Enemy of the state
South China Morning Post, Jul 28, 2008
Human rights activists want the world’s biggest democracy to admit jailing dissenters
BEHIND THE NEWS
Rajeshree Sisodia
There has been a series of arrests of human rights activists across the country. It is plain now that there is a policy to arrest people, put people in jail. We must talk about peace,” Binayak Sen said quietly from the dock.
The judge adjourned the proceedings at the hot and steamy 11th Additional District and Sessions Court in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state in east-central India. Sen was not allowed to finish speaking. The first day of trial was over, his lawyer said, adding that it could last a year. Sen has been in custody, denied bail by three courts, since his arrest on May 14 last year. He was charged with sedition and waging war against the Indian government. He denies the charges. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.
His case is far from unique. Human rights workers allege that increasing numbers of ordinary people, activists and journalists are being jailed and tortured for opposing the Chhattisgarh state government’s policies.
The New Delhi-based Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) has launched a national campaign to lobby the Indian government to recognise thousands of political prisoners as a separate category of detainees. The CRPP, which alleges detainees are routinely tortured, estimates that India has more than 10,000 political prisoners and the number is rising as state governments act increasingly to crush dissent.
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An attempt to deprive tribals of their constitutional rights: National Adivasi Alliance
Bangalore July 28: Decrying the conspiratory moves by forces with vested interests to thwart the rendering of constitutional benefits to the Adivasis across the country, the National Adivasi Alliance (NAA), a national level NGOs network has, in unison declared to intensify its efforts to lobby for the effective implementation of the Forests Rights Act. The resolution to this effect was taken at the three-day national workshop on “Adivasi World View and Adivasi Dialogue organized by NAA in association with Coorg Organisation for Rural Development (CORD) that concluded here on Sunday.
Briefing reporters here on the deliberations, NAA spokesperson, V S Roy David informed that the discussions which were actively participated by Adivasi representatives from eight states across the country including Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa, strongly felt that it was high time that the Governments and the other powers that may be, accorded serious weightage to the Adivasi ways of sustainability, ecology governance and justice system so as to enable progress in the true sense.
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Trail of violence: rights activists at risk
Opinion - Leader Page Articles
The Hindu
Mukul Sharma
Rights activists face a series of obstacles to their work. Rights violations also have wider repercussions. They create a climate of fear.
The Karnataka convener of the National Alliance for People’s Movement, A.D. Babu, was killed recently. He was on his way, along with two colleagues, to a NAPM meeting on an anti-liquor campaign at Ramnagaram, when a group stopped his vehicle at Mayanagram, a few km from the venue, and attacked him with knives and swords. He died on the spot. It is believed that a Karnataka liquor mafia is behind the gruesome murder.
In May, Lalit Kumar Mehta of Palamau district, Jharkhand, who fearlessly raised the issue of corruption in implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme , was murdered. So was Narayan Hareka — a naib sarpanch belonging to the Kandha tribal community — of Kambivalsa village in Koraput district, Orissa, who fought against liquor brewing, private money-lending, land alienation and corruption.
Read more
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Sreelatha Menon: A homecoming in Bastar
Business Standard, July 20, 2008
EAR TO THE GROUND
Sreelatha Menon
The collector of Dantewada has agreed to give 10 quintals of paddy seed to restart farming in Nendra. Nendra is a village in Konta block in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh which has been lying deserted for the last three years after multiple attacks by the government-backed anti-Naxal militia, the Salwa Judum, and the police. The collector’s gesture was in reciprocation of a rehabilitation effort by an NGO called Vanvasi Chetna Ashram to facilitate homecoming for the villagers who were living either in jungles fearing reprisals from the Salwa Judum and the police, or in neighbouring villages of Andhra Pradesh. Some of them are in camps set up by the state government.
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Chhattisgarh and the danger of dissent
Hindustan Times, July 20, 2008
Paramita Ghosh
If Ajay TG had been smart enough to know where to point his camera, his films might have been showing in Osian today. As it stands, he is in Durg jail, 40 km from Bhilai.
Having started making films 7-8 years ago, he would capture “daily life, festivals and rituals of Durg”, and particularly, says Ajay, in a statement, “my own neighborhood — an old village now surrounded by urban growth.” In Chattisgarh though, these are acts of terrorism.
This week, www.releaseajaytg.in, a website was set up by a committee for his release. Playwright Habib Tanvir, activist Aruna Roy, professor Dr Kamal Chenoy, ex-director ActionAid India, Harsh Mander, law expert Usha Ramanathan, journalist Siddharth Vardharajan, among others, are its members.
Renowned film-maker Mrinal Sen who signed the petition condemning Ajay’s arrest, says: “I wish I was 30 years younger, so that I could have physically joined you all in this campaign.”
Tanvir says, “Chattisgarh was always a peaceful place. It is a great shame that artists, film makers and journalists are being targeted in this state.”
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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