I’m no Maoist: Filmmaker Ajay TG

MSN India

Incarcerated for 93 days on charges of being a Maoist, independent documentary filmmaker Ajay TG has vehemently denied the label, saying he will fight for repealing the draconian law under which he was arrested.

“I am no Naxalite (Maoist). I have never been associated with any acts of insurgency or terror. I don’t know what I am being charged with,” Ajay, who was held under the notorious Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) and accused of sedition, said.

He was released on conditional bail after the police failed to file a chargesheet against him in court within the stipulated 90 days. The case against him has not been closed and he has to report to the police in Bhillai town every alternate Monday. He has also been barred from leaving the country.

“There is no FIR (first information report), no charge sheet. How do I defend myself?” asked Ajay, who is a member of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He was in the capital to attend a meeting convened by the Committee for the Release of Ajay TG, to celebrate his release.

Ajay was released on August 5 but another prominent rights activist, Binayak Sen, who was arrested under the same act on May 14, 2007, is still in jail. Sen is the PUCL’s general secretary.

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August 14, 2008 | Filed Under Press Reports | Leave a Comment 

Book Review: Threat to State Security : Incarceration of a Public Health Practitioner

Saturday 2 August 2008, by K B Saxena
Book Review

Indian Doctor in Jail: The Story of Binayak Sen—A Report to the Nation by Doctors in Defence of Dr Binayak Sen
Publishers: Doctors in Defence of Dr Binayak Sen, Promila & CoPublishers in association with Bibliophile South Asia, New Delhi and Chicago; pages 112; price : Rs 250.

Democracies are considered the world over as a superior form of polity when compared to authoritarian regimes due to their ability and confidence to face multiple and complex challenges particularly in a culturally diverse and socially unequal society. This is on account of the former’s institutional structures of participation, accountable governance, resolution of conflict through dialogue and accommodation and commitment to universally recognised rights and freedoms. But how would a democracy be described when it demonstrates its incapability to understand, much less to deal with, political violence from its disenchanted and alienated social groups, turns to extraordinary laws curbing civil liberties, acquiesces in unaccountable governance for enforcing security, despises advocacy of human rights and legitimises matching counter-violence to meet this challenges? The history of modern political theory has come to describe such a State as fascist which, while retaining the democratic institutional arrangements, descends into authoritarian practices through both legal and extra-legal practices in dealing with its citizens. The book under review, which revolves around the detention and continued incarceration of Dr Binayak Sen, brings out the typical features of such a State when it finds the work of this public health professional providing health care services to Adivasis in a remote block a threat to its security.

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August 2, 2008 | Filed Under articles | Leave a Comment 

Resolutions on the convention against draconian laws

Resolution on serial bomb blasts in bangalore and ahmedabad

This convention against draconian laws organised by Asha Parivar, INSAF, NCDHR, FDI, SAHR APDP (J & K Manipur forward youth front, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee Hyderabad and Reach out Condemns the serial bomb blasts at Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

In any civilised democratic society killing of innocents, women and children, whatever the demands and politics should be condemned. We condemn the barbaric acts of killing, maiming and sexual assaults in all forms of conflicts.

It should be noted that the serial bomb blasts will further vitiate the already communally charged atmosphere of Gujarat.

The country is yet to come over the Shock and Trauma of the Ghastly state sponsored communal carriage in Gujarat in year 2002, which is one of the blackest Spot in Post Independent India.

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July 30, 2008 | Filed Under statements | Leave a Comment 

Update on PUCL challenge to Chattisgarh Special Public security Act

SUPREME COURT DIRECTS PUCL TO CHALLENGE THE DRACONIAN LAW IN CHHATTISGARH HIGH COURT

The Supreme Court of India has permitted the PUCL to withdraw its Petition challenging the constitutionality of The Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, and said in the order that the petitioners were at “liberty to go to the High Court”.

Appearing for the Petitioners, Mr. Rajendar Sachar, Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court & Former National President of the PUCL argued that the Chhattisgarh Act 2005 was linked up with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 (Amended in 2004), and the main issue before the Apex Court was to examine whether the States could bring in similar laws when the Central Act like UAPA was already applicable to the entire country. Mr. Sachar also gave example of other State legislations like the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes Act, 1999 (MCOCA), whose provisions were under challenge before this Hon’ble Court. The questions relating to violation of constitutional provisions,human rights and civil liberties are required to be examined by this Hon’ble Court.

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July 30, 2008 | Filed Under announcements | 1 Comment 

CONVENTION ON DRACONIAN LAWS

DELHI, JULY 26-27, 2008
Venue : Garhwal Bhavan, Panchkuian Road, Opp Videocon Tower, New Delhi
(near New Delhi Railway Station)

In order to seek moral legitimacy for their existence in the present neo-liberal era, governments increasingly are resorting to sideline the constitutional provisions of civil liberties, right to association and freedom of expression in the name of global action against terrorism. The Indian government has joined the US in this global campaign. Man Mohan Singh has also said, on more than one occasion, that naxalism is a bigger threat than terrorism. The other side of the coin is that citizens get killed or face repression at the hands of police when the state machinery brands anybody a naxalite or a terrorist and violates all norms of human rights.

Binayak Sen, the General Secretary of Chattisgarh People’s Union of Civil Liberties and national Vice President of the same body, an organization established by late Jayaprakash Narayan, and a doctor who used to run a non-governmental people’s health care programme is presently the target of Chattisgarh government. Binayak had started exposing some of the misdeeds of the state machinery in persecuting people by invoking the fear of naxalism. He is presently languishing in jail in spite of national and international protests.

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July 25, 2008 | Filed Under announcements | 1 Comment 

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