Articles by Asghar Ali Engineer

Given that plebiscite is not a practical possibility, autonomy is the best option both for the Kashmiris and for the central government. Alongside this the Indian state must respect the human rights of the Kashmiris, and work for economic development of the state.

Leave aside blatantly communal periodicals, even well-meaning scholars and intellectuals of liberal-secular hue have contributed to the construction of the minority communities, especially the Muslims and the Christians, as homogeneous, orthodox-sectarian, anti-national and rabid evangelical, notwithstanding ample evidence to the contrary.

One year of the BJP-led government in office saw increased communalisation with Christians becoming the new targets of the Sangh parivar outfits. On the other hand, the one year also witnessed the prime minister's bus ride to Pakistan, a heartening attempt to repair Indo-Pak relations.

the peasants of Bagur-Naville area.
However, Pranthia Sanghas or the Kisan Sabhas are not a big force in Karnataka; number of agitations that the AIKS has undertaken over the years are far and few. During 1970s the AIKS had the opportunity of becoming a big force by focusing on tenancy rent and price issues. It did conduct some major agitations during this decade such as anti-land grab movement, anti- price rise movement, agitations demanding higher prices for agricultural commodities, etc. Its demand included such issues as land to the tiller, effective famine policy, distribution of waste or surplus lands to the landless, implementation and amendment to land reforms act, moratorium on agricultural debts, reduction in water rates, and also implementing "living wages' to agricultural workers. However, these activities received a severe jolt because of the effective implementation of land reforms in certain pockets of Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada) where it had a strong base. The changing focus of party politics at the national level also had its effect on the agitational politics of the AIKS. The second opportunity came during 1980s when AIKS/Pranthia Raitha Sangha engineered the famous Navalgund- Nargund peasant struggle, which became the forerunner for new farmers' movement in Karnataka, Here too the AIKS or the Prantha Sangha failed to enlarge its bases because of a large number of factors such as the ambiguity in defining the contradictions, incapacity to provide a clear- cut direction to the struggle when it was badly in need of it, etc. Although in recent years the prantha sanghas/kisan sabhas have taken up the issues of farmers who committed suicide, it has not been able to create or provide larger spaces for the AIKS to become a big force. Even the Bagur-Naville struggle too could not create permanent bases.

Maharashtra though went on delaying the publication of the Srikrishna Commission report on post-Babri demolition Mumbai riots of December 1992 January 1993, it had to table it on August 6 under public pressure and also because of a public interest petition in the Mumbai High Court filed by several organisations. Left to itself, the SS-BJP government would never have tabled it. It declared its intention to table it several times and every time it lost nerve and did not table it. The report is a highly explosive document as far as the Shiv Sena is concerned. The legislative assembly of Maharashtra was in turmoil after the report was tabled. More about it later First we would like to throw some light on the contents of the report.