Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
THE ASSAULT ON GAZA
Vinod Mubayi
INSAF Bulletin usually limits itself to South Asian issues. However just as Hitler’s attack on Poland was not simply an European but an international matter so also is the attack of Israel on Gaza Palestinians.
“EXTERMINATE ALL THE BRUTES”: GAZA 2009
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is one of the most progressive free thinkers of modern times. He is an encyclopedia of facts and an eyesore to the US government; if it were not for his excellence and fame as a linguist, he would probably have been banished. Professor Chomsky has raised his voice for the oppressed and deprived and here he brilliantly analyzes why Israel resorted to this uncalled for barbarism in Gaza.
OBAMA’S STANCE ON GAZA CRISIS: “APPROXIMATELY THE BUSH POSITION”
Noam Chomsky
Will Obama be or not be another Bush, is the question? Obama’s stand on the middle-east conflict within 3 days of his presidency does not make it fully clear but chances are he will be closer to Bush in this regard than to the spirit of his inaugural address.
THE GAZA INFERNO – CAN WE SILENCE THE GUNS FOREVER? YES WE CAN
Kiran Omar
Israel’s lust for Palestinian blood is so intense and crude that any one with heart and soul and a bit of sense of justice can get deeply traumatized. Here Kiran expresses her anguish and frustration mixed with a candid analysis of what is happening in Gaza and why.
GAZA WAR ENDED IN UTTER FAILURE FOR ISRAEL
Gideon Levy
I once saw a documentary called Palestine represented by a young woman. After all the brutalities of Israelis, she stands with her sling and cannons are fired at her. She stands smiling and with her sling slot demolishes the entire Israeli firing squad. This is a film but it is also real. The days when US could win a war is gone since Vietnam. The days when Israel could win also ended with the 6-day war. In a way their December 27 attack on Gaza was no different from their dismal failure in Lebanon. Sure innocent civilians die but their resistance does not. In this article the Israeli journalists recounts how on all fronts Israel lost the war. Will Israel and U.S. ever learn their days are numbered?
PALESTINIANS MEND TUNNELS DESPITE ISRAELI THREATS
How brave and determined are the Palestinians? Read this.
STATEMENTS AND ACT IONS CONDEMNING ISRAEL
Compiled by Daya Varma
As to be expected the Israeli attack on Gaza has received world wide condemnation. INSAF Bulletin is producing what it was able to get and we are sure there have been dozens and dozens of statements not accounted by us. Read what we have access to.
BANGLADESH ELECTIONS BRING NEW HOPE
Daya Varma
Notwithstanding compromises made by the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League in the past, its impressive victory against Zia Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the December 29 elections in Bangladesh is a refreshing development and a decisive verdict against fundamentalism.
BIRTH OF A NEW BANGLADESH: JOY BANGLA
Biplab Pal
Since 1947 when the present Bangladesh was East Pakistan and a major force behind the division of India into India and Pakistan (West and East) on the basis of two-nation theory, the country has had a tumultuous history. When it broke away from Pakistan, Bangladesh was a secular country; it went through several military coups and was ruled by Islamic fundamentalists for a while. The author Biplab Pal expresses his optimism in the future of Bangladesh and points out that economic reforms are a must to guarantee a secular Bangladesh as was the vision of its founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
INVOKING INDIA’S FUHRER: INDUSTRIALISTS CALL FOR MODI TO BE THE PRIME MINISTER
Ram Puniyani
Capital respects no boundaries and has no morals. It is thus not surprising that Tata, Ambani and Mittal, the three biggest industrialists of India with one (Mittal) with second most assets in the word have chosen Narendra Modi, the indignity of India as their new Prime Minister. The author Ram Puniyani who has dedicated along with many to the cause of secularism and democracy in India exposes the nefarious character of the three blood-suckers.
HINDU TERRORISTS
Based on information from Shabnam Hashmi
In one of his frank moods, the former Prime Minister Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political wing of the Hindutva fascist outfit Rashtria Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) got encouraged to say while he was in Goa that all Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. Obviously he was very wrong because his own party is deep in to terrorism. Who bombed the Hubli court in Karnataka? The evidence is here, they were not Muslims but Hindus.
PAKISTAN’S CIVIL SOCIETY URGES GOVERNMENT TO COME OUT OF DENIAL
Nirupama Subramanian
The Hindu newspaper’s correspondent reports that civil society groups in Pakistan represented by highly respected citizens call upon Pakistan to take its due responsibility in the Mumbai terror attack of last year.
GUFTAGU BAND NA HO (LET’S KEEP ON TALKING!)
Ali Sardar Jafri
[This poem, in Urdu, was written by Ali Sardar Jafri on the occasion of the 1965 war between India and Pakistan. Jafri was a member of the Progressive Writers Association led by the Communist Party of India while PC Joshi was the General Secretary)
SADHUS OF AYODHYA AND LEGISLATORS OF SINDH ASSEMBLY JOIN FOR PEACE
Sent by COVA, Hyderabad, India
Sadhus (Hindu holy men) of India and legislators from Sindh province of Pakistan embark on a novel initiative to bring peace in the subcontinent. An admirable effort with promising consequences.
GRAPPLING WITH ESCALATING VIOLENCE – PAKISTAN’S GROWING PROBLEM WITH INTERNAL MILITANCY
Kiran Omar
Unable to squarely confront the US and unable to improve economic situation in the country, the Pakistan government is steadily creating conditions favorable to terrorists , which threatens Pakistan as well. Montreal-based Kiran Omar originally from Pakistan and a keen observer of Pakistani politics analyzes who fundamentalists who in the past recruited mainly the marginalized are now able to draw middle class youth in their sphere.
TWO MAOIST PARTIES OF NEPAL UNITE
Since the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960’s, practically every one of the non-ruling communist parties split into two or more. Some small parties united since then but that has been of little political significance. The recent unification of two important communist parties [The CPN (Maoist) and the CPN (Unity Centre-Masal)] might signal a reversal of that trend or it might be that unity comes in the process of solving specific problems.
SRI LANKA: TIME FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION
Compiled by Daya Varma
The recent offensive by the Sri Lanka government against the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Elam (LTTE) has caused loss of lives and property of Tamil civilians in Tamil Majority; naturally this fight to the finish approach also requires silencing ant criticism and exposure of its deeds. The FOUR articles on Sri Lanka produced below are examples of the havoc caused by the government as well as suggestion for peaceful resolution of the national question in Sri Lanka.
SIMILAR YET DIFFERENT: WHAT DALIT ACTIVISTS THINK ABOUT BARACK OBAMA
Anuja Mirchandaney
The 44th President of America, Barrack Hussein Obama, is a black American with ancestry in Kenya. Only 50 years ago a black man could be thrown out of a running train for entering into a all white coach. Naturally his election to the highest office of the most powerful country in the world evoked unprecedented response both within and outside the US, perhaps more than any event in recent history. It is thus natural that Dalits of India look at this development with unusual expectations about their own status and future. But India is at least 50 years behind the US and threatens to prolong the agony of its millions of Dalits, be they Hindus, Muslims or Christians. This article by Anuja Mirchandaney examines the thinking of Dalit activists in India about the developments in America.
[OBAMA] THE 11TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Fidel Castro Ruz
Fidel Castro is one of the most well-read and educated political leaders with a knowledge and view on almost everything political, even social and economic. Since his retirement he is writing his reflections on various issues. This one is about Obama – the 44th President with George Washington being the first but 11th since the Cuban revolution.
ON IFTI NASIM’S POEM “HIS MASTER’S VOICE”
Kaleem Kawaja
(Ifti Nasim’s poem “HIS MASTER’S VOICE” on the day Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated as the President of the United States, criticized him as “hiding from his Muslim name Husain”, and “as being a poodle waiting for his master’s order to bomb Muslim countries”. The poem received many comments. One comment was from Kaleem Kawaja who told the critics to “stop this kind of nonsense which shows the Muslim community in poor light”. Some people criticized Mr Kawaja’s comment as unsympathetic to Muslims. Here Mr Kawaja responds to the criticism on his comments on the poem.