BHASKAR

Persons under Kerala police surveillance demand apology from government

2012-01-27T11:07:00.002+05:30

Eighty-three of the 268 persons and institutions who were placed under surveillance by the Kerala police for alleged connections with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) have in an open letter expressed shock at the intrusion into their privacy and demanded an apology from the government..

The following is the text of the open letter:

We, the following citizens of India are shocked to understand our e-mail IDs have been included in an official letter (dated November 3, 2011), sent by the Special Branch Superintendent of Police, K..K. Jaya Mohan, on behalf of the Additional Director General of Police, A. Hemacahndran, to the Assistant Commander of High -tech Crime Enquiry Cell. The letter says `Please find enclosed a copy of the e-mail IDs of individuals who have connection with SIMI activities. You are directed to identify the individuals behind the e-mail IDs contained in the list by verifying the registration and log in details with concerned email Service providers and forward the names and addresses of the individuals who own the email IDs, and furnish the report to this office urgently.'

We also came to know from the various newspapers that the authorities have demanded the service providers of these IDs to provide the login details of the IDs which we have been using. We express our deep horror and dissent to note that the State Government is keeping a sceptical eye on us.

The Government elected by people like us has a duty to protect the privacy of the citizens of this country. We are shocked to see that the same Government is in reality infringing upon our privacy through such a move. We consider this as an open violation of one of our basic human rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
This official action violates a number of basic rights of the citizens guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution of India including Articles 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 viz., the Rights to equality, dignity, privacy, expression and the right not to be discriminated against.

The Chief Minister of Kerala has openly admitted that the SIMI connection in the above letter issued by K.K. Jaya Mohan, was a `mistake'. However, no action on this police officer has yet been taken. We demand immediate action against the police officials involved in this encroachment on the privacy of citizens.

This unfortunate incident has affected many of our lives in many ways for being targeted by the Government. We are not yet ready to reshape our own lives for such surveillance by the police for leading `suspicious' identities. We are also threatened in our day-to-day social, cultural and economic spaces for being included in the `watch list' of the intelligence department. We demand an open apology from the Chief Minister of Kerala and the Police Department for having played with the lives of innocent citizens. We request the media, social activist organizations and human rights groups to create adequate pressure on the Government for a just intervention in this matter.

1. Adv. Shanavas (Activist)
2. V.M.Ebrahim (Journalist)
3. C.Dawood. (Columnist)
4. N.P.Jishar (Journalist)
5. Fasal Kathikod (Writer)
6. S.Kamarudheen (Academician)
6. A.Sakker Hussain (Journalist)
8. Riyas .P.A. (Marketing executive)
9. Navas.K.A (Activist)
10. Abdul Rasheed kadampott (Retd Teacher)
11. Solidarity Youth Movement, Kerala
12. Minority Watch (Human Rights organization)
13. ISA KERALAM (Student organization)
14. Prabhodhanam Weekly
15. MIT.Hospital Kodungallor
16. Cresecnt Hospital, Aalathoor
17. Camal bags (Small scale industry)
18. Cochin Orchids. ( Designing Centre)
19. Classy digital ( Designing Centre)
20. Badaru (P.K.Seal) (Business)
21. K.M.Muhammed Mukthar
22. Sajeer
23. Haris.K.K. (Abroad)
24. Shabeer (Abroad)
25. Sameer (Abroad)
26. Jalauddin Pullisseeri (Abroad)
27. Shakeer Kathiyalam (Activist)
28. Aliyar .K.M. (Abroad)
29. Althaf.M.S.
30. Haris Eriyad
31. Fasalurahman Melattur (Abroad)
32. Fayiz Cmr (Abroad)
33. Fazil Fareed
34. Hanif K.T.
35. Ahammad Salih Anwar
36. Mahion Abdul Rahman (Graphic Designer)
37. Majeed. M.T. (Business)
38. Rasheed.N.M. (Activist)
39. Kayyoom Kolliyil
40. Mukthar K.M. (Abroad)
41. Noor.K.V.MElattoor (Volunteer, Pain & Palliative)
42. Roshan F.S (Student)
43. Shafeeq Chennara (Abroad)
44. Abdul Khadar Kodinji (Abroad)
45. Abboobakkar Vadakkangara (Academic Scholar)
46. Anvar Vadakkangara (Abroad)
47. Atheeq Rahman (Abroad)
48. Iktiyar Pang (Abroad)
49. C.S. Ibrahim Kutty ( Retired Teacher)
50. Abdul Salam.N.M. (Abroad)
51. Noufal Velam (Activist)
52. Am Nadwi
53. HAseena Sajid
54. Firoz Thirurkad
55. Hakeem (Business)
56. FAissal Mimmi
57. Dhabin 2008
58. Cmarti2
59. Aachies (Business)
60. Nisam
61. Abdul Rasheed Kadambot
62. Sajid Rahman
63. Shabeer Kareem (Abroad)
64. Sabu Bin Habeeb (Abroad)
65. Haris (Abroad)
66. Rashid. (Abroad)
67. Riyas Kodungalloor
68. Riyas Kodungalor
69. Niyas
70. Muhammed Seethi
71. Muhammed rasheed (Abroad)
72. Humayun Kabeer (Abroad)
73. Fasalurahman
74. Aliyar KM (Abroad)
75. Mujeebulla k.v.
76. TC Mahboob ( Teacher)
77. Mohammed Ishaque Madari (Abroad)
78. Moidu Chalikkal (Abroad)
79. Abdul Ahad
80. Ali Modern
81. Haris Kannipoyil
82. Mohammed Rafeeque Thangal
83. P.A Mohammed

Injustice remains an impediment to the Indian republic, says AHRC

2012-01-26T19:28:00.002+05:30

The following is a statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong:

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) congratulates India on its 63rd Republic Day. From a nation that suffered the brutal consequences of colonisation and the lasting wounds of separation, for the past 63 years, the country and its people have brilliantly shown the resilience to hold close to heart the promise they made more than six decades ago, to remain a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic. The Indian experience of democracy is of immense value in Asia, since for the most of the continent; the concept has only made cameo appearances.

Despite this, the concept of democracy and republic is incomplete, as reiterated in the Constitution, unless justice, liberty and equality are ensured to the people, without exceptions. The integrity of the nation and the dignity of its people depend on this. It is in that the country has to shed its colonial hangovers, and if required reinvent itself, as a nation where these fundamental notions implied in the term 'democratic republic' remain not just as mere words mentioned in the basic law, but realisable guarantees, for which the state should not spare any of its resources.

A recent video that was mentioned in the country's media, of the officers from the Border Security Force (BSF) brutally assaulting a suspected cross-border cattle smuggler is to the point. The nationality of the victims apart, such an incident should not have happened on the first place. That it happened shows that the country's elite border guards have no respect to the country's basic law or to their operative mandate. The video is an exception only to the extent that it was probably for the first time that such an act by the BSF stationed along the Indo-Bangladesh border has been video documented. The AHRC and its partner organization based in West Bengal, MASUM, on more than some 800 separate occasions, reported similar incidents to the authorities, urging them to take action against the BSF officers, and suggesting that the incessant practice of manifest forms of custodial violence - ranging from torture to extra-judicial execution and rape - shows the moral wilt in the force which in itself is a threat to the security of the nation. The incident is ample proof to the fact that the agency today operates in an environment of impunity. Impunity has no place in a democratic republic.

Despicable forms of impunity are enjoyed not just by the BSF. Widespread practice of torture by the state police officers casts a dark shadow upon the very notion of the republic. The country is yet to wake up to the reality that the practice of torture, in its entire manifest forms, is incompatible with what has been guaranteed in the Constitution. While a considerable number of people in the country, including some respectable officers within the Indian Police Service, reiterate that the present state of affairs within the law enforcement agencies cannot coexist with the demands of a modern democratic republic, there is hardly any debate within the country as to what should be done to bring about a change to this unacceptable status quo. Even the country's civil society has ignored to engage with the subject, but for a few exceptional human rights organizations, which is a minority, in relation to the large number of human rights groups that operate in India, enjoying the relatively free space that the country guarantees for human rights work. Fair trial guarantees and the basic presumption of innocence cannot coexist with the practice of torture.

When the law enforcement agencies become incompatible to undertake their responsibility according to the demands of a democratic state, it challenges not only the very concept of democracy, but also encourages inequality and therefore injustice. The recent incident reported from Balangir district, Orissa state of the torching of 40 Dalit houses by the members of a militant dominant caste is an alarming reminder to the fact that prejudices based on inequality still haunts the realization of the true republic. The fact that an alarmingly high percentage of children from the marginalized and minority communities living in the impoverished rural backdrops of at least five states in the country do not have, nor do they expect, any hope to be saved from the certain death due to starvation and malnutrition reiterates that injustice is the practice though justice is the guarantee. A country with its law enforcement agencies enjoying impunity cannot be of any use to check this injustice.

So is the situation of the country's judiciary. That the judiciary too, and with that the country's justice framework has failed, is today no more the 'hyperbole' of human rights organizations. The country's law minister himself has reiterated this reality. In a country where its judiciary cannot expect the prosecution to be capable of assisting the court in its quest to find the truth, or a court where the trial can take anywhere between two to ten years to conclude, or worse, where the judiciary itself can guarantee that only seventy percent of its judges are honest, justice has no life. There cannot be percentages awarded to justice. There can only be either justice or injustice.

The annual remembrance of the day in which the country and its people declared for themselves a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic should not remain a day on which parades are held and speeches made. It must be also a day of introspection. Of what it implies by the sovereignty of the people, and by it, to what extent is India truly a democratic republic.

So far injustice has remained an impediment to the complete realization of the republic. Failing to address it is as bad as undermining the republic.

For information and comments contact:
Bijo Francis
Telephone: +852 - 26986339
Email:indiadesk@ahrc.asia, southasiadesk@ahrc.asia

Gallantry award for sexual abuse? R-day honour for Chhattisgarh cop

2012-01-26T19:13:00.006+05:30

Soni Sori in hospital. Photo by Sunil Singh

The following is a statement issued by Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS), a national network of women’s organizations, other democratic rights organizations, and individuals, on behalf of groups all across the country which have been participated in the campaign to bring justice to Soni Sori:

We are deeply shocked and outraged by the conferring of the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry on Ankit Garg, Superintendent of Police, Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. Ankit Garg has been named by the Adivasi school teacher, Ms. Soni Sori, in several letters to the Supreme Court, of ordering and supervising her torture and sexual violence against her, on the night of October 8, 2011 when she was in his custody at the Dantewada police station.

In a case which is now before the Honourable Supreme Court, Ms. Soni Sori has written that while she was in police custody in Dantewada police station, she was stripped before the Superintendent of Police, Ankit Garg, and given electric shocks under his directions. Furthermore, not only did he use abusive language against her, he ordered three police personnel to “punish her” by sexually torturing her for disobeying his commands to name well-known social activists, such as Swami Agnivesh and Medha Patkar, as Naxal supporters. An independent medical examination carried out by the NRS government hospital in Kolkata under the direction of the Supreme Court has confirmed her sexual torture by recovering stones embedded in her private parts. This flagrant violation of Ms. Soni Sori’s person is what prompted the Honourable Supreme Court to reach the conclusion that she is clearly unsafe within the reach of Dantewada police, and needs to be transferred to the Raipur Central prison.

Is this, then, the “gallant” behaviour of our Dantewada police under the able guidance of SP Ankit Garg, which the government is now felicitating? Is this an award for ruthlessly torturing people? Does the government approve of these methods? Is this an accepted way of carrying out war against their own people in the name of anti-naxal operations?

It is shocking to note that in spite of wide publicity and protests over SP Ankit Garg’s inhuman conduct by a large number of women’s and civil liberties groups, nationally and internationally, the government has deemed it fit to confer him with a gallantry award. It is even more baffling to note that this has occurred at a time when the Honourable Supreme Court itself has expressed anguish at the happenings and is still looking into these violations. Compounding the very serious charges of a heinous crime of sexual violence against Ms. Soni Sori that SP Ankit Garg faces, is that fact that this crime happened when she had been entrusted into his custody as a senior police officer. After the report from the Kolkata NRS Medical College and Hospital, this is no longer a case of mere allegations against the police, but there is also solid evidence by a government medical team to support her charges. However, none of this appears to have placed even a shadow of doubt on the gallantry of this Officer as far as the government is concerned. By giving an award in the face of these complaints which have not even received a cursory investigation, both the Central and State governments are condoning this sexual violence which is being perpetrated in the name of anti-Naxal operations.

It is a dark day for Indian democracy today. While Ms. Soni Sori, the victim of this heinous torture languishes in the Raipur Central Jail, with a deteriorating health condition, and waits for her case to be listed in the Supreme Court, women’s teams who have been taking up the case of her torture have been refused permission to meet her. She is still under the custody of the same state police has that inflicted this torture on her.

We are also appalled to note that a majority of “gallantry” awards this year have been given out for anti-Naxal and counter-insurgency operations. Civil liberties organisations have been pointing out the widespread human rights violations that are taking place in these areas in the cover of counter-insurgency operations. This raises grave concerns and points to a movement in the direction of a military state, which can have no place in a democratic republic such as ours.

We condemn this action in the strongest words. There can be no excuse for torture and sexual violence in the name of anti-Naxal or counter-insurgency operations. To confer awards on a person accused of such heinous acts diminishes the respect and honour usually associated with a gallantry award.

Jamia teachers challenge Maharashtra ATS version of blast case investigation

2012-01-24T20:25:00.003+05:30

The following is a statement issued by the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association:

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) claims to have cracked the 13/7 blasts case. Its chief has revealed in a press conference that Indian Mujahideen was behind the Mumbai blasts. And yet, the Ministry of Home Affairs remains far from impressed—indeed, it appears rather irritated. And the press, also unusually, has been circumspect about his revelations. The ATS chief says that he did not want to call a press conference. But the rumours about Naquee’s IB links were threatening the credibility of the ATS. Such were his compulsions when he launched into a monologue about the ‘breakthrough’ his team—under his guidance of course—had achieved. Despite his loud proclamations however, there are few who are willing to buy the ATS' arguments.

Here are some issues for the ATS chief to mull over:

Cracking the Case

The case was cracked within a day of Naquee being brought to Mumbai by the Special Cell. Did the Maharashtra ATS ever visit Delhi to pick up/question Naquee? It simply pounced upon him within moments of the Special Cell 'abandoning' Naquee in Mumbai after completing their own investigation work.

The Arrest of Naquee Ahmed

The ATS chief in his press conference clearly said that the arrest was made on 12th January 2012. His family alleges that he was picked up on the night of 9th January. Not only this, his brothers Rafi and Razi were also detained by the ATS. Nadeem was also arrested the same night.

Did Naquee just walk into the ATS office and offer himself up, or was the ATS tailing him? If they had him on surveillance, surely they knew how closely he was working with the Special Cell; his numerous trips to the Special Cell and their regular phone calls to him?

Naquee’s Mumbai Trips

The ATS boss says that Naquee had been visiting Mumbai’s Madanpura area since September-October 2010. Would he explain why the last two of those trips were made in the company of Delhi Police Special Cell? And may it be said that Naquee was not brought to Mumbai under detention or arrest.

Evidence Galore

Clothes of Naquee and Nadeem have been recovered from the house where the main suspects lived, claimed the chief. Is the chief familiar with their wardrobe and sartorial preferences—in the absence of any forensics tests—to claim that clothes belonging to Naquee and Nadeem have been recovered?

Stolen Bikes: The ATS says that these bikes would have been used in future terror acts. Implicating people in future conspiracies, where evidence need not be produced because the act hasn’t taken place at all is the oldest trick in the police armour. If indeed those bikes are stolen (the family disputes it), then book Naquee and Nadeem for theft, chief, not under UAPA.

Money Trail: The chief was emphatic that Rs 1.5 lakhs had passed through Naquee’s hands but could not explain when asked where the monies had come from. “Hawala”, he mumbled, and insisted that the investigations were still on. So, if the investigations were still on and nothing conclusive had been arrived at, why make grandiose claims in a press conference?

Harassment of Naquee’s family

While the ATS chief grandly declared that over 12,000 witnesses were questioned, we have no way of knowing how many of them were questioned in illegal detention. Will the ATS chief kindly explain why Naquee Ahmed’s elder brothers were detained? Why has his brother’s workshop of trolley bags been turned into a fortress, and reporters and outsiders denied access to them?

ATS-Special Cell: Healthy Competition!

Yes, there is competition, but no rivalry. The chief of ATS made a brave attempt at presenting a picture of blissful bonhomie between the ATS and Special Cell (“The head of Special Cell is my batch mate!”). But we saw the ATS team in Delhi grilling Naquee’s brother about what the Special Cell knew—about what he heard Naquee telling the Special Cell. If the two agencies are so friendly, should not they be sharing information rather than harassing and hounding family members? Why has the ATS been after Naquee's brother?

Too often we have seen these agencies turning into predators, consuming those very men it seeks out for help and cooperation. The Special Cell may be crying buckets now, but they have implicated IB informers as dreaded terrorists (remember Qamar and Irshad) earlier. The cut-throat grey world of unaccounted powers and funds ‘to tackle terror’ has veered out of control.

One last thing, does the Commissioner of Delhi Police feel no moral and ethical compulsion to officially and formally state the simple truth that Naquee was helping his department in their investigation?

Al Jazeera report on Monsanto's biopiracy in India

2012-01-24T12:08:00.003+05:30

Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group writes:

If you missed watching Al Jazeera's The Stream special on Monsanto's biopiracy in India while advancing Bt Brinjal, and its implications, you can catch it on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=awT9CH1GhL8. (It is about 45 mins long). The programme covers many diverse issues, in addition to biopiracy.

The programme was hosted by Derrick Ashong, musician and social entrepreneur (@ashong, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-ashong; and Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Al Jazeera journalist and producer (@ASE, http://www.ahmedeldin.com/).

Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group and Glen Stone, Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Washington University in St. Louis participated as discussants.

More details about ESG's expose of Monsanto's biopiracy in India can be accessed at www.esgindia.org.

Army chief’s final battle

2012-01-23T07:43:00.005+05:30

BRP Bhaskar

India’s army chief, General VK Singh, who was a young paratroop commando in the 1971 war with Pakistan, is preparing for a battle on a different front at the fag end of his long and distinguished career. The battleground is the courtroom and the adversary his own government.

Singh has gone to court against the government’s decision that hr was born on May 10, 1950, the date mentioned in his application form for admission to the National Defence Academy, and not May 10, 1951, the date entered in the records of the army hospital where he was born and his school leaving certificate.

Singh, who was a teenaged schoolboy when he applied for the NDA course, says a member of the school staff who filled the form entered the wrong year. But some suspect the year was fudged to ensure eligibility.

The conflict in the records in the office of the Adjutant General, the army’s official records keeper, showing the year of birth as 1951, and those in the office of the Military Secretary, which handles postings and promotions, mentioning 1950, remained unresolved until last July, when the Defence Ministry, after consulting the Attorney General and the Law Ministry, decided to treat May 10, 1950 as Singh’s date of birth.

Aggrieved by the decision, he filed a statutory complaint with Defence Minister AK Antony, becoming the first service chief to invoke the Army Act provision in this regard. Antony upheld the ministry’s decision. Singh filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the decision, making him the first army chief to fight a legal battle against the state.

“It is an unhealthy precedent,” Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju said last week. “It does not augur well either for the ministry or the forces.”

In the petition, Singh says the ministry’s decision is illegal and arbitrary and violates his fundamental rights. The court has to adjudicate the matter early as he is approaching the date of retirement. If it confirms the 1950 date, he has to hang his boots on May 31 this year. If it accepts the 1951 date, he can stay on for one more year.

Singh says the government’s refusal to accept his contention regarding date of birth affects his image before the public and the armed forces, and he is fighting for honour, not for tenure. He concedes that, regardless of the court’s finding, the government has the right to decide his tenure.

Going by the facts on record, Singh appears to have a good case but the honour plea is somewhat weak as he accepted the ministry’s determination of his birth date in 2008. He claims he did so on the orders of the then army chief.

There is more to the dispute than meets the eye. If Singh retires in May this year, Gen Bikram Singh, who heads the Eastern Command, will become the next army chief. If his tenure runs till 2013, Gen KT Parnaik of the Northern Command will be the successor as Bikram Singh would have retired by then. Should he leave without completing his tenure, Gen Shankar Ghosh of the Western Command, who is due to retire on the same day as him, will be in the reckoning.

The controversy has already damaged the Establishment’s image with interested parties floating stories alleging the succession issue and Singh’s principled stand on some scams involving civilian and military personnel influenced the government’s decision on the age issue.

Worse still, it has split the community of former defence personnel and possibly serving personnel too. Before Singh moved the apex court, an exservicemen’s association had filed a public interest petition pleading his case. The court dismissed it, saying it was not maintainable.

Four former Chief Justices of India have inflicted damage upon themselves by allowing the exservicemen’s association to drag them into the controversy. Infuriated by the association’s action in appending their opinion to its petition, Chief Justice SH Kapadia has asked the court’s registry not to accept any writ petitions in future if the opinions of former chief justices are annexed.

There are reports that the government is seeking an out-of-court settlement on the basis of its accepting Singh’s contention on age and his agreeing to forgo the additional year of service it will give him.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, January 23, 2012.

Nominations for Human Rights award invited

2012-01-22T12:52:00.003+05:30

Nominations for the 2012 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk are currently being accepted.

The annual Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk was established in 2005 to honour the work of a human rights defender or group of human rights defenders who, through non-violent work, are courageously making an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights of others, often at great personal risk to themselves.

The Award seeks to focus international attention on the human rights defender's work, thus contributing to the recipient’s personal security, and a cash prize of €15,000 is awarded to the Award recipient and his/her organisation in an effort to support the continuation of this important work.

Front Line is currently accepting nominations for the Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk 2012, and will continue to do so until the 30th January 2012.

Please click on the link below to access the secure nomination form:

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/secure/nomination.php

Please note:

Incomplete nominations will not be considered.
Individual nominees may not play a prominent role in a political party and must be currently active in human rights work (the Front Line Defenders Award is not intended to recognise a historical or posthumous contribution).
Self-nomination is not permitted.
All nominations must be accompanied by two referees

Plans to mark 10th anniversary of Gujarat carnage with Live Memorial

2012-01-18T22:50:00.003+05:30

Civil society groups have drawn up plans to mark the 10th anniversary of the Gujarat carnage, falling next month, in a suitable manner. The following is a communication from Rupa Modi, Tanvir Jafri, Salim and Saira Sandhi, Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand, Shiv Vishwanathan, Binita Desai , Ram Rahman and Rajendra Prasad in this connection:

Gulberg Society, Ahmedabad
February 28, 2012 2 p.m. onwards

How do we commemorate such a cataclysmic series of violence, lives torn asunder, narratives of depth and despair, callousness and courage, struggle and hope?
Together we hope. As we near the Ten year mark of the genocidal carnage in Gujarat we appeal and call to all of you to join us on February 28, 2012 in the Live Memorial at Gulberg Society, Ahmedabad, physically or through countrywide protests and memorials all over India. From 2 p.m. onwards that day we shall be observing the Memorial. through reminiscences and recordings, panels and exhibits, music and words, acknowledgements and tears.

Nationwide Resonance: A Call and Appeal

When we do so in Ahmedabad we hope that each and all of you in different parts of India will share the experience and in turn interact with us through a technologically linked endeavour. We shall be linking the Memorial through live webcam links and internet connections so that it can be viewed and shared at a few minutes’ gap in faraway Kerala, Kashmir, Manipur, Lucknow, Delhi, Mhow, Faizabad, Ayodhya, Malegaon, Mumbai.

Requirements:

All we ask is that you arrange Protest and Commemorations to mark this date. To enable an interactive sharing of the Live Memorial on February 28, 2012 at Gulberg Society, Communalism Combat and Citizens for Justice and Peace are, in collective action with individuals and groups, organizing a live relay of the Memorial by Internet link. We request that each and all of you groups organize a Live Screening of this Memorial in different cities/locations all over the country on large projector screens. Participating in this memorial you organize your own special protest commemorations in every location. We shall also make arrangements so that over 3,000 survivors and activists at Gulberg will also view over the evening the protests and commemorations that you are observing in different locales. Such an Interactive Live Memorial will be unique. It will ensure that there is a nationwide resonance to the Ten Year Commemoration of the Genocide.

The Ten Year Live Memorial will be uplinked for permanent viewing on the Internet after February 28, 2012. The Memorial is part of week-long observance by Insaf ke Dagar Pe. The Citizens for Justice and Peace will also be organizing a Seminar Workshop on Lessons from Gujarat (Criminal Justice System and Accountability) at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth on February 27, 2012.

Memorial to a Genocide: Gujarat 2002 – 2012

Manifesto of the Gulberg Society, Ahmedabad

Over the past ten years, as protests, testimonials and meets have observed the traumatic events in Gujarat in 2002, a travelling memorial to all the carnage sites was also attempted by us in 2008. Instead of peacefully allowing victim survivors to pay respects at the Coach S-6 in Godhra we were, one hundred of us, arrested and forced to bide time at the police station. The site of the burnt remains of the S-6 Sabarmati Express Coach has sadly become the sole mourning preserve of the government and organizations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Reconciliation and Reparation appear a faraway dream when collective memorials are thus forbidden. It took time and energy to get ourselves released from the police station before we could reach the sites of brute violence at Pandharwada village, Panchmahals and then Ode, Anand before traversing Sardarpura. At each site, locales of the violence and sites where dear and near ones were unceremoniously dumped, were remembered. The next day when we walked in silence towards Teesra Kuan in the Maidan at Naroda Patiya, where Missing Persons Bodies had been dumped in 2002 and have not been recovered to date. A hostile neighbourhood and an edgy police barely allowed us to light candles there.

Given this painful past, we have decided to collectively commemorate the 300 traumatic bouts of violence over 19 districts in a Live Memorial at Gulberg Society Ahmedabad. We earnestly appeal to each and all of you to participate in this endeavour.

Digital Installations and Exhibits in English, Gujarati and Hindustani

TIMELINE in content and chronology tracking the rehabilitation and justice process with a PHOTO RETRO of the lives of internally displaced persons in various transit camps

STATISTICS of a human tragedy, an installation

MISSING PERSONS remembered through a ritualistic Wailing Wall

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS to Saviours of Lives, Activists, Jurists, Photographers and Media
People in wall panels

SURVIVORS LEAD US THROUGH THE MEMORIAL AND SPEAK
HIDDEN NARRATIVES: brute targeting of women and children

DIGITALISED MEMORIALS: News Coverage and Parzaania on large side screens

MUSIC IN MEMORIUM: Shubha Mudgal (vocal), Aneesh Pradhan (tabla), Sudhir Nayak (harmonium)

We shall be digitalizing the exhibit installations with text and photos and sending it out on CD to enable you to reproduce these in different cities. Do revert back to us on the nature of the protests and commemorations that you plan. Already, you can view Survivor lines link on YouTube.

Lessons in social progress

2012-01-16T08:15:00.004+05:30

BRP Bhaskar

The seamy side of India’s development story is forcing itself into public view demanding a review of the nation’s priorities.

A report on hunger and malnutrition, based on a survey conducted in 112 districts across the country, which was released last week, said 40 per cent of the children in 100 focus districts were underweight and the growth of nearly 60 per cent was stunted. It termed the level of child malnutrition as “unacceptably high”.

Another study, undertaken in Andhra Pradesh as part of an international project, showed that while the economy was growing and poverty levels were falling, one-third of the children were stunted.

Since 1975, the Indian government has been implementing an integrated child development scheme (ICDS), which is said to be one of the largest of its kind in the world. Its primary objective is improvement of nutritional status of children in the 0-6 age group.

The budget allocation for the scheme, which is raised year after year, touched Rs 160.56 billion this financial year. This was 19 per cent higher than the previous year’s figure, but groups working among children found it grossly insufficient as 42 per cent of the world’s underweight children are in India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who released the hunger and malnutrition report, said it was a shame that after several decades of operation of ICDS the rate of malnutrition was still high.

However, the facts the report brought out could not have been a surprise for him. The National Family Health Survey of 2005-06 had found that 58 per cent of the expectant mothers were anaemic and 47 per cent of the children were malnourished.

Low budgetary allocation is not the only reason for the poor impact of ICDS and other health sector programmes. A good part of the allotted money goes towards payment of remuneration to the personnel involved in delivery of services. Also, the government does not act with a sense of urgency.

In 2008, a high-powered body, styled as the Prime Minister’s National Council on Nutrition, was set up to advise the government on steps to address the malnutrition problem. It held its first and so far only meeting two years after its constitution. According to insiders, the decisions taken at that meeting are yet to be implemented although the prime minister wanted it done in three months.

Amartya Sen, the economist, recently drew attention to India’s poor record in social development. He said China had established a big lead in social indicators, and even the smaller neighbours were overtaking India. From being the second best performer in this area in South Asia India had become the second worst.

Part of the problem lies in the government’s pathetic faith in the market economy as the cure-all. Its basic approach was spelt out last week by the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, C. Rangarajan, who said the country could generate the surplus needed to launch social development programmes if it maintained the economic growth rate of the last decade.

The experience of the other South Asian countries to which Amartya Sen referred shows that the link between economic growth and social development is exaggerated. They are able to forge ahead of India because they are according higher priority to health and education, not because their economies are growing faster than its.

Actually, the government does not have to look beyond India’s borders to realise that the conventional wisdom that social advance follows economic advance is questionable. There is before it the example of the southern state of Kerala, which has registered social indicators comparable to those of China and the Western countries.

In 1969 a United Nations agency noted that Kerala, though a poor state, had achieved vast social progress. Thanks to remittances from expatriates and growth of the service sector, especially tourism, Kerala’s economy is now growing at a slightly higher rate than the national economy. However, it is facing severe challenges as the cash-strapped government is not able to sustain the high levels of investment in health and education which had pushed up its social indicators.

The lesson to learn from Kerala’s experience is that the critical factor in social development is not the rate of growth of the economy but the importance the government attaches to investment in areas such as health and education. The market has not played a significant part in the growth of these sectors anywhere. -- Gulf Today, January 16, 2012.

AHRC links low nutrition level to poor state of policing in India

2012-01-13T23:05:00.002+05:30

The following is a statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong:

The Prime Minister of India referring to the 42 per cent malnutrition among children under-five in the country as a 'national shame' has created a flurry of reports and debates, most of them accusing the United Progressive Alliance government. It has been widely held, as a whitewashing exercise by the ruling coalition, before the elections. Some have blamed the state governments for the dismal state of affairs. None, however, views the issue as one that directly reflects the situation of the rule of law, particularly concerning the state of policing in the country.

It does not require much imagination to identify the direct link between the dismal state of policing and despicable malnutrition in the country. Malnutrition, particularly of such alarming levels as it is in India, cannot be addressed effectively without an effective rule of law framework. For instance, one of the most serious causes that result in acute forms of malnutrition is the leakage in the public food distribution system.

Leakage due to corruption in the public food distribution system could constitute a crime under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. It is for the state police to investigate complaints and initiate prosecutions in cases of crimes committed under the Act. The number of cases registered and/or prosecuted in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for offenses punishable under the Act is a direct indicator as to what extent the police is responsible to the state of malnutrition in these states. The fact is, the number of such cases is alarmingly low in these states, which means that the police are either colluding with the criminals involved or have been inefficient, which has led to the despicable condition of food security in these states.

To argue that the police might not have received complaints to act is not tenable. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has informed the state authorities on many occasions about instances of black-marketing of commodities that are intended for distribution through the public food distribution system. In most of such occasions the state government or the police have failed to initiate actions. The AHRC is aware that its partner organisations working in these states, have on countless occasions, reported to the local police about the black-marketing of rationed articles. Instead of taking actions to investigate the complaints, the police often have colluded with the suspects and have taken actions against the complainants. In some states like Orissa, the police have registered false cases against the complainants, portraying them as suspected Naxalite activists.

The AHRC has noted that the role played by the District Collector/Magistrates in cases of acute malnutrition reported from a particular jurisdiction have been mostly disheartening so far. The AHRC has reported globally, that it is a common practice for the District Magistrates/Collectors to accuse those who are reporting cases of acute malnutrition from India as those who would want to tarnish the image of the country, for money. The AHRC is of the opinion that every single case of death from starvation and malnutrition is the direct responsibility of the District Collector/Magistrate having jurisdiction over the place where the victim lived before death. However so far the practice have been, that when a case is reported the attempt by the respective state government is to deny that there is malnutrition in the village from which the case is reported, and if at all an action follows, to suspend the Angawady helper or the Auxiliary Nurse-Midwife working in the village from which the case is reported.

It is just not the leakage in the public food distribution system that has led to the situation of food insecurity in these states. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are also states from where a relatively high number of cases of caste-based and other forms of discrimination are reported. These are also states from where thousands of persons are forced to migrate to other parts of the country due to the depletion of livelihood options, not just when there is a drought, but also when they are forcefully evicted without adequate compensation on the excuse of development. States of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are notorious for this phenomenon.

Land grabbing by the dominant communities from the Dalit, tribal and other minority communities and the practice of bonded labour is rampant in at least Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. The dominant caste preventing access of the Dalits, tribal and other minority communities to government welfare schemes is a common practice in these states. Rajasthan is a state where the dominant communities treat Dalits miserably.

A substantial number of malnourished children in the country are from the underprivileged communities, often Dalits and tribal. By contrast, the number of cases registered and prosecuted based on complaints of caste-based atrocities, land grabbing and bonded labour practiced against these communities is substantially low. The AHRC has noted that the police do not entertain complaints of such nature and often behaves prejudicially against the underprivileged communities. The AHRC has also observed that often complaints to the police against any of these issues in fact enhance the threat to the complainants. The AHRC has reported cases where the police are accused of having trashed the complaint and threatened the complainants after accepting bribes or other illegal favours from the accused. When the police discourage complaint making by force, what preventive action could render result to deal with denial of livelihood options that results in malnutrition?

The Prime Minister and the Union Minister for Women and Child Development have said that what is required to address the "national shame" is to create awareness among the victims. Some experts said that rural women often do not even know what is meant by malnutrition. To make such opinions is a farce. There is no need of a college degree for a mother to realise that her child is starving to death. It is the government that requires education on this count. What use is awareness without possibilities? Mere 'awareness building' without having means to realise rights is nothing but playing fraud.

42 per cent of the country's children under-five mean that much of the country's future is lost. A child's fate regarding its ability to develop its intellectual faculties as a grownup individual is pretty much decided during the first two to three years of its life, of which nutrition and balanced diet is vital. In that 42 percent children under the age of five facing malnutrition also indicates the stunted fate of the country. The role the law enforcement agencies in the country have played in securing this despicable fate to the nation, as argued above, is substantial. Yet, none has the honesty to admit it.
--------------
For information and comments contact:
Bijo Francis
Telephone: +852 - 26986339
Email: indiadesk@ahrc.asia, southasiadesk@ahrc.asia

Where does India figure in global scenario?

2012-01-09T07:53:00.003+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Where does India figure in the emerging global scenario marked by a gradual shift in economic equilibrium from the West to the East? There is no serious discussion on the subject within the country but it is being raised elsewhere.

According to World Bank data for 2010, India was the ninth largest economy – after the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Italy. Its position must be one rung lower since Russia was dropped from the list due to absence of precise figures.

Everyone knows the picture is changing. The London-based Centre for Economic and Business Research says by 2020 India will become the fifth largest economy, after the US, China, Japan and Russia, and will be followed by Brazil, Germany, the UK, France and Italy in that order.

Last week conflicting signals emerged from Washington on India’s role in the emerging world.

In a document released after the Obama administration outlined a new defence strategy, the Pentagon said the US was investing in a long-term strategic partnership to support India’s ability to serve as a regional economic anchor and provider of security in the Indian Ocean region. In plain terms, this means the US looks upon India as an ally in its effort to contain China.

However, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in a television interview spoke of the challenges of dealing with Russia and “rising countries like India and others”. It was the second time that he had referred to India as a 21st-century challenge.

The new US strategy, which envisages a leaner but more agile force, focuses on East Asia. While noting that the US and China had a strong stake in peace and stability in the region and an interest in building a co-operative bilateral relationship, the Pentagon document said the growth of China’s military power must be accompanied by greater clarity of its strategic intentions so as to avoid friction in the region.

In a quick response, Xinhua news agency, which is controlled by the Communist Party and the government, said the US was welcome to make increased contribution to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region but should not flex its muscles.

Xinhua made no comment on Washington’s concept of India as a regional economic anchor and security provider but this is a topic on which the Chinese authorities have spoken through the media repeatedly in recent months.

When Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda flew into India after visiting Beijing last month, party, government and military newspapers linked his visit with that country’s ‘arc of freedom and prosperity’ strategy aimed at containing China. Earlier, the party paper, the People’s Daily, had said the US was shoring up its ties with old allies like Japan and South Korea and ‘new giants like India’.

The bottom lines are clear. The US, while conceding China’s economic clout, wants to block its vaulting from the status of regional power to that of global power. China, while aspiring to be a global power, wants to hold India down at the regional level.

Xinhua and the China Daily recently reproduced a foreign commentary which said “there has been growing respect for, rather fear of, China because it is growing so fast and has become so big and powerful as to swallow the Western world in a decade or two.”

A Xinhua commentary at the same time said, “Today’s India is far from potent and prosperous to act of its own accord” and dismissed Indian “jitters” over China’s growing might as the result of “inferiority complex” and “loud jealousy”. The People’s Daily translated into English and posted on its website an article in the Shanghai party daily which described India as a “big regional power” whose “political influence and military strength are limited.”

While talks to resolve the long pending India-China border dispute, which precipitated a short war 50 years ago, are moving at a snail’s pace, new irritants are coming up.

China has frowned upon an Indian public sector firm’s agreement with Vietnam for oil prospecting in the disputed South China Sea. India has to worry about an unstable Pakistan becoming increasingly reliant on China in the wake of growing estrangement with the US.

Chinese Indologist Tan Chung’s suggestion that as cultural twins the two countries must explore the affinity between their ancient civilisations may appear to be a cry in the wilderness but the restrained handling of irritants by the two governments holds out hope of peaceful transition to a new order. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, January 9, 2012.

All-India Campaign against Sedition and other Repressive Laws

2012-01-08T21:49:00.003+05:30

A civil society initiative styled as All-India Campaign against Sedition and Other Repressive Laws will be launched in New Delhi on January 31, 2012.

This was decided upon at a meeting convened by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties on December 16, 2011.

Members from various branches of PUCL and representatives of several other democratic rights organizations like the PUDR, APDR, CPDR, CDRO, APCLC, Masum, Human Rights Alert, Manipur and NAPM had met on May 7 and 8 to consider the situation arising from the widespread use of sedition and other repressive laws by the authorities. The meeting decided to collect a million signatures on a petition demanding repeal of Sec. 124A IPC and Sec. 2(o) (iii) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967 and other anti-sedition laws and submit it to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Over 40 persons including members of PUCL and other democratic, human rights and people’s organizations attended the December 16 meeting.

The decisions taken are as follows:

1. To launch the `All India Campaign against Sedition and other repressive Laws’ as a collective campaign of all democratic rights and human rights organisations, mass movements, rights bodies, professionals and concerned citizens. This campaign should be launched on the 31st of January, 2011 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in Delhi (originally we had planned 30th January Martyr’s day, but due to the non availability of the hall, the launch has been shifted to the 31st with a press conference in Delhi on the 30th of January, 2011).

2. A Steering group would be formed with representatives of different organizations which had participated in the May and Dec, 2011 meetings, with state level coordination to be undertaken in different states. Even organizations that were unable to attend the 16th December, 2011 meetings would be invited to be part of the Steering Committee. Gautam Navalakha of PUDR and Asish Gupta of CDRO undertook to contact other human rights organisations with the invitation to participate.

3. On behalf of the PUCL, the 4 national Secretaries Kavita, Mahipal Singh, Chittaranjan Singh and Suresh would coordinate with PUCL state units to participate in this effort. Similarly other concerned individuals would also be invited to be part of the campaign.

4. Pushkar Raj, PUCL National Secretary would continue with the coordination of the All India campaign along with the support of the PUCL national secretaries and representatives other member organization till the steering committee is formally launched.

5. The planning meeting for the All India convention will take place at Gandhi Peace Foundation at 4 pm on the 9th of January, 2012 to chart out the strategy and plan for the January 31st, 2012 All India launch. (Pushkar Raj, Kavita Srivastava, Mahipal Singh, Parmajit to coordinate among others)

6. It was felt that the campaign must work in different groups:

(a) A group which works on the documentation and research side of the law. On the basis of the format given below, information and case studies should be provided to this committee so that a report could be consolidated and released on the 31st of January, 2011. ( Proposed names Pushkar Raj, V. Suresh and Gautam Navlakha, Venkatesh to coordinate with others)

(b) A group will coordinate the public education campaign on the subject with students, farmers, workers, tribals, dalits, minority groups and other human rights workers and members of other organizations, through public meetings and signature campaigns. (Proposed names Chittranjan Singh, Anil Chaudhary, Subhash Gatade among others)

(c) Outreach work, especially with the legal fraternity. (Justice Sachar, Usha Ramanthan, Ravi Kiran Jain and others)

(d) A group would simultaneously also begin addressing legal support needs with the local organisation which would have identified victims along with it working on the social support and rehabilitation side of the victims. ( Colin Gonsalves, Himanshu, N D Pancholi and others)

(e) A media group which through alternative and main stream media, web based and otherwise, would aggressively highlight this issue. ( Ajit Sahi, Anand Panini and others)

7. The All India documentation study of the use and abuse of sedition laws should be on the following parameters:

(i) State wise / District wide / Police Station specific list of Cases (FIRs) in which sedition charges u/s 124A IPC and Sec. 2(o)(iii) Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967 were invoked along with other criminal law sections in the last 10 years;

(ii) Description of status of each of the cases listed above in terms of (a) still pending investigation; (b) whether a charge sheet has been filed, if so what are the charges; (c) status of trial, and number of years pending; (iv) if trial concluded, whether the accused is/are convicted for offence u/s 124A IPC and UAPA, and other charges with details of sentence; (v) whether appeal filed and pending or decided.

(iii) Even if it is not possible to get details of all cases described in (ii) above, attempt should be made to collect details in as many cases as possible.

(iv) To sub-categorize the list of cases in (i), (ii) and (iii) above in terms of the following categories of cases where sedition charges were invoked: (a) workers’ strikes, (b) farmers’ agitations, (c) dalit struggles, (iv) tribal rights groups, (v) minority rights issues, (vi) students’ agitations (vii) rights defenders, (viii) women’s movements, (ix) protests against development projects / displacement (x) others.

(v) List out the background of the accused in all cases involving sedition charges.

(vi) Prepare case studies of major cases invohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflving sedition charges highlighting the details of (a) glaring absurdity of the case, (b) human interest,
(c) political vendetta, (d) impact on families, (e) length of arrest and difficulties in bail.

A planning meeting of the All-India Campaign will take place at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi, tomorrow (January 9) at 4 p.m.

All queries and emails should be sent to: puclnat@gmail.com with copies to kavita.pucl@gmail.com and rightstn@gmail.com, with 'sedition' as the subject.

Postal communications may be sent to: Pushkar Raj, General Secretary, PUCL,
270-A, Patparganj, Opp. Anandlok Apartments, Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi-110 091.

Soni Sori on hunger-strike in hospital

2012-01-08T11:11:00.003+05:30

Soni Sori, the tribal teacher arrested on charges of being a Maoist conduit, is on hunger strike to protest against harassment by Chhattisgarh police and being treated like a criminal.

The 36-year-old teacher in a government school in Dantewada, an area affected by Maoist insurgency, is in a Raipur hospital with head and back injuries suffered while in custody.

She was arrested in Delhi and taken to Chhattisgarh on transit remand. (Picture alongside,taken shortly after her arrest, shows her being escorted by police).

Sori began hunger strike on Tuesday, according to an IANS report from Raipur.

Soni Sori has said police kept her chained violating her rights. "They (police) are treating me like a hardcore criminal. They put a chain on my legs... I oppose such moves by police," Sori told mediapersons at the hospital.

She was shifted to the Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday night after doctors who examined her at Jagdalpur, headquarters of the Bastar region, said she needed advanced treatment.

"Why are they treating me like a criminal? What did I do, why did they put a 'janjir' (chain) on my legs," she was heard asking in footage aired by local TV channels.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Sori, who allegedly received money on behalf of Maoists from the Essar Group as "protection money", sustained injuries while in police custody in Dantewada on Monday.

Human right activists termed her injury a case of "custodial violence" and sought an independent probe to expose police atrocities. Chhattisgarh police denied the accusations and said she slipped and fell in the bathroom while in custody.

Last week Sori had requested the Delhi High Court not to allow the Chhattisgarh police to take her back to the state as she faced a threat to her life.

An online petition seeking justice for Soni Sori can be accessed here:

Anand Patwardhan's new film

2012-01-04T21:10:00.006+05:30

Anand Patwardhan writes:

My new film "Jai Bhim Comrade" (3hrs and 20 mins duration) will be screened one day prior to the Bhagwat Jadhav memorial meet held every year at Lovelane, Mazgaon.

Date: 9 January 2012

Time: 6 pm

Venue: 3-23 BIT Chawl, Love Lane, Mazgaon, Mumbai 10

PS. There will be other screenings in the next few weeks so come to this one only if u can commit 4 hrs of yr time.

This film had won the Ram Bahadur Trophy for Best Film at the Film South Asia 2011 festival of documentaries, held in Kathmandu last October. Report here.

A year everyone wants to forget

2012-01-02T07:31:00.003+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Political chicanery touched a new low in the closing days of 2011, and as the New Year dawned India’s ruling alliance and the opposition were blaming each other for the sad state of affairs.

The economy was not doing well. The annual growth rate slipped to 6.9 per cent. The government, forced to backtrack on opening up of retail trade to foreign direct investment, was clueless on how to move forward.

Inflation, rising interest rates and the continuing global economic crisis hit the stock exchange, causing investors a loss of Rs 20,000 billion during the year. Foreign investors, who had pumped more than $29 billion into the Indian economy, began pulling out. By year-end, they had withdrawn about $ 320 million, damaging the rupee in the process.

The news from the agriculture sector, which plays an important if declining role, too, was depressing with farmers’ deteriorating condition giving rise to fresh worries.

All across the country the marginalised people were battling with gnawing poverty on the one side and domestic and international conglomerates, intruding into their homelands to set up mining or manufacturing projects, on the other.

Little wonder that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his New Year’s Day exhortation to the people to work together, avoided dwelling on the year gone by and tried instead to put the focus on the challenges ahead. But how can one work out a reliable strategy to face the future without looking back on the past and drawing appropriate lessons?

Corruption in high places was laid bare during the year as investigating agencies, pursuing cases under judicial prodding, arrested a few politicians, bureaucrats and business personnel in connection with Central and state scams. Thanks to the pressure built up by social activist Anna Hazare’s campaign the political establishment was compelled to think of a new anti-corruption dispensation.

No one expected the bill the government brought forward on this connection to have a smooth passage through Parliament since the polity was deeply divided. As it happened, the parties got together and made sure, in their own disparate ways, that the measure fell through.

The government had extended the session of Parliament by three days to discuss and adopt the bill. The lower house, sitting till midnight, adopted it on the first day itself but rejected the move to give the proposed ombudsmen constitutional status. The upper house took up the bill on the third day, discussed it till midnight and then adjourned without voting on it. Had there been a vote, the house, in which the ruling coalition is in a minority, would have rejected the bill or mauled it beyond recognition.

Anna Hazare and his chief lieutenants, who began a three-day fast, coinciding with the session of Parliament, gave up the protest midway, disillusioned by the poor response their campaign evoked this time despite continuous live coverage by the private television channels.

While the government can take comfort from the fact that the opposition and the Hazare movement, too, did not cover themselves with glory, it cannot afford to go easy on anti-graft measures. Its credibility is low, and it has to redeem itself to play its part in facing the challenges on the economic and social fronts.

The current difficulties notwithstanding, the economy is inherently strong, and the West is looking up to the 350-million strong Indian middle class as a force that can help in the global recovery. However, the government has to be mindful of the presence of an even bigger mass of people waiting to be lifted up.

The inclusive development the government keeps talking about is yet to translate itself into reality. The Prime Minister, in his New Year’s Day message, spoke of the need to focus on banishment of poverty in the 12th five-year plan, which begins in April 2012.

A big test awaits the political class in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls in February along with four smaller states.

The Congress, which heads the central government, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition, were in the fourth and third position respectively in the last Assembly elections in the state, which the Bahujan Samaj Party won with a thin majority. How well they do in this sprawling state will have a bearing on their prospects in the parliamentary elections, due in 2014.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, January 2, 2012.

Graft law in critical phase

2011-12-26T08:00:00.003+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

The long-drawn-out effort for a new machinery to deal with rampant corruption has entered a crucial phase. With the polity deeply divided on the Bill the government placed before the Lower House of Parliament last week, the shape of the machinery that may emerge remains uncertain.

At the introduction stage itself, several members, led by Bihar leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, launched virulent attacks on the measure, kindling memories of the ill-fated Bill to provide reservation for women in Parliament and the state legislatures. Some of them accused the government of acting in haste, under duress.

Responding to criticism of the measure, Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee said, “If you feel it is not necessary, we will not have it. Legislation is the domain of Parliament.” This gave rise to suspicion that the political class wants to defeat the legislative effort the way it thwarted the women’s reservation Bill.

However, the government cannot abandon the Bill since Anna Hazare’s movement has created sentiments in favour of a tough anti-corruption regime. The House is due to vote on the Bill after three days of discussion beginning tomorrow. Hazare will be on fast in Mumbai on all the three days. He has also asked his supporters to prepare for a “jail bharo” (fill the jail) agitation.

Anna Hazare deserves full credit for compelling the government to pilot the bill to create the Lokpal institution, which successive administrations have talked about but not pursued seriously. However, in insisting that Parliament reject the government Bill and adopt the one drafted by him, he is overreaching himself.

When Team Anna approached the Bombay High Court for a directive to the Mumbai authorities to make available a suburban ground for his fast at a concessional rate, the judges questioned the propriety of “parallel canvassing” when Parliament is considering the measure. Leaders of the Communist Party of India and the CPI-Marxist were present at the all-party meeting Hazare called in New Delhi recently, but in the house the CPI spokesman ridiculed him for seeking the mantle of the Father of the Nation.

An organisation styled as “Save Democracy: Save India” has announced plans to hold rallies in Mumbai for three days, coinciding with Hazare’s fast, in protest against his attempt to dictate to Parliament.

The Bill Parliament is considering is an improved version of the one the government prepared. The standing committee which considered the government draft, along with those submitted by others, including Team Anna, made many changes to strengthen it.

As it now stands, the measure provides for a nine-member Lokpal at the Centre and for a Lokayukta in every state. Both the institutions will be constitutional bodies. Half the membership of the Lokpal will be filled by women, Dalits, Adivasis and backward classes, with a quota for the minorities in the last category.

Hazare’s demand that the Prime Minister be brought under the purview of the Lokpal has been conceded. However, a bench comprising at least seven members must hold an in-camera preliminary inquiry into the complaint against him. His work with regard to sensitive matters like international relations, national security, atomic energy and space cannot be looked into.

The Lokpal can entertain complaints against ministers, members of Parliament, officials and non-government organisations which receive more than Rs 1 million as donations in a year. Hazare, however, insists the Bill is still very weak. He is unhappy that it does not place the Central Bureau of Investigation under the Lokpal, although it does provide for the Lokpal and the Chief Vigilance Commissioner supervising CBI investigation of cases referred by them.

Almost all parties have reservations about some provisions or other. For instance, the Bharatiya Janata Party and some regional parties are opposed to inclusion of the Lokayukta in the measure, viewing it as contrary to the federal principle.

Since parties which disapprove of particular provisions may be able to combine forces and defeat them, one cannot be sure about the form in which the Bill emerges from the House. If the Upper House makes any further changes in the measure it will come before the Lower House again. The Bill enacted by Parliament will be subject to judicial scrutiny. Parliament and the Judiciary will not be as susceptible to outside pressure as the Executive is. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, December 26, 2011.

Indian police an impediment to security, says AHRC

2011-12-19T15:07:00.002+05:30

The Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, says in a statement:

There is no doubt that security to life and property is a fundamental right of every Indian. It is equally the duty of the state to protect it. The safety of a nation is directly proportionate to the collective notion of security of every citizen of that country. The single largest entity that is directly and immediately responsible for the security of the people in India, like in any other country, is the local police. However in India, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is of the opinion that it is this very executive organ of the state that forms the single largest impediment to the security of the country. (Picture courtesy: Magnifying Glass)

Organizations like the AHRC have repeatedly called upon the government of India that the government must bring the much-needed reforms to the current state of policing in the country. Indians who are aware about the state of affairs of the country's police would agree in one voice that the country's police today suffers from a series of problems, including but not limited to corruption; unwarranted political interference; widespread use of torture; nepotism of all forms; lack of infrastructure and training; absence of required cadre strength; and above all, deep demoralisation. Yet the country's governments, state and central, have been keeping reforming the police as one of its last priorities.

Police officers who are willing to speak privately agree that all of the above issues, collectively and individually, have damaged the police beyond repair at the moment, that unless a serious attempt is made to revive the police from this abysmal downward spiral the institution has been stooping into, no matter what is being done to improve the state of internal security of the country, its police service will not be able to cope up with the security requirement of the time and will remain the single largest stumbling block to the country's safety. These officers agree in one voice that in the modern state, India, there is no place for a police force, as it exists and functions today. In that, today's Indian police cannot rationally coexist with the requirements of a modern state and that of its people.

The cancer of demoralization that has advanced into the system is of such nature that many police officers do not think twice before using their uniform to sell themselves for private gain. The incident reported from Kerala state last week, where a Circle Inspector of Police, wearing a sarong, was found loading a lorry with contraband goods assisted by several of his constables, of which one was named Satypalan (vernacular for 'guardian of truth') is an example to this scenario. The local people secretly videographed the entire incident and leaked it to the media. It was only after the media exposure of the incident that the state government reacted against the corrupt and shameless officer. The general public had filed scores of complaints over the past several months against the officer, but until last week, the government had preferred to ignore the complaints. Even today, none of the complaints are investigated or acted upon. It is the video that pushed the administration to act, not other genuine complaints.

The AHRC has noted with concern that in India the government will take action against a police officer only if it has no other option to save its public image. Unfortunately in all cases the complainant who dares take a video of a corrupt police officer need not be so fortunate. The case reported from Tamil Nadu state in October this year is an example. In this incident, a shopkeeper videotaped a woman police Circle Inspector demanding and accepting Rs. 10,000 as bribe. Then the shopkeeper called the vigilance cell of the Tamil Nadu state police. The officer on call responded by arriving at the scene. All the while, the woman police officer was found pleading her guilt to the shopkeeper and asking him not to report the matter to anyone, in particular to the media. But as soon as the vigilance officer arrived with a team of police officers, the officer asked his colleague, who was caught on video accepting bribes, to leave the place. Then the officer assaulted the shopkeeper asking him how dare he video record the deeds of the police. The entire incident was recorded, and the police officer was aware that it was being recorded. Yet the fact that the officer did not hesitate to assault a citizen who dared to bring to light and report police corruption in full view of a video camera that the officer knew was recording his deeds as well as audio, shows the extent of the perception of immunity police officers enjoy in India. Unlike in the Kerala case, there was no action against police officers in Tamil Nadu.

A random search in the Internet will yield hundreds of results where police atrocities have been 'caught on tape' in India. Unless there is an immediate surge by the media by reportage and comments on the incident, in most cases there would not be any corrective action. In fact the state of affairs in the Indian police is far beyond the scope of correction by punishing a police officer here or there.

The entire institution requires an overhaul. Conservative estimates suggest that more than 40 per cent of the police officers in the country are unfit to serve; out of them 90 per cent are persons with criminal backgrounds. For instance, in Kerala, as many as 391 police personnel, including a Superintendent of Police, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, a Circle Inspector, 19 Sub-Inspectors and 55 Assistant Sub-Inspectors who are involved in criminal cases, are still working in the law and order wing of the police. None other than the Chief Minister of the state, Mr Oommen Chandy, revealed this. Replying to questions in the State Legislative Assembly on 10 October, the Chief Minister said that in the state police there are 536 police officers involved in criminal cases. This is however the tip of the iceberg. These are police officers against whom the police itself have registered cases. The number of officers who have managed to stay clear of any criminal charges despite involvement in crimes should be much higher than those facing prosecution. Above all, the most alarming scenario is that all the 536 police officers are still in service! Yet it is not a matter of concern in India.

It is an open secret today that for everything, from appointment to transfer and promotion, officers pay bribes to politicians, in the case of Manipur, even to the Chief Minister. The qualification to be appointed as a police officer in that state is not intellect, integrity or physical fitness, but the rate of bribe the candidate is willing to pay to the Chief Minister, his political party or to its nominee. The AHRC has confirmed information that today, the rate of bribe to be paid for appointment as a police constable in Manipur is Rs. 500,000 to Rs. 800,000 and for the post of Sub-Inspector of Police it is anything beyond Rs. 1,400,000. What is the guarantee that these police officers will not accept money or favours for 'looking the other way' when they come to know about a terrorist or disruptive activity? The security scenario in Manipur will drastically improve if corruption in the administration, in particular, the state police, is checked.

In countries where the government considers its police force to be a disciplined and serious state agency, worthy of the task it is entrusted to discharge, allegations against police officers will be taken seriously. Adequate measures will be put in place so that corruption within the police, if not ruled out, is kept at a minimum level possible. In these countries the public entertain a high standard of trust in their police and the police officers have a high degree of morale.

However, in India, a police officer is perceived as a criminal in uniform. Officers and policymakers alike believe that it is only through fear that law and order can be maintained. What is not acknowledged is the knowledge that fear alienates people from the police, and visible and widespread ineptitude and corruption among the rank and file of the police officers cut them into a poor show of uniformed officers willing to steal even from the beggars' bowl for whatever it is worth.

Often in every other crime reported in the country, there is a foul police officer or an entire team of them aiding the suspects. The AHRC is aware that in states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, police officers openly run brothels and engage in human trafficking. In the national capital, New Delhi, a substantial number of police officers run private businesses, including the plying of contact carriages in the city. Unfortunately the security of the country is largely dependent upon these police officers and the governments are in no mood to listen. What is alarming is the banality of it.

Economy under stress

2011-12-19T07:00:00.002+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

With inflation ruling high, industrial production falling and the rupee sliding, the Indian economy is under heavy pressure. While the authorities assert it has the resilience to bounce back, the current distress is certain to cause hurt in the short run.

Inflation remained above 9 per cent throughout this year, forcing the Reserve Bank of India to tighten money control by repeatedly raising interest rates. A quarter point increase in interest rate it ordered in October was the 13th since March 2010.

Last month the inflation rate dropped to 9.1 per cent, largely due to fall in the prices of food articles, particularly vegetables. This was the lowest point touched this year, but that gave the government no comfort as the figure was way above its target.

In September industrial production had registered a small expansion of 1.9 per cent. Production figures for October, released last week, showed a small contraction. This was the first time in nearly two-and-a-half years that a negative growth rate had been recorded.

A fall in industrial production had been forecast but the extent of decline surprised the authorities. As against an anticipated decline of 0.5 to 1.0 per cent over a year, there was a sharp fall of 5.1 per cent.

A comparison of industrial production figures of October with those of the same month last year reveals a vastly altered scenario. In October 2010, consumer goods output had registered an increase of 9.3 per cent. Consumer durables recorded a growth of 14.2 per cent and non-durables 5 per cent. This October consumer goods production fell by 0.8 per cent with durables recording a decline of 0.3 per cent and non-durables 1.3 per cent.

The Reserve Bank was faced with a difficult choice. Industrialists wanted it to loosen money control to help boost production. Ordinary citizens looked up to it to take further measures to contain inflation. Opting for the middle path, it decided to hold interest rates at the prevailing levels.

At the moment, the government’s major worry is the decline in the value of the rupee. Last week it fell to an all-time low of Rs 54.30 to the dollar. In a quick response, the Reserve Bank imposed curbs on forward trading in the currency. That brought some relief. The value improved to Rs 52.75 to the dollar.

During the past two years, as the advanced countries faced serious difficulties, the Indian economy had shown remarkable buoyancy, leading to a high degree of optimism in policy-makers about its ability to withstand the effect of the global meltdown. They have limitations in addressing the current situation as at the root of the troubles are some factors beyond their control such as the crisis in Europe and flight of foreign capital.

Europe is one of India’s major trade partners, accounting for 23.8 per cent of its exports and 18.7 per cent of its imports. In 2004 India became a strategic partner of the European Union and the following years witnessed a determined effort to realise the full potential of the partnership.

Unlike in the case of the other major economies, India’s trade in goods and services with the EU is fairly well balanced. Last year the EU exported to India goods worth Euro 34.7 billion and services worth Euro 9.8 billion and imported from India goods worth Euro 33.2 billion and services worth Euro 8.1 billion. EU investments in India last year totalled Euro 3.0 billion. Indian investments in EU amounted to only Euro 600 million.

While there is clamour for action by the government and the central bank to arrest the slide of the rupee, the country’s heavy reliance on energy imports and the persisting inflation limit the room for manoeuvre. Placing curbs on flight of capital is not a feasible option. Financial circles, therefore, expect the authorities to take other measures such as allowing companies to borrow abroad more freely to boost dollar inflows.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted during the weekend that the present setback is temporary and the country has the ability to sustain a growth rate of eight per cent or even nine per cent during the next five years.

However there is a problem. He believes the way out of the current difficulties is acceleration of the globalisation process, held back by political compulsions. The Western economies’ continuing troubles have not persuaded him to shed the illusion that India can move ahead along the development path charted by them which excludes social justice.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, December 19, 2011

NAPM hails direct action at Coca Cola's Plachimada plant

2011-12-17T21:45:00.004+05:30

Activists at Coca Cola's Plachimada factory on Saturday -- Photo: Robin Keraleeyam

The following is a statement issued by the National Alliance of People’s Movements in New Delhi hailing the direct action by activists at the Coca Cola plant in Kerala:

Twenty-two members of Plachimada Coca-Cola Virudha Samara Samithi and Plachimada solidarity forum including Vilayodi Venugopal, N. P. Johnson, N Subramanyan, Fr. Augustine, M N Giri and Sahadevan walked into the premises of the Coca Cola Factory and courted arrest. When produced in court, the Magistrate ordered their release on furnishing personal bond but they refused to take bail in protest against apathy on the part of state government and the delaying and subverting tactics in favour of Coca Cola.

NAPM hails the action of these activists and salutes their courage for choosing to do this to bring home the dire need for quick passage of the ‘Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims’ Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill, 2011.

It needs to be noted that based on the report submitted by the Plachimada High Power Committee appointed by Goverment of Kerala, the Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims’ Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill, 2011 was passed by the Assembly on February 24, 2011. The Bill was sent by the Governor of Kerala to the President through the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on March,30. The Home Ministry sent it to various related ministries for their comments on April 17.. They were then supposed to forward the Bill to the President with the consolidated comments.

The decision to send the Bill to the President was taken by the State Law Department, although there was no issue of repugnance and hence there was no need for Presidential assent. There is no question of repugnance as the law deals, in its operative part, with entirely state subjects, namely, losses in agriculture, health care, animal husbandry, job loss and groundwater contamination.

Very recently, the Union government has referred the Bill back to State government but till date the State Law Ministry has not done anything on this. We fail to understand this delay, when in the State as well as at the Centre the Congress party is in power in coalition. Is this delay part of a larger design? Is the government trying to serve the interests of the Coca Cola Corporation? It is extremely shameful that the governments at the State and the Centre are neglecting the demands of the suffering communities and the elected Gram Sabha. We all know that continuous Satyagraha has been going on since Earth Day in 2002, which has now completed almost a decade. How long are they expected to wait?

Amidst all this the Kerala government is planning to give distribution rights to Coca Cola for providing drinking water to government hospitals in the state. Union Minister of State for Food K.V. Thomas declared that months back. It was sustained people's movements and pressure from groups across the country which forced the government to enact this special tribunal Bill. It is high time the government brought this enactment into force and justice is done to the suffering communities and Coke is held responsible for their corporate crimes and made to pay for this. Our struggle to hold the corporations accountable will continue until justice is done to the people.

Medha Patkar,Sandeep Pandey, Gabriele Dietrich, Prafulla Samantara, Geo Josh, Hussain master, Gabriele Dietrich, Suniti S R, Rajendra Ravi, Ramakrishna Raju, Anand Mazgaonkar, Vimal Bhai, Madhuresh Kumar.

Symbolic confiscation of Coca Cola plant in Kerala

2011-12-17T14:21:00.003+05:30

About 20 activists who marched into the Coca Cola factory at Plachimada in Kerala on Saturday to confiscate the company’s property in the name of the people were arrested by the police.

The factory which poisoned land and water in the area was closed down following prolonged agitation by the people, which attracted worldwide attention.

The Kerala Assembly has passed a bill providing for the setting up of a tribunal to determine the compensation payable to victims of the pollution. The bill is awaiting the signature of the President.

The symbolic confiscation of the company's property was part of an attempt to impress upon the Centre and the State government the need to implement the law. “We are demanding proper compensation for the people of Plachimada from Coca Cola and it is the people’s natural right,” a spokesman for the group which staged the protest action said.

He added that most of the arrested persons would remain in jail and not seek bail.

New Media in Higher Education

2011-12-16T21:02:00.003+05:30

In 1970, Alvin Toffler came out with a best selling book, Future Shock. One of the important points he made in that work was that the world was moving faster than ever. In the previous 100 years, that is to say between 1870 and 1970, more changes took place than in the previous 1,000 years, he said. At that time, several institutions in the US were engaged in research work, initiated by the US government, with an eye to the possibilities of military application, to develop a network of computer networks. From that effort emerged the Internet, which has been changing the world even faster than during the period surveyed by Toffler. Today it is a global institution with which more than two billion of the world’s seven billion people are connected.

Governments are using the network for military and civilian purposes. Ordinary people are using it to gather information, seek entertainment or simply keep in touch with others. The medium has demonstrated its potential as a means of quick communication in different situations. It has been used effectively to locate blood donors in emergencies, to summon rescue workers in times of calamity and to mobilize people to stage political protests. The way it facilitated changes of government in some Arab countries is still fresh in our minds. Barack Obama used it to raise funds for his presidential election campaign and the US administration has been using it in military adventures far from the country’s shores. At the moment ordinary Americans, the voiceless 90%, are using this medium in their campaign against the dominant 10%, who have been fattening themselves at the cost of the rest of America and the world.

One area where it is now creating ripples, which may grow into huge waves, is higher education.

Shortly after Toffler’s Future Shock appeared, came another book which attracted wide attention: Deschooling Society, by Ivan Illich. A priest who worked among deprived and disadvantaged people, he called for the abolition of the school system, arguing the masses can never get educated through it. He saw the educational system prevailing in the US, the Soviet Union and other advanced countries as a byproduct of Industrialization. It worked like a factory. The school, he pointed out, functioned as a machine which takes in children of various kinds and produce identical products. His main objection to the school system was that it acts as a sieve. It keeps rejecting people at various levels, allowing only a small number to move up to the top. Such a system cannot be relied upon to educate the masses.

After analyzing the process of acquisition of knowledge, Illich concluded that the process depended upon three elements: one, knowledge imparted by the teacher, who is someone who knows more than him; two, peer group discussion which helps clarify ideas; and, three, use of teaching aides. Accordingly, he envisaged a system under which a knowledgeable person, a guru, makes himself available on a specified day and time to instruct those interested in learning from him. Periodically the pupils get together to discuss what they were learning. Also, opportunities are provided for them to have access to teaching aids. Such a system will enable anyone with the aptitude to acquire knowledge in any subject of interest to him, he argued.

Sound as Illich’s idea may be, translating it into practice was not easy. Governments were too committed to the school system to wreck it. Practical considerations prevented gurus from coming forward to take on disciples. And no one built a public teaching aid facility. Internet has made it possible to overcome some of these problems. At all levels of education, it is now being used by the formal institutions of learning. Schools and colleges are still there but they can now think of breaking out of traditional constraints and universalize access to education. Small beginnings in this regard are taking place in the advanced countries, notably the US, especially in the field of higher education.

The great advantage new media offers is its vast potential for interaction. Some US academic institutions have recognized that a change in the basic vehicle used for learning, from archetypical courses, lectures and textbooks to interactive electronically portable media can be the seed for positive change in the educational system. They also feel that new media learning materials can help enhance their contribution to society by improving learning efficiency and expanding the impact of higher education. Both the quantity and quality of learning can increase.

The current “course” model of learning is exemplified by isolated teachers and groups of students. New media has provided universities and colleges with the opportunity to design a better educational experience. To understand how this can be done, let us take a look at the different components of university education. In the first place, it must impart knowledge; Secondly, it must equip students to think critically. Thirdly, it must provide an environment that helps the student to realize his/her full potential.

New media can be used in the campus as well as in off-campus education. One important aspect of the university system is the bonding experience that it gives young people. It is not as though off-campus education denies opportunity to develop such experience. In fact, new media is a great promoter of bonding, cutting across differences of age, gender, culture etc.

The traditional concept of the campus university denies higher education to most young people. Unfortunately, few countries consider providing the masses with higher education and advanced training a pressing issue. Some educationists have acknowledged that a large number of young people joining the ranks of the unemployed (should we say, the unemployable?) and the unconnected poses a threat to stability in a global society. They recognize the urgent need to provide mass training for employability and mass education to inspire the human spirit. New media’s role becomes important in this context.

In the US, where work in this area has been going on for some time, there have also been some studies that evaluate the impact of new media. In one research project, Professor David Wallace and Philip Mutooni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a “Web lecture” on industrial design comparable to a traditional lecture covering the same material. Professor Wallace invested 500 person-hours to prepare the material that students were expected to “cover” in one hour. He used slides, voice clips, captions, video clips, and text as required. Half the students used the Web-based presentation and the other half attended a very well-prepared, demonstration-rich lecture. As judged by a group of outside experts, the Web lecture group built better models than the group on the traditional path. The Web lecture students used the Web lecture repeatedly as reference as they applied the techniques they were taught. They did so even though they had to go to a computer and log on to review the material.

In another study, Wallace and another researcher presented a new group of students with the results of the first study and told them that all students would be expected to use the Web lecture. Half the students were told they should review the material before a classroom discussion of the techniques, and the other half were told to review the material before coming to a lab session in which they would be expected to use the techniques. In this experiment, the students expecting to demonstrate their skill through actual performance were extremely diligent in reviewing the material, while the other group was very lax.

These studies have shown that well-illustrated materials are extremely effective as learning aids. Said one professor involved in the studies, "The best lecture I have ever given would be no competition for a professionally produced new media version covering the same material, especially if that material were always instantaneously available to the learner in the style she or he preferred."

Communication with others and with self is at the core of the education system. New media offers an effective vehicle for both types of communication and may, therefore, allow improvements in a broad spectrum of learning activities.

Some colleges in US have already moved away from the traditional model. These include institutions that impart training in subjects as varied as engineering and journalism.

According to new media advocates, an advantage it provides is that both teachers and students can reach out to more experienced and culturally diverse colleagues than are available in the conventional campus. Also, new media educational material allows continuous improvement of the education process and growth of quality. There is also immense scope to improve relationships between institutions and their alumni in very productive and innovative ways.

B.R.P.Bhaskar
December 15, 2011

Keynote address delivered at session on New Media, held as part of the three-day national seminar on Role of Media in Higher Education organized by Kannur University from December 13 to 15

Attack on Shahina in Kodagu condemned

2011-12-16T08:57:00.002+05:30

Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns of Bangalore, a platform for human solidarity against injustice, inequality, oppression and discrimination, in a statement issued on Tuesday, condemned the attack on Shahina Nafeesa, journalist, at Somwarpet in Karnataka.

Shahina, who is based in Kerala, is facing two cases with trumped up charges registered by the Kodagu police following the appearance of her report in Tehelka exposing the falsity of the police claims in the Bangalore blast case in which Peoples Democratic Party leader Abdul Naser Mahdani is an accused.

The following in the text of the PSC statement:

On Friday the 9th of December, Shahina Nafeesa a senior journalist presently working with OPEN magazine, formerly with Tehelka, was attacked by communal hooligans owing allegiance to the Sangh Parivar. The incident occurred when Shahina was travelling back from Madikeri, where she was summoned by the local magistrate in connection with the Mahdani's case.

Shahina had reached Taluk office Somawarpet, Kodagu, in Karnataka on a Motor Bike with her friend. After the proceedings with the magistrate when she was about to ride back home, she was asked by the Police not to ride on a bike but organize a car, as she is under threat of an attack. Shahina argued with the police to the effect that it was the duty of the police to protect her and they will have to provide her security cover. The police on the spot refused any such facility. Shahina had to phone the CID in Bangalore, who is investigating the case, to persuade the police to give her protection.

While travelling in a police vehicle, a mob of 70 to 80 people attacked the vehicle with a clear intent of harming Shahina, and the mob stoned the Police vehicle and tried to stop it shouting intimidating slogans and waving black flags. Initially the local police was inactive and they refrained from their duty to provide adequate security for Shahina. Later, clearly after Shahina complained to the investigating officer, the DSP of COD Bangalore, the Kodagu police escorted her off the Tahsil office to a friend’s house in Kushal Nagar and from there she caught a bus to Mysore.

It is a despicable act that has to be condemned by one and all who believe in democratic values and the concept of freedom. When one looks at the details of this attack, there is no doubt that it was instigated by the police themselves. They had prior knowledge of the attack on Shahina Nafeesa.

The Karnataka Police, having failed to establish any tangible evidence to prove their charges against Shahina, are now resorting to diversionary tactics of inciting communal attacks to give the whole issue a communal colour and bring the Sangh Parivar into the issue.

We the Peoples' Solidarity Concerns-Bangalore, condemn this attack unequivocally. The attack on a journalist is an attack on the freedom of the press. We call upon all trade unions, democratic organizations, media organizations and secular people to take note of the growing attacks on the freedom of press and filing of false cases against journalists who are just doing their job.

People’ Solidarity Concerns can be contacted at peoplesconcerns@gmail.com

POSCO project: Ask your MPs to intervene

2011-12-16T08:16:00.004+05:30

On behalf of the communities affected by the POSCO project in Odisha (Orissa) the Environment Support Group team, in a statement issued on Thursday, appealed to all to ask their MPs to take up the cause of the villagers who have been resisting the
project peacefully for six years.

The following is the text of the statement:

We share with you the horrible news of a dastardly attack on the people of Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa earlier today. These communities have been peacefully resisting for over six years the proposed POSCO project: the single largest steel-power-mining-township-port infrastructure project conceived in recent decades.

Absolutely designed to loot the natural iron ore wealth of the country to support the prospects of POSCO, a South Korean enterprise predominantly held by American corporations and wealthy individuals including Warren Buffet, this project will destroy some of the most sensitive coastal and forest ecosystems of Orissa, and simultaneously decimate the livelihoods of thousands of natural resource dependent families.

Former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh controversially approved the project's environmental clearance, even when the expert committees that he appointed advised him against it. The experts had argued on carefully constructed grounds that all evidence provided by Orissa Government and POSCO to justify the project's positive outcomes were found to be comprehensively wrong. Even so, Mr. Ramesh justified his highly questionable and controversial stand by claiming that the project served the "strategic" interests of India, admitting as well that he was under pressure from the Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Orissa.

The High Court of Orissa was approached subsequently to set right the wrongs committed by the Central and State governments, as they had effectively created a "rightless people" out of the communities affected by POSCO's investment. But the Hon'ble Principal Bench which heard the matter over three weeks chose not to intervene in an interim direction. Several months later, final arguments on pending cases are yet to be initiated.

The consequence has been that communities who have been justly resisting this absolutely scandalous project, and peacefully so for over six years now, have been repeatedly attacked by goons. This while the police and Government representatives have simply stood by and watched.

Abhay Sahu, the leader of the resistance, was recently arrested on several trumped up charges (at least three dozens of cases have been falsely filed against him), and he languishes today in prison. This is the second time that he has been so jailed; the previous time he was in prison for 11 months based on trumped up charges that he is a threat to the nation.

Earlier today, over 500 goons have attacked the hapless women, children, youth, the elderly and the men with weapons and bombs injuring many. At least one is dead, apparently one of the goons. Once more the police watched all this without intervening to protect women and children, and the elderly, and to establish order.
As people across the nation work to rid it of corruption, it must be realized that the worst form of corruption is to engage in violence against peaceful communities who are only fighting for their just rights and for the protection of wildlife and the environment. Any amount of economic development is simply not worth the price if it creates more poor, destroys sensitive ecosytems and benefits foreign corporations and the 1% of the world who are wealthy. In addition, such projects only benefit those with overseas slush accounts to our common detriment.
It is time we troubled the conscience of each and every Member of the Parliament to raise this issue in the august body which is now in session. They are duty bound to ensure that the Orissa Government backs off the POSCO project and saves Orissa and the country from loot and plunder of non-renewable iron ore and destruction of thousands of livelihoods of natural resource dependent communities and wildlife, which the POSCO investment comprehensively represents.

You can find the contact details of your MPs by clicking their name at the following links:

Lok Sabha: http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/Members/Alphabaticallist.aspx
Rajya Sabha: http://164.100.47.5/Newmembers/memberlist.aspx

Ask the MPs to raise the issue in Parliament. Urge them to pressure the Chief Minister of Orissa and Prime Minister to stop the dastardly attacks on communities resisting POSCO. Demand that they ask the government to scrap the POSCO project to protect the economic and ecological security of India. Ask them to demand stern action against the goons who attacked the villagers, and those in the police and Orissa administration who actively and complicitly supported them.

Please spare some time and call up your newspaper and TV channel and urge them to cover the issue, actively, as actively as they have covered the debates on the need for the Lokpal Bill.

And please spare some more time and write to the PM and all others as the POSCO Prathirodh Sangram Samiti has requested.

To know why you should oppose the POSCO investment, please see "Tearing through the Water Landscape: Evaluating the environmental and social consequences of POSCO project in Odisha, India" accessible at: www.esgindia.org

See also two earlier posts in this blog:

A statement by concerned citizens

POSCO’s Orissa project: an Open Letter

Parveena Ahangar rejects CNN-IBN’s nomination for Indian of the Year

2011-12-12T08:40:00.001+05:30

The following is a press release issued by the PARVEENA AHANGAR-led ASSOCIATION OF PARENTS FOR DISAPPEARED PERSONS in Srinagar:

On International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011, the APDP (Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons), Srinagar, wishes to state that there is something obscene and perverse in the manner the CNN-IBN has nominated our organization for the ‘Indian of the Year 2011’ award. Sometimes, human rights can be violated by merely mocking those who struggle for human rights.

The channel and its associates are promoting this ‘award’ in all their publicity material as a recognition for “architects and ambassadors of Brand India”. The APDP would like to forthwith REJECT and condemn this gratuitous nomination of our organization for this award which smacks of being yet another attempt by corporate Indian media to cover-up and neutralize the crimes of the Indian state in Kashmir.
We believe there is something sinister in the way our organisation, which has been relentlessly struggling for core human values like freedom, dignity and justice in the Valley in the face of brutal state repression – largely condoned by the corporate media – has been drafted into the eclectic ‘menu card’ of shortlisted nominees just to buy some credibility to the ‘award’. The CNN-IBN or its associates certainly did not consult us before including our name on the nominees list.

The nomination states, ‘The award recognizes the Indian(s) whose contribution to the country in a calendar year has strengthened the foundation of our society and has helped build Brand India in the process. The pinnacle of Indian achievement….’

Applied in the context of our organization, this is patently absurd. The APDP’s struggle for justice and accountability has never been about “building Brand India” but about questioning and challenging Brand India and its trampling over the rights and lives of the people of Kashmir. We refuse to allow ourselves to be co-opted into that brutal system and demean our struggle for ‘rights’ by being foisted upon with some self-styled award. Particularly, when it seems obvious that our name is on your list merely as a ‘decoration’ to help prop up your credibility.

The award citation describes APDP as an organization ‘relentlessly highlighting the issue of missing persons in Kashmir, and forcing the government and rights groups to acknowledge and act’.
Describing the cases of enforced disappearances in Kashmir as that of ‘missing persons’ and claiming that due to efforts of APDP the government and its agencies have acted and acknowledged the issue of enforced disappearances in Kashmir, is both misinformed and misleading.

We wish to place on record that there has been no formal response from the government agencies or institutions on the issue of enforced disappearances in Kashmir. The APDP has identified the perpetrators of the crimes, and there are thousands of cases pending in the Srinagar High Court seeking sanction for prosecution of the accused. However, draconian laws like the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in Kashmir continue to provide them complete impunity. To claim that the government and its agencies have responded to these gross acts of human rights violations and has ‘acted’ or punished the guilty is a blatant falsehood.

This nomination is a farce. Such nominations take away from the struggle that we as the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons have been fighting for past two decades. It also makes a mockery of the trauma and sufferings of the Kashmiri people.

The only real ‘award’ the news channel can bestow upon us is consistent and honest reportage of the heinous crimes committed by the armed forces in Kashmir and highlight the struggles and sacrifices of the people of Kashmir for justice and freedom.

We demand that CNN-IBN forthwith remove our name from their nominee’s list.

PARVEENA AHANGAR
Spokesperson,
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP)

See also Kashmiri mothers’ never-ending search for their sons

Bid to rein in social media

2011-12-12T07:59:00.002+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

As the world hailed the social media’s role in promoting change last week, authorities in India, annoyed by content unacceptable to them, were looking for ways to rein it in.

The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, in focusing on social media during the International Human Rights Day celebrations on Saturday, had said it enabled ordinary people, from Cairo and Tunis to Madrid and New York, to demand change.

Indian citizens howled in protest as a New York Times blog revealed Communications Minister Kapil Sibal had been talking to executives of Internet companies and social media sites to persuade them to prescreen user content from the country and remove objectionable material before it goes online.

Sibal had reportedly shown them a Facebook page that maligned Congress President Sonia Gandhi and said, “This is unacceptable.” The Google Transparency Report disclosed that between January and June this year the Indian government had requested the company to remove 358 items from its services, including YouTube and Orkut, citing various reasons.

The most widely cited reason was criticism of the government (255 items). Other reasons included defamation (39), privacy and security (20), impersonation (14), hate speech (8), pornography (3) and national security (1). The reason for seeking blocking of the remaining15 items was not clear.

The government’s effort met with a good measure of success. Although the report said “we declined the majority of these requests” it conceded that as much as 51 per cent of them were complied with. The contradiction in the statement apparently stems from the fact that in many cases compliance was partial, with the company locally restricting videos “that appeared to violate local laws prohibiting speech that could incite enmity between communities”.

Google also received requests from the police to remove 236 communities and profiles from Orkut. It did not comply with the request as the content did not violate its community standards or local laws. There were also requests to remove some YouTube videos on the ground that they displayed protests against social leaders or used offensive language against religious leaders.

Sibal’s interaction with Internet service providers was part of a misconceived plan to curb new media. In 2000, the government had enacted the Information Technology Act, which, while giving legitimacy to electronic communication, provided for action against those misusing the facility. Three years ago the law was amended in the light of experience.

Exercising powers flowing from this law, the Kerala police had arrested a doctor who created a website in the name of a former minister and uploaded allegedly defamatory videos. On a complaint by Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Pinarayi Vijayan, it had lured home a UAE-based Keralite who allegedly forwarded by e-mail the photograph of a mansion falsely claiming it was Vijayan’s house.

Last year the makers of BlackBerry refused India’s request to give it access to users’ messages. Early this year the government assumed the power to ask ISPs to delete information posted on websites which officials or private citizens considered disparaging or harassing. It has also drawn up plans to set up a unit to monitor information posted on websites and social media sites.

Anna Hazare’s supporters are using social networks with a fair degree of success in their anti-corruption drive. This, coupled with the government’s citing of criticism as the main reason for wanting to block social network posts, lends support to the widely held view that fear of a Jasmine revolution haunts the authorities.

According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the number of Net users is expected to touch 121 million by the year-end. Of them, 97 million may be active users who “access Internet at least once in a month”.

Google India claims more than 100 million users and Facebook more than 25 million. While the country has a large Internet population, the authorities’ threat perception appears to be exaggerated. Indian cyber space is as diverse and divided as Indian society and polity, and cannot at present give rise to a movement of the kind that swept the Arab countries.

The freedom the Indian media enjoys flows from the freedoms of speech and expression that the Constitution guarantees to all citizens. It must apply to digital media as much as it does to print and electronic media. Any regulatory mechanism created to check misuse of the freedom must remain outside the government’s control but it must have statutory backing.--Gulf Today, December 12, 2011.

Irom Sharmila support group holds prayer meeting at Rajghat

2011-12-11T13:47:00.004+05:30

A prayer meeting was held at Rajghat at 9 a.m. on Saturday, International Human Rights Day, under the auspices of the Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign (SSSC).

The prayer meeting was organized as Delhi police refused permission for a fast in solidarity with Irom Sharmila, who has been on fast in Manipur for more than 11 years demanding withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Apart from eminent academicians, domestic workers, rights and peace activists, students, teachers, lawyers and others attended it.

This was followed by a press conference at the Press Club lawns. Many known social activists were present and they voiced their concerns with regard to freedom of speech and human rights in the context of the heroic struggles of Irom Sharmila and many others.

They demanded an end to heavy militarization, withdrawal of the AFSPA and restoration of peace and freedom in the North-East and in Jammu and Kashmir.

Medha Patkar, Convener, National Alliance of People’s Movements, said, “This refusal (to lift AFSPA) reveals the fear of the Government. Their intolerance towards non-violent protests and dialogue and reluctance to engage with people's movements is leading to more violent conflicts in the country today. If they fear law and order issues it is their duty to maintain law and order and not trample upon the citizens’ fundamental right of peaceful gathering and protest”.

Aruna Roy, member, National Advisory Council, added, “I feel as society we have failed Sharmila in her struggle. Why has she been made to fast for 11 years? If the government is not responding to it then let others take it up.”

SSSC members who spoke demanded that the Jeevan Reddy Committee report, the Moily report and the Kashmir interlocutors' report should all be made public and their recommendations implemented after a nationwide public debate.

They said they would soon approach the Union Home Ministry with a demand that the government resolve the issue of human rights violations through active dialogue with the concerned parties. They wanted the ministry to evolve a phased demilitarization strategy.

They suggested that the government must talk with Irom Sharmila. They also wanted a representative committee to examine the cases of rights violations in Manipur and other places and take action. They pointed out that draconian laws were making the country weak and there was no place for such laws in a democracy.

Contact: Devika Mittal: 9582129927, Shaheen: 9899830412, Ravi Nitesh : 9958907799

Permission denied for Rajghat fast in support of Irom Sharmila

2011-12-09T19:18:00.004+05:30

Delhi Police has denied permission for the proposed 'One day fast for Irom Sharmila' scheduled to be held at Raghat in New Delhi on December 10, International Human Rights Day, citing law and order problems.

The National Alliance of People’s Movements and other organizers of the programme tried their best in discussions with police officials at various levels but they refused to change the decision.

In a statement they said, “The Government has yet again shown its hard and inhumane approach in dealing with human rights activists. This also seems to be a clear message that the Government is now in fear of the growing public support for Irom Sharmila. This fast was scheduled as a culminating programmme of the Nationwide Signature Campaign which had started on October 2 in India and across the globe.

“We believe that they can only deny the permission for a place for the fast, not for the fast. Fast doesn’t need any permission.

“Hence we appeal to all our friends to observe the one-at day fast wherever they are, be it their workplace, home, school, anywhere. This one-day fast will be observed by all supporters of this campaign in India and even across the globe. We also appeal to all our friends and well-wishers to organize press conferences at their places to oppose the government’s way of dealing with this issue.

“We believe in non-violence, peace and humanity and we are committed to all possible initiatives towards spreading the message of peace, love and non-violence.

“We will move to Rajghat in morning at 9 a.m for a peace prayer.

"A press meet will be organized at 2 p.m. in Delhi, where all activists associated with this campaign will be present and some prominent women activists will address the press conference. The press conference will be at the Press Club lawns, 1, Raisina Road, New Delhi."

Contact: 9582129927, 9958907799, 9313106745

Mullaperiyar controversy: Time to re-visit dam building, says NAPM

2011-12-08T22:33:00.003+05:30

The National Alliance of People’s Movements has offered its services to mediate between the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the Mullaperiyar controversy with the help of the Central government.

In a statement, issued in New Delhi today, it suggested that the controversy should be used as an opportunity to revisit dam building. It also demanded that the Centre bring out a White Paper on all dams and set up a National Commission on Dam.

The following is the text of the statement:

The rising tension, passion and stray incidents of violence in Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the Mullaperiyar dam on Periyar river in Kerala has once again brought the focus on the water conflicts in the country, control over natural resources of the communities and on the safety of the dam. Unfortunately, the debate is still not about dams as source of irrigation, power generation and flood control and is projecting dams as a solution. The debate, limited to the water sharing between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, fails to address the larger issue of effective management of water resources and communities’ control over water and natural resources.

India is witness to a large number of anti-dam agitations by people's movements ranging from Bhakra, Koel Karo, Tehri to Dams in Narmada Valley. The 'No Big Dam' agitation started in the case of Sardar Sarovar Dam is still being waged in the North- East of India and other Himalayan states and opposed by communities for various reasons, environmental to life and livelihood.

A fair number of India’s dams are over 100 years old. A list compiled by the Central Water Commission (CWC) shows at least 114 dams in this category. There are roughly 400 dams which are 50-100 years old. According to the Madhya Pradesh government, the state has 168 dams which can be called “distressed dams”, out of which 63 are less than 50 years old. Since 1917, 29 dams have reportedly been damaged. In 2002, the Jamunia Dam in Madhya Pradesh breached and the toll is continuing till date. Such breaches of dams have affected the lives and property of hundreds of people, and, the number of those killed and injured in such accidents has reached thousands. Mullaperiyar is one such ageing dam and fears of further breach and damage has increased in recent times with the seismic activity in the region.

It is widely believed that the tremors in the region are influenced by the pressure of a large number of dams including Idukki and Mullaperiyar. As such, a new, larger dam in place of the existing one may actually increase the risk of seismic activity in the area. The issue of additional forest requirement of about 50 ha in the Periyar Tiger Reserve should also be considered. So, to imagine and call for construction of a new dam by Kerala government is an ill-founded solution.

The safety of the dam at present may be a point of debate for the conflicting parties. But by any stretch of imagination, we cannot foresee the dam holding good eternally. Hence, sooner or later, alternative arrangements have to be made. Considering the possible risk of continuing with the 116-yea- old structure and by the application of the precautionary principle, it is better to go for alternate arrangements for irrigation in Tamil Nadu areas and ways to exploit the Periyar waters should be explored on both sides as soon as possible.

The water conflict between these two states is not an isolated one. We have other water sharing issues over almost every river in this country. The fact is that rivers don't respect the artificial boundaries created by nation-states and have their own natural flows. Communities living in their vicinity know about their flow and rhythm of life. Dams have only destroyed the rivers and killed their flow. It is time we started thinking of alternative ways of harnessing the river water for livelihood and civilizational survival.

India’s ageing dam population, absence of proper maintenance of the dams and absence of accountability mechanisms is going to increase the frequency of dam disasters in years to come. When the increased frequency of high intensity rainfall, melting glaciers and other such events due to global warming is added to this already heady mix, the consequences could be grave. We have a Dam Safety Bill pending before Parliament but we need this to be put to fresh scrutiny in public domain and consult all the movements and communities groups in the light of the ongoing controversy and develop a dam safety agency which will take care of the ageing dam population and also work towards decommissioning of these dams. Simultaneously, there is a need to put a moratorium on the construction of large dams anywhere in the country.

The frequent failure of large dams to provide the claimed benefits and their poor performance needs to be recognised and accepted. There is no reason for optimism on the feasibility of improving the poor performance of dams and mitigating their impacts. A major question is the feasibility of just rehabilitation with land for land lost by agriculturists and alternative, appropriate sources of livelihood for other displaced people. In large scale displacement, the experience shows a clear failure. Within the value framework we stand and propagate – equity, sustainability, transparency, accountability, participatory decision-making, and efficiency – large dams have not helped attain, but rather hindered, “human development”.

As the World Commission on Dams has concluded there is an urgent need for developing a new framework for decision-making which provides a solid basis for assessing options for energy and water development, and for planning and implementing projects that can achieve the desired benefits without exacting an unacceptable cost for anyone affected, or for our environment and future generations.

It is in this light that we from NAPM demand that---

1. The government of India brings out a white paper on all the dams, divulge the benefits vis-a-vis projections and plans, current status, cost of running, number of people displaced, rehabilitated and so on.

2. The government of India establish a National Commission on Dams to study the existing and planned dams and look at their feasibility, impact and contribution to the overall intended development and put a moratorium on the construction of all the big dams till then.

3. The governments of India, Kerala and Tamil Nadu come together for a dialogue and find a solution which will not compromise their stand and also not affect the fear of losing livelihood either by dam breach in Kerala or lack of water for agriculture in Tamil Nadu.

4. The government of India start the overall process of debate and discussion leading up to enactment of Dam Safety Act in consultation with affected communities and also work towards putting an end to the water conflicts in the country and develop institutional mechanisms for water sharing between different states.

Lastly, NAPM in this regard offers its help in mediating between the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala with the help of the Central government in case of Mullaperiyar controversy. We do hope with the help of people's movements from both sides we will able to reach a compromise which will serve the livelihood and safety concerns of the people.

Medha Patkar, Sandeep Pandey, Gabriele Dietrich, Prafulla Samantara, Akhil Gogoi, Geo Josh, Hussain master, Gabriele Dietrich, Suniti S R, Rajendra Ravi, Ramakrishna Raju, Anand Mazgaonkar, Vimal Bhai, Madhuresh Kumar

Solidarity fast in support of Irom Sharmila at Rajghat on Human Rights Day

2011-12-07T20:06:00.004+05:30

Hundreds of women activists from across the country are gathering in a solidarity fast at Rajghat, New Delhi, on December 10, International Human Rights Day, from 9 am to demonstrate solidarity with Irom Sharmila and lend support to her demand for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The National Alliance of People’s Movements has called upon all to join the campaign.

The following is a statement issued by NAPL in this connection:

Who is Irom Sharmila?

Irom Sharmila Chanu also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" is a civil rights activist from the state of Manipur. She has been fasting for more than 10 years now. This is believed to be the world's longest hunger-strike.

Irom started her fast unto death on November 2, 2000, after the Malom massacre. Her primary demand to the Indian government is repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which allows soldiers to indefinitely detain any citizen on suspicion of being a rebel. The Act has been the reason for permitting torture, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions.

Sharmila has been regularly arrested, released and re-arrested every year since 2000, because, under Section 309 IPC, a person who "attempts to commit suicide" is punishable with imprisonment up to one year. She has been imprisoned for many years now in a government Hospital in Imphal, Manipur, where very few people can meet her.

Sharmila has held various protests and demonstrations with students, human rights activists and other concerned citizens in places like Jantar Mantar, Rajghat and so on. Sharmila has won many awards for her brave and selfless act for humanity and she was even nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Her struggle has received considerable international support and attention too.

When asked about fulfilling her personal dreams like marriage while fasting, she said tests needed to be passed for every upgrade. “For any promotion, we have to pass an experiment. In my case, I am experimenting to get success for making a difference for the whole society,” she said.

What can we do?

Over the years many civil society groups and volunteers have campaigned in support of her cause. Recently ‘Save Sharmila Campaign’ was launched by the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements along with many other groups, student bodies and civil society organization.

The ‘National Signature Campaign’ planned by NAPM is submitting the signatures of all supporters to the President of India, Smt Pratibha Patil on December 10, 2011, the International Human Rights Day.

Let us join the struggle of Irom Sharmila and thousands of others fighting against AFSPA. Sharmila has become the face of the struggle. By punishing her body she has been selflessly fighting for more than a decade for the human rights, dignity and peace of millions. Let us show our support to our north-eastern fellow citizens who also have the right to life, peace and justice.
----------------
National Alliance of People’s Movements
National Office: Room No. 29-30, 1st floor, ‘A’ Wing, Haji Habib Bldg, Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (E), Mumbai - 400 014;
Phone 022-24150529

Delhi office: 6/6, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110014
Phone 011 26241167 / 24354737 Mobile : 09818905316

Web : www.napm-india.org
Facebook : www.facebook.com/NAPMindia
Twitter : @napmindia

An obnoxious practice under state patronage at Karnataka temple

2011-12-05T19:54:00.004+05:30

The following is a joint statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, and the Vigil India Movement, Bangalore:

The 'Madi Snana' practised at the Kukke Subramanya temple, near Mangalore, attracts severe criticism and equal amount of support in India. The practice involves devotees allowed to roll over plantain leaves; reportedly after dominant caste Brahmins have eaten from the leaves. It is believed that the ritual will cure skin diseases, in the past leprosy, mostly of the inferior castes, in particular the Dalits. The temple is under the Muzrai Department of the Government of Karnataka. Dr. Vedavyas Srinivas Acharya, a senior minister of the state cabinet, who is also responsible for higher education, planning, statistics and information technology departments in the state government heads the Muzrai department. Dr. Acharya is a medical doctor turned politician. (photo courtesy: Deccan Herald)

That a qualified medical doctor heads a government department, which manages religious institutions and the revenue generated from such institutions is also responsible for other important cabinet portfolios, not only allows such inhuman practices in the country but justifies it in the name of religious belief and centuries-old tradition is not just a shame for the country, but illuminates the deep-rooted nature of orthodox prejudices that benefits the dominant castes in the caste system of India. It underscores the fact that the liberation of the country from the cobweb of caste is impossible should the current situations continue. It paints an appalling picture of what modernisation means in India, that Acharya is a senior minister in the state, which hosts the country's IT capital, Bangalore. It reiterates the argument that neo-Dalit political leaders like Ms Mayawati are nothing more than shrewd politicians who use pro-Dalit sentiments to maintain power and intends no good to the community that she allegedly represents and her newfound affinity for Brahminical practices could justify, manual scavenging, a practice vicious and demeaning that rolling over banana leafs.

The government had prohibited the practice of Made Snana in 1979. But it was soon reintroduced on the justification that it is a centuries-old religious ritual. So is untouchability, a much older practice, which today is prohibited not only in the constitution, but also in at least half a dozen statutes. Yet it continues openly in the country.

The practice of manual scavenging is also prohibited, including the construction of dry latrines. But institutions like the Indian Railway, the municipalities, corporations and panchayats employ manual scavengers. The Indian Railway is the largest employer of manual scavengers, and manages some of the longest rows of open latrines in the world. The open-hole lavatories in every railway compartment that is in service in the country turns the largest rail network of the world into one big lavatory that drops raw human excreta and other waste onto the rails, and over people and vehicles - where the rail line runs above roads. It is a common scene in every railway station in the country, railway employees cleaning with a broom, railway sleepers covered with human excreta. In a country that tolerates this and accepts the practice as 'god given' to a community, a few thousand 'devotees' rolling over leftover food and plantain leaves upon which the food was served and eaten by some of the most exploiting communities in the world - those Brahmins who believe in the caste hierarchy - have eaten must be a negligible incident.

That caste-based discrimination continues in India is nothing new. There is neither news value in it, nor is there any shocking discovery about the incident. That this year's Made Snana was widely reported in the media can be discounted due to the news value the event attracted since a person who protested against this was publically assaulted. The inhuman ritual never attracted such media frenzy before, and probably will never again until some untoward incident that has an alleged media value than the ritual itself happens. Such is the media vigilance in India on some important issues, and the Indian media is not immune to caste prejudice. It is clear from the fact that many other similar inhuman practices based on dominant caste prejudices are of no news value for the Indian media. This includes widespread bonded labour of Dalits, Devadasi practices, the denial of food and medicine to the Dalit and tribal children in rural villages by the dominant caste government servants and land grabbing by dominant castes.

The only entities that openly express discomfort regarding caste prejudices are the government agencies that represent India in international fora. For these institutions and the persons who work for them representing the government, caste is an internal matter of the country. So was apartheid an internal matter of South Africa, holocaust a domestic affair for Nazi Germany, and slavery an in-house labour management for the racists.

Mistakes get corrected starting from the moment defects are admitted. Caste based prejudices in India will continue until the government publically admits that discrimination based on caste, in all its manifest forms, is a crime against humanity. What it requires is honesty in polity, and it is precisely what the governments in India lack.

Global call for action to eliminate caste-based discrimination

2011-12-05T10:22:00.004+05:30

The following is a joint declaration issued by activists from caste-affected countries and representatives of international bodies:

We, over hundred Dalit activists and social movement leaders from the caste affected countries of Bangladesh, India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Senegal and Yemen, solidarity networks from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, members of International Organizations, International Non Governmental Organizations, and researchers, united for the International Consultation on Good Practices and Strategies to Eliminate Caste Based Discrimination, and launched this Declaration and Global Call for Action.

Building upon the Kathmandu Dalit Declaration (2004), the Ambedkar Principles (2005), The Hague Declaration on the Human Rights and Dignity of Dalit Women (2006), and the Geneva Declaration for the Decisive Decade against Discrimination Based on Work and Descent (2011);

Recognizing that caste-based discrimination is a violation of international human rights law that affects more than 260 million people worldwide, particularly in South Asia, including Dalits and other communities discriminated against of the basis of work and descent;

Condemning the heinous structures of caste and the continued practice of caste-based discrimination in the public and private spheres, the impunity for crimes committed, and the egregious impact on affected persons, including violence, rape, poverty, landlessness, caste-based slavery and other forms of economic, social, cultural and political exclusion;

Recalling that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family and holds that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms therein without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status;

Confirming the obligations of States to eliminate caste-based discrimination and emphasizing the responsibilities of international and national human rights bodies, the private sector, multilateral and bilateral development agencies and financial institutions, and non-governmental organisations to assist in the elimination of caste-based discrimination through local, national, regional and international measures;

Deeply concerned that women and girls affected by caste-based discrimination face intersecting forms of discrimination and particular human rights violations such as rape, sexual exploitation, forced prostitution and domestic violence, and less access to political and economic participation;

Affirming the (draft) UN Principles and Guidelines for the Effective Elimination of Discrimination Based on Work and Descent, including the general and specific measures proposed in the areas of survey and research; segregation; protection against violence; access to justice; equal employment opportunities; forced labour; equal access to health, food, water, housing and education; awareness raising; discrimination against women; participation; humanitarian and development assistance; market enterprises; international cooperation; and diaspora communities;

Recalling General Recommendation XXIX on descent-based discrimination adopted by the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination;

Recalling International Labour Organization Convention No. 111 concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation, and its accompanying Recommendation No. 111;

Recalling also General Comment No. 20 on Non-Discrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comments No. 25 and 28 adopted by the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and General Recommendation No. 7 adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child;

Recalling the global commitments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and the urgent need to adopt enhanced measures to ensure that all persons can benefit from the MDGs without discrimination on the basis of caste;

Deploring the failures to implement fully legislation and policies to combat caste-based discrimination and the resultant continued exclusion and marginalization, including political exclusion, and lack of equal access to public services, land, education, markets, credit and proper employment;

Deeply concerned that in situations of humanitarian crisis and in disaster response, caste-based discrimination continues to exclude affected communities from equal access to assistance and relief measures;

Calling for a world conference on the elimination of caste-based discrimination and a UN Convention on Caste- based Discrimination;

Calling for coherence in policies to eliminate caste-based discrimination and adherence to human rights obligations, including the prohibition of caste-based discrimination, and to this end, we issue this Global Call for Action to Eliminate Caste-Based Discrimination.

Urgent Global Call for Action to Eliminate Caste Discrimination
We make this urgent Global Call for Action to citizens of the world to bring an end to millennia of immense human suffering, resulting from a brutal system of caste segregation, affecting over 260 million people worldwide.

We support the words of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: "Other seemingly insurmountable walls, such as slavery and apartheid, have been dismantled in the past. We can and must tear down the barriers of caste too."

We call for leadership, cooperation and constructive engagement at the local, national, regional and international levels to achieve a caste-free world.

We call for the empowerment of individuals and communities facing caste-based discrimination in decision- making at all levels of governance and in the implementation of policies that affect them.

We declare that structures of caste or analogous systems of inherited status constitute an offence to human dignity, a barrier to equality and a form of apartheid that has been perpetuated in the public and private sphere, largely with limited, or no access to justice for its victims.

We appeal for effective police reforms for investigations, independent and neutral prosecution mechanisms and an unbiased judiciary that is committed to uphold justice.

We deplore notions of ‘untouchability', pollution and caste hierarchy that cause segregation in villages, schools and places of worship, restrict individuals to the most menial and dangerous jobs, and prevent access to justice for crimes committed against affected communities.

We Appeal to All Stakeholders to Unite to Eliminate Caste-Based Discrimination
To Governments, we applaud those states where progressive legislative and policy measures to eliminate caste-based discrimination have been adopted and we urge the full and immediate implementation of these measures and monitoring of their enforcement We call for the development of new legislation and policies to eliminate caste-based discrimination where such measures are lacking. We appeal to governments to officially recognize caste-based discrimination and to implement without delay measures for its elimination.

We call for National Action Plans to eliminate caste-based discrimination in all affected countries, to include also specific provisions for women. We demand that all relevant UN recommendations on caste-based discrimination be put into effect immediately.

To UN Human Rights Bodies, we commend the work of the Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures, and other mechanisms, with the support of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and we call for further development of policy recommendations and technical support to eliminate caste-based discrimination.

To UN Country Teams, Multilateral and Bilateral Development Agencies, and International Financial Institutions, we welcome existing efforts to eliminate caste-based discrimination and we call for all relevant country strategies and agreements to include measures to overcome caste-based discrimination.

To the Private Sector, we urge efforts to eliminate caste-based discrimination within their own organizations, as well as within the operations of their subsidiaries and through their supply chains, and call for the application of the Ambedkar Principles and for equal access to employment opportunities.

To the Member States of the G-20, we recommend the integration of measures to eliminate caste-based discrimination into policies for protecting marginalized groups from the global financial crisis and into all their bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.

To Regional Inter-Governmental Organisations, including the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, European Union, African Union, Association of Southeast Asian States, and the Organization of American States, we call for attention to caste-based discrimination in their respective agendas and the adoption of appropriate dialogues, political statements and policy recommendations to member states.

To Civil Society Organisations, we call for alliances with communities discriminated against on the basis of caste in order to build strategies across relevant sectors of advocacy and service-delivery to eliminate caste discrimination. We strongly encourage drawing from the good practices of Dalits and other affected groups in the critical analysis of public institutions, media and justice mechanisms.

To the Public, we call for an immediate end to caste systems and to practices of caste-based discrimination and untouchability in private and public life. We strongly encourage expressions of solidarity with caste- affected groups and support to government reforms for the elimination of caste-based discrimination.

To Governments of Selected Countries Affected by Caste
India, we recognise the regional leadership taken in the fight against caste, such as the adoption of Constitutional provisions and guarantees, and other important legislative and policy frameworks, including affirmative action. We call for the full implementation of these measures to overcome the human rights violations that persist, including ensuring access to rights, monitoring of enforcement, and identifying and rectifying gaps in legislation and policy.

Nepal, we applaud the Interim Constitution, inclusive Constituent Assembly, establishment of the National Dalit Commission, adoption of proportional political representation for Dalits and declaring the country as an untouchability free state and we call for the full and continued implementation of these reforms, including the adoption of a National Action Plan. We further urge an inclusive State re-structuring with Constitutional guarantees of special provisions for the promotion and protection of all rights for Dalits.

Bangladesh, we welcome the recognition of caste-based discrimination and we call for the adoption and full implementation of appropriate legislative and policy measures to eliminate caste-based discrimination.

Sri Lanka, we call for the official recognition of caste-based discrimination and the adoption and implementation of the required legislative and policy measures for its elimination.

Pakistan, we call for the official recognition of caste-based discrimination and the implementation without delay of legislative and policy measures for its elimination.

Japan, we applaud the adoption of legislative and policy measures to address Buraku discrimination and now call for enactment of a law to prohibit racial discrimination, including Buraku discrimination.

United Kingdom, we call for the adoption of Clause 9 (5)(a) to allow for the amendment to outlaw caste-based discrimination as part of the UK Equality Act (2010).

African states, we call for the official recognition of caste-based and analogous forms of discrimination and the implementation without delay of measures for its elimination.

Caste-affected diaspora states, we call for investigation into practices of caste-based discrimination and recommend the adoption of legislation to prohibit caste-based discrimination.

Courtesy: Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong.

Retail FDI rocks UPA

2011-12-05T07:07:00.003+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Barely a fortnight after deciding to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail ventures and to remove the cap on single-brand ones, the Indian government is struggling to find a way forward in the face of opposition not only from outside but also from within the ruling United Progressive Alliance.

Parliament has not been able to transact any business for days as a determined opposition has held up all proceedings demanding discussion on the subject. Retail trade associations, backed by parties and trade unions, have organised protest strikes.

India was under pressure from the United States since long to open up the retail sector to foreign investors. American retail major Wal-Mart has been waiting at the doorstep, hoping to repeat its success in China.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which was in power from 1998 to 2004, considered a proposal to allow 100% FDI in the sector but did not go ahead with it. In his first term, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not take up the issue since the Left parties on whom his government depended for survival in Parliament were opposed to FDI in retail trade.

Manmohan Singh probably assumed that the main opposition, the BJP, will create no problems on the FDI issue since it had followed the path of globalisation while in power. However, it has come out strongly against the decision.

The government has spent the last few days trying to hard-sell the decision with arguments about the benefits it will bestow. It claims the entry of retail chains like Wal-Mart will create new jobs, improve supply chains and benefit consumers by promoting competition. It also says farmers and small producers will benefit from the decision as the chains will be required to buy 30 per cent of their requirements locally. The farmers will be able to sell directly to the chains and thus free themselves from the stranglehold of middlemen.

The government has received powerful support from spokesmen of commerce and industry, who view the decision as a step forward in the policy of liberalisation, of which they are both promoters and beneficiaries.

The Consortium of Indian Farmers Association has hailed the decision, saying it will benefit 600 million traders and 1,200 million consumers. However, it wants the government to make it mandatory for retailers to buy 75 per cent of their produce directly from farmers.

Large sections of the media have also lent support to the government and sought to allay fears that the big fish will swallow small ones. They point out that Indian retail chains have been active for some years without displacing small traders. One scribe claimed that the misgivings voiced when companies like Coca-Cola, KFC and McDonald entered have been proved wrong. They are now as Indian as any local company, and are contributing to the national economy, he said.

Industrial and commercial interests, however, are not united on the issue. Traders’ enthusiastic participation in the protest action shows many of them are apprehensive about the future. About 90 per cent of all Indian entrepreneurs are said to be retailers.

The government has said there is no question of reversing the retail FDI decision. However, it is in a fix as two coalition partners, the Trinamool Congress (19 seats, all from West Bengal) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (18 seats, all from Tamil Nadu), have publicly opposed the decision. Without them the UPA will be in a minority.

The Trinamool Congress and the DMK do not want to bring the government down on this issue. However, democratic decency demands that the Prime Minister must acknowledge that the decision does not command the support of the parliamentary majority and pull back.

Perhaps the time has also come for Manmohan Singh to take a fresh look at his economic ideas. When, as Finance Minister, he led India into the path of liberalisation 20 years ago, the US-dominated globalisation drive was on a winning streak. The Soviet Union and its European satellites had collapsed, and China, which had switched to market economy in 1978, had registered good progress.

The crisis gripping the West underscores the undesirability of total reliance on the market, which, contrary to the assertions of the reform school, is not a free forum but one subject to constant manipulation by the rich. The rising inflation in the country is a sign of the progress of an affluent minority, not of India, as Manmohan Singh recently observed. A system that works in the interest of a minority is not a viable option for a country like India. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, December 5, 2011.

GenNext movement on Mullaperiyar

2011-12-05T00:24:00.008+05:30

Rajasenan inaugurating Save Mullaperiyar event at Thiruvananthapuram beach

On Sunday, young members of the Save Mullaperiyar Dam, Save Kerala Facebook Campaign gathered on Thiruvananthapuram’s Shamkhummukham beach, giving rise to hopes of an Internet-driven new generation movement -- not to dislodge the government, but to force it to pay attention to the voice of the people.

About 200 young people arrived at the beach on motor bikes wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Build a New Dam”. The bike rally was flagged off at Kawdiyar by the well-known sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman. At the beach, which was crowded, as is usual on Sundays, they were joined by hundreds more.

Young artists, most of them students of the College of Fine Arts, working with sand, graphically depicted the potential threat posed by the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam.

A video on Mullaperiyar with a song set to music by composer Balabhaskat and rendered by Shan was screened. Balabhaskar also rendered the slogan “We Want New Dam” musically and the crowd repeated it enthusiastically.

The beach event, inaugurated by film director Rajasenan, ended with lighting of candles by the participants as Shan rendered the theme song.

It was a non-partisan affair and some of the speakers urged the political parties to join hands on the Mullaperiyar issue instead of attempting to make political gains.

There are several groups using Facebook to put across Kerala’s demand for a new dam to replace the existing one. The Save Mullaperiyar Dam page appears to be the most active one. It boasts of more than 53,000 members and has more than 1,600 photographs and 12 documents.

The role of the Internet as an agent of change has been widely discussed in the wake of the uprooting of government in some Arab countries and the spread of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States. Whatever changes were wrought by the Internet were the result of public action, not of scribblin on Facebook Walls.

Viewed in this light, the public event organized by the Save Mullaperiyar group is a significant development. It was not a protest of the kind which we witness everyday. It was an event that revealed the youth’s vision of a new society and its readiness to work for its realization.

Centre seeking to control biotechnology sector

2011-11-30T11:53:00.002+05:30

The following is a press release issued by the Environment Support Group, Bangalore:

Biotechnology is a cross cutting issue that affects food production, farming, health, environment and information technology sectors. It is to be expected then that formulation of any law governing this high risk technology would be a deeply democratic and transparent exercise. Particularly because the Constitution of India guarantees that States and Local Governments are the principal levels for engaging with debates and decisions when it matters to people’s access to food, health, a clean environment and livelihood in general. The role of the Centre is supportive, at best.

International law also strongly supports this process of bottom up decision making involving the people meaningfully. The Indian Government, however, seems to now believe that biotechnology as a sector must be under the “control” of the Union Government. Accordingly, it has proposed the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill, 2011, to establish a Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) and Biotechnology Regulatory Appellate Authority (BRAT) and a host of other regulatory and appeal agencies.

There has been no discussion whatsoever during the formulation of this Bill with Local and State Governments, and it would not be wrong to say that the process by which this legislative proposal has been formulated is absolutely opaque.

The Bill is now set for debate and discussion in the winter session of Parliament. It is to be seen if this would be possible as the House has been rocked by protests from Opposition and allies of the ruling UPA coalition against the Union Government's decision to allow FDI in single brand retail, amongst other issues.

The opportunity now exists to subject BRAI Bill, 2011 to a thorough review at all levels. To assist in this process, Environment Support Group, a not-for-profit public interest research, training, campaign and advocacy initiative responsing to various environmental and social justice concerns, has prepared a critique of the Bill entitled: “Creating an Undemocratic and Unaccountable Biotechnology Regulator: A critique of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2011, with particular emphasis on environmental laws”. The same is attached.(Please go to http://www.scribd.com/doc/74232889/BRAI-Bill-2011-Critique-ESG-Nov-2011)

We do hope that our contribution helps in deeply democratizing the debate and discussion on this legislative proposal, especially considering the massive impact it has on food security, health, environment and governance, and the livelihood of millions.

Leo F. Saldanha
Bhargavi S.Rao
Environment Support Group® – Trust
1572, 36th Cross, 100 Feet Ring Road,
Banashankari II Stage,
Bangalore 560070. INDIA
Tel: 91-80-26713559-3561
Voice/Fax: 91-80-26713316
Web: www.esgindia.org

The Government's claims about corporate retail and the reality

2011-11-29T17:25:00.004+05:30

Shankar Gopalakrishnan

In the flood of rhetoric following the government's decision to permit FDI in retail, the reality of what this will mean is being lost. For that it is necessary to look at international data and what it shows about the claims being made. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma's letter offers a good place to start. His claim can be summarized as follows:

~Corporate retail fueled by FDI will result in investment in cold chains and therefore in lower prices by “eliminating middlemen.”

~Corporate retail will not threaten small retailers, who find “innovative ways to coexist”, and will generate employment

~Corporate retail will benefit farmers and producers by ensuring a “remunerative price.”

~Corporate retailers will remain restricted to some areas and some sectors.

~There are already corporate retailers in India and there is therefore no problem in permitting FDI

None of these claims is justified by the available data.

Lower Prices and Investment in Cold Chains?

In the sector that requires cold chain infrastructure most - fruits and vegetables - data from developing countries often shows that prices in supermarkets are generally higher than from existing retailers. Certainly, there is no data that shows consistently lower prices from corporate reatilers. Thus:

In Thailand, they are estimated to be 10% higher.

In Argentina, data showed consistently higher prices for fruits and vegetables in supermarkets (the difference being about 14% through the 1990's), though this difference was falling.

In 2000, in Mexican supermarkets, prices of lemons, tomatoes and oranges were significantly higher than in traditional markets, while in all other fruits and vegetables they were identical or slightly higher.

In Vietnam, in 2002, it was found that prices in supermarkets across all categories were around 10% higher.

The concentration of power in the hands of a few companies by no means leads to lower prices. In the US, supermarkets raised tomato prices by 46% between 1994 and 2004 while real prices paid to producers fell by 25%.

In the Indian experience, the entry of corporate chains into wheat and grain procurement has coincided with increased speculation and increased prices.

Regarding investment in cold chains and reduction in wastage, it should be remembered that the international food industry – controlled by the same chains currently advertised as sources for FDI – wastes almost half of the food it procures6.

No Effect on Small Retailers or Employment in Retail?

The Minister and the government here are playing a simple verbal trick. The fact that some retailers “continue to coexist” does not in any way mean that most small retailers will not be pushed out of business.

Indeed, the data is exactly opposite to the claim that there is no evidence of harm to small retailers. Here are citations and figures:

Brazil: in fruits and vegetables, share of street markets declined by 27.8% between 1987 and 1996; in dairy sales, share of dairy stores fell by 27.8% and open air markets by 53.3%.

Argentina: Number of small stores dropped by 64,198 between 1984 and 1993 – 30% of the shops in the country8. Employment in retail sector dropped by 26% in the same period.

Chile: between 1991 and 1995, 'traditional' food and beverage retailers declined by approximately 20% in all segments.

Indonesia: between 2002 and 2003 – just one year – number of 'traditional' grocery stores fell by 154,148 stores, or 9%

Latin America: supermarkets now control 60% of food retail.

East Asia other than China: 63% of processed/packaged foods controlled by supermarkets, estimated 30% of fresh foods.

The oft-cited example of China is irrelevant, as Chinese food retail is entirely different (good citation is this):

From 1959 till late 1980's, private retail trade essentially banned in cities, all retail was taken over by public/state owned enterprises.

In 1992 (rise of supermarkets just beginning), state owned large networks accounted for 41.3%, cooperatives/collectives 27.9% and private enterprises (i.e. Small retailers mostly) 20% of market – hence completely incomparable to Indian situation

In all situations big retailers begin with rich population but do not remain confined to them – always attempt to expand into smaller towns, reaching poorer segments etc. As in this quote, describing Latin America, Asia and Africa in general: “there has been a trend from supermarkets occupying only a small niche in capital cities serving only the rich and middle class to spread well beyond the middle class in order to penetrate deeply into the food markets of the poor.” (Reardon, Thomas; Timmer, C. Peter; Barrett, Christopher B.; Berdegue, Julio (2003). “The Rise of Supermarkets in Africa, Asia and Latin America”, American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, Vol. 85:5).

Benefits to Farmers?

Most purchase for corporate retailers occurs through contract farming. This actually has negative impacts on most farmers.

All studies of contract farming and corporate food retail state that small and marginal farmers are unable to sell to the corporate supply chain because of the high investment and high risk associated with contract farming. More than 90% of India's rural population has less than 2 hectares of land and 79% are either landless or own less than 1 hectare. Practically all of these people will be excluded from the corporate supply chain.

Those left out of corporate sourcing may find themselves competing for a much smaller market and essentially being driven out of existence. Thus, in Argentina, the number of dairy farms fell from 40,000 in 1983 – around the time when corporate transformation of the supply chain began - to 15,000 in 2001.

There is no reason that purchases by a small number of companies is going to lead to higher prices for producers. An Oxfam study shows that real export prices for South African apples fell by 33% from 1994 – 2004, and Florida tomato growers found their real prices falling by 25% over the same period – while consumer prices in the US rose by 46% at the same time. Data currently says that four or five companies control 40% of the international trade in several types of produce, including grains, edible oils, coffee, cocoa and bananas.

The same study by Oxfam shows that conditions for agricultural workers in supermarket suppliers is very bad, because of the intense pressure placed on farmers to reduce prices, guarantee 'quality standards', handle last minute changes in contracts and absorb discounts, promotions, etc. passed on to them.

Abuses of power by corporate retailers include:

delayed payments (example from Argentina here)

arbitrary quality standards (Oxfam 2004 study cited above has very good examples including, for instance, sudden demands that apples should be exactly 65 mm rather than 63 mm),

passing on of costs for discounts and promotions to producers (Vietnam23, for instance),

and simple default on contracts, as has happened in India (several studies, some with a lot of data; a summary reference is Jayati Ghosh and CP Chandrasekhar here)

Global sourcing of fruits and vegetables puts intense pressure on producers to reduce prices to compete and to satisfy the requirements of the corporate retailers (FAO 2005 study)

Corporate Retailers Already Exist, So FDI Will Not Cause Additional Damage?

This is simply an irrelevant argument. The small presence of corporate retailers in India's markets today is a reflection of the fact that in themselves, corporate retailers offer nothing in the sense of retailers that allows them to outcompete the existing system. This is why the entry of FDI has been shown to be the single determining factor that permits large-scale expansion of corporate retail in developing countries.

The large quantities of money that FDI provides permit retailers to displace existing suppliers and establish monopolies or oligopolies when purchasing produce; to absorb losses and hence fix lower prices until the competition is wiped out, whereupon prices will be raised (i.e. predatory pricing); and to pressure governments into bending regulations and subsidizing their activities (the latter is already visible among existing corporate retailers).

The simple reality is that, if corporate retailers were simply going to grow alongside the existing system without displacing anyone and purely because of their better results, they would have done so already to a great extent. Why have they failed?

Ignored Issues

Most of the debate ignores the structural requirements of corporate retail and what this will mean. Inherently, in order to make profits, corporate retailers need massive economies of scale to offset their very high overhead costs (in contrast to the low overhead, decentralized existing system). Some of the resulting impacts include:

Privileging good looks and long durability over taste and nutritional value, so as to permit price hunting and delayed sale of produce: The result is that, as is widely known, fruits and vegetables in supermarkets tend to have less taste, are lower in nutritional value, and are often picked when unripe. This is one reason for rapid growth of the “organic food” market in the industrial countries.

Massive increase in use of energy and water for processing, packaging, and transport: The international food industry is now recognized as a major contributor to climate change. Better storage is certainly necessary, but the requirements of corporate retailers far outstrip the actual need. They are not interested merely in storing of food but in being able to source from very long distances and in storing as long as necessary (in order to speculate on prices). The rsult is that the energy spent on production and sale of one kilogram of rice in the US is 80 times the energy spent by a farmer in the Phillippines25. One fifth of all energy spent on transport in the US is spent on transport of food26. Can India afford this kind of expenditure of energy and water?

Sharp rise in use of pesticides, additives, preservatives and other chemical agents to increase the shelf life of food, with attendant health consequences: For much the same reason as above. Contract farming in particular usually involves a sharp rise in total inputs, destroying the fertility of the land and leading to increased pollution and other problems.

The growth of corporate retail not only will not address the key problems plaguing India's economy today – it will greatly exacerbate many of them. In particular, the crisis in agriculture, environmental destruction, declines in land productivity, urban unemployment, price volatility and unequal access to resources would all be worsened by unchecked growth of corporate retail.

Shankar Gopalakrishnan is an independent researcher. He can be contacted at 09873657844. More information with regard to the points mentioned here can be found in an article by Priya Sreenivasa and Shankar Gopalakrishnan in the August 8, 2009 issue of Economic and Political Weekly, which is accessible online.

Uniform of whatever colour should not subdue legislative wisdom: AHRC

2011-11-29T17:04:00.002+05:30

The following is a statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong:

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) is a subject of severe criticism by human rights activists and jurists in India and across the world. The alarming number of human rights abuses committed by the security agencies deployed in regions where AFSPA is currently put to use is depressing proof to the draconian nature of this law. Many lives lost already - estimated to be more than 4000 since the Act came into force in 1958 - to this the Act underscores the non-compatibility of this law to the notion of democracy. The statutory impunity provided in the Act and the extreme nature of force, that could be used arbitrarily on mere suspicion, empowering a soldier to shoot to kill with no fear of prosecution which is used without restraint till today, proves that this law has not only failed, but would not by any stretch of imagination be of use to curb armed secessionist militancy in the country. Yet, the Indian Army is now entangled in a browbeating debacle with the civilian government in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the state's legislature concerning the withdrawal of this law from certain parts of the state. The army's attempt is to continue enjoying the despicable impunity this law provides therefore unbecomingly benefiting from it.

The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir has been running between the state and national capitals since the state legislature passed a resolution to authorise the partial withdrawal of this law from the state. The army since then has been claiming that its operative framework would be compromised should the law be withdrawn.

In this context, the Chief Minister of the state is right in opining that the army's role is primarily to protect the country's border, and not to maintain law and order, at the expense of superseding the legitimate writ of the government, and thus in essence of the people. The army and the Government of India should not have pushed the matter to such ridicule. For the army to instruct the government, India is not Pakistan.

The architecture of impunity in AFSPA negates the notion that this law is legitimate. Army's demand to continue with AFSPA against the decision of the state legislature is against its constitutional mandate, to be under civilian fiat, and opposes the supremacy of the people. That some officers in the army are applying unwarranted and inappropriate pressure upon the government not to withdraw the law from operation is in essence insult of legislative wisdom. It reiterates the universal truth that an army, if allowed to operate with impunity, would not prefer to return to be under the control of civilian authority.

The only force, to which the country's armed forces must surrender, unconditionally, is to its people. The Indian Army does not have a mandate beyond the constitutional premise that Indians decided to practice since 1950. To demand otherwise is nothing less than pushing a democratically elected civilian government to revolt against its own security forces.

There is no merit in the army's contention that the soldiers follow their code of conduct when operating in areas where the AFSPA is enforced. The AHRC has documented more than 300 cases so far where the army has openly violated every expected norm of operative justice and law, where AFSPA is in force. The conversation of the dead from hundreds of unmarked graves identified by the State Human Rights Commission of Jammu and Kashmir is gruesome proof to the fact that the Indian Army has 'done their job' as it suited them. That thus far there has been not a single prosecution or independent and transparent investigation concerning the unmarked graves in the state reiterates that the impunity is absolute.

The argument that AFSPA helped control secessionist or otherwise destructive activities is equally false. The brutalities committed by the armed forces under the protection of AFSPA against the people have deeply alienated the people from rest of the country. It has fuelled intolerance, breeds mistrust, generates and maintains fear. AFSPA is the iniquitous fountain of moral reasoning that supports militant and religiously fundamentalist organisations and helps them seek and receive support from at least three different neighbouring countries. The commendable move by the Jammu and Kashmir state government is to address this. It has to be supported, that similar actions could be initiated in other places, for instance in Manipur.

The army's dependence upon this draconian law can be interpreted, that the army is incapable of operating in a transparent and accountable environment, and is against the interest of the nation. It contradicts the highest morale the Indian Army is sworn to maintain. That the secessionist and militant forces require the cover of impunity to operate, the brute violence such entities commit and the nature of internal and external support they receive must not be the defining rationale of the operative framework of a disciplined force.

What happens in India will have an impact upon the region. That the Indian Army dictating the government about security policies will further encourage armed forces in countries like Sri Lanka where the present president is using his military might to subdue democratic debates in that country. It could discourage discussions about the accountability of the Nepal Army and that of the former armed Maoist cadres for the human rights abuses they are accountable for. It will foster the operative impunity enjoyed by state forces like the Rapid Action Battalion in Bangladesh and allow them remain unaccountable for human rights abuses. Whenever these issues get discussed in regional or international fora, India would have no moral voice to support calls for accountability should the Indian Army enjoy despicable impunity within India.

Indian Army is not above the parliamentary writ. That it has started exhibiting some of the despicable tendencies of the Pakistan Armed Forces that have repeatedly overridden democratic writs allowing democracy to make only cameo appearances in that country has to be reprimanded at its onset. That the country's army claiming that it requires an aura of impunity to operate could be interpreted as a warning that the army might be becoming incompatible to function within a democratic space.

At the very least, it is not for military generals of the country to decide administrative and security policies. Neither should a uniform, irrespective of its colour, subdue legislative wisdom.

Moratorium on death penalty: national campaign planned

2011-11-29T12:04:00.002+05:30

A people’s convention, held at Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, demanded an immediate moratorium on capital punishment.

Well-known writer Paul Zacharia, who inaugurated the convention, examined the political, social and psychological aspects of capital punishment in a broad historical context. He also dwelt on the issue of crime and punishment in the light of new scientific findings.

The convention was organized by a group which has been campaigning against the death penalty and in favour of the rights of prisoners for several years. Its efforts have been responsible for some liberal measures taken by the Kerala government with regard to prisoners’ rights.

The convention decided to mount a national campaign on the issue of capital punishment.

It is appropriate that the initiative for a national campaign on the issue should originate in Kerala since a part of the state has had the unique historic experience of managing without the death penalty for several years.

The Maharaja of Travancore had abolished the death penalty by a proclamation shortly before India became independent. The death penalty came back to the region with the introduction of the Constitution of India.

Studies have shown that there was no spurt in crime in Travancore during the period when there was no capital punishment. This disproves the widely canvassed argument that the death penalty is necessary as a deterrent against serious crimes.

A film by R.P. Amudan, a Chennai-based film-maker, titled “Thudarum Neethikkolaikal” (Continuing judicial killings) was screened during the convention.

More than 130 countries have abolished the death penalty. Many of them have dropped it from the penal code while some are not taking recourse to it even though the law provides for it.

India, China and the United States are among the countries which are sticking to capital punishment, bucking the worldwide trend. Sixteen of the 50 states of the US have abolished the death penalty but that country still accounts for a large number of judicial killings.

Storm over dam in South

2011-11-28T06:51:00.003+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

A storm is brewing over a river water dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which has been simmering for decades, with political parties and the media playing up emotive aspects like risk of a dam burst and drying up of farmland.

In the eye of the storm is the Mullaperiyar dam, built in 1895 to divert the waters of the Periyar in the state of Travancore to irrigate parched lands in British-ruled Madras presidency. Kerala is worried as the collapse of the aged structure can endanger the lives of three million people in the state.

In 1886, under pressure from the British rulers, the Maharaja of Travancore leased 8,100 acres of land to them for 999 years. The lease agreement gave them British the right to construct irrigation works there and use the impounded waters for irrigation in the Madras presidency.

Since Travancore became part of Kerala, and the areas that benefit by the diversion of river waters are in Tamil Nadu, these states became successor parties to the agreement. Although the two states signed fresh agreements regarding use of the waters of the river after Independence, the colonial character of the lease remained unchanged: the dam located in Kerala remains under Tamil Nadu’s control.

The first dam built by British army engineers was washed away by flood waters within a year. They then built the present one, with a full reservoir level of 152 feet, using stones and surki, a mixture of sugar and calcium oxide. A reinforced concrete parapet was added later.

Concerns about the safety of the dam arose in 1979 when it developed cracks. At a meeting of Kerala and Tamil Nadu officials, convened by the Central Water Commission, it was decided to reduce the reservoir level to 136 feet immediately. Medium and long-term measures to strengthen the dam were also agreed upon.

In 1986 , the CWC proposed additional measures to strengthen the structure and said if Tamil Nadu raised the height of the concrete parapet by two feet the reservoir level could be raised again to 152 feet.

A series of mild tremors, of not more than three on the Richter scale, in the vicinity of the dam aggravated fears about its safety. Experts said a quake of magnitude 6 can bring down the structure. With Tamil Nadu pressing to raise the reservoir level and Kerala resisting it, there was no meeting ground.

In 2000, the Supreme Court, which took over a bunch of petitions filed in the high courts of the two states, asked the Centre to convene a meeting of Chief Ministers to resolve the dispute. The meeting failed to break the deadlock.

In 2006, the court allowed Tamil Nadu to raise the reservoir level to 142 feet and take up measures to strengthen the dam, after which, it said, the level could be raised to 152 feet. Kerala immediately enacted a law to place Mullaperiyar in the Schedule of Endangered Dams and prohibit raising of water level beyond 132 feet. It also announced plans to build a new dam to replace it. Tamil Nadu urged the court to strike down the law and stop Kerala from going ahead with plans to replace the existing dam.

An empowered committee, appointed by the Centre at the court’s instance, is now grappling with the problem. Meanwhile, with 26 tremors reported in four months, Kerala wants to construct the new dam early and scrap the present one.

Tamil Nadu politicians often take a jingoist position on the issue. At their instance, the state last week banned a movie, Dam 999, made by a UAE-based Keralite, Sohan Roy, under a Hollywood banner. They alleged the film, based on the collapse of the Banqiao dam in China in 1975, was made with Mullaperiyar in mind.

Lately some Kerala politicians, too, are adopting strident tones. This may be due partly to the influence of the increasingly sensationalist media and partly to the upcoming Assembly by-election at Piravom, close to the dam site, where the ruling United Democratic Front had scraped through earlier this year with a slender majority of 157 votes.

Actually there is no conflict of interest between the two states. Kerala relies upon Tamil Nadu for grains and vegetables. It is in its interest to ensure that Tamil Nadu farms get water. If the dam collapses, Tamil Nadu will go without water. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy puts it this way: “Safety for Kerala, water for Tamil Nadu.” The system’s failure to resolve the issue can only be attributed to the lack of sensitivity of those operating it. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 28, 2011.

Violence against women in Asia: AHRC calls for remedial measures

2011-11-25T14:18:00.002+05:30

The Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, says in a statement:

Incidences of violence against women are not isolated or sporadic, but a daily occurrence in Asian countries. While women are subjected to various forms of violence in private and public domains, such as sexual assault, rape and acid throwing, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to draw attention to the increasing tendency of violations perpetrated by state agents, mostly the police and military, in the form of torture, rape, extrajudicial killing and being used as sex slaves in military torture cells.

From social and cultural norms to ineffective legal procedures, women are thwarted at every turn as they attempt to complain against their abuse, seek punishment of those responsible and improve their own circumstances. While the denial of justice is a fundamental human rights violation, it is also key in perpetuating the cycle of violence, as the perpetrators remain free to continue their abusive and illegal behaviour.

Supporting all women confronting the denial of justice, the AHRC urges states to improve their complaint making procedures and available remedies.

Complaint making procedure

Registering a complaint is the first step in speaking out against any abuse suffered by women and addressing it. Without any complaint being made, little can be done. State agencies and complaint receiving bodies are generally not conducive to registering complaints of abuse against fellow officials, or against wealthy and influential individuals. Their attitude towards women also makes them indifferent to their complaints. Furthermore, the corruption prevalent within policing institutions throughout Asia makes the police an easy target for perpetrators of violence to bribe and silence. Meanwhile, those bodies specifically meant to receive complaints from women, such as women’s commissions, tend to have limited resources, budgets and authority, which are obstacles in carrying out their functions effectively. For instance, Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women, is often not able to conduct its own investigations, or, at best, may conduct investigations and make recommendations to other state institutions for further action. However, law enforcement bodies do not always take up its recommendations. Similarly, the Commission for Women in India receives a large number of complaints and conducts its own investigations, but these, along with its recommendations, are often ignored by India’s law enforcement bodies.

The police attitude to registering complaints is manifested in their investigation procedure as well. As seen in a case of a 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped and gang-raped in Pakistan in October 2010, the police refused to record the gang-rape complaint. Her father finally filed an application in court, which then ordered the police to register a First Information Report. The police eventually arrested two persons, yet they were released within two hours after bribing members of the police. Since then, no legal action has been taken against the perpetrators or the police, whereas the girl’s family is being harassed to drop the case, including being threatened with the rape of their other two children.

The militarization of various Asian countries—or regions within countries—means there is considerable violence committed against women by the military. In Burma, not only is rape condoned as a strategy of war in conflict areas, but it is also committed widely in non-conflict areas. In 2011 itself, there have been large numbers of rapes of girls and women documented in various areas of the country. Not only do government agencies refuse to take up cases involving the military, but complaints of rape or sexual abuse could land the victim and/or her family in prison for ‘supporting rebels’.

Regardless of whom they are complaining against, it is disturbingly common for women victims to be subjected to further abuse and harassment for filing complaints. They must also deal with social stigmas and obstacles. As a result, women tend to remain silent regarding the violence against them.

Social obstacles

Aside from the procedural problems of making a complaint, women also face numerous social and cultural obstacles to speaking out against the abuse they suffer, many of which are in fact promoted by the government. In Indonesia, Jakarta governor Fauzi Bowo on September 16, 2011 stated, in response to the increase of rape and sexual harassment on public transportation, that this was the women’s own fault; “Wear sensible clothes, don’t wear ‘inviting’ clothes. You can imagine, if wears short skirt and sits next to the driver, it could be ‘inviting’.” How can women voice their complaints to public officials holding such attitudes?

Cabinet ministers in Pakistan have also been known to defend violence against women. Balochistan Senator Sardar Isarullah Zehri defended the jirga-ordered burying of three teenage girls and two of their aunts alive in his province as ‘custom’ in August 2008. “This is our centuries old traditions and customs, and we will continue it,” he said. Despite such a disavowal for rule of law, and despite the fact that the case was yet to be properly investigated, Mr. Zehri today is a federal minister.
The social stigma surrounding domestic violence is the biggest obstacle for women to complain against it. Many cases show that police and other public officials urge women to resolve the issue at home, rather than making a complaint to obtain legal remedy. Dowry related violence in India continues today, with daily media reports of women committing suicide or being killed by family members. In fact, about 20 percent of those committing suicide in India are housewives. That women would rather end their lives than speak out is the most critical assessment of the environment they find themselves in.

Remedies

If women succeed in getting their cases to court, despite all the obstacles, they are most likely to then face delays in court hearings, as well as insensitive prosecutors, lawyers and judges. The justice system also fails to protect the women from threats and harassment by the perpetrators and social ostracism, a significant aspect of remedies.

All of the above can be seen in the case of Pakistani rights activist and gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai, who struggled hard to secure justice and challenge the impunity of the men who raped her some nine years ago. Finally, on April 21, 2011, the Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld the verdict of the Multan bench of Lahore High Court releasing five of the six men responsible on the basis of ‘insufficient evidence’ and ‘faulty investigations’. Only one perpetrator remains in prison to serve a life sentence. In upholding the legally flawed Multan bench verdict, the Supreme Court gravely disappointed all those who support justice and women’s rights. Such rulings can only serve to further dissuade victims of rape from seeking justice.
In order to ensure justice for victims, it is essential to provide them with protection and counseling, as part of the remedies available. In many cases of sexual violence, the woman victim is both the complainant and the primary witness of the crime. These women are vulnerable to harassment and abuse by the perpetrators of these crimes and it is the fundamental obligation of the state to protect them. Cases of victims in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan have been documented however, where no protection was given to victims making complaints of rape or assault.

Societal change

The incidents of violence against women are directly related to the wider society’s understanding of women and the level of respect they are accorded. The AHRC reiterates the state’s obligations to stop the perpetuation of violence against women with a holistic approach that adopts comprehensive laws not only to criminalize violence against women, but also mandates prevention measures--including awareness raising, sensitizing and the empowerment of women--aimed at changing societal attitudes and practices. National plans comprising of educational curricula as well as advocacy programmes to promote public awareness of gender stereotyping and the unacceptability of violence against women should be urgently and effectively initiated. Civil society also has an important role to play, particularly in identifying and understanding rights violations faced by women, as well as providing them the necessary support and structures to overcome these violations. Only when such a holistic approach targeting the criminal justice system as well cultural and patriarchal norms that seek to silence women is in place, can violence against women be truly eliminated.

Activists denounce G.K.Pillai’s slandering of Ishrant Jahan

2011-11-24T13:43:00.003+05:30

The following is a statement released by the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association:

Stung by the SIT report which concluded that Ishrat was executed in cold blood, former Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai -- hard-pressed to defend his affidavit to the Supreme Court that Ishrat was a Lashkar operative -- has stooped to now slandering the girl’s personal life suggesting that her checking into different hotels with “another man” was definitely suspicious. Perhaps, Mr. Pillai wishes us to believe that all those young women who travel and work independently are ‘suspicious’ and could have terrorist links.

Pillai is no doubt aware that questions will be raised about his affidavit -- and also all those journalists who were churning out whatever that was emanating from his office -- and is now rushing to hide behind sexist insinuations.

Pillai knows well that with the killing of Ishrat and three others, the case is forever closed. No court is now going to try Ishrat for her alleged links with Laskhar. And that is precisely the convenience of encounter killings -- the allegations can never be proven or disproven. Lashkar-e-Toiba’s hailing of Ishrat does not count for much. Organizations have been known to make grand claims for purposes of propaganda, Norway being a case in point.

We condemn Pillai’s insensitive sexist slandering of a girl who cannot defend herself, and demand an immediate apology.

Jyoti Punwani (Independent Journalist)
Githa Hariharan (writer)
Saba Dewan (independent filmmaker)
Sabeena Gadihoke (Associate Professor, Jamai Millia Islamia)
Shabnam Hashmi (ANHAD)
Prof. Janaki Rajan (Jamia Millia Islamia)
Prof. Anuradha Chenoy (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Kavita Srivastava (PUCL)
Seema Mustafa (senior journalist)
Tahira Hasan (Tehrike Niswan)
Kavita Krishnan (AIPWA)
Rita Manchanda (activist)
Khaadeej Arif (journalist)
Shikha Sen (independent filmmaker)
Mansi Sharma (activist)
Seema Duhan (activist)
Mona Das (Satyawati College, University of Delhi)
Vani Subramanian, Satnam Kaur and Vinita (Saheli)
Manisha Sethi, Farah Farooqi, Azra Razak, Sanghamitra Misra and Ambarien Al Qadar (JTSA)

Media under scrutiny

2011-11-21T08:16:00.003+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Markandey Katju, Chairman of the Press Council of India, which looks into complaints against newspapers and news agencies, has raised a hornet’s nest by stating some home truths.

Under the law only a former Supreme Court judge can head the Press Council. Katju, who has a reputation for outspokenness, retired from the apex court in September, and took over as its chairman last month. The jurisdiction of the council, first established in 1966, does not extend to private television, which made its appearance only two decades ago. Channel bosses were infuriated by Justice Katju’s suggestion that the watchdog body must be turned into a Media Council and the electronic media brought under its ambit.

He made the suggestion in a letter to the Prime Minister in which he also called for amendment of the law to give the Press Council power to punish erring mediapersons and institutions. All it can do is to admonish and censure the wrongdoer.

At one time the Press Council used to ask newspapers to publish its findings against them prominently, and they complied. Lately they have flouted such directives. In the circumstances, the suggestion to enlarge the Council’s powers is quite justified.

Some time ago, alarmed by reports that the government was thinking of a regulatory authority for the electronic media, channel owners and news television bosses declared they would enforce self-regulation. They then established a body styled as the News Broadcasting Standards Authority, with JS Verma, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as chairman and another named Indian Broadcasting Federation with AP Shah, a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, as chairman.

The NBSA, after looking into complaints against a channel which had aired a report about gays, held that it had invaded the privacy of individuals and imposed a fine of Rs 100,000. This is the only known instance of purposeful intervention by that body to enforce standards.

Justice Katju said in a series of interviews that he had a poor opinion of the media, that a majority of mediapersons were of low intellectual calibre and that they were working not in the interests of the people but in an anti-people manner. Those were indeed harsh words, and predictably there was a loud uproar.

News channels took up Justice Katju’s statements for discussion at prime time, and he came under a barrage of criticism along with channel bosses, the Indian Newspapers Society, an organisation of newspaper owners, and some journalists’ bodies also took up cudgels against him.

At the first meeting of the Press Council with Justice Katju in the chair, the INS representatives demanded an apology from him for his remarks against the media. When he refused, they walked out.

Unruffled, Justice Katju reiterated his views. He dismissed self-regulation as an oxymoron, and said, “Everybody is accountable to the people in a democracy, and so is the media.” If they did not want to come under the Press Council, would they like to be under the proposed Lokpal, he asked.

He said the media, instead of addressing the problems of 80 per cent of the people such as dire poverty, massive unemployment, skyrocketing prices, lack of medical care and educational facilities and barbaric social problems like honour killing, dowry death, caste oppression and religious bigotry, devoted 90 per cent of the coverage to entertainment such as lives of film stars, fashion parades, pop music, disco dance and cricket and superstitions like astrology.

Elaborating his point about the media’s anti-people attitude, he mentioned how whenever there was a bomb blast the channels started talking of an email or SMS from an organisation with a Muslim name owning responsibility for it. Any mischievous person can send an email or SMS, he pointed out. By playing up such messages the media demonised a whole community.

Justice Katju said the European media had played a positive role during the transition from feudalism to a modern society. India was now going through a similar transition and he wanted the Indian media to play its part in that process.

It is worth noting that those who have joined the chorus against Justice Katju were more or less silent when issues like paid news and the Radia tapes rocked the media. A Press Council inquiry committee had found that several newspapers had taken cash from political leaders for coverage at election time. The telephone conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia secretly recorded by an official agency had revealed the nexus between politicians and mediapersons.-- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 21, 2011.

Judiciary’s growing clout

2011-11-14T06:45:00.004+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

The clout of India’s Judiciary, already considered the most powerful institution of its kind in the world, continues to rise, thanks to its successful interventions to right the wrongs of the Executive and the Legislature.

The Constitution envisages a system of mutual checks and balances by the three limbs of the state. While the Judiciary has exercised its corrective power extensively and effectively, internal weaknesses have prevented the Executive and the Legislature from playing their role well.

Over the years, the Judiciary, exercising its exclusive right to interpret the provisions of the Constitution, has enlarged its powers. Today it has the last word on the Constitution. Early Supreme Court verdicts had said Parliament’s right to amend the Constitution was unfettered. Later, the apex court said there were limits on its amending powers and ruled that constitutional amendments were subject to judicial review.

The Judiciary also has the last word now on who should be made judges of the superior courts, the apex court having appropriated to itself, through successive judgments, primacy in the consultation process that precedes judicial appointments.

It also has assumed legislative powers with a view to filling perceived gaps in the framework of laws. The Supreme Court verdicts prescribing procedures to be followed by the police in making arrests and laying down guidelines for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace are now part of the laws of the land.

The Constitution lists “justice — social, economic and political” as the first of its several objectives. The Judiciary vastly expanded the scope for its intervention to ensure justice when it gave all citizens the right to move courts for redress of grievances through public interest litigation (PIL). Earlier, only an aggrieved person had the right to seek remedy from the courts.

The first public interest litigants were social activists and voluntary organisations. Later, politicians entered the field. Some of them appear to have found the courtroom a better battleground than the legislative chamber.

The 2G scam case in which A Raja, a former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member of the Central government, Kanimozhi, MP and daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, several top bureaucrats and a few corporate honchos figure as the accused arose out of a PIL filed in the Supreme Court by Subrahmanyam Swamy, president of the Janata Party, a relic of the collective of that name which had seized power in the 1977 elections, ousting Indira Gandhi’s Emergency regime. Swamy and his party are not significant entities in parliamentary politics.

Former Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan’s vigorous pursuit of a corruption case, which he took up as PIL, resulted in a jail term for R. Balakrishna Pillai, a former minister belonging to a rival party. He is involved in PIL cases against some other political rivals also.

Achuthanandan’s Communist Party of India-Marxist is the state’s largest party, and the Left Democratic Front which it heads has been wielding power alternately with the Congress-led United Democratic Front for three decades. But in the five years that he headed the Executive he could not register a victory comparable to what he achieved as a public interest litigant.

It was a petition filed by the pro-CPI-M Democratic Youth Federation of India that led to the Supreme Court’s order banning the use of the pesticide Endosulfan in Kerala, where its indiscriminate use had caused severe public health problems in some areas.

When a civil society group drew attention to the partisan attitude of the Gujarat police the Supreme Court appointed a special investigation team to probe cases arising from the 2002 communal riots. Last week, a trial court gave life term to 31 persons in one of the cases.

PIL has no doubt added a new dimension to democracy. However, the political parties’ increasing reliance on the Judiciary to keep the Executive and the Legislature on the straight path is a sad commentary on the quality of Indian democracy.

From time to time the Judiciary has come under criticism for its activist role. Even some distinguished retired judges have opined that it overstepped its limits on a few occasions. However, public opinion appears to favour its interventions inasmuch as they provide relief against the Executive’s acts of omission and commission. The Executive must take note of this and set its house in order.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 14, 2011.

Good turn in India-Pakistan ties

2011-11-07T07:58:00.003+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Three years after sea-borne terrorists created mayhem in Mumbai, relations between India and Pakistan are still far from normal but there have been some developments which augur well for the future.

An Indian army helicopter, which took off from Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir and strayed across the line of control in bad weather, was forced by the Pakistani military to land but it was returned within hours. This followed immediate hotline contacts between army officials of the two countries.

A retired Indian major general, in a letter to a newspaper, said the incident vindicated his “long-held view that the Pakistan army is a professional institution, not a rogue army as some sections of the media, service colleagues, and politicians would like to suggest.” The Associated Press of Pakistan quoted the Indian general’s remarks in a report circulated to domestic subscribers.

Kuldip Nayar, veteran journalist and campaigner for India-Pakistan amity, saw the speedy and happy resolution of the helicopter incident as a sign of lessening of cussedness in the relations between the two countries. He went on to ask why the two governments were postponing an overdue meeting of Home Secretaries which would accelerate the process of normalisation of relations thrown off the rails by the Mumbai terror attack.

India recently backed Pakistan’s candidature for a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, and Pakistan supported India’s bid to secure a second term for Commonwealth Secretary General Kamlesh Sharma. By far the most significant development with a bearing on the troubled ties between the two countries is the Pakistan government’s decision to accord India most favoured nation (MFN) status. India granted Pakistan MFN status way back in 1996. However, India was not among nearly 100 countries which were given MFN status by Pakistan.

When a country grants MFN status to another it undertakes to treat it on an equal footing with other countries with which it trades in keeping with the provisions of the World Trade Organisation agreement on non-discrimination. As a signatory to the South Asian Free Trade Agreement, Pakistan had an obligation to grant India MFN status but it declined to do so, linking improvement of trade relations to resolution of the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan allowed trade with India only in fewer than 2,000 items. India was resentful of Islamabad’s restrictive attitude which limited its access to the Pakistani market, South Asia’s second largest. The fact is that this attitude hurt Pakistan too.

India-Pakistan trade in the last financial year stood at $ 2.6 billion. At least thrice as much trade between the two countries is believed to have taken place through the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. In an article published in the journal of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi, two years ago, Nabiha Gul of Karachi University said it was possible to achieve a tenfold increase in bilateral trade.

Pakistan’s export trade is worth $ 21 billion and import trade is worth $ 32 billion. Its top partners in export trade are the US (16%), Afghanistan and the UAE (8% each), China (7%) and the UK (4%) and in import trade China (18%), Saudi Arabia and the UAE (11% each), Kuwait (6%) and the US (5%).

Pakistan’s belated decision to grant India MFN status is unlikely to lead to dramatic increases in trade. Pakistan could not increase its exports to India significantly during the last five years in spite of the MFN status that it enjoyed. India was able to double its exports to Pakistan during the same period without MFN status.

The decision to grant MFN status to India was taken at a meeting of the Pakistan Cabinet and announced by the Information Minister. However, an official release issued later made no mention of MFN status. It merely said the Cabinet had approved measures for normalisation of trade. An official spokesman explained later that grant of MFN status was part of the normalisation process.

The flipflop suggests some forces within the Pakistani establishment are not keen on progress on this front. Pakistani businessmen are also wary of liberalisation of trade as they feel they cannot compete with their Indian counterparts on an equal footing. The Indian authorities are endeavouring to allay their fears.

The Pakistan Peace Coalition, a civil society group, and the Pakistan Institute for Labour Education and Research supported the Cabinet decision. In a joint statement they described it as a major breakthrough towards trade liberalisation and a step towards increased prosperity in South Asia, which has a population of 1.8 billion.-- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 7, 2011

Civilian supremacy at stake

2011-10-31T07:32:00.001+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

A proposal to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from some areas of Jammu and Kashmir, mooted by chief minister Omar Abdullah, was http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifshelved last week as the military brass opposed it and the civilian leadership stood deeply divided. The chief minister’s suggestion was eminently reasonable. But he made the mistake of airing it publicly without prior consultations with the Congress party, the National Conference’s junior partner in the government.

State Congress president Saifuddin Soz opposed the suggestion. He may have seen Omar Abdullah’s statement as part of an attempt to shore up the National Conference’s sagging image by appealing to Kashmiri sentiments. He probably had another reason also to shoot down the proposal. The Central government is unable to formulate a clear position on the issue.

It is for the Central government to take a view in the matter after considering the situation on the ground. There are reports that the Home Ministry is in favour of partial withdrawal of AFSPA but is not able to go ahead because of the Defence Ministry’s opposition.

AFSPA is a colonial-era law re-enacted in 1958 to deal with insurgency in the predominantly tribal states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, all in the northeast. It confers special powers on armed forces deployed in designated “disturbed areas”. To begin with, the power to declare an area as “disturbed” vested exclusively in the state government. In 1972, this power was vested in the Centre as well.

The law gives the military wide powers of arrest and the right to shoot to kill and occupy or destroy property in the course of counterinsurgency operations. Although Kashmir has witnessed internal and external challenges from the dawn of Independence, AFSPA was extended to the state only in 1990 when foreign-backed terrorist groups wrought havoc.

National and international human rights organisations hold that the immunity the law grants to the security forces has led to human rights abuses such as torture, extra-judicial executions and unexplained disappearances. They believe widespread abuse of powers has helped the insurgents by aggravating the sense of alienation of the people.

The Indian Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, which has studied the working of AFSPA, has stated that there have been many instances of violence by security forces against civilians in Manipur. In one of the diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks, the US Consul General in Kolkata remarks that Manipur appears more like a colony than an Indian state. He also says the governor admitted to him that there have been human rights violations under cover of AFSPA.

On Nov.2, 2000, Irom Sharmila, a young Manipuri woman, began an indefinite fast demanding withdrawal of AFSPA. Eleven years later, she is still on fast in a hospital where she is kept alive through forced nasal feeding in police custody.

A campaign mounted by local civil society groups after the death of a woman in custody in 2004 forced the Centre to appoint a committee headed by BP Jeevan Reddy, a former Supreme Court judge, to review AFSPA and examine the possibility of amending it.

The committee, in its report submitted in 2005, recommended that AFSPA be scrapped as it had become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness. The government ignored the recommendation. Later, under pressure from domestic and foreign human rights groups, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to amend AFSPA to eliminate its draconian provisions. The promise remains unfulfilled.

The government’s inaction stems from successive defence ministers’ unqualified support for the army’s stand that it cannot operate except under conditions of impunity. Their position puts at jeopardy the principle of civilian supremacy which underlines the provision in India’s Constitution that vests the powers of the commander-in-chief of the defence forces in the elected president.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party, in keeping with its jingoistic line, supports continuance of AFSPA, the Left parties want it to be repealed. Civil society groups are now striving to broadbase the anti-AFSPA campaign, which has been confined to the affected areas so far. In March 2010 a group of activists from Kerala took out a march from Cherthala, home town of Defence Minister AK Antony, to Manipur to express solidarity with Irom Sharmila. Last week a people’s caravan that set out from Kashmir reached Manipur after covering 4,500 kilometres.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, October 31, 2011.

An Appeal to the nation's conscience from the Death Row

2011-10-25T21:42:00.007+05:30

Arputham Kuyildasan of Jolarpettai, mother of A. G. Perarivalan (picture on the right), who was convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and has been under the shadow of the gallows for many years, was in Thiruvananthapuram recently to present before the public her son’s case for mercy.

Speaking at the Kesari Memorial Hall, she said the members of her family were followers of EVR’s Dravida Kazhagam. Perarivalan, who had a diploma in Electronics and Communications Engineering, was working with the DK paper Viduthalai when he was arrested on June 11, 1991. He was actually handed over to the CBI investigators by his parents on learning that they were looking for him in connection with the case. That was before his 19th birthday.

In the 20 years he has spent in jail, Perarivalan has acquired new educational qualifications.

Earlier Arputham had called on Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer at Kochi.

Arputham Kuyildasan, mother of Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Perarivalan, with former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer in Kochi. —Photo:Deccan Chronicle

The charge against Perarivalan was that he had made the belt bomb that the LTTE suicide attacker Dhanu wore. In the mercy petition sent to the President, he cites a 2005 interview to the Tamil weekly Kumudam in which Raghothaman, who was the chief investigating officer of the case, said: “We don’t know who made the belt bomb which was worn by the human bomb Dhanu.”

The text of the mercy petition and some other documents relating to the case are included in Perarivalan’s book “An Appeal from The Death Row”, published by Thruvalluvar Periyar Maanuda Ondriyan, Jolarpettai. It is, in fact, an appeal to the nation's conscience.

In a foreword, Justice Krishna Iyer writes, “Perarivalan is now under sentence of death in the Vellore Jail. His soul is precious, his values noble, his jail life has not made him a criminal. Indeed, he redeems his colleagues and his book is evidence of the noble work of the man.”

Arputham’s was the plea of a mother. Many political parties in Tamil Nadu have asked that the lives of the Tamils who have been sentenced to death be spared. They are essentially voicing Tamil sentiments. Similarly, in Kashmir, there are sentiments in favout of Afzal Guru, who has been sentenced to death in the Parliament assault case.

Perarivalan and Afzal Guru were not present at the scenes of the crimes. On the basis of this fact and other circumstances relating to the two cases many have expressed the view that they did not deserve the extreme penalty.

Cases in which persons were wrongly convicted are not unknown. There have been instances in which courts in many lands acknowledged the mistake and reversed their decisions in the light of fresh material which came to light after the conviction. The problem with the death penalty is that it does not leave room for correction if the conviction is subsequently found to have been wrong.

The cases of Perarivalan, Guru and others in the Death Row need to be viewed in the light of widely accepted human rights ideals. Capital punishment is an extension of the primitive concept oi a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye and a life for a life. It is actually not a punishment at all. It is an act of revenge perpetrated by the state in the name of the society. Many countries have abolished capital punishment or at least stopped awarding it. It is time India did the same.

Hurdles to communal harmony

2011-10-24T07:24:00.004+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

A Bill drafted by the National Advisory Council headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is also chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, which rules India, to check communal violence has met with wide opposition.

Called the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, the measure seeks to enhance the state’s accountability and check discriminatory use of its powers in the context of attacks on religious and linguistic minorities and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Hindu rightwing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has close links with it, are in the forefront of the campaign against it. They view it as one that targets them.

When the Bill was placed by the National Integration Council last month, the BJP leaders were joined by their National Democratic Alliance colleagues, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (Janata Dal–United) and Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal (Akali Dal) and by Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).

Leaders of the Trinamool Congress, which is a UPA constituent, and the Left parties also criticised the Bill. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati (Bahujan Samaj Party) avoided taking a stand, saying the time was not opportune to comment on it.

Harsh Mander, a member of the NAC, later complained that when the Bill came under attack in the NIC, the government failed to defend it.

Few countries have as varied and complex a society as India’s. The Hindus who constitute 80 per cent of the population are divided into numerous caste groups with distinct identities. Hindi, designated as the official language in the Constitution, is spoken by only 41 per cent of the people. About 54 per cent speak a dozen other major languages. The remaining five per cent speak a large number of minor languages, some of which are facing extinction.

Sectarian conflicts, confined to specific areas, are quite common, and occasionally there are big conflagrations like the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 and the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat after the burning of RSS-mobilised volunteers in a rail coach at Godhra in 2002.

Those who instigate and perpetrate communal violence almost always go unpunished. This happens not because there is no law to deal with them but because the official agencies are in complicity with them or powerless to act against them as they enjoy political patronage.

Those indicted in the anti-Sikh riots were leaders of the Congress. The prime movers behind the Gujarat riots were RSS and BJP functionaries. An officer who testified that Chief Minister Narendra Modi had asked the police to let the Hindus wreak vengeance is now facing the wrath of the administration.

The law already has provisions to deal with sectarian violence. The Indian Penal Code has a section on “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.” It has proved ineffective for two reasons. One is that the punishment prescribed is only three to five years of imprisonment and fine. The other is that instances of successful prosecution are few.

The proposed law provides for a new category of offence, namely “communal and targeted violence”. It will apply when violence is directed against anyone by virtue of membership of a group.

It seeks to set up a National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparation (NACHR) and similar bodies at the state level. Apart from monitoring cases of communal violence and redressing grievances of affected people, it will have power to penalise officials for acts of commission as well as acts of omission.

Critics have raised two serious objections to the Bill. One is that it will undermine the republic’s federal character inasmuch as it will allow the Centre to proclaim ‘internal emergency’ and step in to deal with communal violence in a state. The other is that since the law will apply only to violence committed by a majority group against a minority group, and not to violence committed by a minority group against a majority group, in effect it creates separate laws to deal with similar offences by different groups.

Attempts to check communal violence must begin with meaningful efforts to eliminate communal thinking, which is sustained by cynical exploitation of caste and religious sentiments by political parties.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, October 24, 2011.

The cost of procrastination

2011-10-17T06:59:00.002+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Mark Twain once said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” The Indian administration has elevated the American humorist’s quip to the level of a principle of governance.

From Kashmir to Koodankulam, the administration has routinely pigeonholed several pressing issues. Some of them are coming back to haunt the nation, demanding a high price for procrastination.

The Manmohan Singh government cannot be apportioned much blame for the Kashmir problem, which is as old as the free nations of India and Pakistan. The problem has internal and external dimensions, and these aspects have been complicated by insurgency and cross-border terrorism.

The government cannot, however, escape blame for failing to douse the flames of discontent in Kashmir. A year ago, in a time-buying effort, it appointed a three-member team of interlocutors to talk to all sections of people and make recommendations. Last week the team submitted its report, which calls for “meaningful autonomy”, speedy development and withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which allows the army to act with impunity.

The report has not generated much enthusiasm in government circles. Few expect the central administration to push for autonomy as it is sure to invite strong criticism from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, not to mention Hindu extremists who have assaulted several persons for not toeing their hard line on Kashmir.

Kashmir is the oldest and most intractable of the problems before the administration, and Koodankulam the newest. It is also a simple one inasmuch as a decision can be taken without having to look over one’s shoulders constantly.

The Koodankulam issue relates to the future of a nuclear power station, the first phase of which is ready for commissioning. Worried by the Japanese experience at Fukushima, last month residents of villages near Koodankulam launched a mass movement demanding that the project be scrapped. They suspended the agitation after Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the Tamil Nadu Assembly endorsed the demand.

Instead of using the time thus gained to remove the people’s apprehensions about their safety, the administration went ahead with preparations to commission the plant. The villagers then returned to the battlefield with renewed determination.

Procrastination on the Telangana issue has created an explosive situation in Andhra Pradesh. In the 2004 election manifesto the Congress party had committed itself to the formation of Telangana state and included it in the common minimum programme of the first United Progressive Alliance government.

An 11-day fast by Telangana leader K Chandrasekhara Reddy forced the second UPA government to announce it would “start the process” of state formation. It then constituted a committee to look into the issue. Early this year the committee submitted its report, which merely listed three possible ways in which Andhra Pradesh can be split.

A mass movement in support of the state demand, which began five weeks ago, has disrupted life in Telangana and hit other areas too. More than 120 passenger trains running through the region are cancelled or diverted each day. Thermal power stations in Telangana on which other states too depend for power are not able to keep up production. Yet there is no sign of a sense of urgency in the way the administration handles the problem.

The northeastern state of Manipur is reeling under the impact of a double blockade of national highways, which began in August. The first blockade was imposed by the Kuki tribe to press the demand for carving out a Sadar Hills district by splitting Senapathi. The Nagas, who oppose the Kuki demand, launched a counter-blockade.

The double blockade has affected flow of essential commodities to the region, leading to steep rise in prices. A cylinder of cooking gas now sells at Rs 2,000, which is five times the normal price. Hospitals in the state are not able to undertake surgeries due to shortage of medical supplies.

Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh met the prime minister in New Delhi on Thursday to apprise him of the situation in Manipur. However, so far there has been no central initiative to resolve the issue, which has the potential to precipitate ethnic strife in the entire northeast. The government’s indifferent approach has led some observers to speculate that it may be cynically looking for some political dividend from the worsening situation. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, Octoner 17, 2011.

Soni Sori tortured in custody, admitted to hospital in Chhattisgarh

2011-10-10T17:10:00.004+05:30

Soni Sori photographed in police custody in Delhi

Soni Sori, a tribal woman from Chhattisgarh, who was arrested in New Delhi last Wednesday, could not be produced in the Dantewada court as she was admitted to hospital with grievous injuries after torture in police custody, according to reports reaching Human Rights Movement network (humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com.

Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, writes:
On Wednesday 5th October 2011, Soni Sori was arrested from Delhi in a joint operation by the Crime Branch and the Chhattisgarh Police. Fearing for her life, she was hiding from the Chhattisgarh police who has labelled her as a ‘maoist on the run’ and had mounted this huge search operation. After her arrest, when she was produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) at a district court in Delhi, she and her lawyers requested the court to give her bail. She pleaded that she should not be sent back as she fears that the Chattisgarh police will kill her. Her plea was rejected and on Friday she wash handed over to the Chattiagarh police.

Today, on the 10th of October, 2011, we have learnt that Soni Sori could not be produced in the court in Chattisgarh as she was admitted with injuries in the District Hospital at Dantewada.

See Video which shows her groaning in pain in the hospital X-Ray room.

We have been informed that she has injuries on the head and on the back.

The police claim that ‘she slipped in the bathroom and has hurt her head’.

It is clear that the rights of the accused enshrined in the Constituoin and Delhi High Court orders of the 7th of October for protection and safety of Soni Sori all have been openly and blatantly violated by the Chhattisgarh police.

We pray that she be rescued from the hands of the Chhattisgarh polie, that Soni Sori be immediately examined by a doctor and provided medical help and that the report of her injuries is made public.

We also demand

- that she is immediately transferred to Delhi, and

- that the police personnel who tortured Soni Sori be immediately suspended and a high level enquiry ordered.

See also the Tehelka story Inconvenient Truth Of Soni Sori By Shoma Chaudhury

Game-changer in IT sector

2011-10-10T07:04:00.004+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

The significant presence of India’s software companies in the global market, particularly in the United States and Europe, has often tended to cloud the digital divide that the country faces. The digital divide poses a twin challenge to India. On the one hand, it has to catch up with the other emerging economies in web connectivity. On the other it has to cope with the wide gulf that separates sections within its own borders.

The International Telecommunications Union, in its report “Measuring the Information Society”, places India in the 116th place among 157 countries. China is in the 80th place. ITU puts the number of Internet users in India at 100 million, representing a penetration of 8.5 per cent. The corresponding figures for China are 485 million and 36.3 per cent.

The bulk of the Indian software industry’s earnings of $76 billion last year came from services provided to overseas clients. With the advanced nations badly hit by the global slowdown, the leading software companies could make only small additions to their clientele in the recent past.

However, the companies are expected to produce satisfactory results this year as they stand to gain from the fall of the rupee against the dollar. The rupee lost about nine per cent in the last three months. The companies’ hopes for the immediate future rest on inroads into new markets – China is among them – and acceptance of new technologies by clients.

Last week the Indian government took two new initiatives which, analysts believe, may turn out to be game-changers. The first of these was the unveiling of Aakash, a tablet computer to be supplied to secondary school students at a subsidised price of about $35. Currently the basic iPad tablet is priced at $499 and the Amazon Kindle Fire, which is to come into the market shortly, is expected to be priced at $199.

Aakash, developed by DataWind, a UK-based company owned by a Canadian of Indian descent, in co-operation with the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, runs on Google’s Android platform. It is preloaded with an Office Productivity suite and comes with a 2GB memory card on a slot that can support up to 32GB. It cannot download apps from Android Marketplace and the rated battery life is only three hours.

DataWind puts the basic cost of the device, assembled at Hyderabad, at $38. Its 800 components include US processors, Chinese memory and Korean touch-screens. The government has offered to buy 100,000 units initially at $50. The company plans to make available a new version with 3G access to the public at a price of about $60.

Notwithstanding Aakash’s limited capabilities, the government expects it to contribute significantly to the effort to bridge the digital divide. Its introduction is part of a wider plan to promote e-learning at 400 universities and more than 18,000 colleges across the country.

The second important initiative of the week was the release of the draft of a new information technology policy, which aims at boosting revenue from IT and IT enabled services from $88 billion to $300 billion and export earnings from $59 billion to $200 billion by 2020.

Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said the new policy, to be finalised in the light of responses received from concerned interests over the next month, would help India remain a global IT player on a long-term basis. It was expected to create a pool of 10 million additional skilled manpower in the IT and communication sectors.

With China and India split along hardware/software lines, tech-watchers have long been aware of the complementary nature of their IT sectors. However, the two countries are yet to make a serious effort to adjust their policies so as to benefit from each other’s strength.

Indian advance in IT was the result of the initiative of private software developers, especially those who foresaw the opportunity presented by fears engendered at the turn of the century by what was known as the Y2K problem.

Credit for the growth of China’s IT sector belongs entirely to former Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin, who, as Minister of Electronics in the early 1980s, identified it as ‘the strategic high ground in international competition’ and set the goal of making the country a global IT leader. Two years ago China, for the first time, published more research papers in IT than the US. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, October 10, 2011.

AHRC condemns intimidation of human rights defenders

2011-10-04T11:04:00.002+05:30

The Asian Human Rights Commission, Hing Kong, says in a statement:

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the intimidation by the state police/government of Ms Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) by undertaking a raid at her residence on Monday.

The PUCL is a social action group based in India. It is reported that at about 6.30 am (on 3 October) a large armed contingent of the Special Task Force, led by Superintendent of Police Mr Ranjendra Singh Shekhwat came to Kavita's house located in Jaipur, Rajasthan state, claiming that they had a search warrant obtained from the court authorizing the officers to conduct a search at Kavita's house. The officers reportedly claimed that they were looking for a dangerous Naxalite, allegedly harboured at Kavita's residence. The search reportedly revealed nothing and none were arrested. A search warrant, reportedly produced by the police merely mentions Kavita's name as the 'accused' and mentions her residential address.

Kavita was not present at the house at the time of the search. Kavita and her associates allege that the raid is an act of vengeance by the government against her since Kavita has been speaking up against the atrocities committed by the government against poor villagers in the name of combating Naxalite activities. It is further alleged that the house search, with show of force, is the direct consequence of the PUCL challenging the government concerning the controversial poverty line. Kavita is the Convener of the Steering Committee of the Right to Food Campaign and the PUCL is the petitioner in the Supreme Court case against the government on the question of right to food.

The police and the law enforcing agencies have every right to undertake the search of a house, provided they reasonably suspect that either a crime is committed or the preparations to commit a crime is made in the property, or persons or materials related to a crime is likely to be recovered from the property. This means that as such a search conducted in a house, irrespective of its ownership, does not constitute any breach of law. In this case, the search party reportedly had a 'search warrant' issued from a court. Sections 47, 93 and 94 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 cover these aspects. This line of legality in the process makes the raising of any objection about the incident legally non-tenable. However the fact that the police, in this case arriving in large numbers, at Kavita's house is indeed an intimidating factor, given the brute force the Indian police is notorious for. It is also reported that the police have allegedly misbehaved with the housemaids as well as with Kavita's 87-year-old father.

While more details, concerning the incident is yet to be obtained, it has to be assumed that the very reason for the search is to intimidate Kavita and her colleagues. It is only from the court records the grounds upon which the police have sought for and obtained a search warrant could be ascertained. Should the grounds mentioned in the petition appear false or concocted, it will not only reaffirm the perception that the search is an act of vendetta by the police/government, but will also expose the callousness with which the court issued such an order. It has to be borne in mind that Kaivta is a person known through out the country for her commendable work on human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country.

Arresting human rights defenders on false charges or otherwise interfering with force in their activities, like raiding their residences or offices on false pretences is a typical manner in which the country's police have responded to human rights activists or to the media, should their independent work annoy the government. It is a practice that has been used widely in states like Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, a factor that is reflected in the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders vide report A/HRC/16/44/Add.1. This is a reiteration of the report, of formerly, the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, in the report vide number E/CN.4/2006/95 and Add.5. Similar concerns were expressed by the Rapporteur on Torture during India's Universal Periodic Review on 10 April 2008 vide document number A/HRC/WG.6/1/IND/2. Kavita had met the Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights defenders during the Rapporteur's visit to India in January this year.

The AHRC condemns the act of the state government and views the incident as nothing but intimidating a human rights defender to deter her from work. The AHRC calls upon the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India to immediately take notice of the incident and undertake a suo motu investigation into the incident. The AHRC is of the opinion that it is in times like this when a human rights defender is threatened the NHRC must step forward and offer moral and physical support to the defender in threat.

The AHRC joins hands with the protest meeting organised by concerned individuals and organisations in India concerning the incident. The protest letter issued by the gathering is reproduced below.

RIGHT TO FOOD CAMPAIGN
October 3rd, 2011

Arbitrary Raid on Kavita Srivastava’s house:
Latest act of harassment of human rights workers

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the arbitrary raid this morning (3 October), in Jaipur, on the house of Kavita Srivastava, General Secretary of PUCL and convenor of the Right to Food Campaign’s steering group. This is yet another instance of harassment of human rights workers under the cover of fighting Naxalism. Kavita Srivastava is the convenor of the Steering Committee of the Right to Food Campaign and PUCL is the petitioner in the Supreme Court case on the Right to Food which has recently challenged the Government on the issue of the poverty line.

Around 6.30 am a large contingent of armed Special Task Force Police, led by Deputy SP Rajendra Singh Shekhwat, descended on Kavita’s house claiming to be looking for a “khatarnak Naxalite”. In Kavita’s absence, the police harassed her 82-year old father and two domestic helpers. The raid was apparently conducted at the behest of the Chhattisgarh police, with the help of a “warrant” that merely carried Kavita’s address and the word “abhiyukt” (accused).

Kavita Srivastava has been a tireless defender of human rights for many years and has already been harassed earlier for her fearless opposition to the criminal activities of the Chhattisgarh government (arbitrary detentions, encounter killings, false cases, and such) under the garb of fighting Naxalism.

This is a wholly reprehensible act of targeting of human rights activists as well as a totally unacceptable attack on civil liberties in general. We condemn it and demand an unconditional apology from the Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh police on this reprehensible action. We would like to remind the Government that such undemocratic and arbitrary actions will not silence human rights defenders and instead amplify their voices against injustice and state repression.

The Steering group of the Right to Food Campaign:

Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Rajasthan), Annie Raja (National Federation for Indian Women), Anuradha Talwar, Gautam Modi and Madhuri Krishnaswamy (New Trade Union Initiative), Arun Gupta and Radha Holla (Breast Feeding Promotion Network of India), Arundhati Dhuru and Ulka Mahajan (National Alliance of People’s Movements), Asha Mishra and Vinod Raina (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti), Ashok Bharti (National Conference of Dalit Organizations), Colin Gonsalves (Human Rights Law Network), G V Ramanjaneyulu (Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture), Binayak Sen (People’s Union for Civil Liberties), Lali Dhakar, Sarawasti Singh, Shilpa Dey and Radha Raghwal (National Forum for Single Women’s Rights), Mira Shiva and Vandana Prasad (Jan Swasthya Abhiyan), Paul Divakar and Asha Kotwal (National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights), Prahlad Ray and Anand Malakar (Rashtriya Viklang Manch), Subhash Bhatnagar (National Campaign Committee for Unorganized Sector workers), Anjali Bharadwaj (SNS), Jean Drèze and V.B Rawat (Former Support group to the Campaign), Harsh Mander, Ritu Priya (JNU), Dipa Sinha, Biraj Patnaik

Representatives of Right to Food (State campaigns):

Veena Shatrugna, M Kodandram and Rama Melkote (Andhra Pradesh), Saito Basumaatary and Sunil Kaul (Assam), Rupesh (Bihar), Gangabhai and Samir Garg (Chhattisgarh), Sejal Dand and Sumitra Thakkar (Gujarat), Abhay Kumar and Clifton (Karnataka), Balram, Gurjeet Singh and James Herenj (Jharkhand), Sachin Jain (Madhya Pradesh), Mukta Srivastava and Suresh Sawant (Maharashtra), Tarun Bharatiya (Meghalaya), Chingmak Chang (Nagaland) Bidyut Mohanty and Raj Kishore Mishra, Vidhya Das, Manas Ranjan (Orissa), Ashok Khandelwal, Bhanwar Singh and Vijay Lakshmi (Rajasthan), V Suresh (Tamil Nadu), Bindu Singh (Uttar Pradesh).

Ganging up against pro-poor law

2011-10-03T08:25:00.002+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

India Inc has started flexing its muscles in a bid to force the Central government to back away from its plan to make the poor people living in the mineral-rich backward areas of the country, most of them members of dispossessed tribal communities, stakeholders in the development process.

On Friday, the Cabinet approved a Bill which will require mining companies other than those in the coal sector to deposit 26 per cent of their net profits in a fund which will be used to help project-affected people in the tribal areas. Coal firms will pay what they already pay as royalty.

The Bill is expected to come before Parliament during the winter session. In all likelihood, it will be referred to a committee, and at that stage those concerned will have the opportunity to state their objections. But corporate India’s powerful instruments like the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries have already come out against it.

They term the proposed measure unviable and say it will make mining unattractive to domestic and foreign investors. They argue it will also create difficulties for existing mines.

The stock market echoed the corporate sector’s sentiments. The public sector Coal India Limited’s shares fell by 5.11 per cent, and private companies registered declines ranging from 1.09 per cent to 4.61 per cent.

Currently the mining sector is governed by a weak law enacted 54 years ago. The new law provides for the creation of a regulatory authority, charged with tackling illegal mining.

As many as 20,000 cases of illegal mining have been reported from the different states during the past few months. One of the worst-affected is Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Karnataka, where the Lokayukta (ombudsman) estimated that illegal mining had cost the state more than Rs160 billion. Following his indictment, the then chief minister and two of his cabinet colleagues, both of whom had risen in politics using illegal gains from mining business, had to bow out of office.

Much of the country’s mineral wealth lies in inhospitable terrain where hapless tribal communities ended up as they retreated from the plains under pressure from later waves of migrants. Mining and other developmental activities are now threatening to force them out from there too.

India’s tribal population, estimated at eight per cent of the total, is spread unevenly across the country. In Kerala, it constitutes only one per cent but in the Lakshadweep group of islands, off the Kerala coast, it forms the overwhelming majority.

Several northeastern states have more than 90 per cent tribal population. In the heartland states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand tribesmen constitute about one-third of the population.

The Centre has been earmarking funds for the welfare of the tribal population separately in the annual plans but middlemen often gobble up the money.

Social and economic backwardness render the tribesmen easy prey to forest encroachers and business interests.

The threat posed by mining to the environment and to the people assumed diabolic proportions as the governments issued a large number of licences to domestic and foreign companies in the wake of economic liberalisation. From Goa on the west coast to Meghalaya in the eastern hills, in almost all states where mining is going on tribesmen have been fighting corporate intruders.

In Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district, villagers are up against the South Korean giant POSCO which has a contract to build an integrated steel plant at a cost of $12 billion. Even children are participating in the struggle, leading to accusations that the POSCO Prathirodh Sangram Samiti, which spearheads the agitation, is using them as a shield against possible police action.

The PPSS says children have joined the agitation as they realise their future is at stake. An 11-year-old schoolboy asked a reporter, “If our parents lose their livelihood, who will protect us?”

The London-based Vedanta Resources is another big corporation that is facing the fury of Orissa’s tribesmen. The Church of England, which had a stake of 3.8 million pounds in the company, sold its shares apparently to distance itself from the company’s depredations in the tribal belt.

Tribes everywhere have been victims of ‘development’ in all history. The new law aims at making them beneficiaries of development. But business interests are determined not to make its passage easy. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, October 3, 2011.

Ayodhya: Partisan Historiography

2011-09-27T19:38:00.003+05:30

Dalit writer Vidyabhushan Rawat () has produced a documentary titled “Ayodhya or Saket: The Politics of Ram Temple”. Reproduced below is a review of the documentary by Ram Puniyani, an indefatigable campaigner against communalism.

By Ram Puniyani

Ayodhya, Ram temple, dispute has been one of the major turning points in the recent times. It has changed the political dynamics of our country. The claim of Hindutva forces that there was a Ram Temple there, which was demolished by Mughal Emperor Babar to build a mosque has been refuted by many a scholars and film makers. Many a valuable documentaries have also weighed the claims of RSS family about the Ram Temple being there at the Babri mosque and that it was the birthplace of Ram. This film on the topic not only demolishes the claims of Ram Temple and birthplace of Ram but also brings to our attention, in a serious way, the claims of Buddhists that the whole of Ayodhya was the cenre of Buddhists and that many Buddha places were destroyed by king Pushyamitra Sunga and others who undertook to wipe away Buddhism form India.

The claim of Buddhists has not been taken seriously while the whole debate so far has been revolving around the Temple-Mosque alternatives. This film through series of interviews and research in the archeological terrain shows that it was primarily Saket, as mentioned by the travelers like Fa Hian and Huan Tsang. Even now most of the places are presented as Hindu temples, while their Buddhist lineage is clear from their architecture and history.

In addition the film also delves into the whole Ram Temple movement as an attempt by Hindu right to usurp the rights of dalits and enhance the hegemony of upper caste. The relationship between the implementation of Mandal Commission and the consequent Rath Yatra to demolish masjid by Lal Krishna Advani, backed up by different components of Sangh Parivar clearly shows the agenda of RSS, in diverting the national attention from the fall out of Mandal Commission, the empowerment of dalit OBC, by creating the mass hysteria around the issue of faith, around identity based politics of Advani and Company. The plight of dalits, their poverty, deprivation and humiliation is well brought out in this documentary. In a way the film not only brings forth the Saket-Buddhist aspect of Ayodhya but also clearly establishes the communal nature of the campaign around Ram Temple. This campaign on one hand has undermined the Buddhist history of Ayodhya and on the other it undermines the human rights of dalits and OBCs.

In a more profound way the film establishes the symbolism of demolishing Babri Masjid, not just being anti-Muslim, but also anti-Dalit. The viewer cannot miss out on the deeper connection of the superficial symbolism of Babri demolition and the deeper political agenda of abolishing the rights of minorities and dalits. The film maker could have also linked this up with choosing the 6th December, the day of Mahaparinirvan of Ambedkar, as the day for demolition. RSS which calls for Hindu Rashtra will not only be state where religious minorities will have second class status, but it will also subjugate the dalits (and women) to secondary place in the society.

The film is well made and is a must for all those struggling for rights of dalits and minorities.

People’s power vs Nuclear power

2011-09-26T08:50:00.002+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Few in India had heard of Idinthakarai in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu until it hit the headlines a few days ago with about 20,000 people staging a peaceful protest there against the nuclear plant at nearby Koodankulam, which is awaiting commissioning.

At Idinthakarai (the name means broken bank or shore), people’s power was pitted not only against state power, as in Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement which had shaken the government earlier, but also against nuclear power..

The Koodankulam project grew out of an agreement Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had signed with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988. The Soviet Union’s collapse and US opposition stalled work on it until 2001 when the Indian and Russian governments signed a fresh agreement to set up a nuclear power complex with a total capacity of 9,200MW at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.

When plans to commission the first two units of the plant in December became known, there was a groundswell of protest, spearheaded by the People’s Movement against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), an umbrella organisation comprising village panchayats, churches, religious bodies, NGOs, academics and activists. As many as 127 villagers joined an indefinite fast that began on Sept.11.

The mass upsurge took the authorities by surprise. They had not realised that after the Fukushima disaster in Japan the people were quite receptive to activists’ arguments about the threat posed by nuclear projects.

Initially the state sought to contain the movement by resorting to preventive arrests. It pulled back when it found there were too many determined protesters. Since elected representatives of the region supported the protesters the government reworked its strategy. Chief Minister J Jayalalitha asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to allay the people’s fears before proceeding further.

Manmohan Singh sent a minister, V Narayanasamy, to talk to the protesters but they refused to hear him. Jayalalitha saved the situation by persuading the PMANE to suspend the agitation for three months to give the Centre time to address the people’s concerns.

Like Hazare’s agitation, the PMANE campaign was non-violent and ended without a final resolution of the basic issues. The settlement terms gave the authorities time to consider the issues, and the protesters were free to resume the agitation if their expectations were not fulfilled.

The Hazare movement has been discussed widely during the past month. While supporters have projected its outcome as a triumph of people’s power, critics have attributed its apparent success to the build-up of favourable middle class opinion by the national media, particularly the television channels.

There has been no detailed analysis of the Idinthakarai agitation which breached the banks of the channels through which power flows. The experience of the Hazare campaign appears to have influenced the approach of the authorities and the media to this agitation.

According to a study, the national television channels devoted 91.1% of prime time to Hazare while he was on fast. On some days they did not take up any other topic during prime time. Critics, however, contrasted their obsessive coverage of Hazare with their blackout of Irom Sharmila, who has been fasting for more than 10 years and is kept alive through forced feeding in a Manipur hospital. The channels sent camera teams to Idinthakarai within days of the start of the agitation and provided moderate coverage of developments there.

When Hazare was on fast, his team had resorted to full-scale mobilisation using all available resources. If he is forced to resume the agitation, he cannot hope to do better than last time. The PMANE, on the other hand, has the potential to mount a bigger campaign since its mobilisation this time was limited to the three southernmost districts of Tamil Nadu.

Having sunk billions of rupees in the Koodankulam project, the Indian government finds it difficult to accept the demand that it be scrapped. It seems to be working on a strategy to keep alive the nuclear programme, which envisages raising production from 5,000MW to 20,000MW by 2020, by offering to work for total elimination of nuclear power within 50 years.

At current costs, generation of additional 15,000MW of nuclear power will involve an investment of no less than Rs3,000 billion. It makes no sense to make an investment of that order on plants that are to be abandoned after three decades. It will be prudent to divert the money for development of alternative energy sources straightaway. -- Gulf Today, September 26, 2011.

Peaceful agitation against Koodankulam nuclear plant

2011-09-19T20:44:00.006+05:30

Mass fast in protest against Koodankulam nuclear plant

A view of protesters gathered at the venue of the agitation

A peaceful agitation is going on at a village near Koodankulam where a nuclear power project is being builr. Several persons have been on fast for nine days.

When the Government of India drew up an ambitious nuclear power project Kerala’s politicians were inclined to agree to the setting up of a plant in the state. Environmental groups in the state vigorously opposed the proposal and the Government of India had the good sense not to pursue the idea. However, the two sites in the South that it chose for locating nuclear stations are both close to Kerala – Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu and Kaiga in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.

The main argument advanced against the setting up of a nuclear project in Kerala was that an atomic plant should not be located in a heavily populated state. As it happens the Koodankulam and Kaiga plants are so close to Kerala’s border that in the event of an accident this state may suffer heavily.

India is the only country which has refused to reassess its nuclear power programme in the light of the Fukushima disaster.

Reproduced below is a report received from K. Sahadevan, an anti-nuclear campaigner who is at the venue of the agitation:

The hunger-strike at Idinthakarai, near Koodankulam, has entered the nith day but the state and central governments have turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the demands of the people. The condition of many of the hunger-strikers has deteriorate to an alarming level.

More than 15,000 people have been gathering every day for the past 8 days from 30 odd villages and towns around Koodankulam from three districts, viz. Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli. The protest has spread to many parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala with southern Tamil Nadu turning out to be the epicenter of protests. For the eighth day in succession, fishermen, farmers, manual laborers and merchants of the area did not go to work while students have boycotted educational institutions. Shops remain closed in many places around Idinthakarai.

The men and women who gather everyday to participate in the protest also fast throughout the day. People of Hindu, Muslim and Christian faiths and of all major caste groups are involved in the hunger-strike and the relay fast by tens of thousands of people. Leaders of most of the major political parties have come and expressed their support to the protest and a few of them have also announced specific protest programmes.

The authorities have foisted false cases on 500 odd people and a few have been put in jail. A huge police battalion has been posted near Idinthakarai and neighboring villages. Road blocks have been created and public transport has been suspended by authorities who are preventing people from coming to the protest venue.

With the swiftly deteriorating health condition of the fasters and lack of any serious or official initiative on the part of the governments to talk, some people are losing their patience. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer has issued a call to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to intervene immediately and has also asked the movement to continue the protesters without putting the lives of the people in danger or resorting to violence. Medha Patkar is joining the protest today. The protest needs intervention from eminent and respected personalities like you and solidarity and support from groups across the country to force the governments to act and save the lives of fasters and to maintain a peaceful atmosphere.

On a fast track to power

2011-09-19T07:48:00.002+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Parliamentary elections are not due in India until May 2014 but the race for the prime minister’s post is already on. Two prime ministerial aspirants belonging to the opposition — Bharatiya Janata Party, former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi — have started running, presumably envisaging the possibility of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, battered by corruption charges, collapsing before its five-year term ends.

It is widely believed that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s son, Rahul, who is a Member of Parliament and general secretary of the Congress, will be that party’s prime ministerial candidate. Given the Nehru-Gandhi family’s sway over the party, he is unlikely to encounter any opposition from within.

The BJP had headed the National Democratic Alliance government that ruled for six years. It sought a fresh mandate for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in 2004 with the slogan “India Shining” but was turned down. After Vajpayee stepped down, the party made another bid for power in 2009 projecting Advani as its prime ministerial candidate. It was again turned down.

Lately the party has been preparing for life beyond Advani, who will be 84 in November. It picked Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, both in their late 50s, to lead the party in the two houses of Parliament and the Hindu rightwing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the fountainhead of its political ideology, pitchforked Nitin Gadkari, 54, into the party president’s chair.

A few days ago Advani announced he would go on a Rath Yatra (chariot ride) shortly to highlight the issue of corruption. Political observers viewed it as an indication that age has not withered his prime ministerial ambition.

Narendra Modi began a three-day fast “to promote communal harmony, peace and unity”on Saturday, his 61st birthday. Critics saw it as an attempt to live down the ignominy of having presided over the communal riots of 2002 and improve his image in preparation for a bid for the prime minister’s post.

Two senior police officers of Gujarat had stated that when riots broke out following the burning of a rail coach carrying RSS volunteers at Godhra station, which resulted in 59 deaths, Modi had asked the force to give Hindus time to vent their anger against Muslims. A special investigation team set up by the Supreme Court to look into the riot cases reportedly found no evidence to prosecute him but a court-appointed lawyer differed with it.

Last week the apex court left it to the trial court to examine the report and decide whether or not to register a case against Modi. He and the rest of the BJP leadership claimed this amounted to rejection of the allegations against him.

Both Advani and Modi are close to the RSS and if called upon to choose between them it may pick the younger one for the prime minister’s post. Advani was present when Modi began his fast and, in a speech that was high on rhetoric and low on fact, said, “All NDA ruled states are examples of good governance and Gujarat was showing the results of being a corruption-free state.”

Modi’s quest for a fast track to New Delhi comes in the wake of reports that US analysts believe there has been a precipitous decline in the Congress party’s fortunes following corruption scandals and the BJP may come to power with Modi as the prime minister.

In 2009, the Congress had emerged as the largest party in the 543-member Lok Sabha winning 206 seats with 28.55% of the votes polled. The BJP secured 116 seats with 18.80% of the votes. It is reasonable to assume that the Congress party’s fortunes have declined since then but there is nothing to indicate that the BJP’s support base has grown.

If the next election is fought on the issue of corruption, the BJP will be at as much disadvantage as the Congress. Modi had fought shy of appointing a Lokayukta to deal with corruption charges. Last month (Gujarat) Governor Kamla Beniwal made an appointment without waiting for advice from the Cabinet. Recently the party’s national leadership had replaced its Chief Ministers in Karnataka and Uttarakhand who faced serious allegations.

The lesson that the emergence of a civil society group headed by Anna Hazare as the central government’s chief adversary holds is that the people are disillusioned with the ruling dispensation as well as the opposition. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 19, 2011

Demoralized police force is a security threat, says AHRC

2011-09-16T20:08:00.000+05:30

The recent bomb blast near the Delhi High Court has once again revived the debate regarding crime control and law and order in India. Acts of violence in all forms must be condemned. In that, the very reason why the ordinary people in India refuse to cooperate with their local police is due to the same nature of violence that has become synonymous with policing in India. Without drastic changes brought in, to 'humanize' the police, as required to meet the policing standards of a modern democracy, the security scenario in India would remain the same and probably go from bad to worse. The police without the cooperation of the local population could maintain neither law nor order.

It is indeed just not that the local police resort to violence always at their own volition. The police officers in India lack everything they require to discharge duty, according to the standards expected from a state agency working in a democratic framework. From recruitment to retirement the police in the country are expected to discharge duties for which they are thoroughly ill equipped. It is a sad daily reality that every average Indian might have witnessed on the country's streets had they observed the working conditions of a police officer.

In most cases the officers are expected to discharge a job that no one in the world could ever do. For instance, what could a police officer responsible for traffic control do if the roads are filled with persons driving vehicles who obtained their licences by merely paying bribes?; what could a traffic police officer do if the junction at which the officer is posted has no traffic lights and the road conditions are terrible due to corruption in road construction?; how can a police officer investigate a crime other than by torturing a suspect and obtaining a confession when the officer is not trained in scientific crime investigation?; what else could a police officer do other than demanding and accepting bribes when the officer is not provided a house in the city where the officer is posted and forced to rent a house that would almost cost half of the officer's salary?; how can police stations function when the telephones and vehicles at the station do not work?; what morality will such a force have when they are expected to protect political masters who enjoy fruits of corruption?

If anyone of the above conditions is true - in fact all of them are - every Indian police officer has a right to remain demoralized and be what she/he is today. Expecting them to be the guardians of the life and security of the people is the worst that an administration could demand and a population to expect.

When was the last time the working conditions - including recruitment, training and deployment - of the police officers in the country was made the subject of a serious debate in the country's legislative houses? Since independence, the country's government, state or central, have not spent enough time to improve the state of policing in India.

Police is probably one of the most important state agencies of the country that still do not have a sensible national policy for improvement. Indeed, policing is a state subject in India. This means it would require considerable effort by the Union Government to encourage the state governments to have a look at their police force to find means to realign it to fit the requirements of a democracy.

Of equal importance is the role of the Indian civil society, including the country's media, to keep a focus upon the conditions of the police and to hear their concerns. In that there is no sense for the civil society to push the government to ratify the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which the government for understandable reasons is delaying to undertake. The ratification of CAT without having a comprehensive national policing policy to improve the state of policing makes no sense. In fact in the neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, which have all ratified the CAT without a sensible policy to improve the state of policing in these jurisdictions are examples from which both the government, and the civil society in India can draw learning.

India today is facing serious threats to its internal security. A considerable proportion of it stems out from threats posed by armed militant, secessionist or terrorist groups. What these groups have is an ideology, destructive it may be, which probably draws unconditional cooperation from their cadres operating within and outside the country. Pitched in a battle with such a force are the unfortunate and thoroughly demoralised police in the country, which receives support neither from the government nor from the public. Expecting this force to meet the threat and to become the guarantee for the life and security of the people is like forcing the dragonfly to lift boulders.

Living with terror

2011-09-12T06:54:00.005+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

A global survey of terrorist threat in 2003, two years after the demolition of New York’s World Trade Center, placed India in the ninth position. Ahead of it were Colombia, Israel, Pakistan, the United States, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Iraq, in that order.

A recent study puts India at the very top, along with nine other countries, including Afghanistan and Indonesia. Pakistan, with 13 others, is one rung below. The United States is in the third rung, with a dozen others.

India’s current high rank is the result of a series of terrorist strikes that have taken a heavy toll, mainly in New Delhi and Mumbai. The most daring of them was the 2008 assault on selected targets in Mumbai by a sea-borne gang from Pakistan, which left 172 dead.

Actually India has been living with terror for long. Low-intensity terror has been part of the war disaffected tribesmen in the northeast have been waging against central authority since the colonial period. Left extremists working among tribesmen in several states, too, have been employing terror. Both these groups generally target security personnel.

High-intensity terrorism directed against civilians is a comparatively new phenomenon. More than 250 persons were killed in serial blasts in Mumbai on March 12, 1993. It was an act of reprisal for the demolition of the disputed 450-year-old Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh by Vishwa Hindu Parishad volunteers in the presence of top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party three months earlier. Over 200 persons died in another serial blast in that city five years ago.

Last week’s explosion near the Delhi high court, which resulted in 12 deaths, has set off a debate on the nature of the terror threat and the inability of the official machinery to deal with it effectively.

As sensation-mongering news channels built up the blast into a strike of WTC proportions, the government, embarrassed by a row of failures, went into defensive mode and the BJP, hoping to cash in on the ruling coalition’s discomfiture, launched an offensive.

The public’s disillusionment manifested itself in the heckling of Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and media persons by grieving relatives of blast victims outside a hospital.

Critics often contrast the peace that has prevailed in the US after it set up a new inland security set-up following the WTC attack with the continuing terrorist strikes in India.

The BJP attributes the failure of the official machinery to the Congress-led government’s softness, dictated by electoral considerations.

It argues the government made a grave mistake in abandoning the tough Terrorism and Destructive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) and Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA).

The argument is fallacious. The scourge of terrorism was there even when these two measures, dubbed “lawless laws” because of their total disregard for human rights, were in force.

Congressmen lose no opportunity to point out that the BJP was heading the government when Pakistan-based terrorists hijacked an Indian passenger aircraft in 1999 to force the release of their colleagues who were in jail.

A senior BJP minister had escorted the freed terrorists to Kandahar in Afghanistan to ensure the safe return of the passengers.

India operates in circumstances vastly different from those of the US. It has to contend with a neighbourhood that is unstable and harbours hostile elements. Terrorists targeting the country from outside can hope to muster some support from disaffected sections within.

The upsurge of communal sentiments complicates the situation. Some terrorist activities which were first attributed to Muslim groups were later found to be the work of a Hindu gang.

The public generally view Hindu extremism and Muslim extremism as sworn enemies but the fact is that each helps the other to grow.

The authorities are clueless about the perpetrators of several attacks. Clearly they face two major handicaps: absence of actionable intelligence required to prevent attacks and lack of reliable information needed to track down the culprits and bring them to book The remedy lies in strengthening people’s co-operation.

There has been speculation that the latest attack was the work of elements seeking the release of Afzal Guru, who is awaiting execution in connection with the 2001 attack on the Parliament House. His early execution will no doubt please the BJP which has been demanding it.

Ironically, it may not displease Muslim fundamentalists altogether since they will have gained a martyr. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 12, 2011

Afzal Guru condemns Delhi High Court blast

2011-09-11T22:47:00.002+05:30

Afzal Guru, convicted and sentenced to death in the Parliament House attack case, has condemned the bomb blast at the Delhi High Court and deplored attempts to drag his name into the matter.

The following is the text of the statement:

Date. 8.9.2011

From Tihar jail No.3

It is a serious matter of concern that some criminal elements and anti-social persons committed that heinous and barbarous crime of bomb blast in Delhi High Court. It is a cowardly act and must be condemned by all. No religion permits killing of innocent persons.

I am disturbed that my name has been unnecessarily dragged in this connection. Some agencies/groups are playing dirty game by falsely involving my name. This is not for the first time that my name has been dragged by some mischievous persons /groups for such
heinous crimes. It has become a routine that whenever such blasts take place my
name is sought to be dragged in in order to de-characterize and malign me to cultivate public opinion against me.
I am sending this statement through Shri N.D.Pancholi, my advocate, and request the
press to publish this statement.

Sd/- Afzal Guru
s/o Habibullah
W. No. 8 (H.S.W.)
Jail No.3. Tihar.

Statement by Afzal Guru’s lawyer

The following is a communication from Mr Pancholi, forwarding Afzal Guru’s statement:

In my capacity of Mohammad Afzal Guru’s lawyer and as a member of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties, I am enclosing the statement of Afzal Guru.

There is no doubt that the attack on the Parliament was to be condemned as totally unjustifiable on several basic grounds. But there were several questions about the way the entire investigation into the crime was carried out and how the accused were sought to be demonized via the electronic media even before the trial was started.

And once again within hours of the horrific bomb blast outside the Delhi High Court on 7th September,2011 in which so many lives were blown up, the name of Afzal Guru has been dragged in. The media, quoting an e mail whose veracity has not even been established, are broadcasting on prime time that the blast was motivated by a group supporting Afzal Guru.

The corporate media is not accountable to anyone, and there is no effective authority to monitor the functioning of the 24 hour TV channels and protect victims of violations of basic journalistic ethics. All the discussions on the talk shows are heavily loaded against anyone trying to put forward any view that the anchor does not support. Though electronic media talk loudly against corruption, yet it does not realize its own corruption of having power without any responsibility.

The media portrays anyone talking on behalf of Afzal Guru as anti-Indian as if
patriotism is the monopoly of the national security experts, anchors of the corporate media and the Hindu Right alone.

Our Save Afzal Guru Campaign brought into focus the following aspects of Indian democracy:

1. The corruption of the investigating agencies and the lack of professionalism in their work was exposed. The Investigating Officer in the Parliament attack case was many times decorated but later he was shot dead because of his involvement in shady real estate dealings involving crores of rupees. By hanging Afzal we will take away attention
from the corruption of the policemen of the Special cell.

2. The fact that the judiciary was more influenced by the media campaign rather than
constitutional and legal principles with the result that the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence only to “satisfy the national conscience of the country”. This is not a legal ground for sentencing anyone to death. By hanging Afzal it would mean Indian citizens can be hanged to satisfy Indian right-wing and corporate interests.

3. The chargesheet in the Parliament attack case accused three Pakistanies i.e. Maulana Masood Azhar, Ghazi Baba and Tariq Ahmed as masterminds of the attack. The said masterminds were not caught. Those who were involved in the actual killing were
dead. And so even if Afzal was a part of the conspiracy he could not be given a death sentence because he neither masterminded the attack nor participated in it. By hanging Afzal the responsibility of finding the real culprits and dealing with real causes of
terrorism would be put aside.

4. The human rights campaigners proved that two persons arrested were innocent. This included a pregnant Sikh woman who gave birth to her baby in the jail. Her life has been completely wrecked. We never saw her on the TV channels and the terrible tragedy of her life. It showed how dispensable some citizens are.

5. The people of Kashmir saw that there were people in Delhi and other parts of the country who genuinely showed solidarity with them and campaigned for justice in the
case. Hanging Afzal will breach such delicate bridges built between the people of Kashmir and the people in rest of India. .

6. Afzal Guru was never given a fair trial and he was not represented by any lawyer of his choice because lawyers were not willing to take up his case. Even the most important witnesses were not crossexamined. By hanging Afzal we will undermine the right to fair trial which is guaranteed to every person under the Indian Constitution.

The whole experience of the Parliament attack case exposed the weakness of our democratic institutions but it also showed that if a small group of committed activists and lawyers choose to fight for democratic space it was possible. If Afzal Guru is hanged that space would be jeopardized. The Hindu right-wing can celebrate with fireworks; the corporate media may get something dramatic to report on for a few days but Indian democracy would suffer a body blow. That is why Afzal Guru must not be hanged.

I enclose his statement for publication as requested by him so that people may hear the voice of a man who has been wronged.

Asian Alliance Against Torture and Ill-treatment

2011-09-10T09:30:00.001+05:30

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Hong Kong, and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT), Denmark have together launched a forum named the Asian Alliance Against Torture and Ill-Treatment (AAATI).

The decision to form AAATI was taken in August at a a five-day regional conclave in Hong Kong which was attended by 26 human rights defenders and organizations.
AAATI is a unique regional initiative. It is in fact the first group of its kind in Asia.

Torture in Asia is a problem of the poor. This is not to say that people from affluent classes do not also get tortured. Indeed, there are many of such social backgrounds subjected to torture in almost every country. However, it is still valid to say that torture is a poor person’s problem, because it is the poor that are subjected to torture on such a large scale in almost every less developed country. The reason is that torture and ill-treatment are forms of social control of the poor. Torture and ill-treatment are among the basic strategies used to prevent the poor from coming into common association to fight against the forces that keep them poor. This may be a reason as to why often the more affluent social classes in less developed countries show little interest in dealing with the problem of torture and ill-treatment in their societies.

Here is a video report on the launch of AAATI, filmed and edited by Sofie Rordam

AHRC condemns Delhi blast

2011-09-07T13:44:00.001+05:30

The Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, says in a press statement:

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the irresponsible and criminal act of exploding a bomb near gate number five of the Delhi High Court. It is reported that the explosion occurred around 10.30 today morning. At least nine persons are feared to have lost their lives and an estimated 24 persons injured at the time of releasing this statement. The injured has been reportedly taken to nearby hospitals for medical treatment.

Given that the explosion has occurred near one of the crowded entrances of the High Court compound, it has to be assumed that the criminal intent of the entities behind the explosion is to strike fear at the heart of the country's justice institutions and to prevent the people from accessing it. That the incident has happened within the national capital, that too just outside the High Court, must not be reason for ill-founded and freewheeling speculations. The media reporting live from the scene of crime should express adequate caution, not to make speculative and emotion-driven assumptions and should operate professionally, respecting also the privacy of the unfortunate individuals injured in the incident.

In challenging times like this it would take extra efforts by the country's leadership and the administration to function in unison to fight the evil that has befallen upon this great nation. The AHRC is confident that the country's leadership and its administration are capable of working with the professionalism fitting a democracy. The AHRC is certain that the country's leadership and the political parties would ensure that the minorities in India would not be made to face antagonistic emotional outpours and misplaced nationalistic sentiments that may stem out of this event.

The AHRC wishes to express its deep condemnation against this cowardly and gruesome act and those who are responsible for it. The AHRC hope that the country will recover from the shock and joins the bereaved families who have lost their relatives today in the explosion. The AHRC wishes all those who are injured a fast recovery and calls upon Indians to cooperate with their government in the investigation of the case.

Ray of hope in death row

2011-09-05T06:29:00.004+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

With the rejection of some mercy petitions lying undecided in the Presidential mansion for years, India faces the prospect of a season of executions. This has led to renewed debate on the merits of capital punishment.

According to Amnesty International, which has been campaigning globally against capital punishment, 96 countries have either scrapped it or stopped resorting to it. Last year executions were reported only from 23 of the 58 countries which are holding on to capital punishment.

Among the countries which are keen to retain the death penalty are the United States, China, India and Pakistan. About 300 persons in India, 3,220 in the United States and more than 7,000 in Pakistan were reported to be under death sentence in 2009. According to Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney, 60 to 65 per cent of the death row prisoners in that country are innocent or victims of a faulty justice system.

The President of India has the power to grant a convict clemency, which can take the form of commutation of sentence or even pardon, after the judicial process is exhausted. The Supreme Court has held that the exercise of this power does not involve modification or supersession of the judicial verdict.

Under the established procedure, the convict or his relatives can file a mercy petition before the President. It is sent to the Home Ministry which conveys to the President the advice of the Council of Ministers.

Mercy petitions began piling up as the government took its own time to tender advice to the President or the President did not issue orders based on the Cabinet’s advice.

President KR Narayanan (1997-20020) did not clear any mercy petition. President APJ Abdul Kalam (2002-07) decided just two. He rejected the petition of Dhananjoy Chatterjee of Kolkata, who was convicted of raping and murdering a school girl, and commuted the death sentence on Kheraj Ram, a Rajasthani villager, who had killed his wife, two children and brother-in-law, to life term.

Pratibha Patil, who began her term as president with a backlog of mercy petitions, had to take up the pending cases as the Supreme Court, in a judgment in 2009, said the condemned prisoner and his suffering relatives had a right to demand early decision on their pleas. If a decision was not taken within a reasonable period, the death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment, it added.

In July Devinderpal Singh Bhullat, who was convicted in a case of terrorism in Punjab filed a petition in the Supreme Court complaining there had been inordinate delay in the disposal of his mercy petition. Within days, the government advised the President to reject it.

At that time the president also had before her the Cabinet’s advice to reject the petitions of Afzal Guru, who was convicted in connection with the terrorist attack on the Parliament House in 2001 and of Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan, who were convicted in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 on the orders of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran.

Last week the Madras High Court took up for consideration petitions filed by the Rajiv Gandhi case convicts asking that they be spared the gallows as they had spent many years under the shadow of death. This offers a slender ray of hope for 18 men who have already spent many years in prison waiting for the government and the President to take a decision on their fate.

Sectarian factors often cloud dispassionate consideration of the issue of death penalty.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has criticised the Central government repeatedly for not hanging Afzal Guru. It has not evinced the same interest in the cases of others in the death row, some of whom got there earlier than him.

Human rights organisations sought to raise the death penalty issue when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was facing the gallows. Middle class groups in West Bengal, including affiliates of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, argued that a rapist deserved no mercy.

The Akali Dal-led government in Punjab has appealed for mercy for Bhullar. After the High Court admitted the petitions of the Rajiv Gandhi case convicts, the Tamil Nadu Assembly, taking note of the sympathy in the state for the Sri Lankan Tamils, passed a resolution seeking mercy for the LTTE men.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah raised the BJP’s hackles by tweeting what would be the response if the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly similarly sought mercy for Afzal Guru. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 5, 2011.

News channels' prime time coverage of Anna Hazare's fast: study report

2011-08-30T19:02:00.004+05:30

Reproduced below is a report from CMS Media Lab on how much prime time selected English and Hindi news channels devoted to coverage of Anna Hazare’s Fast and how much rime was devoted to commercials:

Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption received blanket coverage on the prime time of television news channels, according to a study of CMS Media Lab.

To understand the coverage of Anna’s movement on television news channels, CMS Media Lab tracked and analyzed the prime time content (7PM to 11PM) of leading two Hindi (Star News & Aaj Tak) and two English (NDTV24x7 & CNN IBN) news channels from 16th to 28th August 2011.

News channels had a combined coverage of 8047 minutes (91.1%) of prime time news coverage on Anna Hazare’s movement. Hindi news channels devoted 10% more news time to Anna’s movement compared to English news channels. Hindi news channels devoted 97% of news time whereas English news channels devoted 87% of their prime time news space. During these 13 days, on nine days in the case of Hindi channels and four days in the case of English channels, other news was completely blacked out.

Interestingly, Television news channels covered Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008 with least advertisements. However, in Anna’s movement television news channels not only spiked in viewership but also a good share of commercial time during prime time. Approximately news channels devoted 27% of their prime time on advertisements. 23 to 31% of prime time of news channels – around a quarter in the case of English channels and one-third in the case of Hindi channels- were allotted for commercials.

On four days (24th to 27th) NDTV 24x7 fully filled up their prime time news time with Anna’s movement. CNN IBN also had four days (16th, 24th, 25th, and 27th) of 100% coverage on Anna. Star News and Aaj Tak blacked out all news other than “Anna’s revolution” for nine days.

Among news channels Star News devoted 97.8% of its news time followed by Aaj Tak with 94.6%. NDTV 24x7 and CNN IBN devoted 88.7 and 84.5% of news time respectively on Anna’s protest.

Note: CMS Media Lab analyses the content and market trends of news media

For more information contact
Abison Paul
CMS Media Lab
RESEARCH HOUSE
Saket Community Centre, New Delhi 110 017
M: 09911768356;
Email: abison@cmsindia.org

Source: CMS Media Lab

Rights bodies’ response to SHRC report on unmarked graves of Kashmir

2011-08-29T18:58:00.002+05:30

The following is a joint statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission, International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-Administered Kashmir and The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons:

We welcome the report of the State Human Rights Commission of Jammu and Kashmir (SHRC) on unmarked graves in the north of the Indian-administered Kashmir (dated July 2011 and recently released), taking suo moto cognizance of the matter, and appreciate the courage and labour that this work signifies.

SHRC's report acknowledges and corroborates the research documented in the report, BURIED EVIDENCE, released by the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice (IPTK) in December 2009.

SHRC investigated unmarked graves in Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara, and Handwara districts across 38 graveyards and verified 2156 unidentified bodies in unidentified graves.

Based on investigative research conducted between November 2006-November 2009, BURIED EVIDENCE had documented 2,700 unknown, unmarked, and mass graves, containing 2943+ bodies, across 55 villages (in 62 sites within these villages) in Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara districts of Kashmir. Of these, 2373 were unidentified and unnamed graves. See www.kashmirprocess.org/reports/graves/toc.html

To respond to the egregious violations of the past and secure justice requires that we acknowledge atrocities that have been committed and address their effects. In the matter of unknown, unmarked, and unidentified graves in Kashmir, we call for a three-tier process: Investigation, Prosecution, and Reparation.

Investigation and Prosecution: We request that SHRC extend its investigation to include each site documented by IPTK in north Kashmir, and beyond, to all twenty districts in Jammu and Kashmir. In particular, we ask that investigations take place in Anantnag, Budgam, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, and Srinagar districts in Kashmir province and in Doda, Poonch, Rajouri, and Reasi districts in Jammu province.

We ask that DNA-based profiles of those buried in the unmarked and unidentified graves be cross-tabulated with those that have been involuntarily disappeared in Kashmir. Further, in addition to the identification of the dead, we ask that comprehensive forensic examinations be conducted to determine the circumstances of death, including incidences of torture.

The Kashmir Police have stated that they have records of 464 unidentified graves. However, it appears that, even in these cases, the Kashmir Police have not maintained photographic, DNA, and other evidence. All unidentified graves that have been listed as holding the bodies of "foreign militants" must be investigated. The police have filed First Information Reports stating these persons as dead from encounter killings. However, these bodies have not been identified based on records or other verifiable evidence. Neither has conclusive evidence been offered to prove that the bodies are of Kashmir's disappeared.

SHRC has stated that 574 bodies have been identified as locals following their burial. However, the Kashmir Police and Indian Armed Forces had previously claimed these 574 bodies as those of "foreign militants." This indicts the government's negligence in identifying unclaimed bodies. Based on the above, the SHRC report evidences that there is every possibility that the 2156 unmarked graves hold the bodies of persons that were involuntarily disappeared. The cases of the 574 bodies also intimate that numerous persons have been killed in fake encounters and secretly buried in unmarked graves to conceal their identity. IPTK's 2009 report too had documented a list of 49 bodies, all designated by the state as "foreign militants," 47 of whom, on investigation, proved to have been killed in fake encounters, and none were identified as foreign insurgents.

If, in the course of future investigations, it is proven that disappeared persons were killed in fake encounters and buried in unmarked graves, exemplary punishments should be pronounced against those accused to deter future and repeated crimes of the same nature. In instances where non-local persons are killed in alleged "encounter" killings, relevant international human rights and humanitarian law must be applied in matters of redress.

SHRC has relied on statements from persons who, fearful of reprisal, wish for their testimonies to be placed on record anonymously. Given the nature of the issue, and the heightened risks involved in offering testimony, utmost care and caution should be exercised in securing witness protection, following international protocols and standards.

We ask that the matter of unknown, unmarked, and mass graves be subjected to a rigorous, independent, and impartial investigation. We ask that the story of these graves be investigated in their entirety: What are the particular legal and institutional histories of the graveyards? How did they come into existence? Per whose order? Did District Magistrates requisition the construction of graveyards, burials, and record keeping? Such historiography would permit holding actionable particular officers and offices that acted in violation of the law, with arrogance and indifference, and failed to follow the law in burying unidentified bodies. This would disaggregate the amorphous state and enable holding accountable particular institutions of state.

Reparation: The issue of unknown and unmarked graves involves the living as much as the dead. Reparation must both be individualized and collectivized, so that communities, neighbourhoods, and villages can heal and break their isolation. SHRC's either/or proposal of offering a relief of Rupees 700,000 to the next of kin or undertaking DNA testing-based investigation should be amended, and both the investigation and provision of relief be made mandatory. Monetary compensation to the next of kin should not be calculated as ex gratia relief, but should be particularized according to the individual circumstances of death, and the affect the death has had on the family, and relief should be calculated based on the complex task of quantifying loss of life and providing psychosocial and economic rehabilitation to family members.

We ask that all special laws and provisions of immunity that authorize the military and paramilitary forces to act with impunity in Kashmir be revoked unconditionally. We ask that the Government of India ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, to which it has been a signatory since February 2007, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which it has been a signatory since October 1997. We ask that the Government of Jammu and Kashmir institute a comprehensive ban on practises of torture as defined by international law and humanitarian ethics.

In Kashmir, between 1989-2011, the actions of the military and paramilitary have resulted in over 8,000 enforced disappearances and 70,000 deaths. We ask that human rights violations in Kashmir be recognized as resulting from, and concomitant to, the impunity of militarization and state violence, and the dangers militarism imposes on civil society. We caution that, without addressing these structural and prevalent conditions, justice and peace will remain elusive.

In calling for conflict resolution in South Asia's nuclear zone, we recognize the precarious cross-border conditions between India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and condemn the violent actions of misogynist state and non-state groups operating in the region.

The above statement is co-authored by (1) Dr. Angana Chatterji, Convener IPTK and Professor, Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies; (2) Advocate Parvez Imroz, Convener IPTK and Founder, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society; (3) Gautam Navlakha, Convener IPTK and Editorial Consultant, Economic and Political Weekly; (4) Zahir-Ud-Din, Convener IPTK and Vice-President, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society; (5) Advocate Mihir Desai, Legal Counsel IPTK and Lawyer, Mumbai High Court and Supreme Court of India; (6) Khurram Parvez, Liaison IPTK and Programme Coordinator, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and (7) he Executive Council, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons

Queries may be directed to:
Khurram Parvez
E-mail: kparvez@kashmirprocess.org
Phone: +91.194.2482820
Mobile: +91.9419013553

Scoring a half-victory

2011-08-29T08:13:00.002+05:30

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

As Anna Hazare ended his 13-day fast in New Delhi on Sunday and his supporters, many of them urban youth not affiliated to established parties, vociferously celebrated their half-victory, the political class that wields power at the Centre and in the states was quietly savouring its half-victory.

Although the media hailed the outcome of the clash of wills between Team Anna and the Central government as a victory of people’s power the 74-year-old social activist from Maharashtra, who had staked his life for the second time in five months in a Gandhian campaign, modestly described Parliament’s purported acceptance of his framework for a tough anti-corruption law as a half-victory.

The Congress, which heads the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, said it was a “win-win situation” for all stakeholders.

The formula which ended the confrontation was thrashed out by Congress leaders in a series of discussions held with members of Team Anna and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition.

The fast Hazare undertook in April demanding a strong anti-corruption law was directed against Executive. When he broke the fast, Baba Ramdev, a yogi, tried to continue the agitation. The government sent the police to arrest and bundle him out of the capital. On Hazare’s return to fast again, it decided to handle the Gandhian in the same way as it had dealt with the yogi. It was a costly mistake.

Team Anna activated the support base that it had built up among the urban youth during the first fast using social networks like Twitter and Facebook. It also launched an SMS campaign. A huge crowd gathered outside the Tihar jail in support of Hazare who began fast in custody, ahead of schedule. Live television coverage boosted the team’s efforts and there were solidarity demonstrations and sympathetic fasts in several cities.

The authorities quickly released Hazare but he did not leave the prison until they granted permission to fast at the Ramlila grounds for two weeks. It was a compromise reached after negotiations. The government had asked him to limit the fast to a three-day period.

The second fast began after Parliament had taken up for consideration a government bill to establish the long-discussed anti-corruption machinery, named Lokpal. Hazare asked the government to withdraw its bill, which was before Parliament’s standing committee, and place before it the Jan Lokpal Bill he and his friends had drafted. It was a demand the government could not accept without loss of face.

Since Parliament was seized of the matter, the agitation should have assumed the character of a confrontation with that body. But the executive remained Team Anna’s main adversary as the opposition joined it in directing all ire at the government and the Congress party.

To begin with, the Congress picked its best legal brains to negotiate with Team Anna. They failed to recognise that the movement and its demands were essentially political and that public opinion was generally in agreement with Hazare’s stand that the government bill is weak.

As the legal experts failed to deliver the Congress brought in experienced political hands. They reached across to the parliamentary opposition and to Team Anna and brought about the happy win-win end.

On Saturday the two houses of Parliament discussed the Lokpal issue in terms of the compromise formula and adopted by acclaim a sense-of-the-house statement which conveyed agreement in principle with three points on which Hazare had sought assurances. This will now go to the standing committee which will look at draft prepared by various civil society groups besides the government bill.

Credit is due to the government, the BJP and Team Anna for resolving the conflict without damage to the constitutional provisions. However, there will be a lot of arguments in the coming days over the nature of the commitment Parliament has made.

Anna Hazare declared after breaking the fast that he would not rest until all the changes he was looking for were achieved. This leaves open the possibility of his returning to haunt the political class. He also indicated that he would now take up the issue of electoral reform, which, like the Lokpal legislation, has been talked about for decades with little action.

It may not be necessary for India’s political class to worry about a Twitter-driven revolution but it certainly will face new challenges if it does not refine its ability to feel the pulse of the people and fulfil their aspirations.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, August 29, 2011

Reforms: Proof of the pudding is in the eating

2011-08-26T20:54:00.007+05:30

Watching Kiran Bedi’s performance in front of the crowd at Ramlila Maidan, venue of Anna Hazare’s fast, this evening on television, I wondered whether we had not lost the best artiste of our time when she opted for the police force instead of the theatre.

She, of course, won acclaim in her chosen field. Her personal website presents her as “First and Highest ranking Indian Woman, Internationally Recognized, of the Indian Police Service”

She was Inspector General of Prisons, Tihar Jail, for two years from 1993 to 1995 and is credited with having converted the high security prison, with over 9,700 inmates, into a Reformatory. It was, says the website, “a transformation of a magnitude unparalleled in the history of Prison Administration anywhere in the world”.

Her fame as a reformer spread around the world so fast that in 1994, while she was still at Tihar, the US-funded Ramon Magsaysay Foundation picked her for its prestigious award, which is sometimes referred to as the Asian Nobel.

In a short note reproduced at the website, Sarita Chauhan quotes Bedi as saying, “I was there to correct not accuse. The magnitude of the problem was enormous. It took me months. Institutions take their time to reveal despite individual impatience”.

Apparently, Bedi, who left the IPS in 2007, has already forgotten the lesson she learnt at Tihar that institutions take their time. She was heard asking Parliament to accept Anna’s demands today itself, if necessary by sitting at night, as it has done on some occasions in the past.

How effective was the Tihar reform which won Kiran Bedi accolades and awards? In July 1995, barely two months after she moved out of there, Rajan Pillai, a prominent Indian businessman with international links, died following ill-treatment while in judicial custody there.

Kerala-born Rajan Pillai, widely known as Biscuit King as he controlled snacks major Britannia Industries from his base in Singapore, was arrested in Delhi in connection with an extradition case. There were reports at the time that he did not receive timely medical attention as he did not meet the demands of corrupt jail officials.

In May this year, the Delhi High Court ruled that Rajan Pillai had died because of lack of medical care and awarded a "token" compensation of Rs 1 million to his wife, Nina, who had been fighting for justice for her late husband for 16 years.

Justice S. Muralidhar, in his order, held the state liable for the lapses at Tihar which had led to Rajan Pillai’s death. He asked the Tihar authorities to take corrective measures to improve the minimum standard of treatment and care for its inmates. He said Pillai's death could have been avoided if the board of visitors (experts) of the jail had conducted frequent checks.

The judge directed Tihar jail to purchase an ambulance comparable with the best available in the country and to build a team of dedicated medical personnel and trained staff within a period of three months.

In an affidavit filed in the court during the proceedings, the Tihar authorities had acknowledged that 32 of 110 sanctioned posts of medical personnel were lying vacant.

Apparently Kiran Bedi who introduced Art of Living courses in the jail had neglected the science of living.

Anna Hazare, who, like Kiran Bedi, is a Magsaysay Award winner, may well earn the Nobel Prize this year for shaking up the Indian polity through a peaceful movement.

Let us hope what the movement yields is not half-baked reform of the kind Kiran Bedi carried out in Tihar. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Corruption: AHRC points to foundational weakness of Indian state

2011-08-22T16:42:00.005+05:30

The following is a statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong:

Given the primacy of combating corruption to breathe life into the concept of democracy, the anti-corruption movement in India is indeed the country's second movement for freedom. Given the magnitude of the problem, the complex and interlinked inroads corruption has made into all aspects of life in the country, it is not mere lack of interest, political differences and sheer snobbishness of the country's political elite that has united them in opposing more sober proposals, sans 'camps', suggested by the civil society as opposed to the nonsensical draft law proposed by the government. The fact that not a single political party of the world's largest multi-party democracy has supported the civil society initiative against corruption illuminates the lack of morale of at least one of the country's democratic institutions.

The unwelcome reality for the political parties in the country that do not have what they believe in as their 'manifest destiny' to decide everything in India and for Indians, understandably will be bitter, but a refining pill for the country's politicians to swallow. In that, India is also witnessing the defining moment and thus the process of maturing of its democratic framework. Dislike by most parliamentarians about the fact that the parliament they are seated in does not have a writ beyond the collective wisdom of the people who sent their representatives to the legislative house is understandable. Nor can they act according to the will of the people, since should there be a strict anti-corruption framework in the country, a substantial number of the country's parliamentarians would find their abode being shifted from their palatial houses within their fiefdoms into the narrow rooms within prisons. Disgust upon the public appeal for a 'biting' law against corruption by the country's political elite is thus understandable, but they have no other choice.

The civil society's model anti-corruption laws, or the one proposed by the government are indeed not the best legislations out there. Both versions of the future law have scope for improvement, in particular, the one drafted by the government, the weakest and the most recent visible specimen of the disrespectful attempt against the constitutional writ that the government is mandated to protect. However good the legislation is, without a proper implementing framework the law cannot deliver its legislative writ.

Kallipolis will not follow once the law is in place, no matter how well meaning it is. If not at any other time in the past, it is now a moment in the country's history that the members of the India's civil society must put their differences behind and speak in one voice, against corruption and not to make use the public space they enjoy to pass comments about how bad is one form of campaign from the other or how good is a particular proposal as against the others. Comments by some of the leading civil society activists reported through the media paints a disappointing picture of the lack of thematic consensus and confirms the worrying public perception that the human rights movement in India is divided between different camps, some of them formed on the basis of who have received what decoration and who aims for what more in the form of recognitions. In that some of the civil society leaders in the country are not immune to intellectual corruption. The last thing the country can afford now is a 'blue ribbon jury' within the civil society.

There are relatively successful models of anti-corruption frameworks in the world, within Asia itself. The system that is in place, for instance in Hong Kong, is of relatively high efficiency. That a unique territory like Hong Kong is not a true democracy underscores the fact that a parliamentary form of democracy is not required to contain corruption. That there is parliamentary primacy over the acts of the government is more the better though. The Hong Kong model of corruption prevention takes within its sweep non-government entities, including human rights groups and business establishments. The United Nations Convention Against Corruption, AHRC provides a comprehensive theoretical and practical framework against corruption, a model that must be studied by anyone who is serious of fighting corruption. Unlike all other international conventions the UN has produced, the Convention against Corruption provides an extensive implementation framework.

Equally important is the government's effort to maximise wider consultancy in the process. Engaging in consultations with a single individual is not what is warranted under the circumstances. A consultative process is not the government's prerogative to offer, but a citizen's right to be fulfilled.

For now the government and the non-government groups have had their chances to take their shots at the target. The question then is what next?

Assuming that eventually there would be a law in India against corruption, probably the best of its kind in the world, without drastic reforms of the justice institutions it would be like owning a radio without means to electricity. Of the manifold problems that India face today, arguably, corruption would be one in the 'top-ten' list. Of equal importance is the non-functioning justice apparatus. However, the country's civil society is yet to wake up to this reality or is pretending to sleep over this issue.

The potent evil in India is not the façade made up of some of the reckless and globalised business interests, but the foundational weakness of a state, that still lacks the understanding of and refuses to accept that its justice regime has stopped growing and has instead started putrefying. Without incorporating debates concerning the urgent requirement for a complete overhaul of India's justice framework, corruption will continue to flourish in India, no matter what law is eventually legislated.
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Cartoon provided by Mr. Satish Acharya. The cartoonist's page could be viewed at http://cartoonistsatish.blogspot.com/