“To demand peace is not a crime”: Turkish academics on trial

April 30, 2016

Academics supporting the petition with the author outside the court, Istanbul

There are now over 2,000 Turkish scholars, researcher and university teachers being accused of supporting terrorism. This attack against freedom of speech and targeting the intellectual heart of Turkish society through the universities is the most vicious illustration of how determined is President Erdogan to allow no criticism of his policies, even when his actions breach all international human rights and legal standards.

Last Friday, April 21st, four Turkish academics, Meral Camci, Kivanc Ersoy, Muzeffer Kaya and Esra Mungan, after five weeks remanded in prison, were brought to the Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul to face charges of making “propaganda for terrorism” and of association with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), labelled as a terrorist organisation by the EU and the US. The indictment accused them under Article 7(2) of Turkey’s anti-terror law and if convicted they could face sentences of up to 7 ½ years in detention.

Although at the end of the day, the prisoners were released, and the Judge adjourned the case to September 27th, confusion reigns among the academics and the lawyers.

This trial attracted, rightly, international attention, as it illustrated how far President Erdogan is prepared to go to prohibit freedom of speech in order to silence any criticism of his policies, even when it is clear that the government’s actions breach both international and European law and its own constitution which guarantees freedom of speech.

To attack Turkey’s eminent scholars in this way has brought protests and support for the academics from people all over Turkey. Thousands filled the square in front of the Court before the hearing carrying banners and calling for the scholars’ release. Unlike previous trials under the Anti-Terror Act of lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, and Kurdish politicians this one was attended by more than eleven consuls including those from the UK and the US as well as many international observers and human rights bodies. I was there as an observer from the UK.

These four defendants, two women and two men, were selected for arrest and imprisonment simply because they happened to be the ones who publicly read out, on March 1st, in the offices of EGITIM SEM, the Education and Science Workers Union, the press statement affirming their commitment to the January “ACADEMICS FOR PEACE PETITION” to President Erdogan entitled “WE WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO THIS CRIME”.

This petition had been signed by over 1,128 Turkish academics from different universities and disciplines, and now by several hundred Western intellectuals, including such luminaries as Noam Chomsky. A further 1,000 Turkish academics have since added their names to the petition.

This attack on freedom of speech and on the academics calls into question whether Turkey will ever comply with the Copenhagen Criteria which govern EU accession and with international and European international human rights and humanitarian law. But does Turkey care? Has it got the EU and the US over a barrel, as it has such a key role to play in the Syrian conflict and in addressing the refugee crisis?

The academics denounced the Turkish government for renewing conflict in the Kurdish South-East and demanded that those responsible for violations of human rights and humanitarian law should be made accountable and punished. They drew attention to the perpetration of collective punishment of civilians trapped in the Kurdish towns and villages under curfew, the killings, destruction of homes and livelihoods, the withholding of food, water, and medicine from people in need, and the displacement of thousands fleeing the violence. They called on all governments across the world to reconsider their relations with Turkey, and they pleaded for the resurrection of the peace talks with the Kurds that Ankara broke off in July, 2015.

Some 50 academics have already been dismissed from their posts and 27 suspended by the disciplinary committees of their universities pending the criminal investigations by the Prosecutor of all the academics who signed the petition. So there are now over 2,000 Turkish scholars, researcher and university teachers being accused of supporting terrorism. This attack against freedom of speech and targeting the intellectual heart of Turkish society through the universities is the most vicious illustration of how determined is President Erdogan to allow no criticism of his policies, even when his actions breach all international human rights and legal standards. Also it shows the extremes he will go to in order to silence his critics, including exploiting the already seriously flawed justice system – flawed because it lacks independence – so as to lock up journalists, trade unionists, teachers, writers, Kurdish politicians, co-mayors and now its scholars.

The author speaking outside the court with Can Dundar ( far right), editor in chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, recently released from prison

In the packed courtroom the defendants and their lawyers tore to shreds the allegations in the Prosecutor’s indictment, because they contained not an iota of evidence that any crime had been committed. There was, they argued, no proof that any of them had ever been in communication with the PKK as stated in the indictment, or even knew its present co-chair Bese Hozat, from whom, the Prosecutor alleged, they had received orders to write this petition.

“To demand peace is not a crime” was a constant declaration throughout the hearing. This trial was described by the lawyers as a “legal scandal “.

“We expect you to end this parody of a trial, in which there are so many illegal irregularities. Acquit the defendants and drop this case which is damaging Turkey’s reputation internationally” urged one of the lawyers representing the defendants. Ceran Uysal, one of the women lawyers, pointed out that anyway no law existed regarding the issuing of press statements and that the AKP was targeting and punishing academics because it feared their influence on intellectual life and on the youth.

Meral Camci, the psychology professor, spoke for all her academic colleagues when she said “as scholars we value the truth and critical thinking is central to all our disciplines”.

Kivanc Ersoy, the mathematician, in rejecting the allegations, declared “as intellectuals we have the responsibility to promote peace. We, the intellectuals, are the conscience of Turkey, just as Jean-Paul Sartre was the conscience of France when he denounced De Gaulle’s policies that caused such suffering in Algeria. We should not be punished for it”.

Muzeffer Kaya, the historian and social scientist, displaying the hand-cuff scars on his wrist, berated the Prosecutor for the fictions in the indictment that tried to link him and his colleagues with “people we have never met and did not know”. “We are scholars, we have ideals, and we are for justice and truth. We have the right, under Article 25 of the Constitution to express our thoughts, to advance knowledge, and share ideas. These are not crimes. We have broken no law”. He said “ We could not stay silent. Our petition is for peace. We could not let our children pay the price in the future for the government’s mistakes”.

After four hours of speeches by the defendants and their lawyers, in a court crowded with the families of the imprisoned scholars, other Turkish lawyers and international observers, finally, late in the afternoon, there was an extraordinary development.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the Prosecutor, most probably realising that he had been utterly defeated, that his indictment was shown to be a construction of fictions, proposed to the Judge that he withdraw the indictment under the Anti-Terror Act and instead charge the defendants under the infamous Penal Code Article 301. This article makes it a crime to “insult Turkishness”. However, in 2008, under pressure from the European Court of Human Rights, changes were made and it is now obligatory to get the Minister of Justice’s approval to file such a case. At this point everyone in the public area of the court rose to their feet shouting “ Shame” and “Release them” until the judge ordered us to sit down and be silent.

Making such a bizarre proposal at this late hour clearly disconcerted the judge and his two assistant judges, who, instead of retiring to their chamber to discuss how to respond, started to use their mobile phones, under the gaze of all of us in the court. Everyone wondered who were they calling? Were they trying to contact the Minister of Justice, or the President himself? For this hearing was clearly a political trial and required a political solution.

Finally, after a few minutes the verdict came. The defendants would be released. The case would resume on September 27th. Since there were no bail conditions, no requirements of giving up their passports, or reporting to the police, these scholars would be free to travel abroad, and, if they have not been suspended, resume their university duties. There was loud jubilation and cheers both inside and outside the court where hundreds were waiting for news.

But now of course there reigns absolute confusion, both among the academics (over 2,000 are still subject to investigation under the Anti Terror Act) and the lawyers. Will the Justice Minister give the necessary approval for the change of indictment? What if he does not? Will the original indictment still stand? Does the proposal to use Article 301 apply just to these four defendants, or to all the signatories? What are the rights of the academics who have been sacked or not had their contracts removed? Meral Camci and Muzaffer Kaya are among the fifty who have lost their jobs. But Camci bravely responds “The University building may be closed but we can take the university to anywhere” and has invited her students to her home to continue their studies.

Will everyone who signed the Petition have to wait till September to know their fate? Article 301 provides for imprisonment from 6 months to a year, but under Article 7(2) of the Anti-Terror Law imprisonment could last 7 and 1/2 years.

This case has revealed, like never before, the deep flaws in Turkey’s justice system, and how it can be manipulated for political ends. It also exposes dramatically how any criticism of Erdogan and his AKP party is viewed as a crime. Erdogan has called the academics “traitors”. He has vowed to “annihilate” the PKK. And the PKK has retaliated by saying that they will resort to force if the violence does not stop, reminding Erdogan that it was the government that broke the peace process last year, not them.

This trial has taken place just when the spotlight is on Turkey and Angela Merkel has promised to “hasten” Turkey’s accession to the EU if Turkey will contain the Syrian refugees and stop them from leaving for Europe. But this attack on freedom of speech and on the academics calls into question whether Turkey will ever comply with the Copenhagen Criteria which govern EU accession and with international and European international human rights and humanitarian law. But does Turkey care? Has it got the EU and the US over a barrel, as it has such a key role to play in the Syrian conflict and in addressing the refugee crisis?

This article was first published on Open Democracy.

Adivasis Abandoned as Mining Co Deserts Kathaldih, after SC declares it illegal: Jharkand

April 30, 2016

Adding Insult to Injury, the Company walks off from the scene, Reneges on MOU and displaced Adivasis lose everything and are reduced to destitution

Who will Pay, ask Adivasis as the MoU signed in 2006 is violated and the government is uncaring

There is a tragic history behind this sad situation. Kathaldih is a Santal Adivasi village in Amrapara block, Pakur district, Jharkhand. For centuries the indigenous Adivasi people had lived in harmony with their jal, jangal, jamin (water, forest, land). They took care of Mother Earth and she took care of them. Theirs was an agricultural self-sustaining economy enjoying the fruits from their agriculture and their forests. Their socio-cultural values reflected an equalitarian community based on equality, co-operation, consensus decision making. But such a harmonious life was abruptly cut short by the state policy and action.

In 2001, the Ministry of Coal allocated Pachwara Central Block, around 13 square kilometers for captive mining to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), which entered into a Joint Venture (JV) with Eastern Minerals Trading Agency (EMTA), a company with its headquarters in Kolkata, to form PANEM Coal Mines Limited for the purpose of mining coal in the Pachwara Central block.

The nine Adivasi villages in Pachwaracentral block decided to resist the forcible takeover of their land. Meetings, blockades, rallies, dharnas were undertaken through which they expressed their resolve not to give their land to a private co., and also appealed to Jharkhand High Court through a people’s movement Rajmahal Pahad Bachao Andolan basing their argument mainly on Santal Pargana Tenancy Act (1949), the SPT Act, which prohibits transfer of Santal tribal land to any non-tribal, let alone to a private co. Unfortunately neither the state government listened to their demand nor the HC paid any heed to their appeal.

When the Adivasis approached the Supreme Court it refused to look into the case but ordered PANEM Co., to sit with people’s movement and work out a mutually acceptable MoU (Memorandum of Understanding). This was done on November 30, 2006 and a few of the salient points of the MoU are:

Tribal people are the absolute owners of the land
50% land must be returned to the original land owners in cultivable condition
Mining has to be done one village at a time not altogether and after mining it should be refilled and returned
Compensation for land per acre Dhani I – Rs. 141,960/-; Dhani II – Rs.106,470/-; and Dhani III – Rs. 70,980/-
Annual crop compensation – Rs. 16,000/-
Provide 210 sq. meters homestead land and construct a house with a plan akin to the customary houses, with drinking water, electricity (24 hrs) and a toilet
Establishment of Manjhisthan, playground, pond, place of worship, grazing land, cremation ground, market place for the village
Mini truck for transport to the market
Employment for one person in each family (3 acre + land loss)
3 Primary Schools, 1 High School and a School bus
Scholarship to students who complete class X and above
50 bed hospital with ambulance, qualified doctors, nurses, mobile clinic to villages
Training institute and stipend for trainees etc.

Ten years to the date of the MOU, PANEM Co., has failed to fulfill most of these promises:
Kathaldih village has 86 families all of whom were displaced in 2007 and resettled in New Kathaldih Colony. They were provided a house each built like a colony, but not in the style that Adivasis live in, as promised. Around 30 houses remain submerged for almost 5 months of every a year due to water logging as the houses were built on agricultural land next to river Basloi. Electricity was provided only for 12 hours at night till July 2015, when the PANEM stopped mining since it was also one of the mining companies that were considered illegal by SC in it’s judgement of 2015.

An overhead water tank was constructed but no drinking water was ever supplied anywhere in the village from the tank. Common bathing water facilities were given but that too has been stopped since July 2015. No toilet was ever constructed for any of the families.

None of the families is able to carry out agricultural cultivation since all their land has been taken and the company. The land has just not been restored back to the Adivasi community after the mining was done.

Around six students who completed class X were given education scholarship but that too has stopped since March 2015.

In terms of employment and income, 8 families out of 71 interviewed did not get any jobs in the company.

Fifty-three families (74.7%) received the salary between Rs. 6000 – 6999 per month.

Unfortunately ever since March 2015, when the mining was stopped due to the later Supreme Court order, the people have not received any salary!

The people of Kathaldih neither have their agricultural land nor any salary from the company on which they had depended entirely on for their living. This has caused much anxiety and fear among the people. At least other villages have their agricultural land, but the people of Kathaldih have neither the land nor any income for survival. Their entire life and livelihood options seem to be in great danger.

In such a situation what does the government do? Instead of running to the rescue of these people who have been cheated by the company, the government is mulling over allocating this mine to some other company now. Now that people have been divided into two camps of pro-company and against the ‘company’, they are unable to put up a united struggle.

This is a call to all who feel concerned about the plight of the indigenous peoples and the systematic onslaught on their economy, social and cultural values to rise up to occasion. The Jharkhandi political parties and outfits can take it up both on the floor of the state assembly as well as meeting the people at their level and assuring them of their support to their cause.

Jharkhandi intellectuals, legal professionals and activists can reach out to the stranded people and assure them of their support and revive the original people’s movement.

Intellectuals and political parties need to initiate legal action. They can initiate the process of taking some concrete legal action based on the SPT Act, the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996[1] (PESA Act), the Forest Rights Act 2006 Act, the SC’s judgment that entitles the owner of the land as also the owner of sub-soil minerals. They can be of help to enable people in scheduled areas to form themselves into co-operatives for mining items like coal, sell it in open market, and share the cash equitably. People need to be united to fight against the assault on their rights. All this will require study, research, organization and advocacy. Where there is a will there will always be a way. Only let it not be said that we all stood by silently watching the extermination of our indigenous peoples.

References:
The demographic data, the details of the MoU, present situation are taken from:
(1) COALLATERAL, a Report of the Independent People’s Tribunal on the MoU between Rajmahal Pahad BachaoAndolan & PANEM Coal Mines, published by Programme For Social Action, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, 2015, and
(2) Draft Report of the Primary Survey done at New Kathaldih Resettlement Colonyby research scholar S. Xavier, St. Xavier’s College, 30 Park Street, Kolkata, 2015.

[1] The PESA is a law enacted by the Government of India to cover the "Scheduled areas", which are not covered in the 73rd amendment or Panchayati Raj Act of the Indian Constitution.

Of Encounter Killings and Sexual Violence in Chhatisgarh: A Fact-finding

April 30, 2016

Four brute killings, of three agricultural workers and a 13 year old girl, in January 2016 mark an all time low in state repression in Chhatisgarh: Peddajojer village

Women, including young girls allegedly stripped, beaten and verbally assaulted by the forces between January 11-14, 2016: Kunna Village

Over thirteen instances of gang rape were allegedly reported, in the same period, by the women while man other women were disrobed, molested, subjected to verbal abuse: Nendra village

Due process of law, for registration of FIRs for the offences, medical examinations, inquests and post mortems have not been followed by the authorities: fact finding report

Release of Fact Finding Report by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) and Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) entitled, “State of Siege: Report on Encounters and Cases of Sexual Violence in Bijapur and Sukma Districts of Chhattisgarh”

Between the January 16 to 22, 2016, members of Coordination of Democratic Rights Organization (CDRO) and Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) conducted a fact finding in villages of Bijapur and Sukma districts of Chhattisgarh.

The team investigated the deaths of four unarmed villagers of Peddajojer (Bijapur) on January 15, 2016 by security forces and conducted enquiries into the large scale violence, particularly sexual violence, that the security forces unleased in Nendra (Bijapur) and Kunna (Sukma) villages, between January 11—14, 2016.

Besides meeting officials, the team met villagers and relatives of those killed in the fake encounter at Peddajojer village and the families affected by the brutality committed by men in uniform including acts of loot, plunder, rape, sexual assault and physical violence in Kunna, Chotegadam and Nendra villages. The team also visited Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur and met two injured women who were lodged there. The report has been released by Asish Gupta (Coordinator, CDRO) and Shivani (Coordinator, WSS).

Following are the findings of the team:

Peddajojer village
1. On the morning of January 15, 2016, six villagers of Peddajojer village were on their way to the nearby market for buying daily provisions. These included three men and three little girls (See pp 8-9 and Annexure 1 of the report).

2. On the way to the market they were ambushed by security forces lying in wait at a dense forest track en-route to the market. Of the six people, two girls managed to escape while the three men and one girl were killed.

3. The villagers upon hearing gunshots and being informed of the incident by the girls who had escaped, rushed to the site only to find that the bodies were missing.

4. The security forces took the bodies without informing the family members of the deceased. They did not conduct any inquest at the site of the encounter. The security forces took the bodies to Bijapur General Hospital. In violation of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) guidelines, the post mortems were done at the hospital without proper identification of the bodies. No video recording of the post mortem was conducted.

5. Upon learning where the bodies were kept, the villagers assembled outside the hospital and demanded that the bodies be handed back to them. The police initially refused and even asked Rs. 4000 per body as transport charges. Only after the villagers protested, were the bodies returned on January 17, 2016.

6. The four killed were ordinary villagers of Peddajojer engaged in agricultural work and not Maoists as claimed by the security forces. The little girl killed was only 13 years old. The villagers also told us of how harassment by the security forces has become the norm in the village.

Kunna village
1. Between January 11 to 14, security force occupied Kunna and Chotegadam villages of Sukma district. A combing operation by the DRG, CRPF, COBRA (around 500 to 600 troops) was being conducted in the area.

2. The forces initially occupied a school but later occupied homes of people.

3. During the first two days the forces sexually assaulted many women. At least two women were raped by the forces. Women were stripped, beaten and verbally assaulted. Young girls were also stripped by the forces.

4. On January 12 several men and women from Kunna were taken into custody (see annexure 2 for details). On the way to one police camp, five men and five women were continuously beaten and the 5 women were also stripped and sexually assaulted. Apart from these, three boys were kept in illegal custody and forced to sign on a blank pieces of paper.

5. Twenty-one-year-old Lalu Sodi was severely beaten by the security forces on January 12, 2016. He died two days after, and the villages did not report the death as they feared further intimidation from the security forces.

6. Livestock was consumed by the forces, houses were broken into and implements were stolen by the men in uniform (See Annexure 2).

7. The team found the people of Kunna in a state of shock and their everyday life had become difficult because of the violence by the forces.

8. Finally, an FIR was filed on January 27, 2016 after a harrowing process by activists and the women of Kunna village (See page 15 for details)

9. Chotegadam village witnessed a similar pattern of plunder and violence (See pp 11-12 and Annexure 2 for further details)

Nendra Village
1. Between January 11-14, 2016, security forces occupied Nendra village(Bijapur). Four to five batches of police and security forces (CRPF, DRG, Koya) conducted search and combing operations while being stationed there.

2. The men of the village fled immediately as staying back would have meant either getting beaten up or being implicated in false cases. The security forces occupied houses of villagers.

3. Over thirteen instances of gang rape were reported by the women. Many other women were disrobed, molested, subjected to verbal abuse. Women’s faces were covered with a towel or even a mosquito net when rapes took place.

4. The forces not only threatened to burn down the houses with children inside but also threatened the women with the kind of violence they experienced during the time of Salwa Judum.

5. The security forces also looted rations, consumed poultry causing huge economic loss to the already impoverished villagers. (See annexure 3 for more details)

6. When women asked the security forces for money for the rations they had consumed the women were beaten up with lathi and rifles. Older people were also beaten (See Annexure 3 for details)

7. On January 18, 2016, members from the fact finding team along with 12 women of Nendra went to the Collectorate to bring to his attention the incidents in Nendra. However, the women had to wait till the January 21, 2016 to get their FIR registered, that too after a prolonged struggle with the administration. (see page 16 of the report for details)

State Response
A significant part of the team’s energies went into meeting officials in a bid to register FIRs against the accused. In all three cases the response of the administration was one of insensitivity and hostility. In the case of the fake encounter at Peddajejor, the official response was of “we will look into the matter”. The efforts involved in filing the FIR in the Kunna case took almost 13 days of constant pressure by the survivors and team members. In the Nendra incident, even when the Collector ordered the recording of statements, the police refused. Only after the fact-finding team was able to meet members of the NCW (National Commission of Women) who were collecting information regarding the infamous Peddagellur incident of October 2015, that the FIR was finally lodged on January 21, 2016.

These incidents, along with the climate of fear that has been created for ordinary villagers, activists, lawyers and journalists, needs to be seen in the light of Mission 16, which forms the governments objective in eliminating Maoists and handing over these lands to mining companies.

A copy of the report can be accessed here:

A copy of the Press Statement in Hindi can be accessed here:

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Farewell Comrade Satnam

April 30, 2016

'Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night……'

Dylan Thomas' father was losing his eyesight when he wrote this poem and we will never quite know the reasons for the specifics of the rage that led to Satnam –Gurmit –to take his own life. He was found dead at his residence in Patiala late on the evening of April 27. Unsung by large sections of the media, friends and associates, admirers and others on social media mourned his loss. He was 64 when he died.

Ranjana Padhi, “ He was a friend to many and his house in Ranjit Nagar a home to us all. An end of a rare friendship going beyond ideology and politics – cos we dare to dream and dare to critique and dream still…Suffice it Gurmit that I put up your book cover here. You would have scoffed at this too and laughed and said…"Kudi…tum log facebook pe kya kya karte ho!" I do not have the nerve right now to put up your foto and see the grinning face with the shining eyes! Inspired always by your commitment, warmth, passion and imagination…will always be. "

Many would know of Satnam –described alternately as a brilliant and courageous mind and a gentle soul –as the author of Jangalnama, the classic travelogue, hailed by critics writing in the English language as India’s answer to ‘Red Star Over China’ a book authored in 1937 by Edgar Snow. The book was written in 12 days in 2004 after a visit to Bastar in 2001. Today with Chhatisgarh the centre of brute state repression, the work becomes relevant, with Satnam’s departure, once again.

As Vishav Bharti who translated this seminal work wrote in the Tribune after Satnam’s death ‘Whose obituary do you want to write?’ he would have laughed at me. ‘G Fellow’, who was admired by the radical Left cadre as a commentator on international politics? Gurmeet Singh — the name that he shed decades ago in Amritsar when he joined the Naxalite movement in the 1970s?

Satnam, who died in Patiala on Wednesday night at the age of 64, lived many lives. Sometimes as an underground Maoist guerrilla, sometimes as a democratic rights activist on fact-finding missions on human rights violations in Kashmir and Gujarat genocide, or as a creative writer, who would write with equal felicity in Punjabi, Hindi and English.

Like many youngsters in 1970s, he also left home with a dream that the world can be made a better place to live. “But he was one of the few who remained steadfast in his belief till their last,” says Prof Bawa Singh, his close friend and former vice-chairman, National Commission for Minorities.

All these decades, besides political activism, Satnam kept on writing short stories and political commentary under different pen names. “He had written around 15 short stories but nobody bothered to preserve them and he himself was busy in activism, so most of these are lost,” reveals Singh. Among those writings only one story, World’s Oldest Profession, on prostitution that appeared in a Hindi magazine has survived.’

The remainder of Dylan Thomas' Poem

'….Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas, 1914 – 1953

Pastor and Wife Survive Attempt to Burn them Alive

April 30, 2016

A peek into the Hindutva Rashtra of Central Bharat

The terrorising attack on a pastor and his wife who were doused with fuel oil in Chhattisgarh, followed by the stopping of a church wedding in Madhya Pradesh, within weeks of each other in April speak of the immunity that Sangh Parivar cadres enjoy in these two sibling states. Both states have been under Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) rule – with both Mr. Shivraj Chauhan and Dr. Raman Singh as chief ministers now well into their third five year terms, but the advent of the party in the Union government has given a new edge to the aggression against religious minorities in the small towns and villages of this central Indian region.

The region was hostile to the Christian community, and specially its clergy, even when the Congress was in power. It was under the then chief minister Mr. Ravi Shankar Shukla of the Central Provinces, as it was then known, that set up the notorious Justice Niyogi Commission in 1956, which is now a handbook for the Sangh Parivar in targetting churches, institutions and pastors. Madhya Pradesh was also among the first states to also enact the so-called Freedom of Religion Acts, which have been indicted by UN Special Rapporteurs as violating international freedom of religion covenants.

While Madhya Pradesh remains a state causing great concern for the hostility against the Christian minority, it is Chhattisgarh that has emerged as the next worst in line, now topping the list of regions where the Christian community in India, is persecuted. There were four cases in the first three months of 2016, before the latest incident.

In 2015, Chhattisgarh recorded 20 cases, third highest after Madhya Pradesh with 36 cases, Uttar Pradesh with 22 cases, according to Reverend Vijayesh Lal, Executive Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of India who publishes the annual report persecution in the country, the main report on Freedom of Religion from the perspective of the Christian community.

In the latest case reported from Karanji village in the Tokapal area of the Bastar district in the state, Pastor Dinbanhu Sameli, 30, and his wife, Meena, 26, who is seven months pregnant, were assaulted and their church set on fire on Sunday, April 17, after they refused the mob’s demand that they shout Jai Shri Ram.

Witnesses told reporters that two young men approached the pastor outside his home next to his church at around 7 pm, initially asking for prayer, claiming they were from a nearby Methodist church. But they later brought out a sword which they held to the pastor’s neck, and demanded the couple shout “Jai Shri Ram” and kick a copy of the Bible. The couple did not obey. The two men threw petrol on the couple and on their small church and set it ablaze. The young couple broke free and ran away before the flames could reach them.

According to the couple, last year a Bajrang Dal group came on two tractors, shouted “Jai Shri Ram” in front of the church, and wrote the same slogan on both the sides of the main door.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a law and legal assistance group headquartered in the national capital, has in 2014 successfully challenged anti-Christian resolutions passed by several village councils which had banned “non-Hindu” religious activities in their territories, effectively criminalising the presence or entry of evangelists and pastors, and prayers in house churches.

Not that the government and its agencies do not target Christians whenever possible, despite the assurances given by the chief minister when delegations meet him to apprise him of the latest incident. In one such particularly blatant case, a church in Raipur was vandalised during a Sunday worship in March this year. A protest was sent to the government. Ten days later, on March 17, the Municipal Corporation gave a demolition notice to a Pentecostal church alleging had been built illegally and was an encroachment on land to which it had no right. The Chhatisgarh Christian groups collected over a thousand Christians for a sit-in protest, forcing the government to withdraw the order.

In February, a pastor was beaten during a prayer meeting, while two months earlier a group of activists from Bajrang Dal demolished a new church in Korba.

In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, which has topped the list of anti-Christian violence two years in a row now, the latest incident is of Bajrang Dal members bringing the police with them to stop church wedding in Satna alleging that the bride and the groom had been unlawfully converted to Christianity. As the Indian Express reported, the Kolgawan police constables entered the Church of God in India and arrested 10 people, including pastor Sam Samuel and the groom’s parents. CSP (Satna) Sitaram Yadav alleged that the bride was a minor as she was 10 days short of turning 18. Satna SP Mithilesh Shukla also agreed with Bajrang Dal claiming that the girl was “Hindu.” The groom, 24-year-old Ajay Kushwaha, works with a private firm. Besides Sections 3 and 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, police have invoked IPC Section 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) and Section 14 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

Mr. Mariyosh Joseph, speaking on behalf of the church congregation, denied the charges rubbishing them as false. He said the bride and groom were Christians adding that the Bajrang Dal and the RSS were behind the complaint.
(The author is a journalist, occasional documentary film maker and social activist)

Hindu College Must Stop Discriminating Against Women Students

April 30, 2016

Image for representation purpose only     Image: Hindustantimes

If you’re an outstation woman student of Hindu College, Delhi University, and live in the college’s Women’s Hostel, you will be expected to pay nearly three times the fees that residents of the Men’s Hostel do. And while the Men’s Hostel residents are more or less free of any restrictions on their dress or movements, you will be hedged around by a positively Victorian set of absurd rules.

For instance, you can’t wear clothes of your own choice in the college or Hostel: the rules demand that you “dress in a manner which is THE NORMAL NORM IN THE SOCIETY while visiting the dining hall, visitor's room and common spaces in the hostel or the College.” What, pray, is the “normal norm”? After all, skirts, shorts, jeans, sleeveless tops and so on are considered ‘normal’ by most young people, but custodians of morality may well declare that only saris or salwar-kurtas with dupattas are the “normal norm” for Indian women!

You would have to attend ‘roll call’ at 8.30 pm every single day in the hostel unless you have “approved leave” – an unexplained or unauthorised absence after 8.30pm “will be subject to disciplinary action.” That means you can’t watch a film in a cinema hall or go for a party or just hang out with friends as adults do, without notifying your Warden and getting “approved leave.” You can be out till 10 pm on weekends or holidays; on weekdays just twice a month, and you can spend a night away from the hostel just once a month – needless to say, only if you “apply” for leave from your Warden 24 hours in advance, backed by a letter from your ‘parent/local guardian,’ and only if the leave is sanctioned. You will need your Warden’s permission “for taking part in any cultural/sports events outside college.” Your participation in such off-campus or on-campus events must be recorded in separate registers. You cannot “take up any full time/part-time employment or enrol for any course or coaching for which the classes are conducted outside the college without prior permission of the Warden.”

The Common Room is locked at 10.30 pm – so you can’t catch a film or cricket match or serial on TV after that time. You can’t talk in your room or in the corridors – yes, really. And you can’t ‘loiter’ in the corridors or hostel’s common spaces or anywhere outside your room after 11 pm.

You can meet visitors only in the visitors’ room – and only “those visitors who have been approved by parents and whose names and addresses are registered with the Hostel office at the time of admission will be allowed to meet the resident.” So, your parents and the Hostel authorities monitor your friends, and you aren’t allowed to make and meet any new friends after you join College! Even your women friends who are day scholars, cannot visit your hostel room. You’re not allowed to have any guests whatsoever in your room.

In other words, you, an adult woman, are under surveillance and subject to humiliating and infantilising restrictions in every area of your life.

Every college and University ought to be mandated to have hostels for both men and women – and the same rules should apply to both. The lives of students – male or female – must be free of surveillance and restrictions on personal autonomy.

When I was a Bachelor of Arts (BA) student in Mumbai in 1990, my College had no Women’s Hostel. Desperate for accommodation, I was lucky to get a room in a small women’s hostel run by a Gujarati women’s trust. The hostel had some of the absurd and arbitrary rules that the Hindu Women’s Hostel has imposed – though even that extremely conservative hostel did not demand that we seek Warden’s permission for cultural/sports events or coaching classes; and didn’t insist on parent-approved visitors. But watching a late evening play or a film festival, or going out for dinner meant that we had to find some ingenious way to break the rules. Relieved at having found a place to stay in the city, we didn’t complain very much about the rules – most of the time, we laughed at the rules and the Warden’s fear of lesbians (‘keep ten inches space between the beds or else bad things will happen,’ she would say); and we just found ways of subverting or breaking the rules as best as we could. We knew that any open challenge to the rules would mean that we would lose the hostel room – and that was a terrifying prospect, since our parents could not afford to rent a room for us and we could not study in Mumbai without hostel accommodation.

But I do remember an occasion when it was brought home to me just how humiliating and insufferable and inhuman it was to treat adult women like truant children. One young woman in the hostel was ‘exposed’ as having a boyfriend in whose room she had been secretly spending nights; her parents came to take her away from the hostel, in the midst of loud recriminations and abuse from the hostel authorities and her relatives.

A tall, strapping, striking-looking young woman, she had been subjected to a public shaming – and inevitably her education was rudely cut short as punishment for committing the ultimate sexual transgression of having loved and slept with a man of her choice. The hostel authorities were livid at the ‘failure’ of their rigid policing mechanisms – and we all felt the heat of tightened restrictions for some months afterward.

It is significant that factories too try to incarcerate women workers in ‘hostels’ to ensure surveillance and control on their autonomy. Garment workers in such hostels, producing for MNCs, are not allowed mobile phones, not allowed to speak to anyone except parents, from landline phones in a Warden’s presence, are not allowed to venture outside the hostel’s barbed wire-fortified walls, or allowed to meet visitors. The pretext is ‘safety’ – but the dividend, for the factory management, is that the women are prevented from joining unions.

In Universities and colleges too, the aim of moralistic and gendered rules for women’s hostels is to reproduce the family’s functions of proscribing inter-caste, inter-faith or same-sex liaisons; but also to prohibit or deter social and political activism. This is one of the reasons why JNU is demonised in the prurient right-wing imagination – because it is well known that in JNU, archaic rules prohibiting women from entering men’s hostel rooms are observed only in the breach, and no one in JNU has yet managed to suggest any dress or moral code for JNU’s women students.

This is why you have political leaders branding JNU’s protesting women as ‘worse than prostitutes’ and have ‘free sex’; fantasizing about the number of condoms found every night on the campus; or suggesting that the women’s hostels are dens of ‘organised sex racket.’ Spaces like JNU or FTII where women have won some small respite from the tight codes encircling them everywhere else are branded as ‘dens of vice.’ Ironically, the fact that the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment is more active and trustworthy than in most other campuses, also leads to further demonisation.

One the one hand, the fact that there is higher reporting of sexual harassment in JNU, thanks to awareness of and trust in the GSCASH, leads to JNU being profiled in the media as a campus with ‘the maximum number of sexual harassment cases.’ One the other, a ‘dossier’ prepared by a set of right-wing faculty members claims that the GSCASH is simply a tool used by Leftists and feminists to frame those students and teachers who refuse to be a part of the ‘sex racket.’

It’s a relief to see that young women today are chafing at and challenging the arbitrary and sexist treatment to which colleges and hostels subject them in the name of ‘safety.’ It’s well recognized by every woman student that such rules are not for their ‘safety’ – they are aimed at maintaining social and sexual control over women. It’s good that women students today are ‘breaking the cages’ and demanding equality and freedom in colleges, Universities and hostels.

Every college and University ought to be mandated to have hostels for both men and women – and the same rules should apply to both. The lives of students – male or female – must be free of surveillance and restrictions on personal autonomy. The women students of Hindu College deserve our wholehearted support in their courageous refusal to accept the sexist and degrading rules imposed on them. A victory of this movement in Hindu Hostel will strengthen the hands of students of other colleges and hostels – both public and private – where students are chafing against the unbearable regimes of surveillance and shaming.

(The author is Secretary, All India Progressive Women’s Association)

Super cop Julio Ribeiro challenges Pandey’s appointment as DGP Gujarat

April 29, 2016

Should a Cop Charged with Serious Crimes be appointed to the highest police position in the state? No says top cop Julio Ribeiro who has challenged the appointment of PP Pandey as acting DGP Gujarat

Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) turns its back on its own charge sheet in the famed Sohrabuddin encounter case and allows crimes to go unpunished, the state executive – the Gujarat government has been busy re-instating– in high positions, those policemen charged with crimes including abduction and even murder. Rahul Sharma, senior cop turned lawyer has filed a petition on behalf of super cop Julio Ribeiro, former DGP, Punjab and Ambassador to Romania against Pandey’s appointment. The petition will be heard next Wednesday, April 4 before the Chief Justice, Gujarat.

"It is ridiculous. How can a person, who is facing trial for four murders, be appointed to the top post, as the person facing trial has to be under suspension, according to the All India Services (Conduct) Rules," says 87 year old Ribeiro.

It was just 14 days ago on April 15, that PP Pandey, charge-sheeted by the CBI in a High Court monitored investigation, for offences under the Arms Act and for offences of abduction, wrongful confinement, and premeditated murder of four persons, was –in utter disregard for due process of law—appointed as acting DGP, Gujarat. Before his appointment to a powerful post, Pandey had attended the “"welcome ceremony" for DG Vanzara, re-entering Gujarat after close to a decade. The retired DIG accused in both the Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killings was recently allowed by a special CBI court to enter Gujarat. Vanzara’s prejudicial outlook that, under law, constitutes hate speech was recently visible on social media when he asked “Sons of Mughals to Quit India.”

The petition questions the government's wisdom to pick a murder accused police officer as the DGP. Ribeiro has clarified to the media that his stand is based on principle. Filed in the public interest, this legal action challenges the Government of Gujarat, Home Department, notification dated 15.04.2016 entrusting Shri P.P. Pandey, IPS (Gujarat: 1980), Director of the State Anti Corruption Bureau, with the additional charge of the post of DGP of Gujarat State. Such an additional charge is against the Doctrine of Public Trust, is against the law and the express guidelines of the Supreme Court. Moreover, it is likely to defeat the ends of justice and is against the public interest because P.P. Pandey is an accused committed for trial in a case of abduction and premeditated murder. As acting DGP of the state he will have power and control over other policemen who are witnesses in this sensitive case. Several serving police officers who are witnesses in the criminal case, in which P.P. Pandey is a charge-sheeted accused, are subject to his authority and influence, which is likely to adversely affect the judicial process of trial. This is the basis of the petition. Other witnesses can also get influenced.

Rahul Sharma, a practising lawyer in the Gujarat High Court has himself been the object of a conspicuous campaign of vendetta unleashed by the state government. This has been in large measure due to his candour and integrity in testifying in crucial cases related to the 2002 genocidal carnage including the Naroda Patuya Cases and the Zakia Jafri case currently pending in the High Court.

In 2002, it was his bravery in the wake of tremendous pressure that has won Rahul Sharma kudos. The SP of Bhavnagar, Sharma ordered firing on a mob that had attacked a madrasa housing more than 200 children. He was taken to task for this by the deputy home minister Gordhan Zadhaphia who told him, "Your ratio of firing deaths is not proper". That is, Sharma's actions had led to the killing of more Hindus than Muslims unlike elsewhere in Gujarat.

Sharma found himself, once again, at the receiving end of the BJP regime's ire especially after he submitted a batch of Call Data Records to the Nanavati Commission, which was probing the carnage. The records revealed that Modi's ministers and VHP leaders had been in constant touch with police officers as well as rioters. Sharma was charged with violating norms by the Modi government, only to be cleared by the Central Administrative Tribunal. He quit the police soon after to take up legal practice.

Electric Companies Duping Indian Consumers: DRI Investigates a 29,000 Crores Rupees Scam

April 29, 2016

Six companies from the Adani group, Anil Ambanis companies as those belonging to Jindal Essar among a total of 40 corporations –that include state electricity corporations –are allegedly involved in a massive scam that has de-frauded the Indian consumer into paying one and a half times for electricity suggesting that senior functionaries within government are also in the know

Video Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Editor Economic & Political Weekly, Prananjoy Guha Thakurta speaks to Newsclick on a massive financial fraud –at least to the tune of Rs 29,000 crores –being currently investigated by the Drectorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). Thakurta broke the story in EPW on April 2, 2016.

There appears to be a major scam involving some of India’s mightiest companies like Adani Group and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and forty of India’s biggest energy companies. This is currently under the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) scanner. Conservative estimates put the amount involved at nor less that Rs. 29,000 crores, which then is passed onto the electricity consumer in the form of higher power tariffs.

What was the exact modus operandi of these companies? What did the companies actually do to inflate the price of coal that they were importing? How did this scam come to light? To discuss and to know more about these issues Newsclick interviewed Editor, Economic & Political Weekly, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, who exposed the scam.

In EPW, Thakurta says, “Among the private companies being investigated, the best known names include at least six firms belonging to the Adani group—Adani Enterprises Ltd, Adani Power Ltd, Adani Power Rajasthan Ltd, Adani Power Maharashtra Ltd, Adani Wilmar Ltd and Vyom Trade Link. The Adani group is headed by Gautam Adani who is known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The group has supplied coal to various power generation and distribution companies, including Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, Gujarat State Electricity Corporation, Haryana Power Generation Corporation and Jhajjar Power Ltd.

“Other privately-controlled companies in the list of firms being probed by the DRI include Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Rosa Power Supply Co Ltd, both of which are part of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) led by Anil Ambani; two companies in the Essar group promoted by the Ruia family, Essar Oil Ltd and Essar Power Gujarat Ltd; JSW Steel Ltd headed by Sajjan Jindal; four companies in the Hyderabad-based NSL group (NSL Sugar, NSL Krishnaveni Sugar, NSL Sugar Tungabhadra and NSL Textiles) promoted by M Venkataramaiah and M Prabhakar Rao; India Cements Ltd led by former International Cricket Council chairman N Srinivasan; and Uttam Galwa Steels Ltd led by Rajinder Miglani.

The list also includes Gupta Coal India Ltd; MBG Commodities Pvt Ltd; Knowledge Infrastructure Systems Pvt Ltd; three companies in the Bhatia group, Bhatia Global Trading, Bhatia International (Asia Natural Resource), Bhatia Industry and Infrastructure (Hemang Resources); two companies in the Gandhar group, Gandhar Oil and Refinery India Ltd and Gandhar Coal and Mines; Coastal Energy Ltd; Aggarwal Coal Ltd; Suryadev Alloys and Power Pvt Ltd; Laxmi Organic Industries Ltd; Phoenix Comtrade Pvt Ltd; and Simhapuri Energy Ltd.

Government-owned companies being investigated include the country's largest power producer NTPC Ltd (formerly National Thermal Power Corporation Limited), MMTC Ltd (formerly Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation Limited), MSTC Ltd (formerly Metal Scrap Trading Corporation Limited) and Karnataka Power Corporation Limited.

The DRI has monitored the details of coal imports of these companies till 31 March 2016, information accessed by the authors suggests.

Web of Scams
This revelation comes weeks after the DRI secured the first arrest of an accused person who was allegedly involved in over-invoicing of coal imported from Indonesia. On 27 February 2016, the DRI arrested Manoj Kumar Garg, a Hong Kong based Indian national who had allegedly opened a front company in Dubai responsible for over-valuing imported coal to the tune of Rs 280 crore. The coal was meant for the state electricity boards in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.”

In this interview, Thakurta explains how some corporate giants, especially close to the political establishment in Delhi have carried out this scam by actually over-invoicing the price of coal being imported. Over-invoicing meant actually charging, on paper 40-50 per cent more than what was paid to the coal suppliers; this burden was passed on to the ordinary Indian consumer while the companies involved in these massive illegalities actually transferred the amounts illegally to foreign accounts.

This is a huge fraud on the ordinary user of electricity. In these 40 companies apart from some major private players close to the Modi establishment are also the Electricity Boards of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana.

It remains to be seen how the central agencies –under the union finance ministry—and then the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the SEBI deal with this massive scam before the courts come into the picture.

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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Farewell Comrade Satnam

Pastor and Wife Survive Attempt to Burn them Alive

A peek into the Hindutva Rashtra of Central Bharat

Hindu College Must Stop Discriminating Against Women Students

Super cop Julio Ribeiro challenges Pandey’s appointment as DGP Gujarat

Should a Cop Charged with Serious Crimes be appointed to the highest police position in the state? No says top cop Julio Ribeiro who has challenged the appointment of PP Pandey as acting DGP Gujarat

Electric Companies Duping Indian Consumers: DRI Investigates a 29,000 Crores Rupees Scam

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