9/28 Democracy Now
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to a woman the New York Times calls India's most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence, Arundhati Roy, world-renowned Indian author and global justice activist. Her first novel, The God of Small Things, won the Booker Prize in 1997. She has a new book; it's called Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers. An adapted introduction to the book is posted at tomdispatch. com, called "What Have We Done to Democracy?" Arundhati Roy joins us now from New Delhi, India, on the country's biggest national holiday of the year.
........
ANJALI KAMAT: Meanwhile, inside India, the focus has shifted to a different adversary. The stage is set for a major domestic military offensive against an armed group that the Indian prime minister has repeatedly called the country's, quote, "gravest internal security threat."
Operation Green Hunt will reportedly send between 75,000 and 100,000 troops to areas seen as Maoist strongholds in central and eastern India. In June, India labeled the Naxalite group, the Communist Party of India—Maoist—a terrorist organization, and earlier this month India's home minister came to the United States to share counterterror strategies.
The Indian government blames the deaths of nearly 600 people this year on Maoist violence and claims that Maoist rebels are active in twenty out of the twenty-eight states in the country. The Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh outlined the threat to a conference of state police chiefs earlier this month.
PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH: In many ways, the left-wing extremism poses perhaps the gravest internal security threat our country faces. We have discussed this in the last five years. And I would like to state, frankly, that we have not achieved as much success as we would have liked in containing this menace.
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, let me just pick up on what Anjali was talking about just now, about the assault that's planned on the so-called Maoists in central India. You know, when September 11th happened, I think some of us had already said that a time would come when poverty would be sort of collapsed and converge into terrorism. And this is exactly what's happened. The poorest people in this country today are being called terrorists.
And what you have is a huge swath of forest in eastern and central India, spreading from West Bengal through the states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. And in these forests live indigenous people. And also in these forests are the biggest deposits of bauxite and iron ore and so on, which huge multinational companies now want to get their hands on. So there's an MoU [Memorandum of Understanding] on every mountain, on every forest and river in this area.
And about in 2005, let's say, in central India, the day after the MoU was signed with the biggest sort of corporation in India, Tatas, the government also announced the formation of the Salwa Judum, which is a sort of people's militia, which is armed and is meant to fight the Maoists in the forest. But the thing is, all this, the Salwa Judum as well as the Maoists, they're all indigenous people. And in, let's say, Chhattisgarh, something like the Salwa Judum has been a very cruel militia, you know, burning villages, raping women, burning food crops. I was there recently. Something like 640 villages have been burned. Out of the 350,000, first about 50,000 people moved into roadside police camps, from where this militia was raised by the government. And the rest are simply missing. You know, some are living in cities, you know, eking out a living. Others are just hiding in the forest, coming out, trying to sow their crops, and yet getting, you know, those crops burnt down, their villages burnt down. So there is a sort of civil war raging.
And now, I remember traveling in Orissa a few years ago, when there were not any Maoists, but there were huge sort of mining companies coming in to mine the bauxite. And yet, they kept—all the newspapers kept saying the Maoists are here, the Maoists are here, because it was a way of allowing the government to do a kind of military-style repression. Of course, now they're openly saying that they want to call out the paramilitary.
And if you look at—for example, if you look at the trajectory of somebody like Chidambaram, who's India's home minister, he—you know, he's a lawyer from Harvard. He was the lawyer for Enron, which pulled off the biggest scam in the history of—corporate scam in the history of India. We're still suffering from that deal. After that, he was on the board of governors of what is today the biggest mining corporation in the world, called Vedanta, which is mining in Orissa. The day he became finance minister, he resigned from Vedanta. When he was the finance minister, in an interview he said that he would like 85 percent of India to live in cities, which means moving something like 500 million people. That's the kind of vision that he has.
And now he's the home minister, calling out the paramilitary, calling out the police, and really forcibly trying to move people out of their lands and homes. And anyone who resisted, whether they're a Maoist or not a Maoist, are being labeled Maoist. People are being picked up, tortured. There are some laws that have been passed which should not exist in any democracy, laws which make somebody like me saying what I'm saying now to you a criminal offense, for which I could just be jailed. Even sort of thinking an anti-government thought has become illegal. And we're talking about, you know, as you said, 75,000 to 100,000 security personnel going to war against people who, since independence, which was more than sixty years ago, have no schools, no hospitals, no running water, nothing. And now, now they're being—now they're being killed or imprisoned or just criminalized. You know, it's like if you're not in the Salwa Judum camp, then you're a Maoist, and we can kill you. And they are openly celebrating the Sri Lanka solution to terrorism, to terrorism.
.......
AMY GOODMAN: Arundhati Roy, talk about Kashmir. I think it's something, certainly here in the United States, a conflict people understand very little.
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, Kashmir—Kashmir was an independent sort of kingdom in 1947 at the time of independence and partition. And when—I mean, just to cut a very complicated story short, when partition happened, both India and Pakistan fought over it and hived off parts of it, and both now have military presence in this divided Kashmir. But to give you some idea of the military presence, it's—you know, let's say the US has 165,000 troops in Iraq. India has 700,000 troops in Kashmir.
Kashmir used to have a Hindu king and a largely Muslim population, which was very, very backward and so on at the time, because at the time, you know, Muslims were discriminated against by that princely—in that princely state.
But now, for—I mean, in 1990, after a whole series of events, which culminated in a sort of fake election, a rigged election in 1987, there was an armed uprising in Kashmir. And really, since then, it's been convulsed by militancy and military occupation, encounters, disappearances and so on. Last year, there was a—you know, last year, they began to say everything is normal, you know, tourists are going back to the valley. But, of course, that was just wishful thinking, because there was a huge nonviolent uprising in which hundreds of thousands of people, you know, flocked the streets, day and night, demanding independence. It was put down with military force.
And now, once again, you have a situation where you can hardly walk from, you know, twenty meters without someone with an AK-47 in your face. Sometimes in places like Srinagar, which is the capital, it's well hidden. But it's a place where every action, every breath that people, you know, breathe in and breathe out, is kind of controlled by military force. And this is how—you know, people are just being asphyxiated; they cannot breathe.
And, of course, there's a huge publicity machine. You know, I mean, I'd say that the only difference between what's happening in Palestine and Kashmir is that, so far, India has not used air power on the people of Kashmir, as they are threatening to do, by the way, in Chhattisgarh, you know, to its own poorest. It has not—you know, the people, technically, they are able to move around, unlike the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Kashmiris are able to move around in the rest of India, though it isn't really safe, because their young get picked up and disappeared and tortured and so on. So, you know, it's not something that they easily will do. And there has not been this kind of system of settlements, you know, where you're trying to sort of take over by pushing in people from the mainland. So, other than those three, I think we're talking about an outright occupation.
........
ANJALI KAMAT: Arundhati, can you talk a little bit about encounter deaths? You mentioned this a little earlier in the program. What are police encounters, fake encounters? This is something that's quite common in India. But can you explain to our audience what you mean by "encounter deaths"?
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, what happens now is that, you know, one of the ways in which people—the police and the security establishment deals with, you know, dissent, resistance and terrorism, or what they call terrorism, is to just deliver summary justice: kill people and say, oh, they were killed in an encounter, in cross-firing, or so on, and so on. So, in places like Kashmir and in the northeast, in Manipur and Nagaland, it's an old tradition. In places like Andhra Pradesh, they had, you know, many, many hundreds of encounter deaths.
And, in fact, recently, there was a photo essay of an encounter death in Manipur, where the, you know, security grid just—security forces just surrounded this young boy. And it was a photo essay, you know. He was unarmed. He was a former militant, I think, who had laid down his arms, and he was in the market. And you just saw a policeman pulling out his gun, shooting him, and then they said, oh, he was killed in crossfire, you know.
So, it's a very—you have people—we have cops here who are given medals for being encounter specialists. You know, so the more people they've killed, the more medals they'll get. And in places like Kashmir, they actually get promotions. So, in fact, it's something to be proud of, an encounter killing, for, you know, both the army as well as the police and the counterinsurgency forces.
......
But here in India, there's the smell of fascism in the air. Earlier, it was a kind of an anti-Muslim, religious fascism. Now we have a secular government, and it's a kind of right-wing ruthlessness, where people openly say, you know, every country that has progressed and is developed, whether you look at Europe or America or China or Russia, they have a quote-unquote "past," you know, they have a cruel past, and it's time that India stepped up to the plate and realized that there are some people that are holding back this kind of progress and that we need to be ruthless and move in, as Israel did recently in Gaza, as Sri Lanka has recently done with its hundreds of thousands of Tamils in concentration camps. So why not India? You know? Why not just do away with the poor so that we can be a proper superpower, instead of a super-poor superpower?
AMY GOODMAN: Arundhati Roy, we just have less than a minute. What gives you hope?
ARUNDHATI ROY: What gives me hope is the fact that this way of thinking is being resisted in a myriad ways in India, you know, from the poorest person in a loincloth in the forest saying, "We're going to fight," right up to me, who's at the other end, you know. And all of us are joined together by the determination that, even if we lose, we're going to fight, you know? And we're not going to just let this happen without doing everything we can to stop it. And that gives me a tremendous amount of hope.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Chhatradhar Mahato held
source - hindu
KOLKATA: Chhatradhar Mahato, convener of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee, was arrested in an operation conducted by the West Bengal police at Birkar village near Lalgarh in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district on Saturday.
He was arrested by policemen who posed as journalists, according to eye witness accounts. The government, however, was tight-lipped, saying it was awaiting details.
Claiming to represent the tribal people, Mr. Mahato launched on November 2 last a “people’s movement” to protest against alleged police atrocities in Lalgarh which followed an IED blast targeting the convoy of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Salboni.
Aware of the regular communication between Mr. Mahato and a section of the local journalists, two plainclothesmen befriended two local reporters posing as journalists and reached Mr. Mahato’s hideout. “Big success”
District Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Verma told reporters at Midnapore that Mr. Mahato’s arrest was a “big success” for the police. The police were trying to arrest Mr. Mahato for quite some time now. More than 15 cases were pending against him.
The arrest could spark fresh agitations by the tribal people in the Jangalmahal (forested land) with Maoists’ backing.
Kishanji, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), told The Hindu: “Unless Chhatradhar Mahato is released unconditionally, the entire Jangalmahal in five States [West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar] will be up in flames.” Immediately after Mr. Mahato’s arrest, a landmine went off near Kantapahari (seven km from Lalgarh) and another failed to explode at Kumarbandh.
Mr. Verma said none was injured. Six persons were arrested in connection with the incidents, four of them suspected Maoists.
The arrest is a major boost to the morale of the State government and the police in their fight against the Maoists and the Maoist-backed PSBJC. Home secretary Ardhendu Sen had said in August that the joint operation launched by the security forces at Lalgarh on June 18 to flush out the rebels was “partially successful.”
He was arrested by policemen who posed as journalists, according to eye witness accounts. The government, however, was tight-lipped, saying it was awaiting details.
Claiming to represent the tribal people, Mr. Mahato launched on November 2 last a “people’s movement” to protest against alleged police atrocities in Lalgarh which followed an IED blast targeting the convoy of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Salboni.
Aware of the regular communication between Mr. Mahato and a section of the local journalists, two plainclothesmen befriended two local reporters posing as journalists and reached Mr. Mahato’s hideout. “Big success”
District Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Verma told reporters at Midnapore that Mr. Mahato’s arrest was a “big success” for the police. The police were trying to arrest Mr. Mahato for quite some time now. More than 15 cases were pending against him.
The arrest could spark fresh agitations by the tribal people in the Jangalmahal (forested land) with Maoists’ backing.
Kishanji, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), told The Hindu: “Unless Chhatradhar Mahato is released unconditionally, the entire Jangalmahal in five States [West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar] will be up in flames.” Immediately after Mr. Mahato’s arrest, a landmine went off near Kantapahari (seven km from Lalgarh) and another failed to explode at Kumarbandh.
Mr. Verma said none was injured. Six persons were arrested in connection with the incidents, four of them suspected Maoists.
The arrest is a major boost to the morale of the State government and the police in their fight against the Maoists and the Maoist-backed PSBJC. Home secretary Ardhendu Sen had said in August that the joint operation launched by the security forces at Lalgarh on June 18 to flush out the rebels was “partially successful.”
Press Note on Kobad Gandhi
185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-25
25/09/09
PRESS Note
(Circulated to the media persons at a press conference held at Press Club, New Delhi)
The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) after its Mulaakat with senior Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy in the Tihar jail would want to bring a few important facts, which are of vital significance for his life, before the democratic citizens of this country. Moreover, after the meeting of the lawyer Mr. Rajesh Tyagi on 24 /09/09 with Kobad Ghandy, the details of his arrest and mistreatment have come to light. Some of the important facts are as follows:
Hiding the exact date of arrest
Kobad Ghandy was arrested on the 17/09/09 at the Bhikaji Cama Place around 4 pm by the Intelligence Bureau. About 5-6 people who pulled up in a white sumo car pounced on him at the bus terminal near Bhikaji Cama where he was waiting for about 5-7 minutes. All the claims of the police that he was arrested on the 21/09/09 are patently false. He was kept under illegal detention for four days and interrogated torturing him for three days and three nights.
Kobad Ghandy was under medical treatment
Kobad Ghandy had visited the Sitaram Bhartia Hospital for a kidney problem. He had taken medical advice from the urologist there. Since 12/09/09 he has been going there for various tests till the date of his abduction by the intelligence officials. On 17/09/09 he had received the PSA report which showed the high possibility of prostrate cancer. He was advised to take a tablet for 14 days and return for further PSA tests and a possible biopsy. The time he was abducted by the intelligence agencies and kept under illegal detention he was having Veltam tablet as advised by the doctor.
Deteriorating health conditions
Chest pain and dizziness: Kobad Ghandy, while under illegal detention and then in the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) on 21/09/09 had persistently brought to the notice of the officials and the magistrate about his failing health. He was having severe chest pain and almost fainted while on the way to the CMM on 21/09/09. On that day under direction from the CMM who heard him in the court, Mr. Kobad Ghandy was taken to the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital where his BP and ECG were checked and later he was put on oxygen for about an hour. He was then shifted to a ward with 25 gun totting security personnel hovering around. He was having the life saving drug sorbitrate for acute chest pain and dizziness from 20/09/09. After being shifted to the Tihar jail he was not provided with this vital life saving drug.
He has been also taking medicines for high blood pressure for the last 10 years. He is having arthritic trouble (knee pain) and spondylytis.
Severe Diarrhoea /dysentery: He has been undergoing medical attention for years for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He has been taking Digiplex, Neksium 40. Due to the severity of the problem, he has to have special food and safe/boiled water. Normally prescribed diet as the one provided in hospitals is to be provided to him, which is in practice for the inmates having severe health problems of Tihar prison. But all his pleas for such facilities have fallen on deaf ears in the prison. This is a matter of grave concern.
As has already been mentioned he has been taking Veltam tablets for prostrate cancer.
Callous attitude of the Jail doctor: When he took up the case of his ailing health with the prison officials he was referred to the jail doctor who casually called him to the OPD the following day. Kobad Ghandy had taken up the issue of overcrowding in the cell several times with the prison officials especially the Superintendent. In a cell where only one person can be kept, there were four. But the attitude of the Superintendent was that “why even 6 can stay in the cell”. Due to overcrowding on 23/09/09 night he had complained of severe breathing problems and demanded medical attention. The prison staff came twice but did nothing.
While under medical attention in Bara Hindu Rao Hospital the doctor on his discharge for production before the CMM court referred him to the Cardiac department of GB Pant Hospital or AIIMS.
The CRPP strongly condemn the callous, insensitive treatment being meted out to Kobad Ghandy, a political prisoner whose life is in danger due to his failing health. The jail officials and the authorities cannot play with his life for his political convictions as it is complete violation of law and all norms of guarantee to dignity and life for a political prisoner or for that matter any detainee as has been assured by the Constitution not to say the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights to which India is also a signatory.
Kobad Ghandy is yet to get proper medical attention as he was taken to the GB Pant Hospital on 24/09/09. The GB Pant doctors have called him back again on 30/09/09 for further tests. Kobad Ghandy has asked the GB pant doctor to take his Sitaram Bharati records pertaining to prostrate cancer also.
No FIR furnished till date
Kobad Ghandy has not yet been given the FIR on him. He was not even provided a lawyer. In protest he had refused medicines and food while in the Bara Hindu Rao hospital. Only then the officials relented a bit. But he could only get access to a lawyer after the police made official his arrest on 21/09/09 and produced him before the duty magistrate. Later his judicial custody was confirmed and only then he could get access to a lawyer. And it took the CRPP and the lawyer to tell him about the charges on him! The police has systematically evaded all possibilities of the detainee to take recourse to legal remedies from any possibilities of being falsely implicated.
Torture under illegal confinement
Kobad Ghandy, after being abducted by 5-6 intelligence officials, was kept in illegal confinement for 3 days and 3 nights in a house in the outskirts of Delhi and was continuously questioned. They did not allow him to sleep. On 21/09/09 night they tied his hands and legs to a table and asked him to sleep! This is nothing but torture and all those responsible for such inhuman torture should be held responsible. Not allowing a detainee to sleep continuously for hours and days tantamount to physical and mental torture that is universally condemned by all civil and democratic rights bodies and the UN. This is a matter of grave concern particularly because of his failing health. The CRPP feels that these acts are deliberately being done to shorten his life.
Attempts by the police to take him under police remand
In these circumstances all democratic forces and civil rights organisations should raise their voice against the continuing attempts of the police to get him under police remand. They are systematically maintaining that as soon as his health condition improves he will be taken for further questioning. But from the details provided it is amply evident that the health problems of Kobad Ghandy need to be given more attention and ample time for treatment. He should not be handed over to the police.
Attempts to transfer him to other states
There are also reports in the press that the Jharkhand and other State police are preparing to move court to shift him to other states. There is also talk that they are preparing to put him under narco analysis tests. Already several medical experts and international bodies have unequivocally condemned narco-analysis as another form of inhuman torture which damages health of the person under subjection fatally. Given the seriousness of Kobad Ghandy’s failing health we strongly feel that such inhuman torture would only put his life in danger. And all efforts of other states to take him away can only endanger his life as he has still the possibility of getting medical care in Delhi. The efforts to shift him to Jharkhand and other states are to jeopardise any such attempt for proper medical care as well as protection from all forms of torture. CRPP strongly demand that all such efforts should immediately stop and his medical treatment on prostrate cancer should start henceforth.
The CRPP appeals to the media and through the media, to all people with a democratic conscience to join hands to stop these devious designs of the state to silence the life of a political prisoner who has given his flesh and blood for the cause of the poor and the oppressed. We cannot let such people to be silenced forever! The CRPP does neither endorse nor criticise the ideology or line of action Kobad Ghandy stands for. But it strongly feels that Kobad Ghandy does have the right, like all others, to hold and express his political conviction and methods of struggle.
The CRPP demands:
Provide immediate medical care to Kobad Ghandy for all his health problems including cardiac and prostrate cancer.
Allow him provision for prescribed diet as provided in the hospitals and either safe/boiled water.
Stop all attempts to transfer him to other states under false charges which will endanger his life.
Allow a team of specialist doctors to take immediate stock and continuous monitoring of his health.
Stop all attempts to put him under the illegal narco-analysis which would endanger his life.
Shift him to a cell which is not over crowded.
Provide him with materials to read and write.
Provide him the status of Political Prisoner.
Amit Bhattacharyya
Secretary General
S A R Geelani
Vice- President
Rona Wilson
Secretary, Public Relations
25/09/09
PRESS Note
(Circulated to the media persons at a press conference held at Press Club, New Delhi)
The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) after its Mulaakat with senior Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy in the Tihar jail would want to bring a few important facts, which are of vital significance for his life, before the democratic citizens of this country. Moreover, after the meeting of the lawyer Mr. Rajesh Tyagi on 24 /09/09 with Kobad Ghandy, the details of his arrest and mistreatment have come to light. Some of the important facts are as follows:
Hiding the exact date of arrest
Kobad Ghandy was arrested on the 17/09/09 at the Bhikaji Cama Place around 4 pm by the Intelligence Bureau. About 5-6 people who pulled up in a white sumo car pounced on him at the bus terminal near Bhikaji Cama where he was waiting for about 5-7 minutes. All the claims of the police that he was arrested on the 21/09/09 are patently false. He was kept under illegal detention for four days and interrogated torturing him for three days and three nights.
Kobad Ghandy was under medical treatment
Kobad Ghandy had visited the Sitaram Bhartia Hospital for a kidney problem. He had taken medical advice from the urologist there. Since 12/09/09 he has been going there for various tests till the date of his abduction by the intelligence officials. On 17/09/09 he had received the PSA report which showed the high possibility of prostrate cancer. He was advised to take a tablet for 14 days and return for further PSA tests and a possible biopsy. The time he was abducted by the intelligence agencies and kept under illegal detention he was having Veltam tablet as advised by the doctor.
Deteriorating health conditions
Chest pain and dizziness: Kobad Ghandy, while under illegal detention and then in the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) on 21/09/09 had persistently brought to the notice of the officials and the magistrate about his failing health. He was having severe chest pain and almost fainted while on the way to the CMM on 21/09/09. On that day under direction from the CMM who heard him in the court, Mr. Kobad Ghandy was taken to the Bara Hindu Rao Hospital where his BP and ECG were checked and later he was put on oxygen for about an hour. He was then shifted to a ward with 25 gun totting security personnel hovering around. He was having the life saving drug sorbitrate for acute chest pain and dizziness from 20/09/09. After being shifted to the Tihar jail he was not provided with this vital life saving drug.
He has been also taking medicines for high blood pressure for the last 10 years. He is having arthritic trouble (knee pain) and spondylytis.
Severe Diarrhoea /dysentery: He has been undergoing medical attention for years for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He has been taking Digiplex, Neksium 40. Due to the severity of the problem, he has to have special food and safe/boiled water. Normally prescribed diet as the one provided in hospitals is to be provided to him, which is in practice for the inmates having severe health problems of Tihar prison. But all his pleas for such facilities have fallen on deaf ears in the prison. This is a matter of grave concern.
As has already been mentioned he has been taking Veltam tablets for prostrate cancer.
Callous attitude of the Jail doctor: When he took up the case of his ailing health with the prison officials he was referred to the jail doctor who casually called him to the OPD the following day. Kobad Ghandy had taken up the issue of overcrowding in the cell several times with the prison officials especially the Superintendent. In a cell where only one person can be kept, there were four. But the attitude of the Superintendent was that “why even 6 can stay in the cell”. Due to overcrowding on 23/09/09 night he had complained of severe breathing problems and demanded medical attention. The prison staff came twice but did nothing.
While under medical attention in Bara Hindu Rao Hospital the doctor on his discharge for production before the CMM court referred him to the Cardiac department of GB Pant Hospital or AIIMS.
The CRPP strongly condemn the callous, insensitive treatment being meted out to Kobad Ghandy, a political prisoner whose life is in danger due to his failing health. The jail officials and the authorities cannot play with his life for his political convictions as it is complete violation of law and all norms of guarantee to dignity and life for a political prisoner or for that matter any detainee as has been assured by the Constitution not to say the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights to which India is also a signatory.
Kobad Ghandy is yet to get proper medical attention as he was taken to the GB Pant Hospital on 24/09/09. The GB Pant doctors have called him back again on 30/09/09 for further tests. Kobad Ghandy has asked the GB pant doctor to take his Sitaram Bharati records pertaining to prostrate cancer also.
No FIR furnished till date
Kobad Ghandy has not yet been given the FIR on him. He was not even provided a lawyer. In protest he had refused medicines and food while in the Bara Hindu Rao hospital. Only then the officials relented a bit. But he could only get access to a lawyer after the police made official his arrest on 21/09/09 and produced him before the duty magistrate. Later his judicial custody was confirmed and only then he could get access to a lawyer. And it took the CRPP and the lawyer to tell him about the charges on him! The police has systematically evaded all possibilities of the detainee to take recourse to legal remedies from any possibilities of being falsely implicated.
Torture under illegal confinement
Kobad Ghandy, after being abducted by 5-6 intelligence officials, was kept in illegal confinement for 3 days and 3 nights in a house in the outskirts of Delhi and was continuously questioned. They did not allow him to sleep. On 21/09/09 night they tied his hands and legs to a table and asked him to sleep! This is nothing but torture and all those responsible for such inhuman torture should be held responsible. Not allowing a detainee to sleep continuously for hours and days tantamount to physical and mental torture that is universally condemned by all civil and democratic rights bodies and the UN. This is a matter of grave concern particularly because of his failing health. The CRPP feels that these acts are deliberately being done to shorten his life.
Attempts by the police to take him under police remand
In these circumstances all democratic forces and civil rights organisations should raise their voice against the continuing attempts of the police to get him under police remand. They are systematically maintaining that as soon as his health condition improves he will be taken for further questioning. But from the details provided it is amply evident that the health problems of Kobad Ghandy need to be given more attention and ample time for treatment. He should not be handed over to the police.
Attempts to transfer him to other states
There are also reports in the press that the Jharkhand and other State police are preparing to move court to shift him to other states. There is also talk that they are preparing to put him under narco analysis tests. Already several medical experts and international bodies have unequivocally condemned narco-analysis as another form of inhuman torture which damages health of the person under subjection fatally. Given the seriousness of Kobad Ghandy’s failing health we strongly feel that such inhuman torture would only put his life in danger. And all efforts of other states to take him away can only endanger his life as he has still the possibility of getting medical care in Delhi. The efforts to shift him to Jharkhand and other states are to jeopardise any such attempt for proper medical care as well as protection from all forms of torture. CRPP strongly demand that all such efforts should immediately stop and his medical treatment on prostrate cancer should start henceforth.
The CRPP appeals to the media and through the media, to all people with a democratic conscience to join hands to stop these devious designs of the state to silence the life of a political prisoner who has given his flesh and blood for the cause of the poor and the oppressed. We cannot let such people to be silenced forever! The CRPP does neither endorse nor criticise the ideology or line of action Kobad Ghandy stands for. But it strongly feels that Kobad Ghandy does have the right, like all others, to hold and express his political conviction and methods of struggle.
The CRPP demands:
Provide immediate medical care to Kobad Ghandy for all his health problems including cardiac and prostrate cancer.
Allow him provision for prescribed diet as provided in the hospitals and either safe/boiled water.
Stop all attempts to transfer him to other states under false charges which will endanger his life.
Allow a team of specialist doctors to take immediate stock and continuous monitoring of his health.
Stop all attempts to put him under the illegal narco-analysis which would endanger his life.
Shift him to a cell which is not over crowded.
Provide him with materials to read and write.
Provide him the status of Political Prisoner.
Amit Bhattacharyya
Secretary General
S A R Geelani
Vice- President
Rona Wilson
Secretary, Public Relations
PRODUCE MR. KOBAD GANDHI, SENIOR MAOIST LEADER
COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI
21/09/09
PRESS STATEMENT
PRODUCE MR. KOBAD GANDHI, SENIOR MAOIST LEADER IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE COURT!
ALL DEMOCRATIC FORCES SHOULD RAISE THEIR VOICE FOR HIS RIGHT TO A LAWYER AND PROTECTION FROM ALL FORMS OF TORTURE!
The committee for the Release of Political Prisoners views with concern the arrest and continuing illegal detention of Mr. Kobad Gandhi senior Maoist leader as is being reported by the press. He has been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police as per the press reports. The press has quoted the police as saying that he is member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI (Maoist). They have also revealed that Mr. Kobad Gandhi heads the publication division of the CPI (Maoist) and also it’s Sub-Committee on Mass Organizations.The CRPP strongly demands that Mr. Kobad Gandhi be immediately produced before the court as we fear for the safety of his life. We also demand that he should be given the lawyer of his choice as per the law of this land. We at the CRPP call upon all democratic forces, civil rights groups and people’s organizations to raise their voice to defend the rights of Mr. Kobad Gandhi against all forms of torture and threat to his life. In Solidarity, Gurusharan Singh Amit Bhattacharyya SAR GeelaniPresident Secretary General Vice President Rona WilsonSecretary Public Relations
21/09/09
PRESS STATEMENT
PRODUCE MR. KOBAD GANDHI, SENIOR MAOIST LEADER IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE COURT!
ALL DEMOCRATIC FORCES SHOULD RAISE THEIR VOICE FOR HIS RIGHT TO A LAWYER AND PROTECTION FROM ALL FORMS OF TORTURE!
The committee for the Release of Political Prisoners views with concern the arrest and continuing illegal detention of Mr. Kobad Gandhi senior Maoist leader as is being reported by the press. He has been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police as per the press reports. The press has quoted the police as saying that he is member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI (Maoist). They have also revealed that Mr. Kobad Gandhi heads the publication division of the CPI (Maoist) and also it’s Sub-Committee on Mass Organizations.The CRPP strongly demands that Mr. Kobad Gandhi be immediately produced before the court as we fear for the safety of his life. We also demand that he should be given the lawyer of his choice as per the law of this land. We at the CRPP call upon all democratic forces, civil rights groups and people’s organizations to raise their voice to defend the rights of Mr. Kobad Gandhi against all forms of torture and threat to his life. In Solidarity, Gurusharan Singh Amit Bhattacharyya SAR GeelaniPresident Secretary General Vice President Rona WilsonSecretary Public Relations
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Press-Release from Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on Pashupatinath Priest Case
dear comrades,
please go through the press release and disseminate the same to as many
people/media as possible.
laxman pant
------------ --------- --------- --------- ----
Press –Communiqué
Our attention has been seriously drawn into yesterday’s incident inside Pashupatinath area as well as into today’s propaganda in some of the media, domestic and foreign, showing involvement of our party therein. It is publicly well known fact that over a long period of time Nepali people have been demanding that Nepali citizen should be appointed as a priest in Pashupatinath temple. It is also clear that due to disagreement with the decisions taken by the government regarding the appointment of the priest, the common people have floated People’s Movement Committee and this committee is spearheading series of struggles. Our Party believes in religious freedom for the people and respects the feelings of people to freely register protest on or give support to any matter. We also want to clarify that we are against the policy of disrupting religious harmony and interfering in religious matter. We also appeal to all not to divert towards our party the issue of common people’s freedom for struggle with unwarranted prejudice.
Krishna Bahadur Mahara
Incharge, International Department
please go through the press release and disseminate the same to as many
people/media as possible.
laxman pant
------------ --------- --------- --------- ----
Press –Communiqué
Our attention has been seriously drawn into yesterday’s incident inside Pashupatinath area as well as into today’s propaganda in some of the media, domestic and foreign, showing involvement of our party therein. It is publicly well known fact that over a long period of time Nepali people have been demanding that Nepali citizen should be appointed as a priest in Pashupatinath temple. It is also clear that due to disagreement with the decisions taken by the government regarding the appointment of the priest, the common people have floated People’s Movement Committee and this committee is spearheading series of struggles. Our Party believes in religious freedom for the people and respects the feelings of people to freely register protest on or give support to any matter. We also want to clarify that we are against the policy of disrupting religious harmony and interfering in religious matter. We also appeal to all not to divert towards our party the issue of common people’s freedom for struggle with unwarranted prejudice.
Krishna Bahadur Mahara
Incharge, International Department
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