NEWSLETTER |
Issue 9May 2000
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The Indian Scientists Against Nuclear Weapons (ISANW) was formed
immediately after Pokhran II nuclear tests conducted by India in May
1998, as a spontaneous reaction to the changed nuclear scenario in the
country. It aims to be a united informed body of scientists to work
against the proliferation of nuclear armaments in the country.
We have come a long way with ISANW and some of us
feel that it is about time we made some changes in the Adhoc
Organizing committee, including more active people from the ISANW
membership. While a regular committee can only be formed with a
full National Convention, it is probably time we included more people
in the committee.
Discussion with some of the members of the ISANW resulted in the
following suggestions. That we include
- Prof. D. P. Sengupta, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Prof. V. Pati, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore
- Prof. R. Shankar, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
as members of the Adhoc Committee
These members have agreed to be on the Adhoc Organizing Committee. In
addition, Prof. Krishna Maddaly, Institute of Mathematical
Sciences, has dropped out of the Organizing Committee because of personal
engagements.
24th of May 11 AM, Press Club.
India exploded five nuclear test bombs between May 11th and May
13th of 1998. These explosions sent shock waves throughout the
world. India's traditional position in the comity of nations as a peace-
campaigner and a champion of nuclear disarmament was shattered in
one blow.
The officials justified the explosions as imperatives due to security
reasons and the government of the day initiated a massive
propaganda campaign to sell this act of violence to the Indian public
and the world governments. While the tests horrified peace-loving
people throughout the world, an initial euphoria of jingoistic jubilation
swept India. However, as the actual facts started to emerge, a more
sober view crystallised.
Groups in virtually every corner of India started to protest against this
nuclear weaponisation programme pointing out the immorality and
enormous social and economic cost of this adventurism. It is
conservatively estimated that a full scale nuclear weaponisation
programme will cost at least Rs.50,000 crores over the next decade,
which averages out to Rs.5,000 crores per year. By contrast, three
of the most affected states in the recent drought, the worst in our
country this century, received barely a tenth of this figure for relief
from the Central Government.
These groups further pointed out that the very existence of nuclear
bombs in an atmosphere of mutual distrust and political instability as it
prevails now in this subcontinent, poses a real and imminent danger
to all life and environment in this part of the world. The falsity of the
'security imperative' argument became clear as the so-called nuclear
deterrent failed to prevent the border infiltration and the ensuing
Kargil conflagration. A realisation also came into place that the
weaponisation programme has taken place behind a cloak of secrecy
enshrined in the 1962 Atomic Energy Act. Under this Act the
activities of the nuclear establishment in India is not liable to any
scrutiny by the Parliament let alone the Indian public.
The citizens of Bangalore were some of the first in the country to
come out in open protest after the 1998 tests. Scientists, artists,
lawyers, trade unionists, students, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) and women's groups got together in Bangalore and
observed Hiroshima Day as a day of peace and protest. This
happened in spite of many provocations and threats posed by many
reactionary groups who glorified nuclear weapons as symbols of
national chauvinism and aggressive manhood.
The protest movement in India has now snowballed and acquired a
new dimension. Different groups have come together from all
corners to form a loose national coalition. The coalition is organising
a national convention against nuclear weaponisation to take place in
November this year in New Delhi.
In Bangalore more than twenty organisations, and many individuals
have built the Bangalore Platform against Nuclear Weaponisation.
The Platform sees as its objective the task of building a mass
movement that can force the politicians to roll back the nuclear
weaponisation programme. We are convinced that this can be done,
as has in fact happened in South Africa, Brazil and Ukraine. We
launch this movement formally on the 10th of June 2000 with a
campaign to collect 5000 signatures protesting against the
weaponisation. We hope to follow this up with popular publications,
lectures, exhibitions, cultural performances and discussions in
schools, colleges, factories and rural areas.
Our campaign will consist of dissemination of information related to
India's nuclear weaponisation programme as well as to build up, as a
part of the national movement, demands for the following.
- No assembly, induction and deployment of nuclear weapons.
- No acquisition and development of delivery vehicles: aircraft, missile
and submarine.
- Advanced research into nuclear weapons to be halted immediately;
moratoriums on explosive testing, subcritical tests, production of
weapons --usable fissile materials and tritium.
- Public accountability of veracity and efficacy of freeze.
- Complete transparency and independent monitoring of the
performance of Department of Atomic Energy and its full public
accountability.
- Proper compensation and reparation to all victims of radiation
exposure incurred during tests and other processes related to the
production of nuclear bombs.
Bangalore Platform against Nuclear Weaponisation:
AIBEA (Canara Bank), Alternate Lawyers Forum, BEL Employee's Union,
Centre for
Education and Documentation, Citizens Against Nuclear Energy,
Documentation and Dissemination Centre for Disarmament Information,
Federation of Voluntary Organisations for Rural Development -Karnataka,
Gandhi Peace Centre, General Insurance Employees Union, Indian Scientists
Against Nuclear Weapons, International Energy Initiative, Karnataka State
Peace and Solidarity Organisation, Manasa, New Entity for Social Action,
People's Union for Civil Liberties- Karnataka, Pipal Tree, Samvada, Science
for Society, Anglo-Indian Guild, Visthar
CONTACT:
CED admin@ilban.ernet.in, Ph: 5543397 or ISANW
pativish@hotmail.com Ph: 5554246/8483002 (extn. 442)
International South Asia Forum (INSAF) Meets to Organize Wide Range
of Activities to Promote Peace in South Asia
Cambridge, Mass
April 28, 2000
The International South Asia Forum (INSAF), a
coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to the promotion of
peace and social justice in South Asia, met in Cambridge, Massachusetts
on April 22 and 23, 2000.
INSAF spokeperson, Abira Ashfaq said, “INSAF
has been created to provide a common platform for a lot of groups in
North America and Europe who are concerned about secularism, peace and
democracy in South Asia. At this meeting we have decided on plans
for a broad range of activities to be undertaken throughout North
America and Europe in support of our objectives.” Included are:
South Asia Day to be celebrated in the first weekend of May each year,
a celebration of independence from British colonialism as an alternative
to Indian and Pakistani Independence Day celebrations (which have assumed
an increasingly jingoistic character in recent years), a signature
campaign to demand a peaceful resolution of the Pakistan-India conflict,
and cultural programs that emphasize the syncretic culture of the South
Asian region.
The meeting expressed its support of the Bangalore
Declaration and Resolution of Kashmir, adopted at the recently held
Fifth Joint Convention of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for
Peace and Democracy. Ms. Ashfaq stated that, “The members of INSAF
are seriously concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation
in South Asia. The worsening quality of life for the masses, growing
militarization and acquisition of nuclear tools of mass destruction, the
emergence of fascistic and bigoted political forces and the increasing
hostility between India and Pakistan as evidenced by the recent war in
Kargil need immediate attention.”
INSAF’s founding meeting held in Montreal,
in September, 1999, was attended by one hundred and twenty four
individuals and representatives of organizations from the U.S., Canada,
the U.K. and several European countries drawn from overseas communities
of Bangladeshis, Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans.
They pledged to work towards the principal goals of seeking a peaceful
resolution of all conflicts in the region, demilitarization and an
end to the nuclear stand-off between India and Pakistan, a negotiated
resolution of the Kashmir conflict in accordance with the wishes of the
Kashmiri people, and to the promotion of friendship among the people of
the region.
Some of the groups represented at the Cambridge meeting
were: The Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, Non-Resident
Indians for Secularism & Democracy (NRISAD), CERAS-Montreal, INSAF-New
York, Forum of Progressive Artists.
Mumbai (Bombay) Citizens Protested on 11th May
Sukla Sen, Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND), Mumbai.
Two years back on 11th and 13th May, as a grand move to radically advance
their politics of 'hatred and aggression', the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
- the parliamentary and mass political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
sangh (RSS), committed to establish a fascistic 'Hindu' nation-state by
displacing the present Indian nation-state, which came into being as the
culmination of more than a half century long epic anti-colonial liberation
struggles founded upon democratic and pluralistic values - as the leader of
the less than two months old coalition government at the centre carried out
a series of five nuclear explosions in the Pokhran deserts of Rajasthan..
On its second anniversary, the peace activists of Mumbai (Bombay) again
came out on the streets, as they are doing repeatedly for the last two
years, to register their protest against and moral outrage at this fiendish
drive to nuclearise the Indo-Pak subcontinent.
A highly spirited protest demonstration was held at the city-centre, near
the Churchgate railway station, which is the hub of India's commercial
capital. They displayed placards with messages of peace and denunciation of
war. Leaflets were distributed in large numbers highlighting the volcanic
situation where the whole of Indo-Pak subcontinent has been dragged into by
the nuclear explosions at Pokhran, which triggered off a vortex of arms
race and conflict between neighbouring India and Pakistan, and the
consequent urgent need for moving towards regional peace talks and concrete
steps towards de-nuclearisation. The nuclear weapons states also came in
for heavy criticism and were called upon to shed their hypocrisy and
immediately move towards global nuclear disarmament. The protest was very
well received by the common people.
Lahore, Pakistan:
Joint Action Committee called a well-attended meeting at
the Lahore Press Club on May 11, to commemorate noted intellectual and
peace activist Dr Eqbal Ahmed's death anniversary as well as protest the
Indian nuke explosions which started the nuclearisation of the region. The
meeting also re-affirmed the slogan of goli nahin, boli (not bullets, but
talks) raised by Indian women who visited Pakistan last month, and
Pakistani women who have just returned to Pakistan from India, led by
prominent lawyer Asma Jehangir.
JAC is an umbrella organisation of over 30 NGOs in Lahore, and is part of
the Pakistan Peace Coalition, a larger umbrella group comprising peace
activists all over the country.
Protesting May 98 Nuclear Explosions, Islamabad, Pakistan:
A. H. Nayyar
The Citizens Peace Committee (or PPC Islamabad)
held a protest demonstration at the F-6 Spermarket traffic junction
on the second anniversary of the May1998 nuclear test explosions.
The highlight of the protest demo was the large banner, sewn from about 70
yard-length banners, each containing on the average about 25 signatures. The
signed banners had come from various cities of Pakistan; Karachi, Quetta,
Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The pieces were put together in
the form of a long banner supported by some 17 bamboo poles. It was
impressive. In addition there were placards and other smaller banners. A
statement, in both English and Urdu, was issued to the press on this
occasion, copies of which were also distributed among the onlookers.
It was Sunday for which the market and offices were closed. There wasn't
much traffic either. Yet quite a few onlookers gathered and talked to the
demonstrators. There was a program to march around the market area after the
demo. The police, including the SHO of the area police station, did not
allow that for the fear that the traders on strike may join and use the
march to create law and order problem. Consequently, the march was
abandoned. Instead, the time of the demo was extended for another half hour.
The national press was present there in good numbers. Including the dirty
press. You should not be surprised by some negative coverage.
The participants this year were fewer. Only about 50. Many of the usual
anti-nuclear campaigners of Islamabad were absent. The good news is that a
large fraction of the protestors this year consisted of new and young
people.
Two persons put in special efforts this year: Shandana Mohmand and Foqia
Sadiq Khan. Shandana was the proposer and organiser of the plan for the
large banner. We have decided to keep the banner and to keep enlarging it
with support from peace campaigners all over the country. Perhaps by the
third anniversary we may have some ten thousand signatures to show on the
banner, which may come to measure a mile long. We can do it.
Edited by: Tabish
(tabish@arbornet.org)
Indian Scientists Against Nuclear Weapons
isanw@arbornet.org.
http://www.isanw.org/