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Indians To Form Human Chain At Golden Gate To Protest Torture Of Soldiers

A P Kamath

When several software engineers and computer analysts at Oracle got together a week ago to discuss their fundraising efforts for the Indian soldiers, one of them remembered an e-mail message that suggested a human chain demonstration to denounce the torture and mutilation six Indian soldiers by their Pakistani captors.

"We had collected about $ 5,000 to send to India but we wanted to do something visible so that not only is our community galvanized, mainstream America also pays attention to the violation of human rights," says Ashwini Supur.

While the discussion veered towards the feasibility of the demonstration, one of the women in the group urged that a date be set.

"If you go around asking people whether they want to have a demonstration, there will be a lot of argument," said the woman who sought anonymity. "But if we were to say that we are going to have a human chain, others were bound to follow us." When it was decided to hold the demonstration on June 19, some community leaders wondered whether they could muster adequate support within a week.

"But we said, if we hold the demonstration next week, it will be too late to make an impact and many people may not feel passionate about it at all," said the woman. "We should have, indeed, held it last week."

She said she had a gut feeling that the community will respond fast.

And that is precisely what happened, says Mani M Manivannan of the Tamil Manram. "While people of my generation could be sceptical of such efforts, younger people at Oracle and other Silicon Valley firms were ready to take the plunge.

"And we could not say `no' to them," said Manivannan, who is in his forties.

The volunteers set out to call leaders of more than 30 Indian groups in the San Francisco bay area asking their participation. They also e-mailed letters more than 500 people.

"What is heartening about the event is that more than 20 groups including Kannada Koota and Tamil Manram agreed to join the demonstration," he continued. "Usually we say that when two Indians meet there are three opinions but this time there was unanimity." Among the first groups to consent were the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh and the Friends of India Society International. A meeting was held at a Hindu temple in Fremont last week to plan the event.

Since several cultural organizations have tax-exempt status and cannot take part in politics, Manivannan said, it was agreed to focus on basic human rights violations.

"But our focus changed as we began organizing the demonstration," said Sapur. "Initially we wanted to concentrate on the fate of the six soldiers but some of the Kashmiri Pandits in the Bay area reminded that Pakistan-trained militants have been violating human rights in Kashmir in the past five decades."

The Golden Gate demonstration could galvanize the Indian communities to hold similar demonstrations in other cities to focus on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and concomitant issues about human right violations, Manivannan said.

Among the community associations joining the protest are the Bay Area Telugu Association, the Sindhi Association, the Bay Area Prabasi, the Brihan Maharashtra Mandal and the Federation of Indo-American Association.

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