A video surfaced on Twitter on April 11 showing a crowd of about 100 people, men and women, taking an oath in Bastar Chhattisgarh, to economically boycott Muslims and Christians.  

“Today I vow that I will not deal in trade with any non-Hindu be it Muslim or Christian; be it milk, fruit, mattress, grocery or any type of goods. I take an oath to economically boycott them completely. We pray to Lord Ram that he gives us strength to fulfil this oath” the oath was then concluded with chants of “Jai Shree Ram”. The speaker, who introduced himself as Mukesh Chandak, addressing the crowd said that Hindu businesses should boldly display religious symbols like Swastika, Om etc so that people know that they belong to Hindus.

This is from #Bastar, #Chhattisgarh.

Local #Hindus took oath for economic boycott of #Muslims and #Christians.#Hindutva #HateSpeech pic.twitter.com/H0Vzd3PUb2

— Hate Detector ? (@HateDetectors) April 11, 2023

Economic boycott is one of the most pervasive means of religious persecution which hits the minorities where it would hurt anybody the most, their livelihoods. If a person is unable to earn their daily bread because the ‘majority’ community refuses to deal with them, employ them or carry out any trade with them, they will certainly be pushed towards poverty and the lowest rung of the society.  

Last month, Sabrang India had done a piece on how economic boycott of Muslims could push them further beyond marginalisation. Pointing towards the real economic impact such boycotts have on the community, the article states that Muslim community has largely been on the precipice of poor economic outcomes, based on various studies.  The Census 2011 data showed that almost a quarter of India’s 370,000 beggars are Muslim. A report released in 2018 titled “Vision 2025- Socio-Economic Inequalities, Why does India’s economic growth need an inclusive agenda” [authored by economist Amir Ullah Khan and historian Abdul Azim Akhtar], found that most Muslim asserted that their socio-economic condition had not improved  in the last 10 years. As per the survey, in terms of monthly per capita expenditure, Muslims were at the lowest rung, below SCs and STs in urban areas and slightly above STs in rural areas, reported Times of India.

Such calls for economic boycott were also made in Gujarat in the aftermath of the 2002 pogrom. An archival article of Communalism Combat details how Muslim were discriminated against after the pogrom even a whole year later.

“Muslim women from over 40 households who used to work as agricultural labourers are not entertained, and youth who drove transport vehicles have had their businesses taken over. Hunger and deprivation continues to hit the 400 Muslim residents of Por, with over 70 young persons out of jobs. The total strength of this Patel dominated village is 5,000, of which Muslims number 1,100. Women were also involved in milching cattle, an occupation that is today unavailable to them as they do not have access to buffaloes that were either stolen or driven away. The mosque in Por, which was systematically pulled down using a bulldozer belonging to the municipal corporation, has however been re-built. While some of the village elders such as Nathubhai Nagar are trying to break the social boycott, others insist that for Muslims, the quid pro quo for leading a normal life will be their withdrawal of the pending criminal case where 35 villagers have been accused of rioting and arson. With the survivors adamant on getting justice, (senior advocate Allah Rakha is appearing for the victims), the deadlock, stealthily, continues.”

Economic boycott is also manifested in temple fairs where non-hindus are not allowed to set up stalls. Such instances are rampant in many districts of Karnataka. In March last year, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Chikkamagaravalli Thimme Gowda Raavu a.k.a CT Ravi had said, “Halal is an economic Jehad. It means that it is used like a Jehad so that Muslims should not do business with others. It has been imposed. When they think that Halal meat should be used, what is wrong in saying that it should not be used?” 

A right wing leader emerging from Uttarakhand, Radha Semwal Dhoni had , last month, recorded a video where she pointed cameras at Muslim vendors and asked them their names and their Aadhar card as well. She claims that they represent themselves as Hindus and that they have come from Lucknow. In the video she says that the vendors lie and spit on the vegetables and sell these in her area (where she lives). She asks them, “why do you come here? Why don’t you carry an Aadhar card? Do you want to sell us vegetables that have been spat on?” to this, one of the vendors says, “it’s not true, we are not spitting on vegetables”.

Articles 21, 14 and 15 are all guarantees that every person has the right to life, equality and non-discrimination. Article 19 ensures freedom of movement and the right to undertake economic activity. While Article 14 says that the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India, Article 15 prohibits discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth. Further under article 15(2), no citizen shall be subject to any restriction or condition with regards to access to shops or the used of roads and places of public resort maintained out of state funds or made for the use of general public, merely on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

Despite such constitutional safeguards, people are giving such calls for economic boycotts against the minority communities. This is a brazen move to push the minorities to economic deprivation and social ostracization to a point where they will be compelled to live in poverty or flee the country fearing further deprivation and persecution; either of which is the worst outcome for the communities.

Related:

Marginalising the already marginalised: Economic Boycott Targeting Muslims

Are increasing calls for economic boycott of Muslims a sinister precursor to something worse?

Hate Watch: Indians reject #BoycottMuslims call

The post Oath for economic boycott of minorities administered in Chhattisgarh appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The National Human Rights Commission has found 16 women, prima facie victims of rape, sexual and physical assault by the State police personnel in Chhattisgarh even as it awaits the recorded statement of about 20 other victims.

It has issued a notice to the government of Chhattisgarh, through its Chief Secretary, to show cause why it should not recommend interim monetary relief of Rs 37 lakh to them.
This includes, Rs.3 lakh each to eight victims of rape, Rs. 2 lakh each to six victims of sexual assault and Rs. 50,000 each to two victims of physical assault.

The Commission has observed that prima-facie, human rights of the victims have been grossly violated by the security personnel of the government of Chhattisgarh for which the state government is vicariously liable.

Also read: Internal report confirms sexual harassment charges against Chhattisgarh IG, but no action taken yet.

The Commission, after careful consideration of the material on record, found that there are in total 34 victims mentioned in various FIRs.

The material includes copies of statement of victims recorded by the NHRC Team as well as those recorded u/s 164 CrPC in several FIRsin respect of 15 victims, sent by the IGP, Police Headquarters, Raipur.

It also found that the grave allegations of physical as well as rape/sexual assault committed by security personnel of government of Chhattisgarh, made in the FIRs, were reiterated before the NHRC Team, which conducted spot investigation and/or before the Magistrate u/s 164 CrPC or both.

The Commission has also noted that almost all the victims in these incidents, covered under the three FIRs, are tribals. However, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has not been invoked in any of the cases. As a result of this, the due monetary relief under the SC/ST (PoA) Act has not been paid to the victims.

Therefore, the Commission has directed its DIG (Investigation) to depute a team of officials from the Investigation Division and Law Division to record the statements of 15 victims whose statements were not recorded either by the NHRC Team or by the Magistrate u/s 164 Cr.PC and submit the same to the Commission within one month.

The Additional Director General of Police (CID), Government of Chattisgarh has been directed to get the statements of 19 more victims u/s 164 CrPC recorded before the Magistrate and forward the same to the Commission within one month.

The Additional Director General of Police (CID), Government of Chhattisgarh has also been directed to ensure that SC/ST (PoA) Act is invoked in all the cases the victims belonged to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.

The Chief Secretary, Government of Chattisgarh has been directed to ensure that monetary relief, if any, under the SC/ST (PoA) Act is paid to the victims at the earliest.

The Commission has also made it clear that the above directions are of interim nature and a final view will be taken in respect of other victims and also with regard to other issues involved in this matter in due course of time.

It may be recalled that the Commission initiated suo motu proceedings on the basis of news report published in the Indian Express dated 2nd November 2015 under the caption "Bijapur: "Policemen raped women, indulged in loot". It was reported that women from five villages Pegdapalli, Chinnagelur, Peddagelur, Gundam and Burgicheru had alleged that State Police personnel had sexually harassed and assaulted more than 40 of them and gang raped at least two in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh.

It was also reported that belongings of many villagers were destroyed, stolen or scattered by the forces passing through the villages.

The news report depicted other brutalities of the security forces also.

Considering the gravity of the allegations and brutality of sexual violence upon hapless women, the matter was considered by the Full Bench of the Commission on the 22nd February, 2016. The Commission, on a careful examination of the material on record, directed a spot investigation by a team of the Investigation Division and Law Division of the Commission.

NHRC’s Press release may be accessed here.
 
 

The post Chhattisgarh police raped and assaulted tribal women, state government ‘vicariously liable’: NHRC appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
प्रधानमंत्री मोदी ने मुंगेली और धमतरी ज़िला के अलावा दूसरे ज़िलों के 15 विकासखण्डों को 'खुले में शौच मुक्त' यानी ओडीएफ ज़िला और विकासखण्ड घोषित किया और वहां के ज़िला पंचायत अध्यक्षों, जनपद पंचायत अध्यक्षों को सम्मानित भी किया।
 

 
जमीनी पड़ताल के बाद मिडिया रिपोर्ट जो दावा कर रही है, उससे तो यही लगता है कि प्रधानमंत्री मोदी के भाषण कानों को सुकून पहुचाने के लिए तो ठीक है मगर हकीकत भाषणों से बहुत भिन्न है।
 
उदाहरण के रूप मुंगेली ज़िले के चिरौटी गांव को ही लें। पथरिया विकासखंड के डिघोरा ग्राम पंचायत के इस गांव में कुल 45 घर हैं लेकिन गांव के अधिकांश घरों में शौचालय नहीं है। जिससे की गांव के स्त्री-पुरुष खुले में ही शौच के लिए जाते हैं। विकासखंड के गांवों में आज भी शौचालय नहीं बने हैं और तो और वहीं कुछ गांवों में इस सम्मान के बाद शौचालय बनाने का काम शुरु किया गया है।  
 
एक मीडिया रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक डिघोरा ग्राम के दौलतराम का कहना है कि "बचपन से खेत और जंगल से ऐसा रिश्ता रहा है कि कभी शौचालय की ज़रूरत ही महसूस नहीं हुई। हमारे इलाके के सरपंच ने भी कभी शौचालय के लिये किसी तरह की मदद की बात नहीं कही।"
 

 
ये हाल सिर्फ चिरौटी या डिघोरा का नहीं है। इलाके के कांग्रेसी नेता घनश्याम वर्मा का कहना है "काग़ज़ में बताने के लिये भले शौचालय बना दिया गया हो लेकिन हकीकत ऐसी नहीं है। कई जगह तो ऐसा शौचालय बना दिया गया है, जिसका उपयोग ही नहीं हो रहा है।"
 
हालांकि सरकारी अफ़सर जो आकड़े दिखाते है वो चौकाने वाले है उनका दावा है कि ज़िले के सभी 674 गांवों में 97,776 शौचालय बनाये गये हैं और ये शौचालय पर्याप्त हैं।
 
वही इस मामले में पथरिया इलाके के एसडीएम केएल सोरी कहते हैं, "छोटी-मोटी परेशानियां हैं। कहीं शौचालय बनाने के लिये लाया हुआ सामान चोरी चला गया तो कहीं बना हुआ शौचालय धसक गया। लेकिन यह सब तो होता ही रहता है। हम सभी चीजों को ठीक करने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं।"
 

 
मुंगेली ज़िले के किसान नेता आनंद मिश्रा का कहना है कि गांवों को पूरी तरह से 'खुले में शौच मुक्त' का असली दावा ज़िले के लोरमी और पथरिया विकासखंड के अंदरूनी इलाकों में देखा जाना चाहिये, जहां कई शौचालय काग़ज़ों में ही बना दिये गए। उनका मानना है कि सबसे बड़ी चुनौती गांव के लोगों को शौचालय इस्तेमाल के लिए प्रेरित करना है। इन शौचालयों के उपयोग न हो पाने के अलग-अलग कारण हैं। जब तक इन कारणों से मुक्ति नहीं मिलती तब तक "खुले में शौच" से मुक्ति नहीं मिल सकती।
 
कुल मिलकर बात ये है कि इन ज़िलों को भले 'खुले में शौच मुक्त' घोषित कर दिया गया हो लेकिन अभी भी यहां बहुत काम बाकि हैं। कागज़ों पर शौचालय बनाने और पुरस्कार बाटने से देश "खुले में शौच" से मुक्त नहीं हो सकता।

Courtesy: National Dastak

The post कागज़ों में बने शौचालयों के लिए प्रधानमंत्री ने बांटे पुरस्कार appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: Getty Images
 
स्टेटस रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, इस मामले में सात विशेष पुलिस अधिकारियों के ख़िलाफ़ चार्जशीट दायर की गई है। सीबीआई ने कहा है कि इस घटना में 323 विशेष पुलिस अधिकारियों, पुलिसकर्मियों और सीआरपीएफ तथा कोबरा के 95 कर्मियों के शामिल होने के उसके पास पुख्ता सबूत हैं।
 
घटना के दो हफ़्ते बाद स्वामी अग्निवेश के काफ़िले पर हमले के सिलसिले में सलवा जुडूम के 26 नेताओं के ख़िलाफ़ भी सीबीआई ने चार्जशीट दायर कर दी है। अग्निवेश का ये काफ़िला राहत पहुँचाने गाँव जा रहा था, तभी सलवा जुडूम के लोगों के जरिए सरकार ने उन पर हमला करवा दिया था।

सुप्रीम कोर्ट सलवा जुडूम और विशेष पुलिस अधिकारियों को ग़ैरकानूनी घोषित कर चुका है। मामले को उठाने वाली सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता नंदिनी सुंदर का कहना था कि 11 और 16 मार्च के दौरान पुलिस ऑपरेशन में गांवों में 250 घरों को जला दिया गया था। इस दौरान तीन व्यक्ति मारे गए थे और तीन महिलाओं के साथ बलात्कार भी किया गया था। 

जुलाई 2011 में अदालत ने इन घटनाओं की सीबीआई जाँच का आदेश दिया था। इस सप्ताह रायपुर में सीबीआई की विशेष अदालत में तीन अंतिम रिपोर्टें दी गईं। फिर सुप्रीम कोर्ट की बेंच में ये रिपोर्टें पेश की गईं।

शुक्रवार को सॉलिसिटर जनरल रंजीत सिंह कुमार और अतिरिक्त सॉलिसिटर जनरल तुषार मेहता ने कोर्ट को तीन मामलों में आरोप-पत्र दायर करने और दो मामलों में क्लोज़र रिपोर्ट के बारे में जानकारी दी। कोर्ट ने यह भी कहा कि शांति के लिए नक्सलियों से वार्ता की जानी चाहिए।
सीबीआई की इस रिपोर्ट से ये साफ जाहिर हो गया है कि बीजेपी की रमन सरकार आदिवासियों पर जुल्म ढा रही है। सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता हिमांशु कुमार ने फेसबुक पर उम्मीद जताई है कि सीबीआई रिपोर्ट के बाद आईजी कल्लूरी की गिरफ्तारी की संभावना बनती है। हिमांशु कुमार कई बार ये कहते रहे हैं कि आईजी कल्लूरी आदिवासियों का दमन और उत्पीड़न कर रहे हैं, और इनाम के लालच में सीधे-सादे आदिवासियों को नक्सली बताकर उनसे आत्म-समर्पण करवाते हैं, और जो आदिवासी इसके लिए तैयार नहीं होते, उन्हें प्रताड़ित किया जाता है, जान से मार दिया जाता है, और उनकी महिलाओं के साथ बलात्कार किया जाता है।

Source: Indian Express 

The post पुलिस ने ही जलाए थे आदिवासियों के 160 घर- सीबीआई की रिपोर्ट appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo Credit: Indiatimes.com

Data released by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes

Data shows crimes against Dalits more than trebled in 2015 in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh. Statistics released by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to media persons in Delhi show that crimes against Dalits in Gujarat went up from 27.7% in 2014 to 163.3% in 2015 and in Chhattisgarh from 32.6% in 2014 to 91.9% in 2015.

Incidentally, this data also showed that such crimes increased by almost 40% across the country between 2011 and 2014, and that Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan had the highest rates of crimes against scheduled castes in 2015. All three states are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) currently.

Gujarat reported 6,655 cases of crimes against Dalits in 2015, Rajasthan 7,144 cases, Bihar 7,121 cases and Uttar Pradesh 8,946 cases, reports The Economic Times. The statistics were shared at a meeting held by the NCSC in Delhi on Thursday on 'Monitoring the implementation of constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Castes'. The NCSC highlighted the need to pay attention to the states of Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh and emphasised the sudden increase in crimes against scheduled castes in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, stating: "The anomaly and sudden increase in respect to Gujarat and Chhattisgarh are abnormal and are being highlighted so that these states can provide actual data in case there was a mistake in reporting."
 
 

The post Crimes against Dalits rose Threefold in Gujarat & Chhattisgarh in 2015 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This article is based on Suvojit Bagchi’s reports from Chattisgarh for The Hindu and few of his recent presentations on conflict in south Chattisgarh.

 
My presentation is on the challenges faced by the journalists, especially of the Hindi language press, working in Chattisgarh State in central India. 
 
South Chattisgarh’s Dandakarnya area is about 40,000 square kilometres in size – nearly as big as Netherlands or Kerala – and very sparsely populated, mostly inhabited by Gond tribals. Since the 80s this area has witnessed a leftist armed movement. In response to which the police and paramilitary stepped-up their operations from time to time. This has been the story in south Chattisgarh since Independence. Even before the Maoist party was formed in the late 1960s, police action on the tribals was a routine affair.
 
Let us look at a paper clipping from an English language newspaper, Dandakarnya Samachar, published in 1961.
 

Slide/caption: Newspaper clipping of 1961. Photo courtesy: Suvojit Bagchi
 
The newspaper was full of such news at the time. So, in 1961, when the Indian State was not half as powerful as now, the government did not stop such reports from rolling out, reports which were directed against the police. However it is far more difficult for the local press to publish such reports today saying “police opened fire”. Such newspaper reports from the early 1960s establish that long before even Maoist or Naxalite parties were formed, such police action was commonplace in Bastar division in south Chattisgarh. I have many newspaper clippings to establish this fact.
 
 Kamal Shukla is a prominent journalist in south Chattisgarh who routinely talks about rights of the journalists in Chattisgarh. He told me last week that it is impossible for scribes to enter a village when a shootout occurs in which innocent villagers are killed, especially when it is by the police.We, in India, call them encounter killings. A journalist’s key job in a conflict area is to identify a “fake” encounter from a “real” one. Fake is one when a person is killed point blank without an exchange of fire, whereas the real one is when a genuine exchange of fire takes place between the police and the insurgents.
 
Dandakarnya is a huge area, an extremely hostile terrain with hardly any motorable road inside the forest areas, dotted with camps of joint forces. So it is an exceptionally difficult job for a journalist to (a) develop his/her contacts to get an access inside the forest (b) convince the contact to take him/her inside as its extremely risky for the person who is permanently residing in the area (c) to evade the paramilitary force to walk 20-30 kilometres to reach a village in extreme weather and (d) to convince your editor to give you a week or more to go inside the forest to investigate one story of killing or a rape.
 
It indeed is a luxury to propose one story in a week in a newspaper. However, time is a significant factor for an in-depth and nuanced story.Any serious and sincere journalist needs time and financial and professional support from his/her newspaper to venture into hostile territory. Without such institutional support it is impossible to work in – forget Bastar – in any place of conflict. It is impossible for freelancers to operate freely in Bastar and central Indian conflict areas – which also is the mining and tribal India – the poorest part of India, stretching over six states: eastern Maharashtra, southern Chattisgarh, north Telangana, west-south Odisha, western Jharkhand and west-south Bengal.
 
Kamal Shukla, while attempting to reach Sulenga village in Bijapur district (in the extreme south), was detained by the police. This was on the February 19, two weeks after the death of a villager Hedma Ram. Shukla was trying to investigate Hedma Ram’s death.He was later threatened and told that he would be arrested. After a month he tried to re-enter the village with a well-known English language television journalist and he was successful.

Without entering Sulenga village Shukla would have never known that Hedma Ram, who was killed in a fake encounter was not a Naxalite but the brother of one who was. The Hindu has reported this incident in May in the context of another story. Actually, there was no real encounter. Hedma Ram was simply picked up on February 2 and killed. The police said that there was an award of about one lakh rupees on him as he was a “dreaded Naxalite”. Hedma Ram was in jail for two years on a fake charge for not getting his brother arrested. After being acquitted by the court he was declared a Maoist – and a "dreaded one" – and shot within a week of his acquittal.  
 
Had he not been to the village Shukla would have never known that a man turned into a “dreaded Naxalite” within a week of his acquittal from all charges and was so dangerous that he had to be eliminated.
 
If one investigates the arrests or encounter killings on a case by case basis one would find that an overwhelming majority of cases against the tribals are fake. That is why it is dangerous for the police to let the local journalists enter the villages to unearth the truth.

So if one investigates the arrests or encounter killings on a case by case basis one would find that an overwhelming majority of cases against the tribals are fake. That is why it is dangerous for the police to let the local journalists enter the villages to unearth the truth.
 
Police wants the journalists to report everything – from the condition of schools or health centres in interior areas, surrenders of insurgents, alleged rapes or fake encounters – but on basis of police hand outs and press statements. They do not want journalists to visit the family of the victims.
 
If the journalists keep on challenging the administration, as they do by keeping on entering villages to investigate – after a point their houses will be ransacked and finally they will be arrested under a draconian state law.
 
Journalist and former Chattisgarh chief of ICRC Malini Subramaniam’s house was ransacked and she left south Chattisgarh while, Somaru Nag, Santosh Yadav, Prabhat Singh and Deepak Jaiswal were arrested over last one year. The last two – Singh and Jaiswal – even met chief minister Raman Singh with an appeal to create an atmosphere where fair journalism can be practised. The chief minister promised to create space for journalists. What in fact happened was that they were promptly arrested soon after meeting the CM. One of them has got bail only recently.

It is not only journalists; social activists, lawyers, legal activists, doctors and ordinary who are being monitored and pressurised. The judges are also being systematically harassed by the police – for stating that some of the tribals are wrongly implicated. In this context kindly refer to the series of reports published by Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group on the legal and illegal modes of harassment of the Bastar tribals.

It is not only journalists; social activists, lawyers, legal activists, doctors and ordinary who are being monitored and pressurised. The judges are also being systematically harassed by the police – for stating that some of the tribals are wrongly implicated. In this context kindly refer to the series of reports published by Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group on the legal and illegal modes of harassment of the Bastar tribals. 
 
It is also important to highlight that I lost a dear friend Sai Reddy, an excellent reporter and analyst, to this ongoing conflict. Reddy was hacked to death by the Maoists who later claimed that he had helped the police to put in place a vigilante force in south Chattisgarh that killed many tribals. Later, many leaders from Maoist party’s central committee or politburo told me that it was a mistake to kill Reddy and that they acknowledge their mistake. While the outlawed party has not targeted any journalist after Reddy’s killing in 2013, the security forces keep harassing the scribes. Interestingly, in 2008, Reddy was arrested by the state police and charged under the Special Public Security Act of Chhattisgarh for his alleged connection with the Naxalites.This treatment has been meted out to many other journalists and civil society activists of Chhattisgarh

Here, it may not be out of context to quote from a concept note for a seminar that I recently addressed. The note prepared by Delegation of the European Union to India reads:
 
“An issue of concern is also protection for journalists when they cover emergencies. The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols contain only two explicit references to media personnel [Article 4 A (4) of the Third Geneva Convention and Article 79 of Additional Protocol I] but, read in conjunction with other humanitarian rules, journalists have a comprehensive protection under the existing humanitarian framework. Article 79 provides journalists all rights and protections that are granted to civilians in international armed conflicts. The same holds true in non-international armed conflicts by virtue of customary international law (Rule 34 of the ICRC’s Customary Law Study). Journalists’ right to life, liberty, security and freedom of expression are all protected under the various Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
 
The routine harassment of journalists reminds me of the comment by Adele Balasingham, wife of Anton Balasingham, who worked among LTTE in north and east of Sri Lanka for many decades. When journalists were targeted by Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka before the aerial attacks commenced, Ms Balasingham wrote that the “world’s largest democracy carried out the heinous crime of striking down the very instrument of democracy, the media of the people of Jaffna, to stifle their freedom of opinion and expression.” The state perhaps has now decided to “stifle” freedom of expression inside its border, in Bastar, so such military operations can be conducted freely.
 
However, there are also journalists who obediently report as the security forces want them to.
 
And those who listen to the police and report from press briefings get many awards: road construction contracts, government building contracts and above all pay packets from the police.
 
In rural India, most of the papers and TV channels do not pay their reporters in Hindi or other local languages in the districts. They ask their reporters to raise funds from companies, from the local administration or traders.

Now, you may ask, why their respective media houses, some of which are national brands, never question such violation of media ethics. For two reasons:
 
1. Most of these papers do not pay their journalists. I repeat, in rural India, most of the papers and TV channels do not pay their reporters in Hindi or other local languages in the districts. They ask their reporters to raise funds from companies, from the local administration or traders. The terms of employment are simple: Deposit a percentage of your collection as ad-revenue, also look after the circulation. So the reporter in many parts of rural India is a reporter- cum-sales person-cum-circulation manager, thus aligning his personal and company’s interest, in violation of all media ethics.
 
This is precisely the reason why a newspaper or a television channel can always disown its journalists when they are arrested saying that the journalist is an ad-sales person or a freelancer who is not on the company’s pay roll. The fact is that hardly any of the staff in the remote areas in the districts is on the company’s pay roll. In states like West Bengal, for example, where the crisis is not as acute, this is not a major issue. But in a conflict area such a policy of the media house is traumatic for the journalists who end up in jail for several months or years for being not backed by respective media houses.
 
2. Secondly, the newspapers or media houses get leases of iron ore, bauxite or coal mines themselves, making it virtually impossible for them to criticise any of the government’s policies. Imagine a situation when the media houses, which are expected to write against the government, are acquiring mines from the same government against whom they are expected to write. So, they do not mind if their reporters incarcerate in jail as their objective is not journalism but mining. And let us not forget that some of these papers and television channels are well-known national brands deciding national policies from terrorism to fiscal deficit. There is absolutely no monitoring of these papers or channels as to what are they producing and how are they treating their reporters.
 
In a situation like this, with the trauma and helplessness of the adivasis remaining hidden from the rest of the world, as journalists are censured, the Bastar tribals have slowly started etching their stories on memorial plaques which they call Mritak Sthamv.

In this context, we journalists or at least I had some hope from the English language press – print and television – as the local administration takes it little more seriously.

Unfortunately the English language press has failed to realise the scale of this tragedy in the Maoist, mining and tribal heartland of India. According to official figures 3,000-4,000 people have died here over the last five-six years. The unofficial death toll is far higher. If a traffic signal does not work on Lodhi Road for half-an-hour, perhaps 20 reporters will assemble. However, thousands getting killed, raped or going hungry in tribal India doesn’t get reported by the English press. The reason being none of the English press has a full-scale bureau or even a correspondent in Dandakarnya.
 
In a situation like this where the trauma and helplessness of the adivasis remains hidden from the rest of the world the Bastar tribals have slowly started etching their stories on memorial plaques which they call Mritak Sthamv.
 
As we reported in The Hindu a few days ago, villagers in the heavily militarised areas of south Chhattisgarh “have embraced the traditional Gond art to document fake encounters that are not uncommon in that part of India. The last moments of Gond tribals, as they are killed by the security forces, are narrated on stone plaques. Kamal Shukla, the journalist who has documented such plaques says that he has never come across such unique storytelling earlier.

Time will tell whether this unique storytelling on memorial plaques will evolve as a form – which is unusually similar to the paintings of 19^th century artists of Bengal called Potuas, to a layman like me – or disappear with time. But it is a fact that at the moment such storytelling is evolving because the traditional 20^th century forms, to document an event using a camera or a note pad and pen are blocked. The story published in The Hindu, on Mritak Sthamv may be read here.

To end, I would quote John Pilger: “Journalism, not truth, is the first casualty of war”. So it is in south Chattisgarh.
 
(Suvojit Bagchi has covered conflict in south Chattisgarh for the BBC World Service and The Hindu).

The post Shooting the Messenger: Life and Death of Journalism in the Bastar Forest appeared first on SabrangIndia.

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. 

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

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)

See also
1. Diversity Threatened: 177 Cases of Violence against Christians in 2015
2. Dialogue with the deaf?

The post Pastor and Wife Survive Attempt to Burn them Alive appeared first on SabrangIndia.

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.
 

The post Bastar Black Out: Human Rights Defenders Under Threat appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A team of editors visited Chhattisgarh and was told that 'every single journalist is under the government scanner'.

A team of the Editors Guild of India travelled to Chhattisgarh and found that journalists in the state were "working under tremendous pressure". There was a "sense of fear" among journalists in the conflict-affected region of Bastar and even those working in the state capital Raipur complained of their phones being tapped.

"The state government wants the media to see its fight with the Maoists as a fight for the nation and expects the media to treat it as a national security issue, and not raise any questions about it," the team said in a report released on Tuesday.

It added that there was pressure from the state administration, especially the police, on journalists to write what they want or not to publish reports that the administration sees as hostile. "There is pressure from Maoists as well on the journalists working in the area," it said. "There is a general perception that every single journalist is under the government scanner and all their activities are under surveillance. They hesitate to discuss anything over the phone because, as they say, 'The police is listening to every word we speak.'"

The Editors Guild of team is an independent body of editors with more than 200 members from national, regional and local newspapers, magazines and the electronic media.

It formed a three-member team to investigate reports of threats to journalists in Chhattisgarh. In 2015, two journalists were arrested by Bastar police for purported links to Maoists. In February, Scroll.in contributor Malini Subramaniam was forced to leave Jagdalpur in the face of intimidation by the police and a vigilante group called Samajik Ekta Manch. Soon after, Alok Putul, a contributor of BBC Hindi, had to abandon his assignment in Bastar mid-way after receiving threats. The Inspector General of police in Bastar, SRP Kalluri, had refused to meet him, questioning his nationalism.

In mid-March, two members of the Editors Guild team travelled to Raipur and Jagdalpur and met journalists, members of the police and administration, and the chief minister.

They could not find "a single journalist who could claim with confidence that he/she was working without fear or pressure". Senior editors told them that their phones were being tapped. Journalists in Bastar said they had stopped travelling to the conflict areas. Journalists confirmed that the Samajik Ekta Manch was supported and financed by the police, with the direct involvement of IG SRP Kalluri.

On the case of Subramaniam, the team found, "It is clear from the on record statements made by the authorities that the administration was not comfortable with the reports Malini Subramaniam was sending to Scroll.in. And instead of putting their side of the story, the so called citizen’s forum ‘Samajik Ekta Munch’ was incited to attack Malini’s house and compelled her to leave the city and even the state."

In Raipur, Chief Minister Raman Singh met the team and expressed concern over the incidents. When the team brought up the complaints against Kalluri, Singh "instructed the officials that the behavior of one officer should not take away all the credits of the good job the government is doing in Maoist area". He instructed the administration to ensure better coordination and co-operation.

The report, however, notes that a journalist was arrested shortly after the team met the chief minister, suggesting that "there is no shift in policy".

Here is the full text of the report.

Challenges to Journalism in Bastar: A report by the Fact Finding Team of the Editors Guild of India

The Team:
Prakash Dubey, General Secretary
Seema Chishti, Executive Committee member
Vinod Verma,Executive Committee member

Places of Travel: Jagdalpur, Bastar and Raipur

Dates of Travel: 13th to 15th of March, 2016

Terms of reference:

To verify and assess:

Recent reports of the arrests of journalists in Chhattisgarh
The threats and challenges faced by journalists in the state
The challenges to the profession of journalism

Summary
Bastar division of Chhattisgarh state is fast becoming a conflict zone. There is a constant battle on between the security forces and the Maoists. Journalists, caught in the middle, are under attack by both the state and non-state actors.

Several incidents have been reported over the past few months of attacks on journalists. At least two, according to the reports, were arrested and imprisoned and others threatened and intimidated to a point where they had to leave Bastar for fear of their lives. The residence of at least one journalist, according to the information, was also attacked.

The Editors Guild of India constituted a three member Fact Finding Team to look into these reported incidents. Since Seema Chishti was unable to travel, Prakash Dubey and Vinod Verma travelled to Raipur/Jagdalpur on 13th, 14th and 15th of March, 2016.

A team of the Editors Guild of India travelled to Chhattisgarh and found that journalists in the state were "working under tremendous pressure". There was a "sense of fear" among journalists in the conflict-affected region of Bastar and even those working in the state capital Raipur complained of their phones being tapped.

The fact finding committee members met a number of journalists and government officials in Jagdalpur. In Raipur the team met Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh and all top officials of the state, several Editors and some senior journalists.

The team recorded the statements of journalists Malini Subramaniam and Alok Putul. It also visited the central jail to meet journalist Santosh Yadav.

The fact finding team came to the conclusion that the media reports of threats to journalists are true. The media in Chhattisgarh is working under tremendous pressure. In Jagdalpur and the remote tribal areas the journalists find it even more difficult to gather and disseminate news. There is pressure from the state administration, especially the police, on journalists to write what they want or not to publish reports that the administration sees as hostile. There is pressure from Maoists as well on the journalists working in the area. There is a general perception that every single journalist is under the government scanner and all their activities are under surveillance. They hesitate to discuss anything over the phone because, as they say, “the police is listening to every word we speak.”

Several senior journalists confirmed that a controversial citizen group Samajik Ekta Manch’ is funded and run by the police headquarters in Bastar. According to them it is a reincarnation of Salwa Judum.

Challenges to Journalists: Some Cases

Challenges of writing for the newspapers are not new in Bastar division of Chhattisgarh. A journalist Premraj, who was representing the Deshbandhu newspaper in Kanker, was booked under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (Prevention) Act (TADA) in the year 1991-92 when the undivided Madhya Pradesh state was ruled by the BJP. He was charged with being close to the Maoists. He was later acquitted by the courts for want of evidence.

In December, 2013 a rural journalist Sai Reddy was killed by the rebels in a village near Bijapur. According to the police, a group of Maoists attacked him with sharp edged weapons near the market and fled from the spot.

Bastar Journalist Association President S Karimuddin told the fact finding team that in the year 2008, Sai Reddy was arrested by the police and kept in jail under the controversial Chhattisgarh Special Security Act, accusing him of having links with the Maoists. On the other hand, the Maoists suspected him to be loyal to the security forces and set his house ablaze and killed him later.

In February, 2013 one more rural journalist Nemi Chand Jain was also killed by the rebels in Sukma. Rebels were under the impression that he was passing messages to the security forces. 45 days after his murder, the Maoists apologised for his killing.

Last year, in 2015, police arrested two news persons under the same controversial law for allegedly having connections with the Maoists. One of them, Santosh Yadav was arrested in September. He was a stringer for at least two Raipur based newspapers Nav Bharat and Dainik Chhattisgarh. The editors of both the news papers have owned the journalist. The fact finding team met Santosh Yadav in the Jagdalpur Central Jail, where he said that he is also suspected by both the sides of being close to the other side.

A second journalist, Somaru Nag was arrested in July, 2015. He was also a stringer and news agent for a Raipur based newspaper, but that newspaper never came forward to own him as their employee.

Charge sheets in both the cases have been filed and the matter is pending in the courts.

On February 8, 2016, the residence of Malini Subramaniam was attacked by some unidentified people. She is a contributor for Scroll.in and former head of International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). As Malini told the fact finding team, her house was attacked in the early hours of the morning. Malini found stones scattered around her Jagdalpur residence and the window of her car shattered. According to her around 20 men gathered around her house a few hours before the attack, shouting slogans like "Naxali Samarthak Bastar Chhoro", "Malini Subramaniam Murdabad". She suspected that the same people must have been involved in the attack. According to the local administration, “her writing is one sided and she always sympathises with the Maoists.” The same allegation was made by the Samajik Ekta Manch. According to the local administration the Manch is being run by citizens opposed to the Maoists. However, the journalists in Jagdalpur and Raipur said that it was supported and financed by the police. A few of them said that the Inspector General of Police Mr. SRP Kalluri is directly involved in this.

The latest case was reported by BBC Hindi journalist, Alok Putul who was forced to leave Bastar after he received threats. According to his statement, recorded by the FFT (fact finding team), before these threats Alok received messages from the IG and SP who refused to meet him maintaining that they preferred to deal with “nationalist and patriotic journalists.”

Fear Factors

FFT could not find a single journalist who could claim with confidence that he/she was working without fear or pressure. The journalists posted in Bastar and the journalists working in Raipur, all of them spoke of pressure from both sides.

They said that the journalists have to work between the security forces and the Maoists, and both sides do not trust journalists at all.

All of them complained about their phone calls being tapped by the administration, and being kept under undeclared surveillance. The government officials categorically denied these charges. Principal Secretary (Home) BVK Sumbramiam said, “I have to sanction every single request for surveillance and I can say this with authority that no govt. department has been authorised to tap phone calls of any of the journalists.”

The journalists posted in Bastar said that they cannot dare to travel to the conflict zone to report because they cannot report the facts on the ground. Although collector Jagdalpur, Amit Kataria told the fact finding team that the whole of Bastar is now open for everyone, including journalists.

The President of Divisional Journalists Association of Bastar, S Karimuddin said, “I have not visited any place outside Jagdalpur for the last six years, simply because I am not supposed to write the truth and if one cannot write what one sees then there is no point going out to gather information.” He represents UNI in Bastar for more than three decades.

A similar claim was made by the Editor of a local newspaper Dilshad Niyazi who said that he had not visited the neighbouring district Bijapur for the last eight years out of fear. Another senior local journalist, Hemant Kashyap, well travelled in the area said he knew Bastar like the back of his hand but that now journalists had stopped travelling. “All the journalists have now stopped going inside the forests because of the fear of police as well as Maoists,” he said. “Now we ask Maoist organizations to send photographs and press releases. We publish them as we receive them because we don’t want to explain every single line we are writing to them. Similarly the police expect us to publish its version so most of the journalists print their press releases as well without asking any questions,” Kashyap said.

Malini Subramaniam told FFT that even if someone dares to go out to gather information, one is not supposed to talk to the people. She said, “Police officials expect journalists to believe and publish whatever they claim. They don’t like it if someone wants to walk an extra mile for finding the facts. In one case of surrender, when I tried talking to a couple of people, they asked me to identify the persons I wished to talk and then they briefed them before I could reach them.”

The fact finding team found that this fear is not confined to the tribal areas only, but is there in the capital city Raipur too, 280 kilometres away from Jagdalpur. All the reporters working in Raipur also said that their telephones were tapped. Some of them shared incidents that confirmed this. A very senior journalist, who is considered to have a cordial relationship with the Raman Singh govt. said, “No one is spared, not even me. They have been tapping my phone calls too.” Government officials denied this charge as reported earlier and claimed that not a single journalist is under surveillance. They said that there was a perception gap and they would try to change this.

Chief Editor of an old and reputed newspaper Lalit Surjan said that it had become extremely difficult for a journalist to do his/her job. During his meeting with the FFT he said, “If you want to analyse anything independently, you cannot do it because they can question your intentions and can ask bluntly, ‘Are you with the government for with the Maoists?” He admitted that this problem was not only with the government, but also with the Maoists. He said, “Both sides feel that what you are writing is wrong.”

Surjan said that it was becoming increasingly difficult to work in areas like Bastar as the journalists cannot avoid meeting Maoists, and the government is not prepared to give them even the benefit of the doubt. “The government should respect democratic rights and should give benefit of doubt to the journalists,” he said. He questioned the arrest of the two journalists Santosh Yadav and Somaru Nag and remembers Sai Reddy, who was killed by the Naxals, as a fine reporter.

Challenges faced by Journalism

A journalist working in Bastar expects to be asked “Which side of journalism?” This question appears a bit odd but in Bastar it comes naturally. As the local journalists put it, there are three categories of journalists in Bastar. 1. Pro-government, 2. Not so pro government and 3.Pro Maoists or Maoist sympathisers.

The FFT found that there are nearly 125 journalists working in Jagdalpur alone. They can be divided in four categories:

Journalist by profession: There are only a few in this category. They are generally representatives of the Newspapers published from Raipur. Some newspapers have editions in Bastar, so heads of those editions can also be counted in this category. Journalists of this category are on the pay roll of the newspaper or news agency.

Part time journalists: Dozens of journalists belong to this category in Jagdalpur (or in other cities of tribal division of Bastar.) Journalism is not their main occupation. They have to take govt. contracts, work as builders or property dealers, traders, hoteliers or directors of NGOs etc. Apart from their business interests they have become printers and publishers of a newspaper or a periodical magazine, work as correspondent of some unknown or little known publication. Journalism is not their principal vocation. So called journalists of this category did not seem to be at all concerned about the salary they received from the publication they were working for, they don’t bother about circulation of the publication they own and least bothered about the reputation of the same. Their money comes from somewhere else. The fact finding team was told that many of them use journalistic influence for getting business, govt. contract, advertisements and some time extortion money from government officials and businessmen. Most of the time they are pro government for obvious reasons and senior journalists sitting in Raipur introduce/identify them as journalists on the ‘government pay roll’. Since corruption is rampant in Bastar, they are earning more money for not publishing a news item, than for publishing it. In a conflict zone like Bastar, they are the favorites of the local police and other officials.

Stringers and News agents: They are the backbone of journalism in Bastar. Posted in remote areas of the conflict zone known as stringers, newsagents or even hawkers. They collect news and send it to Jagdalpur bureau of to the head office directly. They don’t have any formal appointment with the newspaper nor do they get remuneration for their work. They get a letter from the newspapers or news agencies they represent, that authorises them to collect news and advertisements. Some might have been issued a press card, that the organisation rarely bothers to renew after it has expired. To the surprise of the FFT many of the stringers in the remote areas are carrying a press card issued by some national television channels too. Their money either comes from advertisement commission or from some other business they are involved in. In case of television sometimes they get paid if the video footage is used, but it happens very rarely and the payment is very low.

Visiting Journalists: They are the journalists representing national or international media. They come from either Raipur, where they are generally posted or from the head offices like Delhi and Mumbai. Police and local administration dislike them the most because they ask many questions, insist on getting the facts and try to visit the affected areas. They are generally seen as Maoist sympathizers or pro-Maoists. As one senior editor in Raipur puts it, “their reports seems pro Maoist because they go inside and talk to the people and anything coming from the people usually contradicts the government’s version and hence it is labeled as pro Maoists or anti government. ” The problem with this lot is, they cannot stay for a long time in Bastar so their reportage is not sustained. Secondly they came with an assignment and they end up looking for a particular story. Third, they cannot access most of Bastar because they are not allowed to visit many parts of the tribal areas, on the grounds that it is not ‘safe’. Four, they don’t understand the local language/dialact and hence are dependent on what the interpreter is telling them. It could be a local journalist from the above described category no. 2. There are some exceptions like Scroll contributor Malini Subramanian who was staying in Jagdalpur and visiting remote places for gathering news, but she could not stay there for a long time for obvious reasons.

Language and Class:

There are only a few journalists who can understand the language/dialect tribal people speak, whether it is Gondi or Halbi or some other dialect. There is not a single full time journalist who comes from one the tribes. Most of the journalists belong to a different class and speak some other language. Their mother tongue could be Chhattisgarhi, Marwari, Hindi, Telugu, Bangla or Hindi but not the one in which local villagers speak. Language constraints are a problem.

Difficult Terrain:

Major part of the conflict zone is in Abujhmarh, which means ‘unknown hills’. It is hilly forest area which is home for many tribes. The population in this area is very thin. According to the 2011 census India’s average population density is 382 persons per square kilometers but in this part of the country the population density is 10 persons only. Then it is one of those areas of the country where Malaria is common. Because it is also the so called liberated zone of the Maoists, it is very difficult to go inside the jungle to gather reports.

Government’s response

The FFT met Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Dr. Raman Singh at his residence. All top bureaucrats of the state were also present in the meeting. Editors Guild’s executive committee member Ruchir Garg and editor of a local daily Sunil Kumar were also present in the meeting.

The Chief Minister said that he is aware of most of the incidents and he is concerned about it. He said that his government is in favor of free and fair media. He informed the fact finding team that after the controversy over the arrest of journalist Santosh Yadav he had called a meeting of top officials and some editors and formed a monitoring committee which will be consulted for any cases related to the media and journalists.

About the phone tapping and surveillance allegations, the principal secretary (home) assured the team that he is the authority for sanctioning surveillance and he could say that not a single journalist is under surveillance. The principal secretary to the CM admitted that there is a perception gap and said it was the government’s responsibility to change this perception.

The attitude of Bastar IG Mr. SRP Kalluri towards the press also came up in the meeting. The CM instructed the officials that the behavior of one officer should not take away all the credits of the good job the government is doing in Maoist area. Some senior police official with credibility should be authorized to talk to the press, he said. Principal Secretary (Home) should visit Jagdalpur and interact with the media, the Chief Minister instructed.

CM Dr Singh assured the FFT that his government has no prejudice against any one and he will personally take all necessary steps required to make media free of any kind of fear.

Samajik Ekta Manch

This is an informal but controversial organization in Jagdalpur. The administration calls it a citizen’s forum and claims that people from all walks of life are members of this organization. The collector of Jagdalpur, Amit Kataria said that many religious organizations are also part of it and they are against the Maoists. But many journalists call it the urban version of Salwa Judum. They, however, did not want to oppose it openly. They said off the record, that the Manch is sponsored by the police and it takes its orders from the police headquarters.

The FFT met one of the coordinators of this organization Subba Rao to understand the working of the Samajik Ekta Manch.

He introduced himself as editor of two dailies, one morning and the other published in the evening. When asked, whether his main occupation is journalism, Subba Rao was candid enough to explain that he is basically a civil contractor and he is working on some government contracts. The FFT met more than a dozen journalists in Jagdalpur, but he was the only (so called) journalist who claimed that he had never experienced any pressure from the administration.

His statements about the arrested journalists were the same as the administrations. He termed Santosh Yadav and Somaru Nag as informer for the Maoists. He said that what Malini Subramaniam was reporting was very biased. “Malini was glorifying Maoists and painting a picture of police like exploiter”, he said. He denied that Samajik Ekta Manch was behind the attack at Malini’s residence.

Cases and the findings

Santosh Yadav/ Somaru Nag

Santosh was arrested by the police on September 29, 2015. Police charged him for working as a courier for the Maoists and taking money from them.

Government officials claim that Santosh Yadav is not a journalist and they don’t know which newspaper he was working for. The FFT met Santosh Yadav in the Central Jail in Jagdalpur and discussed the case with him. He claimed that he had been working for at least two newspapers Navbharat and Chhattisgarh. (Editors of both the newspapers confirmed that Santosh Yadav was working for them and they own him as a journalist working for their newspapers).

Santosh Yadav admitted that he had been attending calls from the Maoist leaders because of the nature of his job but he had never passed any information to them. He also admitted that he had been occasionally dropping packets between Darbha and Jagdalpur. Sometimes it was bundle of newspapers or magazines and sometimes some other papers he did not know anything about. He said that anyone who lives in remote area of conflict zone cannot risk his life by refusing the Maoists to carry a bundle of papers from one place to another.

The Chief Editor of the newspaper group the Deshbandhu, Mr. Lalit Surjan said during his discussion with the fact finding team, “Santosh Yadav and many other journalists working in remote area of Bastar should be given the benefit of doubt because they have been talking to Maoists as part of their job. They don’t have any choice.” He said that journalists of those remote areas are also talking to the police as part of their jobs and become victims of Maoist anger.

Santosh Yadav told the FFT that he had been given money by a senior police officer and he was expected to pass information about the Maoists movements around the area, but did not do so. He claimed that after some news items published in the newspapers, he was called by the local police station and was tortured for three days.

Somaru Nag was also arrested last year. He was basically a newspaper agent for a newspaper and also gathering news for the same. But the newspaper doesn’t own him now. Charges are same for him too.

Malini Subramaniam

Malini is a contributor for the website the Scroll.in. She was living in Jagdalpur and collecting news for the website. She was working for the Scroll for nearly one year. Before that she was head of International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). She was first threatened by a group of people then her house was attacked in the wee hours of February 8, 2016. Then she was compelled to vacate her rented accommodation in Jagdalpur.

When the team was in Jagdalpur she was in Hyderabad. The FFT discussed the case with her over the phone.

The local authorities claim that they were not aware that someone is contributing for the Scroll from Jagdalpur. As the collector of Jagdalpur put it, “which is not even mainstream media”

Local journalists say that even they were not aware that Malini Subramaniam was writing for Scroll before the whole controversy came up. Malini admitted that she never bothered to enroll herself as a journalist with the local govt. public relations department, as she was not covering day to day events.

The govt. officials admit that they are not happy with Malini’s writing because ‘it is always one sided and sympathises with the Maoists.’ The Collector of Jagdalpur, Amit Kataria told the FFT- “Even her questions in the press conferences used to be pro Maoist.” Malini in her testimony to the FFT, denied this and said, “Despite my limitations, I have been travelling to remote areas, meeting local people and writing about them. That is something the police don’t want any journalist to do. They want journalists to write what they say of what their press release say.”( Malini told the team that when she was trying to meet some tribal people, the police objected to it and they picked up a couple of tribal people briefed them first then only did the police allow her to interact with them.)

Malini said that objection on her writings came from a newly formed organisation ‘Samajik Ekta Manch’. Her impression is that this organization is supported by the local police and they take orders from the police only. She told the team that during the day a few dozen people gathered in front of her house and shouting slogan against her and then after mid night her house was attacked.

The fact finding team asked many government officials if they have issued any denial for contradiction notice against the Scroll report, the answer was negative.

Malini said that the local police is becoming intolerant and doesn’t want any voice of dissent to be present in Bastar.

Alok Putul

He is a contributor for BBC Hindi from Chhattisgarh. He was in Bastar for gathering news and was trying to meet the Bastar IG Mr. SRP Kalluri and SP Mr. Narayan Das. After many attempts he received this reply from the IG, “Your reporting is highly prejudiced and biased. There is no point in wasting my time in journalists like you. I have a nationalist and patriotic section of media with and press which staunchly supports me. I would rather spend time with them. Thanks.”

The SP sent a similar message, “Hi, Alok, I have lot of things to do for the cause of nation. I have no time for journalist like you who report in biased way. Do not wait for me.”

In his testimony before the team Alok Putul explained that this message was unexpected from the police officers from whom he was trying to take their quotes on the Naxal surrender and law and order situation story he was trying to do.

As Alok explains, “This message was the beginning. After these messages, one local person, known to me, came and advised me to leave the area as some people were looking for me. Initially I was taking it lightly and travelled to another area, there one more person came to me to give me same information. Then I had no other choice but to leave the area immediately.”

Alok told the FTT, “First thing I did was to inform the BBC office in Delhi and some journalist friends in Raipur and then I came back to Raipur.”

The Jagdalpur collector, Amit Kataria when asked about this by the team, laughed and then said, “There was some communication gap between Alok Putul and IG, nothing else.”

After several messages and phone calls, the team could not get a chance to meet IG SRP Kalluri. When the team left Delhi, he had assured that he would give an appointment, but stopped responding when the FTT reached there.

Conclusions

1. Santosh Yadav is a journalist and he has been writing for at least two news papers of Raipur. Both the newspapers have owned him. So the government’s claim that he is not a journalist is baseless.

2. Authorities claim that they have enough evidence about Yadav’s links with the Maoists. It is now for the court of law to decide where these evidences will be produced. But senior journalists in Raipur feel that he has been a victim of circumstances and he should be given benefit of doubt.

3. It is clear from the on record statements made by the authorities that the administration was not comfortable with the reports Malini Subramaniam was sending to Scroll.in. And instead of putting their side of the story, the so called citizen’s forum ‘Samajik Ekta Munch’ was incited to attack Malini’s house and compelled her to leave the city and even the state.

4. Alok Putul was in Bastar to gather some news about the law and order situation for the BBC. Instead of meeting him or talking to him, the two top officials of Bastar sent him messages questioning his nationalism and patriotism. Later he came to know that a few people were looking for him, so he had to leave the place to save himself. Police officials were not available to meet the FFT. The DM dismissed the threats to the journalist as a “communication gap.”

5. There is a sense of fear in Bastar. Every journalist who is working in Bastar feels that he/she is not safe. On one hand they have to deal with Maoists who are becoming more and more sensitive about the reports appearing in the media and on the other hand, the police wants the media to report as and what they want.

6. As one Senior Editor Mr. Lalit Surjan puts it, “If you wish to analyze anything independently then you can be judged whether you are with the government or with the Maoists. The democratic space for journalism is shrinking.”

7. There is a general feeling (in government) in Chhattisgarh that a large section of the national media is pro Maoist. One senior editor, who is perceived as close to the government, said this.

8. Newspapers and other media houses are appointing journalists as stringers in the remote areas without any formalities. These journalists gather news, collect advertisements and arrange the distribution of the newspapers too. They generally survive on the commission they get from advertisement collections or they rely on other professions for the same. A separate and detailed report on stringers is recommended.

9. There is no mechanism in place for accreditation of those journalists who are working beyond the district head quarters. So when the question of identity arises government conveniently denies that someone is/was a journalist. Media houses also disown them because they see them as liability beyond a point.

10. The state government wants the media to see its fight with the Maoists as a fight for the nation and expects the media to treat it as a national security issue, and not raise any questions about it.

11. Chief Minister instructed the administration for better coordination and co operation. A journalist was arrested shortly after the FFT meeting with him, suggesting that there is no shift in policy.

12. FFT is of the view that news paper organizations should take care while appointing stringers and give them adequate protection.

The post ‘Not a single journalist working without fear or pressure’: Editors Guild on Bastar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The text of the memorandum submitted to the NHRC is below:

March 28, 2016
To
Justice HL Dattu
Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission
 
Reference: Addendum to our complaint number 920/33/17/2015-WC regarding sexual violence by armed forces and harassment of human rights defenders by BastarPolice 
 
 Respected Justice Dattu,
 
Our complaint regarding cases of sexual violence against Adivasi women by security forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations in Bastar, and attempts by Bastar Police to silence human rights defenders and journalists who are exposing and challenging these violations, is currently under investigation by the NHRC.
 
We have already apprised you (through written and oral submissions on February 19, March 21 and March 23 ) of the intensification in hounding of complainants and human rights defenders including Adivasi activists Soni Sori and Lingaram Kodopi, and women lawyers of the Lagdalpur Legal Aid Group, apparently as a reaction to the visit of the NHRC investigation team. 
 
We would like to bring to your notice the latest such incident reported by WSS member Dr Bela Bhatia, an internationally renowned social scientist whose researches and contributions on issues  of Adivasi rights has been recognised by Government of India in the past.  It is noteworthy that Dr Bhatia released an open letter to the press on 22 March, expressing her intention to continue staying and working in Bastar.
 
The group identified by Dr Bhatia as responsible for the incident is the Samajik Ekta Manch, one of  the vigilante groups bodies set up by IG Bastar SRP Kalluri, who has stated that support to such groups is part of the official strategy to counter Maoist organisations. The evidence submitted by us as part of our earlier complaint, and by various other human rights groups in separate complaints to you, makes it clear that groups like Samajik Ekta Manch and Mahila Ekta Manch are fronts for the targeting and hounding of human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists who are exposing and challenging the egregious violations of human rights that are being perpetrated by the state in Bastar. 
     
While we support the right of citizens to raise issues and concerns in a peaceful and democratic manner, we hope you will agree that this latest attack on Dr Bhatia goes well beyond the boundaries of democratic protest, and amounts to criminal intimidation and incitement to violence.
 
We hope you will agree that, given the current situation in Bastar – where the seniormost police officer has made several public statements asking the public to act against individuals who have clashed with him on the issue of human rights – the labelling Dr Bhatia as a “Naxal sympathiser” is tantamount to issuing a call for violence against her.  
 
We request the investigation team to take this statement on record and give it due consideration in their enquiries.
 
We also urge the NHRC to act immediately and direct the Government of Chhattisgarh and the district administration in Bastar to issue a written notice to leaders of the Samajik Ekta Manch, Mahila Ekta Manch and other such organisations set up by the Bastar Police at various levels, warning them that attempts to target, malign, intimidate and instigate violence against human rights defenders will not be tolerated and will be dealt with strictly and in accordance with the law.
 
Dr Bela Bhatia's statement is given below.
 
“At around 4 pm on 26 March, a large group of agitated people (perhaps 100 or so) came to the village where I live, 8 km from Jagdalpur, in my absence. They came in four jeeps/cars, five autos and one pick-up. The group included men and women as well as members of the police force who were in plain clothes, a few of whom were armed. Villagers recognized some of them who were from a road-side neighbouring village. Around 4-5 were from another hamlet of this village.
 
The group was carrying a banner. They came to my house. They asked questions about me from the landlady and some neighbours. They asked why a Naxalite “aatankwadi” had been allowed to rent a room there, and advised the landlady to evict me (“unko bhagao”). They were also asking her for information about the landlord, her husband.
 
Then they took out a rally in the hamlet, shouting slogans against me (including “Bela Bhatia murdabad”) and distributing a leaflet. The leaflet  accuses me of being a "Naxali dalal" from outside and ends with the slogan "Bastar  chodo, Bastar chodo, Bela Bhatia Bastar chodo". The leaflet doesn't bear anyone's name or any details of any printer. Some of them were also distributing sweets to village children.

Several of these people were identified by as members of Samajik Ekta Manch. One woman, Lakshmi Kashyap, is a member of Mahila Ekta Manch and a signatory to a letter (attached) to the Prime Minister demanding arrest of JagLAG lawyers and myself as “Naxal sympathisers”. Some had apparently been mobilised from neighbouring hamlets.”
 
 We are attaching a press report of the above incident, which includes a scan of the leaflet distributed by the vigilante group. We are also attaching a copy of the letter submitted by Samajik Ekta Manch to the Prime Minister, demanding arrest of Dr Bhatia and other WSS members.
 
KALYANI MENON-SEN
Convenor, WSS
(Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression)

The post WSS Petitions NHRC on Bela Bhatia Case, Intimidation in Chhatisgarh appeared first on SabrangIndia.