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 

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 

Salwa judum in Manipur: Eyes Wide Open

CURRENT AFFAIRS
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 28, Dated July 19, 2008
TERESA REHMAN
Guwahati

Two Manipuri villages rethink on their decision to have their own Salva Judum after a visit to Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district

THE METHODS and premises of the Salva Judum — Chhattisgarh’s controversial civilian mobilisation against the state’s Naxals — remain bitterly contested, but analysing the pros and cons of the strategy represents far more than mere academic interest in insurgency-riddled Manipur. After a series of militant attacks, two villages here — Heirok in Thoubal district and Chajing Konjeng Leikai in Imphal West district — decided this year to ask the government for permission to bear arms against the ultras. With the Union Home Ministry granting consent, the state government decided to create 500 Special Police Officer (SPO) posts from the two villages, 300 from Heirok and 200 from Chajing.

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

Updates on Ajay TG & text of Bail Order

From: Kavita Srivastava

Jaipur,
5th July, 2008.
Dear friends,

I have been to Raipur twice in the last ten days. From the 24-26 June, I was there to express solidarity with the ten day fast that Sandeep Pandey and three others had undertaken, demanding the release of Binayak Sen and Ajay TG and against the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, 2005. On the last two days of the fast a national seminar against State Repression and Repressive laws was organised by the Chhattisgarh PUCL, timing it with emergency day.

In this period I also met Ajay TG in Durg Jail and also spent some time with his wife Shobha (also a film maker), there 20 month old son called Aman and several cousins and friends of Ajay including a couple of lawyers in Durg.

The second time I went was during the second phase of Binayak’s trial on 2nd and 3rd of July, 2008. On this occasion too I met Shobha and his lawyers.

Both the visits as usual were undertaken to stand in solidarity with Chhattisgarh PUCL who is facing the ire of the State and support the struggle for justice being undertaken by the families of those in jail.

25th June being Wednesday was the weekly day for visitors for Ajay so I accompanied Shobha to Durg jail. Shobha who had expected a face to face meeting with Ajay and had hoped that their son would get an opportunity to hug the father was very disappointed when we were all told that we could only talk to him through the window. Left with no choice all of us, including Ajay’s cousins living in Bhilai talked to him though the grilled and wire meshed window. Ajay who had lost his younger brother Anura only on the 19th of June in a tragic road accident in Kerala, was visibly upset. He was very keen to talk to me separately so we took a chance and I got the permission from the Jail authorities to meet him inside the jail. They just would not allow Shobha but agreed to Aman coming into the Jailer’s room which was our meeting room. Those thirty minutes spent together between father and son was memorable.

Ajay also spoke to me. He asked me to give a message to all. He said that he was innocent and he felt that his arrest was part of the agenda to finish the PUCL. He had been targeted for several reasons:

  1. Since he had worked with Nandini Sundar and she had filed the Salwa Judum case in the Supreme Court, it was one way of getting back at her and him and all those who were opposed to the Salwa Judum.
  2. Since he had made short films on some of the PUCL, Chhattisgarh fact finding misions, like on Gola-Palli and Jiramtarai which had belied the official version of naxalite attacks, he was being taught a lesson for that. These two CDs along with another had been seized from Binayak’s house during the house search in May 2007.
  3. Since he was one of the persons who had conducted the search on the body of the policemen who had carried out the house search of the residence of Binayak Sen as per rules, the particular policemen had told him that he would be taught a lesson one day.
  4. Since he had stood by Binayak and he was one of the few who was regularly coming to the court in solidarity, he was made a target.

Incidentally his analysis is what most of the members in and outside PUCL Chhattisgarh also state. He felt that Chhattisgarh PUCL was a target and had to be supported with greater strength and that the people within the PUCL need to sit and form a strategy as to how to fight this onslaught of the State.

I also learnt that the family was coping with this crisis mostly on its own. The support for the legal case they had organised on their own with some inputs from a few friends in the PUCL and outside.

Ajay being denied access to a Magistrate:

It was shocking to learn from Ajay that although four remand hearings had happened he had been produced only once, that was on the day he was arrested, after that he was never taken on the date of the hearing under the pretext that there was not enough security needed to take a Naxalite prisoner out to a court and the times he was produced he was taken to the Babu of the Magisterial Court and made to sign and brought back..

Incidentally, on the 27th June too (after Shobha and I had brought this to the notice of all in the national convention) he was still taken to the Babu of the remand court where he was made to sign and brought back. After all these hearings are supposed not merely an extension of judicial remand but also an opportunity to share any grievance that the detainee may have, however, that right has been completely denied to Ajay. This was also tried in the case of Binayak Sen when he was prevented from reaching the Court on the grounds that sufficient force was not available. But our protests and lodging written complaints with the Court, DG and the IG gave a message to the authorities

It was definitely a case of the lack of support of a good local lawyer who was neither present for all the hearings and if present did not see that it was wrong, therefore Ajay has never represented his point to the Court. Incidentally we have brought in another local lawyer who hopefully will take on these issues.

Hand Cuffing of Ajay when taken to Court:

The worst part has been that whenever he was taken to Court he was handcuffed and taken. Since he was never produced in front of the Magistrate he was never able to present his point about handcuffing. Here too the local lawyer was not of much help, infact when Shobha raised this with him he felt that there was no escape from the handcuffing.

The legal position is completely clear. Ordinarily the accused must not be handcuffed. This is the settled law through various judgments of the Supreme Court. Only when the Court is completely satisfied by the argument of the prosecution of the likelihood of the accused escaping from custody, the court will permit handcuffing.

In this case neither has Ajay got an opportunity to raise this issue, nor has it been raised by his lawyer. This is the most disturbing thing that unless we monitor what is happening in the court there will be a denial of basic rights even of the most aware and educated of the lot.

We raised this issue with the Jail authorities and gave it in writing to the DGP on the 2nd of July and on the 3rd July too when Shobha and I met the DGP. He has assured that he will look into it and hopefully this should not happen again, otherwise we really need to protest very loudly on the 11 of July which is the next date of hearing.

Well we hope that now with the change of lawyer in Durg things will improve and also our lobbying with the DGP and IG will help.

No legal advise was also made available to them when Ajay got the news of his brother’s death. No bail application was presented in Court.

Ajay also has no access to books. He did apply for it in court but he was refused. Shobha has not been allowed to give books. This was another request that we made to the Jail Authorities. He is only allowed to read one of the local newspapers.

The Text of the Bail order

As you all are aware Ajay was denied bail in the lower court exactly a month after his arrest on the 5th June, 2008. The sections under what he has been booked are 124 (a) (Sedition) and sections 3,4, 8 (1) of the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, 2005.

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July 9, 2008 | Filed Under solidarity | 1 Comment 

Impunity Institutionalized: 50 years of AFSPA

Armed Forces Special Powers Act completes 50 years as Indian law
Jagmohan Singh
manipurfreedom.org

While people couldn’t care less and the State continues to revel in the impunity granted to the armed forces, well-meaning social activists, journalists, academicians and young human rights activists demand the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 at a Seminar held in New Delhi on 22nd May 2008 –marking the 50 years of the legislation. The event went totally unreported in the Indian media. The author files this report and comments on various aspects of the draconian law.

50 Years of AFSPA

50 years ago, on 22nd May 1958, in the face of rising political dissent in the North-east, India decided to add fiction to its laws -the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Though enacted only for a year, it has continued since. It contravenes the fundamental principles of jurisprudence, Indian law, particularly the right to life and right to a fair trial and international standards, particularly the derogable and non-derogable provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which India is a signatory.

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May 31, 2008 | Filed Under articles | 2 Comments 

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