor workers are hauled up at any time in the night to load the tractor with cane. Bonfires are the only source of light and warmth as they work at odd hours in the night.

For these vagabond workers, there’s barely any shelter. Those with bullocks build straw huts on the outskirts of villages, with no electricity or sanitation facilities. Tractor workers pitch tents, which they shift every two or three weeks, as they move to another village for work. Some have no place to live. Like Ganpati Kumbar, who snatches a nap under his bullock cart, while waiting in queue. “What hut? This is my home,” he says, pointing to his cart.
The harvester at work in a sugarcane field in BaramatiPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
What makes them leave their homes to endure these harsh working conditions? Why do they come here, uprooting their families and disrupting their children’s education? “There’s no water in our fields. If the government irrigated our land, we wouldn’t have to come here,” says Janabai Marade from Beed, whose family owns 12 acres of land. “During a good monsoon can we grow some jowar or groundnut. After that, there is nothing. Barely a few days of agricultural work, which pays a pittance of Rs 20 per day for women,” she says. The agricultural crisis in the countryside has made agriculture unviable for several farmers like her. Agricultural growth (in terms of production and income) decelerated in the ‘90s. Investment in rural infrastructure like irrigation has dropped. The removal of subsidies has increased input prices, while produce prices have fallen after liberalisation. Farmers’ profitability has taken a tumble, sharpening indebtedness.

Trapped in a cycle of loans, workers keep coming back to the sugar factories every year. The need of a lumpsum advance for consumption, to marry their children or pay medical bills, makes workers approach the contractor. Families repay the advances by cutting between one to two tonnes of cane per day, at the rate of around Rs 100-115 per tonne for bullock cart owners and Rs 65 per tonne for tractor workers. Bullock cart workers are paid advances between Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 per family, while tractor workers’ families are given Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. Often, workers are given less, as their unpaid loans are offset against this advance.

In fact, Uttam Siserao, a landless labourer from Parbhani, is working for free this season. While waiting for work in a shed outside the Dutta sugar cooperative factory in Kolhapur for three days, he explains, “My wife was ill last year, and could not work. We had taken Rs 10,000 from the contractor. I worked off Rs 5,000 and the other half was due. After that, she passed away. This year, I am repaying her advance.” Most workers use up their advances in the village itself, and buy their daily rations by selling the sugarcane leaves as fodder for Rs 20-25. “We leave with nothing and also return home empty-handed. The advance we took was used up before we got here. When we return to the village, its back to borrowing and agricultural work,” says Sarubai Auchar who has migrated from Parbhani to Kolhapur.

It’s not surprising that these migrants work under the most insecure conditions with minimal legal protection. Their employers also run the government. Moreover, since workers are scattered in different places, they aren’t a strong vote bank. “Sugar is the most organised industry, but this sector has the most unorganised workers,” says Kumar Shiralkar, leader of the Sugarcane Transporters and Workers Union.

Although the factory pays their advances through the contractor, it refuses to acknowledge them as workers. “They should be given the same benefits and status as those working inside the sugar factory,” says Shiralkar. No labour laws are implemented to protect their rights although some like the Minimum Wages Act, Contract Labour Act , Moneylending Act and Workmens Compensation Act are applicable.
Cane cutters at a farm loading a truckPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Considering the distinct nature of their work, the union is demanding the setting up of a mathadi board where every worker can register and which will regulate their working conditions. However, the sugar syndicate is against this idea. “Since our factories work for only six months in a year, we would like to keep the relationship with workers contractual. Anyway, the whole labour issue will die in the course of time as harvesting machines come in. If all factories get the machines, will save us Rs 691 million every year - Rs 12 per tonne of cane,” says Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the Maharashtra Co-op Sugar Factories Federation. At present, the wages are revised every three years by the sugar cartel.

Although India is the world’s largest producer of sugar and the industry is growing at 8.5 per cent every year, this booming industry does not even provide its workers with basic facilities or share the profits with the workers. Almost all Maharashtra’s 192 sugar co-operatives were the platform on which Congress ministers built their fiefdoms. The BJP is also trying to get in on the act by setting up private sugar factories.

Local farmers and economies in western Maharashtra benefited from the infrastructure development that accompanied the establishment of a factory. For instance, although sugarcane constitutes only three per cent of the area under cultivation in Maharashtra, it corners 60 per cent of the state’s irrigation. Districts in Marathwada, where the migrants come from, have irrigation cover as low as six per cent. On the whole Maharashtra’s has a low irrigation cover of 15 per cent, way below the national average of 38 per cent. But irrigation facilities for sugarcane are abundant . Patronage politics and vote banks developed in the sugarcane belt. But, the migrants aren’t a vote bank. So its convenient to keep them tied to the contractors for generations. “Politicians have risen by climbing on the backs of these bonded workers,” says Shiralkar.

Krishna Pawar, a worker who has migrated within Kolhapur district puts it eloquently, “We cut the cane, but we don’t get to taste any sugar, not even a pinch.”

Frontline, Feb 02 – 15, 2002 Also available here

Drowning Cotton’s Lifebuoy

2007-03-31T12:28:00.000+05:30

The Maharashtra government has refused to pay the full cotton procurement price immediately. This has left farmers at the mercy of trader-moneylenders. In a region where farmers suicides are frequent, the state is withdrawing support, pushing farmers closer to the edge.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Vidarbha, Maharashtra

This season, Nirmala Nehare was thrown to the wolves. Not only did the climate fail Nirmala, a cotton farmer in Wardha, but the state government has also let her down. She was compelled to sell her meagre crop at lower prices to trader-moneylenders because the state refuses to pay farmers the full amount immediately while procuring cotton. This has meant further losses for peasants like Nirmala, already on the brink of bankruptcy.

After insufficient rain and a vicious pest attack on her crop, Nirmala’s family got only eight quintals of cotton, a fourth of what they normally harvest from their seven acres. They decided to give it to the moneylender at a lower price - Rs 1,800 per quintal- instead of selling it to the cotton federation at Rs 2,175. “Our hands are tied. We had to sell it to the trader. The government would pay in four instalments. Right now, they give only Rs 1,400 per quintal, while the rest of the Rs 2,175 will be paid next August. We can’t wait. Interest keeps accumulating at Rs 1,000 every month for the Rs 10,000 we borrowed,” says Nirmala from Dhamangaon village in Wardha.

Although she couldn’t sell her crop to the Maharashtra Cotton Federation this year, Nirmala still feels that the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme (MCPS) offers her some security. “Without it, we would be completely at the mercy of the middlemen. They would lower the prices even further. At least now, they cannot offer much less than the state’s guaranteed price,” she says.
At a procurement centre at WardhaPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Maharashtra’s unique MCPS still seems to be serving its purpose -- to protect cotton farmers from being cheated by traders and to ensure them a fair price for their crop by eliminating middlemen. This despite the state’s failure to pay farmers properly this year due to financial problems. Started in 1972, the scheme had been making profits and distributing 75 per cent of this surplus to cotton farmers until 1995. Then, international cotton prices started crashing and the scheme has run into accumulated losses of Rs 2,795 crores. Interest on this liability is Rs 1.35 crore per day. This year, for the first time, the RBI delayed sanctioning the full amount of the Rs 1,700 crore loan required by the state cotton federation to procure this year’s harvest. So far, it has sanctioned only Rs 900 crore.

A broke Democratic Front government said it would pay only 80 per cent of the central government’s support price for cotton (which is approximately Rs 1,875 per quintal, but depends on the quality of cotton). The balance of the price guaranteed by the state (averaging Rs 2,175 per quintal) is to be paid in three instalments. The opposition was quick to take advantage. It created a ruckus for several days during the assembly session held last month in Nagpur, the heart of Maharashtra’s cotton-growing Vidarbha region. Allying with Shetkari Sanghatana leader Sharad Joshi, who led a rail roko agitation, the BJP demanded that farmers be paid the full support price and the balance of the state guaranteed price later. Ironically, at various points in time, both the free-market proponent Joshi and the trader-funded BJP have demanded the scrapping of the scheme. The Democratic Front government caved in and offered a meek 90 per cent, which Joshi easily relented to and withdrew his agitation.

Ever since it was introduced, a motley group of traders, bureaucrats, politicians and activists have been demanding the death of Maharashtra’s MCPS, the only one of its kind in the country. But 30 years later, the scheme is still surviving. While many would attribute that to ‘vote bank’ politics, the simple fact remains that the scheme is a major reason why Maharashtra’s 30 lakh cotton farmers have managed to stay afloat.
At a cotton procurement centre in Wardha. Lakshmanrao Chaudhury (pictured), a small cotton farmer of Waipad village, who works here as a security guard, has not been able to sell his own produce at the centre because he is already in debt to the moneylenderPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
With globalisation heightening the agricultural crisis in the country, farmers’ profitability has been severely eroded. Production costs have multiplied in the last decade due to cuts in input subsidies. Rural credit and infrastructure investment has shrunk. Bank loans account for only 11.7 per cent of agricultural credit, leaving cultivators at the mercy of moneylenders. Farmers have also been squeezed by the fall in market prices due to imports and price collapses in the international commodity markets. “If the procurement scheme was scrapped, we would all sink. The traders would have a monopoly, like they do for all other crops,” says Rajendra Lone from Jamta village in Wardha. “This year, many people have had to sell to traders because it has been a bad harvest and the government is not paying the full amount immediately. Also, some don’t want the government to deduct their bank loans from the payment. They need money in hand. Otherwise, how will they run their homes?” he says.

Cotton farmers, not only in Maharashtra but also in AP and Punjab, have been worst hit by the farm crisis. In 1997-98, a severe pest attack destroyed the crop in Vidarbha, leading to a spate of more than 80 suicides. Several thousands of suicides have been reported in AP and Punjab’s cotton belts as well. The suicides continue. A local newspaper reported 35 suicides in Vidarbha from April to November 2001. Even though many left suicide notes and died by swallowing pesticide or jumping into a well, the government still tries hard to cover up the cause of the deaths citing personal or psychological problems. “All of us - rich and poor farmers alike- are in poverty, facing the same hardships. It’s just that some choose to end their misery by taking poison. Even large landowners are trying to sell off their land. But there are no takers,” says Punjaram More from Mahakal village in Wardha.

Explaining his declining profitability, Rajendra Lone says production costs for his 15-acre plot were Rs 5,000 per acre. But banks provide only Rs 1,500 per acre as crop loans. The rest of the cost has to be met by borrowing from moneylenders at exorbitant rates of interest varying from 60 to 120 per cent per year. “How are we to manage? Costs keep rising, but the prices have fallen by half for most crops. At least cotton prices offered by the government have been steady over the last five years,” he says.
At the Wardha procurement centre, cotton being weighedPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Although the scheme is the only assurance farmers have of a fair price, there are many who think it should be scrapped. Some arguments are purely financial -- to contain losses. “Maharashtra’s guaranteed price is Rs 425 above the central support price. Moreover, since international prices have fallen by half since 1995, we are now selling the procured cotton at around Rs 1,500 per quintal, a 25 per cent loss,” says Sunil Porwal, chairperson of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Cotton Growers’ Marketing Federation, the government agency that procures the cotton. He feels that losses would be minimised if the monopoly element of the scheme was withdrawn and the state’s guaranteed price was reduced to central support price levels.

However, proponents of the scheme like secretary of the Peasants and Workers Party, N.D. Patil, argues that the government cannot abandon its responsibility to farmers. “If the monopoly element was removed, the losses would increase. Traders would buy only the best quality cotton in the market, leaving the rest to the government, while the overheads of running the federation would continue. This is an indirect tactic to close down the scheme. Since no political party has the courage to do it outright, they will just make its implementation impossible,” he says. The scheme is the only form of social security for the state’s cotton farmers who produce 20 per cent of India’s cotton, Patil asserts. “Around 97 per cent of cotton in the state is dryland cotton. Totally dependent on nature, cultivation is a gamble for them. This is their only protection,” he says.

Free market advocates like Sharad Joshi of the Shetkari Sanghatana have been demanding the removal of the scheme since he “opposes any restrictions on the trade of agricultural commodities”. Mr Joshi believes, “The scheme has been unable to secure for Maharashtra’s farmers prices that compare favourably with those obtained in the free markets in neighbouring AP, MP and Gujarat.” However, Mr Porwal points out that since Maharashtra’s guaranteed price is much higher than those in other states, many traders cross state borders to sell cotton in Maharashtra. Explaining the change in his stand during his protests last month, Joshi says, “It was against the opportunist abandonment of the scheme in times of recession.”

The problem is not with the scheme but with India’s trade and agriculture policy, says Kisan Sanghatana leader Vijay Jawandhia. “Indian farmers have not been adequately protected as compared to those in developed countries,” he says. Domestic prices of cotton have fallen because of a low import tariff of only 5 per cent on cotton as compared to 60 per cent for sugar, which is backed by a much stronger political lobby, Jawandia points out. The textile industry lobby is also resisting any rise in import duty of cotton. “They are buying foreign cotton although there are sufficient domestic stocks, claiming that otherwise their industry will collapse. But why should millions of farmers be squeezed so that the textile industry can run smoothly?” he asks.

Deriding the free trade argument, Jawandhia points out no such thing exists. International commodity prices have fallen because rich countries like the US, EU and Japan continue to protect their agriculture by heavy subsidies to farmers and imposing high import tariffs. For instance, Japan has a 1,000 per cent tariff on rice imports. Each farmer in the US got a subsidy of $29,000 per year in 1995, 100 times more than what an average Philippine resident earns in a year. Production subsidies account for 66 per cent of producer prices in Japan, 49 per cent in EU countries and 30 per cent in the US. Although India is allowed, under the WTO agreement, to put up import duties ranging from 100 to 300% on agricultural goods, it has chosen not to protect its farmers.

While farmers struggle to keep their head above water, whether Indian agriculture sinks or not finally depends on what policies the government chooses to adopt. Only by turning the tide on liberalisation can the government prevent small farmers like Nirmala from being left to brave the winds alone.

Frontline, Jan 19 - Feb 1, 2002 Also available here

A can of boll worms

2007-02-23T19:52:00.000+05:30

Many farmers in Gujarat didn’t know they were sold pirated Bt cotton seeds. Now, the government threatens to burn their crop.

DIONNE BUNSHA
In Gandhinagar district, Gujarat.

Nareshbhai Patel didn’t have a clue that he was growing genetically modified (GM) Bt cotton seeds in his farm. “The shop keeper suggested that I try this new seed variety called Navbharat 151. It was only later that I heard about the seeds on the TV when the news broke that the government was threatening to burn the fields where Navbharat 151 seeds were sown,” says this farmer from Vadodara Lath village in Gandhinagar district.

The government of India’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) had no clue either. Navbharat 151 has been sold illegally in parts of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra for the past three years. The GEAC was caught with its pants down when the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (MAHYCO), which has applied for a licence to market Bt cotton seeds in India, complained that Navbharat was illegally selling GM seeds.

Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium that has been used as a pesticide to protect crops against three pests: tobacco budworm, cotton bollworm and pink bollworm. Bt is not effective against a number of other pests like boll weevil or white fly. Genetic scientists spliced a protein from Bt into cotton, creating a new seed called Bt cotton. This protein is selectively toxic to certain insects.
The genetically modified Bt seed was created to provide cotton plants with built-in protection against pests without using synthetic pesticides. Bt seeds are also called transgenic seeds because an alien gene has been introduced into a naturally occurring seed variety. Besides cotton, Bt has also been introduced into other crops like corn, cotton and potato.

Its failure to monitor the sale of GM seeds may cost hundreds of farmers dear, if it intends to carry out its threat. The Gujarat government, unwilling to pay compensation or antagonise the state’s farmers, has assured farmers that their fields will not be torched. Moreover, most farmers have already harvested the crop and are now clearing the fields for the Rabi potato crop.

The Navbharat fiasco could be considered a landmark case on several fronts. Most importantly because it has highlighted the gaps in government regulation of this new technology. However, in the rush to point fingers and nail a culprit, the larger questions about whether India needs GM seeds and its long-term implications on Indian agriculture, have been obscured.

Farmers seem relieved to have found a new seed that will rid their crop of the dreaded bollworm. Gujarat’s kharif season saw the worst pest attack in recent times. While the hybrid cotton crop was damaged, the Bt fields flourished. “The yield is 50 per cent more with Navbharat 151. Although I sprayed for pests other than the bollworm, I still saved around Rs. 5,000 per acre on pesticide,” said Karamsibhai Ladabhai Patel from Vadodara Lath village, who tried out the new seeds on an acre of his land.

Karamsibhai Ladabhai Patel and Naresh Patel, cotton farmers from Gandhinagar district, where Navbharat-151 Bt cotton seeds were sownPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
“These seeds are more expensive. One bag costs Rs 550 as compared to Rs 300 for hybrid cotton seeds. But we save more on pesticide costs,” says Patel. He adds that the Bt cotton crop uses more fertiliser and does not protect the plant from other pests, for which pesticide is still necessary. When asked about the environmental consequences of using the seeds, Patel says, “We know that this cotton plant has poison. The worm dies within minutes of biting the leaf. But none of the birds or squirrels feeding on the crop have died. We haven’t been told how it will harm us.”

But the farmer’s excitement may be short-lived. Explaining the dangers associated with Bt cotton, Dr Ramesh Agarwal, a genetic expert at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, says, “Initially farmers may be happy with the new technology. But long term concerns about pest resistance, cross pollination and toxicity also need to be considered.” Pests have developed resistance to the Bt cotton crop in countries where the seeds were used. In such a situation, even pesticides may not prove effective. Then, an even hardier pest will harass cotton farmers, resulting in higher costs and lower yields.

The second danger, Dr Agarwal points out, is that the alien gene inserted in the Bt cotton seed may be transmitted to other crop plants, endangering other plant varieties. At present, India has more than 200 cotton varieties. Thirdly, the effect of the genetic marker used to insert the alien gene in the seed is not known. If the marker is not removed, it could prove harmful. Dr Agarwal also cautions that the toxin produced to kill the bollworm could enter the food chain. There is a possibility that the Bt cotton toxin could enter the food chain through cotton oil and through the oil cakes that are fed to cattle. While the effect of the toxin is still unknown, the dangers would be more widespread than those associated with chemical insecticides, which affect the health of the immediate user.

Dr C.D. Mayee, director of the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) in Nagpur, which is conducting trials of MAHYCO’s Bollgard brand of Bt cotton, says the trials have shown that Bt seeds have no environmental impact. When asked about pest resistance, he admits, “It is likely that pest resistance may develop when the seed is used on a large scale. But it is up to scientists to develop a counter-strategy.” Bollgard is the brand name for the Bt cotton seed developed and patented by the multinational seed company Monsanto. The seed giant has a 26 per cent stake in MAHYCO. It faced tremendous opposition when it tried to introduce the seed in India in 1990. Now it is trying to enter the Indian market by tying up with an Indian company. But the Navbharat Seed company beat them to it, in some sense.

“More than 305 seed packets were distributed in Bhavnagar alone. Individual farmers were given one packet each on a trial basis. In Kutch, the seed has been used for the past two years. No one knew they were GM seeds,” says Bhavnagar’s assistant director of agriculture, in charge of quality control, M.B. Dhorajia. When asked why the government was caught napping while the seed was being freely sold all over the state, he says, “We don’t have facilities to test for GM seeds. At the local level, we only test random samples to ensure the seed is not of sub-standard quality. There are 162 seed companies here, each producing more than 15 different varieties. Its impossible for us to keep a check on all of them.”

For cotton farmers already burdened with increasing costs due to pest resistance to insecticides, Bt cotton may offer a quick fix solution. “This year, the crop was so bad that most people may abandon cotton cultivation next year. Costs have doubled in the last five years. At the same time, yields are falling. Even 12 or 15 sprayings of insecticide couldn’t save the crop. Over the years, the prices for our harvest have also fallen. It is no longer profitable to grow cotton. In Andhra Pradesh, indebted farmers have committed suicide. This new seed may be a good alternative for us. We have run out of options,” says Popatbhai Ramjibhai Patel from Sonarda Lath village in Gandhinagar. Currently, pesticides account for half the cotton production costs. Around 70 per cent of India’s pesticide consumption is on cotton.

“Bt is no escape,” warns agriculture policy analyst Devinder Sharma, “it shifts the vicious cycle from pesticides and puts farmers onto another biological treadmill.” He points out that already pests have started developing resistance against Bt gene in China and Australia. “Fourth generation pesticides were greeted with the same welcome when they were introduced in the mid-‘80s. However, in a few years, insect resistance to the pesticide was widespread. In their desperation, many farmers swallowed the lethal pesticides and committed suicide,” says Sharma.

To blame pest resistance alone for farmers’ suicides would be far too simplistic. Farmers’ indebtedness has increased due to economic policies, which have reduced the profitability of agriculture. Liberalisation policies have reduced subsidies, restricted rural credit and have opened the market to imports - direct onslaughts on farmers’ livelihoods. If such policies continue, mere technological fixes may not help.

Even local seed distributors who stand to gain big bucks from the sale of Bt seeds are cautious. “The government should examine the effects of using these seeds and give farmers more information. They should not endanger the 200-odd cotton varieties sold in Gujarat today,” says Arunbhai Patel from Bhavnagar.

While Bt cotton seeds require careful pest management practices, the current infrastructure in place does not provide an adequate base for modernisation of agriculture. Education, technical support, finance and equitable markets are needed, says Dr Geeta Bharathan, a scientist at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. In such a scenario, only a handful of rich farmers are likely to be able to reap the benefits of the new seeds. “MNCs have the patents for GM seeds. Once they gain control of the market, they will increase the prices drastically. Only rich farmers will be able to afford them,” says Dr Agarwal.

A cheaper alternative exists. Although rarely spoken about because it doesn’t generate profits for large companies, organic farming has proven to yield the same results as hybrid seeds without the accompanying input costs. “The CICR bulletin states that organic methods are as effective as inorganic farming for dryland cotton, which constitutes 90 per cent of cotton production,” says Manohar Parchure from the Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association.

While the government is still groping in the dark, stumbling in its efforts to regulate the use of GM seeds, the Navbharat seed scam has opened up a can of worms. It needs more than Bt to deal with them.

Frontline, Nov 24 – Dec 7, 2001 Also available here

Trade: A Free for all?

2007-02-23T19:46:00.000+05:30

While farmers in developed countries, constituting less than three per cent of the population, enjoy huge subsidies, India actually taxes its farmers. With substantive cuts in subsidies for power and fertilizer, and a fall in the selling price of agricultural produce due to dumping by developed countries, farmers face a crisis that needs to be addressed immediately.

DIONNE BUNSHA

He stood defiantly as the truck hurtled straight towards him. And he refused to budge. The truck did not relent either. While participating in the boycott of British cotton imports, Babu Genu was mowed down by a truck carrying foreign cotton. He died instantly.

Babu Genu’s fight is as relevant today as it was 70 years ago when he was killed on December 12, 1930. He died fighting against the colonial government’s free trade policy, which gave British textile imports an unfair advantage over the Indian textile industry and affected the livelihoods of thousands of workers and weavers. In memory of Babu Genu’s fight against imperialism, the Maharashtra Kisan Sabha held state-wide protests on his death anniversary last month to highlight the adverse effects of trade and power sector liberalisation.

At a Kisan Sabha rally in Dindori, Nashik district last month, farmers said that their livelihoods are being destroyed by the new economic policies. Trade liberalisation, cuts in fertiliser subsidies, reduced infrastructure investment and privatisation of the power sector have adversely affected the profitability of agriculture. While costs of inputs like fertilisers and electricity have risen steeply due to cuts in subsidies and privatisation, the prices at which farmers sell their produce have declined due to the glut of imported products in the market.

“Prices have fallen substantially. I used to sell a tonne of sugarcane for Rs 1,000 last year, but this year, the price is only Rs 500. The price of garlic has decreased by around 70 per cent. We are not able to recover the costs. Debts keep accumulating every year,” said Pandit Gangorde, a small farmer from Shendvad village in Nasik.

Pressurised by the US government to “free trade”, the central government agreed to lift quantitative restrictions (QRs) on the import of 1,200-odd items by April 2001, many of which are agricultural products. During his recent visit to the sub-continent, Bill Clinton managed to persuade India to free QRs two years prior to the April 2003 deadline agreed to by OECD countries.

“Foreign countries give their farmers many benefits. They get huge subsidies. But our government has lifted even the most basic protection for her farmers. Imported products are being allowed to enter India at cheap prices. We cannot compete, and will be totally destroyed.,” said Ambalal Sonvane, a farmer from Varkheda village. He added that small farmers have suffered heavy losses due to the government’s liberalisation policies. “We are being hit from all sides. Our costs have risen because the government has reduced fertiliser subsidies and electricity rates have doubled due to privatisation and deals like the Enron project. At the same time, output prices are falling due to imports.”

Agriculture has borne the brunt of liberalisation on many fronts. Cuts in government spending have resulted in reduced public investment in agriculture as well as smaller subsidies. Dismantling of procurement agencies, greater imports and falling world commodity prices have also reduced profitability. The central government’s Report of the Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices for Crops Growth for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 season warns that wholesale price indices have not risen commensurate to the considerable increases in the prices of important farm inputs.

Moreover, imports have also reduced market prices. “If milk from Denmark (where farming is highly subsidised) enters our market at Rs 7 per litre, when the current price is Rs 13 per litre, do we stand a chance?” asked Chintaman Gavit, Kisan Sabha Nashik district president in Maharashtra. “At first, the consumer may benefit. But once our domestic production has been totally wiped out, they will be at the mercy of foreign producers.”

Surprisingly, the government can do something to prevent the dumping of agricultural imports, but has chosen not to. Says S.R.Pillai, national president of the Kisan Sabha, "Even the WTO rules allow the government to impose tariffs of up to 300 per cent. But despite this crisis, the government has only imposed tariffs ranging from 15 to 40 per cent. In addition, it can impose anti-dumping tariffs. But it chooses not to exercise these powers."

India actually taxes its farmers rather than subsidising them, according to an article written by Binu Thomas of ActionAid India. “Each farmer in the developed countries gets on average a subsidy of US$ 29,000 a year. The US domestic support for its farmers was US$25.5 billion in 1996, while for the EU it was US$ 85 billion. In both the US and the EU, farmers constitute less than 3 per cent of the population. In contrast, India’s domestic support to its farmers worked out to a negative US$ 23.7 billion in 1995-96 even after providing for fertiliser, electricity, irrigation and seed subsidies.”

Moreover, trade liberalisation has resulted in bizarre situations where India is exporting wheat at a price cheaper than what most Indians are paying. Wheat from Food Corporation of India godowns can now be exported at the same price at which it is sold to people classified as living ‘below the poverty line’, says economist Madhura Swaminathan. “Millions of undernourished and vulnerable people, who are still classified as being ‘above the poverty line’ have been told to pay a higher price for wheat than the price at which the government is willing to sell the same wheat to foreign countries,” Dr Swaminathan points out.

Concern about the Indian farmer’s survival has sparked quite a few protests of late. Last month, farmers from Punjab held a massive rally outside parliament to protest against the reduction of procurement prices offered to farmers by the Food Corporation of India. The Telegu Desam Party recently stalled proceedings in Parliament, objecting to the central government’s failure to ensure that paddy farmers were getting the minimum support price for their produce. In a recent interview, TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu said that farmers need adequate protection from the adverse effects of free trade and the World Trade Organisation.

The themes underlying farmer’s struggles today ring familiar to those fought by freedom fighters like Babu Genu. From colonialism to globalisation. We’ve come a long way. Or is it full circle?

The Hindu Sunday Magazine, 11 February 2001.

Where's the techno fix for farmers?

2007-02-23T19:30:00.000+05:30

Bitter Harvest 4

DIONNE BUNSHA

YAVATMAL:
Litres of pesticide did not save his crop, but a few gulps of the lethal chemical ended his life.

Vithal Krishnarao Kamble (26) committed suicide in May, unable to pay back the loans he had taken from the local moneylenders. He did not live to see his son, born a few weeks later.

“Even the money he got from selling his mandap decoration business was not enough to settle his debts,” says his father Krishnarao, who doesn’t even know the extent of his son’s borrowings. What he does know is that Vithal bought Rs 34,000 worth of pesticide from the local dealer to rid his 18 acre plot of every cotton farmer’s nightmare – the American bol worm.

Though Vithal sprayed his fields 15 times, even when he knew it was not advisable to spray more than four, his crop was ravaged. The pesticide was ineffective for two reasons. First, unseasonal rains increased humidity, which is favourable for widespread proliferation of the pest. Secondly, cotton monoculture has made the boll worm resistant to pesticides, even in the most concentrated dose. Moreover, pesticides are only effective during the early stages of the boll worm’s growth.

Vithal’s tragedy illustrates the ill-effects of intensive methods of farming and unscientific agricultural practices, which are beginning to rear their ugly heads. “The green revolution made agriculture more commercial. Farmers, who earlier used indigenous inputs, are not dependent on companies for expensive seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Never mind how high the costs or the ecological damage caused,” says Udayan Sharma from the Amravati Kisan Sabha.

Crop failure due to unseasonal rain, hail storms and the pest attack destroyed the harvest in Vidarbha causing 60 farmers to commit suicide. The government has announced compensation of Rs100,000 to 19 victims’ families.

Farmers sunk their money in pesticides that did not work. This points to the failure of the government’s agricultural extension services that are supposed to advise them on prudent farming techniques. The administration started publicizing advice about combating pest attacks only after much of the damage had already been done. With extension officers nowhere in sight, farmers were forced to seek advice from pesticide dealers. The same dealers who provide them credit.

Says owner of the Rathi Krushi Kendra, a farm products shop at Phalegaon in Yavatmal, “The farmers don’t know much. I explain techniques to them.” And how does he keep up with the latest farming practices? “Through the companies, of course, who come here with their pamphlets,” he says.

Aggressive and unregulated marketing by seed and fertilizer companies is pushing technologies that may be inappropriate. “In order to promote our research seeds, we cultivate a plot of land and invite farmers to see the results,” says a company salesman. Most of these seeds do not bear the government’s quality control label.

Many seeds promoted as super hybrid seeds fail to live up to the company’s claims. “I bought 100 grams of a Korean papaya hybrid for Rs 10,000. But it did not yield even half the expected crop,” says Suryapal Chavan, a farmer from Nandgaon in Amravati.

While companies go all out to market their products, the agricultural extension office remains far removed from ground realities. “Extension officials’ knowledge is outdated. In fact, it is the farmers who keep reading about new techniques,” adds Mr Chavan. Extension officials never reach the villages, but complete their quotas by conducting farm training session in each tehsil once a year. Moreover, training is conducted in only one crop after which they move on to the next tehsil to conduct training on another crop. Last year, even this was not conducted. “We shifted all our training sessions to Akola because the chief minister was keen on promoting the Israeli system of drip irrigation there,” says an agricultural officer in Wardha.

While the government is trying to promote drip irrigation, which is far too expensive for the ordinary farmers, it has failed to improve basic irrigation. Less than 10 per cent of Vidarbha is irrigated. Even the few irrigation projects are not efficiently utilized. For example, only 10 per cent of the irrigation potential created in Yavatmal district has been used.

This has resulted in excessive pumping of ground water, lowering the water table considerably, says Yavatmal district collector Rajeev Jalota. Heavy use of urea has also led to a soil imbalance.

Although Maharashtra accounts for nearly 20 per cent of Indian cotton production, its yield per hectare is one of the lowest in the country. In Maharashtra, the percentage of irrigated area under cotton is less than two as compared to Punjab (99 per cent), Rajasthan (94 per cent) or even Andhra Pradesh (12 per cent), according to a study by S. Mahendra Dev of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.

The Times of India, Mumbai, 6 July 1998

Drowning in Debt

2007-02-23T19:05:00.000+05:30

Bitter Harvest 3

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Amravati

Sheikh Bhura Sheikh Ramzan has set up his home under a tree this monsoon. He sold his house to pay his debts. “When it rains heavily, we sleep in the village school,” says Sheikh, a resident of Dhanora Fasi village in Amravati.

Even after selling the roof over his head and a third of his three-acre plot, Sheikh still has an outstanding debt of Rs 10,000 with the local moneylender.

Lakhs of cotton cultivators in the Vidarbha region have been crippled by enormous debts after their crops failed due to unseasonal rain, hail storms and pest attacks.
Sheikh doesn’t know how he will make it through this kharif (monsoon) season. “The banks will throw me out. The moneylenders will not lend me any more money. It’s difficult to get work in the fields because people can’t afford to hire labourers. In any case, no one wants to hire an old man,” he says.

While Sheikh has endured the adversity, others have not. More than 80 suicides have been reported in the state so far, 60 from the Vidarbha region. Hounded by the moneylenders and tormented with anxiety about how to find the funds to prepare their fields for this season, they felt there was no other way out.

Manjurabai Thakur found her husband Hari (60) lying dead in the fields two days after he drank pesticide. “For days, he wouldn’t eat or talk. We don’t even know how much money he borrowed. After his death, moneylenders came here asking for Rs 10,000,” says Manjurabai from Januna village in Nandgaon taluka of Amravati.
Manjurabai was forced to lease out her tiny plot. “I try to find work in the fields to run the house,” she says. “When the school term begins, I will request the schoolmaster to give my grandchildren note books. There is not enough food in the house and we wait for the khichdi that the younger one brings back from his balwadi.”

Repaying debts to moneylenders at interest rates of 60 to 120 per cent has pushed several families like Manjura’s to the brink. At the root of the problem is the weak rural banking system here, which caters only to a small section. Bank credit accounts for a mere Rs 256 crore of Vidarbha’s total credit requirement of Rs 2,456 crore, according to Kishor Tiwari, a local BJP activist.

Banks seems unlikely to increase their credit in the near future since they have recovered only 5 to 13 per cent of crop loans, due to last year’s climatic crisis. The few large farmers who do receive credit say that the amount of money given per hectare does not meet all expenses. It is less than half the amount recommended by the agriculture department and the National Bank for Agriculture and Development (NABARD).

NABARD’s executive director S.B. Sharma admits that nationally, banks cover a mere 20 per cent of the cost of agricultural production. He explains, “Since agriculture is considered an unstable business heavily dependent on the monsoon, commercial banks are reluctant to lend. Moreover, with liberalization, they are cutting costs by restricting the number of small borrowers in order to compete with foreign banks.”

Funds in co-operative banks are corners by the politically powerful. “Politicians are on the bank’s board of directors and have total control over the funds. We can see that the money is not reach the most needy farmers,” admits a senior district co-operative bank official.

Pointing out the “bias against agricultural finance”, Mr Sharma explains that both agriculture and industry contribute an equal 26 per cent to the GDP. Yet, agriculture receives only 12 per cent of gross bank credit while industry gets 54 per cent.

Although an “unstable business”, there is not comprehensive crop insurance scheme to reduce the risks in agriculture. “Of the few who are insured, a small handful have been able to claim compensation for crop damage,” says a district cooperative bank official. Only 11.24 lakh of the 94.69 lakh cultivators in the state are covered by the insurance scheme.

Profitability of farm produce is also shrinking, making the farmer’s tightrope walk for survival even more precarious. “Every year, fertilizer and seed costs increase by 10 to 15 per cent. Produce prices have not increased proportionately. While we produce the crop, traders cartels control prices. Why doesn’t the government stop this exploitation and regulate the market?” asks Pramod Lade, a farmer and Panchayat Samiti member from Wardha.

“Early this year, the market price of tomatoes was fixed at 50 paise per kg and brinjals at Re 1. Normally, these vegetables are sold at Rs 15 to Rs 20. Since it would cost us more to transport our vegetables to the market, we decided to let them rot,” says Suryapal Chavan from Amravati.

4 July 2006, The Times of India, Mumbai

Taking on The Lion of Gujarat

2006-11-22T16:34:00.000+05:30

The wife of slain Member of Parliament Ahsan Jafri files a complaint against Narendra Modi and other top leaders for the pogrom of 2002.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Narendra Modi calls himself the lion of Gujarat. He is best known for the gory communal pogrom of 2002. That was how Gujarat's Chief Minister was widely seen as having got himself elected to office. By manipulating the Godhra tragedy to stir up communal tension and allowing the mobs to wreak havoc. The outcome - more than 1,000 people dead officially, more than 150,000 homeless and a huge majority in the elections that followed later that year.

Although his collusion in the carnage is common knowledge, why has he not been punished for it? Simple. No one dared file a case against him until now.
After more than four years, one of the victims, Zakia Jafri, has taken the bold step of registering a case against Modi and 62 others - for their complicity in the pogrom. Zakia Jafri is the elderly widow of former Member of Parliament Ahsan Jafri who was killed in his home at Gulbarg Society, Ahmedabad. It was one of the most brutal attacks in which around 50 others were killed and several women raped and mauled. Among the others mentioned in the complaint are top Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders (Praveen Togadia, Jaideep Patel and Keka Shastri), 11 Ministers, five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), and senior police officials and bureaucrats. The first information report (FIR) was sent by registered post on July 8 to the Sector 21 (Vidhan Sabha) police station.

Zakia Jafri, wife of late MP Ahsan Jafri who was murdered in the 2002 communal carnage
Zakia Jafri has accused the 63 named in the FIR of aiding and abetting the mass carnage and subverting the Constitution for the past four years. "A mass carnage was orchestrated by the most powerful in the State executive using pressure and connivance of the State administration and law and order machinery," Jafri said in the FIR. "There has been continued and consistent attempts to further this unlawful and unconstitutional worldview and mandate by using state terror and pressure to intimidate victim survivors, marginalise (socially and economically) the community they hail from, destroy and/or manipulate evidence to influence the course of justice." The FIR asks for action under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (criminal conspiracy) and other sections of laws dealing with human rights.

Why has Jafri chosen to file the FIR after so many years? "Over the last few years, many police officials submitted affidavits to the Shah-Nanavati Commission (which is inquiring into the violence) that provide sufficient proof that the violence was planned and the police were ordered deliberately to neglect their duty," says Tanvir Jafri, Zakia's son. "The government should have used these testimonies in court as proof and filed cases. But since it has not, we have decide to take legal action. There is no doubt of police neglect in almost all the attacks. For instance, why didn't they save my father when they knew he was in danger 10 hours before he was murdered?"

"We can't wait for the judicial commission report. These commissions go on endlessly and have become a convenient escape route for governments to avoid taking action," said Jafri. Judicial commissions have only the power to recommend that the government take action. They cannot order any legal action. There were eight commissions appointed to probe the causes of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. The final report was released 20 years later, which recommended action against several Congress leaders, including Kamal Nath, H.K.L. Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. H.K.L. Bhagat is now dead. The others have not been arrested. The Justice Srikrishna Commission report on the Mumbai riots of 1992-93 indicted several Shiv Sena leaders, but no action has been taken against them.

Jafri's FIR points out how the initial terms of reference of the Shah-Nanavati Commission did not include inquiring into the role of the Chief Minister and government officials. It was added in 2004 after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance came to power at the Centre. Yet, several police and government officials have not responded to that aspect in their replies to the Commission. "The State of Gujarat has deliberately constricted the functioning of the Commission by instructing senior police officers not to file second affidavits," the FIR says.

The most damning evidence was against Modi and his government is the affidavits filed by Additional Director-General of Police R.B. Sreekumar, the only officer to testify about government and police connivance in the crimes. Sreekumar testified about how Gujarat's Director-General of Police K. Chakravarty told him of the meeting at the Chief Minister's office on the day of the Godhra incident. There, according to Sreekumar, Modi instructed Gujarat's top police officials to let the mobs vent their anger. Despite warnings that it would create trouble, Modi insisted that the VHP should be allowed to bring the bodies of the Godhra victims to Ahmedabad for a procession through the city's streets.

Sreekumar also alleged that FIRs were not properly recorded, evidence was suppressed and minority community victims were harassed in police stations across the State. He submitted before the Commission a personal register in which he recorded all the illegal instructions given to the police to prove that "the CM and officials were part of a deliberate design to disturb internal security for the obvious objective of gaining political caption and electoral benefit to the CM and the ruling party". He gave evidence of how police officers who prevented violence from taking place were punished and those who allowed it to continue were rewarded. Sreekumar has been harassed for telling the truth. The Gujarat government issued a charge-sheet against him for violating service rules.

Several other police officers' testimonies also provide evidence of deliberate state neglect. The then Superintendent of Police in Bhavnagar, Rahul Sharma, was under pressure for having arrested Sangh Parivar activists involved in the violence. The testimony of K. Mysorewala from Naroda police station is evidence of police neglect in preventing one of the most brutal communal attacks in the country, in which 83 people were massacred and many women raped and assaulted.

Although there is sufficient proof of police neglect, the Gujarat government has not taken action against a single policeman. Only in the Randhikpur mass killing case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested policemen for concealing evidence and conspiring with the accused. "If you see the state of justice in Gujarat, there is no hope for us. All the public prosecutors are VHP supporters and are conspiring to protect the accused. Our only hope is the Supreme Court," said Tanvir Jafri.

There is a big risk to the lives of the Jafri family. They are the only people in Gujarat who have dared to prosecute the most powerful. Anyone who has dared to speak out has been harassed. Why is an elderly woman taking such a great risk? "We know that anything can happen to us any time. The same hostile mindset in Gujarat still exists. But we have no other option. It's better than not doing anything," said Tanvir. "We have already lost. Now we can only gain by trying to get justice," he added.

It takes guts to take on a lion.

Frontline, Jul. 15 - 28, 2006 Also available here

Festival of Fear

2006-11-22T16:21:00.000+05:30

After all the hype and anti-Christian propaganda, the Shabari Kumbh Mela may have been a damp squib, with more outsiders ferried here for a day-out while fearful locals stayed home. But is this the start of a larger hate campaign?

Dionne Bunsha
In Dang, Gujarat

Just outside Jarsol village there's a celebration. Inside, there's an eerie silence. Jiva Powar (name changed) keeps a watch over the crowd of pilgrims outside his house. Paramilitary troops sit next to him. Yet he is uneasy.

In the build-up to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's newly created Shabari Kumbh Mela, Adivasi Christians like Jiva have been threatened. That's why many have fled. "Sangh activists came to people's houses and warned them that during the Kumbh we will make you bathe, purify you and make you Hindu," says Jiva. "One family has left the village till the Kumbh ends. Another farmer has sent his wife and children to her parent's home."

Jiva is also guarding his land on the 'Pampa Sarovar' (a small pond which the Sangh claims is the place where Shabari’s guru sat), where pilgrims bathe. The Shabari Kumbh trust has forcibly taken it over and put up stalls and shelters there. "They are trying to take away all our rights. Without asking, they've set up all this on my land. Initially, they wanted to build a garden, but I argued with the officials who came to survey the land. Soon the trust will start claiming that the land is theirs and the government will let them take it," he says.

Jiva isn't the only person whose land has been taken. In Mukkamal village, Manad Powar (name changed) sold one acre of his 3.5 acre farm land to the Shabari trust, but they grabbed the entire plot to build the Shabari temple (see: Creating A Kumbh, Frontline, 10 Feb 2006).

The Shabari Kumbh Mela wasn't just an innocuous religious festival. It's been organised to create a new religious tourism site and to intimidate Christians.

The new Shabari Dham temple built on Manad Powar's land.
Traditionally, there are four Kumbh melas. But the VHP started a fifth one in Subir and Jarsol villages in Dang, based purely on the wish of the famous sant Morari Bapu. He came here in 2002 and said that a Kumbh should be organised because this was the place where the adivasi Shabari fed Lord Ram berries while he was in the forest looking for Sita. The Sangh's use of Shabari, an adivasi, makes it easier for tribals to identify with Brahmanical Hinduism. The traditional Adivasi religion is based on nature worship. The VHP hopes the Kumbh will lead to a "Hindu awakening" and "re-convert" Christian adivasis. "Even one of the five Dang Rajas who had become Christian has returned to Hinduism," boasted a Sangh activist.

The Shabari Kumbh website is has strong anti-Christian propaganda: "For long, Bharat has been a special target of the Christian Church worldwide. To the Church, the Hindus represent the greatest stumbling block in their grand design to establish Christ’s kingdom on earth. The poor, illiterate, mild Vanvasi Hindu is an obvious target in this nefarious scheme. For years, under the garb of social service, the Church has been spreading its tentacles in far-flung, tribal regions of our country. These converted Vanvasis become alienated from their customs and traditions. They get uprooted from their cultural milieu. Conversion to Christianity is invariably associated with separatism and terrorism as is evident in North-East Bharat...The process of self-alienation and separatism, which inevitably accompanies conversion, had become visible in Dang. Makeshift, illegal churches had mushroomed in cowsheds and residential areas. These churches were unregistered and illegal. Such was the terrorism of Christian activists that it had become unsafe for Hindus to move out of their houses after dusk."

The ground reality is very different from the picture painted by the Shabari Kumbh website. There aren't any involuntary conversions. Rather, Adivasi Christians are scared to move freely in the atmosphere created during the Kumbh.

On the last day of the mela, there were reports that a mob destroyed tombs a Christian cemetery in Ghumadia village. A complaint was filed with the police and the collector. But when contacted by Frontline, R.M. Jadhav, the district collector denied any knowledge of the incident and dismissed it as a rumour.

Here, the district administration seems to be working for the Shabari Trust. Journalists at the festival were surprised to see top district officials including the collector and secretary in charge of the district holding a press conference under the banner of the Kumbh mela and hosted by the Shabari trust. In this deprived area, any development work was unheard of. Suddenly, in a matter of a few months, 22 check dams and roads were constructed at break neck speed before the Kumbh. Government funds for development of tribal areas are being used to provide infrastructure for the mela.

Around six lakh pilgrims were expected to visit this forest district that has a total population of less than two lakh. The environmental damage caused prompted the Central ministry of environment and forest to conduct an investigation. A public interest case has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) against the illegal non-forest activity inside a protected forest. Another petition against the Shabari Kumbh video CD has also been filed in the SC. The CD contains communally inflammatory remarks against Christians. (See: Creating A Kumbh, Frontline, 10 Feb 2006).

Most pilgrims were from outside Dang district - from Surat, Ahmedabad, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra. They came by the busload, mobilised by the Sangh. "We have come for the ride," said Tarachand Patidar, a farmer from Ujjain, M.P. and RSS activist. "The Sangh has organised this because people here have changed their religion. Those who switch their religion become enemies of the nation." Locals were a bit apprehensive to speak. Most said that they were happy that so many people were visiting their village. "But we haven't got any work during this mela. People from outside have been brought here to work," said an adivasi from Subir.
A sadhu with a pilgrim.Photo: Ashima Narain
During their speeches, leaders continued their tirade the Christians. Morari Bapu quoted from the Bible and said that Christ was against conversions. "Today, plane-loads from the Vatican can come here and convert people, but if we organise a ghar vaapsi (return home ceremony), it is bad? This programme is about peace and tolerance, which is part of Hinduism. No one shall be scared of this," he said.

Chief minister Narendra Modi warned, "Mahatma Gandhi fought conversions. Our Constitution disapproves of them, and yet some people turn a blind eye. Let me warn everyone, it is my constitutional duty to prevent conversions."' Explaining his vision to make the Shabari Kumbh a tourist destination, the chief minister said, "I see Shabari Kumbh as a Vikas Yatra (path to development). Every Indian should have a desire to visit this place during their lifetime. If that happens, poverty will be removed. And the local culture will flourish."

But locals are not buying into his dream. They don't want to meet the same fate as the refugees from Saputara, a village 65 km away that was converted into a hill station. "The government forced 40 families to leave. They jailed us and forced us to surrender our land documents as bail. They cheated and settled us in a village near the Maharashtra border," says Pandubhai Choudhari, a journalist and shop keeper from Saputara. "We were promised farm land but never given any. These 40 families were settled on 10 acres of land. Our village stretched across 300 acres. Today, people are still roaming as casual labourers searching for work or washing dishes in hotels there."

Adivasis in the villages surrounding the site of the Kumbh mela know that the end of the festival doesn't mean they can breathe easy. "The organisers have paid villagers Rs 300 and taken their thumb impressions on a blank piece of paper. Who knows what they will do with that paper? The government will let them do anything," said Jiva. "Will they take away our land like they did in Saputara?”

The Shabari Kumbh Mela is just the start of the Sangh’s work in Dang. Hill stations, intimidation…Locals fear there’s much more to follow.

Frontline, Feb. 25 - Mar. 10, 2006 Also available here

Hindus awake, Christians run

2006-11-22T15:57:00.000+05:30

Traditionally, India has four Kumbh Melas. The Sangh has just created a fifth in Dangs with the sole aim of scaring off Christian missionaries in the region.

Dionne Bunsha
In Dang

How Lord Ram destroyed demonic forces like Ravan
Today, demonic forces are trying to destroy Hinduism (picture of a church with a cross)
To confront them and to create religious awakening
The Shabari Kumbh Mela calls out to everyone.
…It will try to get all parts of society to unite with Hindu religion
And will stop conversions.
-- From a promotional video for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Shabari Kumbh Mela in Dang, Gujarat.

Sounds like a call for religious war? It may well be. A targeted communal attack disguised as a holy festival.

For the first time in history, the VHP has created a fifth Shabari Kumbh Mela in Dang district. The festival is being used to build tension and intimidate Christian Adivasis in this isolated forest region in south Gujarat.

For several years, the local VHP leader Swami Aseemanand has led a vicious campaign against Christians here. In 1998, there were 38 attacks on Christians in a span of three weeks. Since then, the Sangh has worked to create hostility towards them. The Shabari Kumbh Mela is one more step in that direction . The propaganda on their website and in their promotional video clearly states that the event is meant to fight the influence of Christianity in this area, and ‘awaken’ Hinduism amongst tribals. “Hindu jaage, Christi bhaage (Hindus awake, Christians run)” is the slogan used here. And the strategies of oppression are very systematically planned.

In 2002, they invited the sant Morari Bapu for a Ram Katha. In his speech, Morari Bapu said that there should be a Kumbh mela here at the place where Lord Ram met Shabari. The Sangh has been propagating the myth that Lord Ram met his adivasi follower Shabari here, and ate the wild berries that she tasted. However, there is no historical evidence, nor is there any religious precedent of a Kumbh mela here. For centuries, there have been only four Kumbh Melas. Suddenly, a fifth one has been started based solely on Morari Bapu’s declaration. And with a clear intent to intimidate.

From 11th to 13th February, the Sangh plans to get more than five lakh pilgrims for this event. The total population of Dang district is just a little over two lakh, almost entirely adivasi. So, the entire district will be swamped with the Sangh’s supporters. The event is being marketed in cities of neighbouring states as a new religious tourism destination.
The Pampa Sarovar lake built for the Shabari Kumbh Mela. Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Jarsol Dahad, a small pond in Subir village has been re-named ‘Pampa Sarovar’, the place where Ram met Shabari. A place that has seen no development for decades is suddenly awash with funds. The government has built 12 check dams to make sure there is enough water in the ‘Pampa Sarovar’ for pilgrims to bathe. Village roads are being tarred. Piped drinking water and electricity is being brought to places where there has been none so far. Tents, water tanks and toilets are being put up in farmlands, paying villagers a mere Rs 300. If people are not willing to rent out their land, local officials intervene on behalf of the Shabari organizers. Forty temporary townships, to accommodate 5000 people each, are being constructed.

Surrounding villages have been swamped with Sangh activists preparing for the mela. In Subir, they distribute free meals, grains and clothes to villagers. Activists are visiting villages to mobilise supporters. They are intimidating Adivasi Christians and taking photographs of their homes and of Christian institutions like schools or dispensaries. On the local Akashvani is broadcasting Morari Bapu’s speech every evening. Audio-visual vans tour the villages, screening the promotional video and the Ramayana TV serial. In villages, the atmosphere is tense. People refuse to speak about the mela. Rumours are rife that Christians will be attacked. All signs of planned disaster repeated before most communal attacks.

“Swami Aseemanand’s supporters come here and tell us that everyone should be Hindu. There shouldn’t be a single Christian in this village,” says Sonu Powar (name changed), an Adivasi Christian farmer in Jarsol village. “There are rumours that there will be a riot. People will come from outside and the police will not stop them.”

Threats began many months earlier. Shimbuben Powar (name changed) was filling water when Sangh activists came to her home a few months back. “My little son was home. They entered my house and tore the picture of Jesus. I rushed back. They told me, ‘If you don’t follow Ram, you will be finished in the Kumbh Mela. Even the police won’t save you.’ They took photographs of me and of our house,” she says. When Shimbuben reported it to the police, they took down the names, but did not lodge a complaint. Earlier this month, some women came back to her home and told her to leave Jesus and follow Ram.
Amidst bamboo poles put up in a farm for tents, a Bhil tablet depiciting symbols of nature. The Sangh Parivar simply assumes that all tribal people are Hindus.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
The newly constructed Pampa Sarovar and Shabari Dham temple are both built on land grabbed from Adivasis, villagers allege. The Shabari trust has snatched Sonu’s land near the ‘Pampa Sarovar’. The government has done nothing to stop them. Instead, villagers allege that it is assisting the land grab. “Government officials came and surveyed my land. They said they wanted to find out how much was mine and how much was protected forest land. I told them that I have the title deed as proof,” says Sonu Powar. But they didn’t listen to him. They have let the land be used as a tourist spot. “The swami’s supporters fought with me and told me to give the land to the swami. They even filed a police case against me for fighting with a shopkeeper.” If the land is protected forest, then why is the government turning it into a tourist playground?

Manad Powar had 3.5 hectares of land on a hill known as Chamak Dongar (shining mountain). When the Shabari trust wanted to build a temple there, they asked Manad to sell one hectare for Rs 40,000. But they captured all his 3.5 hectares of land. “I still have title to the land. But now, if I go there, the security guards threaten me. I am alone here, my sons work in the cities. I can’t fight them. They even cut 100 trees which I had planted to make a road to the temple,” says Manad. “They made my cousin a member of the Shabari trust, and claim the land is in his name.” Manad is now planning to fight his case in court.
The new Shabari Dham temple built on Manad Powar's land.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
“We have taken people’s consent for using their land. Anyways, the land is not being used after the monsoon crop,” said Suresh Kulkarni, secretary of the Shabari Kumbh Samaroh Ayojan Samiti. He said the main aim of the Kumbh was to awaken Hinduism. He said he had not seen the Shabari Kumbh website which spews venom against Christians. When asked if any historical proof existed that Ram came to this exact location, he said, “We know because Morari Bapu said this is the spot. And the Ramayan is proof enough. We are organizing it on 11th February because that is Mag Panchimi, the time when Ram and Shabari met. Also, the adivasis celebrate Basant Panchmi at this time.”

Local MLA Madhu Bhoye has been petitioning the collector and other officials to prevent any communal trouble and forest destruction that the Kumbh has wrought. “Innocent Adivasi people are being misguided by so-called religious organizations by propagating the imaginary mythological story of the Pampa Sarovar. There is no mention of the Pampa Sarovar in the history of Dangs,” he said. Explaining the environmental effects, Bhoye said, “In the last few months, illegal timber felling in the forest has also increased because outsiders have come here to prepare for the Kumbh. Everyday, around Rs 10-15 lakh worth of timber is being stolen from the forest.”

But the government’s only response to the upheaval in the district has been to expedite all work connected with the Kumbh. District collector R. N. Jadhav estimates that development works worth Rs 3 to 4 crores has been spent on the building of the check dams, roads and pipelines. “We would have done it anyways even if the Kumbh was not there,” he says. Jadhav assures that there will be no trouble during the mela. When asked why no action has been taken even though the Kumbh’s promotional video spews anti-Christian propaganda, he says, “I have not received any complaint, so why should I take any action?” Meanwhile, human rights groups have filed a case in the Supreme court asking that minorities should be protected considering the hate propaganda that is being spread.

The Sangh’s promotional video warns that the rate of increase of the Christian population in Dang has grown four fold. It points out that Christians constitute only 0.44% of Gujarat’s population, but are 5.43% in Dang. “History has shown us that places where the Hindu majority has weakened have become hotbeds of terrorism and anti-national activities,” the video says. The Sangh is generating fear to gain political and economic control of this rich forest area. Even today, money and muscle power are being used to gain support in villages. Bonds between communities are being torn.

Contrary to the Sangh’s myth, adivasis are not being forcibly converted. Most turn to the church for health reasons. “My father and me kept falling ill. There was some bad influence on us. We went to the local bhagats who made us spend money on killing one goat every month. Yet, it didn’t work. So my uncle took me to a local Christian priest and I felt some peace. We got better without paying anything,” says Ramesh (name changed). While the Sangh wants to ‘re-convert’ Christians, they were never Hindus to begin with. Adivasis have their own festivals and rituals in which they worship nature. Their religious practices are very different from the Brahmanical brand of Hinduism that the Sangh wants them to follow.

But regardless of facts, the myths continue to be propagated. The show will go on. The swamis and Sanghis are all set to take Dang by storm next month. It may not be as innocuous as just a dip in the pond.

Frontline, Jan. 28 - Feb. 10, 2006 Also available here

Digging up the Dead

2006-11-19T12:50:00.000+05:30

Looking for a dead relative? Get your shovel. Uncover a mass grave. You may expose the cops’ cover-up —but you will be arrested.

DIONNE BUNSHA
In Lunawada and Ahmedabad

Ameena’s on the run again. During Gujarat’s communal violence in March 2002, she had to escape when her village, Pandharvada, was attacked. Today, she’s running from the law. The police have filed a case against her and several refugees because they dug up a mass grave in Lunawada with the remains of their relatives.
Ameena - arrested for trying to find her dead relatives bodyPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
For years, Pandharvada’s refugees have been asking the police to help them find the bodies of 20 people killed in the massacre, who were reported as ‘missing’. But all their pleas had no effect. The police made no effort to help them find the last remains of their loved ones. So, they started doing their own detective work.

It started with Rs 50 of country liquor. And ended up being one of the Gujarat government’s biggest embarrassments. Ghulam Kharadi got the tip-off from a drunk municipal sweeper who had been hired to bury the bodies. While chatting with him late one night, he said he could take them to the exact spot where their relatives were buried. He led them to the site and they started digging immediately to check. Skeletons started emerging, along with clothes they could recognize.

Immediately they called others who had lost their relatives. Then, they called Sahara news. Broadcast across national TV, the police’s cover up job was exposed. Ameena Rasool and other refugees rushed to the High Court asking it to hand over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI). The court passed an interim order directing the CBI to conduct DNA tests in a lab in Hyderabad. The victims did not trust the Gujarat police or the Gandhinagar lab to carry out the tests.

The mass grave in Lunawada is just one of the many instances of police negligence that are continually being brought to light as cases are heard in court or investigated by outside agencies like the CBI. Not only did the police fail to protect many of those killed in the communal pogrom, but later it refused to record witnesses’ statement, buried evidence and shielded the accused. In several cases, including the Pandharvada case, the culprits have been acquitted because of the haphazard manner in which the police dealt with the investigations.
Police guarding the site of the mass graves in Lunawada after refugees dug them up in search of the bodies of their dead relativesPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Pandharvada’s refugees still live in Lunawada. They haven’t been able to return to their village because they are still threatened by those who attacked them. The police provide no protection. Most witnesses have lost all faith in the police.

That’s why they turned to the media. “When we found the bones and the clothes, we called activists from the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and Sahara news. Teesta Setalvad from the CJP called the police superintendent and asked him to seal the site,” says Kharadi, who was the first to find the burial site. Why didn’t they call the police? “What’s the point? So often, we’ve asked them for help to find the bodies, but they ignored us.”

This time too, the Gujarat police lived up to their name. Instead of helping the victims, they harassed them. Ghulam was illegally detained overnight at the Lunawada circuit house. His friend was kept at Lunawada police station. When Ghulam went to Ahmedabad to petition the court for a CBI investigation, the local police came looking for him and harassed his wife. Several refugees in Lunawada wanted to get away from the town, terrified that the police would get after them. Their fears were not unfounded. The police filed a case against 11 refugees plus four others for hurting religious feelings, trespassing on government property and some other offences. That’s the most prompt action the police has taken in this case.

Yet, the Gujarat police dismissed the unearthing of the mass grave as an unnecessary publicity campaign. “It was not found. It was always there,” says A.K. Bhargav, Gujarat’s Director-General of Police. “Post-mortems of 34 bodies were conducted in Lunawada hospital. Of these, relatives took six bodies on 3rd March 2002. We exhumed eight bodies in October 2002 when people asked for them. That leaves 20 bodies unclaimed. These people never asked us for the bodies. We would have helped them too.”

“Everything is legal and on record. We haven’t received any application for the dead bodies,” said Dinesh Brahmbhatt, district collector and magistrate of Panchmahal. Yet, he was not able to provide any documentation of the bodies exhumed. Nor was he able to explain why clothes were found with the skeletons. If post-mortems are conducted, the clothes are to be removed and kept by the police, and a white shroud is supposed to be placed over the body. “This shows that the post-mortem may not have been done properly,” says Setalvad. Moreover, victims claim that the police FIR does not account for the 20 bodies that were missing. But neither they nor their lawyer could state how many people were registered as dead in the two FIRs filed in the Pandharvada case.
Police interrogating Sabira Kharadi, whose husband Jabir was killed in Pandharvada.
Photo: Dionne Bunsha
The district court acquitted eight accused in the Pandharvada case, and said that there were lapses in the investigation. “The case fell through because the police didn’t take down our statements properly. We named 56 people as accused, of whom they brought only eight to court,” say Pandharwada’s witnesses. “They didn’t bring the real culprits, but put up bogus people including a one-handed man, as the accused. Obviously, no one could identify them. Moreover, only six of the 56 witnesses were examined. And many of them were scared to speak since the real criminals are roaming freely in the village. We can’t even go back home because they can still threaten us. Only if the CBI investigates, the truth will come out.”

It’s not only the Pandharvada case, but in several others too, the police have tried to bury and conceal evidence. In Kalol, the CBI arrested six policemen and two doctors who deliberately destroyed evidence relating to the Randhikpur massacre and conspired to shield the accused. They conducted a post-mortem at the site of the burial and added 60 kg of salt so that the bodies would disintegrate quickly. Earlier, bodies from the Kidiad killings were found in the Panam dam, close to where this mass grave was recently found. Investigations have been so shoddy that the police closed 2120 of the 4252 communal violence cases as ‘true but undetected’. The police had closed the cases citing lack of evidence as the reason. But eye-witnesses insist that the police had not taken down their statements properly. The Supreme court has ordered a special inquiry into these cases and re-opening those where evidence is available.

“All I want is my husband’s body. What answer can I give them when they ask for their father? At least I should be able to show them a gravestone,” said Sabira Kharadi, whose husband Jabir was killed in Pandharvada. “We haven’t celebrated any festival for four years. It’s still too dangerous for us to go back to our village. We are barely surviving here. But this is all we are asking for.”

There are many like Ameena and Sabira in Gujarat who are still waiting for the police’s cover-ups to be unearthed.

Frontline, Jan. 14 - 27, 2006 Also available here

Still A Burning Question

2006-11-19T12:45:00.000+05:30

Rejecting the police’s conspiracy theory, the Justice Banerjee Committee has called the Godhra tragedy “an accident”. But will it absolve an entire community that has been branded as terrorists?

DIONNE BUNSHA

On 27th February 2002, Ishaq Mohammed Mamdu (30) was at his home in Godhra when he heard about the fire that burned a compartment of the Sabarmati Express when it stopped at Godhra station early that morning. Ishaq is blind and stayed at indoors when curfew orders were passed. Normally, he helped his brother Shabbir in his scrap business. Two months later, the police barged into his house and arrested him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) for being part of the conspiracy to burn the train. Ishaq’s bail applications have been rejected. The tension of his confinement killed his mother. He is still in jail.

Not only Ishaq, but the entire Muslim community was blamed for the Godhra tragedy. The Sangh Parivar used it to launch a pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat, during which more than 1,000 people were killed and 150,000 were made homeless.

Almost three years after the Godhra blaze, the Justice Banerjee high level committee, appointed by the Union cabinet to look into the reason for the fire, has said that there is no proof of the ‘terrorist conspiracy’ that Ishaq was supposedly part of. The train caught fire accidentally. It is the first government response that contradicts the findings of the police investigation.

What does this mean for the 104 accused of being terrorists? For now, nothing more than a moral vindication. The Banerjee committee has no legal powers, it has merely submitted the findings of its interim report to the railway ministry. The committee was formed after the new United Progressive alliance government came to power and railway minister Lalu Yadav initiated the inquiry. It is up to the Union government how it chooses to act on the committee’s conclusions. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Gujarat police still stands by its conspiracy theory and the matter is being heard in the POTA court.

Soon after Justice Banerjee released his report, the SIT called a press conference to reiterate its findings. “We have evidence that a core group of around 15 to 20 people were involved in the conspiracy,” said Rakesh Asthana, who heads the SIT. He maintains that the plan to torch the train was masterminded during meetings at Aman Guest House, owned by Razak Kurkur, who allegedly heads a local criminal gang involved in railway crimes. The police say that 140 litres of petrol were also stored in the guest house.
Justice U.C. Banerjee inspecting the burnt coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in September 2004.
The actual operation was conducted by six people who cut open the vestibule and entered, opened the closed doors of the compartment, poured 120 litres of petrol (each supposedly carried a 20 litre jerry can) and jumped out, according to the SIT investigation. Then, burning rags were thrown in through the windows in the middle of the compartment. The SIT’s main evidence is a court confession by Zabir Bin Yameen Behra, one of those who allegedly entered the S6 compartment, in which he revealed details of how the plan was hatched. Later, he went back on the testimony, saying the police forced him to depose before the court.

The Banerjee committee has rejected the SIT’s conspiracy theory. It rules out the possibility of any inflammable liquid being responsible for the fire, as there was first a smell of burning and then a smoke and flames, which would not be the case if inflammable fluid were used. “The inflammable liquid theory gets negated by the statement of some of the passengers who suffered injuries on the upper portion of the body and not the lower body and who crawled towards the door on elbows and could get out without much injury,” says the Banerjee report. “The committee has found it unbelievable that Kar Sevaks (to the extent of 90% of the total occupants) armed with trishuls would allow themselves to be burned by miscreant activity like a person entering S6 coach from outside and setting it on fire.”

The ‘miscreant theory’ was also dismissed by the commission. It ruled out the possibility that the fire could have ignited after a fight erupted between the Kar Sevaks and hawkers at Godhra station, and the local hawkers gathered a mob which threw stones and burning rags at the Kar Sevaks inside S6. “The committee has noted the forensic laboratory’s experiment and verified its conclusion that it was impossible to set fire to the train from outside,” Banerjee concluded.

Eliminating the ‘petrol theory’, the ‘miscreant ’ theory and the possibility of an electrical fire, the committee concluded that the case of the burning was an “accidental fire”. But, it gave no reasons why it could have been an “accidental fire”. Moreover, it totally ignores the fact that a fight did flare up at the station platform. And it continued when the train stopped twice a few minutes after it pulled out of Godhra station, a huge mob had gathered which hurled stones and burning rags at the compartment. The committee believes that a fire happened ‘accidentally’ just when a brawl occurred at the same location. There is no mention in the committee’s report of the fracas that broke out just outside the burnt bogey.

The committee report also highlighted the failings of the railway administration. It has severely criticized the entire hierarchy of Western Railway for pre-judging the cause by describing the fire as ‘miscreant activity’ without even conducting a preliminary inquiry. Even later, no statutory inquiry into the fire was carried out. Neither the railway minister nor any members of the Board visited the site of the accident or the injured passengers. Moreover, the railway administration did not try to preserve the evidence. The S7 coach, despite some damage to it, was allowed to travel onward to Ahmedabad, even though it was a crucial piece of evidence.

The ‘truth’ about the Godhra fire seems to change when governments change. Railway minister Lalu Yadav is using the committee as a game of one-upmanship with the BJP and Sangh Parivar. These saffron groups had immediately labeled the Godhra tragedy as a conspiracy by Islamic terrorist and used it to build up pre-election Hindutva fervour and carry out revenge killings across Gujarat. On the day of the incident, the VHP had made a public statement demanding, “Blood for Blood”.

But somewhere, the new Congress(I) led alliance government seems to have missed the point. Why should it be desperately trying to prove Godhra was an accident? Even if it was a terrorist conspiracy, does it justify the state-sponsored violence that followed?

The sequence of events:

7.42 a.m.: The Sabarmati Express arrived at Godhra station. Some Kar Sevaks got down to buy tea and snacks from the platform vendors. An argument ensued between a Muslim vendor and the Kar Sevaks over payment for the tea.
7.47 a.m.: The train departed from Godhra. While getting on to the train, Kar Sevaks tried to pull into the compartment a girl standing on the platform with her mother. But she managed to pull away from them.
7.48 a.m.: The chain was pulled, as many Kar Sevaks were still left on the platform. Stone throwing started between the Kar Sevaks and local Muslims gathered behind the Parcel Office.
8.00 a.m.: The train started.
8.05 a.m.: The train stopped again, when the vacuum brakes were applied. Local Muslims, armed with weapons, rushed to catch up with the train. They crowd in separate groups outside the compartment. They started pelting stones and shouting slogans. Coach S6 caught fire.
8.25 a.m.: Police arrived at the scene and fired to disperse Muslim mob.

Frontline, Jan 29 - Feb 11, 2005 Also available here

Zahira’s third somersault

2006-11-18T21:23:00.000+05:30

For the second time Zahira Sheikh, prime witness of the Best Bakery case, has turned hostile. And this, after appealing for a retrial. What is going on here?

DIONNE BUNSHA

BEYOND a point, it is immaterial how much eye-witness Zahira Sheikh's family was allegedly paid to keep silent during the re-trial of the Best Bakery case. The moot question is: how will their silence affect the outcome of the case? Now that five of the Sheikh family witnesses have turned hostile, will it be easier for the accused to get away?
Zahira Sheikh comes out of the Special Court after deposing for the third day in Mumbai on December 23.
On the night of March 1, 2002, a mob attacked the Best Bakery building owned by the Sheikh family in Hanuman Tekdi, Vadodara. The assailants were armed with stones, swords, torches and sticks. The attack was part of the anti-Muslim pogrom that swept Gujarat after a mob allegedly set fire to a compartment of the Sabarmati Express carrying Hindu pilgrims at Godhra station, killing 59.

The mob outside the Best Bakery first burned an adjacent warehouse and then set fire to the bakery on the ground floor of the building. The Sheikh family, which owned the bakery, lived on the floor above, and on top of their home was a terrace. When the fire started, all the inhabitants of the building ran to the terrace - bakery workers, the Sheikh family members and their neighbours. The attack ended only the next morning when the police came to rescue the survivors.

Zahira Sheikh lodged the first information report in which she and her family members identified people from their locality in the mob. She lost her uncle and sister in the tragedy. Four children in her neighbour's home also died in the fire.
Until a month before the trial, Zahira was one of the most strident fighters for justice. When she and her family went back on their police statement in the Vadodara court in May 2003, saying they saw nothing, it stirred a huge controversy. Soon after, the Vadodara Sessions court acquitted the 21 accused. Then, Zahira and her mother Sehrunissa came out of hiding saying that they had lied in court because they were threatened by Bharatiya Janata Party Member of the Legislative Assembly Madhu Shrivastav and his cousin Bhattoo Shrivastav, a municipal corporator belonging to the Congress.

The social activist Teesta Setalvad brought Zahira's family to Mumbai and offered them help and protection in their quest for justice. They approached the National Commission for Human Rights, which appealed to the Supreme Court for a retrial of the case outside Gujarat. In an unprecedented move, the court ordered a retrial in Mumbai, which is now under way in the Mazgaon court. However, in the retrial too, the Sheikh family recanted on their statements in the Supreme Court. They said that it was too dark for them to see what happened.

While allegations of pay-offs are flying thick and fast, the crux of the issue is not the compromise deal but whether there will be any justice for the victims of the Best Bakery attack. Besides the five Sheikh family members (Zahira, Sehrunissa, Zahira's older brother Nafitullah, her younger brother Nasibullah and her sister Sahira) who were eyewitnesses, there were also five other eyewitnesses - her sister-in-law Yasmin and bakery workers - who have identified several of the accused during the trial. All of the 21 accused have been identified by one or more than one of the witnesses. However, the fact that five of the main witnesses turned hostile is bound to weaken the evidence against the accused.

There are several glaring discrepancies between the statements given by the Sheikh family and that of other witnesses. The Sheikh family members said it was too dark to see anything. However, the other witnesses were able to identify most of the accused. The next morning, the other witnesses say, the mob allowed them and the Sheikh family to come down a narrow ladder and then tied the limbs of the men (including Nafitullah and Nasibullah), poured kerosene on them and set them on fire, and threatened to rape the women. However, Zahira, her sister and her mother say they were too shocked to remember anything, while her two brothers claim they were unconscious that night itself and do not know how they landed up in hospital. In the Mumbai court, Sahira even denied that her uncle Kauserali, who died during the attack, was present during the incident.
Zahira's brothers Nafitullah (left) and Nasibullah (right), prime eyewitnesses in the Best Bakery Case, arriving at the Mazgaon Sessions Court.
Nafitullah fell out with his wife Yasmin and married another woman. The family denies that Yasmin was present at Best Bakery at the time of the incident. Yasmin, however, had given her eyewitness testimony to the police a few months after the incident and also identified the accused in court. The police have also videotaped evidence from the scene of the crime, which proves that both Yasmin and Zahira's grandmother were there. So far, the grandmother, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, has not been called to testify.

Questions about the payoffs to the Sheikh family remain. Who is funding these alleged deals? Is it the families of the neighbourhood goons who are accused in the case or are there powerful people behind it? What are their motives? Who are the lawyers who brought Zahira back to Vadodara to file a case against Teesta Setalvad? Who are they linked to? Atul Mistry, the lawyer now representing Zahira, is a junior of Rajendra Trivedi, who defended the Best Bakery accused in the Vadodara Sessions court. Jal Unwala, another lawyer who supported her at a recent press conference in Vadodara, is a junior of Gujarat High Court lawyer K.J. Sethna, whose elder brother, Justice B.J. Sethna, upheld the acquittal of the Best Bakery accused by the Sessions Court.

"The Best Bakery case is not the only one in which witnesses are asked to compromise. It tends to happen not only in most riot cases, but in most legal matters," said an Ahmedabad-based lawyer. "It's only because the Best Bakery case gets so much attention that suddenly this has become an issue. Our legal system is so slow and expensive that victims prefer to get on with their lives than bother with court cases."

Behind the Sheikh family's constant shifts between fact and fiction seems to be not only money but also a tussle between their quest for justice and the risk to their own lives if they spoke against those who have the upper hand. They have to keep quiet if they want to return home. And yes, money is needed to rebuild a life that has been burned to cinders.

The grand irony would be if, in this tangled mess of contradictions, the accused are freed, and the Sheikhs are jailed for perjury.

Frontline, Jan. 1 - 14, 2005 Also available here

Let the worms out

2006-11-18T21:20:00.000+05:30

The Supreme Court directive to review more than 2,000 "true but undetected" cases in Gujarat is bound to expose police complicity.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Bilkis Yakub Rasul’s case was closed. The police said it was ‘true but undetected’. It was labelled what is called ‘A Summary’ in legal language, and shoved aside.

Fourteen of Bilkis’ family had been murdered. They were all escaping from an attack on their village Randhikpur in Dahod. After two days on the run, a jeep full of village leaders caught hold of them on a country road. They gang raped the women, killed them and their children. Bilkis was also assaulted. They killed her two-year-old daughter. For a while, she was unconscious. They mistook her for dead. That’s how she became the lone survivor.

Although Bilkis named the perpetrators in her police statement, the police said there was not enough evidence against them. They called Bilkis “unstable”. The investigators said she had given differing statements at different times. But they did not even have an identification parade so that she could recognise her attackers. The case was closed - “true but undetected”.

Supported by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Bilkis approached the Supreme court. It ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case. That’s when the truth came tumbling out. The CBI found that six policemen and two doctors deliberately destroyed evidence and conspired to shield the accused. They were all arrested. Now, her case has been transferred out of Gujarat to ensure a fair trial.

There are more than 2,000 such cases closed by the Gujarat police (see table). That’s around half of the 4,252 cases filed during the communal violence of 2002. (Frontline, Blocking of Justice, March 15 - 28, 2003). Recently, the Supreme court ordered that the Gujarat police should review such cases. It has asked the state government to set up a Grievance Committee with experienced police officers to look into these and other cases that the police botched up. A Special Investigation Team will work in tandem with the Committee.

Acting on an application made before the court by Harish Salve, the Amicus Curiae (Friend of the court) appointed to help the court in the petitions relating to the Gujarat violence, the SC has felt that steps need to be taken to ensure that riot victims feel that justice is being done. Salve pointed out that all petitions before the SC pointed to the failure of the investigative machinery in carrying out a proper investigation and the pathetic conduct of trials that have resulted in the large scale granting of bails and acquittals.

Call it the Gujarat police’s ‘Accused Protection Programme’. Jaggubhai is one of those covered by it. Everyday he sells vegetables to police constable Patil. Jaggubhai is accused of burning to death 13 people who were escaping in a tempo from the attack on their basti in Delol village. Though Jaggubhai meets constable Patil everyday, police records say he is ‘absconding’. And it’s business as usual.

Sultana saw Jaggubhai and his friends burn her husband to death inside the tempo. For her, it’s not business as usual. She is in hiding in Kalol town. She hasn’t been able to return to her home. Witnesses have no protection, but the accused are immune.

The Grievance Committee will also look into such cases where accused are listed as ‘absconding’ although they are roaming free. “If they are declared absconders, the law allows the police to attach their property. But it chooses not to,” says Mihir Desai, human rights lawyer, pointing out the police tendency to shield the accused.

In Gujarat, several first information reports (FIRs), in which eyewitnesses identified politicians leading the mob, have mysteriously disappeared from police records. Nanubhai Maleikh, a witness in the Naroda Gaam case in Ahmedabad, was actually imprisoned for four months. In his police statement, he said BJP MLA Dr Mayaben Kodnani and VHP secretary Dr Jaideep Patel had instructed the mob that went on a rampage in his locality. Nanubhai was framed on a murder charged, along with 11 others. He still can’t go back home.

Around 38 witnesses from Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad filed FIRs with the police. But their cases were all closed and clubbed as witness statements attached to the FIR filed by the police. Naroda Patiya was the site of Gujarat’s worst massacre in which there was a mass murder of more than 100 (83 dead according to official records). “The witnesses had identified several accused but the police case names only seven people. Moreover, their statements were part of the chargesheet that the police filed,” says Anand Yagnik, human rights lawyer. “If the Godhra accused are being charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, then why not the perpetrators of this carnage? Instead, the police are shielding them.”

Even the cases that have not been closed have not been investigated properly. Yet, when the indicted are acquitted in court, it’s the witnesses who are blamed. “It’s very difficult to prove riot cases. Witnesses turn hostile. They have to live in their villages. Even people who lodged FIRs have gone back on their initial statements,” says Narsimha Komar, district superintendent of police, Panchmahal. But the police did nothing to make sure that witnesses felt safe enough to testify.

A similar task force was set up to inquire into Mumbai’s communal violence cases of 1992-93. Around 60 per cent of the riot-related cases (1,358 cases) were closed unlawfully during the tenure of the Shiv Sena-BJP government as being "true but undetected" (A Task Force and Unfinished Tasks, Frontline, Feb. 16 - Mar. 1, 2002). The Srikrishna Commission probing the Mumbai carnage had indicted the Shiv Sena, the police and powerful politicians for their complicity in the riots, in which 900 people were killed and 2,036 people, mainly Muslims, were injured.

The Srikrishna report recommended that the ‘A’ summary cases should be reopened. A Special Task Force (STF) was set up by the state government, following directions from the Supreme court. The STF reopened only 112 of the 1,358 cases. Of these, all except 15 were closed once again. "It was very difficult to get evidence after all these years," said P.K. Raghuvanshi, Additional Commissioner of Police in charge of the STF. Eight new cases were also filed, and 27 policemen were charge-sheeted for serious offences in five of these cases.

The re-opening of over 2,000 cases that were closed in Gujarat may expose a Pandora’s box of police complicity and manipulation. The truth is catching up.

Frontline, Aug. 28 - Sep. 10, 2004 Also available here

Pirana in chains

2006-11-18T21:09:00.000+05:30

A Gujarat village that follows a Sufi-inspired faith, a blend of Islam and Hinduism, is in danger of being swamped by Hindu fundamentalism.

Dionne Bunsha
In Pirana

Pir Imam Shah Bawa’s devotees are chained at the feet. Then, they close their eyes and pray fervently while walking towards the Sufi saint’s tomb, the Hajrat Pir Imam Shah Bawa Roza in Pirana village, outside Ahmedabad. If the chain disentangles in the first few steps, it means that your prayer will be granted soon. If not, it’s a sign that it will take some time.

Today, the Pir’s followers are entangled in a dispute that could threaten the existence of their faith. Pirana’s residents still follow Imam Shah Bawa’s teachings of love and harmony, a Sufi-inspired amalgam of both Islam and Hinduism. But powerful religious heads close to the Sangh Parivar are trying to communalise their belief, reducing it to little more than a sect of Hinduism. In the heat of the conflict, the Quran hand-written by the Pir, which used to lie near his tomb, mysteriously disappeared. It’s called the ‘mini-Ayodhya’.

Pir Imam Shah Bawa founded the Satpanth (meaning: ‘true path’) faith around 600 years back. He taught tolerance and the universality of all religions. The sect is an offshoot of Ismaili teachings, a liberal branch of Shiite Islam followed by the Aga Khani Khojas. It is a blend of both Hinduism and Islam and attracted devotees from other religions.

All 18 communities living in Pirana, from different castes and religions, are devotees of Imam Shah Bawa. The shrine also attracts followers from different parts of India. Hindu followers, called ‘Satpanthis’, comprise 85% of the sect. Many are not from Pirana village. Several are from the Kutchi Patel community. Muslim followers, called ‘Saiyeds’, are considered to be the saint’s direct descendents. Devotees did not define themselves as Hindu or Muslim until they were forced to do so by the British census in the mid-19th century. The pressure of Islamic reforms and the rise of Hindu revivalist groups also made them adopt clearly defined religious identities.

After the death of the saint, a shrine was built over Imam Shah Bawa’s tomb in Pirana. Within the complex, they also built a Dholia where he used to sleep, a mosque and a graveyard. Till 1931, the durgah complex was private property belonging to the Saiyeds, and was administrated by the head of the Satpanthis called ‘Kaka’, according to Dominique Sila-Khan who has done research on the sect. Some Satpanthis filed a case against the then Kaka Ramji Laxman (also a Patel) for misusing funds. The court ordered that a public trust be set up to manage the property. The committee was to consist of seven Satpanthi and three Saiyed representatives elected every five years. But elections haven’t been held for the last 15 years.

A conflict between the Satpanthis and the Saiyeds emerged when the last religious leader Karsan Das Kaka tried to Hinduise the belief. The dispute has resulted in a spate of legal battles. In the late 1980s, the Kaka made several changes to the literature, rituals and prayers, removing any hint of an Islamic influence. When I visited the shrine, the guide appointed by the trust made it a point to keep telling me, “This is a Hindu samadhi mandir. It has no connection with Islam.”

“Our prayers had words like Om as well as Rehman and Rahim. The shrine administration have taken out the Islamic words. They are destroying the meaning of the philosophy,” said Bharat Patel, a carpenter who lives in Pirana. He is also a Satpanthi, but resents the hijacking of the sect by a few powerful Kutchi Patels. “They are like a gang. It’s become very political. The VHP, Bajrang Dal and the police are with them. Anyone who questions them is taken to the police station. There is no meaning to the Satpant anymore. It has become very casteist. In the gurukul, they only look after the children of Kutchi Patels, not others. I used to go to the shrine everyday. But since they have destroyed it all, I don’t go there. We don’t get any respect.”

In the post-Babri Masjid demolition fervour, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad allied with Karsan Kaka and shrine trustees to arrange a huge Sadhu Sammelan inside the durgah complex in 1993. They pledged to ‘re-convert’ to Hinduism and change the shrine into a temple.

The durgah was re-named ‘Prerna Pith’ or ‘samadhi mandir’. The Kaka discarded his old title and re-appointed himself ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Acharya’. The trust cut off water and electricity supply to the masjid, saying that it was not part of the durgah complex. The Om symbol was painted all over the shrine. The Dholia where Imam Shah Bawa used to sleep was renovated with pictures of Hindu gods.

The 2002 communal violence further emboldened the VHP. Led by Babu Bajrangi, an accused in the Naroda Patiya massacre (the worst mass murder in Gujarat), they stopped the traditional Tazia procession from the masjid to the durgah on Moharram in Jan 2003. Both Hindu and Muslim devotees participate in this procession. A barbed wire fence was built separating the masjid from the durgah. Two entrances to the durgah were sealed off.
A barbed wire fence put up by the Satpanthi dargah administation to separate the Pir's tomb from the masjid.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
“In our village, there is no discrimination. Only they are creating it within the shrine,” said Chandrakant Patel, a Pirana resident from the Kutchi Patel community. “We used to pray at both the masjid and the durgah. After they put up the fence, it has become difficult to walk across and pray in both. They blocked the route of the Tazia procession. Both Hindus and Muslims haven’t done Tazia for two years. They are doing this to harass us. They want to cut off the Saiyeds totally and gain full control.”

Two Qurans placed near the Pir’s tomb mysteriously disappeared. One of them was handwritten by Imam Shah Bawa. Other Islamic books lying near the tomb were also removed. A wooden box with silver used during the Moharram procession also disappeared. Framed copies of a farman, a document from King Aurangzeb donating 45 acres of land and money to the trust also vanished. The original copy of this document is written on a silver plate which is in the trust’s possession. The 50-year-old tomb of Saiyed Taskdukhusain, a trustee, located just 20 feet from the durgah, was demolished. There is no sign of its existence.

Ironically, Saiyeds in Pirana who filed a case against the disappearance of these historic treasures were arrested for looting and sent to Sabarmati Central Jail. What did they supposedly loot? Prasad from the temple – jaggery, sugar, coconuts. Everyday, prasad from the durgah is supposed to be given to the Saiyeds. It is an old custom. But in 1998, the administration stopped the practice, in a move to further isolate the Saiyeds. After an argument, they got the Saiyeds arrested for armed robbery.

When I met the present religious head, known as Nanakdas Kaka, who calls himself Guru Maharaj Jagatguru Satpant Acharya, he denied that the missing documents or monuments ever existed. He said that the Satpanthi faith was a ‘Vedic religion’, which had followers from various communities, including Muslim. When I asked him whether the shrine was a durgah or a mandir, he said, “Muslim followers call it durgah. It’s a difference in language. But all donations are given by Hindus, not Muslims.”

The durgah administration is adamant on discarding its 600-year-old historian. But many devotees won’t let them forget the past. The chains now binding Imam Shah Bawa’s devotee’s are man-made. It would take a miracle to free them.

Frontline, Aug. 28 - Sep. 10, 2004 Also available here

Farmers trip Modi’s power trip

2006-11-18T21:03:00.000+05:30

It isn’t Muslim riot victims but the ryots of Gujarat who are the first vocal protestors against Narendra Modi and his policies. Puncturing the hype surrounding the chief minister’s ‘achievements’, the BJP farmers’ wing has spoken out against his much-touted power reforms.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Sabarkantha

Dissent is hard to come by in Gujarat. The opposition puts up a very feeble fight. The press is largely pliable. Activism is squelched. Criticism is not tolerated. You will be accused of hurting Gujarati ‘Asmita’ (pride), a chauvinistic fervour whipped up by chief minister Narendra Modi during his pre-election Gaurav Yatra.

But Gujarat witnessed an unusual sight over the last 15 days. An RSS pracharak, Laljibhai Patel, camped on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad on a hunger strike. The first rumblings of dissent against the Modi administration have emerged from within his party itself. From the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS)- the farmer’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BKS has been at loggerheads with Modi’s government since last June when it raised power tariffs from Rs 500 to Rs 1,260 per horsepower. Farmers have also been against the Gujarat Electricity Board’s effort to install meters on farms. With the BKS agitation gaining support, the government reduced the tariff to Rs 900 per horsepower in October last year.

But the farmers were not satisfied. They continued with their agitation. That irked Modi. He got the BKS forcibly evicted from their office in a government flat in Gandhinagar. Then Laljibhai joined the BKS agitation, an organisation of which he is co-founder. After two weeks of resistance, negotiation and intervention from Arun Jaitley, they reached a compromise on 4th February. Lalji called off his fast. But all the farmers got in return was a mere Rs. 50 per horsepower reduction in tariff.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with party leader L.K. Advani in Ahmedabad, during the latter's Bharat Uday Yatra at the height of the campaign for the general elections.Photo: Divyakant Solanki/AP
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with party leader L.K. Advani in Ahmedabad, during the latter's Bharat Uday Yatra at the height of the campaign for the general elections.

This temporary truce may have saved Modi from embarrassment. But it will be a long way before the problems faced by Gujarat’s farmers are resolved. The power problem is closely linked to the acute water shortage that the state confronts. With no other source of irrigation, farmers pump ground water. Groundwater supplies around 85% of Gujarat’s irrigated land, as compared to 60% in India. This has adversely affected agriculture.

Production costs are so high, agriculture is no longer profitable. “Wheat cultivation in north Gujarat is 10 times more expensive than in central Gujarat because in the north, they consume a lot more electricity to pump water,” says Jay Narayan Vyas, former Narmada minister. Unable to keep up with spiralling input costs, several farmers are heavily in debt.

“Our expenses are much higher than the price we get in the market for our produce,” said Bhikabai Patel, a BKS committee member. “We spend Rs 550 to grow 20 kg of wheat. But the market rate is only Rs 125 for 20 kg. All farmers are already suffering heavy losses. By doubling electricity prices, the government has added to our burdens.”

Farmers have faced several difficulties due to the Gujarat Electricity Board’s (GEB) erratic services. “Why should we pay more when they don’t deliver on their promise of 14 hours uninterrupted power supply? We get electricity for only six hours a day. Sometimes, at odd hours of the night,” Patel pointed out.

It’s unfair that farmers alone are blamed for the GEB’s losses. “Transmission and distribution (T&D) are also very high. This is because industrialists bribe local engineers and steal electricity directly from the cables. Wherever there are industries, line losses are highest. Why doesn’t the government look into this?” asked Parthibhai Patel, a farmer from Banaskantha.

But the Gujarat government says it has no choice but to raise tariffs for farmers. In the last five years, the GEB has accumulated losses of Rs 6,000 crores. “We are giving farmers a subsidy of Rs 1,700 crore every year,” said Saurabh Patel, minister for energy. “As part of our power sector reforms, we have passed an act promising that subsidies will not be more than 67% of the cost of power production. At present, we charge 42 paise per unit, when the actual cost is Rs 2.50 per unit.”

Cheap power also allows indiscriminate drilling of tubewells, up to depths of 1,500 feet. This has completely depleted aquifers. “In the future, even if you give farmers electricity free of cost, they will have no water to pump,” says Jay Narayan Vyas. Falling groundwater tables have also had adverse environmental effects. Due to excessive fluoride in the groundwater, people suffer from flourosis, a condition in which teeth and bones degrade.

The BKS agitation points to the larger problems that farmers confront. “Water is a life and death issue for farmers today. Alternative sources of irrigation like the Narmada water have to be provided. That would reduce electricity usage by one-third and regenerate water tables,” says Tushar Shah from the International Water Management Institute. “Also, cropping patterns must change. Farmers in north Gujarat should stop cultivating water-guzzling crops like wheat and alfalfa that are not suitable for such an arid region.”

The crisis in agriculture stretches far beyond a tussle over power tariffs. The can of worms has been opened. For how long will the Modi government be able to contain it?

Frontline, Jun. 5 - 18, 2004 Also available here

The dark side of charity

2006-11-18T20:54:00.000+05:30

Lord Patel wrote a cheque for the earthquake victims but was horrified when he found out that his money was actually going to the RSS. Charity is the best revenue stream for the Hindu right.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Lord Adam Patel was one of the many overseas Indians moved by the tragedy of the Kutch earthquake in 2001. A Labour Party MP in the UK, Lord Patel, along with other public figures in the Indian diaspora, used their clout to help gather funds to send back home. He was a patron of Sewa International’s Earthquake Relief Fund. But soon, Lord Patel was jolted.

He found out that Sewa International’s mission was not purely ‘sewa’ (service). The money was being given to RSS-affiliated organisations that propagate hatred against Muslims and Christians. The Sangh Parivar was involved in the communal violence that crippled Gujarat in 2002. Realising their links, Lord Patel resigned as a patron of Sewa International (SI).

“I very much regret ever having been part of this racist organisation… Sewa International is a front for militant Hindu organisations...I am sure a lot of the donors don’t realise the money is being sent to help terror groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” he said in an interview with a UK newspaper. (Sunday Mercury, 11 August 2002)

Recently, a British group called Awaaz exposed the RSS’s charitable façade. It published a report which traces how, in the guise of earthquake relief, millions of pounds raised by Sewa International have gone to RSS fronts. “In Bad Faith: British Charity and Hindu Extremism” found that all the two million pounds raised for quake reconstruction and rehabilitation was given to Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate. The report provides insights into how Hindutva groups operate at the international level through different front organisations and charities.

“Sewa Bharati’s activities around both the Gujarat Earthquake and the Orissa cyclone 1999 demonstrate a pattern in which a natural, human tragedy is used to enable the dramatic expansion of RSS institutions through the use of overseas funds,” said the report. In 2002, similar report - “A Foreign Exchange of Hate”- exposed the how an RSS front charity in the US called the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) was funding Sangh Parivar activities in India.
Earthquake survivors in a makeshift camp at Sukhpar, about 10 km from Bhuj, Gujarat, on January 30, 2001. A British group has found that £2 million raised for quake reconstruction and rehabilitation were given to Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate.Photo: Kamal Kishore/REUTERS
While appealing for funds, Sewa International did not disclose its associations with the Hindu Swamsevak Sangh (HSS), the RSS’s UK branch with Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate. The Madhya Pradesh government because of alleged attacks on Christians banned Sewa Bharati. “Sewa International funded Sewa Bharati for rebuilding work, but it was the RSS that conducted ceremonies of the start of rebuilding work or handed over the completed villages to residents,” the report said.

Sewa Bharati started RSS shakhas during the rehabilitation of Badanpur village. Reports allege that the RSS was distributing relief selectively to higher caste victims and neglecting Dalits and Muslims. The RSS was also organising training cells (shakhas) in relief camps. At Adhoi village, VHP preachers gave lectures every night on the need to be vigilant against Christians and Muslims. RSS volunteers allegedly threatened other relief workers to leave Kutch. They accused them of receiving foreign funds to convert people to Christianity.

Almost a quarter of SI’s earthquake relief funds went to RSS schools. The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) criticised the teaching material in these schools for being “blatantly communal”.

While confirming that all its earthquake relief funds went to Sewa Bharati and that it is a part of HSS, Sewa International refuted accusations that it is funding hate campaigns in India. “Sewa International is a non-religious, non-political and non-sectarian organisation, which believes in equality. At all times, Sewa International encourages social integration and not social division,” said Shantibhai Mistry, SI representative, in a letter to the newspaper that published Lord Adam’s interview.

“The view expressed in the newspaper, in which Lord Adam implies that Sewa International is a front for militant activity, which incites racial hatred, is both outrageous and offending. Sewa International has always openly condemned violence, terrorism and racial discrimination in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” said Mistry.

He maintained that the dealings of Sewa International were transparent. “Many individuals such as the Lord Mayor of Coventry and the former Mayor of Derby together with several Labour MP's and representatives from the media have visited the earthquake-affected areas of Gujarat and have personally approved, endorsed and commended the rehabilitation work carried out by Sewa,” he said. Refuting allegations, Sewa International said it encourages donors to visit the projects that their money has funded and provides assistance to those who wish to do so.
A street, with the rubble of a fallen house, in Bhuj on January 28, 2001.Photo: Pawel Kopczynski/ REUTERS
Besides earthquake relief, many questions have also been raised about Sewa International’s other projects. Most of the 260,000 pounds raised by Sewa International UK for Orissa cyclone relief after 1999 went to a key front of the RSS, the UBSS. “The HSS UK said the funds would be channelled through RSS volunteers. It also said it funds organisations that gets their workforce from the RSS,” said the Awaaz report.

Lord Adam and others in the UK are appealing to the UK government to get their status as a charity revoked. In India, such funding is a violation of FCRA regulations since the money is being used to fund political ends under different guises.

In the US, a large part of the IDRF’s fund raising is through electronic means such as money transfer portals, charity portals or company foundation portals such as the Cisco Foundation. Many large corporations match employee donations to charities and land up giving a lot to the IDRF. From 1993-95, the VHP of America had signed up with AT&T for a program in which a fixed percentage of any subscribers total telephone bill could be directed to a non-profit organisation of his/her choice if the organisation was registered under the AT&T program. But AT&T withdrew support for the VHP of America after it was under pressure from people who were appalled by the VHP’s misuse of charity.

The Awaaz report is an eye-opener for many who are misled by charities and donate without knowing what their money is being used for and by whom. Charity is not always as harmless and benevolent as it sometimes seems.

Frontline, April 10 - 23, 2004 Also available here

Love in the time of hate

2006-11-18T20:50:00.000+05:30

If a Hindu girl dares choose a groom outside the religion, she risks being kidnapped by the Bajrang Dal.

DIONNE BUNSHA

When childhood sweethearts Reema and Anthony eloped and ran away from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, they hoped to fade into the sunset. But the local Bajrang Dal in their neighbourhood did their best to thwart a happy ending.

Reema’s conservative family roped in Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders to get back their daughter. They planned to trap the couple. Reema’s mother met Anthony’s parents and said all was forgiven. She told his parents to ask them to come home. But the couple didn’t go back. So, she got a search warrant and made them return to Gujarat to confront the court.

It was a set up. Everything went against the couple: the police were in the hands of their persecutors. The magistrate kept delaying their hearings, without giving them a chance to speak. Bajrang Dal goons gathered outside the court everyday to intimidate them. They beat up Anthony, pushed Reema (who was pregnant) on the ground, grabbed her and put her into their car. Anthony rushed to the magistrate but he refused to help. People heard him shouting for help and stopped the car.

Soon they all were in the police station. There, the police superintendent convinced them to let Reema stay in her mother’s house for the night to ensure their safety. But that night, her family packed her off to her uncle’s house in Rajasthan. The uncle too is a Bajrang Dal leader.

From then on, her life was in their hands. They made Reema sign a statement saying that she was forced to marry Anthony. Then, they took her to an abortion clinic in Himmatnagar, Gujarat. Reema was put up in a farmhouse in Pirana where many other girls abducted from their husbands by the Bajrang Dal were also kept in captivity. When they found out that she sneaked a call to Anthony, they kept her in a Bajrang Dal leader’s house. She stayed there with even more girls who had been kidnapped.

Next, they arranged to get her married. They forced her to call Anthony’s house and tell them that she wants a divorce. But he refused. That’s when the death threats began. He fled to Mumbai. Soon after, they arranged Reema’s wedding in her uncle’s factory in Naroda. Three other girls living with her were also married off at the same time. Reema explained the entire story to her new husband. She called Anthony, hitched a ride on the highway, met him in Baroda and went back with him to Mumbai.

Today Reema and Anthony still live in exile. They are refugees from a culture of intolerance. The forced separation of these two people is symbolic of the larger separation of communities that Hindutva aims at. This mindset is most prevalent in Gujarat – the Hindutva Laboratory. Gujarat has the best network of local Sangh cadre working in every part of the state. Methods of mobilisation vary, depending on whether it is an Adivasi area, an industrial city or a Patel-dominated village. But the basic focus is to keep people apart, whether by stirring trouble or prejudice. For them, Hindu unity means the suppression of others. Minorities can live only if they accept the might of the majority. And the twain should never meet. If they do, they face the consequences Reema and Anthony did.

The divide has widened due to ghettoisation of big cities like Ahmedabad and Baroda. Muslims are increasingly seeking safety in numbers. People refuse to sell them houses in ‘Hindu’ areas. Unwanted anywhere outside their own community, Muslims tend to cluster together. There are a few large Muslim pockets in each big city – referred to as ‘mini Pakistans’, even by the Gujarati press. The term itself connotes that everyone living there is an ‘enemy’. A ‘border’ separates communities. With every riot, the walls at the border get higher and more protected with shards of glass and barbed wire.

Segregation has meant less communication. This makes it easier for Sangh Parivar organisations to propagate prejudices and stoke fear of ‘the other’. Even in elite areas, Muslims are not allowed to buy property. When a Muslims bought flats in a building in Paldi, a upmarket area of Ahmedabad, Bajrang Dal activists ransacked the building, threw a bomb which blasted the lift. The reason: Muslims cannot live in a ‘Hindu area’. Later, they forced Muslim owners to sell their flats at a pittance. In Ahmedabad’s walled city, the Bajrang Dal attacked traders who sell property to a Muslim.

Even schools are ghettoised. After the communal carnage, several schools asked Muslim students to leave. In Naroda Patiya, where some of the worst carnage occurred, children refused to go back to school after teachers made them sit separately. Many Muslim parents withdrew their children from good schools and admitted them to sub-standard schools in Muslim neighbourhoods, just because they felt that their children were safer in schools closer to home.

After the 2002 communal pogrom, even parts of rural Gujarat are ghettoised. Many refugees have been unable to return to their homes. They prefer to stay in nearby towns or villages with a relatively large Muslim population. They feel that isolation makes them easier targets. After hounding out Muslim residents, local Bajrang Dal units had proudly put up banners proclaiming them ‘Muslim free villages’.

Elderly Muslim residents who tried to return to their homes in Pavagadh, a village adjoining a religious site in Panchmahal were beaten up and chased out. Local leaders grabbed their shops en route to the temple and refused to let them return. Till today, Salim Sindhi is living in a tent in a relief camp. Even though he is the sarpanch of Kidiad village in Sabarkantha, north Gujarat. He had to sell off all his agricultural land. He will never return to his village. The killing may be over. But the injustices continue.

Every festival is dreaded, not celebrated. Festivals like Ganpati, Holi and the kite festival are often used as a spark points for violence. Recently on Moharram, Muslims in Gujarat decided not to take out tazia processions to avoid giving troublemakers any opportunity to stir up trouble. The VHP has also appropriated and organised several festivals like the Jagannath Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad. These are opportunities for people to be their boisterous best. Often that means shouting slogans or antagonising Muslims, with the intention of creating trouble. Then, blaming them for ‘attacking Hindus’.

Muslims living in Ahmedabad’s walled city send their women and children away on the day the procession passes through their area, while the men stay back to guard their homes. The Rath Yatra has often been a spark point for communal violence in Ahmedabad, including one of the worst massacres in 1969. The minute the Yatra passes out of their neighbourhood peacefully, Muslims hiding in their homes suddenly rush out to greet the police commissioner and thank him.

Since the mid-80s, the BJP’s Yatra politics has helped it gain support. Initially, the BJP supported the anti-reservation agitation by the upper castes. These agitations turned bloody and resulted in violent clashes right from 1980 to 1985. In 1985, Gujarat witnessed the most fierce caste riot that later turned communal. After that, the BJP changed its anti-Dalit stand to a communal stand, to get more supporters into the ‘Hindutva’ fold.

Its efforts to ‘unite Hindus’ mobilised lower castes. It also left a trail of destruction, even in rural and Adivasi areas, previously untouched by communal violence. During the Ram Janaki Dharma Yatra in 1987, Adivasis in Kheda and Sabarkantha districts participated in communal violence for the first time. Later in 1989, the Sangh garnered more support when its activists went from door-to-door, village-to-village, garnering support for the construction of the VHP’s dream of a Ram temple in Ayodhya during the Ram Shila Pujan Yatra. In 1990, L.K. Advani started his Rath Yatra. It sparked violence in 26 places that it passed through. In 1992, Surat and several other parts of Gujarat burned after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Today, much of the BJP’s support is also due to the lack of any organised opposition. The Congress, which has traditionally cornered Adivasi and Dalit support, has put with a feeble fight.

At a time when workers were being laid off with the closure of textile mills in Ahmedabad, the Sangh gained from unemployed youth’s disillusionment with the Congress. They are the footsoldiers whom upper caste leaders of the Sangh use during any riot. But, upper and middle castes still control the party. In 1991, as many as 63 per cent of the state and district leaders were from upper or middle castes – Brahmin, Vania, Patidar or Rajput. (Ghanshyam Shah, The BJP and Backward Castes in Gujarat, from Caste and Democratic Politics in India)

Several powerful cults and sants like the Swaminarayan sect and Asaram Bapu also help the Sangh propagate regressive religiosity. At the local level, the VHP operates at the innocuous level of organising bhajan meetings. In tribal areas of south Gujarat, they organise ‘re-conversion’ ceremonies for Adivasis, giving them a new, Hindu identity. Through these religious gatherings, they recruit youth for their cadre, train them to use weapons and guns and teach them how to deal with riot situations or any ‘threat’ to their religion. It is because the network is so well-entrenched and organised that the 2002 pogrom against Muslims was so widespread and targeted. VHP activists had voters lists, weapons and well-trained cadre at the front.

Everyday work in the lowest shakha has made Hindutva all- pervasive in its laboratory. It’s a constant breeding of bigotry. Besides the summer camps, the Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra also runs several ashram schools in Adivasi areas. Moreover, the Sangh has managed to get its people into most important posts – lawyers, prosecutors, police, and doctors. Most primary school teachers are Sangh cadre. You can imagine the effect that has on their students. And on election results that they oversee.

The Sangh has managed to make several Hindus believe they are in a constant state of siege. That’s how the killings in the communal carnage were justified: “It was either them or us”. Minorities, who are less than 15 per cent of the population, are considered a dangerous threat. Religion has been used to create a false enemy. Irrational prejudices are repeated so often that they become a reality. It diverts attention from the real survival problems that people face. It gets people to believe that they ‘must do something to save their religion’. Nevermind that it may involve acts that the Gods would never approve of.

Reema and Anthony were hounded out because of the myth that ‘they are stealing our women’. Besides it stemming from a deep-seated delusion, it also emerges from a casteist bias, which the Sangh propagates. It’s their brand of Hinduism – Hindutva – that everyone must adhere to. For them, happy endings are only meant for those on the right side of the ‘border’.

Frontline, 13 – 26 March, 2004 Also available here

Corpses haunt the cops

2006-11-18T20:48:00.000+05:30

Bilkis was gang raped and left for dead. The police buried the evidence and shut the case. But the bodies of the 14 others who died in the attack were exhumed, exposing the police complicity in covering up the crime.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Who says dead men tell no tales? Corpses hidden by the Gujarat police are coming back to haunt them.

For almost two years, Bilkis has been in hiding. She survived one of the most brutal mass rapes and killing during the 2002 communal carnage. Fourteen of her family were murdered, including four children. Twenty-year-old Bilkis named 12 accused. But the police didn't arrest them. Instead, they closed her case as 'true but undetected'. The police said there wasn't enough evidence. The accused remained scot-free. While Bilkis was a prisoner in her own home.

Determined to see the killers behind bars, Bilkis appealed to the Supreme court. The National Human Rights Commission supported her petition. The SC ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the case. It was the first and only post-Godhra communal violence case that was handed over to the CBI. Investigations started on 5th January 2004. Since then, the Gujarat police's well-buried secrets have come tumbling out. Recent CBI investigations have found that police deliberately destroyed evidence. The CBI has dug up a case that the police tried its best to bury. And the skeletons are speaking.

Bilkis' village, Randhikpur in Dahod district, was attacked on 1st March. Her family fled from village to village in search of protection. En route, her sister Shamima, delivered a baby girl. Bilkis was also five months pregnant at the time. But they could not halt in any place for too long. They were back on the run. After almost three days of trekking through deserted, rocky terrain near Chapparwad village, they heard the roar of two jeeps behind them. It wasn't the police. It was Randhikpur's leaders on the prowl. They poured out of the jeeps, gang raped the eight women. And hacked and burnt 14. They didn't even spare Bilkis' two-year-old daughter. Bilkis lay unconscious after three men gang raped her. She survived because they mistook her for dead.

That night, she lay on the road, too injured to get up. When she gathered enough strength, she walked to Chapparwad. There an Adivasi lady took her home and gave her some clothes to cover herself. A police jeep took her to the Limkheda police station. There, they took down her statement. She was still in shock. Bilkis says she named the accused but the police refused to report the names threatening that her life would be in danger. Two days later, relief camp organisers took Bilkis back to the police to make sure that her statement was properly recorded and the accused identified. Just because the police did not record the names of the witnesses in the first statement, they said her testimonies were "contradictory". They labeled her "mentally unstable". And closed the case.

Ever since, Bilkis has been fighting to get the accused punished. The police said that there was insufficient evidence against the accused. Bilkis had named the murderers. But they did not accept her testimony. Bilkis saw village leaders rape her sisters, mother, cousins and aunts. They grabbed her two-year-old daughter from her and beheaded her. She knew who did it. And repeatedly asked the police to arrest them. But they ignored the "unstable" victim.

Recently, the CBI took 13 of Bilkis’ relatives to a Mumbai court to testify before a magistrate. Until now, these witnesses have been too terrified to speak. They were brought to Mumbai because they were scared to testify before a court in Ahmedabad. Their statements will add more weight to Bilkis’ testimony. (Indian Express, 21 February 2004)

The CBI team, led by deputy superintendent of police K.N. Sinha, returned to the scene of the crime. They uncovered 10 of the 14 'missing' dead bodies. In a hurry to bury the evidence, the police had brought two doctors to conduct a farcical post-mortem at the site itself. Normally, bodies are sent to the hospital for a post-mortem. Panch witnesses told the CBI that the police had asked them to bury the bodies and add 60kg of salt so that the bodies would disintegrate quickly. By law, the police are supposed to hand over the bodies to the families of the dead. Instead, they chose to destroy the evidence.

Although Bilkis named the accused, they didn’t conduct an identification parade. They didn’t arrest any of those accused. The police didn't collect any evidence like hair, blood or nail samples for forensic examination. When Bilkis reached the police station, they did not do medical tests to establish rape. They did not get her clothes tested for blood or semen stains. The CBI has arrested head constable of the Randhikpur outpost, Narpat Singh Patel, for suppressing evidence. When the inquest report and post-mortem were conducted, senior officers like the circle inspector R.M. Bhabhor, deputy police superintendent R.M. Bhagora and police sub-inspector I.S. Sayyed were also present. The CBI is interrogating them for their role in the cover-up.

The CBI arrested all 12 accused who Bilkis named. Among them were local BJP leader Sailesh Bhatt (who allegedly killed Bilkis' daughter) and Ramesh Chandana, former PA of Jaswant Bhabor, a minister in Modi's previous government. Naresh Modia, Govind Nai and Yashwant Nai, who allegedly raped Bilkis, were also nabbed. Leaders in Randhikpur have captured land belonging to Muslims and banned them from entering the village. These refugees now live in Devgad Baria.

For Bilkis, who has been fighting the Gujarat administration single-handedly until now, the SC and the CBI have entered like knights in shining armor. Finally, someone listening is to her story. In the last two months, the CBI has done more than the Gujarat police did in almost two years. By digging up the dead, the CBI has exposed the Gujarat police’s complicity. The conspiracy to bury the truth and deny her justice is finally coming to light. Her dear departed are speaking.

Frontline, February 28 - March 12, 2004 Also available here

Justice: available outside

2006-11-18T20:46:00.000+05:30

The blatant human rights abuses in Gujarat has prompted the National Human Rights Commission to petition the Supreme Court to move the cases outside the state.

DIONNE BUNSHA

If there’s a price to pay for justice, Nanubhai Maleik has definitely suffered more than his fair share. The police has tried every tactic in the book to silence him. But he remains defiant.

Nanubhai testified to the police accusing powerful politicians of inciting communal violence in his neighbourhood, Naroda Gaam in Ahmedabad during Gujarat’s pogrom against Muslims last year. In the relief camp, while the police was taking down riot victim’s statements, he named BJP MLA Dr Mayaben Kodnani and VHP general secretary Dr Jaideep Patel as people who instructed the mob and left.

But the police say his statement doesn’t exist. Nanubhai has fought to get his case registered. He proved to be too much of a nuisance. So ten months later, the police framed him in a murder case and jailed him for four months.

That didn’t kill his spirit. Nanubhai is still demanding that the culprits should be punished. Almost two years after the attack, he is still without a home or a business. He lives on the edge of a swamp in Chandola talao, Ahmedabad, in a room that a kind stranger has allowed him to use. But Nanubhai is still fearless.

It’s been a long and hard fight against all odds. But finally there was a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel for Gujarat’s riot victims. The Supreme Court (SC) stopped the proceedings of ten of the main riot cases. It is considering re-investigations by the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) and transferring trials outside the state. The SC responded to a petition filed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which argued that a fair trial is not possible in the current circumstances in Gujarat.

Advocate Harish Salve, appointed as amicus curea (friend of the court), suggested that a special investigation team headed by a retired High Court Judge should be constituted to look into all the cases independently without the State's interference and report directly to the SC. A three-judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, asked the Gujarat Government to respond his suggestions. After Mr. Salve narrated incident after incident of "gross miscarriage of justice'', the Chief Justice said: "If this is the state of affairs, then we will transfer all cases outside the State'' (‘Supreme Court stays proceedings in 10 Godhra-related cases’, The Hindu, 22nd November 2003).

Finally, Nanubhai’s persistence is paying off. “If the SC transfers the cases outside Gujarat, the Bajrang Dal and BJP will know that they can’t get away with killing so many people,” he told Frontline. “Until now, they kept taunting us. They would tell us that in the last 50 years, no one has been punished for killing during riots.” Better still, the police recently arrested three more accused in the Naroda Gaam case. Nanubhai feels it could be a result of his four-hour testimony before the Shah-Nanavati commission (inquiring into the communal violence) a few months back.

More good news. Two days after the SC pulled up the Gujarat government, a District court sentenced 12 accused to life imprisonment in the Ghodasar case in Nadiad where 14 were killed. This was first conviction in any riots case. Was it a happy coincidence? Or was a jittery Gujarat establishment trying to salvage its credentials?

“The difference in the Ghodasar case was that 46 witnesses deposed before the court,” says M.I. Laliwala, a local advocate who assisted the witnesses. The public prosecutor, Paresh Dholakia, an RSS member, took the depositions seriously. There was no intimidation or efforts to jeopardise the case, unlike in most other communal violence cases.

Even high-profile cases – Naroda Patiya, Chamanpura in Ahmedabad (where ex-MP Ehsan Jafri and around 67 others was killed), Odh village and Sardarpura village– have been riddled with discrepancies. The SC has stayed the trial of these and the Godhra case. “In most cases, the police have not even registered FIRs of several witnesses. They have closed many cases claiming lack of evidence. But they haven’t even bothered to investigate them,” said Mr Salve. “When the accused are arrested, the public prosecutors don’t even bother to oppose their bail applications. In cases where the accused have been acquitted, the state prosecutors haven’t even appealed against the judgement.”

Several witnesses are under threat. Zakia Jafri, Ehsan Jafri’s widow, was terrorised by Bajrang Dal activists after she gave her testimony before the Shah-Nanavati commission. “When the press were interviewing her, the Bajrang Dal people ambushed us and started abusing us. The police didn’t do anything. We had to run,” says her son, Tanvir. Other Chamanpura witnesses have been threatened to withdraw the names of the accused.

In Odh village (Anand district), witnesses tried to return to their homes a few months back. They were sent back with a thrashing. The police have declared around 30 accused as ‘absconding’ although they roam the streets freely. In Sardarpura, victims cannot go back to their village. Witnesses in Naroda Patiya have asked for police protection. But that doesn’t offer much consolation. Most victims will tell you the police are the ones sheltering the accused.

Public prosecutors too, many of who are VHP members, seem more interested in shielding the accused than representing riot victims. Flimsy police cases are further aiding the accused. The police haven’t taken down victims’ statements or collected evidence properly. Witnesses to the massacres (including Chamanpura and Sardarpura) are demanding re-investigations into the case. That prompted the NHRC to ask for CBI inquiries into the main communal violence cases as well as the Sabarmati Express massacre.

The Gujarat police have selectively used the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against Muslims accused in the Godhra case. But none of the Hindus accused in communal massacres have been charged under this act. Under POTA, it is very easy to convict the accused. “There are many questions about Godhra that still remain unanswered. But Gujarat government is not bothered about finding out what really happened. They are only intent on nailing some Muslims to prove their point,” says Mihir Desai, a human rights lawyer. He feels an independent inquiry might help get to the truth.

The SC has taken up only 10 of the major massacres that occurred in Gujarat. Looking at the larger picture, the police have closed around half (2032) of the total 4,252 communal violence cases filed. They have been classified as ‘A summary’ – “true but undetected”. In many cases, there has been no effort at detection. Bilkish was gang raped while escaping from her village Randhikpur. She named the accused who raped her and killed – of her family members. But the police have closed her case citing insufficient evidence. Bilkish is in hiding while her rapists roam free.

For people like Bilkish and Nanubhai, who have been shoved to the margins, the recent rumblings in the judiciary are a reminder that they do still have rights. Even if their voices aren’t heard at home.

Frontline, 6 – 19 December, 2003 Also available here

Pols apart

2006-11-18T20:39:00.000+05:30

In Ahmedabad, a patchwork of ghettos, even real estate is dictated by religion.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad

They tore down the gates. And built walls instead. Towering brick walls topped with shards of glass. We are at a ‘border’ in Vejalpur, Ahmedabad. A road separates the Hindu ghetto from the Muslim one. Besides the road, its fear that keeps them apart. Last year’s communal pogrom has polarised Ahmedabad even further, pushing more people into ghettos.

“During the riots, they threw stones, bombs and cylinders across the gate. We abandoned our home for four months,” says Rita Sathara from Venugopal Society, the Hindu side of the border. “My children were scared to come back here. My two-year-old son would scream at night. He would say: ‘Mummy, give me a gun and I’ll kill Musalmans’.” Rita wants to move out. But there’s no money to pay the rent. “Earlier, we used to go across the road to shops in the Muslim basti. But now we are too scared. We’ve even put grills on our doors.”

On the other side of the wall, the anxiety is as palpable. After his shop was destroyed during the violence, A.N. Ansari has made his home a fortress. A high wall lined with glass pieces hems his family in. “We had cordial relations with some Hindus. We used to celebrate festivals and weddings together. There was 100% faith between us,” says Ansari. “But RSS people from outside are creating trouble. They attacked us from the Hindu society. During any festival, people on both sides are scared that a riot will break out.”

Fear has fragmented Ahmedabad. Divisions that started during the 1985 riots have become more pronounced after last year’s communal violence. Several Muslim refugees haven’t returned to their homes. They seek safety in numbers. They feel safer living in Muslim ghettos like Juhapura on the outskirts of the city, or Shah Alam, closer to the heart of the city. Hindu families have moved to newer suburbs on the western side of the Sabarmati river like Naranpura and Satellite. Or Maninagar in the eastern part of the city. After last year’s communal carnage, Muslims – regardless of their social status - are being pushed further into ghettos.

Ahmedabad’s residential areas have always been divided on caste lines. Within the old, walled city in central Ahmedabad, different communities lived in separate lanes called pols. Then, many Muslims or Dalits were denied housing in certain areas because they were non-vegetarians. As Ahmedabad expanded beyond the walled city, the communal divide became sharper in the suburbs. Hindus moved out of the walled city into areas like Naranpura, Satellite or Vejalpur. While Muslims moved out into areas like Shah Alam or Juhapura.

“Communities have always lived in groups. But they had friendly relations with each other. The idea of isolation didn’t exist until 1985,” says Prof. Abid Shamsi, a retired university professor. With each subsequent riot, more refugees started moving to ghettos. Last year’s violence added new dimensions to the marginalisation of Muslims – economic and educational.

Nawab Ali Sayyed is one of thousands of refugees who have been pushed into confinement in Juhapura. “We don’t have the nerve to go back to our house in Rakhial (a mixed industrial area). It was the first time riots took place there. Our house was near the border. We are safer here. It’s a total Muslim area. No one will attack us,” he says.

But, finding work is far more difficult in the ghetto. “Business is less here. I can’t even get work for 10 days in a month. We are still living off loans from friends and family,” says Nawab Ali. “Our old home was closer to the city. I was a car dealer. My business is totally destroyed. My old Hindu associates don’t do business with me any longer. We are all Indians first. It’s only political leaders who have made us ‘majority’ and ‘minority’.”

Muslim businesses and workers are being edged out. Many small shops were burned. Owners had to shift operations from Hindu areas to Muslim localities. “I used to earn Rs 1,000 every day in my shop at Satellite. Now, I barely earn Rs 2,000 a month in Juhapura,” says Ismailbhai Ajmeri, a mattress maker. His trauma has taken a toll on his health as well. He had two heart attacks after his shop was burned. But he can’t afford to pay for his medicines or a bypass surgery.

A survey in Juhapura (a Muslim ghetto) and Rakhial by Samerth, an NGO, found that riot-affected people’s incomes fell by more than a third, on average. More than 20% had to change their occupation because they lost their equipment during the riots. Six of ten migrations to ghettos were after communal riots. Of those who shifted, 68% were Muslim. The largest shift was during last year’s riots. Of those who migrated to the ghettos since 1969, 43% moved in 2002-03. “Communities live in separately in several cities, towns and villages. But the difference here is that it’s not out of choice. People are forced to move,” says Bhabani Das, from Samerth.

Segregation isn’t confined only to the poor and middle class. Even the elite areas of Ahmedabad are ghettoised. Muslims can’t buy an apartment in most middle class or elite buildings. “There are only a few buildings in areas like Paldi or Navrangpura that will allow Muslims. But in most other places like Satellite, C.G. Road, Drive In or Vastrapur, no one will sell an apartment or a shop to a Muslim,” says Prof Abid Shamsi, a retired university professor. Property prices in elite areas are also higher for Muslims. “The price for my house is double that of a flat in a Hindu building just around the corner. Space for Muslims is very limited. So there is a premium on it,” he says.

Every round of riots has sharpened the divisions. Pervin and Parul share a lot in common. They are friends who work in the same office. They live in the same part of Ahmedabad. But they refuse to visit each other’s homes. “We live on either side of the border. I stay in Juhapura and Parul is in Vejalpur. We take the same bus to work. But Pervin won’t come to my house. They call Juhapura mini-Pakistan. Actually, working people like me live here,” says Pervin.

Parul’s reason for not visiting her friend: the fear of a riot erupting at any point. “You can’t be sure. Nowadays, the smallest argument can spark a riot. Then, Pervin’s family may not be able to save me. I will be the only Hindu there,” she explains. “If I feel in unsafe being in a minority in Juhapura, can you imagine how Muslims feel? They are a minority everywhere. But they have no choice. They have to go out to work.” Segregation has heightened the fear of the unknown, Parul feels. “All these years, I’ve never stepped into Juhapura. I’ve always been told it’s filled with criminals. That’s before I met Pervin.”

Another common prejudice amongst Hindus: ‘Muslims have pushed Hindus out of the old, walled city and taken over their houses’. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is fuelling this myth. It recently protested against the sale of two Hindu shops to a Muslim in the walled city. Actually, both Hindu and Muslim families have moved out of the old city. Many have shifted in search of larger houses in the suburbs. “Several Hindu houses haven’t been bought over by Muslims. In fact, Hindu traders have taken them over for shops or warehouses,” says Hassan Pathan, a municipal corporator. “More Hindus may have moved out of the walled city because they can afford to. Muslims are poorer, so they can’t shift out.”

Schools are also segregated. Some private schools didn’t want to grant admission to Muslim children. “My children studied at a school in Paldi. We got a phone call from the school informing us that the admission of all Muslim students was cancelled,” says Sumaiya Mansoori, a resident of Juhapura. Many fearful parents have shifted their children to schools within ghettos, where standards are not up to the mark. After the riots, children from riot-affected areas like Naroda Patiya were scared to go back to school. Many have dropped out.

Exclusion is breeding extremism on both sides. “The youth have strange misconceptions about ‘the other’ community. Right now, the older generation still have warm relations with their Muslim friends and clients. During the past three riots, my Hindu friends protected my family in their homes. But in 10 years, that person to person contact may no longer exist,” says Prof Shamsi.

As the walls get higher, it’s becoming more difficult to see ‘the other side’.

Frontline, September 27 - October 10, 2003 Also available here

The truth behind Zahira’s lies

2006-11-18T13:29:00.000+05:30

Yes, Zahira lied. But can you blame her when the local MLA was threatening to kill her family? With no protection, witnesses have to choose between guarding the truth or their lives.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Mumbai

A 19-year-old girl has created a stir by raising questions about the judicial process in Gujarat. Zaheera Sheikh, the key witness who turned hostile in Vadodara’s Best Bakery murder, re-emerged from hiding after the judge freed all 21 accused due to insufficient evidence. “I lied in court because I was under pressure,” she said at a press conference in Mumbai. “I was intimidated by BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastav and his cousin Congress councillor Chandrakant Shrivastav. He threatened to kill our family if I spoke the truth. I want the case to be tried again outside Gujarat.”

Zaheera lost two family members when their bakery was burned during last year’s communal violence, killing 14 people. The police complaint was based on her statement. She had identified several accused. From her home, located above the bakery, she had seen the mob reduce their lives to ashes. But in court, she denied her police testimonies. She said she saw nothing. She left the court room, escorted by Shrivastav. Many speculated that a deal had been struck.
Police guarding the Best Bakery in Vadodara as the NHRC team arrived on a fact-finding mission to the city.
So why has Zaheera emerged after the verdict has been passed? “After my testimony, I went to our village in U.P. When we came back, we heard accusations that we had taken money. That’s why I decided to clear our name. We didn’t get anything. No one helped us. Not even the relief committee. They asked us to pay Rs four lakh for a lawyer,” said Zaheera. But she didn’t say much more. The citizen’s group that brought her to meet the press were in a dilemma. They were worried her legal case could be jeopardised if she spoke beyond a point. Instead, celebrities on the panel fielded questions and spoke on her behalf. It didn’t matter that they had never met her until then.

A day before the press conference, the Indian Express interviewed her mother Sehrunissa, who was also a witness in the case. Explaining how Shrivastav intimidated her family, she said, “Several times he sent threats through others. He called us to threaten us as well. He warned that if we told the truth in court, we would be killed and that Zaheera would not be allowed to reach court. In fear, we retracted our statements.” (Abhishek Kapoor and Ayesha Khan, The Indian Express, 6th July 2003)

Another witness, Lal Mohammed, who lived nearby and whose house was also burned, threatened the Sheikhs not to speak up in court, Sehrunissa added. Lal Mohammed also turned hostile in court. He did a complete U-turn, testifying that one of the accused actually rescued his family. When a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team visited Vadodara on July 8th, he told them that all 21 accused had saved him and several other Muslims. He told them that Zaheera is “now being used by vested interests”.

After Zaheera’s disclosure, many like Lal Mohammed, the Shrivastavs and the public prosecutor have been publicly embarrassed. Madhu Shrivastav threatened to sue Zaheera. He told Frontline, “She has made false accusations. I have never seen her except in the court where she was wearing a burkha. After giving her testimony, she went home with her family.” However, Zaheera was seen leaving the court room escorted by Shrivastav. He was quoted as saying, “I accompanied her here only because she received threats. After that, I don’t know anything about her.” (Abhishek Kapoor, Indian Express, 28th June 2003). At the press conference, Zaheera admitted, “We were all scared. My brother told me to get into Shrivastav’s car. So I went.”

Zaheera is now adamant on getting justice. Her lawyer, Mihir Desai, said, “The public prosecutor met her for the first time in the court room itself. There were no efforts to ensure the safety of such a vulnerable witness. The public prosecutor did not even bother to cross examine her or ask for an adjournment once Zaheera and other witnesses turned hostile. We are asking for a re-trial in a non-hostile atmosphere. We would also like a special public prosecutor appointed.” When contacted by Frontline, Raghuvir Pandya, the public prosecutor refused to comment.

In most district courts in Gujarat, the VHP has strong support amongst lawyers. In Vadodara, lawyers filed a contempt of court case against the NHRC for describing the Best Bakery judgment as ‘a miscarriage of justice’. In the Sardarpura village case in Mehsana, where 33 were burned alive, the witnesses have asked for a special public prosecutor to be appointed. The current district public prosecutor is Dilip Trivedi, general secretary of the VHP. In Ahmedabad, Chetan Shah has been appointed district government pleader. He was acquitted in a 1987 communal riots case in which nine people were burned alive. In the 2002 carnage, it was mainly the VHP that executed the massacres.

The Best Bakery case is one of the first to be tried in the fast track courts set up to try riot cases. Ironically, another fast track court in Gandhinagar also acquitted all 22 accused of looting a farmhouse in Pimplaj on the same day as the Best Bakery judgment was passed. In this case too, the victim, Mohammad Noor Fakir Mohammad, turned hostile.

The entire system seems to be working against the riot-affected. Initially, the police refused to take down statements. When they did register complaints, they did not include all the details mentioned by the witnesses. They did not record names of the accused mentioned by witnesses. Moreover, the police filed group FIRs instead of separate cases for each complaint. Already, the police have closed around half of the 4252 cases citing lack of evidence. These cases will not be tried in court.

Shoddy police investigations have ensured that even the few cases that do make it to court end in acquittals. Witnesses to Ahmedabad’s Chamanpura massacre are asking for a re-investigation into the case. They allege that the police did not take down their testimonies properly, deliberately omitting details and the names of the accused. Around 40 people, including ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey, were burned alive in the massacre.

The police have closed several cases without bothering to investigate them. In Panchmahal district, two tempos carrying refugees from Kadiad village in Sabarkantha were burned en route killing 73 persons. The case was closed six months back. “Not a single person was named as an accused although witnesses had given the police the names of the culprits. Around 50 families from Kadiad are still living in a relief camp in Modasa,” says Suhel Tirmizi, human rights lawyer.

In Randhikpur village, a mob mass raped and killed 18 of a single family. The culprits are still roaming free. The sole survivor and witness of the massacre is a 19-year-old girl. She was raped (when she was pregnant) and her two-year-old daughter was killed. Although she testified, naming the accused, the police closed the case citing insufficient evidence. They stated that the mental condition of the witness was “unstable”.

Witnesses who dared to name powerful leaders were put behind bars. Twelve residents of Naroda Gaam in Ahmedabad testified to the role of BJP MLA Dr. Maya Kodnani and VHP president Dr. Jaideep Patel in one of the worst massacres in Gujarat. Six months later in September, the police jailed these 12 witnesses as accused in a murder case. The murder occurred in March 2002. When the case was filed, the names of the deceased or the accused were not known. Suddenly, six months later, the 12 witnesses were jailed for this murder. Two still haven’t been able to get bail.

The police haven’t arrested several accused. They are apparently ‘absconding’. However, they roam around freely in the villages, harassing the Muslim victims. “If the government really wants to, it can do a lot. It can seal the property of all the accused who are ‘absconding’, like they did in the Godhra case,” says Mihir Desai. “Why should witnesses turn hostile? Why can’t they ensure their safety? The law allows judges to threaten hostile witnesses with a jail sentence. They can make use of this as well. But what justice can one expect when the prosecutors, many of whom are VHP members, are siding with the accused?”

In Panchmahal district, which saw some of the worst violence, all 26 cases tried until February had resulted in acquittals, Narsimha Komar, police superintendent of Panchmahal told Frontline in February 2003. In the Pandharvada village massacre where 21 were murdered, all 15 accused were acquitted. In the Limbdia chowkdi case, 12 people were arrested for setting on fire and killing 15 while they were escaping from an attack on their village. The court acquitted all of them.

The trials that are currently underway in rural Gujarat’s kangaroo courts are a farce. Public prosecutors couldn’t care less about the victims. “In the Kalol court, a public prosecutor fell asleep during the second half of a trial. People jeer while witnesses relate incidents of rape or murder. The accused act rowdy and shout that they will be freed,” says Navaz Kotval from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. In the trial of the Eral village massacre in Panchmahal (7 killed), the judge insisted all 32 witnesses appear at the same time or else the trial would not continue. Getting to the court is intimidating enough for victims. Making them travel 60 km to the court more than 20 times is sheer torture.

In Gujarat, most victims remain in hiding, still threatened by the ‘absconders’. It’s very rarely that a Zaheera can dare to speak out.

PROGRESS OF SOME MAJOR CASES IN GUJARAT COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

1. Naroda Patiya, Ahmedabad, 83 killed.
Trial yet to begin. Some accused absconding. Two still in jail. Two witnesses were also jailed.

2. Naroda Gaam, Ahmedabad, 12 killed.
Trial yet to begin. Witnesses who named politicians jailed in connection with a murder case.

3. Gulbar Society, Chamanpura, Ahmedabad, 67 killed.
Witnesses asking for their statements to be recorded properly and for a thorough investigation.

4. Sardarpura village, Mehsana, 33 killed.
Witnesses asking for a special public prosecutor. District public prosecutor is a VHP leader.

5. Randhikpur village, Dahod, 18 killed.
Case closed as true but undetected (due to lack of evidence). Main witness named the accused. But police have not arrested them. Instead police have declared witness ‘unstable’.

6. Pandharwada village, Panchmahal, 21 killed.
22 accused acquitted.

7. Khanpur, Panchmahal, 73 killed.
All accused acquitted. During trial, the witnesses identified the culprits.
They said that they did not name these accused to the police and that the real accused were different people. The witnesses named the real accused in the court. But the public prosecutor did not make an application to bring the real accused before the court.
The court while acquitting the accused had passed some observations against the police for not investigating properly

8. Anjanwa village, Panchmahal, 11 killed.
20 accused absconding, 5 accused not named in chargesheet. Witnesses have asked for the arrest of the accused or for their property to be attached as was done against absconding in Godhra case.

9. Ambika Society, Kalol, Panchmahal, 13 killed.
FIR clubbed with three other cases that occurred in three separate places: Kalol, Boru and Vejalpur. Trial has not yet begun.

10. Eral village, Panchmahal, 9 killed.
Witness is a woman whose daughter was raped and killed. Has asked for ‘absconding’ to be arrested and for names to be included in the chargesheet. Judge will not proceed until all 32 witnesses are present at same time in court.

Frontline, July 19 - August 1, 2003
Also available here

Tuition for Witnesses

2006-11-18T13:08:00.000+05:30

The police have been making the rounds of riot victims’ home, and telling them to put in a good word for them before the Nanavati-Shah Commission.

DIONNE BUNSHA

When the city was in flames, they turned their backs on peoples’ cries for help. Now in a strange role reversal, the Vadodara police is knocking on the doors of riot victims, asking them to save their skin.

They landed up at Aminaben’s (name changed) house at 10.30 p.m. “Two policemen came and asked me to report to the police station the next morning. They told me to attend the hearing of the Nanavati-Shah commission (inquiring into the 2002 communal violence),” said Aminaben. The next day, they took all potential witnesses to the police headquarters. “There was a large meeting where government lawyer Arvind Pandya spoke. He told us, ‘Forget what has happened in the past. You should keep good relations with everyone. If you support or don’t support the police, you will need their help later. So its better if you speak in their favour. Tell the commission how they helped you and rescued you during the riots…Don’t do what I say, but what you feel is best.’ He spoke sweetly but with an underlying tone of coercion.”

Yet, Aminaben didn’t testify before the commission. “They took us to the Circuit house, where the hearing was being conducted. But I left before my name was called.” She saw people protesting outside, calling for a boycott of the commission and readily agreed. “Why should we be the police’s advocate? They didn’t help us at all when our houses were being burned. They allowed the mobs to kill and loot. This commission is totally one-sided,” she said.

The Nanavati-Shah commission’s three-day hearings in Vadodara created a stir. The local media flashed reports about police-tutored witnesses. The state government responded by calling for a home department inquiry. Riot victims did not turn up for the hearings. Most witnesses were brought by the police. Local human rights groups boycotted the hearings. They were upset with Justice Nanavati’s earlier remark that there was no evidence yet of the Sangh Parivar and the state government’s involvement.

Most riot victims don’t have much faith in the commission. “I boycotted the commission hearings. They are on the side of the BJP government. What’s the point of beating drums in front of a deaf person?” said a witness who the police brought to the Commission’s hearing, but left without testifying. “Those who spoke before the commission were mainly Friends of the Police. They are locals who the police enlist for help. Many are police informers. Other riot victims are too scared to speak. I testified before the commission to make sure the police wasn’t given a clean chit,” said Mohammed (name changed), a witness.

The local media too was very critical of the commission. “This Nanavati commission is a banavati (fake) commission,” said Jitubhai Pandya, owner of Newsplus channel and also a local Shiv Sena leader. “Almost all the witnesses were brought by the police. It was stage managed. People from the worst riot-hit areas spoke as if nothing had happened there. Then how did more than 100 die? Did they commit suicide?”

Although several witnesses told Frontline that the police called them for the meeting with Arvind Pandya and then to the commission hearing, Vadodara’s police commissioner Sudhir Sinha denied any such meeting was held within the premises of his own office. “I am not aware of any such meeting. State government officials will arrive shortly to inquire into the matter,” he told Frontline. “Witnesses may have changed their stand because they have reached some settlement with the accused. Those who want to testify against the accused may be waiting for the criminal trial. They may not want to jeopardise their case by testifying before the commission, since contradictions could arise in their statements.”

The commissioner felt that witnesses who testified in favour of the police were not doing so out of fear. “Whatever deficiencies may have been in the police handling of the riots, victims are more interested in putting the real accused behind bars rather than blaming the police.” He also said there was nothing wrong if a policeman asked a witness to give a positive testimony. “Police personnel also have the rights of a citizen. If an individual police officer has approached some witness to highlight some good work done by him, it may not amount to misconduct. But I have not heard of any such incident.”

Human rights activists point out that police officials have no right to use their position to interfere with the workings of a judicial commission. “Only if the commission issues a summons for a particular witness, can the police go and deliver the summons. It cannot arbitrarily call witnesses and ask them to give the police a good character certificate,” says Mihir Desai, a human rights lawyer.

Of the 204 witnesses examined from Vadodara urban and rural, 201 spoke in favour of the police, according to police sources. “Where were all the people who filed affidavits? Why didn’t the commission didn’t call a single police officer for questioning? The commission allowed all the big police officers and government officials to sit inside the hearing. The place was packed with 50 police vans. Every single senior police inspector was standing outside. How can you expect any witness to speak against them?” asked Jitu Pandya, one of the few witnesses who spoke against the police’s role during the riots.

Refuting criticism about the functioning of the judicial commission, Justice K.G. Shah said, “I don’t know anything about the police tutoring witnesses. Now, we are only examining witnesses who have come forward on their own. That’s why we did not call any police officers at this point. Later, we will call people to depose before us.” The judge dismissed allegations that sufficient efforts were not made to publicise the hearings. “We issued press notes. It was announced in the media. We can’t go to every single house.”

Speaking about the progress of the inquiry, Justice Shah said that hearings have been conducted in almost all riot-hit districts, except Ahmedabad and Bhuj. “Sometimes hearings get delayed due to circumstances beyond our control. We need the help of the local administration. It depends on their other duties too,” he said.

All over Gujarat, the police have been criticised for standing back and watching while the mobs targeted Muslims. In fact, an anonymous minister told a Citizen’s Tribunal that chief minister Narendra Modi had instructed two senior police officials to let the state’s police chiefs that the police should come in the way of the ‘Hindu backlash’ when the VHP announced a Bharat Bandh on 28th March.

“When we called the police for help, they didn’t respond. They stood and watched while the mobs attacked. They told us that they had orders from above to let the mobs do what they want. So many masjids situated just in front of the police chowky were demolished”, said Mohammed. Describing police brutality during the violence, he added, “They fired into our homes and raided our neighbourhoods. They arbitrarily arrested any Muslim. But the real culprits are still roaming free.”

The Vadodara police has also been criticised for failing to prevent communal flare-ups. “Just when Baroda was returning to normal, the police lifted curfew to allow the VHP’s Ram Dhun rally on March 15th. Although they had imposed a ban on public meetings, this rally went on uninterrupted with full police security arrangements. The participants sparked trouble while passing through Machipeeth, a Muslim area. This disturbed peace in Vadodara for several months. The police could have prevented it,” said Jitubhai Pandya. He added, “I saw the police break a historic mosque at Nawab no Vado. I may be pro-Hindu. But you cannot justify police atrocities.”

Human rights activist Chinu Srinivasan puts it succintly, “Riot victims have great fear of the police. When police officials knock on people’s doors asking them to testify before the commission, it’s like a rapist asking the victim to defend him.”

With the government launching an inquiry into police tutoring, it’s a most unusual situation where a government inquiry is being launched into the workings of a judicial commission of inquiry. Now, whose door will the police knock on next?

Frontline, July 5 - 18, 2003 Also available here

At a Hindutva factory

2006-11-18T13:00:00.000+05:30

Rifle shooting, lathi combat and how to fight anti-nationals. All part of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s training camp at Patan.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Patan

The gates to the empty school were wide open. But there was a bamboo barricade. Two rifle-toting Vishwa Hindu Parishad workers, in trademark khaki shorts, patrolled the entrance.

The sound of gun shots greeted us as we drove inside. Rifle training was under way.

I asked if I could take some photographs. That got the instructors very excited. Suddenly, they stood up straighter and shouted instructions with more authority. But the ‘seniors’ intervened. “Why do you want to take pictures?” asked one of the organisers, whose hair and moustache were cropped close in military style. “All you people from the English press want to give us a bad name. Next you will publish these pictures and say we are running a terrorist camp.” My denials fell on deaf ears. “It’s girls like you from the English press who have made us notorious. Except others have short hair,very modern. They don’t respect Bharatiya culture. Show me your visiting card. I want to know where you are coming from.”

He was a bit perplexed when he saw “The Hindu” written on my card.
“See, we are on the same side,” I joked. But he wasn’t convinced.
“Who is your editor?” he demanded.
“His name is N.Ram. Dekho, hum dono Ram ka seva karte hain. (Both of us are working in the name of Ram),” I told him. Finally, he smiled.
“Come meet our leader.”

I was ushered to meet ‘the leader’ from Delhi, Surendra Jain. “So, you are from The Hindu. We have asked that newspaper to change its name. They always criticise us,” he said. Immediately, the others were on guard. “Let them keep writing. It’s good to know what our detractors think. The more they write, the more we go forward,” he boasted. “It’s thanks to the media bashing that Modi won the Gujarat elections. People felt that it wasn’t correct. We reacted in such a small way. Yet, we got so many abuses.”

I changed the topic and tried to get some information about the camps. “For the past 13 years, we have been running these camps. The basic aim is to prepare workers who are ‘deshbhakts’. To organise youth to protect the country and religion. This summer, such camps are running in 35 places across the country,” Mr Jain explained. “It’s not only the duty of the state to protect the country. It’s also the duty of all citizens. No one looks at all the social work we do. We did rehabilitation work during the Kutch earthquake. We have opened cow shelters all over the country. We are not anti-Muslim. We are the enemy of any person who hates India.”
Rifle training in progress at the VHP training camp in Patan, northern Gujarat.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
After that, Mr Jain spoke to the young trainees on “The Uniqueness of the Hindu Religion”. Quite a bit of his speech was a put down of other religions.

“We know that Christianity started around 2000 years back. We can trace the birth of Islam to around 1400 years back. But no one knows when Hinduism was born. The first person on earth was born in the form of a Hindu. The history of Hinduism is as old as humanity itself,” Mr Jain revealed. Some of his insights would startle both historians and theologians. Yet, they might well be in tomorrow’s textbooks.

“Christians and Muslims have killed crores of people and destroyed cultures in the name of religion. The history of their religions is tainted with blood. Hinduism is the only tolerant religion. Both Christianity and Islam say that the non-believers have no right to live. They can launch jihad against them. Finish them off,” he said.

The tolerant Mr Jain then launched his call for action. “In Gujarat, you have shown the way forward to the rest of the world. You have shown us the path of how to deal with jihadis. It was a victory of our religion,” he said. “The concept of ‘ahimsa’ has been wrongly interpreted. It doesn’t mean cowardice. It doesn’t mean we don’t respond when attacked. To bear injustices is not written in the Hindu religion… We are the ones who believe in immortality of the soul. Yet, we are the ones most afraid of death. The jihadis have no fear of death. They learn this at an early age in madarassas. We must also end our fear of death.”

Mr Jain’s speech reached a frenzied pitch. He got progressively shriller as he tried to mesmerise his audience. A lunch break followed his speech. No one was allowed to speak during lunch hour.

Finally, we were allowed to break the silence. And I got a chance to speak to the participants. Who are these boys? Where do they come from? What draws them to this camp?

Prajapati Hargovandas (20) joined after a colleague introduced him to the Bajrang Dal. He is an engineering student, and works in a weighing scale manufacturing company in Gandhinagar. His father is a farmer/moneylender. “After attending this camp, I feel all Hindus should sign up to protect our religion against Muslims. I will go back to my village and invite the Bajrang Dal to do a trishul distribution ceremony there.”
But what’s the need for a trishul?
“We should have weapons to protect our religion and our country. Muslims should be removed. They are spreading terrorism, communal violence and anti-social activities.”
What did he learn in this camp?
“We learn yoga, judo, karate, obstacle courses. There are discussions on religion and national issues. We are taught how to protect our country. If there is a conflict between Hindus and Muslims, how to deal with it. How to respect elders. What to do in a mandir. What to do if an earthquake strikes.”
But what’s the need to learn rifle shooting, judo?
“It is necessary for self-defence. If there is a riot, and if the Dal sends us to fight terrorists, we should know how to fight and use weapons.”

A few had joined the Bajrang Dal following a minor communal incident in their village. “In our village, some Muslim boys teased a Hindu boy while he was praying in school. A fight broke out. After that, I was told to join the Bajrang Dal. All Hindus should unite- whether they are Patels, Thakors or any other caste,” said Manubhai Satvara (26), a marginal farmer and casual labourer from Sami in Patan district.

There is little doubt that the feeling of belonging within the Sangh Parivar attracts many. “I am handicapped. But after joining this camp, I don’t feel so. Everyone works together. My self-confidence has increased,” said Bharatbhai Vadher (25), a farmer. “When I was a young boy, I remember one of the girls in our village was taken away by a Muslim boy. No one spoke out against this. That memory still haunts me. I will unite all Hindus in my village to see that something similar doesn’t happen again.”

Some of the camp trainers are full-time VHP members. They live in the local shakha and work without any pay. The Sangh looks after their basic food and shelter. “I live in the shakha headquarters and travel in surrounding villages to recruit new members,” says Devraj Desai (22), a rifle training instructor, from Dhansura village in Sabarkantha district. “I was in the army for one year. One of my uncles died while serving in the army and another lost his leg. After that, my family asked me to leave the army. I always wanted to work for the nation, so I joined the Bajrang Dal in 1999.”

For many, Hindutva is a family tradition. “I was in the RSS since I was 10 years old. My entire family is part of it,” says Ashok Vaghela (30), the lathi instructor, who is a small trader from Ahmedabad. “The Bajrang Dal teaches you more about security work compared to the RSS. But both have the same goals – to create a Hindu Rashtra. The Islamic and Catholic movements are a threat to our country. Islam is spreading terrorism. Christians are converting poor Hindus.”

Both instructors and participants recited the same lines. Their education was complete. So was the military-like discipline. “We can’t talk to you until our senior gives us permission,” the instructors told me. I had to conduct all interviews with the camp organiser looking over my shoulder and prompting participants when necessary. As soon as the whistle blew, a young boy whom I was interviewing jumped up and said he had to leave.

The boys had to sit through another ‘knowledge’ session. But the organisers didn’t allow me to attend. I tried to listen, to catch snatches of enlightenment. The speaker was telling the boys how to prepare for an emergency – a riot, earthquake. Who should be contacted, what should be done. One of the organisers saw me listening. “He is telling them what they should do in case there is any civil disturbance,” he said.

After that, the organisers told me they had changed their plans. Instead of the evening physical training session, there was going to be a march through the town to make people aware of their public demonstration and trishul distribution ceremony the next day. Soon, I was asked to leave. “We have let you stay here for long enough. It is time that you left,” said the organiser, who had initially interrogated me. After being treated to such a generous helping of VHP-style Bharatiya culture, I didn’t persist. I left immediately. With a lingering suspicion about what was going to follow.

As we drove out, the guards had put down their rifles and were napping near the gate. But for the young men inside the camp, it was an awakening…

Frontline, June 7 - 20, 2003 Also available here

The Midnight Knock

2006-11-18T12:44:00.000+05:30

BJP leader Haren Pandya has been assassinated. It’s the ISI. Let’s raid the Muslim bastis.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad

They didn’t expect a showdown at a memorial prayer meeting. So, when Vithalbhai Pandya said his son Haren’s assassination on March 26th was “a political murder”, BJP leaders were red in the face. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had to admit that an injustice had been done to the slain leader. Haren Pandya was former BJP Gujarat home minister and chief minister Narendra Modi’s most fierce opponent. The next day, Advani flew back to Delhi and announced the ‘ISI hand’ and involvement of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the killing. Before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had barely started work on the case.
Vithalbhai Pandya, father of Haren Pandya, with relatives at a hospital in Ahmedabad on the day of the murder.
That was a month back. Since then, Ahmedabad’s Muslim areas have faced the brunt. In the middle of the night, homes are raided in search of ‘ISI agents’. Soon after Advani’s prophecy, the Ahmedabad police’s crime branch arrested five suspected ISI-trained terrorists on 3rd April, who were allegedly involved in the plot to kill Pandya. Soon after, the CBI arrested five more youth in Andhra Pradesh. Of them, Asgar Ali is allegedly the one who pulled the trigger.

In all the CBI has arrested eight persons from Andhra Pradesh suspected to be involved in the Haren Pandya killing. While the CBI hasn’t yet charged the accused under the harsh Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), the Ahmedabad crime branch has remanded the 10 alleged ISI agents arrested by them under POTA and is waiting to book those in CBI custody as well. The Ahmedabad police say that the mastermind, Maulvi Mufti Sufian, is still at large. He was apparently co-ordinating with Rasool Parti, now in Karachi, who was once part of the Latif gang in Ahmedabad.

“The CBI is handling only Haren Pandya’s killing. Our case pertains to a larger conspiracy to destabilise the country,” says an official of the Ahmedabad police’s crime branch. “Three of the accused were trained in Karachi. They went there in December via Calcutta and Dhaka and returned on March 8th. They were sent by Sufian. They are all part of a bigger terrorist network involved in many other crimes.” However, all the ten accused arrested by them so far are connected with the Haren Pandya case. It seems that the crime branch is working parallel to the CBI, but only in a more repressive manner.

Their raids have instilled fear in Ahmedabad’s already-petrified Muslim community. “They bang on doors in the middle of the night, barge into homes, rummage through their belongings and arrest people without giving the family any information,” says Nazneen Bastawala, a corporator from Kalupur, Ahmedabad. She organised a protest of women whose sons and husbands have disappeared. Bastawala claims that the police have detained more than 25 men illegally. There is no record of their arrest. “For days, we didn’t know where they were. A week later, the police released them. Luckily, the police let off many without filing a false case against them,” said one of the women.
The Muslim Mahila Sangathan members demonstrate against the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Ahmedabad on April 26.
When the police came looking for Arif ‘s (name changed) younger brother, Salim (name changed), he wasn’t home. So, instead they arrested Arif, his father and his other brother. “They wouldn’t let us go until we told them where Salim was. But I really didn’t know where he had gone. The interrogations were like mental torture. They let my brother go home after two days. My elderly father, who has a heart problem, fell unconscious twice. But they weren’t bothered,” says Arif. Finally, Arif and his father were released after a week. But Arif was re-arrested because he wasn’t able to trace Salim. “They even sent me to Mumbai to look for Salim. But they arrested him in Ahmedabad on the day that I left for Mumbai,” says Arif. Several others narrated similar stories about brothers or fathers of the wanted youth being illegally arrested.

The raids continued till the end of the month. Women went rushing to lawyers asking them to help trace their husbands. Those who traced their sons and husbands in custody are afraid they could be killed in fake encounters, a well-known technique of the Gujarat police. The most recent dubious encounter death was that of Salim Khan Pathan, an accused in a plot to assassinate Modi. He was apparently taken to the site of a previous crime he had committed and was killed while he allegedly tried to escape. On April 30, Faqruddin Yusuf Sikligar, an accused in the Godhra case, died in custody. The police say he was suffering from low blood pressure.

“Why are all Muslims branded terrorists? Why is POTA applied only to the Godhra accused and now to these youth? Why not against those who killed so many during the communal massacres in Naroda Patiya and Gulbarg society? Why are they out on bail? Why is there selective justice?” asked one of the women who protested against the arbitrary arrests. A telling comparison. After the chargesheets of the riot cases were filed, several witnesses went to court stating that their testimonies were ignored or wrongly recorded. They asked for their statements to be recorded properly by the police. Moreover, riot victims from Naroda Gaam who testified to the role of VHP leader Dr Jaideep Patel and other BJP leaders were jailed six months later on a separate murder case.
One of the three accused in the Haren Pandya murder case, in police custody.Photo: Siddharth Darshan Kumar/AP
Even Haren Pandya’s family is wary of the arrests. “I am of the firm opinion that this was an intentional political murder. This talk of a terrorist plan is absolutely absurd,” said Vithalbhai Pandya, Haren’s father. “The day after I said it was a political murder at the condolence meeting, Advani announced that ISI and Dawood Ibrahim were involved. The CBI inquiry had just begun. We have faith in the CBI. But when a responsible person makes an immature statement, it can derail the inquiry.” Speaking about the arrests, he said, “The murderer may have killed because of money. But the real political culprit must be arrested. No real inquiry can be made until the person in power steps down. They are making arrests just to show people that action is being taken. Everyone understands what is happening. But no one can speak.”

Ironically, the dreaded ‘terrorists’ seem to keep coming to Narendra Modi’s rescue. His campaign promise to wipe out terrorism from Gujarat helped him win the elections. Now, the arrests of ‘ISI terrorists’ are easing him out of an embarrassing situation.

Frontline, May 10 - 23, 2003 Also available here

Poking through the embers of Godhra

2006-11-18T12:28:00.000+05:30

One year after the Sabarmati Express burning in Godhra, the investigation throws up more questions than answers.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Godhra

“It (burning of the Sabarmati Express) was a pre-planned act. The culprits will have to pay for it. It was not communal violence. It was a violent, one-sided, collective act by only one community.”
- Narendra Modi, Gujarat’s chief minister, press statement during his visit to Godhra on February 27th 2002.

After Narendra Modi pronounced his verdict, the Godhra incident was used to carry out a retaliatory pogrom in which more than 1,000 Muslims were killed. Modi manipulated post-Godhra public sympathy and insecurity to engineer a landslide election victory. Yet, one year after the incident, how the S6 compartment of the Sabarmati Express actually caught fire, killing 59 people, remains a mystery. Investigators are still zealously trying to prove Mr. Modi right.

Desperately trying to corroborate Modi’s statement with evidence, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested 75 people. With every new arrest and with every new chargesheet filed, the SIT’s story keeps changing. The latest twist in the tale is the decision to charge the 123 accused in the Godhra case under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). This decision was taken after the arrest of Maulana Hussain Umerji from his home in Signal Falia, Godhra on February 6th. Umerji’s arrest has bolstered the SIT’s conspiracy theory.
The interior of the burnt S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express, on the first anniversary of its burning. The coach has not been shifted from Godhra railway station.Photo: Ashima Narain
Investigators allege that Umerji masterminded the plan to torch the train. “We have evidence that a core group of around 15 to 20 people were involved in the conspiracy. Umerji gave them instructions to torch S6,” says Rakesh Asthana, who heads the SIT. Charging the accused under POTA would make it easier for the prosecution to prove its case. Only under POTA, confessional statements recorded by the superintendent of police are admissible in the court of law. They are not considered evidence under other criminal laws. Moreover, POTA allows investigators to use electronic interception devices like telephone tapping and videography.

Umarji was arrested after a known criminal, Zabir Bin Yameen Behra, deposed against him before the chief judicial magistrate in Godhra. His arrest created panic. The Muslim community in Godhra observed a bandh for five days. Although not a religious leader, Umerji is a respected social worker and a businessman. Human rights groups have also supported Umerji, who was actively involved in social and relief work during the riots and also during the Kutch earthquake. Many relief committee organisers have stopped work, fearing that they will also be targeted.

The other main conspirator is Razak Kurkur, who allegedly heads a local criminal gang involved in railway crimes. “They stored around 140 litres of petrol used to torch the train in his Aman Guest House,” says Asthana. “The actual operation was conducted by six people who cut open the vestibule and opened the closed doors of the compartment, poured the petrol, lit the fire and jumped out. Zabir, who testified against Umerji, is one of those who entered the train.”

However, there are still holes in the SIT’s story. How did they get 140 litres of petrol into the train in such a short span of time? Not one of the witnesses saw people pouring any fluid down the aisle. Not one of the railway officials present saw anyone enter the compartment. Is it possible that the petrol was already stored inside the compartment? “We have ruled out that possibility since the owner of a local petrol pump said he sold the petrol to Kurkur the day before,” says Asthana. What was the motivation for the attack? The SIT chief says he still doesn’t have an explanation for that.

Previous attempts by the SIT to prove the involvement of the ISI and SIMI have fallen flat. After the police initially arrested Haji Bilal, an independent corporator, as one of the key accused, the claimed that he had a second passport with which he travelled to Pakistan. But they were unable to come up with any fake passport or evidence of an ISI link. Earlier, Mohammed Hussain Kalota was named as one of the main accused in the case. Now, the SIT doesn’t consider him part of the main group of 20 ‘core conspirators’, but as a leader of the mob. Two SIMI activists, Hasim Raza and Firdaus Ansari, were arrested and it was claimed that they were both in touch with Kalota and Bilal, and were on the railway platform on February 27th. They were released after the police found no evidence against them. Now, all the SIT has to cling on to is the ‘local conspiracy’ theory.

The judicial commission appointed by the state government to look into the Godhra incident and its aftermath have just finished hearings on the Godhra incident. From the testimonies of witnesses, the sequence of events was as follows:
7.42 a.m.: The Sabarmati Express arrived at Godhra station. Some Ram Sevaks got down to buy tea and snacks from the platform vendors. An argument ensued between a Muslim vendor and the Ram Sevaks over payment for the tea.
7.47 a.m.: Train departs from Godhra. While getting on to the train, Ram Sevaks try to pull into the compartment a girl standing on the platform with her mother. But she manages to pull away from them.
7.48 a.m.: The chain is pulled, as many Ram Sevaks were still left on the platform. Stone throwing starts between the Ram Sevaks and local Muslims gathered behind the Parcel Office.
8.00 a.m.: Train starts.
8.05 a.m.: Train stops again, due to pulling of the vacuum brakes. Local Muslims, armed with weapons, rush to catch up the train. They collect in separate groups outside the compartment. They start pelting stones and shouting slogans. Coach S6 catches fire.
8.25 a.m.: Police arrives at scene and fires to disperse Muslim mob.

Several passengers also reported harassment by Ram Sevaks throughout the journey. They travelled ticketless and took over the reserved compartments, packing them to thrice their capacity. They threw out ticket checkers who attempted to enter the compartment. At every station, they shouted aggressive anti-Muslim slogans. At Godhra station, they refused to let a passenger buy tea from a Muslim vendor and pushed him out of the coach, while abusing him. Sophiya Sheikh (18), a resident of Vadodara, was on the platform waiting for the train with her mother and sister. They saw the Ram Sevaks get off the train. One of them grabbed her from behind, put his hand over her mouth and dragged her towards the train. He let go after her mother screamed for help. Sophiya’s statement has been recorded and attached in the second police chargesheet.

Statements by local officials who deposed before the commission suggest that the Godhra incident occurred after a spontaneous fight between local Muslims and Ram Sevaks travelling on the Sabarmati Express. Assistant Station Master, Rajendraprasad Mina, testified that no crowd was waiting for the train to stop. The crowd gathered after the train stopped for the second time. He said the mob did not arrive together. Groups of 10 to 15 persons gathered, including women and children. Railway Police Constable at Godhra, Mohan Yadav, also said that he did not see any suspicious movement throughout the route between the ‘A’ cabin and his office before the arrival of the train. Raju Bhargava, the police superintendent of Panchmahal district, said that when he arrived, he saw passengers sitting on the tracks and many Ram Sevaks with saffron scarves were shouting anti-Muslim slogans.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his entourage examine the burnt coach shortly after the incident.
Bhargava said passengers were injured on the upper part of their body. This raises questions about the SIT theory that petrol was poured through the aisle of the coach. If the petrol had been poured down the aisle, the fire would have spread from bottom up, injuring people on the lower part of their body. Moreover, Bhargava also said that he did not smell any inflammable fuel like petrol, diesel or kerosene. While several witnesses have been brought before the commission, it is puzzling why Asthana, who is leading the SIT investigation, hasn’t been called to testify.

Although the forensic laboratory report concludes that the fire started from inside with at least 60 litres of petrol, others feel that the report is based more on conjecture than on proof. “There is no evidence of fluid fire,” says Mukul Sinha, human rights lawyer for the Jan Sangharsh Manch. “All the victims were injured on the upper body. None were injured on their feet. Nawab Singh Chowdhry, a Railway Police Force inspector, has also testified that he put out a part of the fire with water. An expert in fire fighting, Chowdhry also said that oil fires are not extinguished with water. This proves that the coach did not burn because of a petrol fire.” However, both the SIT’s evidence and the forensic laboratory reports state that petrol was used.

The manner in which the main evidence was handled also raises questions. Several people, including chief minister Narendra Modi, state home minister Gordhan Zadaphia and VHP leader Dr Jaideep Patel, along with media crew and VHP volunteers, were allowed inside the compartment before the forensic tests were done or the first information report was made. Anyone could have tampered with the evidence. The compartment should have been sealed until police investigations were completed. In fact, Dr Jaideep Patel had boasted to this reporter that he entered the burnt compartment even before the police did. Can evidence collected after the coach was tampered with be admitted as evidence in the court? Even today, the S6 coach lies at the far corner of the Godhra railway station. It has become some kind of tourist landmark, attracting visitors from nearby towns.

The investigation into the Godhra incident throws up more questions than answers. The SIT’s story still has some gaps that are not adequately explained. With the Modi government keen to portray itself as strong against terrorists, the truth of what really happened may never be known.

Frontline, March 15 - 28, 2003 Also available here

The Mystery of the Vanishing Evidence

2006-11-18T12:06:00.000+05:30

The Gujarat police have left no stone unturned to ensure that the rapists and their instigators escape justice. More than half the 4,252 riot cases have been summarily closed.

DIONNE BUNSHA

She still has to hide behind closed doors. There is no place where she feels safe. The people who attacked her are free. But Sharifa (name changed) is on the run.

Village leaders, who allegedly raped her and killed 14 of her family members, remain unpunished. Sharifa testified against them in her statement to the police. Now, she is afraid they will harm her before the trial.

"There is a rumour that they have announced a Rs.5-lakh reward to kill me. They are all roaming around freely. They can track us down anywhere," says Sharifa. "So, we avoid going out much. After we left the Godhra relief camp in July, our family has shifted from one rented home to another more than five times."

While they were escaping the attack on Muslims in her village of Randhikpur in Dahod district, a group of village leaders allegedly ambushed Sharifa and her family. They murdered 14 people, including three children. "I managed to survive even though I was six months pregnant at that time. They murdered my three-year-old daughter," she says. There was no harm to Sharifa's unborn child. Sharifa gave birth to a girl three months later, while she was still in the Godhra relief camp.

Her husband was in the fields during the attack. He fled to another village and was missing for several months. He traced his family many months later. Fearing that Sharifa's assailants will get to him, he avoids going out to look for work. Their family still has to live on the generosity of local relief committees.

While some refugees from Randhikpur go to the village for work, they cannot return to their homes. They live in the nearby Devgad Baria village. "It is too dangerous for us to go back there. I shall stay here so that I can testify against them," says Sharifa. "I named more than 10 people in my police statement. But not one of them has been arrested. They are all big people in the village - doctors, lawyers and panchayat members. Some belong to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad."

Ironically, the police say there is not enough proof against the accused. "We haven't arrested any of the accused because there is no evidence against them. Sharifa gave contradicting statements at different points of time," says D.R. Patel, Superintendent of Police, Dahod district. Sharifa denies making differing reports. Even if she did, the police showed no consideration for the trauma she underwent initially. While coming to terms with the shock of the assault, she also had to contend with a battery of questions from social workers, police personnel and the media.

"Who are the police to decide whether there is enough proof? If someone is named as an accused, they should be arrested. Then, let the courts decide," says Mihir Desai, a human rights lawyer. "The manner in which the police have handled the riots cases shows a total breakdown of law and order. Either the police are totally biased, or they are totally incompetent," says Desai.

It has been a year since communal violence was unleashed in Gujarat, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving 1.5 lakh homeless. Yet, not much has been done to bring the guilty to book. Of the total 4,252 cases filed, the police have closed half the cases, citing lack of evidence. Another 118 cases are pending investigation. In the remaining 2,014 cases, the police have filed charge-sheets.
In districts where the worst violence occurred, the number of cases closed without charge-sheets being filed is larger than the number of cases in which charge-sheets were filed. For instance, in Sabarkantha district, 289 cases were closed, while charge-sheets were filed for only 178 (see table). In Bhavnagar, charge-sheets were filed in only 15 per cent of the cases filed.

But the statistics only begin to tell the story. Even cases with sufficient proof are being closed. Names have disappeared from charge-sheets. Many witnesses complain that the police have not recorded their testimonies. While recording statements of witnesses, the police have left out names or vital facts.

Witnesses who testified against powerful politicians have been put in jail, while the real criminals roam about free. Twelve residents of Naroda Gaam in Ahmedabad testified to the role of Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Dr. Maya Kodnani and VHP president Dr. Jaideep Patel in the worst massacre in Gujarat. Six months later, in September, the police jailed these 12 witnesses as accused in a case of murder, which occurred in March 2002. When the case was filed, the names of the deceased or the accused were not known. Suddenly, six months later, the 12 witnesses were jailed for this murder. They still have not been able to get bail.

Women injured in police firing have also been jailed for rioting. Sairabanu (name changed) from Bangali Vas in Chandola, Ahmedabad, was injured in police firing. "I peered out of our house to see what was happening, when a bullet hit my thigh. My neighbour, who was hit in the neck, died of the injury," says the widow. After spending a month in hospital, she and her five children stayed at the Shah Alam camp for a few months. Soon after they returned to build a new home, Sairabanu was arrested for rioting and intent to kill. "They put me in Sabarmati jail for a week. They said that I had participated in the rioting. How could I? I have five children to look after," she says.

Sairabanu, a daily wage earner, had no money to pay for her Rs.3,000 interim bail. Luckily, her neighbours collected money to bail her out. Later, she borrowed another Rs.2,000 for the final bail amount. "The police filed rioting cases against anyone who was admitted to hospital with injuries caused in police firing. They assumed that they were part of the mob. That is why Sairabanu was arrested," says her lawyer. There are several others like Sairabanu who have been jailed.

The police seem to be protecting certain accused persons. Twenty-eight people were charge-sheeted for the murder of 14 people in Anjanwa village, Panchmahal district. "Of these accused, the police have shown 22 as absconding, although they are known to be moving around freely. Only six have been arrested," said a human rights activist. Five people named by witnesses have not been mentioned as accused in the charge-sheet. The Gujarat High Court has directed the investigators to explain why these names have not been included.

Even cases with sufficient proof against the accused are being closed. The police are planning to close a case filed by a witness against a police officer who supported the mob in looting and burning houses in Naroda Patiya, Ahmedabad. The police clubbed together separate first information reports (FIR) for separate crimes into one common FIR. "This saved the accused. They would otherwise be charged and convicted separately for each case. It is not the normal practice. Yet it has been done in every police station in Gujarat, almost as if orders were given from the top. Even the Gujarat government's security adviser, K.P.S. Gill, commented that cases should not have been registered in this manner," says Tirmizi, a human rights lawyer.

Only a few cases have reached the court as yet. In Panchmahal district, which saw some of the worst violence, 26 cases have been tried in court. In all cases, the accused have been acquitted, says Narsimha Komar, Superintendent of Police, Panchmahal district. This includes the Pandharvada village massacre in which 21 were murdered. All the15 people accused were acquitted. In the Limbdia Chowkdi case, 12 people were arrested for setting on fire and killing 15 people while they were escaping from an attack on their village. All the accused were acquitted in court. "It is very difficult to prove riot cases. Witnesses turn hostile. They have to continue to live in their villages. Even people who lodged FIRs have gone back on their initial statements," says Komar.

The Chamanpura case, in connection with the killing of former Member of Parliament Ehsan Jaffrey and 58 others in their homes, has also come up for hearing. Witnesses say that the police have not recorded their statements properly. They plan to appeal to the court asking that accurate testimonies be considered and a proper investigation conducted. "Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is not necessary for witnesses to sign their statements. That is why the police can write anything and get away with it," says Tirmizi, who is fighting the Chamanpura victims' case.

There seems to be a vast difference between the ways in which the police are investigating the Godhra case and the riots cases - there is a lot of zeal in the case of the former and apathy in bringing the accused in the latter to book. "If the government really wants to, it can do a lot. It can seal the property of all the accused who are `absconding', as they did in the Godhra case," says Mihir Desai. "Why should witnesses turn hostile? Why can't the police ensure their safety? The law allows judges to threaten hostile witnesses with a jail sentence. They can make use of this as well. But what justice can one expect when the prosecutors, many of whom are VHP members, are siding with the accused?"

No conspiracy case has been filed in the Naroda Patiya or Chamanpura cases, which were planned attacks. There seemed to be deliberate planning, and more people died in these attacks than in the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra. But only the Godhra case has been considered a terrorist act. The manner in which many of the post-Godhra attacks were carried out points to a pre-meditated plan by the Sangh Parivar and its leaders. Yet, the police have never considered investigating the conspiracy behind these attacks.

Until the big fish are caught, people like Sharifa may have to keep hiding. She is still hoping that the day will come when there will be a role reversal - that those who attacked her will be put behind bars, and it will be safe for her to roam the streets.

Frontline, March 15 - 28, 2003 Also available here

A Year in the Land of Prejudice

2006-11-17T20:57:00.000+05:30

On February 27, 2002, the Sabarmati Express was torched in Godhra killing 59 people. That horrific tragedy was used by Gujarat's Sangh Parivar to unleash widespread violence. Hindu extremist forces orchestrated a pogrom against Muslims that claimed more than 1,000 people and left another 150,000 homeless. Calculated and bloody massacres were carried out in over 12 districts of the State for more than three months.
The violence has died down, but the wounds remain. The communal divide has widened. The Sangh Parivar's propaganda machine has worked to feed the prejudices against the minority community. By creating a wave of hatred and insecurity, Chief Minister Narendra Modi won a big victory in the Assembly elections held in December 2002. The State is still not fully free of communal violence. The tension is palpable. Small incidents of violence keep occurring. A year after, Dionne Bunsha travels around Gujarat to meet people still reeling from the aftermath. Pictures: Ashima Narain
Inside the coach of the Sabarmati Express that was burnt at Godhra on February 27, 2002.

SIGNAL FALIA
Notorious

"Look! All of India's mosquitoes congregate here," says Mohsin Pathan, a motor parts shop owner. "People are constantly falling ill. At a time when we have no money for food, we are paying hefty medical bills. I recovered from malaria just three days ago. The municipal workers do not clear the garbage or the drains. We are living in a gutter."
Branded criminals, Signal Falia's residents still live with the stigma.
Mohsin lives in Signal Falia, the now-notorious neighbourhood in Godhra where a mob assembled to attack the Sabarmati Express. Since then all the residents of Signal Falia have been branded `criminals'.

It has been tough living with the label. "The municipal authorities do not bother to clean up this neighbourhood. There is hardly any water supply. We have to fill water from a hand pump situated 3 km away. For the past 10 days, we have been getting power supply only for two to three hours. When I called up the electricity board to complain, they said, `Go back to Pakistan. What are you still doing here?' This is our condition today. They want to harass us, destroy our businesses. They want us to leave," says Mohsin.

"For months on end, people have been starving," says Anwar Kurkur (27), a computer operator at a local maternity hospital. "Most people in the neighbourhood are daily wage earners. They are scared to go out for fear of being arrested. People have stopped coming to shops owned by Muslims. If this continues, the local economy will collapse."

Frequent raids and arbitrary arrests have made the local youth experts at quick escape. "When the police come, all the local men run into the nearby bushes. We never had to run like this earlier. Now the entire neighbourhood has been blamed. Politicians have spoiled our name. They forget to mention that during the post-Babri Masjid riots, our town was calm," says Anwar.

Godhra has a long history of communal discord. However, in the last decade, it remained free of violence and business ties between the large Ghachi Muslim and the Sindhi communities strengthened.

Within Godhra, ghettoisation is complete. "Most of my friends are Hindus. But we can't visit each other's houses anymore. I hardly meet them. Sometimes, I bump into them on the street," explains Anwar. "For months I have not been to the main market, which is a Hindu area. Muslim children have been shifted out of schools in Hindu localities."

Prejudice has not only affected Muslims, but the entire town. Even Hindu businessmen are feeling the pinch. "Godhra has been divided into two. It was not like this 20 years ago. In the last one year, the division has been total. Fights still keep breaking out at the smallest excuse. People and traders from outside have stopped coming here. It is bad for everyone," says Babubhai Mavar, a restaurant owner.

Godhra's residents are trying hard to brush off the black paint that has tarnished them all. And the mosquitoes.

RAMOL
Twice Bitten

"They (local Vishwa Hindu Parishad members) have not shown us their faces since my husband's funeral. He worked for them. They talk of protecting Hindus. It is ironic that two members of our family died because they were involved in their work," says Bela Rawal. Her husband, Ashwin (42), a VHP worker, was stabbed during the riots.
Bela Rawal at her home in Ramol, Ahmedabad.
The family suffered a double blow in the Gujarat violence. Bela's mother-in-law, Sudhaben (75), was one of the Ramsevaks who were killed in the Sabarmati Express fire. Sudhaben went to Ayodhya as part of the VHP's delegation from Ramol in Ahmedabad. The trip was a freebie - all expenses paid. Each VHP worker in Ramol sent a family member as part of the Ramsevak contingent. Around 11 victims of the Godhra violence were from Ramol.

The neighbourhood remained peaceful during the VHP-sponsored bandh. Later, on April 16, Ashwin and his VHP friends were killed by a mob while they were walking home from work.

"The police are also to blame. Why did they let the violence continue for so long? They could have done something to prevent it," says Dr. Girish Rawal, Ashwin's father. "More than a week before Ashwin was killed, I called the police to tell them that trouble could break out here. But they did not respond." With the family's main breadwinner gone, Bela and her two daughters depend on Dr. Rawal's pension.

"After Godhra, there was a flood of sympathy. Non-resident Indians sent huge donations to the VHP. Where has all that money gone? Nothing has reached us. All we got from the VHP was one month's rations," says Dr. Rawal. The family got Rs.1.5 lakhs from the government as compensation.

"Politics is very dirty. They should not mix religion with politics and use it to gain votes," says Bela.

Her neighbour, Bharatbhai Panchal, who lost his wife in the Sabarmati Express tragedy, agrees. "The BJP utilised this opportunity cleverly to win seats. It took advantage of the public sympathy," he says. "Even now it continues to foment trouble. At a public meeting on the eve of the February 16 municipal elections , a speaker suggested that we retaliate for what happened in Godhra. That is all that the BJP has done for the past year. Now the leaders should let us live in peace," says Bharatbhai.

The families of those who died in the Godhra violence do not want revenge. Why is the Sangh Parivar so keen on it?

NARODA PATIYA
Rent for Refuge

In the day, it buzzes with activity. But at night, it looks like a ghost town. This is Naroda Patiya, known nationwide as the place where a blood-thirsty mob slit a pregnant woman's belly. More than 83 people were killed here in one of the most gory massacres in Gujarat. It may not be safe to live here again.
Boys of Naroda Patiya playing marbles. They don't want to go back to school after they were taunted by the teachers.
"My children are not willing to live here. They are scared. They saw what happened," says Allauddin Mansoori, a mechanic. Like many others, he comes here for work but does not feel it is safe to live here. "In the evenings we go to Shah Alam, where we have rented a room. It has a large Muslim population. Here, we are surrounded on all sides by Hindu bastis." The drive to Shah Alam takes 45 minutes. But many families feel it is worth the effort and the expenses incurred.

"Come here after 9 p.m. and you will see how many people have left, how many doors are shut. People are still scared to sleep here," says Allauddin.

The residents have not been given new electricity meters to replace the old ones that were destroyed.

Many children refuse to go to school. "The teachers tell the other students, `Let the Miyas (Muslims) sit separately'. They say, `You people don't understand anything... just copy from other students'. I stopped going to school because I didn't like the way they treated us," says Yusuf Sheikh (11), who studied in a school in the nearby State Reserve Police colony.

His friend Shahrukh Mansoori resumed going to school just a week ago. "I'm going there so that I can collect my school-leaving certificate. I want to get admission in a boarding school near Mumbai. My brother is already there," he says.

A few English-medium schools run by Patel trusts refused to re-admit children from Naroda Patiya. But after social workers argued their case, some have been able to go back to school. Allauddin has admitted his children to an English-medium school in the area. Others have shifted their children to schools in Shah Alam. Many children, like Yusuf, have simply dropped out. Some dropouts are now working in restaurants or tea stalls in Naroda Patiya or Shah Alam. Local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) estimated that around 1,000 refugee children started working to support their families. However, many of them may have returned to school after leaving the relief camps.

While children are made to work, adults find it difficult to find jobs. With more people unemployed, wages have fallen.

"Earlier, you could earn Rs.100 a day by driving a rented rickshaw. Now, there is so much demand to rent a rickshaw that earnings have fallen to Rs.50," says Yusuf Mansoori, whose rickshaw was burned during the violence. He is too scared to live in Naroda Patiya and has rented a room near Shah Alam. "I can't even sell this house. People are offering such low rates. I won't be able to buy even a rickshaw for that amount," he says.

Despite the hardships involved, people from Naroda Patiya are migrating to the `safer' parts of the city. The city is being further ghettoised. The process of segregation started after the 1969 riots, and has continued with every subsequent riot. In the walled city, boundaries between Muslim and Hindu areas have become more pronounced. Many middle-class Hindus have moved out to west Ahmedabad. Muslims have moved to Juhapura, south of the city.

Even in eastern Ahmedabad's working class industrial areas, colonies are divided along caste and religious lines. Today, it is virtually impossible for a Muslim to find a flat in a Hindu housing colony.

The relief camps have closed. Now Naroda Patiya's residents are paying rent for refuge.

VATVA CAMP
The Grind

They would win the Survivor, reality show on TV, hands down. Except, their life is no game show. The last remains of Ahmedabad’s refugees. Nineteen families lived in a few tents pitched on a dusty field in Jehangirnagar at Vatva, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, for almost a year.

Four families crammed in each tent, they endured heavy rains, sweltering heat and biting cold. They suffered curses as they collected a few cans of water from a tap in the neighbouring colony. Sometimes, they sneaked a bath behind a sheet of tarpaulin.

Just when they thought it could not get much worse, they were denied even this much. On February 10, they were forced to vacate the camp. The owner of the plot felt he could not extend his generosity any longer. This correspondent reached the camp site on the day they had to leave.
A boy flying a kite at the Vatva camp on the day the refugees were to be evicted.
Panic prevailed. Where next? "We've spent sleepless nights wondering where to go. The local relief committees told us to rent rooms until they built houses for us nearby. But we barely have any money for food. Paying rent is impossible. That is why we are here," said Parvin Banu Memon, one of the refugees. "We can't go back home. We were just a few Muslim houses in a Hindu basti. It is not safe for us now." Parvin had a textile trading business. Now, she earns barely Rs.300 a month by washing dishes. "I have not been able to pay my son's school fees for four months. We get leftovers from our employers or food from the relief committee. That is life in the camp. Days go by without us lighting the stove to cook," she says.

The Vatva refugees' anxieties were relieved later that day. The relief committee managed to shift them to rented houses in the area. Two families have fled from these rented rooms. They felt it was too close to the Hindu colony.

How long can they continue to live like gypsies in their own neighbourhood? With each day a survival test, that is something they can't worry about for now.

VADALI CAMP
Ghettoes in the countryside

A cinema hall is probably the last place you'd find refugees. But in Vadali town in Sabarkantha district, exiles from six nearby villages have been camping in a cinema for almost a year.
Driven away from their villages, refugees have lived in tents at the Vadali camp for almost a year.
These are people who are still intimidated by the powerful Patels and Vishwa Hindu Parishad members in their villages. They have been living in tents - six people crammed into a small tent - in the most difficult conditions, under the scorching sun or in heavy downpour. But it is safer than going back home. A local relief committee has bought a plot of land here and is building homes for the refugees.

The refugees - victims of communal cleansing - have been banished from their villages. "What can we go back to? Everything is burned to ashes. It is dangerous for us even to enter the village," says Mohammedbhai Mansoori from Lakshmipura village. A few months ago, four women went back to check their homes. They were hounded out. Eventually, the police had to rescue them. The upper-caste people put up posters proclaiming a "Muslim-free village". The posters were brought down after others complained to the police.

Representatives from a charitable organisation that attempted to rebuild broken houses were chased away. "They have instructed jeep/taxi drivers not to bring Muslims into the village," says Mohammed.
At the Vadali camp.
Refugees have survived for a year not only without a roof over their heads, but also without work. While barely managing a subsistence wage, many of them have taken loans from moneylenders. The interest rates vary from 60 to 120 per cent per annum.

Mohammed owned a mattress shop in his village, which was destroyed. Now he hawks in streets near the camp. "There is no work. Somehow we try to make ends meet. The relief committee has helped us with rations. Once we get a house, we shall think how to start life again," he says.

If the government is to be believed, all relief camps closed in June. And the refugees have been resettled. But one look at the tents and you know the real story. Several families like Mohammed's have no choice but to camp out. Others have rented rooms in Muslim neighbourhoods in the nearest towns - Vadali, Himmatnagar, Godhra, Kalol, Halol and so on. Refugees now seek safety in numbers. The segregation is already complete in cities like Ahmedabad. Now, the ghettoisation of rural Gujarat has begun.

DEROL
Social boycott

After living as a refugee for months on end, Sattarbhai returned to his home in Kariadra village in Sabarkantha distrcit, four months ago. Yet, there are times when he has to run back to the relief camp in Vadali town.
One of the few who have dared to go back to their village, Derol.
"The powerful Patels want to empty the village of Muslims. They try to pick a fight and create trouble. They just quarrelled with a Muslim shopkeeper. I have come here (the camp) to ask for police security," says Sattarbhai. Sangh Parivar activists in his village have enforced a boycott of Muslims.

"For two months, they wouldn't let anyone sell us groceries or milk. The relief committee had to send us rations. They threaten anyone who buys from a Muslim shop. In school, Muslim children are asked why they are going for namaaz (prayers)," says Sattarbhai.

"They want us to leave so that they can capture our land. In Lakshmipura village nearby, they have cleared out all Muslims. In Kariadra, the local Patels are keen to follow the example." Many in the village do not support the boycott. "The Darbars and Dalits supported us and refused to obey the boycott. They are also being threatened," he says.

In Derol village in Sabarkantha, 18 of the 28 Muslim families have returned home. "People who had agricultural land have come back. The Darbars have supported us. But we are still scared," says Rasulbhai Mansoori, a tailor.

"Lakshmipura village is close by. People there have cleared the village of Muslims. They have taken over Muslim shops. They try to create trouble here too. On Ramzan day, they came and asked local Hindus why they had allowed Muslims back in the village." Many Muslims who have had the courage to return to their villages are still on shaky ground. Any moment they may have to leave everything and run.

Uncommon heroes
"WHILE the rest of Gujarat burned, we knew we would remain untouched. Even though we are surrounded by Hindu houses, we were sure we wouldn't be attacked. In the colony just behind us, there were riots, but they didn't affect us," says Hisam Bootwala from Momnavad in Ahmedabad.
Hisam Bootwala from Momnavad.
Hisam's neighbourhood is in the Shahpur area of Ahmedabad's old city. Over the years, there have been riots just across the fence, but not in their basti. "We have lived together peacefully for almost a century," says Hisam. "This time, our Hindu neighbours gave us food because we couldn't leave our homes. They used to remind us to go for namaaz. But we didn't want to venture out because of the curfew."

Neighbourhoods such as Momnavad were the positive stories at a time when there were deliberate efforts at inciting hatred and violence. Adversity brought out the best in people. In Fatehpura village of Sabarkantha, women sarpanches Daniben Vankar and Taraben Baraiya took the lead in ensuring that their village remained peaceful. In fact, while other villages organised funerals, these villages celebrated weddings. Daniben even organised the nikaah of a girl from her village who was to get married but fled to Surat fearing violence. "We called her back. The entire village helped arrange the wedding. I was one of the witnesses," says Daniben.

In Devkaranna Muwada village of Gandhinagar district, too, Ratan Singh Jhala organised the nikaah of his friend Karim Mansuri's daughter Nasim. He hosted the ceremony and gave away the bride, which is normally done by the bride's maternal uncle. Nasim's uncle, who lived in Nadiad, could not make it since his house had been destroyed in the riots.

In villages where massacres occurred, there were some people who were courageous enough to risk their lives to save others. At Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad, Vir Singh Rathod hid 65 people in his house for four days. "When Muslims were scared even to enter Naroda Patiya, my Muslim tenant insisted on staying there. He said he felt safe with me," says Vir Singh. In several villages in Panchmahals and Sabarkantha districts, Adivasis and Dalits sheltered Muslims who were fleeing attacks on their bastis. "Chenwas (Dalits) hid us in their homes. If it weren't for them, we might have been killed," says Sattarbhai Mansoori from Kariadra village in Sabarkantha.

Most villagers report that the attacks were led by Sangh Parivar members, mainly from the Patel community. In fact in most villages today, Patels affiliated to the Sangh Parivar are enforcing a social boycott of Muslims. But there are exceptions. It was a good-hearted Patel who gave Muslim refugees his land for a relief camp at Vadali in Sabarkantha. "When the riots began, I called Dr. Chagganbhai Patel and asked him if the refugees from surrounding villages could stay in his empty cinema. He sent me the keys to the cinema right away," says Amanullah Khan, camp organiser. "The doctor even sold the land to us at a low rate, even though another person offered him a much higher price. Local Sangh Parivar activists stoned his home. They were angry that he allowed the refugees to stay there."

In many small villages of Gujarat, Hindus and Muslims have helped protect and restore religious places. In Makarba village of Ahmedabad district, both Hindus and Muslims guarded the 500-year-old Sarkhej Roza. When rioters attempted to attack this roza of the Sufi saint, the Hindu sarpanch fought them back. Muslim villagers in Hatkeshwar, Kutch, helped organise the restoration of a temple in their village, where members of the Nagar community offered worship.

Frontline, March 01 - 14, 2003 Also available here

Why Gujarat voted saffron

2006-11-17T20:50:00.000+05:30

Narendra Modi has cleverly pulled off the Goebbelesian trick of projecting himself not as instigator of violence, but protector of Hindus.

DIONNE BUNSHA

“This time, we had to show them. We couldn’t let them get away with this (Godhra), or even more Hindus would have died than Muslims,” said Pramodbhai (name changed), an owner of a taxi service in Baroda. Pramodbhai drove this reporter around central Gujarat two weeks before election day.

“Whatever happens, Narendra Modi will return. For three days after Godhra, he let us react. He said 'do what you want, you won’t be caught'. The police won’t do anything. Godhra was pre-planned. Later, it was a Hindu reaction,” he explained.

In many ways, Pramodbhai’s response typifies the pro-Hindutva mood in Gujarat. Those outside Gujarat find it difficult to understand how a party, that is known to have supported the carnage of more than 1,000 people, has come to power. But, by playing on people’s fears and by fierce anti-Muslim propaganda, the BJP has managed to gain support. It has literally capitalised on votes over dead bodies.

“Pay your homage to the Godhra martyrs. Cast your vote,” read a huge BJP advertisement in the Gujarati media on election day. In his last campaign speech, Narendra Modi told his audience, “You decide whether there should be a Divali in Gujarat or whether firecrackers should burst in Pakistan.” He added, “Friends, when you all go to vote this time, if you press your finger on the hand symbol you will hear the screams of Godhra! The pain of Godhra. I took a vow on the Godhra platform that I would not spare the sinners of Godhra. I'll teach a lesson to the merchants of death…. if your son can't return home safe in the evening, what's the use of money or development?” For the last 10 months, the BJP has ensured that this sustained propaganda has seeped deep into the psyche of different caste and class strata in Gujarat.

There was virtually no escape from being reminded of the burning train. Sprawled across Gujarat were posters of the burning Sabarmati Express, portraying Narendra Modi as the saviour. As part of Modi’s anti-Pakistan rhetoric, posters were put up with Modi and Musharraf’s pictures, depicting them as adversaries. It prompted a Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh who was campaigning in Gujarat, to comment, “I didn’t know Musharraf was contesting elections in Gujarat!” T-shirts were distributed with the slogan: ‘I will not make my village another Godhra’. The chief minister described the charred bodies in graphic detail at public rallies.

By manipulating people’s insecurity, Modi pulled off the brilliantly Goebbelesian trick of projecting himself not as the instigator of violence, but the protector of Hindus. “There’s no security. We could walk out of the house and terrorists could shoot us. See what happened at Akshardham. It could happen anywhere,” said Jayaben (name changed), a middle class housewife from Maninagar, Modi’s constituency in Ahmedabad. “Modi will do something to protect us. During the riots, he helped Hindus.”

In cities like Ahmedabad and Baroda, interaction between the two communities has become much less ever since ghettoisation set in after the 1985 riots. This has made the unknown fear of ‘them’. Ahmedabad is virtually divided by the Sabarmati river into two different cities – the walled city (the poorer city with a greater Muslim population) and new Ahmedabad (the more elite and middle class areas). During the riots, people in the new city celebrated weddings, while people in the poorer areas of Ahmedabad were being killed.

Middle class Gujaratis view Muslim areas as ‘mini-Pakistans’, ‘breeding grounds for criminals’. Rajat (name changed), a chartered accountant told this reporter, “All this talk about soft and hard Hindutva is bogus. Hindus have always been soft. This is the first time we stood up and fought. There was a feeling of frustration due to overprotection of the minorities. This tempo was so strong that lakhs came out on the streets. The police couldn’t do anything.” Rajat belongs to the same class of upwardly mobile people who looted the shops on the posh C.G. Road after they were broken into by Sangh Parivar goons. Ahmedabad’s elite excitedly rushed to the stores, grabbing whatever they could and filling their cars with stolen goods. They even sent messages on mobile phones informing their friends of the booty. It was just another wild shopping spree. Yet, Rajat says, “They (Muslims) are all anti-socials. But we are described as dangerous.”

The sentiment in Ahmedabad’s ghettos is no different. People refer to narrow lanes as ‘borders’- dividing Muslim bastis from Hindu ones. Even though they live so close together, poor Hindus and Dalits harbour the same prejudices against Muslims. “All of them do illegal businesses,” said Hiren (name changed), a Dalit youth who is a local BJP leader. However, Hiren’s work isn’t very lawful either. He boasted, “I haven’t worked a day in my life. I earn my living through cheating. I take haftas.” He also bragged about leading a mob during the riots. A month after our conversation, Hiren was arrested for bootlegging. “After the BJP government came, the Hindu bootleggers have more power than the Muslim ones,” he told this reporter.

The BJP attracts Dalit youth like Hiren by giving them opportunities to flex muscle in their neighbourhood. But the BJP government has done nothing to create employment for these youth. Hiren is from the Ahmedabad’s old textile mill area, Gomtipur, where more than a lakh workers, like his father, lost their jobs when the mills closed down. But instead of new jobs, the BJP only has Hindutva to offer. For several Dalits, it is a way to gain social acceptance with higher castes. As the economic recession in the state worsens, the growing army of urban unemployed youth have been recruited into the Sangh Parivar. The lumpenisation of this section is complete. The Sangh’s fascist ideas also appeal to a large section of the aspiring lower middle class. Several Sangh workers are also teachers, which enables the widespread infusion of their propaganda and ideology among students. Since Gujarat is the most urbanised state, with a 38 % urban population, it has made the spread of fascism easier here.

In the last ten years, the Sangh, through its Vanvasi Kalyan Kendras, has been trying to gain ground in Adivasi areas of central and south Gujarat, where the Congress has a very old and strong support base. Until now, it didn’t yield any electoral gains. The Congress retained a large majority of seats in these regions. These were precisely the areas targeted during the communal violence. And, this time, the BJP has swept the polls in the riot-hit areas of Panchmahal, Dahod and Vadodara, winning every seat in this Congress bastion. Its propaganda has seeped so deep that tribals have started talking about Godhra instead of basic survival problems. “This has always been a Congress area, but now the BJP has also become popular. During the riots, the BJP bailed us out when we were arrested. The Congress didn’t help us. If Muslims harm our religion, why should we let them?” said Ramsinh Dhabi (name changed), from Bhilpur village in central Gujarat. Several poor Adivasis from this drought-hit were paid and given liquor to be part of the Sangh mobs. They were told that they would not be arrested.

The Sangh Parivar has been working hard to make inroads here. “This is supposed to be a safe seat for the Congress. But not anymore. After Godhra and the Gaurav Yatra, Adivasis have also become kattar (hardline) Hindutva. They think the Congress only supports Muslims. After Godhra, they looted Muslims,” said Rajubhai Rathwa, a local BJP panchayat leader. The RSS has also been mobilising support. “We do a lot of work within villages. We want to awaken Hindus,” said Madhusudan Pancholi, a local RSS leader. While the Sangh’s cadres have been systematic and organised, the Congress has been complacent and virtually non-functional. In fact, the Congress rout in its strongholds is also, in some way, an anti-incumbency vote against long-time MLAs who have done nothing for their constituencies. When Adivasis here talk of their problems, they don’t blame the BJP government, but the local MLA.

Gujarat still has to open its eyes to Hindutva’s divisive agenda. The polarisation is so pervasive that no one in Gujarat is ever allowed to forget the distinction between the two communities. While creating electoral bases through violence and hate, the Sangh Parivar has been ripping apart the social fabric in the state. It has succeeded in creating such fear and paranoia that people like Pramodbhai believe that they are only safe if others are killed.

Frontline, December 21, 2002 - January 3, 2003 Also available here