Saudi king responds to plea on behalf of jailed Sri Lankan woman

Saudi Arabia’s monarch has responded to the plea to save the life of Rizana Nafeek (picture on left), a Sri Lankan woman, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a child under her care, according to a message from the Asian Human Rights Commission.

Human rights organizations had appealed to the Saudi authorities on Rizana’s behalf.

The AHRC message reads as follows:

The Asian Human Rights Commission is happy to learn that His Royal Highness King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has taken the initial steps towards a reprieve for Rizana Nafeek, the Sri Lankan girl who is currently on the death row in Saudi Arabia convicted for strangling a baby in her care. Rizana, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, claims it was an accident in which the baby choked while being bottle-fed. The Supreme Court in Riyadh confirmed her death sentence in late October 2010.

The Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry’s Consular Chief Somadasa Wijeysundera reported this Sunday, November 14, 2010, that King Abdullah has directed officials to meet with the parents of the deceased infant for whom Rizana worked. He stated that the King's actions come as a response to the plea from the Sri Lankan President Rajapakse to grant the girl clemency, emphasizing that discreet diplomatic efforts were underway to secure her release.

Wijeysundera further stated that several other diplomatic efforts have been stepped up both in Riyadh and internationally to gather support for Rizana's release. "Our envoys in several countries both in the West and elsewhere are working closely with those respective countries towards this end. The response is encouraging but the process is slow because it needs a lot of diplomatic patience and understanding," he said.

Saudi Arabia's law is based on Sharia, the Islamic Law, which holds certain restrictions. As the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia recently confirmed her death sentence, the options of judicial remedies have been exhausted. The decision can only be challenged if new evidence comes to light, if King Abdullah, who also serves as Prime Minister, grants her a pardon or the parents of the deceased infant withdraw their claim of murder or settle for blood money. The King's initiative to let officials meet with the family is therefore acknowledged as an important step in granting a reprieve to Rizana.

The Asian Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch among other human rights groups and civil society organizations have followed the case closely and worked intensively to put continuous pressure on the Saudi King and The Minister of Interior in Saudi Arabia to grant Rizana clemency as well as requesting
President Rajapakse to appeal to King Abdullah and request a diplomatic dialogue on the case.

While the eyes of the world currently are on King Abdullah and President Rajapakse, this should also be used to address the underlying causes to this disastrous situation and how the young girl from a rural, poor family ended up there in the first place. In Sri Lanka there is an urgent need to address the growing problem of illegal operations by the recruitment agencies to send workers overseas. As Sri Lanka's biggest source to foreign currency is remittance from workers overseas, the Sri Lankan government has been slow and reluctant to put pressure on the Saudi King before the international and national attention forced it to intervene. Addressing the problems of the workers overseas have therefore not been a priority before and something President Rajapakse would rather prefer to keep disguised.

In the case of Rizana it was after all the recruitment agency in Sri Lanka, who illegally altered her birthday to be able to employ her in Saudi Arabia. This resulted in Rizana holding a job as a baby caretaker; a job, which she was neither mature nor experienced enough to hold and thus led to the tragic death of a child. The current situation should be used genuinely for a call on the Sri Lankan government to take strong measures against the exploitation of underage labour and the implementation of protection for the country's migrant workers.

While the response by the Saudi King to intervene in Rizana's case is encouraging, it is crucial to maintain international as well as national pressure on the situation so that Rizana will be released.

Confronting corruption

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

On becoming Chief Vigilance Commissioner in 1998, N Vittal said he set himself the modest goal of lifting India a few points up in Transparency International’s global corruption perception index. He left office in 2002 without achieving the target.

In TI’s 2010 index, India is ranked 87th among 178 nations. It was in the 88th place in 2005. Obviously, Vittal’s successors are not faring any better than him.

Three major corruption scandals involving men in high places are before the public now.

One relates to award of contracts in connection with the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. As soon as the games concluded, the government relieved Suresh Kalmadi, a powerful politician who headed the organising committee, of his responsibilities and ordered investigation of the allegations.

Another scandal relates to the construction of a high-rise building in Mumbai to rehabilitate widows of army men killed in the Kargil war. High-ranking officials and relatives of influential politicians got the flats.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan’s name figured in media reports about the scandal. After he had discharged his responsibilities connected with President Obama’s visit, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked him to step down and the Centre ordered an inquiry.

The third scandal relates to irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation, which, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General, resulted in a loss of Rs1700 billion to the exchequer. In the eye of the storm is Union Telecommunications Minister A Raja, who belongs to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party of Tamil Nadu. The opposition has sought his resignation. His party claims he is innocent.

Men in high places who are accused of misdemeanour often go scot-free. Ironically, in the early years of Independence, the system was able to deal with corruption cases more effectively than today.

The Constitution was not in place yet when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru learnt that a member of parliament had taken money to ask questions in the house. He moved a resolution in the house to expel the member. A high court judge was removed in the same manner after investigation showed he was guilty of misconduct.

The opulence seen at the marriage of a top bureaucrat’s daughter raised suspicions in a junior minister’s mind and he ordered an investigation. The officer, who belonged to the British-instituted Indian Civil Service, ended up in jail for corruption.

Such expeditious action is now a thing of the past. Investigating agencies of the central and state governments have lately invited the charge of acting in the interests of their political masters.

In a rare case of conviction of a VIP, after proceedings that dragged on for 13 years, a Delhi court sentenced Sukh Ram, a former Telecommunications minister, in February 2009 to three years in jail and a fine of Rs200,000 for possessing assets disproportionate to his sources of income. His appeal is pending in the high court. The last word in the case is clearly a long way off.

The system is most ineffective in dealing with charges against members of the judiciary. Advocates refused to appear before three judges of the Bombay high court, alleging they were corrupt. All three completed their term without facing any action.

In 1993 V Ramaswami, a Supreme Court judge, was impeached for financial irregularities committed while serving as chief justice of a High Court. The Lok Sabha, voting on party lines, exonerated him. Impeachment proceedings against a Calcutta judge, who has been found guilty of misappropriation, will start soon. The case of a high court chief justice, accused of land grab, is currently under investigation.

While conviction of Central or state ministers on graft charges is rare, many have had to pay a political price. In the 1950s, Justice MC Chagla, who inquired into the allegation that the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation had shown undue favours to a businessman, ruled that the minister had ‘constructive responsibility’ for the actions of officials under him. Following this, TT Krishnamachari, who was Finance Minister in Nehru’s Cabinet, resigned.

Since then the Congress party has got many of its leaders to step down from office and face inquiry. Other parties, instead of following this convention, have generally attempted to ride through corruption charges brazenly. That is what Raja and the DMK are trying to do. As the party, which heads the ruling coalition, the Congress cannot remain a passive onlooker. It has to confront the issue.-- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 15, 2010.

Korean civil society's second report on POSCO project

Korean civil society groups have published their official report on fact-finding research for the POSCO project launched by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government in 2005.

The fact-finding team composed of two lawyers and a human rights activist who are experts on monitoring of human rights violations of multinational companies conducted the second fact-finding research between August 28 and September 5, 2010, following the first one that had been carried out between April 26 and May 6, 2008.

In the report, the team explains that Korean civil society has been paying attention to the issue since the violence broke out between the villagers for the POSCO project and those who were against it, in November 2007. Since then, the Korean civil society groups have been monitoring the Orissa government's attitude and also made the constant queries and demands on POSCO in Korea. The English brief report can be found here and the Korean report is available here.

Through the two visits for fact-finding research, the Korean civil society has been observing that the villagers for the POSCO project are not fully satisfied with the amount and the manner of compensation and those who are against the POSCO project have been completely excluded, which implies that the Orissa government and POSCO do not respect and observe the principles of democratic procedure and participation in promoting development projects. The Orissa government as well as POSCO has rather been contravening the Forest Rights Act 2006, violating human rights and creating environmental destruction, the report says.

The case of Khandadhar, which is mentioned in the report, is where the Orissa government and POSCO had applied for an iron ore mining license but was rejected by the high court in July 2010, clearly proving how the forest area and the tribes' lives have been destroyed by the development project.

The report also denounces the Orissa government's violent and partial attitude, pointing out the police firing and violence against protesting villagers which happened in May, as well as the the detention of the fact-finding team members in a police station for several hours, after their visit to anti-POSCO villages.

The Korean civil society groups, through the report, strongly recommend the below:

1. The Orissa government, promoting a development project without precise field research and discouraging the affected villagers' participation, should provide compensation and apology to the villagers who have been facing human rights violations and exclusion so far.

2. As apparent from the fact that the fact-finding team was taken to the police station and investigated immediately after visiting the anti-POSCO project villages on August 30, 2010, the police should stop the suppression and surveillance of the anti-POSCO project villagers, which violates their human rights.

3. The Orissa government should acknowledge that the POSCO project cannot succeed in its launch without the villagers' participation and agreement, and it is highly recommended to thoroughly reconsider the POSCO project.

4. Starting with the POSCO project, the Orissa government should respect and observe the principles that any development project should be initiated only with a transparent and democratic process that includes the villagers' participation.

5. The Ministry of Environment and Forests of India should immediately respect and fulfill the recommendations proposed by the Saxena Committee, the Meena Gupta Committee and the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), a key committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

6. The central government of India also should immediately conduct a thorough re-survey and re-examination of the whole POSCO project.

For English brief report,
http://material.ahrchk.net/india/AHRC-PRL-028-2010-01.pdf

For Korean report,
http://www.khis.or.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=multicorp&wr_id=188

For more detail, please contact:

Na, Hyun phil
KHIS, Seoul Korea
Tel: +82 2 736 5808
Fax: +82 2 736 5810
Email: redleon@naver.com
Website: http://www.khis.or.kr/

Courtesy: Asian Human Rights Commission

Visit means trade

B.R.P.Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Barack Obama’s visit to India is unlike any previous US presidential visit. From Dwight Eisenhower onwards, several presidents came to India. They all began the odyssey in the capital city of New Delhi with a visit to the Gandhi memorial.

President Obama, who arrived on Saturday on a three-day visit — his longest trip so far to any country — landed first not in New Delhi, but in Mumbai, the bustling commercial capital, which stopped in its tracks to facilitate his safe passage.

Ostensibly Mumbai was given the honour to demonstrate US solidarity with the victims of the multiple terror attack on the city on November 26, 2008. The president’s first stop was at the Taj hotel, where the terrorists who arrived by sea from Pakistan had mowed down many Indians and foreigners.

The choice of Mumbai as the starting point was appropriate for another reason too. For Obama, who was accompanied by the chief executive officers of more than 200 US corporations, came as CEO of USA Inc. and was looking for business which will help his country’s economy, which is yet to recover from the impact of the meltdown.

Thanks to the work done in advance behind the scenes by government and company officials of the two countries, within hours of arrival he was able to announce the conclusion of 20 deals under which Indian firms will buy American goods worth $10 billion. These deals will help create more than 50,000 jobs, he said. As the day wore on, the size of US business deals rose to $15 billion.

Obama noted that India and the US are the world’s largest democracies. Yet, he pointed out, India ranked only 12th among America’s trading partners and there was vast scope for improving the position. Evidently upgrading economic ties is a key element in his vision of Indo-US relationship, which, he said, was going to be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.

Captains of Indian industry, who are looking for new opportunities in the US, were quite pleased with what Obama said. More Indo-US trade will mean more jobs in this country too, they reckoned.

However, some sections of the Indian establishment were sorely disappointed and they made no attempt to hide their feelings. Commentators on live television shows noted that while reiterating US commitment to fight the scourge of terrorism Obama made no mention of Pakistan, from where the Mumbai attackers had come. A spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party echoed the sentiments.

The Indian critics, who are obsessed with Pakistan, were not impressed by US analysts’ explanation that ordinarily visiting presidents to not refer to third countries in public statements.

All sections in India have generally viewed relations with the US in the context of politics, and attached little value to economic and strategic considerations.

From Jawaharlal Nehru onwards, most Indian prime ministers began their official tenure with visits to the US and optimistic calculations about improved relations with that country. But the post-war US administrations, caught in the logics of the cold war, looked upon India’s policy of non-alignment with suspicion if not outright hostility.

Ritual reiteration of the natural affinity between the largest democracies proved inadequate to forge close relations. Richard Nixon’s instant dislike of Indira Gandhi led to a deterioration in the relationship and she signed a 25-year friendship with the then Soviet Union to make sure that was a reliable ally close by as she helped Pakistan’s geographically separated eastern province to emerge as independent Bangladesh.

With the cold war a thing of the past, Bill Clinton and George Bush made attempts to improve relations with India. However, the complexities of the South Asian situation limited progress.

Obama has taken two significant steps which hold out the possibility of a break with the past. One is keeping Pakistan out of the itinerary of the current tour. Previously US presidents had combined visits to the two countries. The other is shifting of the focus from politics to economics.

Political issues cannot, of course, be wished away. Obama simply kept them aside to be taken up before winding up the visit in New Delhi.

The Obama approach is based on a realistic appraisal of the changes in the global scenario. He indicated as much when he called for breaking out of stereotypes and coming to terms with current realities. It remains to be seen whether India is ready to go along the new path. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 8, 2010.

Left on the decline

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

The Left-wing parties which wield power in three states in India are going downhill. The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which leads the pack, was routed in local self-government elections in Kerala last week. It had received a severe drubbing in the municipal elections in West Bengal in May.

The Left Front, headed by the CPI-M, has ruled West Bengal continuously for more than three decades, setting a record. The Left Democratic Front, also led by it, has been voted to office in Kerala in alternate elections for as long.

Coming after the heavy losses in last year’s parliamentary poll, the reverses in the local elections are a major setback for the CPI-M as it prepares for the Assembly elections, due next year, in the two states. The other Left parties count for little.

The CPI-M has established procedures for evaluation of its performance, identification of mistakes and initiation of remedial action. However, the time available to it to take corrective measures and avoid a third successive reverse is too short.

Lately, the corrective system has not been functioning well. The party’s state and central committees had conducted mandatory reviews after the Lok Sabha poll but no meaningful measures ensued.

When the country gained freedom in 1947, the Communist Party of India was committed to a policy of violent revolution but it participated in the elections. In the first national elections on adult franchise, held in 1952, it emerged as the largest opposition group in the Lok Sabha, winning more seats than the Socialist Party which polled more votes.

Five years later, the world sat up and took notice as the CPI formed the government in Kerala. That was the first time Communists had come to power through the ballot box anywhere. The government, sadly, was short-lived. The Centre dismissed it in 1959 as violent protests against land and educational reforms initiated by it swept the state.

Despite the rude experience, the CPI remained on the parliamentary path. When the party split in two in the wake of the rift in the international communist movement both the factions continued along the same course. Although communist influence in the country shrank, the CPI-M outpaced the parent body and emerged as the strongest political formation in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

In all these states the CPI-M is now facing a problem which other parties that are a part of the power structure have faced before. It is problem resulting from prolonged exposure to and involvement in power politics. As a party with an assured place in the ruling Establishment it tends to attract those seeking political power more than those wanting social and economic changes.

Party documents show that it is losing long-term cadres who are not interested in the loaves of office. The annual dropout rate has been above 10 per cent in Kerala for some year. It is one of several states where more than 40 per cent of the party members are comparative newcomers.

Elections are a costly process. In a five-year period, parties now face three separate elections — one to the Lok Sabha, another to the Assembly and the third to the local bodies. At one time the CPI-M could proudly say it relied entirely on small contributions from the poor. Material that surfaced in the recent past indicates that the Kerala party has benefited from the munificence of some businessmen with dubious backgrounds.

The absence of charismatic leaders like EMS Namboodiripad and Jyoti Basu, who had led the party in Kerala and West Bengal along the parliamentary path in the early years, is a major handicap for the CPI-M in facing today’s challenges. To make things worse, the central leadership is in the hands of persons with little grassroots level political experience.

Under former general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, the CPI-M had carved out a place for itself in national politics by acting as a catalyst in the formation of non-Congress governments when elections threw up a hung parliament. His successor, Prakash Karat, helped in the formation of the last Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and the party was able to influence its working to some extent.

Karat’s attempt to bring down the UPA government on the issue of the civilian nuclear agreement with the United States backfired. His effort to put together a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party alternative in advance of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections also failed. The party needs a win in the Assembly elections to retain its relevance at the national level.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 1, 2010.

Stifle not the whistle blower, says AHRC

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

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the actions of the Government of India in witch-hunting the whistle blowers and activists who dare to speak the truth, a skill the country's government has perfected in planning and executing sans differences between political regimes that hold power in the country.

It is reported that on 25 October, the Government of India decided to arrest Ms. Arundhati Roy on charges of sedition for a public speech she delivered concerning the appalling condition of human rights and the daily life of Kashmiris, who live in the shadow of perpetual violence and state-sponsored brutality in the excuse of countering terrorism. Over the past five decades India has demonstrated its shameful incapacity to deal with unending human rights violations; in particular, torture, rape, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, and arbitrary arrest and detentions carried out by its law enforcing agencies.

There is still no functioning legal framework within which law enforcement officers in the country could be investigated and prosecuted for crimes they commit. Instead, draconian legislations like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 provides statutory impunity to the criminals in uniform. Those who peacefully protest against this unacceptable status quo, like Ms. Irom Chanu Sharmila of Manipur, are detained perpetually by the state. There is hardly any interest by the state or the central government to improve the investigative skills of the law enforcement agencies. The country that claims to be a leading nation in world affairs and a stable democracy within Asia is internally run by a brutal police regime that is recruited, trained, deployed and promoted to engage in violence with impunity on the excuse of executing the writ of the state.

Law enforcement agencies are used to intimidate peasant farmers who resist forced and uncompensated eviction from their hut and hearth, when the state in collusion with corporate entities, decides to construct dams or other structures destroying farm lands; against villagers and the tribal when they voice their protest against massive excavation of minerals by devastating ecosystems and obliterating habitats; and against human rights defenders and lawyers who dare to expose the cancer of corruption that has eaten the country's democratic institutions right from its foundations to the roof. What is witnessed in states like Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir is the extreme form of this state sponsored violence.

The threat to arrest Ms. Roy is proof to the country's ever increasing animosity to everyone who dares to expose the truth or is willing to publically express his or her opinion. A statement issued by Ms. Roy after learning about the plans by the government to arrest her once again exposes the true colour of the Indian state and of those who administers it.

The AHRC fully endorses the views expressed by Ms. Roy and urges the Government to refrain from detaining her for what she has spoken concerning Jammu and Kashmir. Instead, the government, if it values and believes in the realisation of the democratic promise the founding fathers of the country has made to this great nation, must encourage dialogue and discussion to resolve disputes within the framework of rule of law and democracy.

# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

I spoke for justice, says Arundhati Roy

I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning’s papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state.

Yesterday I travelled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer’s husband and Asiya’s brother. We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get ‘insaf’—justice—from India, and now believed that Azadi—freedom— was their only hope. I met young stone pelters who had been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones.

In the papers some have accused me of giving ‘hate-speeches’, of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free.

ARUNDHATI ROY
October 26, 2010

An Open Letter to the PM on 25th anniversary of Narmada Andolan

To
The Prime Minister of India
7, Race Course Road
New Delhi
INDIA

Sir,

The people in the Narmada Valley have been fighting for survival, for right to life, with dignity since the last twenty-five years, hoping that the Indian state would respond to their just demands. The Sadar Sarovar Project which was touted as the 'best project' ensuring ecological balance and ideal rehabilitation policy stands fully exposed with 200,000 and more people still in the submergence area, awaiting their entitlement and a few thousand Adivasis having lost their land to submergence, without obtaining agricultural land in compensation.

Not one, but four reports of the Expert Committee appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forest till 2010 clearly indicate the position taken by the Narmada Bachao Andolan of grave non-compliance on environmental measures and conditions in the project clearance granted in 1987. Even the backwater levels of the project are far from finalized, after thirty full years since the declaration of the Tribunal award.

What about the benefits, you may ask. Kindly take time to look into the report of performance appraisal of the Sadar Sarovar Project. The Planning Commissions own working group on water resources estimate that the final project cost to be 70,000 crores by 2012. When such escalation, almost ten times of the original cost has occurred, how could a further clearance for 40,000 crores be granted, that too after having spent 30,000 crores without a review of the post benefit analysis, may we ask? The most shocking is the fact that Gujarat has built only 20 percent of the canals over thirty years, the ponded waters are not even utilised beyond ten percent, resulting in very low irrigation and power benefits, much below the expectations.

Obviously the enormous cost paid by the people and nature are not utilised in this situation. We all, concerned about the justice and the sustainability ion the development planning are highly disturbed and anguished and hence would like to issue this appeal to your conscience and your government to take serious cognizance of the unprecedented devastation to take place in the Narmada Valley due to the large dams and canals. We would like to assert that the central government, under your leadership, must immediately undertake a comprehensive review of not only Sadar Sarowar, but also the entire Narmada Valley project, involving the decade old non-violent people's movement.

There is a need, you would agree, to not only ensure democratic and just process in dam building but also to save the prime agricultural land, leaving dense populated communities of Advasis, farmers, fisher people and others and minimise unwarranted destruction, displacement and destitution. This is both possible and necessary and we would seek your full cooperation in this vital initiative.

Without your taking such a step forward, we do not see any other alternative before the people but to exercise all forms of democratic Satyagraha and resistance to assert their constitutional, legal and human rights.

Yours sincerely,

The people of Narmada Valley
National Alliance of People's Movement

Growth without justice

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Last week the Indian capital market came up with Rs2,360 billion when the government offered a block of shares of Coal India as part of the ongoing public sector disinvestment programme.

Also last week, hundreds of thousands of people, most of them members of tribal communities, gathered at two remote villages of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as part of the ongoing struggle by the poor to save their land and livelihood.

The two events brought into sharp focus the contradictions inherent in India’s current developmental effort. It is producing two Indias: one flush with money and ready to grab good stocks and the other desperately poor and struggling for survival.

In theory the state has long been committed to growth with justice. The Constitution ushered in three years after the country gained freedom gives primacy to “justice — social, economic and political” in its statement of objectives. However, as the economy grows injustice too has been growing.

In the early years of independence, the government opted for a mixed economy in which the public and private sectors will have their places, with the former commanding the heights. Many huge public undertakings were established in keeping with this policy. Some of them enjoyed monopoly in their areas of operation. The private sector’s functioning was subject to curbs.

The globalised economy demanded a change in approach. The restrictions on the private sector were eased. Many areas which were earlier the public sector’s preserve were thrown open to private players. Foreign capital was allowed in.

The government also decided to divest part of the shares of the big state undertakings to raise funds for developmental programmes. Progress in this direction was, however, slow as organised labour controlled by leftwing parties put up stout resistance.

The course change resulted in acceleration of the rate of growth of the economy. As the economy boomed, pundits prophesied that the country would emerge as a major economic power by the middle of the century, closely behind China, which had made the policy shift a decade and a half earlier.

Business fortunes rose rapidly. Forbes magazine, the chronicler of the rich, counted 69 billionaires in the country this year. It also predicted that the wealthiest Indian, Mukesh Ambani, now at fourth place in the list of the world’s richest, might move into the top spot by 2014.

The Indian stock market was the one least affected by the global meltdown sending shivers around the world. It was also the earliest to recover from the shock. Coal India’s rich haul — through sale of its shares the government fetched as much as one-fourth of the national budget — shows investors are hungering for good stocks. Naturally, Indian Inc. is in an exuberant mood.

The two rallies in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, organised to mark the 25th anniversary of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), are a stark reminder that millions in the country do not share the exuberance. Most of the participants were Adivasis rendered homeless by the massive Narmada river project.

The mega project envisaged diversion of the waters of the Narmada by constructing a chain of canals and dams to irrigate lands in MP, Maharashtra and Gujarat, provide drinking water to 40 million people and generate 1,450 megawatt of power.

Medha Patkar, a young research scholar, who visited the project site in MP 25 years ago, was deeply moved by the plight of the Adivasis whose homes were submerged by a reservoir. She stayed back, founded the Narmada Bachao Andolan and has spent the rest of her life fighting their battle as well as others whose livelihood is affected by similar projects.

Originally, the project cost was estimated at Rs64 billion. In 30 years the government has spent Rs392 billion and many more billions are needed to complete it. Critics claim the project goals could have been achieved through alternative schemes at much less human and environmental costs.

Since the globalisation process began in the 1990s, the Centre and the states have sanctioned many more projects that adversely affect the poor, especially the Adivasis.

A World Bank study of 2008 showed one-third of world’s poor are in India. It also revealed that rate of decline of poverty has fallen since 1990. Evidently, as the number of billionaires goes up the number of the poor also goes up. While the government talks of inclusive growth, more and more people are getting excluded.

Maoist given three-year jail term in China

A court in China sentenced Zhao Dongmin, leader of a Maoist group, to three years in jail on October 20 for "gathering a crowd to disrupt social order", according to media reports circulating among Maoists worldwide..

Zhao was arrested on August 19 last year after he formed the Shaanxi Union Rights Defence Representative Congress with more than 380 workers from about 20 state-owned enterprises to oversee and monitor public structure restructuring and report corruption and abuses of power.

The municipal government of Xi'an banned the organization on July 27. Zhao wrote an open letter protesting the action to the State Council, the municipal, provincial and central committees of the Communist Party of China. He was arrested 18 days later.

Zhao was the head of the Shaanxi Mao Zedong Thought Study Group, one of several Maoist groups in China that seek the restoration of a more egalitarian, fair and just society.

More than 50 scholars signed a petition this month stating that Zhao was not only innocent but had performed meritorious service and that his arrest mocked the rule of law and insulted trade union organizers.

The three-year sentence given to Zhao is on the upper-end of the scale for labour activists. The authorities nowadays tend to use threats, harassment and short-term detention rather than criminal trials and prison terms to suppress labour groups and activists. Zhao's Maoist allegiance is believed to have led to the relatively heavy sentence.

Zhao Dongmin, a lawyer and a member of the Communist Party of China, had been providing legal services to workers for many years to resolve issues such as unpaid pensions and loss of other benefits.

While Zhao was undergoing trial, the Concerned Group of 108 Veterans of the original 68th Unit and the 23rd Unit of the People's Liberation Army in Da-an City, Jilin Province said in a statement: “Any Chinese who has a conscience and stands for justice knows that what has happened to Zhao Dongmin has gone beyond a single incident. It has become something of political significance in today's China. It has become a test case for us to tell whether the Chinese Communist Party is a real Marxist-Leninist Party or a fake one, whether the government is a real people's government or a fake one, whether the Communists are real ones or fake ones, and whether or not those in the government are actually serving the people.”

Zhao Dongmin’s picture has been taken from the website of the New York-based China Study Group, which also provides details of his case. According to the website post, updated on October 21, he is due to be sentenced only on October 25.

Rohinton Mistry readings: video extracts

Video extracts of protest readings of Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey and the discussion on censorship, held at the Press Club, Mumbai, on October18, are available on Youtube.

Here are the links:

Anand Patwardhan reading out Rohinton Mistry's statement-in-progress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oImTwKx2ok0

Meher Pestonji reads the controversial portions from Rohinton Mistry's book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggxbPmjeCpE

Discussion on censorship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KOwvVyTKvg

More discussion on censorship: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69HIZPqneYM

Discussion and rounding up of the session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnw6TA-r1kk

A young student gives her views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGJk6gSHbpU

Festival of Hope, Justice and Peace in honour of Irom Sharmila

Ms. Irom Sharmila Chanu has been on indefinite hunger strike since November 2000 demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA). An extraordinary struggle of an extraordinary woman!

Sharmila began her non-violent protest after the Malom massacre where 10 civilians were gunned down by the Indian security forces on 2 November 2000.

AFSPA provides special powers to arrest, detain and even kill civilians on suspicion. The power to search and destroy properties on mere suspicion is granted to the Armed Forces of the Union in the 'disturbed areas' of the North East (and subsequently in Kashmir). Wherever AFSPA is in operation, enforced 'disappearances', extra-judicial killings, tortures, rapes and arbitrary detentions have been the routine.

Even though when the Union Home Minster introduced the law in Parliament in 1958 he assured that the Act will be only a temporary measure, it has dragged on for more than 52 years now! The people of Manipur have done whatever is humanly possible to register their protests against AFSPA -- naked protest by mothers, self-immolation by student leaders, mass demonstrations, petition to the Supreme Court, complaints to the United Nations etc. But the Government of India remains completely indifferent on issues of right to life and dignity.

Today, Sharmila’s persistent protest has become unprecedented in the history of resilience! Her struggle lies not only in defending the most basic and fundamental human rights of her people, but also in questioning the very foundations of Indian democracy which venerates Mahatma Gandhi and his principles of ahimsa
or non-violence.

The Just Peace Foundation (JPF), in collaboration with the civil society in Manipur, is celebrating Sharmila’s indomitable spirit, her audacity to hope in the midst of adversities, her unwavering stand for justice and her deep yearning for peace.

Since 25 July 2010, JPF has been organizing a series of cultural programmes, concerts, painting competitions, exhibitions, press meets, seminars, literary and artistic activities, public meetings, poet’s meet, public rallies, poster campaigns, t-shirt release, book release etc to mark the 100 Days Countdown towards the decade long hunger strike which will culminate in a Festival of Hope, Justice and Peace
from 2 to 6 November 2010.

Justice H. Suresh, former Judge of Bombay High Court, has kindly agreed to inaugurate the festival.

The Festival of Hope, Justice and Peace will be a celebration of the indefatigable spirit of humanity. JPF humbly requests you to use this historic occasion to take whatever action possible to collectively engage again with age-old concepts of Justice and Peace and to reach out to the ongoing struggles of all the oppressed peoples across the world.

Kongpal Kongkham Leikai, Imphal East – 795010, Manipur, India
Email: - justpeacefoundation@gmail.com
Telephone - +91-9862696184

Such A Long Journey: protest reading in Mumbai

Three Mumbai groups, Citizen Initiative for Peace, Committee for Release of Dr Binayak Sen and the Mumbai Initiative for Human Rights Education jointly organized a reading of Rohinton Mistry’s novel “Such a Long Journey” at the Press Club today to protest against the withdrawal of the book from the university curriculum.

Mistry's award-winning novel, set in Mumbai of the early 70s, was being taught as a text to Second Year BA English Literature students. It was withdrawn suddenly on a demand made by the youngest Thackeray to emerge in the Shiv Sena.

Aditya Thackeray, 21-year-old grandson of Bal and son of Uddhav Thackeray, and a student of St Xavier's College, had asked the Vice Chancellor to withdraw the book because it contained uncomplimentary references to the Sena. The VC immediately complied.

Announcing plans for the protest reading, representatives of the three organizations had said, “For too long have parties like the Shiv Sena decided what we should read. Normally, politicians give in. This time, the man occupying the highest academic post in the University, the VC himself, went out of his way to oblige this particular student.”

Theatre personality Dolly Thakore and novelist Meher Pestonji read from the book.

This was followed by a discussion on “Censorship, Art & Politics'', led by well-known academician Prof Pushpa Bhave. Usha Subramaniam, Professor of English, who has taught the book, Kumar Prashant, writer and editor of Sarvodaya Jagat and Anand Teltumbde, writer and columnist of the Economic and Political Weekly participated in the discussion. Rohini Hensman, researcher and human rights activist, was in the chair.

Citizen Initiative for Peace is a group of over 80 activists, NGOs and other groups and individuals who have come together to initiate programmes, discussions and otherwise work towards maintaining peace in Mumbai city. Email- info@mumbaicitizens.com

Committee for Release of Dr Binayak Sen, Mumbai, was formed to campaign for the release of Dr Binayak Sen, vice-president PUCL, and a paediatrician who was arrested in 2006 under the draconian Chhattisgarh Public Security Act for standing up for tribal rights. After a two-year stint in prison, he is on bail now, while his trial continues. The group continues to fight for democratic rights and raises its voices against human rights violations. Email- icareforjustice@gmail.com

Mumbai Initiative for Human Rights Education is an organization whose seeds were sown at a National Human Rights Education Workshop organized in Mumbai in October 2003. Its mission is to promote human rights culture in the Mumbai metropolitan region through education in schools, colleges, universities and other higher educational institutions. Email- drtc@vsnl.com

POSCO project illegal: Enquiry Committee's majority report

Abhay Sahoo, Chairperson, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, writes:

Today three of the four members of the committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests confirmed that the POSCO project is illegal and that all of its clearances were obtained by breaking the law.

The committee has also found that the project has potentially very dangerous impacts on issues like water, air pollution, and the coastline, and none of this was ever properly evaluated.

After a detailed discussion of the huge number of criminal actions by the company and the Orissa government, the committee says (in the conclusion of the report):“The POSCO project is an example of how a mirage of “development” can be used in an attempt to bypass the law. Such attempts, if allowed to succeed, will result in neither development nor environmental protection, but merely in profiteering. This will cause immeasurable harm to the nation and to the rule of law and justice in our society.”

We particularly draw attention to the fact that the majority found that:

• The Orissa government and the Central government have violated the Forest Rights Act and tried to grab forest land that belongs to the people. This is the second official committee that has reached this conclusion.

• The project could cause environmental devastation particularly in regard to water, air pollution, coastal damage, danger of industrial disasters in case of cyclones, etc., all of which was ignored by the government.

• POSCO suppressed facts and tried to get around the requirements of law.

• The environmental, forest and coastal regulation clearances obtained by the project were all illegal and should all be revoked.

• The forest clearance can only be given subject to the recognition of rights and the consent of the gram sabha under the Forest Rights Act.

Those who keep talking of the POSCO project as one of “national importance” should answer these questions: would any other country in the world tolerate such violations of their law? Would South Korea tolerate an Indian company grabbing their land, breaking their laws and threatening to cause an environmental disaster? Is this what development means – robbing thousands of their lands and threatening lakhs with water shortage and other catastrophes?

As for the dissenting report of Ms. Meena Gupta, her position reflects her own interests. She was the Secretary that granted the environment clearance, and asking her to review it is like asking a thief to don a police uniform. Naturally she has said that all the clearances should continue. Her report is full of distortions, such as claiming that there are only 700 families in the area (when over 4,000 will lose their lands and/or homes). She tries to cover up crimes by saying that it does not matter if the law was broken; all that is required is to impose some additional “conditions.”

We call upon the Central government to heed the voice of the people and the findings of the majority report, withdraw all clearances and cancel this unjust, illegal and brutal project.

Democracy disgraced

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

Karnataka will need a long time to live down the disgrace of the past fortnight which ended with the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party government overcoming the combined onslaught by a group of dissidents and the opposition.

The BJP, which previously shared power with former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal faction, had begun its solitary reign two years ago with a minority government headed by BS Yeddyurappa. It soon mobilised majority support in the State Assembly.

Ideology played no part in the transformation of the minority into majority. However, in a concession to democratic niceties, the BJP got the eight opposition members who switched sides to resign and seek re-election. Seven of them got re-elected.

Yeddyurappa ran into trouble when he reconstituted the council of ministers. Sixteen legislators — 11 BJP members and five Independents who were associate members of the BJP legislature party — revolted. To ward off pressure to return to the fold, they spent time in the neighbouring states.

As doubts arose about the support the government commanded in the Assembly, Governor HR Bhardwaj asked Yeddyurappa to seek a vote of confidence. The BJP petitioned Speaker KG Bopaiah to disqualify the rebels under the anti-defection law.

Bhardwaj, who was until recently an active Congress politician, asked the Speaker not to change the configuration of the house before the confidence vote. Bopaiah ignored the advice, disqualified all 16 rebels and posted policemen in uniform to prevent them from entering the house to vote. He declared the motion carried on a voice vote.

Refusing to accept the vote, the governor dashed off a report to the Centre recommending dismissal of the Yeddyurappa government and imposition of president’s rule. The disqualified legislators challenged the Speaker’s action in the high court.

As the Centre was unwilling to act on his recommendation, the Governor tried a new tack. He asked the chief minister to seek a fresh vote. Since the high court, while admitting the rebels’ petitions, declined their plea for an interim stay of the Speaker’s order, the BJP knew it could win even if there was a division in the house.

Yeddyurappa faced the Assembly again. The effective strength of the 224-member house had been reduced to 206 in the absence of the 16 disqualified members and two others, one belonging to the BJP and the other to the opposition Janata Dal. The house passed the confidence motion by 106 votes against 100.

Defection and horse-trading are not new phenomena but they manifested themselves in Karnataka this time on a scale unprecedented in the history of Indian democracy. Operators on both sides of the political divide reportedly offered huge sums to secure the support of legislators.

None of the participants in the political drama can look back on the events of the fortnight with any sense of pride. Yeddyurappa, never an inspiring figure, stands exposed as an ineffective chief minister. The failed coup has not enhanced the credibility of Janata Dal (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, who played a key role in the attempt to topple the government.

The Speaker played a partisan role. The Independents whom he branded as defectors were not members of the ruling party. Their status as “associate members” does not have legal sanction.

The governor’s conduct leaves him too open to the charge of political partisanship. His constitutional authority does not give him the right to direct the Speaker or even advise him on how to exercise his power.

Each of these protagonists can claim with some justification that his motive was good and that of the others was not. However, good intentions and bad methods do not go well together. Good democracy is made up of good practices.

Yeddyurappa cannot breathe easy yet. The high court has stated that the outcome of the confidence vote is subject to its verdict in the petitions filed by the disqualified legislators. If the court quashes the Speaker’s disqualification order, the validity of the confident vote will be called into question.

The chief minister probably faces a greater challenge from inside his party than from outside. There is pressure on him to rein in his cabinet colleagues, Janardhana Reddy and Karunakara Reddy, of Bellary, alleged kingpins of the flourishing illegal mining business.

The Bellary brothers, as they are known, are too powerful to be trifled with. They are not willing to fade away. In fact, they want one of them to made deputy chief minister. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, October 18, 2010.

Gang-rape of Adivasi woman: fact-finding report

The following is a press release issued by Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS):

An all–India women’s fact-finding team of four members visited Gajapthi district in Orissa on September 30 and October 1 to investigate into the alleged rape, on February 12, 2010, of a 20- year-old Adivasi woman by security and police forces.

Village Jadingi along with other villages of Gajapati district have been subject to combing operations as the area is supposed to be having hectic Maoist activity. The arrest and rape of this woman has largely gone unreported and therefore there was a need to investigate. The team met the woman, her parents, people in her village, the sarpanch, panchayat samiti members, her two lawyers, local police station personnel, the jailer and the jail pharmacist. A telephonic conversation was made with the SP, Gajapathi district.

Facts of the Case

According to the police diary, the woman, a Kondh, resident of village Jadingi, Adava Police Station, Block Mohana, was picked up along with two others by SOG and other security staff led by ASI D. Mahapatra from their villages on 12 February, 2010. No woman constable was present at the time.

She was picked up at about 4 a.m. in village Jadingi, as per the testimonies of people in the village. Many villagers (more than seven, in the presence of the entire community) testified that the security personnel had forcibly entered their houses and beaten them up.

The woman was beaten up in front of her parents and other villagers. She was then dragged away along with three others (her brother and cousins) from her village. Subsequently, another two boys were picked up from Tangili, a neighbouring village. She was blindfolded while walking. Two of these boys were allowed to return after they had walked a few kilometers from the village.

The police records, however, show that she was arrested at 4:30 p.m, which is almost 12 hours after she was actually picked up from the village.

She was gang-raped in the jungles before being brought to the police headquarters. She has clearly stated this in her statement to the Magistrate, and also in her testimony to us. She was also shown obscene pictures on the mobile and sexually abusive language was used by the police/SOG forces.

She and her cousins were threatened at gun-point not to divulge any information about this incident.

Several people, including the sarpanch and her family members went to Adava Police Station to enquire about her and the others by about 10 a.m. on the morning of February 12 itself, but they were not allowed to go in and meet anyone, and were told that they have no information from the barricaded gates of the thana itself. They waited the whole day, but no information was provided to them about her whereabouts and safety.

A month later, the family was able to trace her to R. Udaigiri jail when some people of a neighboring village reported hearing that she was there. Upon meeting her, she immediately informed her parents about the rape incident.

Her father filed a complaint in the J.F.M.C. Udaigiri only in August 2010 about the incident of rape in custody. There has been a continuous atmosphere of tension and insecurity amongst the adivasi villagers in the area since this incident; people are voluntarily surrendering to avoid being falsely killed in encounters or arrested and getting stuck in jails uncertainly. All these factors, plus the fact that his daughter was engaged to be married in May 2010 and this kind of news would harm her future prospects played on the parents’ mind before taking this decision. They have also written to the Chief Minister, State Women’s Commission, State Human Rights Commission and Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court. They have received no response from anyone.

The Magistrate has taken the petition into cognizance, and has recorded her and her father’s statements. Despite the seriousness and gravity of the crime, the police has not taken any action in filing an FIR or initiating an enquiry against its own personnel. In fact, the SP does not feel that he should be doing anything suo motto even though he said he is well aware of the incident through various sources, including the media.

The manner in which she was picked up and the subsequent lapses in procedures clearly show that the security forces, the police, the court and the jail have completely disregarded all safeguards available for women in custody.

*She was picked up in the night hours from her residence.
*No woman constable was present at the time of her pick-up in the village.*No custody memo was given to the family members.
*Instead of anyone from the family / village, a ‘fake’ witness has been recorded in the arrest memo (her family members and local sarpanch waited in front of the thana the whole day but they were not given any information and could have been called in as witness).
*Place of arrest has not been shown in the arrest memo.
*No medical examination was done at the police station or at the time of producing in the court.
*At the time of producing before the Magistrate, she was only asked to sign some papers and her finger-prints were taken. She was not asked anything about ill-treatment and whether she needs legal assistance or a medical examination.
*At the time of entry in the jail, she reported being severely beaten up with rifle butts by the security forces (this was confirmed by the pharmacist also). Instead of taking this as a serious human rights violation and probing further (which might have revealed the rape in the beginning), this was considered as a routine case and was treated with simple pain-killers and other medicines.
*Only a cursory medical report has been prepared at the jail.
*Although it is mandatory that under-trial prisoners should be presented in the court once every 15 days, she has been presented in the court only once during the entire period of over seven months of judicial custody till the petition on the rape case was filed.

Demands
The Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression network demands:
*Criminal proceedings be immediately initiated against the police and SOG personnel who were part of the raid team on 12February, 2010 for committing the heinous crime of rape and/or protecting the perpetrators.
*Procedures and safeguards for protecting women in custody must be strictly adhered to.
*Women in conflict areas are much more vulnerable to sexual violence and we demand a serious response from the district and state administration when a woman shows the courage to make such a serious complaint.

Members of the Fact Finding Team:


Shivani Taneja (Bhopal) (tel-9425600382)
K. Anuradha(Vishakhapatnam)
Pramodini Pradhan(Bhubaneswar) (tel-9439200989)

Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) is network of women’s organizations, human rights organizations and individuals from across India. It is a non-funded effort initiated by women, and is concerned with atrocities and repression against women by state and non-state actors, especially in conflict zones. Contact Email: againstsexualviolence@gmail.com

Test of honesty for the judiciary or an ode on its demise?

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

The contempt of court proceedings initiated against Advocate Prashant Bushan in the Supreme Court of India for the allegations he made against some of the former Chief Justices of the country will test the maturity of India's judicial system and that of its democratic framework. Indeed the Court has a statutory right to initiate proceedings against anyone, suo motu or through a petition presented before it. So have Prashant, and every other citizen in the country, a right to express their opinion of what they believe is to be true. Unfortunately, the tainted image of the Indian judiciary is one among them, whether the judges like it or not.

In an interview with Thelka magazine, published on 5 September 2010, Prashant alleged, "… that out of the last 16 to 17 Chief Justices, half have been corrupt". Through an Amicus Curiae petition filed by a lawyer, Mr. Harish Salve, the Supreme Court of India issued notice to Prashant asking him to show cause why his statement and opinion should not be treated as 'contempt of court'.

Prashant's affidavit filed in reply to the contempt proceedings reiterate, explain and further name some of the 'tainted' judges. All of those who have been named, to clear their name if they can, must undergo a thorough investigation and a public trial by an impartial tribunal. Indeed it is to be seen whether the Indian judiciary, or any other democratic institution worthy of its salt and name (as democratic) will be willing to take this 'risk'.

Prashant's original opinion, further reiterated and explained in his affidavit is nothing but a detailed narration of the reasons why the average Indian fear that the country's judiciary, in particular its Apex Court, has become unworthy of the maxim it claims to uphold, 'Yaddo Dharmastho Jayah', the Sanskrit equivalent of fiat justitia ruat caelum. Indeed Prashant being a lawyer, is privileged to possess 'written, documentary and oral' evidence to substantiate his apprehensions than the aam admi (ordinary person), who face the worst brunt, should the judiciary of the country, the working for which his tax money is used is indeed corrupt.

Judiciary's negation of every attempt to bring 'fresh air and light into (its) dark and dusty corridors of power' has become its deplorable character during the past decade. By preventing all attempts to bring transparency in the functioning of the court, ranging from the question of appointment of judges to the applicability of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Indian judiciary has behaved in such fashion as if it has indeed embarrassing things to hide behind its elevated dais where the most paid and immune jurists in the largest democracy of the world are seated. These attempts have reduced the Indian judiciary into despicable situations where on one occasion it had a serving judge, transferred and later elevated to the Apex Court while unambiguous allegations of material corruption were made against him based on which there was an audit objection and an impeachment proceeding. The Supreme Court also had the unique opportunity to direct its own Registrar to file an ap peal against the order of a subordinate court, the Delhi High Court, in the Supreme Court, so that it could affirm the absoluteness of its impunity against public accountability at the expense of the taxpayer's money.

The Court has also the record of 'legally and fatally injuring' everyone who dared to suggest that the 'king is naked' using its sword of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. This law, based on a medieval mental framework, has no place in a democracy, like a judiciary that despises transparency and decries accountability.

The allegation Prashant has made is just not an Indian issue. For instance a former Chief Justice of India, Mr. A. M. Ahmedi, was nominated to serve in international committees. He was appointed to look into human rights violations in East Timor by the United Nations, to assist the judiciary in Liberia by the International Court of Justice, and has been requested to review the state of relations between the judiciary, the legal profession and the executive and violation of human rights in Zimbabwe by the International Bar Association. Any argument that Ahmedi would do justice to the victims of human rights violations in foreign lands, while he has allegedly robbed the same for sheer self-interest and greed from his countrymen (and women) does not hold water. Ahmedi's case is just one among many that must be investigated.

It is often said that making public statements of the above nature against the judiciary of a country is immature. Some may ask, will such statements help in sorting out the mess that has now surfaced? Is it not amateur and nonprofessional to say these things in such emphatic tone? The Asian Human Rights Commission believes that the professionalism of the civil society is demonstrated in its ability to raise timely questions of rule of law, with an expectation that it would generate a worthy public debate in the country where it is engaged.

Unfortunately, most of India's media are observing their characteristic silence on the issue. They have apparently perfected their art of stirring public opinion for the wrong cause using all the wrong methods, as they demonstrated in dealing with the parliament attack case, where they proved the case against the 'suspects', parroting the confession statement of the accused, extracted by some of the dreaded criminals wearing police uniforms, who practiced some of the most inhuman methods upon the accused, including torture. Indeed the Indian judiciary convicted the accused, despite the prosecution failing to prove their case, an act by which the judiciary too reiterated that pride and speculation rules above justice.

The AHRC supports and congratulates Prashant Bushan for the bold initiative that he has taken by calling for openness and transparency in one of the most immune public institutions of the world. It is now the responsibility of India's civil society to wake up from its slumber and augment this process of fastening public accountability to one of India's oldest constitutional institutions. It is the primary responsibility of the lawyers and judges who believes in the rule of law and democracy to publically support the process Prashant has initiated.

The AHRC requests everyone to sign an online petition created for the purpose.

To say the least, if the allegations made by Prashant do not lead into an impartial, prompt and public investigation, it has to be believed that the democracy is dead in India.

* The affidavit filed by Prashant Bushan is available here.
* The affidavit filed by Santhi Bushan is available here.
* The online petition can be accessed here.

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984

For India no more Business as Usual

GIRISH BHASKAR

India ‘s reputation has suffered a major setback as it prepares for the upcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG) in New Delhi. Allegations of corruption are for now kept on the back burner. Australia, New Zealand, Canada and England have threatened to pull out of the games for lack of adequate sanitary conditions at the athletes village. Only after intense pressure from major participating countries, did the Governement go into frenetic action to salvage further damage to its reputation.

India was awarded the rights to host the CWG seven years ago. The total cost is now estimated to run over $ 6 billion. Some Indians saw a golden opportunity to make a fast buck. Allegations of corruption first appeared in the press about 2 months ago. To save face the Government decided to look into allegations after completion of the games. Will the government be impartial in conducting the enquiry? A parliamentary committee of political parties should go into all aspects of the corruption. The enquiry should be timely and those responsible for blatant corruption should be sent to jail. Will the press pursue the alleged corruption charges with vigor?

The collapse of a foot bridge connecting the parking lot to the Nehru stadium and the damage to the canopy adjoining the stadium have caused injuries to several construction workers and police officers. These two incidents should be seen as symptomatic of what has gone wrong in public sector construction. In its eagerness to make a tidy profit, construction companies cut corners. Behind such shoddy work is rampant corruption that prevails in the industry. Organizers perhaps get 10% of the cut for turning a blind eye. Will criminal charges be brought against the construction company for causing serious injury to the people and giving a bad name to the country? Now why should construction companies employ child labor? Why did Organizing Committeee Chairman, Suresh Kalmadi remain silent when such practices were taking place? Westen countries see child labor with disdain.

Indian authorities had seven years to prepare for the games. When India was awarded the games for 2010, some Indians had warned that the country was not ready to host such a major event. The Government has to take full responsibily for the inordinate delay in completing the infrastructure. If the Prime Minister had chaired a committee to assess the progress of the construction and met every three months things would have been different. Certainly there was a steady lack of Central government leadership even as the Government poured in billions of dollars.

A major issue that upset many participating countries was the lack of proper hygiene in the athletes village. Westerners generally see Indian cities as filty and lacking in basic amenities. These games would have been a golden opportunity for the government to win the hearts and minds of the athletes and the fans from different countries. Basic hygiene is something that the Indians don’t like to talk about. Politicians rarely mention hygiene and population control. Perhaps this a time for Indians to take a pledge to keep their cities, towns and villages clean. This effort should start at the primary school. For this effort to succeed the elected politicians from the Panchayat to Parliament should take the lead.

When fear grips people, reasoning power vanishes rapidly. Fear of a terror attack, fear of dengue fever and fear of substandard living conditions at the Games village quickly spread throughout world like a wild fire. In a country where threat perception remains high, is it prudent to spend large amount of money on security? Many top athletes from different countries have backed out at the last minute for the reasons mentioned above.

When it comes to competitive sporting events India has been a laggard. India needs to invest heavily to detect and groom sport talents. While China has made remarkable progress in all fields, India’s development has been scrappy. China has shown the world that they can build world class roads, bridges, and trains. Chinese oversaw the best summer Olympics ever held. Will India ever be ready for the Olympics in our lifetime?

Girish Bhaskar writes for Bhaskar News Service

British example of treating caste as an aspect of race

AVINASH PANDEY

Britain, in a major victory for the movement against caste based discrimination and atrocities, can soon declare caste prejudice unlawful under laws against racial discrimination becoming the first country of the world to do so. The development was imminent in the wake of the fact that the House of Lords had already passed the Equality Bill empowering the government to treat caste as 'an aspect of race' in March this year leaving just one more step of getting it passed by the House of Commons to be enacted as law.

The victory has come as a result of the valiant struggle of the Dalit groups along with members of the broader civil society against the exploitative and oppressive system of caste, amidst tremendous opposition of the Indian government and the right wing Hindu groups based in Britain.

The significance of the development lies in the fact that it has taken almost a decade to come since 2001 when the Government of India had succeeded in botching up the attempt of the Dalit Rights Group together with the broader civil society to make caste based discrimination an aspect of racial discrimination at the Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. The Government of India claimed the caste issues as ‘internal matter of India’ and asserted that they were making all attempts to put an end to caste based discrimination.

What it forgot in doing that was its own, and glorious, role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. If caste issues are an internal matter of India, would not apartheid be an internal issue of the governments of apartheid-era South Africa? So why did India play a crucial role in mobilising the world opinion against apartheid?

The government of India tried to further substantiate its claim by asserting the caste issues as intra-racial and intra-cultural even while conceding the existence of discrimination. Soli Sorabjee, the then Attorney General of India, maintained that the only reason behind India’s attempt to keep caste discrimination off the agenda of Durban Conference was that “it will distract participants from the main topic: racism”. Even while conceding that caste discrimination in India is 'undeniable' he stressed that 'caste and race are entirely different'.

It could very well be. After all, no two systems of social stratification in this world are absolutely similar to each other. A lot of factors, from culture to economy, intercede with the systems of stratification to produce the division of power and hierarchy in the society and make the systems, in the process, absolutely distinct from one another in internal structure. The crucial question, however, is not about their distinctiveness but their efficacy in maintaining and safeguarding social hierarchies.

Sadly, Indian caste system has proved itself to be one of the worst, if not the worst, system of social stratification for maintaining and perpetuating social hierarchies. Most probably, humankind has never devised a more comprehensive system of keeping a section of society under perpetual subjugation amidst inhuman conditions. It has never devised a worse way of dehumanising fellow human beings and reducing them to being mere labour force devoid of any dignity leave aside rights. Everything said and done, when it comes to committing atrocities on people, the caste system has proved itself to be far more clinical in brutalising its victims than race and not less.

The argument of the Indian government that caste based discrimination should not be included under the category of racial discrimination because it is making serious progress in the issue by having protective laws and positive discrimination fails miserable in the wake of data produced by its own agencies.

For example, the number of crimes against people belonging to the Scheduled Castes as per records of the National Crime Records Bureau of India, a body of ministry of Home Affairs, went up to 33615, an increase of more than 2 percent from the preceding year. Or the fact that the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act does not get applied even in such ghoulish cases of caste based atrocities as in the killing of a Dalit family in Khairlanji while committing brutal rapes on the women speaks volumes about the seriousness of the efforts of the government.

The second argument of Indian government, unfortunately backed by a few leading sociologists, was that since 'race' is a not a meaningful biological category in India and all attempts of profiling different castes along racial lines have fallen flat. Their claim is that even if caste is based on descent it is entirely different from race.

Even if the discrimination against the Dalits is intra-racial, the consequences for them are no less brutal than that in racism. On a more fundamental level, the lack of 'scientific' evidence may prove the absence of 'race' in India but not the absence of 'racism', an ideological structure based on the belief of superiority of some people because of birth and inferiority of others because of the same! And there is no doubt that this ideology is becoming stronger day by day despite all the attempts of Indian government to put an end to this ‘evil’ practice.

The seriousness of the government on the issue speaks for itself in its acts. After all, the government's dogged opposition to the inclusion of caste based discrimination does not come out of some failure to understand the ground realities out of sheer ignorance. It reflects the mindset and the psyche of the government and the people manning it. The stand of the government emanates from that pre-modern, barbaric and regressive social structure of caste that rules the country under its democratic façade. A facade that gets exposed more often than not by the deeds of all organs of the state, including its judiciary.

It is hard to believe that even judiciary can do that but even a cursory glance on its track records bear out the fact. Be it the highly misogynist and casteist verdict in Mathura rape case ((Tukaram V. State of Maharshtra, AIR 1979 SC 185) when the Supreme Court overruled the decision of the Bombay High Court convicting two policemen for raping Mathura, a 16-year-old girl because of the fact that the girl was an ‘illiterate and orphaned tribal girl’ and was of loose character by implication to the recent verdict of Maharashtra High Court in Khairlanji massacre, the judiciary has proved itself complicit in letting the government off its responsibility of abolishing caste based discrimination.

At times, ubfortunately, it has went all the distance to be part of the perpetuators ad not only accomplices of caste discrimination. Like in the infamous and stinking observation of the trial judge in the Bhanwari Devi rape case in 1995 that because Hindu scriptures do not allow upper caste men to touch a low caste woman, the accused could not have raped the Dalit victim. This case and many others have put our constitution to shame.

And that is why, compartmentalising the issue of caste into the 'scientific' and 'cultural' aspects and then prioritising the scientific ones to assert that caste is not race is not only incorrect but in fact a deceitful attempt to violate the spirit of the constitution of India if not the letters itself, and should be fought against from within and outside.

As a matter of fact, the meaning of the term 'descent' has been expanded to include 'discrimination based on caste' ,by the general recommendation number 29, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) 1969. Indian government will do well to remember that it is a signatory to that convention along with more than 170 other countries.

It will also do well to take note of the fact that the lives of more than 165 million citizens is not a question of intellectual theorising over whether race is caste or not before putting its act together and cracking down on all forms of caste atrocities decisively. By then, it can begin with accepting that caste is a form of racial discrimination, at least of racism if not of the 'pure' (in the Brahiminical sense) biological category of race!

Meanwhile, lets us all support the British Dalits in safeguarding their hard won victory against the demon of caste, threatened by the right wing Hindu organisation in Britain as well as Indian government which is, reportedly, trying to arm-twist the British government into not intervening in its 'internal' matter. Making that absurd claim amounts to appropriating anything relating to Hindu religion as ‘internal’ and caste serious aspersions on the secular credentials of Indian state. Does Indian government want to claim that all issues concerning Hindus are its ‘internal’ issues, throwing all its secular pretensions away?

After all, caste based atrocities have long ceased to confine themselves in Indian subcontinent. If the gory facts about honour killings taking place in Britain and Canada among other places were not proof enough, the recent killing of a Sikh religious leader belong to the Ravidasi sect (a Dalit sect) in Vienna leaves no scope for doubts about the same.

We can begin by standing by the policy and reminding the Indian government not to meddle in the internal issues of Britain, as it is dealing with an issue concerning its citizens and has nothing to do with a ‘secular’ India. Further, no government can sit idle when caste issues lead to illegal confinements, abductions, forced marriages, and even killings. It is the Indian state which has failed to contain the demon of caste, leave aside killing it, and it has no right to demand the same indifference and disdain for human life from a sovereign state for such a pressing issue.

Avinash Pandey, alias Samar, a research scholar based in New Delhi, is currently in Hong Kong on assignment with the Asian Human Rights Commission, which has distributed this article. He can be contacted at samaranarya@gmail.com

Right to Food Campaign seeks expansion of PDS

The following is a statement issued by the Steering group of the Right to Food Campaign and forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong:

The Right to Food Campaign welcomes the Supreme Court's firm stance on food grains left to rot in godowns and their efforts to force the Government to take action. With a growing food emergency in the country and rampant spiraling prices, this is a step in the right direction. The Court has also suggested that instead of using the 2000 population figures to decide on the number of people under the Below the Poverty Line (BPL), the projected population figures for 2010 should be used for distribution of food grains. This will lead to an expansion of the number of people being covered and we welcome this move.

We would however like to express our apprehensions about the court’s view regarding doing away with Above the Poverty Line (APL). Limiting the percentage of people covered under the BPL to only 36% has meant that huge numbers of the hungry get left out. The Planning Commission has also shown high targetting errors in the BPL list with more than 50 percent of the actual poor BPL families being left out of these lists. With the present situation of runaway prices of food grains, and a nutritional and food emergency in the country, abolishing a system of subsidised food grains for those who are outside the BPL list will result in many going hungry. It is a proven fact that the adoption of universal coverage in distribution of grain is the only measure that will prevent exclusion of the poor. In the present scenario at least those poor who have been excluded from the BPL must have the right to avail of the APL grain, which is at less than half the market price of grain. We endorse the positions by the SC Commissioners and the Government of India on retaining the APL.

It is also our belief that for ensuring food security the Government needs to procure more grain. It needs to double the present procurement, which is only 25 % of the total production. We also believe that local procurement ought to be encouraged. This would not only reduce transport costs but also ensure better management of grain storage. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) needs to improve its storage systems and local bodies (including Panchayat) managed storage systems ought to be put in place. Instead of asking the Government to reduce procurement to present storage capacity, we would instead request the court to ask for an expansion in decentralized storage capacity and procurement so that public provisioning of subsidised food grains is expanded and strengthened.

We are also concerned about the Court’s suggestion to introduce fortified atta instead of wheat. Replacing wheat with atta will lead to more corruption due to central processing of the wheat by private flour mills. Flour, has a shelf life of only a fortnight, as compared to wheat, which can last for upto an year. It is also difficult for consumer to discern the quality of atta as compared to the quality of food.

Regarding the Government’s decision of 2 September 2010 to release 2.5 million excess food stocks for the next six months, we suggest that the grain be distributed in the following manner:

• Expansion of Antyodaya food grain entitlements (35 kilograms at Rs. 3/kg for rice and Rs. 2/kg for wheat) and to all rural households (APL, BPL or Antyodaya) for an initial period of two years in all districts that were declared as drought-affected in 2009 or are so declared in 2010.

• Extension of Antyodaya cards and entitlements forthwith to all the priority groups without any quota/ limit on the number of households living at the risk of hunger as per the order of the Government of India dated 3rd August 2004; Order No. F.13(22)/2001/CFS(D)/Vol.III/1033, which was issued on the basis of the SC order of 2nd May 2004 in the PUCL case 196/2001. This stipulates that, amongst others, all landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen, slum dwellers, and daily wage earners in rural or urban areas should be given Antodaya cards.

• The Antyodaya category also includes households headed by widows, single women, children or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support, persons living with HIV/AIDS, homeless persons, transgender, and all primitive tribal households. Antyodaya cards and entitlements should be extended to all such people without any quota or limit on the number of people.

We urge the Supreme Court to ensure that all these households receive the full quota of 35 kilograms without any restriction on the numbers of such households so long as they meet the criteria set above by the Government of India order.

We would request the court to maintain the APL quota till such time as the Government expands the Public Food Distribution System (PDS) to cover most people in country.

The Government’s decision to release of 2.5 million tonnes of food grains will result in an expansion of coverage of people who receive subsidized food grains. In view of the persistence of hunger in the country, we request the Court to ensure that this expansion in coverage is not just for a period of six months but is the first step in the long term expansion to universally cover our population.

We are,

the Steering group of the Right to Food Campaign

Annie Raja (National Federation for Indian Women),
Anuradha Talwar (New Trade Union Initiative),
Arun Gupta (Breast Feeding Promotion Network of India),
Arundhati Dhuru (National People’s Movement of India),
Ashok Bharti (National Conference of Dalit Organizations),
Anjali Bhardwaj,
Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey (National Campaign for People’s Right to Information),
Asha Mishra and Vinod Raina (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti),
Colin Gonsalves (Human Rights Law Network),
Kavita Srivastava (People’s Union for Civil Liberties),
Mira Shiva and Vandana Prasad (Jan Swasthya Abhiyan),
Paul Diwakar (National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights),
Subhash Bhatnagar (National Campaign Committee for Unorganized Sector workers),
Jean Dreze (Allahabad University) and V.B. Rawat
For more information, please contact:

Kavita Srivastava (0141-2594131 or 09351562965),
Anuradha Talwar (09433002064),
Deepika (9560923178),
Sejal Parikh (09560266167),

Secretariat - Right to Food Campaign. C/o PHRN 5 A, Jungi House,
Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110049. India
Website: www.righttofoodindia.org
Email: righttofood@gmail.com
Phone: + 91 11 2649 9563