Mumbai Terror: Petition from Avaaz
Dear friends across India and the world,
The brutal Mumbai terrorist attacks sought to divide us. Join an urgent message to show the extremists they failed, and call for unity against terror:
Sign the message now
We’re all feeling the shock of the awful attacks in Mumbai. All our hearts go out to the victims and their families. I’m writing this because I feel we need to honor their memory.
The attacks were aimed at our people, our prosperity and our peace. But their top target was something else: our unity. If these attacks cause us to turn on each other in hatred and conflict, the terrorists will have won. They know that hatred and chaos feed on division. They also know they are radical extremists, and their only hope of reaching society as a whole is by turning the rest of us against each other.
Let’s deny them that victory. We’re launching a message to extremists on all sides and all our political leaders, one that will soon be published in newspapers across India and Pakistan. The message is that these tactics aren’t working, that we’re more united than ever, united in our love and support to each other, and determined to work together to stop violent extremism. If millions of people sign it, our message will be unmistakable, click below to sign it and please forward this email widely:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/india_undivided/
As a Muslim, I am shocked at what has been done in the name of my faith. As an Indian, I am determined to keep these terrorists from tearing our nation apart. As a human being, I join with the entire world in condemning this horrific violence.
It’s time to speak out, let’s do it together.
With respect, sadness and hope,
Soha Ali Khan
Bollywood actress and Avaaz senior advisor
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Humanrights Defenders As Petty Swindlers: It’s All Maya!
By Subhash Gatade
03 November, 2008
Countercurrents.org
Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That’s our problem.”
~Howard Zinn, from ‘Failure to Quit’
Three month old Babu who is affectionagely called Yuvraj also is not in a position to read the changes in his mother’s face nor can comprehend why everyone in the family has suddenly started looking tense these days. For the kid the world remains the same, but for his family members it has rather changed a lot.
When Babu aka Yuvraj grows up, possibly he would be told that how his father Vinod Yadav - an activist of the human rights movement - was one day ‘kidnapped’ from Lucknow (24 th Oct 2008)by personnel supposedly belonging to some anti-terrorist squad of UP and later handed over to the police after three days of interrogation which booked him under charges of swindling people (IPC 419/420). Perhaps he would also find out that the arrest happened on the eve of Diwali when grand preparations were on supposedly to celebrate his arrival in this world.
Read more
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TOI Q&A: ‘Rights activism uses space within the Constitution’ : Ilina sen
Times of India
5 Nov 2008
It’s been a hectic 17 months for Ilina Sen since Binayak Sen was arrested under the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act. In between teaching at Mahatma Gandhi Hindi University, Wardha, meeting her daughters in Mumbai, attending her husband’s trial in Raipur, and coordinating the campaign for his release in Delhi, she talked to Jyoti Punwani:
You and your husband worked with the previous government in some areas. Was the arrest therefore totally a shock?
We had a long history of social involvement and activism in this area and were very well known. I had drafted the women’s policy for the new state of Chhattisgarh. We were both part of the state advisory committee on health sector reforms. At that time too, we were often critical of government functioning. However, once the BJP government came in, they began to fill up civil society spaces with their own people, and people like us were marginalised. This coincided also with the turning of Chhattisgarh into a high-security state, land acquisition for industry, and the Salwa Judum.
As state secretary of the PUCL, Binayak spoke openly against state repression. Once the new security law was enacted, we were sure human rights activists would be targeted. PUCL organised two major national conventions against the Act. Yet, even as the clouds were darkening, one felt that one’s reputation and history would carry one through. In that sense, the arrest and the misinformation campaign that was spread about Binayak (he is a doctor only in name, etc) was a shock.
But as a human rights activist this shouldn’t have surprised you.
Human rights activism is based on using a certain democratic space within the Constitution. Binayak’s work was essentially in this area. He opposed the Salwa Judum, took up fake encounters, visited Maoist prisoners - all this was legal activity. It is only a paranoid system that can treat this as guilt by association. I suppose one had misjudged the democratic space available. I first heard the phrase psychological war from a retired police official after Binayak’s arrest. I have heard it many times since and marvel at the way in which lies and more lies are traded by the police and the administration to frame and nail a person. This has been a great learning experience. I would like to write a novel about it if i survive this crisis.
What about the judiciary?
It is part of the same establishment. A G Noorani in ‘The trial of Bhagat Singh’ writes about the way in which the executive and the judiciary colluded to hang Bhagat Singh. It is the same here.
What’s been the effect on your daughters?
They are hurt and show it in different ways. However, they have also rallied round and shown remarkable courage and resilience. Family and a very large circle of friends have been very supportive. People in Raipur, though afraid to speak up, have shown their sympathy and support in many subtle and unsaid ways.
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Amartya Sen and Shyam Benegal on Dr. Binayak Sen
From: Kamayani Bali Mahabal
I had an opportunity to be on the same flight on which mr shyam Benegal and dr Amartya Sen were traveling and i took the opportunity to talk to them regarding Dr Binayak Sen
Watch the videos Below
share and spread the word around
in solidarity
kamayani
Dr Amartya sen speaks on Dr Binayak
Shyam Benegal speaks on Dr Binayak Sen
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From freebinayaksen.org- Updates from Google News
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - Times of India
- With fear and hope - Hindu
- Orissa Police in Service of Hindutva (and POSCO) - Desicritics.org
- POTA 3.0: India's New Terror Law - CounterCurrents.org
- Mumbai attack: Who is asking the real questions? - Express Buzz
- Poetry: Matte Finish - Desicritics.org
- Reports From Indian Media
- With fear and hope - Hindu: Sunday Magazine
- Mumbai attack: Who is asking the real questions? - New Indian Express
- Equality before the law? - Oheraldo
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - TOI: India
- Chidambaram says Govt disapproves of Salwa Judum - Express India-- Front Page
- Chidambaram says Govt disapproves of Salwa Judum - The Indian Express -- Front Page
- Centre disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - Rediff: News
- Government disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers - NDTV National
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers - Hindustan Times: News
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers - Hindustan Times: India
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - TOI: India
- Govt disapproves of 'non-state' law enforcers like Salwa Judum - Doordarshan
- Rhetoric rejected - Frontline
- Outcome shot in the arm for salwa judum - Asian Age: India
- PUCL Vice-President's bail plea rejected - New Kerala: West Bengal
- Chhattisgarh HC: PUCL vice president's bail plea rejected - IndLaw News
- Different kinds of silence - Telegraph: Opinion
- Whither democracy? - Oheraldo
- Q&A: 'Rights activism uses space within the Constitution' - TOI: Editorial
- The Shootin' Sheriffs - Outlook