3. Biju Mathew

3.1 He is Assistant Professor of Business at the Rider University. He describes his work as follows:

· My work revolves around three primary thematics: Hindutva, Migration, and Globalization and attempts to explicate the inter-relations between these three nodes of interest for contemporary South Asian scholars and activists. On Hindutva, my work is largely on Hindutva's relation to the politics of identity within diasporic Indian-American communities and on the specific aspects of caste and class that make Hindutva such a potent force in diasporic life. Further it locates the flourishing of Hindutva in North America within the context of globalization. The other mode by which the thematic of globalization is reflected in my work is through a critical examination of the discourses of globalization and its (dis)connections with post-80's South Asian labor migration into the US. Much of this work is related to my work as a volunteer organizer for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/data/indiv/area/idsas/MATHEW,Biju.htm )

3.2 Thus, we are not provided with any information about the professional interest in business studies of Mathew. However, from the above it is quite clear that he has an obsessive interest in Hindutva.

3.3 What is missing from the information is Mathew's ideological inclination. From http://www.proxsa.org/yss/org.html, we discover that he is a coordinator of the Forum of Indian Leftists. The communists in India, except those who are in the electoral politics field, rarely talk about themselves as being communists. Instead they arrogate themselves to labels like leftists, liberals, progressives, etc. In addition, he has written articles in the Communist publications in India. One such article was "Hindutva For a Few Dollars a Day" co-authored with another known communist of Indian origin, Vijay Prashad. It appeared in the People's Democracy (Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)) on March 25, 2001 (http://pd.cpim.org/2001/march25/march25_biju_vijay.htm).

3.4 While the Nazi's crimes against humanity have been well documented and commented upon, there is very little mention about the role of the Communists in this respect. A study done by some French writers has documented the infamous history of communism in the places where they were in power. This book was translated into English under the title "The Black Book of Communism - Crimes, Terrors, Repression" and published by the Harvard University Press in 1999.

3.5 The writers have also clearly shown that the devastation done by the communist rulers was justified in terms of their ideology, and not as mere acts of individuals. For example, immediately after the Bolshevik revolution, a large number of so-called bourgeoisie and so-called kulaks were killed. This was rationalised on the grounds that to create an egalitarian social order, the society will have to be first cleansed of elements who would probably come in the way. This is similar to the argument by label mentioned at the beginning.

3.6 Stalin, Lenin and Mao are guilty of overseeing the deaths of millions of their own countrymen. It was not merely the deaths caused by erroneous policies implemented in the name of communism, for example man-made famine. But, it was also murder of a large number of political opponents. No communist anywhere in the world is asked to dwell upon such crimes against humanity. But, these same communist will hold forth against allegations of similar misdeeds of others.

3.7 The various communist parties in India have portraits of people like Lenin and Stalin prominently displayed in their offices. Their public meetings have huge cut-outs of such persons in the background. It is a tragedy of discourse in India that no one has ever questioned these parties for such a blatant display of persons who have to be discussed only in terms of their record of crimes against humanity. And it is the same persons who hurl accusations of fascism, etc., against their opponents.

3.8 It needs to be mentioned that the communists in India supported the creation of Pakistan, and went further to say that India should be divided into 19 nations. During the Chinese attack on India in 1962, the same communists also supported the actions of Mao, and went on to say that Chairman Mao was their chairman too!

3.9 Mathew's links with the Communists in India is further reinforced given the fact that the press conference in Delhi to release Report was organised by SAHMAT, a well-known communist organisation. It was founded in 1989, in memory of Safdar Hashmi, who was an activist in the labour movement. He was killed by what the communists allege to be a mob hired by the Congress party. Strangely enough the communists and the Congress party are in active collaboration in the political field against the Hindutva ideology.