announcements
Respect India Campaign
Press Meet Invitation
The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) would like to invite you cordially for a Press Meet at Idinthakari on May 8, 2012 at 3:00 PM.
[1] We plan to display the notebooks that contain the signatures of all the neighboring village people who oppose the KKNPP.
[2] People submit the Voter ID Cards to surrender to the Radhapuram Tahsildar.
[3] We announce the “Respect India” campaign.
SC suspends Narayan Sanyal’s life term, grants him bail
New Delhi, May 7, 2012
PTI
The Supreme Court on Monday suspended the life sentence of CPI (Maoist) activist Narayan Sanyal, held guilty of committing sedition by a Chhattisgarh court in 2010, and granted bail to him.
A bench of justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya gave bail to 78-year-old Sanyal, considering his age and the fact that he has already spent over six years in jail since his arrest in 2006.
The bench said the concerned trial court would impose the condition to its satisfaction for Mr. Sanyal’s release on bail.
Mr. Narayan Sanyal was convicted along with People’s Union of Civil Liberties’ Vice President Binayak Sen and a Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha for colluding with the Maoists in expanding their network to fight the state.
Mr. Sen was granted bail and his sentence was suspended by the apex court on April 15 last year.
They were held guilty by a Raipur court on December 24, 2010 of committing sedition and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code as well as offences under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.
The three were also found guilty under the provisions of Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act and sentenced to five years jail term. Mr. Sanyal was also awarded 10 years imprisonment for being member of a terrorist outfit, in violation of the UAP Act.
All three had moved the Chhattisgarh High Court against their conviction and their appeals are still pending there.
Protest for Release of Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi
Protest Demonstration
Against Chhattisgarh Government and Police
Demand the Release of Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi
Demand unfettered access to Journalists and Civil Society activists across the
conflict torn areas of Chhattisgarh
Demand the repeal of black laws like Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Ac
Speakers:
Shankar Subbu Sr.Adv, High Court of Madras
V Geetha Writer
A Marx Human Rights Activist
Mangai Theater activist
R Mohan Madras Union of Journalist
Tamilazhagan Journalist for Change
Date: 4th November 2011 (Friday)
Time: 4:30pm
Venue: Near Panagal Maaligai, Saidapet Bus Stand
Dr Sen’s letter to the Gandhi Peace Foundation
To
The Trustees of The Gandhi Foundation, London.
Dear Friends,
Ilina and I appreciate deeply the solidarity and support extended by so many friends from the United Kingdom and across the world in the course of my trial and incarceration. We were looking forward to meeting at least a few of you in the course of our proposed visit to the United Kingdom in November.
The original citation of the Gandhi International Peace Award when it came, was a surprise, as I on my own had never claimed to be a representative of the tribal people of India. However, I had always proudly claimed the heritage of a vernacular and indigenous life-world that was egalitarian and sustainable, and since the awarding body was free to make its own ascription, I humbly accepted the responsibility being put on me. I was fully aware that there could be many views about my fitness to undertake such a task, but it never occurred to me that my ethnic identity, in that I was not ethnically a member of the tribal people of India, would stand in my way.
To my understanding, the ethnic indigenous people of the world have suffered terrible violence in the course of the development of the capitalist state, a violence that has been directed equally against all colonized people, the working class, and other subaltern sections. Efforts to build a new society must be made by all oppressed people together. To claim to take on board the politics of genetic ethnicity as a part of this effort is a form of racism, and racism never smelt sweeter merely because it was articulated from the platform of a subaltern identity.
What we are confronting throughout India today is widespread hunger, compounded by widespread displacement, to the extent that it constitutes a stable famine spread over large parts of the country and over large sections of its people. Access to appropriate health care remains a dream for all except a privileged minority. The penetration of global capital into resource rich ‘undeveloped’ regions, and the operation of industrial and mining interests in these areas have been responsible for this displacement and disenfranchisement of communities. State policies in countries like ours are aiding rather than curbing these processes. Urgent measures are needed to combat this hunger, stop this displacement and ensure equity, human rights, and social justice. However, voices of dissent are deliberately suppressed through outdated laws and juridical processes, and thousands of citizens languish in prison for opposition to these policies.
In the context of the award, the changed citation has only led to further contention and acrimony. Unfortunately, the process of nomination, the thinking behind the original citation and that behind the second, were never made public by the Gandhi Foundation. If the first citation was problematic, the second was even more so, as in this, the “Tribal People of India’ of the first citation did not find any mention at all. This was not a position in which I could afford to be complicit. The level of debate is now such that the paramount issues outlined above threaten to be replaced by a palimpsest of ethnic fundamentalism. Under the circumstances, the really important task of delineating and combating the tragedy being enacted before our eyes gets pushed to the background.
Accordingly, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that at the present juncture it will not be appropriate for me to receive this award. My thanks go to those who nominated and to those who selected me for this award. It was never my intention to give offence or show disrespect to any of the parties in this controversy. I greatly regret any inconvenience that the organisers may be put to as a result of my decision.
Yours sincerely,
Binayak Sen
Dr Binayak Sen wins 2011 Heinz Pagels Prize For Human Rights
Dr Binayak Sen, the well-known humanitarian doctor and right activist has won the prestigious 2011 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientist Award by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).
The Award was received by a representative of Dr Sen in New York on 22 September as he was unable to travel to the United States to receive it. The other awardee of this prize, given to scientists doing human rights work, was Jack Minker, Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland.
In his acceptance speech Dr Sen said “The support of my professional colleagues, and of the academic community across the world, has been invaluable in securing my freedom.” Apart from the 48 Nobel Prize winners who signed a statement calling for his release Dr Sen recollected that while in Raipur prison he was personally visited by a delegation of leading scientists, including Professor Robert Curl, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996.
“ Then as now, I was personally dumbfounded and humbled by this groundswell of support, which I can only attribute to shared recognition of our common cause of human rights” he said in his speech.
Regarding his own work in Chhattisgarh Dr Sen said that “As a paediatrician and public health physician, I have tried to enhance the public’s understanding of the ways in which poverty and injustice undermine efforts to promote health and peace, which we ourselves take for granted as our own fundamental human rights”
The NYAS’s Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists was created in 1978 to support and promote the human rights of scientists, health professionals, engineers and educators around the world. The committee focuses on rights of scientists who have been detained, imprisoned, exiled, or deprived of the rights to pursue science, communicate their findings to their peers and the general public, and travel freely.
The Academy annually honors scientists for their contributions in this area with the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award. Heinz Rudolf Pagels (February 19, 1939 – July 23, 1988) was professor of physics at Rockefeller University, the executive director of the New York Academy of Sciences, and president of the International League for Human Rights. He is best known to the general public for his popular science books The Cosmic Code (1982), Perfect Symmetry (1985), and The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity (1988).
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
DR ILINA SEN: PH- 09425206875 or SATYA SIVARAMAN: PH- 9818514952 (New Delhi)
17 C’garh judges sacked, because of their caste?
Baba Umar, Tehelka
New Delhi
FIGHTING DISCRIMINATION, can be a lifelong struggle for those born on the ‘wrong’ side of the caste divide — even if they have served as judges for 20 years. When 17 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe judges were ordered to take compulsory retirement by the Chhattisgarh government on 26 March, they naturally wondered if they were victims of personal or casteist vendetta. Having served and been promoted over the years in the natural course, why were they suddenly fired? What makes their predicament all the more galling is that the Chhattisgarh government has not provided any reasons for this forcible retirement, except for a vague, sweeping statement that their performance was not up to the mark.
Apparently, the state law department took the decision on the basis of the Chhattisgarh High Court’s recommendation and was reportedly equivalent to the punishment for serious ‘misconduct’ and alleged involvement in ‘nepotism’. However, all the SC/ST judges, most of whom have 5-10 years of service still remaining, smell a “grand conspiracy” in the decision. For them, as for the litigant public, justice will be a long time coming. They have already appealed against their summary dismissal in the Consumer Forum and the special court that hears cases under the Scheduled Caste/Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act. Then, if this does not serve the purpose, the aggrieved judges also plan to appeal in the Supreme Court.
Impending Police Action in POSCO: Urgent Appeal
POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) is waging a strong resistance against forceful acquisition of land for POSCO project and it is understood that the government will start the land acquisition from 18 May 2011. There is already a deployment of police force in the area and it is going to increase in the next few days – all this indicates that the state will adopt every force to acquire the land for its prized project. As PPSS plans to put up a strong fight against this on the 18th and activities are already on to mark their protest against the project, they have appealed:
- to mobilise eminent people and friends from across the country to go to the area and join in their ongoing programmes from now onwards at least till the 17th. There will be big action of stopping the land acquisition on 18th by PPSS.
- to mobilise around Rs. 20,000/- to meet the costs towards legal action. The lawyers are doing the work almost for free – there are other costs involved and already some amount has been mobilised by Abhaya Sahu and Prafulla Samantara and they need this additional amount to meet the immediate costs. Individual contributions are encouraged.
Contact: Prashant Paikray: 09437571547
Dr Sen’s petition to recieve the Gawngju Human Rights Award
Dr. Binayak Sen had petitioned the sessions court in Raipur on May 2nd, requesting permission to travel to South Korea to receive the Gwangju Human Rights Award on May 18. One of the conditions for the release of Sen on bail on April 18 was the surrender of his passport. The court decided to seek the views of the state on this petiton and posted it for a hearing on May 4th eventhough the urgency was pointed out as also the whether the state indeed had a right to be heard on the issue of conditions of bail which was at the discretion of the court. When the case was taken up this afternoon, the state asked for further postponement so as to arrange for the presentation of their case by a Special Prosecutor.
The court was pleased to accept the plea and has posted the petition for a decision on May 9th. If the decision on the 9th is against Sen, it may be too late for him to seek a remedy at higher levels in time for the award ceremony. The ceremony always occurs on the anniverary of the popular uprising for democratic rights on May 18, 1980 in Gwangju when about 150 civilians lost their lives to secure their democratic rghts.
P. Zachariah
Binayak Sen on the CNBC TV: April 30
http://www.moneycontrol.com/video/current-affairs/binayak-sen-battling-through-hard-times_539501.html
Join anti-nuclear protests in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore
Dear Friends
Do join the anti nuclear protests in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore
Courtesy: Mukul Dube
DELHI- 25TH APRIL
PROTEST AGAINST ILLEGAL DETENTION OF ACTIVISTS
Location: Maharashtra Sadan, Copernicus Marg,
Time: Monday, 25 April 2011 11:00- 1300
Bangalore- 26TH APRIL
Protest- No more Chernobyls & Fakushimas! NUCLEAR- Stay CLEAR
Location: Town Hall, Bangalore
Time: Tuesday, 26 April 2011 17:00-19.00
Mumbai- 26th april
PROTEST MORCHA To Demand ‘Scrap Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project”
Location: From Dadar Station (East) To N M Joshi Marg Curry Road Junction Via Dr.Ambedkar Road
Time: Tuesday, 26 April 2011 17:00- 1900
Photo; Courtesy: Mukul Dube
Binayaksen.net is one of many efforts by well wishers and supporters of Dr Binayak Sen to bring the injustice being done to him by the government of Chhattisgarh to the attention of people around the world. 
