Thursday, October 31, 2013

CM Narendra Modi’s tacit admission of fear: detains activists without charges ahead of his visit

31st October 2013
 
PRESS RELEASE
 
CM Narendra Modi’s tacit admission of fear: detains activists without charges ahead of his visit
 
On 30th October 2013, 4 activists, Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah, Amrish Brahmbhatta and Sudhir Biniwale were put under house arrest by Rajpipla police even before they had reached the venue of the symbolic protest, in their own houses (not at the venue of the CM’s public meeting). The symbolic protest was to be in the form of a daylong hunger strike. They were not to assemble at any public place or sit on dharna at any public place. The sit-in protest in their own homes was aimed at protecting their land, forest, livelihood, river, (jal, jangal jamin, nadi, janavar).

They were followed by police vehicles right from Devalia chokadi when they were travelling from Vadodara to Rajpipla. When they reached the Rajpipla Social Service Society campus they (the police) were standing guard outside the place as if the activists were criminals. No policemen told them why they were holding guard or what the charges against them were.

Other activists and villagers from more than 7 villages were also detained from their homes by the police, again without pressing any formal charges. At midnight many prominent activists viz. Lakhan Musafir, Dhirendra Soneji, Dipen Desai, Rameshbhai Tadvi from Indravarna village, Shaileshbai Tadvi from Vagadia village, Vikrambhai Tadvi and 2 others form Kevadia and other villagers were detained illegally. As of 6 a.m. on 31st morning we know that at least 10 other people from 5 more villages were detained and taken to various police stations. More police action is also apprehended. 

This is one of the clearest admissions by the CM and his team of their fear of people’s voices and the entire administration bending over backwards to ‘protect’ the CM. The CM Mr. Narendra Modi has always operated under fear and thus has clamped down hard on activists and rights defenders. This is one more instance of the CM not wanting to hear the people’s voices from his own state and not allowing them to be heard by the rest of the world. CM Narendra Modi’s talk of ‘daring’ and ‘boldness’ is entirely devoid of substance and is empty rhetoric, much like an adolescent’s bombast.
 
It is also one of the clearest evidences, if one cares to heed it, that Gujarat is today reeling under a state of “undeclared Emergency”, working much like the Congress dispensation in 1975. Summary detentions without charges, or on trumped up charges, routine denials of permissions for public demonstrations and protests, selected targeting of human rights and civil rights activists, name-calling and myth-making are the order of the day – and all these can be substantiated with evidence by us, unlike the CM who cannot substantiate a single charge that he makes against those he dislikes.
 
If the CM has any sense of propriety and public responsibility, then we challenge him to answer the following questions:
  1. Why was the police following the activists from Vadodara?
  2. Why were Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah, Amrish Bhrambhatta and Sudhir Biniwale not allowed to get out of the RSSS campus and prohibited from proceeding to Kevadia?
  3.  Why are no charges framed against them?
  4. Why were people from the villages in the Kevadia area rounded up on 30th evening?
  5. What are the charges against them?
 
We strongly protest against this illegal police action against the activists and against the constitutional violation of the freedoms of expression, movement, and association. We also urge all others to register similar protests against the high-handed and authoritarian dispensation that is the government of CM Narendra Modi in Gujarat today.
 
 
Prasad Chacko       Jimmy C. Dabhi                        Fr. Rajeev, SJ
Raju Deepti           Mahesh Pandya                         Persis Ginwalla 
Deepti Raju           Gautam Thakar                      Priyanka Christian 
Kishore Chaudhary   Rajnikant Gamit                    Fr. Vinayak Jadav 
Sunil Gamit           Imran Pathan                          Vasudev Charupa 
Joseph Patelia        Ramesh Borisa                           Hiren Gandhi
Sheznaz Ansari      Saroop Dhruv                         Prakash N. Shah
Gaurang Raval     Sagar Rabari                           Fr. Cedric Prakash
Rajnibhai Dave     Lalji Desai                                  Swati Desai
Anand Mazgaonkar              





PRASHANT  
 A Centre for Human Rights,Justice and Peace

 Hill Nagar, Near Kamdhenu Hall,
 Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad - 380052,
 Gujarat, India
Phone :+91 79 27455913/66522333
Emailsjprashant@gmail.com





Monday, October 28, 2013

One Million Post Card Campaign to the Prime Minister to table PCTV Bill





Dear Dr Manmohan Singh,
I believe in an India, free of violence and hatred.  I urge therefore that the government of India keeps it’s nine year old promise and tables the
The Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations Bill ), 2011 in the Rajya Sabha,  forthwith.
Towards this India of our dreams,  
Yours Sincerely,  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


End Impunity, Ensure Accountability

Supported by: Justice P.B Sawant (retired) Supreme Court of India, Justice Hosbet Suresh (retired) Bombay High Court, Justice S.H.A Raza (retired) Lucknow Bench, Allahabad High Court & Lokayukta, Uttarakhand, Justice Michael Saldanha (retired) Karnataka High Court, Justice Fakhruddin (retired) High Court, MP & Chattisgarh, Justice B.G Kolse Patil (resigned) Bombay High Court.
  
October 28, 2013                           Press Release

One Lakh Post Card Campaign to the Prime Minister
Campaign Launch: By Actor Rahul Bose for the Justice For All Campaign
A Fast Track Intensified Campaign to ensure that the union government tables the of Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence  Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 in the Winter Session of Parliament will be launched by the Justice for All Campaign from Mumbai on Monday, October 28, 2013.

Actor Rahul Bose will launch the Campaign Fast Forward that seeks to send over One Lakh Post cards to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh from different parts of Maharashtra. 

Teesta Setalvad, Dolphy D’Souza, Farid Shaikh, Maulana Mahmood Daryabadi will address the press.

Venue –                       Press Club,  Mumbai
Time –                          3 p.m.
Date –                           Monday, October 28, 2013

SAY NO to Violence, YES to Justice and Peace are the slogans of this campaign that has been in action since early 2013. The single point demand of the Campaign is
Ø      To Expedite Tabling of Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 in the Rajya Sabha
Campaign Launch: By Actor Rahul Bose for the Justice For All Campaign
Please depute your Reporter / Cameraman to  give coverage to the Press Conference

Organisers:-
Issued by Justice for All Campaign Ad Hoc Committee: Teesta Setalvad (Convenor), Dr Amarjit Singh Narang, Irfan Engineer, Aslam Ghazi, Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, Maulana Daryabadi, Dolphy D'Souza, Farid Shaikh, Haroon Mozawala, Javed Anand, Keval Ukey, Kaushik Sangahvi, Rahul Bose, Sumedh Jadhav, Yusuf Muchhala.

All India Contact : c/o Sabrang, Nirant, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai 400049; Telephone: 91- (0)22, 6602288/26603927;
Email: teestateesta@gmail.com , www.sabrang.com

An Online Petition has also been launched .

Please join this campaign by signing @ http://chn.ge/H7Kn3L

Campaign to:-
  • To protect the Lives and Properties of Disadvantaged Citizens who are Victims of Targeted and Mass Violence during which bouts, officers of the state have shown overt or covert complicity; in short to breathe life into Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution (Right to Life and Right to Equality Before the Law)
  • Support the Justice for All Campaign
  • Ensure an End to Impunity,
  • Ensure Accountability from Public Servants
To Breathe Life into Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Indian Constitution

Summary

After the genocidal pogrom of Gujarat in 2002, UPA I in its Common Minimum Programme assured India’s minorities of a special law and well defined crimes to ensure that the perpetrators of mass and targeted violence are punished and fair reparations are made mandatory. This promise has been kept in cold storage. The recent perpetrated violence in the four districts of Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Shamli and Meerut demand that India’s political case are made to fulfill this long overdue promise.  India’s National Advisory Council (NAC) drafted a bill in June 2011 aimed at tackling communal and targeted violence and delivering justice and compensation to victims.  The proposed Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 brings in categories like sexual offences, hate propaganda, dereliction of duty and culpability of officials within its ambit, widening the spectrum of crimes that constitute communal violence.

While the Bill seeks to prevent all forms of violence against all communities, the many incidents of violence targeting religious minorities in the past three decades – e.g., Nellie, Assam (1983), Delhi (1984), Kashmir (1989), Bhagalpur (1989), Mumbai (1992-93), Gujarat (2002) and Kandhamal, Orissa (2008) – as well as the failure of the police and justice systems to punish the guilty show the need for such a law to ensure accountability, due process, reparation, and protection of these peoples’ human rights.   These constitutional guarantees have been repeatedly denied and it seems the state machinery is complicit in acts of communal violence, both by commission and omission.

The inaction on the proposed bill (almost 2 years since its drafting) would seem to support this allegation.  Civil society groups in India are now campaigning for the NAC draft bill to be tabled and taken up in Parliament.


Background

There is a history of targeted violence in India in the past three decades.  To name a few:  Nellie, Assam (1983), Delhi (1984), Kashmir (1989),  Bhagalpur (1989), Mumbai (1992-93), Gujarat (2002) and Kandhamal, Orissa (2008) .  The attacks were made on India's religious minorities:  Muslims, Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs, Christians.  Tamilians in Karnataka and Biharis in Maharashtra are examples of linguistic minorities who have suffered. Dalits and Adivasis too are frequent victims.  The Khairlanjee massacre of Dalits in 2006 or the Ramabai Nagar police firing in 1998, both in Maharashtra, are cases in point.
The attacks are also allegedly state-sponsored and state-condoned.  Moreover, when it comes to following the Rule of Law and ensuring accountability and due process after bouts of such targeted violence, the local administration and the police have been found tardy and wanting, failing to deliver justice and punish the guilty.  Local sources opine that successive governments have been guilty of serious crimes of omission and commission.

Apparently there is what they call an “institutionalized riot system”.  The November 1984 massacre of Sikhs provides a good illustration.  Victims were unable to get the local police to protect the lives of their family members or property.  They were unable to file a proper complaint in the police station.  Senior police officers, bureaucrats and ministers, who got reports from all across the city, state and country, did not act immediately to ensure the targeted minorities were protected.  Incendiary language against the victims was freely used.  Women who were raped or sexually assaulted got no sympathy or assistance.  When the riot victims formed makeshift relief camps, the authorities harassed them and tried to make them leave.  The victims had to struggle for years before the authorities finally provided some compensation for the death, injury and destruction they suffered.  As for the perpetrators of the violence, they got away since the police and the government did not gather evidence, conducted no investigation and appointed biased prosecutors, thereby sabotaging the chances of conviction and punishment.

On a smaller scale, all victims of organized, targeted violence — be they Tamils in Karnataka or Hindi speakers in Maharashtra or Dalits in Haryana and other parts of the country — know from experience and instinct that they cannot automatically count on the local police coming to their help should they be attacked.  Over fifteen years ago, a serving, senior police officer made a stunning statement: “No riot can last for more than 24 hours unless the state wants it to continue”. T his statement has since been endorsed by a number of senior policemen and political leaders.

What this means is simple. If the police and administration were to be held directly responsible for the failure to impartially enforce the Rule of Law, perpetrators of recurring violence would be halted in their tracks.  If the law could give fair reparation commensurate to the loss and to be compulsorily paid within a time-frame, the future would not benefit rioters. If senior officers were held responsible for dereliction of duty they would ensure accountability from themselves and the men and women they command.

The proposed Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 (PCTVB) is a first step towards addressing these incidents of targeted violence, a modest contribution towards ensuring that India's citizens enjoy the protection of the state regardless of their religion, language or caste.  It was framed by the National Advisory Council (NAC) and released in June 2011.  Sources also feedback that it is a huge improvement over a bill originally drawn up by the United Progressive Alliance government in 2005.

The PCTV bill sets out to protect religious and linguistic minorities in any state in India, as well as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, from targeted violence, including organized violence.  Apart from including the usual Indian Penal Code (IPC) offences, the NAC draft modernizes the definition of sexual assault to cover crimes other than rape and elaborates on the crime of hate propaganda already covered by Section 153A of the IPC.  It also broadens the definition of dereliction of duty — which is already a crime — and, for the first time in India, adds offences by public servants or other superiors for breach of command responsibility.
Another important feature is the dilution of the standard requirement that officials can only be prosecuted with the prior sanction of the government.  The PCTV bill says no sanction will be required to prosecute officials charged with offences which broadly fall under the category of dereliction of duty. 
Likewise, the Bill fills the lacuna of compensation for those affected by communal and targeted violence.  Today, the relief that victims get is decided by the government on an ad hoc and sometimes discriminatory basis.  Sections 90 and 102 of the PCTV bill rectify this by prescribing an equal entitlement to relief, reparation, restitution and compensation for all persons who suffer physical, mental, psychological or monetary harm as a result of the violence, regardless of whether they belong to a minority group or not.
The PCTV bill also envisages the creation of a National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparation.  The authority's role will be to serve as a catalyst for implementation of the new law.
Citizens of India and human rights groups battling communalism have had a major role in debating and highlighting the need for this Bill. Today we need to come together to ensure that these collective efforts are not in vain, that the Bill is tabled before Parliament. Those opposing the Bill are those responsible for communalizing the public sphere and fomenting communal violence. Given the fierce opposition to such a Bill, it became imperative that it be brought back into the focus. We need to take up the challenge and launch a nationwide campaign, at regional and national levels.  The campaign now aims at focusing on the need to get the NAC draft bill tabled once it is approved and reworked by government.

SAY NO to Violence, YES to Justice and Peace






--
Teesta Setalvad
'Nirant', Juhu Tara Road,
Juhu, Mumbai - 400 049
http://teestasetalvad.blogspot.com/
www.cjponline.org
www.gujarat-riots.com
www.sabrang.com



-- 

Narendra Modi’s Rise in India (Editorial of NY Times(26th October 2013)


NY Times editorial raises concerns over the political rise of Narendra Modi in India and the threat to religious minorities and the tolerant, secular fabric of India





Narendra Modi’s Rise in India

  •  
  •    
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
October 26, 2013
In 2002, rioters in the western Indian state of Gujarat savagely killed nearly 1,000 people, most of whom were part of the Muslim minority. Now, barely a decade later, Narendra Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat at the time and still holds the office, is a leading candidate to become prime minister of India.
Mr. Modi, a star of India’s main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party,would become prime minister if the party won enough seats in parliamentary elections next summer with support from its political allies. His rise to power is deeply troubling to many Indians, especially the country’s 138 million Muslims and its many other minorities. They worry he would exacerbate sectarian tensions that have subsided somewhat in the last decade.
Supporters of Mr. Modi argue that an investigation commissioned by India’s Supreme Court cleared him of wrongdoing in the riots. And they insist that Mr. Modi, who is widely admired by middle-class Indians for making Gujarat one of India’s fastest-growing states, can revive the economy, which has been weakened by a decade of mismanagement by the coalition government headed by the Indian National Congress Party.
There is no question that the Congress Party has failed to capitalize on the economic growth of recent years to invest in infrastructure, education and public institutions like the judiciary. And instead of trying to revive itself with new ideas and leaders, it is likely to be led in the coming election by Rahul Gandhi, the inexperienced scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
But Mr. Modi’s strident Hindu nationalism has fueled public outrage. When Reuters asked him earlier this year if he regretted the killings in 2002, he said, if “someone else is driving a car and we’re sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course it is.” That incendiary response created a political uproar and demands for an apology.
Mr. Modi has shown no ability to work with opposition parties or tolerate dissent. And he has already alienated political partners; this summer, an important regional party broke off its 17-year alliance with the B.J.P. because it found Mr. Modi unacceptable.
His economic record in Gujarat is not entirely admirable, either. Muslims in Gujarat, for instance, are much more likely to be poor than Muslims in India as a whole, even though the state has a lower poverty rate than the country.
India is a country with multiple religions, more than a dozen major languages and numerous ethnic groups and tribes. Mr. Modi cannot hope to lead it effectively if he inspires fear and antipathy among many of its people.
Meet The New York Times’s Editorial Board »




Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Kindly Sign this Online Petition URGENTLY..DO FORWARD and post it on FB and TWITTER. Thanks


Please join this campaign: http://chn.ge/H7Kn3L

URGENT!

Kindly  Sign this Online Petition URGENTLY! 
Do post it on your FB page and your TWITTER
and do FORWARD it to AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!
Thanks
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj
Director
"PRASHANT"   (A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace)
Hill Nagar, Near Kamdhenu Hall, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad - 380052,Gujarat, INDIA
Tel :+91 (0)79-27455913/66522333
Cell : 9824034536
Fax:+91 (0)79-27489018



SAY" NO" to Violence, "YES" to Justice and Peace
Table the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice &
Reparations) Bill in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of the Indian Parliament



Please join this campaign: http://chn.ge/H7Kn3L


Sign the Online Petition Above…..


To protect the Lives and Properties of Disadvantaged Citizens who are Victims of Targeted and Mass Violence during which bouts, officers of the state have shown overt ot covert complicity; in short to breathe life into Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution (Right to Life and Right to Equality Before the Law)

Support the Justice for All Campaign
Ensure an End to Impunity,
Ensure Accountability from Public Servants
Breathe Life into Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution

--
Teesta Setalvad
'Nirant', Juhu Tara Road,
Juhu, Mumbai - 400 049
http://teestasetalvad.blogspot.com/
www.cjponline.org
www.gujarat-riots.com
www.sabrang.com
--
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