Hindu nationalists torch Pepsi warehouse in protest

Hindu nationalists torched a PepsiCo warehouse and picketed US government offices in western India on Saturday to protest the cancellation of a US visa for the elected head of Gujarat state.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged Washington to urgently reconsider its decision.

Nearly 150 activists from the Bajrang Dal party barged into the American soft drink manufacturer's warehouse in Surat city in Gujarat, smashed bottles and set fire to parts of the building, said Dharmesh Joshi, a witness.

They also ransacked a nearby PepsiCo office, he said.

The protesters carried placards reading: ``Down with the US,'' and ``Boycott US goods and the Americans.''

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/03/21/2003247189

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1322493


What about coup General Heir Musharraf?


COUP IN PAKISTAN
On Tuesday, the military closed the airports and placed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under house arrest.

The coup came just hours after Sharif fired Musharraf, who was visiting Sri Lanka. The general immediately flew back to Pakistan and was met at the airport by a large contingent of soldiers.

The conflict between the two men developed this summer after the prime minister ordered militants to withdraw from Indian territory in the Kashmir region, ending two months of bitter fighting with India.

Musharraf reportedly orchestrated the incursion into Kashmir, and the withdrawal of the militants was considered humiliating to Pakistan's military.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec99/pakistan_report_10-12.html



Musharraf's coup


A beleaguered Pakistan military regime faces mounting criticism

In perpetrating a second coup against democracy, General Pervez Musharraf may have strengthened his own position but he has done Pakistan no favours. Gen Musharraf's decision to elevate himself from "chief executive", the title he assumed after the 1999 military takeover, to president, had been predicted. But that does not make it any more acceptable. And the timing was inept, coming as his foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, was in Washington trying to persuade a sceptical US administration to show more understanding of his country's problems.

Mr Sattar, who seems to have been badly caught out by the presidential putsch, conducted a similar exercise in London the previous week. Any progress he may have made has now been wrecked by the general's action, which brought sharp rebukes from the US State Department and the Foreign Office. Any chance that Washington would relax its sanctions has been blown, while the Commonwealth must decide whether to expel Pakistan when it meets later this year.

Just as when he overthrew Pakistan's elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, Gen Musharraf justifies his latest constitutional violation on grounds of personal duty and the national interest. Some progress has been made since 1999 in tackling corruption and restoring order to the country's indebted economy. Growth this year is estimated at 4% and exports and foreign currency reserves are up. But these advances have come at a high cost, with normal political life suspended, violence in Kashmir increasing again, and Pakistan isolated, especially over its links with Afghanistan's Taliban. Although Gen Musharraf promises to allow parliamentary elections by October next year, he is likely to retain his dominant, still illegitimate position, backed by an unelected security council. Public anger at Mr Sharif's clique has been replaced by a sense of powerlessness.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,511917,00.html

By Vilani Peiris
21 November 2000

Use this version to print

Last month marked one year since General Pervez Musharraf ousted the elected Pakistani government, arrested prime minister Nawaz Sharif and installed his own military regime. Accusing the previous government of corruption and ruining the economy, Musharraf promised to bring economic progress and political stability, eradicate poverty, build investor confidence and restore democracy as quickly as possible.

Twelve months later none of these promises have been fulfilled. The economy is still on a knife-edge and there is growing popular discontent with falling living standards and the lack of basic democratic rights. The regime is under fire not only from the political opposition but also from its supporters in the ruling elites including among the military top brass.

At the end of October, a meeting of key military commanders grilled Musharraf over the record of his administration. According to an Agence France-Presse report: “Political and diplomatic sources said that the commanders discussed plans to appoint a civilian prime minister to deflect public anger from the military, should the situation deteriorate further.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/nov2000/pak-n21.shtml

Coke two, there was a study out a while back that showed that the coke they got had alot of pesticides and stuff in it that the coke in the U.S. doesn't.

give Americans the jobs back that you took....that will teach em.

noslaves

Do in Coke and Monsanto too!

Don't fool yourself into believing that this is anything to do with anti-corporate protests.

This is about the violence in Gujarat, where some 2000 Muslims were brutally torched, raped and killed - directed and protected by the very thug Modi that now whines about not getting a visa.

I should recommend reading what a liberal Indian paper has to say on this issue, rather than this somewhat flimsy article from Taiwan.

From The Hindu:

>>

Modi, the U.S., and visa power

By Siddharth Varadarajan

If the BJP believes it is a victim of U.S. double standards, it has also benefited from the same duplicity in the past.

THE DENIAL of a U.S. visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has evoked a predictably strong reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party, less strident objections from the Congress party and a formal, diplomatically correct protest from the government of India, whose note verbale requesting a visa went unheeded.

For Mr. Modi, who identified closely with many of the policies of the Bush administration, the visa denial is a particularly cruel blow. After all, the United States was perhaps the only major (or minor) country in the `West' not to express its concerns about the Gujarat violence while it was going on. Even tiny Finland saw fit to raise its voice, inviting a stinging rebuke from the External Affairs Ministry, but not Washington.

The BJP says the visa rejection has hurt India's national pride but this does not appear to be a perception that is shared widely by Indians, who see the saffron party's appeals to swabhimaan (self-respect) and constitutionalism as largely self-serving. There is no Constitution in the world that requires a country to grant foreign nationals a visa to enter its territory; on the other hand, every Constitution, India's included, obliges governments to investigate and punish individuals involved in large-scale violence against its citizens.

Investigations by the National Human Rights Commission, the CBI (in the Bilkis Bano case), and scores of non-governmental bodies have documented numerous acts of omission and commission, suggesting official connivance with the perpetrators of the violence. Even if one accepts the argument that Mr. Modi knew nothing at all about the manner in which more than 2,000 Muslims were targeted and killed across his State in the weeks following the Godhra incident of 2002, his failure to investigate these crimes and punish the guilty is manifest. No less a judicial authority than the Supreme Court of India has pointed this out. (...)

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http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/21/stories/2005032101731000.htm

I didn't know about the points you brought up. Thanks.

but not this time. Reorg is right. These Hindu ultranationalists are just evil promoters of hatred and violence. (Snarky joke could follow that they'd fit right in with the Bush crowd, but I don't have it in me - they're really that bad.)

I agree. And there are a bunch of them in the USA.One just has to look at all the organisations that either invited or were going to honor Mr.Modi.These prople should be given a message that fascism and nationalism will not be tolerated here in the US.

the violence accompanied the "boycott". The thuggish reaction that some even here presume might be natural result of just anger is more typical of a mob that contains a brotherhood of "freeper" elements. When things get ugly look for ugly people throwing bricks in the middle.

When decent people start out, even with extreme outrage, protests are incredibly civil compared to the instigation. I know this cannot be a rule, but in practice violence is a very bad sign. I think Gandhi has moved our perceptions wisely forward and no righteous retreat into "just" satisfaction can wear the mask of justice anymore. Also, the violence done by these companies if REALLY met tit for tat would have corporate blood running in the streets not this symbolic show of intimidation. Anger usually misses the point.

But yeah, boycott Coca Cola and Monsanto too if you really mean business.

Mainly it goes to show when the red flag goes up go to OTHER SOURCES before charging. Plenty of outrage going on without having to rely on one sided news blips. The focus should shift on why Bush is keeping a noisy buddy from our shores. So as not to make waves at a delicate time? Embarrassment shielded from the American people? How many other RW firebrands are being held away(at this time)? How many other distractions from the tide of fascism are being promoted? Know the times.

The US should take strong action against the supporters of Hindu Nationalists in the US.