National Convention: Countering Fascism: Defending the Idea of India
25-26 October 2008
Constitution Club Lawns
Rafi Marg,
New Delhi-110001
The urgency to intervene in defence of democracy, secularism and justice has never been more pressing than in the conditions prevailing in the country today. The rise of communal fascism has emerged as a threat not only to its immediate victims but to the very long-term survival of India as a unified nation of diverse religious, linguistic and ethnic groups.
In recent months, vicious attacks have been mounted across India against religious minorities by Hindutva fascist organizations and communalism has even become the dominant tenor of public discourse. Instead of rising to the challenge and confronting these fascist forces there is total apathy and indecisiveness among those in power. It is almost as if a silent coup has already taken place and India is on the verge of becoming a ‘Hindu Rashtra’.
The RSS and organizations under its umbrella have mounted a vicious campaign against the Christian community across India. Over 10 states have seen violent attacks on the Christian community, their institutions, religious places, property and businesses. The Hindutva terrorist groups like the Bajrang Dal are openly claiming responsibility for this communal violence against Christians and are yet being allowed to go scot-free. Read more
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Please sign the petition: Release Abhay Sahu and scrap the POSCO project!
Dear all,
Please sign and circulate widely this petition.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freeabhaysahu
You may
- sign on the online petition and/or
- write to the media about it and/or
- call or wirte to the Chief Minister and Governor of Orissa with the demands mentioned.
Shri Naveen Patnaik,
Chief Minister of Orissa,
Naveen Nivas, Aerodrome Road, P.O. Bhubaneswar
Distt. Khurda, Pin -751001
E-mail cmo@ori.nic.in
Office Phone 0674-2531100, 2535100, 2531500
Office Fax 0674-2400100
Residence Phone 0674-2590299Principal Secretary to the CM, BK Patnaik: 2536682, 2322164
Email: cmo@ori.nic.in
Shri M.C. Bhandare
Governor of Orissa
Raj Bhavan
Bhubaneshwar
Phone: 0674-2536111, 0674-2536582
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freeabhaysahu
Release Abhay Sahu and scrap the POSCO project!
We the undersigned strongly condemn the arrest of Abhay Sahu, the leader of the anti-POSCO movement in Orissa and condemn the attack of the Naveen Patnaik government on democratic people’s movements.
Abhay Sahu, the visionary leader of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti was arrested unwarranted by the Orissa police near Pattamundai in Jagtsingpur district in the evening on 12 October 2008 on his return from the hospital after a medical check-up. The same night he was sent to the Central Jail in Choudwar in Cuttack district. Despite his fragile health condition, he was not given any medical help till the evening of 15 October 2008.
The motive of the state government behind Abhay Sahu’s arrest can clearly be seen as an attempt to repress people’s fight over their traditional and constitutional rights to lands and livelihoods and to divert public attention from attacks on Christians in the state so that it goes on unabated.
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50 per cent children in India suffer from malnutrition: NHRC
Thu, Oct 9 05:25 PM
Yahoo News
New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI) In the wake of deaths of a large number of children in Madhya Pradesh allegedly due to malnutrition, the National Human Rights Commission today said nearly half of the country’s children are not getting proper diet. “Nearly 50 per cent children in India suffer from malnutrition.
It is one of the worst problems we have,” NHRC chairman Justice S Rajendra Babu told PTI. Babu said a lot of schemes have been launched by the government for the welfare of children but all kids were not covered by them. “Government has taken up many programmes.
But no programme is good enough to cover all children,” he said. The NHRC chief claimed that government schemes meant for the benefit of children were not working properly else reports of malnutrition death would not have come.
“Government welfare programmes are not working in the manner they should be. They are not reaching to the needy.
Otherwise, so many deaths would not have taken place in Madhya Pradesh,” he said. According to a petition filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court by NGO Madhya Pradesh Right to Food Campaign, 159 children have died due to malnutrition in Shivpuri, Sheopur, Satna and Khandwa districts between May 8 and September 10.
“Whenever we get such reports, we inform the government. But unfortunately, the government’s response is always routine — that no such deaths have taken place.
They say that they were suffering from some other diseases,” he said. PTI.
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Citizen’s Statement Against Terrorism and Communal Violence
‘No Double Standards in the Fight Against Terrorism’
In recent months the country has witnessed a spate of terrorist attacks in different cities as well as organised communal violence against religious minorities in several states.
We the undersigned strongly condemn all these acts of violence that have resulted in loss of life and grievous injury to scores of innocent people. It is clear that whoever is responsible for such violence should be severely punished under Indian law and all measures be taken to protect the lives of ordinary citizens under threat from their activities.
We find it deeply disturbing however that the Indian government as well as concerned state governments have adopted double standards in dealing with the two equally deadly phenomenon of terrorist bombings and communal violence.
On one hand throughout the country Muslim youth are being targeted, without any or little evidence, as responsible for terrorist attacks. In our view there is a concerted attempt by the Indian police, sections of the media and certain political parties to portray all members of the Muslim community as ‘terrorists and extremists’ - to be arbitrarily arrested, tortured and killed in fake encounters.
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“Arresting Ajay TG May Have Been a Mistake”: DGP Vishwa Ranjan
For Immediate Release
DGP Chhattisgarh Under Fire for Human Rights Record at Berkeley Conference
Berkeley, CA, September 30, 2008:
For a change it was the turn of Vishwa Ranjan, the high profile Director General of Police of Chhattisgarh, to be subjected to a grueling interrogation, about massive human rights abuses perpetrated by the police under his direction. Questioning him were students, faculty and members from a coalition of South Asian community groups at a conference on Indian Democracy at Berkeley, California, where he was one of the invited speakers.
And some of the ‘confessions’ that emerged from him were startling. The controversial arrest of film maker Ajay TG, the DGP said, was a ‘technical mistake’. The continued incarceration of Dr Binayak Sen in Raipur jail was the responsibility of the Chhattisgarh government and not the police.
In fact, so flustered was the DGP by the persistent questioning he ended up signing a petition to the Prime Minister asking for Dr Sen’s release! The card he signed reads ‘The imprisonment of this brave and good man is outrageous. I demand his immediate unconditional release’.
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- Protestors carrying signs
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- DGP Vishwa Ranjan addressing the seminar in Berkeley facing a room full of silent protesters
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- Senior Supreme Court Lawyer, Rajeev Dhavan demands DGPs resignation.
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- Chhattisgarh DGP calls for Dr. Binayak Sen’s release
Ranjan earlier spoke at a panel at the FDRI/Berkeley Conference on Indian Democracy, trying to defend his record of jailing critics and supporting the Salwa Judum, a civilian vigilante army armed and backed by the state. Ranjan was handed a letter written by 106 academics calling for him to address a number of egregious human rights and police brutality cases; the signatories comprised professors from many universities including Princeton, Harvard, Yale, MIT, seven campuses of University of California and UC Berkeley’s Center for South Asia Studies, the organization co-hosting the conference.
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Gallery
From freebinayaksen.org- Updates from Google News
- Dr Binayak Sen: An unfortunate achiever - Merinews
- Jailed human-rights activist works for peace - Ode Magazine
- Q&A: 'Rights activism uses space within the Constitution' - Times of India
- DIFFERENT KINDS OF SILENCE - Calcutta Telegraph
- Vote War 2008: Chhattisgarh - Tehelka
- National Convention on Countering Fascist Forces: Defending the ... - NewsBlaze (press release)
- Reports From Indian Media
- Different kinds of silence - Telegraph: Opinion
- Whither democracy? - Oheraldo
- Q&A: 'Rights activism uses space within the Constitution' - TOI: Editorial
- The Shootin' Sheriffs - Outlook
- Videos - Rediff: Top Stories (India)
- India must be reclaimed - Hindustan Times: Views
- A law and its victim - Frontline
- An appeal for peace in South Bastar - Hindu: Opinion
- NGOs demand severe action against attackers - The Navhind Times