A Vengeful State: JNU Administration Selectively Witholds Student Fellowships

April 20, 2016

Is there no limit to the pettiness and vindictiveness that University administrations and their masters in the Modi regime’s MHRD (Ministry for Human Resources Development) can display towards young scholars and political activists?

Two days ago, on April 18, Chintu Kumari, an AISA activist and former General Secretary of the JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union), got a call from the JNU Administration that her MPhil degree and mark sheet had been “blocked” because of her participation in the February 9 event protesting Afzal Guru’s execution. Chintu is among those who received a show-cause notice from the Administration, but was not among the 8 students who had been ‘debarred from academic activities’ for some weeks.

A few days ago, Shweta Raj, JNUSU Convenor of the School of Languages, submitted her fellowship form – to be told by the JNU Finance Branch that it has orders not to clear the fellowships of the ‘debarred’ students.

Soon after, the current JNUSU General Secretary Rama Naga and former JNUSU President Ashutosh Kumar also found that their fellowships are not being cleared by the JNU Finance Branch, even though these students are no longer ‘debarred’.

These students overcome huge social and economic hurdles and handicaps to make it to University, and in Universities like JNU and HCU (Hyderabad Central University), they are able to thrive and emerge as political leaders. It is nothing short of criminal that the Modi Government and its pliant Administrations choose to punish these students for their political activism.

The Government wants us to see these students as one-dimensional ‘anti-nationals’. That’s good enough reason to look a little closer, and see who these students are, and what they get from JNU and what they bring to academics and politics that makes the Government want to end their education and their activism.

Chintu’s father is a whole-time activist of the CPI(ML) in the Bhojpur region of Bihar; her mother sells bangles to sustain the family. Her father has had to live in hiding since 1996, since he is a target for the Ranveer Sena that massacred entire Dalit villages in Bhojpur in the 1990s.

At a recent protest in JNU, Chintu spoke with feeling about the serial killings of CPI(ML) activists in Bihar – in the past month itself, Comrades Mahesh Ram, Rampravesh Ram, and Garo Paswan who had been leading struggles of Dalit villagers for land that is rightfully theirs, were killed in Begusarai by feudal elements.

Chintu was schooled in Delhi in the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya. She did her BA from IP College in DU, and then joined JNU for her MA and MPhil in Political Science. Her brother studies in Bhojpur; to get a sense of the struggles that students like him have had to wage (against mass expulsions and arson attacks) to get an education, do read Javed Iqbal’s piece, ‘JNU, HCU, and Once Upon A Time in Bhojpur.

Between Bhagat Singh martyrdom day on March 23 and Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 April this year, Chintu, Ashutosh, Anant, Rama and other AISA activists have campaigned intensively in villages and towns of India, as part of the ‘Utho Mere Desh’ (Arise My Country) campaign. Chintu spent much of the March-April month in Bhojpur, addressing street corner meetings, and appealing to people to come forward for a new India of Bhagat Singh’s and Ambedkar’s dreams (Naye Bharat Ke Vaste, Bhagat Singh-Ambedkar ke Raste).

Last year, as JNUSU General Secretary, Chintu had visited Bhojpur to meet the young Dalit girls and women who had been gangraped in Kurmuri village by a former Ranveer Sena commander.

Rama Naga, the JNUSU GS, is the first graduate from his village. This is how the Telegraph described him in February, “Naga is a Dalit from Boipariguda in Odisha's Koraput district. His father sells bangles on his bicycle and his mother is a day labourer. …A graduate from Vikram Dev College in Odisha's Jeypore, Naga is shy except when he is on the dance floor. In Jeypore, he gave tuitions to fund his studies….His filmy dances during hostel and varsity cultural events drew crowds on the JNU campus. He's fondly called "Remo" after actor Vikram's character in the 2005 Tamil film Anniyan, which was dubbed in Hindi as Aparichit…. He has earned scholarships ever since he joined JNU.”

His MPhil is a critical study of the movements in his home state against land grab by the Baliapal missile testing range and the POCSO Steel Plant (POCSO has recently admitted defeat and withdrawn plans for the plant). For a young scholar and activist entirely dependent on fellowships, the freezing of his fellowship is a deliberate act of violence. Rama has posted on Facebook about how he, Shweta and Ashutosh are finding it difficult even to pay their mess bills.

Ashutosh is the son of a rail worker in Barh in Bihar. Shweta, from Mughalsarai in UP, in addition to economic hardships, has the usual struggles most young women face, persuading their families to support her choice to pursue a PhD in Hindi literature and Left activism. JNU knows the clear young voices of Ashutosh and Shweta well – from the many struggles in which they have raised slogans and given powerful, inspiring speeches.

The right-wing campaign derides JNU for wasting public subsidies. The likes of Anupam Kher jeer at JNU students asking them why they’re wasting their time doing PhDs instead of earning a living and supporting their poverty-stricken families. BJP MP Chandan Mitra, in a piece urging the Government to jump at any excuse to “shut down JNU” which he dubbed as “a factory that produces only spongers and malcontents.”

Meanwhile, the UGC is slashing funds and fellowships, while the PM himself is seeking to invite foreign universities to set up shop in India.

Students like Rohith or Chintu, Rama, Ashutosh, Shweta and so many others, pose a threat to our rulers, because they refuse to look at education as a commodity; refuse to lose sight of the connections between science, social science, the humanities and society. They refuse to confine their reading and thinking to what can get them marks in exams – they refuse to seal off the classroom from the campus, the street or the slum. ‘Educate’, for them as for Ambedkar, goes hand in hand with ‘organise and agitate’. They know full well that when Bhagat Singh wrote a letter to youth, he didn’t ask them how much they would be earning, he asked them to organise study circles, distribute leaflets, build a revolutionary party, for “for the consummation of our ideal, i.e., social reconstruction on new, i.e., Marxist, basis.” And that’s why they know that Kher, Mitra and Co., would have jeered at Bhagat Singh and his comrades, too, as ‘spongers and malcontents.’ What, after all, is a ‘malcontent’? Neither Bhagat Singh nor Ambedkar preached being ‘content’ with a society ridden with inequality and oppression.

The BJP feels threatened when they see students from rural Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, UP express empathy for the people of Kashmir; organise workers on their campuses; and subject the Government to scrutiny. Above all, the BJP feels deeply threatened when young people refuse to accept the RSS attempts to define ‘nationalism’ in terms of Beef or the saffron-waving Bharat Mata baying for blood-and-bullets; and when students instead define patriotism as a concern for citizens’ rights, for justice, for democracy.

Modi came to power boasting of support from the young. Now, wherever he goes, he seems as afraid of the young as the fairy tale Emperor was of the child who saw that he wore no clothes. Today’s students are the most vocal in piercing the balloon of ‘Acche Din’, in saying to him, in the words of Habib Jalib:

“Phool shaakhon pe khilne lagey” tum kaho,
“Jaam rindon ko milne lagey” tum kaho,
“Chaak seenon kay silne lagey” tum kaho,
Iss khule jhooth ko,
Zehn ki loot ko,
Main nahin maanta,
Main nahin jaanta.

“Flowers are budding on branches”, that’s what you say,
“Every cup overflows”, that’s what you say,
“Wounds are healing themselves”, that’s what you say,
These bare-faces lies,
this insult to the intelligence,
I refuse to acknowledge,
I refuse to accept

(Translation courtesy Sana Saleem)

The Government and the University Administrations should have learnt their lesson by now – that every attempt to slap sedition charges, withhold fellowships and block MPhil degrees only adds fuel to a student movement that is growing in determination, and that is a refreshing vent of fresh air for a country suffocated by authoritarianism, betrayed promises and bigotry.

Universities in a Ferment as Modi Government Slashes Scholarships

April 19, 2016

Does the Modi Government Want Mass Suicides of Students in Campuses Across the Country, angrily demand Research Scholars?
The Modi Government is squeezing fellowship amounts promised under several government schemes to research scholars all over the country. First the differently abled and religious minorities, now even SC and ST research scholars are being denied their fellowship amounts.

The Modi-led government, is pursuing capricious policies and budgetary cuts in higher education that has rendered thousands of Indian university students distraught and tense over the past few months, with a staggered and irrational release of their fellowship and scholarship amounts, leaving universities across the country in a state of angry ferment.

Over 20,000 research scholars all over the country have been affected by this tardy and insensitive functioning by the Central government. “Many of us have run into personal debts of Rs 50-60,000,” a research scholar told this writer. “We are helpless, we cannot ask our families and what is worse we are not being able to concentrate on the research,” he added.

Research scholars in higher education, who have obtained scholarships under different schemes, have been spending energies in getting scholarship amounts disbursed rather than concentrating on their studies since July last year (2015).

Scholars Among the Differently Abled Denied Fellowship Amounts for Eight Months

Among the worst sufferers for a grueling eight month period were research fellows who had obtained the Rajiv Gandhi National fellowship for the Disabled. They did not receive any fellowship amount since June July 2015 and only recently six months worth of money has been disbursed, after a staggering eight month gap. A quick look at the Forum of Scholars (UGC Fellowships Forum ) on the Facebook Page shows the deep anguish that students across the country are going through. Some of these students whom Sabrangindia has made inquiries about include M. D. Hasanujgaman, Ashok Jack and Arul Selvam among several others.

Presently, the worst sufferers are minority, Dalit and Adivasi students who get scholarships from the Social Welfare and Minority Ministries apart from the UGC.Minority Students across the country who have been awarded the MANA fellowship (Maulana Azad National Fellowship for Minorities) have been denied their amounts for as many as five-to six months and on occasion extending to a year. Sabrangindia has spoken to several of them including Mir Qadri.

Here is what Mir Qadri wrote 55 minutes ago on the Facebook page of the Forum, “All MANF scholars I have planned to go to Minority Cell Department of the Government Telangana to meet the Chairman with our problem of Fellowship amounts not being released.” Sabrangindia spoke to Mir Qadri, “ I am a student of the Maulana Azad University Hyderabad and have not received my fellowship amount for five months. In my knowledge there are at least 1015 students of the same university who have not received their fellowship appoints some for over a year. How are research scholars supposed to even function?” Qadri demanded.

Abu Saleh, a research scholar from the University of Hyderabad and part of the Occupy UGC Campaign launched last year in October, says “For the last 18 months, fellowships for students has become a huge issue in the country. There have been clear-cut efforts to stop fellowships plans as like 'UGC Non Net'. Even though there was a hike in amount to some of the scholarships by the end of 2014, the total number has been cut down in many schemes.”

Sabrangindia’s investigations across the country have found that the disbursement of all scholarship and fellowship amounts in almost all the schemes of the government are extremely irregular and not functioning properly. Besides, there has been an almost ad hoc cutting and trimming of scholarship entitlements and amounts.

At least a dozen students from all over the country, including the Differently Abled, Dalit and Adivasi students were contacted by Sabrangindia. Students who are differently abled are being denied their legitimate fellowship amounts and moreover face a humiliation when they try and contact the authorities.

The last Central Education Budget already saw a jaw dropping budgetary cut of 17%! In the revised estimates for 2014-15, while school education allocation was cut by around Rs. 80,000 crore, that of higher education was slashed by Rs. 4,000 crore. In June 2014, out of 7 lakh candidates who appeared for the NET examinations, a total of around 25000 qualified. An analysis prepared by the University of Hyderabad Teachers Association states that clearly, this decision of the UGC is going to leave more than 96% of our students (who were anyway receiving only a meager amount of Rs. 5000 for MPhil and Rs. 8000 for PhD) with no scholarship support to pursue their education.

MPhil and PhD students are research workers, which also involves travel expenses to field sites, libraries etc, purchasing of books and other materials, arranging for accommodation and food where there are no free hostels and messes and so on. Even access to many online journals and articles are privileged and one has to pay if one is outside the privileged circles. Some central fellowship grants are, however, Rs 25,000 per month.

This was the plea made by a differently abled student to Sabrangindia, “Our concerns are being neglected. We have failed to contact the responsible authorities and to get the fellowship. The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, UGC and Canara bank are telling us that there are no funds at all for our fellowship!

They are saying different things at different times. They always keep referring to others and give us different phone numbers and when we call them, they again keep refer to others. But still there is no proper reply. Some of them say we will get the fellowship in coming months. Some say there are no funds so they don’t know anything. Some say we (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) have already given fund to UGC, but contradictorily the UGC says the ministry has not sent any money!

Canara bank says the ministry (of finance) has not sent us funds. Again some tell us either to wait indefinitely or to ask the Finance ministry ourselves to release the funds for our fellowship. When we mail and call, most of the respective offices and their staff refuse to even give us a coherent reply, some even come back and say why we are bothering them.

We are in a state of utter darkness. We don’t know when and why we are not getting the fellowship. We do not know what we should do to get the fellowship. Moreover, there is no proper accountability to submit our grievances and inquire about the indefinite delay and non-payment of the fellowship. We are facing huge hardships and severe economic problems due to the non-payment of the fellowship.”

Researchers from the Minority similarly Strapped

The condition of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) is another cause for serious concern. In the name of changing the system to a direct bank transfer, even this fellowship amount is being delayed over the last year. The last time the fellowship was given to some students was in October/November 2015. A few days back after many mails, tweets, and phone calls, they have released one or two months worth of money for a few batches while several are still pending. Research students of MANF 2010-11 batch are still waiting for their June-July fellowship.

Last year after huge efforts by the students (RGNF) for SC/STs, scholarships are functioning slightly better but there are various other difficulties such as transferring fellowships from one institution to another. Activation of fellowships for new batches takes months while bad responses and insufficient communication is another problem. UGC, Ministries and Canara Bank always play a blame game and it is the students who suffer.

Prestigious institutions of higher education are also clearly indicating to students the complete cancellation of scholarships. This document that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has sent to the new students enrolling in the MPhil and PhD programme from this year is self-explanatory. More than 150 students join TISS for M.Phil and PhD every year and they have been clearly told, “no scholarships!” This will certainly impact the profile of the students who will get in.

The circular clearly says that “as per directives of the Central Government of India, Centrally Funded Universties are not entitled for the Non Net fellowships. In view of this there will be no Not Net Fellowship support provided to the scholars from this year.” Only UGC and RGNF scholarships will be available.

Over three dozen research fellows whom Sabrangindia spoke to have collectively made this plea. These include Rukmini Dutta, Sreekumar Bishwas, Chiranjib Sarkar, Abhijit Sarkar, Girish Dahiya. Their statement follows:

“The debates regarding UGC Non Net Fellowship and UGC’s messing this up is well known. After several protests throughout the country, the HRD Ministry did set up a committee. The report of the committee was supposed to come in December but researchers are still waiting for the same. The ‘unqualified’ humbug minister seems to be underperformer too. Further, many ongoing fellowship schemes are also in great danger since many of them are being mismanaged in the last two years. The late disbursement system and several months without any fellowships are plaguing the students.

Fellowship schemes like MANF, RGNF and so on are dysfunctional for a long time. Last year some students did visit to UGC and other concerned ministries and were promised that the schemes will run as per law thenceforth, but unfortunately it did not happen. As of now thousand scholars of the country have not received their fellowship for many months. For example the scholars under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme for minority students are without fellowship from last October – November. Other schemes like RGNF SC, RGNF ST, RGNF OBC and so on are also running late. Most unfortunately fellowship for disabled students has not been released since last July. In these circumstances these research scholars are in great distress.

This repeated late disbursement of fellowships affect thousands of research scholars of the country. Most of the scholars solely depend on fellowship for their needs. Thus, if the fellowship amount is not credited on time, it becomes very difficult to sustain. Researchers literally witness times when they do not have money to support ourselves. Students feel really dejected that they have been pushed down to the level of beggars who have to petition every month for what rightfully deserve as legal entitlements as research scholars. Energy and time are lost much in this process which can otherwise be utilized for fruitful research. Researchers are not even able to concentrate on research, as are constantly worried about the lack of money for basic needs.
Now, whom to blame for all this?

Is the assigned Canara Bank and the system or the bureaucracy of UGC responsible? Are the ministries responsible or the entire Govt. itself? Students call and beg to Canara Bank, UGC and Ministries almost every day for the pending money they deserve and when the power leaves them baffled with a mutual blame game, they do not know what to do to get the problem resolved. Researchers wait almost endlessly every month but the hostel authorities will not wait for the mess fees to be remitted; the university authorities will not wait for the tuition fees to be paid; the labs cannot wait for the essential chemicals, tools and instruments to be used from time to time.

This might sound little emotional but it’s the ground reality of the researchers in India. Sometime many wonder and regret of the choice of research over other promising careers which would have at least not left them in a situation like this. Please imagine when the employees don’t get salary during the first week of the month.Students appeal not punish them more for choosing to face the challenges of a career in research to contribute to the academic development of the country.Here, it is to be noted that one of the significant reasons mentioned by Rohith Vemula in the tract going around as his 'suicide note' for his fatal decision was monetary problems. His pending fellowship was finally disbursed after his death. We would like to ask whether the Ministries, the UGC and the other powers that be whether they want mass suicides to occur across educational campuses of the country.

Thus, we request the concerned authorities at UGC, at various ministries, and power holders at the Govt. to look into the pathetic situation and do the needful at the earliest to resolve the late disbursement of our fellowships. Please act immediately to solve our problem; please give us our monthly fellowship at least within the first week of every month; please let us do our work peacefully and properly.”

Sabrangindia has been since last November consistently following up the Modi government’s failures in the area of higher education. The almost deliberate nonpayment of fellowship amount to a few or several thousand research fellows all over the country appears to be a calculated fall out of policies followed at the highest level.

Bastar Black Out: Human Rights Defenders Under Threat

April 19, 2016

Freedom of expression is being throttled in Chhattisgarh as the state cracks down on media and civil society, Amnesty International has stated in a report released in New Delhi today

For the last six months, the central Indian state has witnessed a sustained attack on journalists and human rights defenders. Conditions have been created where arbitrary arrests, threats to life, and organized hindrance to the work of journalists, lawyers, and other human rights defenders have led to a near total information blackout. The Entire 24 page report can be read here.

Local journalists investigating excesses by security forces have been arrested on trumped-up charges and tortured, while their lawyers have been threatened. Abusive security laws have been deployed. And increasingly, Chhattisgarh is playing to a script of the bizarre.

Violations by the state have been accompanied by intimidation by those acting on its behalf. Local self-styled vigilante groups called the Samajik Ekta Manch (Social Unity Forum) and Mahila Ekta Manch (Women’s Unity Form), which appear to have the backing of the state police, have intimidated and harassed journalists and activists who express dissenting views. Among the members of these groups are people who were part of the banned Salwa Judum civil militia.

Most of these incidents have taken place in and around the Bastar region of the state, the epicenter of the long-drawn conflict between state forces and armed Maoist groups. Bastar has witnessed violence and counter-violence leading to massive human rights violations. Adivasi communities in particular have faced abuses from all sides. Against this backdrop, the silencing of civil society and the media may both enable and hide more abuses.

Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India, Bela Bhatia, Bastar-based independent researcher and activist, Kamal Shukla, Editor, Bhumkal Samachar and Isha Khandelwal, lawyer, Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group addressed the press conference.

Extracts from the Amnesty Report:

Former Amnesty International Prisoners of Conscience and Adivasi activists, Soni Sori and her nephew Lingaram Kodopi have been raising issues of human rights abuses committed by both security forces and armed Maoist groups in Chhattisgarh for years. Soni Sori, a former schoolteacher, and Lingaram Kodopi, a journalist were arrested by the state police in October and September 2011, respectively, on allegations of acting as couriers for a corporate mining firm, Essar.

The police alleged they delivered Essar’s ‘protection money’ to armed Maoists groups to ensure the firm’s unhindered operations. A politician with the Aam Aadmi Party since 2014, Soni Sori has been acquitted in five cases filed against her, and Kodopi has been acquitted in one of two cases filed against him. Both of them alleged that they were tortured in police custody. On 29 October 2011, a government hospital examined Soni under a court order, and reported that two stones had been inserted in her vagina and one in her rectum, and that she had annular tears in her spine.

On the night of February 20, 2016, Soni Sori was travelling on a motorcycle with a colleague from Jagdalpur to her home in Geedam, Chhattisgarh, when three unidentified men on a motorcycle stopped them and threw a chemical substance on Soni Sori’s face. The activist said that the substance caused an intense burning sensation, temporarily blinding her. She was taken to a hospital in Jagdalpur, and later shifted to a hospital in New Delhi for treatment.

Soni Sori had been trying for weeks to file a complaint against a high-ranking police official in Bastar in a case involving an alleged extrajudicial execution in Mardum. She told Amnesty International India that her attackers on February 20, had warned her not to continue her efforts.

Following the attack, Chhattisgarh authorities formed a special investigation team comprising state police officials. Soni Sori’s family alleges that the team has repeatedly called in Lingaram Kodopi and Soni Sori’s brother-in-law, Ajay Markam, for questioning, and pressured them to say that they had a role in planning the attack. Ajay Markam was called in for questioning on three occasions and claimed that he was detained for 30 hours in Jagdalpur police station after he was picked up on March 10, 2016. During this time, he says, he was tortured by the police. “I was beaten up and asked to confess to committing the attack on Soni. They hit me with their shoes everywhere on my body while I was lying on the ground,” Ajay Markam told Amnesty International India.

Soni Sori had been trying for weeks to file a complaint against a high-ranking police official in Bastar in a case involving an alleged extrajudicial execution in Mardum. Soni Sori told Amnesty International India that her attackers on February 20 had warned her not to continue her efforts.

A Timeline of Darkness

July 16, 2015
Journalist SOMARU NAG is arrested for allegedly being a Maoist sympathiser. He is held for alleged banditry, arson and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act.

September 29, 2015
Journalist SANTOSH YADAV is arrested for allegedly associating with a terrorist organization and supporting and aiding terrorist groups. He is held under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, India’s principal anti-terror legislation, among other laws.

November 1, 2015
Adivasi women from Pedagelur village, Bijapur file an FIR alleging rape and sexual assault by members of security forces between 19 and 24 October. The women are assisted by local activists, including researcher BELA BHATIA and lawyers from the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group.

January 15, 2016
Adivasi women from Kunna village, Sukma file an FIR alleging sexual assault by members of security forces on 12 January. The women are assisted by local activists, including activist Soni Sori.

January 18, 2016
Adivasi women from Nendra, Bijapur try to file an FIR alleging rape and sexual assault by members of security forces between 11 and 14 January. The police initially refuse, but later register an FIR on 21 January after local activists hold a press conference.

February 8, 2016
Members of the Samajik Ekta Manch demonstrate outside the home of journalist MALINI SUBRAMANIAM in Jagdalpur. They accuse her of being a Maoist agent. Later that night, stones are thrown at her house.

February 18, 2016
Journalist MALINI SUBRAMANIAM is forced to leave her home in Jagdalpur after her landlord is pressured by the police to evict her.

February 18, 2016
Human rights lawyers SHALINI GERA and ISHA KHANDELWAL of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid group (JagLAG) are forced to leave their home in Jagdalpur after their landlord is pressured by the police to evict them.

February 20, 2016
BBC Hindi journalist ALOK PUTUL is forced to abandon an assignment in Bastar after receiving threats. A senior police official had communicated to the journalist that he preferred to spend time with ‘nationalist and patriotic’ journalists.

February 20, 2016
Activist SONI SORI is attacked and a chemical substance thrown at her face. Her nephew LINGARAM KODOPI later says that the police tried to pressure him to say that the attack was orchestrated by Soni Sori to gain sympathy. AJAY MARKAM, Soni Sori’s brother-in-law, says he was picked up by the police and tortured.

March 16, 2016
SAIBAL JANA, the chief physician at a hospital in Dalli-Rajhara, which he helped set up to treat underprivileged communities, is arrested for allegedly being ‘absconding’ in a criminal case registered in 1992. He is later released on bail.

March 21, 2016
Journalist PRABHAT SINGH is picked up by the police, tortured and then arrested under the Information Technology Act for a Whatsapp message making fun of a senior police official.

March 26, 2016
Journalist DEEPAK JAISWAL is arrested on a seven-month old complaint filed by a school principal for trespassing, obstructing public servants, and assaulting a public servant.

March 26, 2016
Members of the Mahila Ekta Manch demonstrate outside the home of researcher BELA BHATIA. They accuse her of being a Maoist agent, and demand that she leave the state.

March 30, 2016
A three-member fact finding committee of the Editors Guild of India concludes that there is a sense of fear among journalists in Bastar and the democratic space for journalism is shrinking.

Abuses By Security Forces

Since 2015, there have been reports of three instances of large-scale sexual violence, physical abuse and looting of villages by security force personnel during search operations in the South Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

On November 1, 2015, three Adivasi women and a teenage girl registered a First Information Report alleging large-scale rape, assault and looting by security force personnel during search operations between 19 and 24 October 2015 in the villages of Pegdapalli, Pedagelur, Gundem, Burgicheru and Chinnagelur in Bijapur district. The women were aided by activists from the group Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression, which included researcher Bela Bhatia.

The group quoted one of the survivors as saying: “They began chasing my hens, so I objected. ‘Why are you catching my hens? Do your own work,’ I said. At this, they hit me with a stick, blindfolded me and dragged me to the jungle where they raped me. I heard them say in Gondi they would kill me there itself.” It said that many of the women reported being chased out of their homes by security force personnel and beaten. Over a dozen women later filed statements about the violence. No arrests have been made or charges filed yet.

On April 5, 2016, a team from the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes which looked into the allegations said that there was prima facie evidence of mass sexual violence, and the case was not being effectively investigated. The team asked for an impartial investigation, stating that an investigation carried out by the district police would not be fair as they had been involved in the search operations.

On January 15, 2016, six Adivasi women registered an FIR against security force personnel for sexual assault during search operations on 12 January in Kunna village and Pedapara in Sukma district. The women – accompanied by activist Soni Sori – reported the violence to a senior official in the district administration on 15 January, but an FIR was only registered later. The women said that security force personnel had stripped and beaten them. One woman said that she was dragged out of her house, and her husband and children taken to a security force camp. When she said that she had a small child, a policeman forcibly squeezed her breast. No arrests have been made or charges filed yet.

On January 18, 2016, 16 Adivasi women from Nendra village, including eight rape survivors, traveled to the Bijapur district headquarters to file an FIR against security personnel who allegedly raped more than a dozen women in Nendra during search operations between 11 and 14 January. The police recorded their statements, but refused to register an FIR in the absence of the Superintendent of Police. Isha Khandelwal, the women’s lawyer, said, “The women who were raped were not able to even walk properly. Despite that, they went to file an FIR in the district station, where the police officials refused to file an FIR unless the SP was present.”

Shivani Taneja, a member of the group Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression who accompanied the victims, said, “While taking the statements of the affected women, a woman police official remarked in Gondi, “You are all feeding the naxalites and taking care of them. And now you’re coming here.” There is a bias against them continually because they come from Naxal affected areas.”

An FIR was finally lodged on January 21, 2016, after immense pressure from activists and civil society groups. One of the women’s statements reads: “Two men caught hold of me and dragged me inside my house. They took off my clothes, tore my blouse and pressed my breasts. One policeman raped me and said, ‘We will burn down your houses. If it wasn’t daytime, we would have killed you.’”The personnel allegedly also raped or sexually assaulted other women, threatened and beat up villagers, and stole poultry, food and money. No arrests have been made or charges filed yet.

What is Common In All These Cases ?

–     The allegations against security force personnel include sexual assault against women, physical assault and verbal abuse of villagers and looting of villagers’ homes.

–     In all the cases, the police refused to file an FIR at first, and only agreed to do so after a delay. Under Indian law, refusing to file an FIR in a case of sexual violence is a criminal offence.

–     All the FIRs were registered against unnamed security personnel. In the case of the Nendra incident, the victims had identified and named police personnel in their statements, but these names were not listed in the FIR.

–     No charges have yet been filed in any of these cases. It has been more than six months since the first incident in Bijapur district.

80 Years and Fighting: All India Kisan Sabha in Today’s Moments of Agrarian Distress

April 18, 2016

Godavari Parulekar was elected the first woman president of the AIKS at its Golden Jubilee Celebrations in Patna, 1986
The All India Kisan Sabha formed on April 11 1936, eighty years ago has and will continue to play a key role in withstanding the assault on the rights of India’s farmer and the entire agrarian sector

The eightieth anniversary of the All India Kisan Sabha [1] is as significant today as it was eighty years ago. If not more. The birth of the Kisan Sabha was the product of the deep economic recession of the thirties and even today we find it functioning in the background of yet another recession, this one even more brutal as some three lakh peasants have been forced to commit suicide as the result of agrarian distress caused systemically by untenable policies.

These suicides are a result of the price of agricultural products not being able to defray the cost of production; of the galloping price of food-grains and other articles of consumption once their produce enters the hands of merchants and wholesalers; while the prices of seeds, fertilizers and inputs continue to rise and peasants are forced to borrow money largely from money-lenders at exorbitant rates of interest which most of them cannot pay back. Worst of all, these debts lead to the distress sales of land and other assets, like tractors and bullocks, all under duress.

[India has lost three lakh farmers since 1995. In Maharashtra alone nearly 60,000 farmers have ended their lives in the last two decades. In 2015 itself, the western Indian states recorded 3,228 farmer suicides with the maximum cases coming from drought hit Marathwada and Vidharbha region.]

Under the influence of a high powered discourse that promotes the neo-liberal economy with its mythology, we are given to understand that the best thing to do is to divest the small-holders of their land as a result of economic distress, and should that fail, to raise empty slogans of corporate production for export in SEZs to solve the unemployment problems in rural India, and actually loot the land from the peasantry by coercive laws and even force, with no jobs forthcoming.

The impact of the agrarian crisis can be seen in its most sharp form in the growing population of the rural landless. They were 23% of the rural population in 1981 and were over 55% by the time the 2011 census was finalized. This is a significant shift in our agrarian landscape.

Professor A.M Khusro pointed out in his book on “Economics of Land Reform and Farm Size in India (1973): “Indian research results almost everywhere in the country and almost without exception reveal that while occasional individual large farmers may have a high intensity of input use and high productivity per acre, as a class they invariably have a smaller yield per acre than small farmers have as a class”.

This was not a result of economic forces alone but directly a result of the policies pursued by the Indian government that were aimed at dispossessing the small and marginal farmer by a number of means. Much of this has to do with the fallacious and unscientific belief that small farms do not pay, despite the large body of material we have to refute it.

In fact, as Professor A.M Khusro pointed out in his book on “Economics of Land Reform and Farm Size in India (1973): “Indian research results almost everywhere in the country and almost without exception reveal that while occasional individual large farmers may have a high intensity of input use and high productivity per acre, as a class they invariably have a smaller yield per acre than small farmers have as a class”.

Indeed, it is with extreme hard labour and labour intensive production on small plots of land that the majority of our farmers have access to as their only means to survive, they have achieved the remarkable feat of increasing food grain production from 106.42 metric tonnes(mt) in 1970-71 to 241.56 metric mt in 2003-04, with the yield per hectare increasing from 872 Kg in 1970-71 to 1798 Kg per hectare(ha) in 2009-10. The cropping intensity has risen from 118.2 in 1970-71 to 133.2 in 2000-2001 while the area sown more than once increased from 24.93 million ha in 1970-71 to 54.97 ha in 2007-08.

This could not have been achieved without the land ceiling acts being implemented or at least the fear of holding land above the legal limit, by supports provided by the state like banks loans, subsidized fertilizers, HYV (high yield variety) seed, irrigation facilities and electricity as well as the Minimum Support Prices for the output. With this minimum state support, highly unevenly distributed, the Indian small farmer ensured not only food self-sufficiency but a rural home market for industrial production as well.

Misled by foreign financial agencies like the IMF however, governments that followed that of Narasimha Rao (from June 1991 onwards), in which Manohan Singh was the Finance Minister, agriculture was left to fend for itself from 1991-92 on. This was largely in a period when the economy was registering a rate of growth of 7%-9%, but in spite of that agriculture was starved of funds leading to increased distress and the agrarian crisis was further compounded by encouraging sales and takeovers of already declining per capita holdings.

When the central investment in agriculture was cut down from 5.1% of all expenditure in 1998-99 to 3.5% in 2008-09 and even less in 2009-10, it brought down the percentage growth of the GDP in agriculture from 5.2% in 2005-06 to only 0.2% in 2009-10. At the same time the growth rate of agriculture and allied sectors that was 4.69% during the eighth Plan plummeted to 2.06% in the Ninth Plan period.

Since then, the index of agricultural production that had reached 200.7 in 2006-07 and 2007-08, came down to 185.6 in 2008-09. At the same time the per capita availability of foodgrains per day has come down from 503.1 grams(gms) in 1997 to 445.8 gms in 2006 and 440 gms in 2009, and the rate of growth of foodgrain production has gone down below that of population growth.

So our food security is once more going to be dependent on imports, something the Green Revolution had helped us to overcome.

In this period, the rural population has grown from 298.6 million in 1951 to 1028.7 million in 2001, of whom those in agriculture rose from 97.2 million in 1951 to 234.1 million in 2001, but its composition has changed drastically from 71.9% cultivators and 28.1% agricultural labourers in 1951 to 54.4% cultivators and 45.6% agricultural labourers in 2001.

These figures themselves reflect widespread dispossession of cultivators in the rural areas despite the best efforts of the peasantry who constitute a large majority of our population to preserve their status as independent owner-cultivators.

To add injury to insult, most governments at the Centre and in the states have not only reversed land ceiling laws but have also taken to large scale dispossession of lands farmed by Adivasis and traditional forest dwellers who have never been given pattas (small plots of land).

Between 1951 and 2007, “forest land” has seen an increase from 14.24% to 22.88% of all land, without any sort of proper survey and by driving out traditional farmers. Actual cultivators have been driven to farm less fertile land. Waste land has come down from 21.5% to 10% between 1951 and 2007, land under tree crops has come down from 6.97% to 1.13% and fallow land from 9.9% to 8.3%, but net sown area has increased only from 41.8% to 46% in the same period.

Moreover, as there is no ceiling on non-agricultural land, the land-grab from small-holders to land mafia monopolies continues.

On the other hand, land handed over for non-agricultural uses has increased from 3.3% to 8.3%. In effect nearly 2 lakh acres have been taken over for SEZs, 220 lakh acres have been given over to other non-agricultural uses and 53 lakh acres have been taken over as forest, leaving 19 lakh acres surplus land and 120 lakh acres to be distributed still while only some 57.7 lakh acres have been distributed to the rural landless.

Now, in the name of acquiring land for infrastructural projects and corporate agriculture, some 30% of arable land is threatened further. What is worse, this land is taken over by speculators and not even put to use. 67% of SEZ land today remains unused, so it is obvious that not only does this process not expand job potential, it impacts it further by increasing the number of jobless.

It was these policies that, quite naturally broke, the creative backbone of the peasantry, since the early 1990s. The growth rate in gross irrigated area fell from 2.62% 1990-1996 to 0.51% in 1996-2003, electricity consumption fell from 9.4% to -0.86%, total cropped areas from 0.43% to 0.48%, while the terms of trade came down from 0.95 to -1.69% in the same period.

It is no surprise, then, that in the decade of 1996 to 2005 we saw the rise of the suicide mortality rate of farmers per 100,000 increasing from 12.3% to 18.2% while the corresponding figures for the non-farming population were 11.9% and 13.4%, with a sharp divergence emerging between 2000-2001 when quantitative restrictions on agricultural imports were resorted to and farmers (65% with marginal holdings of less than 1 hectare) were plunged into competition with heavily subsided multi-billion dollar conglomerates.

Given this dismal state of affairs, we are faced with a grim situation. It is one in which the All India Kisan Sabha, the largest mass organisation of the peasantry needs to find a renewed relevance. The AIKS was formed with the vision of on uniting Indian rural masses with the interest of the working people in the cities, and hence it must come forward today, and take up, issue by issue, the policies that cripple the peasantry, if we are to save the vast mass of our people from further distress and deaths.

This organisation has behind it the glorious history of the Punnapra Vayalar movement against the Travancore Darbar, the Tebhaga movement in Bengal for increasing the share of share–croppers, the Warli revolt of Maharashtra Adivasis, the Surma Valley and Tripura mobilizations against landlords and feudal rulers, the Telengana armed struggle against the Nizam of Hyderabad and the struggle against Mahaaja Hari Singh of Kashmir leading to the integration of the state with India, followed by the UP Zamindari Abolition Act, successful implementation of land reforms in West Bengal and Kerala, and even political leadership of the first elected Left Government in India that was led by a Kisan Sabha leader, EMS Namboodiripad, whose government introduced the Land Reform Ordinance in Kerala in 1959.

A similar role was played by Hare Krishna Konar who was a Kisan leader in West Bengal. In Punjab too we see the role of Harkishen Singh Surjeet in the Anti –Betterment Levy struggle in the 1950s. Indeed, at its Golden Jubilee Conference in Patna in 1986 the All India Kisan Sabha elected its first woman President, Godavari Parulekar, a leader of Maharashtra Kisan Sabha and an All India Vice President for a number of years before this.

This is significant as women have played an important role in agriculture for thousands of years but were kept in the background by patriarchy. The recognition of this fact by the Kisan Sabha reflects its important role in changing the social behavior in the rural society of post-colonial India as well.

Recently, the AIKS and the Bhoo Adhikar Andolan have shown that even the Modi government at the centre has had to bow down before the pressure of the Kisan Sabha on the issue of the Land Ordinance that the NDA government wanted to push through parliament. This victory should remind us of the importance of the organised strength of the peasantry in our country today.

Other issues highlighted above require a similar co-ordination between the mass movement of the peasantry and political steps to strengthen and carry forward the programme of expanding democratic rights in the interest of the Indian people, most of whom are from rural areas. The 80th anniversary of the AIKS ought to be dedicated to carrying forward the struggles of India’s backbone, its peasants.

(The author is the Joint Secretary All India Agricultural Workers Union affiliated to the Communist Party of India, Marxist [CPI-M])

Footnotes:
[1] All India Kisan Sabha (All India Peasants Union, also known as the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha), was the name of the peasants front of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI), an important peasant movement formed by Sahajanand Saraswati in 1936, and which later split into two organisations known by the same name: AIKS (Ajoy Bhavan) and AIKS (Ashoka Road). The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights, and thus sparking the farmers' movements in India.Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. The formation of Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934 helped the Communists to work together with the Indian National Congress, however temporarily

Hazaribagh Simmers Over Weekend, Internet Restored Today: Jharkand

April 18, 2016

Tensions continued to simmer in many parts of Jharkand, especially the environs of Member of Parliament (MP) and Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha’s constituency –Hazaribagh— through the week end, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Sabrangindia had reported news of the violence.

The Telegraph reported as many as four persons were killed and over 500 injured in Hazaribagh on Sunday, as Ram Navami procession clashes again became an excuse to settle scores, fan inter-community passions and go amok on roads, prompting the district administration to impose an indefinite curfew starting from 8pm Friday.

The violence broke out that had begun on Friday broke out, once again, in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand on Sunday during another Ramnavmi procession. Processionists were the playing a banned cassette that contained objectionable and provocative slogans that triggered the violence, veteran civil and political rights activist, Razi Ahmed of the CPI, a resident of Hazaribagh, told Sabrangindia today. “The cassette played by processionists blared slogans like “Mussalmanon Bhag Jao Pakistan with unmentionable and obscene swear words especially for Muslims—some of these do not bear repetition,” he added added.

Though akhara rally, with flags, spears, swords, maces and sticks started hitting the streets from 10 pm on Saturday through Sunday, skirmishes between akharas took a serious turn around 4am. At a rally at Jadu Babu Chowk, Sonu, the 28-year-old son of prominent BJP leader Deepak Nath Sahay, allegedly stabbed to death Anuj Kumar Sinha (19), a school van owner. Apparently, Sonu stabbed Anuj nine times in the stomach over an altercation, though the cause of his murderous rage is not yet known.

Sonu, his wife and son are absconding from their Lower Bodom Bazam mohalla home. Another victim, Saurabh Kumar alias Prince (14), a Class IX student of DAV and son of BJP Kisan Morcha leader, died instantly when he was stabbed and hit by a sharp object on the head. Prima facie, it appeared that Prince, who had come to see a Ram Navami rally, was attacked as his family in Vishnupur mohalla had an ongoing dispute with neighbours.

In the afternoon of Sunday, the body of one Bhairav Gope (55), a resident of Mohdar, was recovered from the place of an inter-community clash at Lepo Road, but DIG Upendra Kumar said it was due to an inter- akhara clash.

Lepo Road, however, was witness to ugly scenes when members of one community pelted stones at a passing procession of the Rewali Club and the latter retaliated by attacking a nearby mosque, which snowballed into a full-blown fight. According to sources, people in the procession then went on a rampage, gutting 18 shops, seven bikes and five four-wheelers, a mixture machine and a generator.

DIG Upendra Kumar, DC Mukesh Kumar and SP Akhilesh Kumar Jha rushed to the spot and ordered police to resort to lathi charge and disperse the crowds. They also deputed firefighters to douse the flames.

However, DIG Kumar, according to The Telegraph, has steadfastly maintained no one was killed at the Lepo Road violence. Section 144 was imposed at noon on Sunday but changed it to curfew at 8pm

Director General of Police, D.K Pandey spoke at length to Sabrangindia. He said that the deliberate circulation of provocative messages and incendiary slogans on social media and Whats App had led to the administration cutting off internet services which were only restored this morning (Monday). The confusions arose over new smaller processions that were attempting to join the larger Ram Navmi processions, he said. “The Ram Navmi processions take place over several days and they have loudspeakers. Apart from announcements and religious songs (bhajan kirtans)there were some objectionable things said. This and the confusions over the smaller processions caused tensions first at Bokaro but the Hazaribagh problems continued till yesterday. There were scuffles and some homes were arsoned,” he said adding that things were now under control.

“While no visible political leaders were part of this procession, the fact that the MP and Minister, Jayant Sinha had promised to shower the processions with rose petals from a helicopter worked to delayed its passage, through some areas,” Razi Ahmed further explained. Rose petals were indeed showered as the procession wound its way from Kud Revali to Hazaribagh; en route Khilgaon that falls within the limits of the Hazaribgh municipal corporation limits is where the violence broke out.

The abusive slogans led to a violent scuffle between youth of both communities and at spot of the Laxmi Cinema Mandir site, 10-15 shops, belonging to the minority Muslim community were set alight. The CRPF and RAF were deployed some time later, an action that residents felt could have been taken in advance to pre-empt the violence. Sabrangindia has some video clips of the violence which we are withholding until tensions ease. Sabrangindia has forwarded these to the DGP on his request.

Judiciary to the Rescue: Constitutional Rights to Have Partner of Choice

April 18, 2016

Image: livelaw.in

It is a shame that in the twenty first century, in a state dominated by Dravidian politics, Tamil Nadu, that the Madras High Court has had to step in to eradicate the evils of Honour Killing. Obviously the state executive and its law and order arm, the police has been found reluctant and wanting.

A spate of honour killings in the state of Tamil Nadu has led to these developments. Recently the state has directed the state to create special cells in every district to receive petitions/complaints of harassment of and threat to couples of inter-caste marriages.

To eradicate the evil of Honour Killing, the Madras High Court, has directed the state to create special cells in every district to receive petitions/complaints of harassment of and threat to couples of inter-caste marriage. The directions were made in a petition which was filed by a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste, who married a girl belonging to the upper caste, on account of which both of them were hounded and the girl eventually killed.

Though the writ petition was disposed in November 2014, it had again come up for further consideration as the Inspector General of Police filed before the Court a report indicating the lapses on the part of the police officers and the officers who are responsible for such lapses in the matter. It will be a matter of interest and concern for human rights activists whether there will be any action(s) or prosecutions under the law directed against these public servants.

The court said that directions similar to those issued by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Manmeet Singh vs. State of Haryana may be essential to eradicate the evil of honour killing and issued the following directions. One of the serious issues that is still a cause of for concern, however is who will man these cells. Police officers across the country, even from the IPS cadres are notorious for their caste affiliations with many actually being part of caste networks. Can such a reality sit easily with the Constitutional hallmark of equality before the law?

The directions similar to those issued by issued by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Manmeet Singh vs. State of Haryana are:

The State shall create special cells in every District, comprising of the Superintendent of Police, the District Social Welfare Officer and District Adi-Dravida Welfare Officer, to receive petitions/complaints of harassment of and threat to couples of inter-caste marriage.
These Special Cells shall create a 24 hour helpline to receive and register such complaints and to provide necessary assistance/advice as well as protection to the couple.
Since all the police stations in the State appear to have been connected electronically through CCTNS Portal (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems) Network, the State of Tamil Nadu shall examine the possibility of generating First Information Reports automatically (Auto-generated), upon the receipt of complaints from the aggrieved couple, even through helpline
The Special Cell formed in each District shall monitor on a regular basis, the receipt of complaints through helpline or otherwise, the registration of the same and the action taken by the concerned police.
It shall be the duty of the Station House Officer of the police station within whose limits the couple move about, to provide protection to them. In order to ensure that such a protection is given, the Special Cell should ensure that the complaint received through helpline or otherwise is forwarded immediately to the police station within whose jurisdictional limits the couple apprehending danger are moving about. The forwarding of the complaint to the concerned police station will be facilitated easily if online registration through CCTNS Portal is possible. The moment the request of the couple is forwarded by the Special Cell to the concerned police station, it shall be the duty of the Station House Officer of that police station to provide protection to the couple.
Without confining themselves merely to the grant of protection to the aggrieved couple and taking action against the members of the family and friends for chasing the couple, the Special Cell should take pro-active steps to provide counselling to the parents of the couple.
The State should set apart necessary funds for the purpose of eradicating the evil of honour killing and make available sufficient funds at the disposal of the Special Cells in each District. This fund can be utilized by the Special Cells for providing temporary shelters to the couples and for rehabilitating them wherever necessary. The Special Cells shall have a free hand to engage the services of Counsellors.
In the event of any untoward incident, the Special Cell should fix responsibility upon the officers who failed in their duty to protect the couple. The failure to provide protection should be viewed as a major misconduct. The State shall form the Special Cells and take the above measures within a period of three months.

Mother Alleges Coercion, J&K Police Claim Schoolgirl Sticks to No Molestation Statement

April 17, 2016

Photo Courtesy: Business Standard

SRINAGAR: In a video statement posted on Saturday, the mother of the schoolgirl from Handwara town at the centre of a molestation storm has alleged that the police have kept her daughter and husband in “illegal detention” and that her daughter was coerced to make a statement by the police.

While hearing a petition filed by the mother for the release of the girl and her relatives, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, on Saturday asked the state government to respond to allegations that the three are being illegally detained. Posting the case for the next hearing on April 20, the court had also directed the police to present the girl before a chief judicial magistrate for the recording of her statement.

(SabrangIndia staff: The Indian Express reported on Sunday evening that the police have issued a statement according to which, while recording her statement before the chief judicial magistrate, the girl has reiterated her earlier statement that she was not molested by an army man on April 12. The police statement added as directed by the high court, the girl was produced before the chief judicial magistrate along with her father on Saturday evening).

Meanwhile, Amnesty International (AI) has issued a statement asking for the immediate release of the teenage girl, her father and aunt who are being detained by the police. “Pending their release, they must be granted prompt access to their family and lawyers. The girl has been detained since April 12, and her family members since April 13,” the AI said.

“A teenage girl who has been allegedly sexually assaulted needs to receive sensitive and respectful treatment from the authorities, and not be herself detained in police custody,” said Zahoor Wani, campaigner, Amnesty International, India. “If the family needs protection, they should receive it at a location of their choosing,” the statement added.

In the agitation following the alleged molestation, at least five unarmed persons, including a woman and a bright young cricketer, have died in army and police firing in north Kashmir then. Many more are injured, some of them critically.

Early Saturday morning, the police cordoned the office premises of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) in Srinagar where a press conference to be addressed by the girl’s mother was scheduled to be held. Print and television journalists waiting outside the JKCCS office were told to go back. “We will not allow the press conference. Section 144 is in place. Go back,” said an officer of the police intelligence department present on the spot.

It was following this that the mother of the minor girl gave a video statement in which she alleged that the police had recorded her daughter’s statement under duress. The video was released by the JKCCS. She also questioned the “illegal detention” of her daughter and husband and said that her family would feel safe only among her people in the neighbourhood, not inside a police station. Mother’s latest video statement has put the state government and the police in a spot.

Narrating her ordeal, the mother said: “After school, my daughter came out with her classmates and went to the washroom in the market. As she entered an army person emerged before her which made her scream. The boys who were there could not tolerate the shrieks of their sister. Within minutes a crowd gathered. The army and police personnel opened fire on peaceful protesters.”

“My daughter is young in her teens. She is just 16 years old. Police has pressurised her to make a statement,” the mother said, adding that her daughter has been in illegal detention for five days now.

“They (police) are not allowing us to meet her,” she added. “Our daughter has been defamed. We want her dignity back. How can we leave our homes in this condition?” she said in her video statement.

Earlier, after massive protests by the locals against the alleged molestation of the schoolgirl on April 12, the army had released a video of the girl’s statement to the police wherein she denied being molested by an army man and instead pointed fingers at a local boy. This is turn had raised questions about the propriety and the legality of the face and identity of an alleged victim of molestation being put out in the public domain.

“The act of recording a video statement of a minor girl in the absence of her family violates a minor on multiple counts. It is a shameless and illegal act,” Khurram Pervez of the JKCCS said.

“The detention of the minor girl and her father are outside the powers of the state and it appears to be an attempt to further pressurise the family to withdraw all allegations against the armed forces. Further, the manner in which the video has been recorded and then circulated is a gross violation of the special protections afforded to minors particularly during investigation of sexual assault cases. The actions of the police and the army would necessarily invite criminal prosecution if investigated,” a spokesperson of the JKCCS said.

In its defense, the police have come out with a bizarre statement that the schoolgirl and her father were being kept in ‘preventive custody’.

Various TV news channels based in Noida, Delhi and Mumbai played the video of the schoolgirl umpteen times, but most of them did not feel it necessary to also telecast the video of the mother of the girl in which she questioned the “illegal detention” of her daughter.

Meanwhile, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti flew to Kupwara on Saturday where she chaired a high-level meeting to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

“The chief minister met with the victims’ families to offer her condolences and held an interaction with prominent members of the civil society here to defuse the tense situation so that peace and normalcy is restored in the region,” a government statement said.

According to the government, Mufti is said to have made it clear that no civilian should be harmed while dealing with law-and-order situations. She also had a telephonic conversation with defence minister, Manohar Parrikar, and also met Indian army commander, Lt. Gen. D. S. Hooda and told them that incidents like the ones at Handwara and Natnusa in Kupwara were unacceptable and come as a “major setback to the efforts of the state government in consolidating peace dividends in the state”.

She also said that the Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) should not remain a mere word but become a potent tool while dealing with law-and-order situations. However, despite her repeated assurances very little appears to have changed on the ground as the armed forces continue using oppressive tactics to control protesting crowds.

Video statement of the schoolgirl put out by Indian army

Video statement of mother released by Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society: Click here for video

Full transcript of the mother’s video statement:
Innocent people were martyred by army and police after they staged protest. My daughter left for school at 10 am. School got over at 3:30 pm. She is a Class XI student, a young girl around 16 years old. After the school got over she went to the toilet. As soon as she entered the toilet, she spotted an army person there. This made her scream. After hearing her cries the people, including the shopkeepers in the market, assembled.

By the time the police arrived on the scene, the army man had fled. My daughter was taken to the police station by the police. We had no idea about it. In the meanwhile, the people started protesting and pelting stones. Why wouldn’t they react? They could not tolerate their sister being harassed. The police and army opened fire on the protesters and martyred our children. Aren’t they my children, too? I am utterly shocked and saddened. My daughter was detained and taken to police station. The army guy has gone into hiding.

For five consecutive days we have no clue about our daughter. The police have not allowed us to even meet her. In the dead of night at 1 am (April 12-13) the police made a telephone call to us. Is this justified? My young daughter is alone in their custody. She was made to make a statement under pressure. Yes, she was pressurised. They did not even cover her face. There was no one besides her. Her statement was recorded under duress.
As they called us in the middle of the night, my husband, my sister and I went to the police station. I have a slip disc problem. They had told us to come to the police station to take back our daughter. Once we reached there, they detained my husband and sister too. This is a pressure tactic.

See, my daughter is an innocent child. She is only 16. You know how innocent children of such age are. What I want is that my daughter should be immediately released. We don’t require any security. They (police) have called us only once. It is the fifth day today. I am thankful to my people in the neighbourhood who raised their voice against injustice so that no other girl is harmed in this way.

Yes, I have also filed a case in the court. Those who killed our boys should not be probing this incident. It should be investigated independently by some other agency. How can the ones who killed investigate? They cannot. That’s what we want. They have brought disrepute to my girl; we want her dignity and honour restored. She is not only my daughter. She is the daughter of Kashmir. We want dignity and respect, nothing else. And an investigation as to why our young boys were martyred. The blame is on them (army and police). Isn’t it?

(The author is a journalist, commentator and political analyst from Srinagar. He is South Asia Journalism Programme/ Chevening fellow 2015 and Munich Young Leader, 2014. He formerly served Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) as editor in Bonn for several years).

Also see earlier story on killing of civilians here.

Germany Bows to Turkish Pressure: Allows Prosecution of Comedian who Mocked Erdogan

April 17, 2016

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has bowed to Turkish pressure –for which she has been criticised by members of her own cabinet —after she acceded to a request from Ankara to prosecute a comedian who read out an offensive poem about the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdogan’s regime has become synonymous with curbs on freedoms, attacks on minorities and a stifling of dissent.

While Merkel has defended her decision, trying to stress that it did not amount to a verdict on whether Jan Böhmermann was guilty or not, but should be understood as a reaffirmation of the judiciary’s independence, she is facing increasing criticism for the act. Merkel was left with the final decision on whether Germany’s state prosecutor should start proceedings against Böhmermann after Erdoğan requested the comedian be prosecuted. Under an obscure section of Germany’s criminal code, prosecution for insults against organs or representatives of foreign states requires both a notification from the offended party and an authorisation from the government.

PEN International has issued a strong statement in condemnation of the decision.

“The German government’s authorisation for the prosecution of comedian Jan Böhmermann for broadcasting a crude poem that allegedly insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in accordance with a German law on insulting foreign leaders, infringes on the fundamental right to freedom of expression, German PEN and PEN International said today.

'The decision by Chancellor Angela Merkel came after the Turkish Embassy lodged a formal request with the German foreign ministry to prosecute Böhmermann, after the comedian read a poem in a late-night programme screened on the German state broadcaster ZDF at the end of last month that accused president of Turkey of, among other things, “repressing minorities, kicking Kurds and slapping Christians”.

‘There has been some discussion about the vulgarity of Böhmermann´s mock defamatory poem. We trust in our judicial representatives to know that freedom of expression is not about taste or the quality of literature. It´s about freedom and civil rights,’ said Regula Venske, General Secretary, German PEN

‘As Josef Haslinger, president of German PEN, has pointed out, Jan Böhmermann´s action can be understood as a paradoxical intervention. By adding one defamatory cliché after the other, Böhmermann drew our attention to some obscure paragraph criminalising lèse-majesties in German criminal law. We call upon the German government to quickly proceed with its abolition.’

'Merkel made the decision today on whether Germany’s state prosecutor should start proceedings against Böhmermann, after Erdoğan pressed charges against the comedian. Insulting heads of state is illegal under an obscure section of Germany’s criminal code, which requires authorisation from the German government. If found guilty, Böhmermann could face up to five years in prison or – more likely – a fine.

'Merkel has indicated that the law will be repealed by 2018.

'President Erdoğan has made extensive resort to Turkey’s criminal defamation laws to silence critics and opponents, having lodged over 1800 personal insult suits since he became President in 2014.

'International human rights standards put a high value on uninhibited expression in the context of ‘public debate concerning public figures in the political domain and public institutions’. The Human Rights Committee, which oversees the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Germany is a state party, has made clear that the ‘mere fact that forms of expression are considered to be insulting to a public figure is not sufficient to justify the imposition of penalties’. Human rights bodies have also pointed out that heads of state and public figures should tolerate a higher degree of criticism than ordinary citizens.

‘The test of a nation’s commitment to freedom of expression comes when its government has to decide if it should use an obscure law, which protects only one class of people (in this instance foreign heads of state), to prosecute the author of what is clearly a satirical poem. Germany has decided to do so because a foreign government – Turkey, which is hardly a beacon of freedom of expression, which has an appalling record in protecting free speech, and has prosecuted writers and journalists over the years – wants Germany to act the way Turkey itself would in similar circumstances,’ said Salil Tripathi, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.

‘The question is not whether Jan Böhmermann is a good poet, whether his work has aesthetic value or whether it was deeply offensive – that remains a matter of individual taste. The question is whether Germany – which has pledged to repeal the law by 2018 – should use the law as if it had no other choice. Robust democracies thrive on sharp debate and biting satire, even if it is in poor taste. Germany must act consistent with its own, European, and international standards of free speech and drop all charges against Böhmermann immediately.’

PEN International opposes the criminalisation of defamation in all cases, calling for defamation and insult to become civil offences. PEN also calls on the German authorities not to bring any charges against Böhmermann and to implement the decision to overturn the law criminalising the insult of foreign leaders as soon as possible.

Salil Tripathi, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee told Sabrangindia, “‘The test of a nation’s commitment to freedom of expression comes when its government has to decide if it should use an obscure law, which protects only one class of people (in this instance foreign heads of state), to prosecute the author of what is clearly a satirical poem. Germany has decided to do so because a foreign government – Turkey, which is hardly a beacon of freedom of expression, which has an appalling record in protecting free speech, and has prosecuted writers and journalists over the years – wants Germany to act the way Turkey itself would in similar circumstances.’

The decision is also being criticized on account of the recently agreed refugee deal between Turkey and the EU has made the chancellor reliant on the whims of Turkey’s strongman leader. Merkel was one of the main drivers of the agreement, under which migrants arriving in Greece are now expected to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or their claim is rejected.

“Merkel is kowtowing to Turkey’s despot Erdoğan and sacrifices freedom of the German press,” said Sahra Wagenknecht, a senior politician for the German Left party said in a statement to the media.

The chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany, Gökay Sofuoglu, also criticised the German government’s decision, saying: “I would have wished the chancellor had not allowed the trial to go ahead.” Erdoğan had also filed a personal lawsuit against Böhmermann, and Sofuoglu said Merkel should have waited for the outcome of that trial first.

A demonstration in front of the Turkish embassy in Berlin, scheduled for Friday afternoon, has been banned by Berlin police. Activists had announced that they were planning to read out Böhmermann’s poem in front of the embassy.

Böhmermann himself has not commented on the affair since the programme was aired last Thursday. Cologne authorities have confirmed that the comedian and his family are under police protection.

Sabrangindia has been tracking the developments in Turkey that have seriously endangered personal freedoms.

References
1. ‘Statement of Concern by Professors of Turkish Studies and Ottoman History Regarding Diminishing Academic Freedoms in Turkey’

2. Turkey: Crushing the dissenting voice

3. Turkey: Mind numbing violence in a country where even “insulting President” is a crime

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