mr. valentine k naam

is desh me valentine k naam se yaad aata hai gfs bfs parks sri ram sene bajrangdal hindu yuva vahini etc etc dangai sangathan aur izaharo ka ek daur par jitna hame dikhta hai ya jitna hm soch rakhte hai vo kafi nai hai . agar kch samaj k thekedar aaj gundagardi karte hai to so called young couples ki bhi soch ya maksad kch behtar karne ki nai hoti. sabhi ek rudhivadi parampara k ghulam hai ya shayad nashe me hai. par gaur karne wali baat yah hai ki in saare ghatnakramo me victim ladkiya hi hoti hai kch k liye sanskaro k naam pe to kch k liye meri gf ya meri maal k naam pe unki barabari ki baat kisi gaon k ek ghar se lekar dilli k parliment tk koi nai sochta ya shayad sochna nai chahta ya............. aur jo log sochte bhi hai unki koi visibility hi nai hai..... sathiyo zarurat hai ............. is samaj ko is desh ko is duniya ko ek nirpeksha yuva pidhi ki jo in sabhi dakiyanusi virasato ka anth kare aur naye niyam naye mulya banaye.................

friends, time for reality check

hello friends , what v see today in the contemporary world gottcha updated with whatis happenin around the globe r u in touch with eventful egypt , tunisia, yemen , jordan these nations r witnessing a massive turnaround the general public r the rebellion n a revolution is on its way n without a doubt youth is in d leadership . bt what leadership meant to them ............... 500 casualities almost..................... n still counting.... bt they r undeterred n more willing to sacrifice against the proamerican authoritarian regime there. bt wat about us in india the so called pseudo democratic government is inviting the likes of jeffrey sachs , wallmarts, the poscos, the unitechs, the list is endless............. what r v suppose to do ???????? the least v can do is atleast get to know abt the doldrums v r getting engulfed in........... i m sure this is not d india v ever dreamt abt . this india is being run , molested, harrased n ruined by few corporates n few agents of the world bank n proamerican psychos. there is all the reason to unite n agitate............................. everyone of us will have to choose the way v want to bring about the change.............................. arise n awake before the ghosts awake us in DESPAIR n v r left with.................................... nothing thank you

bhookh

By Javed Iqbal

16 November , 2010
MoonChasing Blog

This article appears in The New Indian Express on the 14th of November, 2010.

Malnutrition is not just a rural phenomena but is even unchecked amongst the poorest sections of the urban population. While access to development is often cited as a cure to the ills of hunger, there are many people living in Mumbai, deprived ‘access’ to development – healthcare and basic human rights .

Read Invisible Cities: Part One : A Short History Of A Slum

Rafiq Nagar 2 is just one of the slums built on the Deonar dumping grounds of Mumbai. Around 6000 metric tonnes of garbage is dumped daily at Deonar while the daily-wage earners or scavengers of Rafiq Nagar 2 sift through the hills of trash to earn a living.

Layers of plastic make the foundations of homes, old political posters, tin sheets, canvas and cloth make the walls, and decomposing condoms litter the pathways. At one corner, young children sell expired chips covered in swarms of flies for Rs.1 a packet. Other children were buying them and consuming them. They had found them at the dumping grounds.

Over the last two years, 23 children of Rafiq Nagar 2 have died of malnutrition-related causes or at childbirth itself.

On the 9th of September 2009, Munni Hasan Sheikh was refused admission to Sion Hospital for want of space, and she gave birth at the gateways of the hospital. The child died within a few hours.

Shamshad Begum lost both her twins, weighing a kilogram each – one died at childbirth at home, another only lived for two months at KEM hospital.

And yet, a majority of the women refuse to go to the hospital – they’re afraid of leaving their homes without doors or window, for fear of being robbed of their measly possessions by their neighbours – drug-addiction and delinquency is rampant at Rafiq Nagar 2.

Another 14 children died of pneumonia, dysentery and malaria – all were underweight children. The breadwinners themselves work as unskilled labour or as ragpickers, themselves at the risk of tuberculosis infection due to the high levels of toxicity emanating from the overused dumping grounds themselves. Mohammed Mubeen earns Rs.200-250 a day and there are seven people in his house.

Saira Ansari’s two children suffered from malnutrition, and her tiny 4’9 frame is symptomatic of one the major problems of nutrition – that the mother’s were previously malnutrition children themselves. Yet her oldest daughter Saina has now recovered from Grade 3 malnutrition. She was treated by an NGO Apnalaya, that provides nutrition to some 394 other children of Rafiq Nagar 2. There is no ICDS yet.

‘I have been working in the slums for 30 years now,’ Says Leena Joshi, Director of Apnalaya, ‘Earlier the government was sympathetic to the needs of the poor, and now they ask me why I am helping them.’

‘I was asked to stay at home today because we heard the BMC is coming to break down our homes,’ Said Mohammed Younis Khan, an auto-rickshaw driver at Rafiq Nagar 2.

The slum is illegal and the constitutional right to a livelihood and to a home, belongs with the trash of Mumbai at the Deonar dumping grounds. Most of the tenants settled at Rafiq Nagar 2 beyond the magic cut-off year of 2000, a majority are landless from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – the MNS’s most unwanted.

At the same time, people do not have access to clean drinking water. They have to buy it for Rs.20 a can from the ‘water mafia’, and usage depends on affordability. One woman claims her house has to do with three cans a day.

Mohammed Alam Hashmi is a landless labourer from Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh with habitual complaints of the Thakur landowners who renege on their payments. He has three children, including eight year old Zahid Hashmi who lost his eyesight a year ago. He is the only earning member of his family who works as a labourer as his wife now needs to spend her time tending to the needs of her disabled son, Zahid, who, without eyesight spends most of his time in the dark of their home. At the same time, there are his medical expenses – his father has to find a way to buy him Ethionamide, Ofloxacine, Kanamycin and Quinoline. He is being treated for tuberclosis, another problem endemic in Rafiq Nagar 2.

His sister Soni is another child who recieves nutrition from Apnalaya.

And again, there are few ration cards between the people of Rafiq Nagar, with a majority of households having applied for a card but have received nothing so far. Recently, the National Advisory Council, proposed the Food Security Bill, which considers subsidy grain for 75% of the population – categorized under ‘priority’ households and ‘general’ households. As it is, the following entitlements were dropped or diluted from the proposed Act: creche facilities for working women; social security pensions; nutrition supplements for adolescent girls; and ICDS entitlements not already included in Supreme Court orders.

And there are strong voices of dissent against the act and it’s intent to continue with targetted PDS.

‘Everytime the government says it wants to strengthen the PDS, but its actions just weaken it.’ Says Leena Joshi, who is also involved with the Right To Food Campaign.

The Right To Food Campaign itself has called for universal PDS. The logic being, the rich don’t use the PDS system, the poor do. And targetted PDS has proven counter-productive, repeatedly, as in the case of the people of Rafiq Nagar 2, who don’t have an ICDS, nor ration cards, who’re poor enough to starve, but not poor enough to get the government to recognize their poverty.

Youth Without Youth

Twenty-six year old Rafique (name changed) started taking ‘charas’ when he was eight years old. He claims to have been in jail repeatedly, from a rape case to being a pickpocket. His father died young and he and his mother were thrown out of their home at Dharavi by his uncle.

‘I don’t want to scare you,’ He says, ‘But there was this one photographer who had come here a while ago. A ‘gora’ whose wallet was full-packed. And there was this Bihari boy with me, and he decided we’d take the wallet. We thought it would be full of dollars.’

‘So anyway, we tore out the pocket, got the wallet and ran, but there were only tickets in the damn wallet. So we just threw it away.’

Both his arms have over numerous scars from a blade or a razor, running across from his elbow to his wrist. Sitting next to him is S, an alcoholic, and both her arms have similar scars. Rafique hints that S sells drugs and alcohol to people in the nearby slums.

‘There’s also a lot of murder here,’ he continues, ‘Just yesterday someone killed someone.’

‘Why?’

‘Family dispute.’

At another part of the slum, a 12 year old boy cries continuously, while his mother furiously screams, expressing her anger while a crowd gathers. Apparently a few older boys had beaten up the young boy at the dumping grounds. Cause unknown.

The alleged culprits sit at the edge of the dumping ground – six young boys sit under a tarpaulin makeshift shelter, smoking ‘charas’ allegedly smuggled from Rae Bareli, while their neighbour complains discreetly, admittedly afraid, ‘Something has to be done about them. They harass everyone in the slum.’

‘Someone has to talk to them.’

Pushpa, a social worker with Apnalaya tells him that they will send someone who knows how to deal with the boys.

‘They’ll even give me hell for talking to you.’ He said.

‘Tell them, you were just complaining about the BMC.’ I replied, he laughed, ‘That’s a good idea.’

Rafique meanwhile has ‘cleaned’ up. He got married a year ago and has a steady job now. He manages to make ends meet, working in a shop, to support his wife and his mother. But then there is the police.

‘They still harass me, anything happens and they show up at my house,’ Says Rafique, ‘Even in the middle of the night when I’m sleeping, they’d come.’

At another end, Hamida, is a social worker at Apnalaya as well as a tenant at Rafiq Nagar 2. Her husband is a labourer, while she taught herself to read as a child.

‘I used to go to the teachers and force them to teach me.’

She spends her day at the Apnalaya center, weighing the children, marking their progress, from Grade 3 malnutrition to Grade 2, to Grade 1, writing report after report.

She accompanies me to meet the mothers and children of Rafiq Nagar 2 – we go specifically to look for people who didn’t have ration cards, who worked as informal labour, and whose children were underweight – a vast majority of them.

‘How old is your daughter?’ I had asked Saira Ansari, ‘Five.’ Her mother replies, as Hamida instantly corrects her, ‘No, she’s four and a half.’

The mother laughs. So does her daughter, Sania who entangles herself in her mother’s maxi, giggling away. She’s three times her bodyweight now, receiving nutritious food from the NGO.

Healthy.

Photography Post-Script

Sania with her mother.

A young girls sells expired chips, found on the dumping grounds, for Rs.1 a packet.

Zahid Hasmi (second from right) with his father, mother and sister in their house in Rafiq Nagar 2.

youngistan

e Adivasis’ Soldier Silent?

By Gladson Dungdung

11 November, 2010
Countercurrents.org

On August 26, 2010, the Congress leader and self-proclaimed soldier of the Adivasis, Rahul Gandhi visited to Niyamgiri in Orissa just two days after the Indian government denied clearance to the Vedanta Resource's Rs.4500 crore bauxite mining project in Niyamgiri Hills. While addressing to a rally of 3000 colourfully dressed Dongria Kondh and other Adivasis at Jagannathpur village who have been fighting to save their holy mountain he said, "I am your soldier in Delhi. Whenever you need me, I will be there for you.” He got a huge clapping when he said, "True development takes place by respecting the interests of the poor and Adivasis.” However, just after two months, the migrant Jharkhandi Adivasis were attacked by the Forest Department in Assam but the Adivasis’ soldier is still silent. Therefore, the Adivasis want to know why their soldier is silent. Is he shocked on the incident or he is silent because if he opens his mouth the Congress Government may face severe problems in Assam?

The State sponsored attack on the migrant Adivasis took place on October 30, 2010, when a gang of 200 people in form of ‘eviction team’ comprising of Boro youth (deployed by Haltugaon Divisional Forest Officer), Forest Protection Force and Task Force entered into Lungsung Forest Block of Gaurang Range under Haltugaon Forest Division to evict the Adivasis alleging them of encroaching the Forest lands. This area comes under Bismuri police station of Kokrajhar district in Assam. The eviction team started abusing, threatening and frightening the adivasis, and asked them to leave the areas and when they denied it the eviction team started chasing them, beating them and set fire in their houses. Consequently, within a few hours, the hundreds of houses with movable properties like paddy, rice, utensils, bicycles, ploughing instruments and clothes were burnt into ashes.

The Forest Department carried on attacks on the Adivasis till October 31. Besides, burning the houses and properties, the eviction team cut down the trees of mango, banana, bamboo, battle nut and papaya. The eviction team hunted the livestock like hens, ducks, pigs and goats and took away those with them during the eviction. The family members who were found in the houses including men, women and children were physically and mentally tortured during the eviction. The women who protested against the atrocities were molested and beaten by the eviction team. The eviction team did not even spare the children. Many small kids were half burnt and got injury in their bodies and heads. When the atrocities crossed the limit, the Adivasis started protesting against the Forest Department. As a result, the men who led the protest against the atrocities were arrested by the Police.

The Forest Department with the help of Boro youth burnt down 400 houses of 53 villages into ashes. Consequently, 5975 Adivasis of 1143 families became homeless and 33 Adivasi village heads of Santal and Oraon communities were arrested and sent to Kokrajhar jail. Besides, 9 Primary Schools, 1 Manjhi Than (place of worship), 6 Churches and 7 Lakhi Mandirs were also burnt into ashes. The vegetables and other crops were also destroyed in the move. The Adivasis were tortured, their houses burnt to ashes and they were thrown behind the bars in the name of eviction. They were portrayed as encroachers of the forest land though they have been living in the vicinity since 1964, much before the enactment of the forest conservation Act 1980. Ironically, the Forest Rights Act 2006 emphasises on righting the historical wrongs done to the Adivasis but in Assam the historical injustice is still continuing with the Adivasis merely for the vote bank politics of the Congress government. Is the Forest Rights Act not enforceable in Assam or the Act is brought to ensure lands to the corporate sharks after dividing the Adivasis and other forest dweller communities in the name of giving them rights over the forest and forest land? The Adivasis are living in the state of uncertainty in Assam.

The ancestors of Jharkhandi Adivasis mostly the Oraons and the Santals had been taken to Assam by the Britishers to work in the tea garden approximately 150 years ago. Later on when the population increased, they scattered and some of them settled down in Lungsung forest after clearing the land in 1964. The Forest Department had evicted the Adivasi and Bodo people from the area in 1977. The district administration rehabilitated the Bodo people in different places of Kokrajhar district but the Adivasis were left out and they remained in adjacent vicinity. In course of time, when the Adivasis faced livelihood crisis they again went back to Lungsung forest and settled down. In July 1996 the Adivasis were driven out from the forest by Bodo extremists and took shelter in different relief camps, where they were given merely 400 gram rice per person for 10 days, which thrown them in the livelihood crisis. Consequently, they again went back to the Lungsung forest to earn their livelihood and settled down in their old villages.

Perhaps, the Forest Department is very bias, arrogant and undemocratic. Firstly, the Forest Department didn’t issue any notification before evicting the Adivasis as per the eviction procedure. Secondly, Bodos, Nepalis and Adivasis have been living in Lungsung forest since 1964 but the Forest Department took action only against the migrant Jharkhandi Adivasis. Ironically, the Assam Government and the Boroland Territorial Council justified the inhuman acts of the Forest Department. The Congress lead UPA government counts the Forest Rights Act 2006 as one of its biggest achievements but the question is why the Jharkhandi migrant Adivasis were not given entitlements of the lands they have been cultivating for years? How does the Forest Department become protector of the forests and the Adivasis encroachers, whose life, livelihood, economy, culture and identity are based on it?

The Member of Parliament of Kokrajhar S.K. Bwiswmuthiary alleged Ram Dayal Munda, Babulal Marandi and other Adivasi leaders, who visited to the affected areas of Assam, of attempting to create a mini Jharkhand and bringing in the Maoists in the forests of Bodoland. According to Joy Raj Tudu the leader of Jharkhand Initiatives Desk, who met the victims, S.K. Bwiswmuthiary has been playing a biased politics towards the Adivasis, in his third term being an M.P of Kokrajhar, has been successful in denying the existence of Adivasis in the region and has been the staunch enemy of the Adivasi sentiment. In fact, he was the ring master in instigating the ethnic violence between Adivasis and Bodos in 1996 and 1998.

In fact, the whole dispute of Assam is based on the issues of the land, the migrant Adivasis’ demand for ST status and sharing of the power. The migrant Adivasis have occupied very fertile lands, which the Boros are eying to capture therefore they don’t want the land to be regularized to the Adivasis. Secondly, there are 70 lakh migrant Adivasis in Assam, which comprises of 25 percent of the total population of the state. In that case, if the migrant Adivasis are given ST status they can acquire many posts and positions through reservation. The Boro and other Assami Adivasis see it as cutting in their share. Therefore, the Boros are against to the migrant Adivasis be given the status of Schedule Tribe in Assam. Thirdly, there are only 15 percent Adivasis in Assam. If the migrant Adivasis are given ST status the total Adivasi population would come to 40 percent, which can make a huge difference in the political arena of Assam therefore the non-Adivasis do not want the migrant Adivasis be given the status of ‘Scheduled Tribe’.

However, the migrant Adivasis are demanding for the ‘Scheduled Tribe’ status, which will ensure their constitutional rights. In these circumstances, if the Assam government gives ST status to the migrant Adivasis and entitlements of land, the Assami Adivasis and non-Adivasis both may go against of the Congress Party therefore the Assam government is not only reluctant to give the ST status to the migrant Adivasis but it has been also sponsoring the exploitation, torture and forcefully eviction of the migrant Adivasis of Assam for years.

Though most of the Adivasis of India have voted in favour of the Congress Party for decades but the party has been betraying them even today. For instance, If all the migrants Adivasis who have settled down in different states of the country were honestly counted in one category, the numbers of the Adivasis might have reached to 12 crore in India whereas only 8 crore is mentioned in the Census 2001 and rest of them were put in the general categories. Of course, it is one of the biggest injustices done to the Adivasis by those who called themselves as soldiers of the Adivasis. Ironically, when the elite Indians are targeted in Australia, UK or US, it becomes the issue of racism for the Indian State and the national Media, whereas the Indian state has been racially discriminating the Adivasis for decades but nobody is bothered about it. Can the Adivasis’ soldier tell us why? Why 70 lakh migrant Adivasis of Jharkhand are counted in general category in Assam? Why the upper caste people get the same status across the country and the Adivasis don’t?

Perhaps, Rahul Gandhi is much worried on the matter of Adivasis deserting the Congress Party rather than protection of their rights therefore he intends to get back the lost Adivasi vote bank by projecting himself as their soldier. The relevant question here is if he is Adivasis’ soldier then whose government has been carrying on eviction of the migrant Adivasis in Assam, Salwa Judum in Chhatisgarh and Operation Green Hunt in the so-called Red Corridor? However, if Rahul Gandhi still wants to become a real soldier of the Adivasis, he should ask his government to give ST status and land entitlements to the migrant Adivasis of Assam, to enforce the United Nations declaration on the rights of the Indigenous People 2007, to recognize the Adivasis as indigenous people of India, to protect their constitutional & traditional rights and stop their alienation from the natural resources. The question may remain unanswered is will he listen our voices or beat around the bush in delusion of becoming a soldier of the Adivasis

Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist and Writer based in Jharkhand. He can be reached at gladsonhractivist@gmail.com

indian police

dly Police?

By Gladson Dungdung

29 November, 2010
Countercurrents.org

Since inception of the state, the Jharkhand government has been carrying on anti-naxal operations and building up the people friendly police in the state simultaneously. In the recent development, Neyaz Ahmed, the director general of police and the executive officer of the ‘operation green hunt’, who is also the first top cop in the history of Jharkhand to get promotion after retirement, has promised to make his police men the ‘people friendly’. In fact, he knows about how the policemen are inhuman in nature, which results in inhuman treatment, torture and brutal killing of the innocent people time to time. The recent brutal killing of Dhirendra Kumar in Barwada police station clearly indicates of how the police stations have become the safest place of inhuman treatment, torture and brutal killings.

On November 16, 2010, the Dhanbad police under the leadership of Nirsa DSP Shalendra Prasad Barnwal picked up 26 year-old Dhirendra Kumar (resident of Birni village falls under Nawadih police station of Dhanbad district in Jharkhand) near Memco More (Dhanbad) during a routine vehicle inspection drive alleging him of being a Maoist. Perhaps, Dhirendra was returning to his home from elsewhere by his motorbike. The police claimed of finding Maoists’ posters in the dickey of his motorbike.

The police took him to Dhanbad Sadar police station and detained him. He was also taken to Bhuli police station and later on shifted to Barwada police station but nobody knows the reason for detaining Dhirendra in three police stations, where he was humiliated, tortured and severely beaten. Perhaps, Barwada police station is the safest destination of police torture in Dhanbad district therefore he was finally detained in Barwada police station after filing a case under Section 414 of IPC and Section 17 Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLA) alleging him for carrying Maoist posters and possessing a stolen motorcycle. However, after intervention of the local people, the senior police officers investigated on the matter and found him innocent. Subsequently, they had ordered for his release but the Barwada police kept him under their custody.

In the night on November 17, 2010, the Barwada police applied third degree torture and severely beaten Dhirendra Kumar till he became unconscious. Meanwhile, when his health deteriorated, the police took him to a private nursing home for treatment but after observing his bad condition, the doctors refused to admit him. Later the police took him to another private nursing home but by the time they reached the place perhaps he was already dead. So the doctors again refused admission in the nursing home. Finally, the police took him to PMCH a government hospital, where he was declared dead. In fact, the police didn’t take him to the government hospital directly with the intention of burying the truth of ill-treatment. Indeed, the people friendly police had beaten Dhirendra Kumar to death for merely to score points. Of course, there are competitions going on among the police forces for hunting a good Maoist, which would ensure them the cash prize, medal and promotion.

However, the inhuman treatment of the people friendly police did not end here with Dhirendra Kumar. On November 18, 2010, the police started a new operation for destroying the evidence of inhuman treatment, torture and beating. The district administration constituted a post-mortem team comprising of four doctors, who were either pressurized or bribed by the police for burying the truth. The post-mortem was conducted and the police were given a clean chit. The report describes neither internal nor external injury in the body and merely indicates the reason of death as some stomach problem. Amidst, when the news of custody death spread in the state, the politicians started their politics in the case of custodial killing. 6 members of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly joined hands for the cause. They sat in protest demanding for re-post-mortem of the dead body in RIMS, Ranchi. They even declared for organising a protest in the Assembly on November 22.

When the police came to know about the political move, they intensified their operation for destroying the evidence immediately. On November 21, 2010, it was about 8’O clock in the night. The police loaded the dead body in a vehicle and reached to Birni village secretly. But when the villagers saw the police with the dead body of Dhirendra Kumar, they started chasing the police. Suddenly, there was hue and cry in the village. Meanwhile, the BJP and JMM leaders put pressure on the family members and the villagers for cremation of the dead body and they could able to convince Sunder Singh the father of Dhirendra Kumar for it. Finally, the tricks of the police worked. The dead body was burnt in the night in presence of the police, BJP and JMM leaders. The police were relieved after the evidence of their inhuman treatment was burnt to ashes. The BJP and JMM played a dubious role in burying the issue of custodial killing, which might have become the state issue and could have put their government in trouble.

After the incident, the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Arjun Munda asked the Home Secretary, Rajbala Verma and the DGP, Neyaz Ahmed to submit a report on the case. Subsequently, he declared for the suspension of Sahdev Prasad, the officer-in charge of Barwada police station and also announced Rs. 2 lakh as compensation to the family of the deceased, which was a complete political move to bury the truth of custodial killing. Let us not forget, the killing and compensating has almost become a tradition in India and perhaps, the justice delivery ends with it. Ironically, a case of unnatural death was filed in Barwada police station instead of filing a murder case against the police officers. Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner (Dhanbad) Sunil Kumar Barnwal has ordered for a magisterial inquiry into the matter however nothing will come out of it since the evidences have been destroyed. Perhaps, the investigation is just a ritual, which most of the governments’ do for fusing the public outcry.

Obviously, the killing puts one behind the bars in India but it does not seem to be applicable to the police officers in the same manner. Their punishment for such a heinous crime is either transfer or suspension. Thus, they always enjoy impunity and carry on the inhuman treatment till they get retirement. This is what exactly happened in the case of Dhirendra Kumar. The officer-in-charge of Barwadi police station Sahdev Prasad the prime accused of the case was merely suspended and the SP of Dhanbad Suman Gupta was transferred and another two officers - DSP Shailendra Burnwal and Officer-in-Charge of Bhuli police station Harish Pathak were not even touched though they were also deeply involved in the case.

Indeed, Dhirendra Kumar was humiliated, tortured and beaten to death by the police men, who were deployed for the protection of the people including him. However, instead of punishing the guilty cops, the BJP led NDA government has been attempting to shield them. The biggest questions here need to be answered are why are the police men not punished for taking away the lives of innocent people? Why our police officers are so insensitive with the people? Why should the inhuman cops be paid the exchequer’s money in the name of security? Why is the Indian state not concerned about the rampant violation of the human rights? And how long we would allow the inhuman police officers to victimize the innocent and enjoy impunity in our largest democratic setup? The people friendly police will continue humiliate, torture and beat the innocent people to death till we remain the mute spectators.

Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist and Writer based in Jharkhand. He can be reached at gladsonhractivist@gmail.com

.

himanshu kumar a gandhian

Can Anyone Save This Tribal Girl? - The Persecution of Soni Sori

By Himanshu Kumar

10 January, 2011
Sanhati.com

Translated by Amrita Hazra and Sudipto Muhuri, Sanhati.

A few days back, I wrote an article (scroll down - Ed.) about the difficult situation faced by Soni Sori, an adivasi girl from the district of Dantewada. In that article I had discussed how the SSP of Dantewada, Kalluri was harassing and threatening her so that she would bring back her nephew, Linga Kodopi from Delhi and hand him over to the police. At first he threatened her that if she refused to act as told, then the police would destroy her life. Later on, acting on that threat, he put this girl’s husband behind bars, he confiscated their jeep and slapped two cases against her, alleging that she was involved with the Naxalites in attacking the police station and that she was also responsible for attacking the house of a Congress Party leader in the region. An arrest warrant was also issued against her. After all these incidents, the girl approached me for help.

However it seems that there is no one in this country who can challenge the power and authority of SSP Kalluri in this matter. That is why I could not be of any help to her, although I met politicians, activists and people in the media. All of them expressed their inability to help this woman. Finally I wrote an article hoping that someone would be able to do something about the plight of this woman and save her life from getting destroyed. I was under the impression that in this big and great nation there must be someone who would be able to help.

After the life sentence was pronounced on Binayak Sen, one gets to watch many a bold personalities on TV, talking big and praising the judiciary, the government and democracy. They are successfully convincing us that we should desist from questioning the legal system because such criticism weakens the nation. So for the sake of strengthening this nation, I accepted all their views, started doubting my own thoughts and even started having some kind of faith in the system prevailing in this country.

But all this faith in the system came crashing down on me yesterday when again I received a phone call from the same adivasi girl. This time she told me that SSP Kalluri has trapped her in two new cases, involving the Naxalites. He has even submitted a memorandum in the court for prosecuting her. The girl was crying and telling me- “I go everyday to teach in school, where my attendance is recorded, I go to meet my husband where again I sign in the jail register and yet SSP Kalluri has declared me to be absconding and is looking to kill me.” On the other side of the line the girl kept on crying even as I listened to her cries, seething with anger, helplessness and anguish.

Millions fought for the freedom of this country, my father fought with them. Did they sacrifice their lives for this? Did Bhagat Singh get martyred for the cause of such a nation?

Someone please tell me what I should do. If I was an adivasi, I would have picked up a gun. But everyone has made me so respectable by repeatedly calling me a Gandhian, that whenever there is an injustice, all I do is write an article on the Internet and feel satisfied that I have served my country. The media-persons have even stopped answering my calls.

Is anyone listening to what I am saying? Hello ? Media, Government, Judiciary? is there anyone listening what the poor, the adivasis have got to say? Is there anyone left to listen? At least try one last time to save this democracy.

Is there anyone who can save this adivasi girl?

*****

v,the people of india

v for vendetta , a historical dialectics of conversation so friends all n everyone r cordially designated to manifest ur critical wit here v the people entitles u to bring forth ur attitude in words so that v may have as many opinions to decipher to n carry on unite the here n there marginalised voices to an effective unison c friends there is a gross error with our system n the set norms so smone wll have to stand up to these manipulated n static virtues n redefine the value system so that those who r nt heard b heard n those who have no visibility have their credit so few of us r bound to take the responsibility how ? when? where? is upto us.............