Calling Tavleen Singh146;s bluff

Before writing her column, Ms Singh e-mailed us a list of 8216;8216;harsh questions8217;8217;. They added up to the charge that we are a shady, unregistered outfit NGO, accountable to no one, funded by 8216;8216;Saudis of a dubious nature8217;8217; for publishing a magazine that cries itself hoarse over Muslim victims of communal violence but keeps silent over the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and the victims of the anti-Sikh carnage in 1984.

We give a detailed reply to all the questions. We categorically state that the magazine or its editors do not have a single petro-dollar to hide, that Communalism Combat is not an NGO activity but is published by a registered, private limited company whose audited annual accounts are regularly filed with the Income Tax and other authorities. In addition, we attach a specially-prepared list of headlines of cover stories and special reports published by Communalism Combat since its launch in August 1993, so that Ms Singh could see for herself that the magazine has been as unsparing of Muslim communalism and extremism, lamented the fact that the victims of the anti-Sikh carnage of 1984 had been denied justice, frequently highlighted the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, and repeatedly castigated Bangladesh and Pakistan for the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities. We would be happy to e-mail a copy of the list to all interested readers of The Indian Express. We also inform Ms Singh that she is welcome to access archives on our website, http://www.sabrang.com.

It is obvious in retrospect that Ms Singh was merely interested in those bits of facts that suited her thesis, the rest she would twist or fabricate.

8216;8216;In the vanguard of those fighting Hindu fundamentalism was Teesta Setalvad8217;s magazine, Communalism Combat8230;.8217;8217; Excuse us. Ms Singh is entitled to her opinion of us and of our magazine, but what gives her the right to distort facts? Did she not owe it her own professional integrity to share with her readers the information fact that the editors she accuses of being concerned with fighting Hindu fundamentalism alone, among other things, co-hosted the visit of Taslima Nasreen to Mumbai in March 2000, kept her at their own home, arranged public meetings and interviews for her, in support of her right to be heard and in defiance of Muslim fanatics who had threatened to burn Taslima alive if she dared enter the metropolis?

CC was the perhaps the first publication in South Asia to feature the inhuman and oppressive politics of the Taliban in Afghanistan 8216;Hell on Earth8217;, cover story, November 1998. It was up front, questioning the Islamisation of the movement in Kashmir 8216;The Talibanisation of Kashmir8217;, cover story, November 1999. 8216;Living with Terror, Minorities in Bangladesh8217;, our cover story for September 2004, is only the latest in half-a-dozen cover stories and special reports that we have featured in the last few years to highlight atrocities against Hindus and other minorities in neighbouring Bangladesh.

8216;8216;Teesta Setalvad8217;s magazine, Communalism Combat8230;.8217;8217; Elementary journalistic courtesy would have required her to point out the fact that CC is co-edited. But Teesta needed to be singled out so that she could be 8216;8216;exposed8217;8217; immediately thereafter: 8216;8216;Teesta8217;s protege Zaheera Shaikh condemned her for exploiting her for money.8217;8217;

The choice of words protege is telling. Why was Zaheera8217;s allegation not part of the list of charges and queries against us for our version? Shouldn8217;t Ms Singh have informed her readers that within days of Zaheera8217;s allegation, it is not she but Teesta who has applied to the Supreme Court praying for a probe into the murky episode? Zaheera has rushed her complaints to the National Commission for Minorities and National Commission for Women but is fighting shy of going near the National Human Rights Commission, the only among the three commissions to be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. Does this not arouse Ms Singh8217;s journalistic curiosity?

8216;8216;Communalism is an odd subject to make a profit out of8217;8217;. We gave Ms Singh a fair picture of how profitable communalism has been for us in the last 11 years. Why she has chosen to keep that a personal secret only she can answer. We started Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt Ltd in the hope of undertaking professional assignments that would generate revenue to sustain Communalism Combat, which we foresaw as not being viable on its own strength. What, prey, is so odd about that?

Having distorted facts and employed clever words to make insinuations against the only two persons and their magazine she names in her entire column, Ms Singh pretends her column is not actually about them! How ingenious! Her column, she says, is about 8216;8216;anti-national8217;8217; magazines and NGOs 8216;8216;who have thrived on maligning India for being a country as fundamentalist as our Islamic neighbours8217;8217;. Having adopted a hit-and-run tactics vis-a-vis us, Ms Singh can proceed to hurl the most outrageous charges without any fear of contradiction for she smartly names no names.

We need only repeat the plaint of fellow journalists in recent years: 8216;8216;Please don8217;t shoot the messenger!8217;8217; If with their 8216;8216;What face will I show to the world?8217;8217; and 8216;8216;Gujarat is a blot on the nation!8217;8217; even Vajpayee and Advani have been forced to acknowledge Narendra Modi8217;s malevolent role in maligning India, why is Ms Singh chasing imaginary ghosts?

The timing of her demand for an inquiry into NGOs and their source of funds is interesting, echoing as it does Modi8217;s demand immediately after Zaheera8217;s fresh turnaround under the protection of the Gujarat police. The Gujarat Chief Minister8217;s desperation is understandable. Be it the deposition of top IPS officials before the Nanavati Commission, or the evidence piling up before the courts, or the ongoing expose in the very paper that provides you with precious column space, things are getting hotter by the day for Modi. A desperate man will take desperate steps. What8217;s your problem, Ms Singh? Don8217;t be so naive as to write such a premature obit for Hindutva. And can8217;t you see that the best way to fight terrorism, Islamic or otherwise, is to fight against injustice. That is all that we are trying our best to do, through Communalism Combat and otherwise. Pick a forum of your choice for an honest debate but deviousness does not befit a journalist like you.

Are these all 8216;anti-national8217;, Ms Singh?

A sample of Communalism Combat cover stories, special reports since August 1993:

8226; October 2004: Special Report: 8216;Confronting honour killings8217; in Pakistan

8226; September 2004: Cover Story: 8216;Living with Terror: Minorities in Bangladesh8217;; Editorial: 8216;The butchers next door8217;

8226; July 2004: Cover Story: 8216;Talaq, talaq, talaq8217;; Also see, 8216;Us8217; or the 8216;enemy8217;, an opinion piece by Javed Anand as part of the cover story

8226; July 2004: Special Report: 8216;Religion-based reservation8217;

8226; June 2004: Special Report: 8216;Kashmir: The politics of Fear8217;

8226; February-March 2004: 8216;Minority women8217;s rights are human rights8217;

8226; January 2004: Special Report: 8216;Pandits: When will they return?8217;

8226; December 2003: Special Report: 8216;Doctoring young minds8217; Pakistan

8226; October 2003: Special Report: 8216;Bangladesh: Terror Raj for minorities8217;

8226; Aug-Sept 2003: 10 years of Communalism Combat. The full issue is a feedback from a wide cross-section of CC readers, doing a 8216;social audit8217; of the magazine. 8216;8216;It is to me, the secular Gita of our time8217;8217; Swami Agnivesh

8226; May 2003: Special Report: 8216;Kashmiri Pandits: On the firing line8217;

8226; February 2003: Cover Story: 8216;The Road Not Taken: Secularism in India8217; Please see article by Arif Mohd Khan

8226; February 2003: Forum: 8216;Rethinking Islam8217;

8226; January 2003: Cover Story: 8216;Violence in South Asia8217;

8226; July 2002: Special Report: 8216;Targeted: Bangla Hindus8217;; 8216;Gang rape in Pakistan8217;

8226; July 2002: Comment: 8216;Male order8217; Blurb: 8216;Liberal Muslims, men and women, must condemn the chauvinism of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board8217;

8226; Jan-Feb 2002: Special Report: 8216;Kashmir, the moral dimension8217;

8226; December 2001: Cover Story: 8216;Bangla Hindus, Victims of Growing Muslim Extremism8217;

8226; November 2001: Special Report: 8216;Hindu trauma8217; Bangladesh

8226; November 2001: Debate: 8216;To my Muslim friends8217;

8226; November 2001: 8216;Politics behind the purdah8217;

8226; October 2001: Cover Story following 9/11: 8216;Islam: Moment of Truth8217;

8226; July 2001: Cover Story: 8216;Winds of Change8217; Kashmir

8226; May 2001: Cover story: 8216;Thrice Oppressed8217; Blurb: 8216;Dalit and Muslim women grapple with the triple burden of caste/community, class and gender8217;

8226; March 2001: Cover story: 8216;Should the Haj subsidy go?8217; Yes, in CC8217;s opinion; Special Report: 8216;Barbarians in Bamiyan8217;

8226; October 2000: Special Report: 8216;Nowhere people: Hindus ousted from Pakistan8217;

8226; September 2000: Special Report: 8216;A forgotten people8217;

8226; August 2000: Cover Story: 8216;ISI: The demon we feed8217;

8226; March 2000: Cover Story: 8216;Taslima Nasreen in Mumbai8217; Because a Muslim fanatic outfit threatened to burn her alive if she dared enter Mumbai, Communalism Combat and Mahanagar joined hands to invite her to Mumbai

8226; March 2000: Special Report: 8216;Syedna8217;s stooges target Asghar Ali Engineer8217;

8226; November 1999: Cover Story: 8216;The Talibanisation of Kashmir8217;

8226; October 1999: Special Report: 8216;Short on arguments, Hindutva tries the foreign funds bogey against Combat, NGOs8217;

8226; July 1999: Cover story: 8216;After Kargil, Kashmir8217;

8226; April 1999: Cover Story: 8216;Denying a shared past8217; RSS and Tableeghi Jamaat two sides of the same coin

8226; March 1999: Cover Story: 8216;The enemy within8217; Blurb: 8216;Muslim extremists unleash a reign of Taliban-style terror on co-religionists, women specially, in Left-controlled West Bengal and Kerala8217;

8226; February 1999: Cover Story: 8216;Allah8217;s army in Pakistan, Hindutva brigade in India, Buddhist Lions in Sri Lanka8217;

8226; February 1999: Special Report: 8216;Right to be Rushdie8217;

8226; November 1998: Cover Story: 8216;Islamic Afghanistan: Hell on Earth!8217;

8226; November 1998: Neighbours: 8216;Whose right is it anyway?8217; Blurb: 8216;Humanism must mean more than Islamic solidarity OIC through selective outrage8217;

8226; October 1998: Special Report: 8216;Mullahs bay for Taslima8217;s blood in Bangladesh8217;

8226; May 1998: Cover Story: 8216;How green is my Valley?8217; Blurb: 8216;The killing of innocent Hindus by Pakistan-trained mercenaries in J038;K is one more bid to convert the Kashmiriyat issue into a Hindu-Muslim problem8217;

8226; May 1998: Special Report: 8216;Equal Before God8217;: Christian feminist theology denounces male domination as 8216;sin8217;

8226; March 1998: Special Report: 8216;Kashmiri Pandits: Tragedy of errors8217;

8226; September 1997: Cover Story: 8216;What kind of a God will condemn a 8216;heathen8217; child to eternal Hell? A hard-hitting essay by Swami Agnivesh

8226; September 1997: Special Report: 8216;Fatwas for all seasons8217;

8226; June 1997: Campaign: 8216;Afghan women seek support8217; against jehadi tyrants

8226; May 1997: Cover Story: 8216;Shah Bano lives8217;A seething indictment of the Muslim clergy and Muslim men and the role they played in the Shah Bano issue, a powerful story by Pakistani writer, writer Zahida Hena

8226; May 1997: 8216;The right to silence8217; A castigation of Muslim fundamentalists from Kolkata who flout the high court directions against noise pollution

8226; May 1997: 8216;Women beyond the veil8217;

8226; March 1997: 8216;Justice for Muslim women: Bangladesh shows the way8217;

8226; March 1997: 8216;The sack of Shantinagar8217; special report on the biggest attack on the Christian community in Pakistan in 50 years

8226; February 1997: 8216;In Allah8217;s Home at last8217; Muslim women gain the right to enter a mosque in Kerala

8226; February 1997: 8216;Blasphemy and Bangladesh: Fighting religious fundamentalism8217;

8226; February 1997: 8216;Outlawed by Faith8217; On the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan

8226; January 1997: 8216;Central government stalling reforms in their personal law demanded by Christians8217;

8226; January 1997: 8216;Feminism and the Catholic church in the US8217;

8226; October 1996: 8216;1984 anti-Sikh riots: Will cops go scot-free?8217;

8226; October 1996: 8216;If Muslim societies are unable to do justice to women, they will be wiped out of history8217; Interview with Riffat Hassan

8226; August 1996: 8216;Mandirs are dark and narrow, masjids are open and airy: How history is taught in Pakistan8217;s schools8217;

8226; May 1996: 8216;Muslim press and purdah8217;; 8216;Blame male chauvinist Muslim societies, not Allah, for women8217;s oppression8217;

8226; April 1996: 8216;Religious laws are not merely retrograde but can also be very divisive for women8217; By Salma Sobhan, Bangladesh activist

8226; April 1996: 8216;Shah Bano: Bangladesh shows the way8217;; 8216;Indian Muslims demand end of triple talaq, restricted polygamy8217;

8226; March 1996: 8216;Tablighi Jamaats are misleading Muslims8217;; 8216;Dissent is the issue8217; in defence of Taslima Nasreen

8226; May-June 1995: Cover Story: 8216;Code and conduct: Muslim voices in favour of reforms in all personal laws in India8217;

8226; May-June 1995: Special Report: 8216;Muslim mob attacks Ahmediyas8217; Malegaon

8226; May-June 1995: Ethos: 8216;A cheap passport to the Muslim heaven8217;

8226; April 1995: Interview: 8216;Muslim campuses more intolerant8217;: Prof Mushir-ul-Hasan

8226; March 1995: Interview: 8216;In Pakistan I can be convicted for adultery on the evidence of four Muslim males, but a Muslim cannot be convicted on the evidence of non-Muslims8217;: Former chief justice of Pakistan, Dorab Patel

8226; March 1995: 8216;Rent-a-mullah service: Pakistan8217;s blasphemy law should go8217;

8226; February 1995: 8216;Is this Ali Miyan8217;s Islam?8217;

8226; January 1995: 8216;Moulding of a moulvi8217;s mind8217;

8226; Nov-Dec 1994: Special Report: 8216;Forgotten victims of a communal vendetta8217; Blurb: 8216;Apart from a few human rights organisations, no one wants to remember that ten years after the genocide of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in the country, the guilty8212;CongressI leaders who master-minded the carnage and police officials who turned a blind eye8212;are yet to be punished8217;

8226; October 1994: 8216;On Taslima Nasreen8217; In defence of Taslima Nasreen, by C M Naim

8226; July 1994: Appeal: 8216;I will not be silenced8217;; Taslima Nasreen

8226; June 1994: Cover Story: 8216;Freedom to dissent8217;. Blurb: 8216;If democracy is to survive, the call to kill Rushdie or Taslima Nasreen must be unequivocally condemned8217;

8226; April-May 1994: Campaign: 8216;Join hands with Mushir-ul-Hassan8217;

8226; Campaign: 8216;Support Iranian Women8217;

8226; April-May 1994: Forum: 8216;Kashmir and the secular Jinnahs8217;

8226; March 1994: Cover Story: 8216;Uniform Civil Code or Gender Justice?8217;

8226; March 1994: Media X-Ray: 8216;Islam lovers8217; and 8216;Hindu fascists8217; On the Urdu press

8226; March 1994: Media X-Ray: 8216;Allah8217;s earthquakes8217; On a sickening editorial in the Urdu Times

8226; November 1993: 8216;Muslim foot-in-the-mouth disease8217;

8226; August 1993 The first issue of CC: 8216;Muslim women against the moulvis8217;

CC has also published numerous reports, including cover stories, on Dalit oppression. Chandrabhan Prasad started his career as a columnist in Communalism Combat. As you can imagine, what he wrote for us was very critical of secularists in general and the Left in particular, even though we are both very proud of being part of the Left tradition