P UCL BULLETINVol. XXXIII, No. 5 ISSN-0970-8693

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No Police Personnel as Member inHuman Rights Commissions

Rajindar Sachar

One of the tragedies of modern politics is that political persons have noembarrassment in speaking in one way and acting in other. Dr. Lohia,Socialist leader always maintained that if there is to be people's politicsthat can only happen when there is total approximation between whatpoliticians say and how they act. In this he was only echoing Gandhiji'sinsistence that politics and morality must go together.That there is cynical flouting of these norms in present day politics is adaily occurrence. The latest instance is of BJP leaders Arun Jaitly andSushma Swaraj objecting to the proposed appointment of Mr. S.C. Sinha,Chief of National Investigation Agency to be a member of the NationalHuman Rights Commission of India (NHRCI) on the ground that by it theruling regime is setting a dangerous precedent by appointing heads ofcountry's premier investigating agencies to the posts after their retirementsbecause it would have negative impact on the neutrality of such agenciesas to remain in the good books of the Government. The point is well takenand I totally agree. But I would like to refresh the BJP's memory at theprecedent of the BJP's Central Government in 2003.The BJP forgot this moral stand when it appointed Sharma, who had retiredas the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in December2003 to the NHRC. Of course it sought and obtained the consent of SoniaGandhi, the then leader of the opposition in the House of People and S.Manmohan Singh, the leader of opposition in the Council of States.The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) (founded by JayaprakashNarayan in the dark days of the Emergency in 1976) challenged theappointment of Sharma in the Supreme Court. The PUCL made it clearthat it raised no personal objection to Sharma, nor was it talking of hiscompetency or impartiality as an individual. Its objection was on the basisof a fundamental issue that none from the police or security forces iseligible (or in any case on the touchstone of confidence building measurein the working of the NHRCI) should be appointed to a body which wasmeant to give relief to the people from the peculiar working of the policeand the security forces.The PUCL drew to its aid the strong concern expressed by the SupremeCourt "at the growing incidence of torture and deaths in police custody". Itrelied especially on Paris Principles endorsed by the UN General Assemblywherein criteria for composition for National Human Rights institutionswere adopted, e.g., autonomy from the government. Especially in regardto the composition of the Human Right Commission, the principles

EDITORIAL:

No Police Personnel as Member in HumanRights Commissions - Rajindar Sachar (1)

Inside :

ARTICLES, REPORTS &DOCUMENTS :

33rd JP Memorial Lecture : NewSocial Movements, NewPerspectives - Nivedita Menon (2);Asian Centre for Human RightsReport (11); Governors in the dock(16).

PRESS STATEMENTS, LETTERS ANDNEWS : Press Release: Chaining of SantoshShahani in West Bengal (8); PUCL Delhistatement on Bhullar Judgment (9); NAPMStatements: (1) POSCO Violence (10); (2)Police Complicity in murder of an anti-corruption crusader (13); Appeal from Jail:Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, Manesar (14);Coimbatore Press Release (17); W.Bank'ssham 'Consultation' to Review ItsEnvironmental & Social Safeguards ShutDown (18).

MAY 2013 Rs. 10

PUCL BULLETIN, MAY 2013 2

specifically ruled out governmentdepartments' representatives fromthe membership of the Commission.But such are the dual standards thatwhen the matter came up for hearingthe BJP government threw its fullweight justifying the appointment.The matter initially came up beforea two Judge Bench comprisingJustice Y.K. Sabharwal J. (as hethen was) who held as follows:"The National Human RightsCommission (NHRC) is a high-powered statutory body to act as aninstrument for the protection andpromotion of human rights. Thecredibility of such an institutiondepends upon a high degree ofpublic confidence. It cannot beoverlooked that notwithstanding theexemplary role of the police andsecurity forces, there have beenmany instances of excesses by themembers of the forces leading topublic unrest and deteriorating publicfaith. The issue is not whether all arefully true or not, but is what exists inthe public mind and whether there issome justification therefore. After all,it cannot be denied thatpredisposition or subtle prejudice orunconscious prejudice or what iscalled "sanskar" are inarticulatemajor premises in the decision-making process. Thus construingSection 3(2)(d) of the Act, a policeofficer would be ineligible to beappointed as a member of theNHRC."

The other Justice dissented. Thematter was then heard by a 3 JudgeBench who took a contrary view andheld that appointment of a policeofficer to the NHRC was legal andpermissible though it conceded thatit cannot take any exception withregard to the remarks made in manyof the Supreme Court cases that thejudicial and public perception of thepolice force is considered to be thebiggest violators of human rights.The unfortunate effect of thisjudgment has been that since thenalmost every State Human RightsCommission (HRC) has at least one,sometimes two members from StatePolice force as members. Imaginethe irony and the discomfort of theHuman Right activists who have beenfighting against the police excessesfor a long time to find that the remedyprovided by law is from the verymachinery of the police personnelnow sitting in the NHRC or the StateHRCs. In this matter both theCongress and the BJP ruled Stateshave a commonly shared preferencefor the police personnel and areallergic to any improvement in theworking of the NHRC or the StateHRCs. This is evident from the factthat the recommendations forimprovement in the NHRC made bya Committee headed by the formerChief Justice Ahmadi as far as 15years back have remained in coldstorage under both the Congress andthe BJP Governments.As I said it is not the actual prejudice

or the unfairness by the policemember, but the perception of it. Itherefore feel that in spite of the courthaving held that there is nodisqualification of a police or securityofficer from being appointed as amember, both the Congress and theBJP should agree to debar police andsecurity personnel form themembership of the NHRC and StateHRCs.In this connection let me quote theprecedent. Gandhiji had selected aperson to be the member of theCongress Working Committee. Butbefore he could be appointedinformation was sent to Gandhiji thatin a suit filed against that gentlemanfor recovery of a loan taken by him,he had replied, (of course drafted byhis clever Advocate) that he had nottaken any loan, hence nothing waspayable and in the alternative even ifhe had taken, he was not to payback because it was now barred bylimitation," Gandhiji when he read it,tersely remarked, "If no loan hasbeen taken, then he is right indenying it. But if he has taken it butis refusing to pay because oflimitation, then such a person cannotbe a member of my WorkingCommittee. Here was a meaningfuldistinction between what may belegally right can be morally wrong.This is the justification for excludingthe police and security forcepersonnel from the membership ofthe NHRC and the State HRCs.Dated: 09/04/2013 ❑❑❑❑❑

33rd JP Memorial Lecture*:

New Social Movements, New PerspectivesNivedita Menon

We stand at an electrifying andexciting moment of history, whennew forces are coming into viewthrough a range of movements,shaking the foundations of politicalpower. They do not seek to ‘capture’political power but rather, to make itaccountable and answerable to ‘thepeople’. The massive upsurgesagainst corruption and against theDelhi gang-rape, whosereverberations were heard inIndonesia, Sri Lanka and Nepal, tie

up with a global moment which hasbeen marked by similar unrest indifferent parts of the world – the ArabSpring, the Occupy Wall Streetmovement, the youth movement inBangladesh against the Islamic right-wing and for a return to the secularideals of the 1971 liberation struggle.But there are dots that connect thesecurrent rounds of movements to alonger history of non-party activismin India, which I want to trace in mypresentation, before returning to the

present and the difficult questions weface about democracy today.In the long history of people’smovements in India, we have seenthem take different forms. I’mreferring of course, to non-partymovements, among the first of whichis the JP movement itself, whoseultimate demise, as is widelyaccepted now, can be traced to itstakeover by political parties.Today I will try to map the forms that

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people’s movements have takensince the 1980s, and it should beclear that the focus will be on whatwe perceive as ‘new’ movements.Thus, I will not refer to the longstruggles against the Indian state inKashmir and the North East becausea discussion of those requiresanother lecture altogether that willquestion the very legitimacy of theclaim of India to be a Nation.A new kind of social and politicalaction emerged in the 1980s, thatwe might call citizens’ initiatives .These non-funded and non-partyforums came into being out of asense of the inefficacy of mainstreampolitical parties and their lack ofconcern regarding vital issues ofdemocracy, freedom and civil rights.‘Citizens’ initiatives’ have been moreinvolved in a watchdog kind of activityand are not generally characterizedby mass support. While some aresmall, self-sufficient groups of longstanding, others are broad coalitionsformed around specific issues, thatbring together parties and tradeunions of the far left, Gandhian, Dalitand feminist groups, some of whichmay be funded NGOs, as well asnon-affiliated individuals. Thedistinguishing feature of suchcoalitions is that all the constituentsare subject to the ‘common minimumprogramme’ set collectively by theforum, and separate party/organizational agenda are not meantto influence the activity of the forum.The tension that this sets up betweendiffering imperatives is usually alsothe reason for the short-lived natureof such forums, which tend todissipate after a period of intenseand often very effective interventions.Among the first citizens’ initiativesthat came into existence werearound civil liberties and democraticrights. Acquiring particular saliencein the immediate aftermath of theEmergency, a number of suchorganizations came into beingthroughout the country. For instance,the People’s Union for Civil Libertiesand Democratic Rights (PUCLDR)set up during the Emergency latersplit into the People’s Union forDemocratic Rights (PUDR), with amore leftist perspective on ‘rights’including economic rights, while thePeople’s Union for Civil Liberties(PUCL) decided to focus on ‘civil

liberties’ more narrowly. There wasa string of such formations in thecountry. In many states like AndhraPradesh (the Andhra Pradesh CivilLiberties Committee – APCLC) andWest Bengal (Association for theProtection of Democratic Right –APDR), the main initiative for theformation of such civil liberties anddemocratic rights organizationscame from activists linked to the farLeft groups. We distinguish suchforums from what are called ‘humanrights organizations’, many of whichare funded organizations that workin tandem with internationallyevolving agendas. The latter we wouldplace under the rubric of ‘NGOs’.

Such groups have continued toplay an active role in the years since,painstakingly documenting andexposing cases of civil liberties anddemocratic rights violations. Inrecent years they have also beenactively campaigning against capitalpunishment. While the initial impulsefor their formation was the violationby the state of citizens’ rights tofreedom of expression, they haveover the last two and a half decadesexpanded their activities to addressviolations of freedoms by non-stateactors in the context of caste, genderand sectarian/ communal violence.Some of them have also taken upquestions of the worst cases ofexploitation of labour, whicheffectively nullify rights and libertiessanctioned by the Constitution to allcitizens.

A recent significant battle fought byone such citizens’ group - Committeefor Fair Trial for SAR Geelani –demonstrates how effective suchinterventions can be. Syed AbdulRehman Geelani, a lecturer of Arabicin a Delhi college, was one of the‘prime accused’ in the attack onParliament on December 13, 2001.Following as it did on ‘9/11’, theincident got inserted into thestridently nationalist discourse thatdrew nourishment from both theHindu-right dominated NDAgovernment and the rhetoric ofGeorge Bush’s ‘war on terrorism’. Agroup of teachers and students ofDelhi University kept up a consistentstruggle to ensure a fair trial for SARGeelani in the bleak days of 2002,when one of the worst state-sponsored carnages of post-

Independence Indian history was inprogress in Gujarat, and Geelani wasnot only sentenced to death by aPOTA (Prevention of TerroristActivities Act) court but alsosubjected to a blatant media trialpronouncing him guilty even beforethe court verdict. Eventually anational level Committee was formed,drawing in respected academics likeRajni Kothari and writer ArundhatiRoy, while lawyers like NanditaHaksar and others undertook to fightthe case on Geelani’s behalf. Theirpatient and unrelenting work wassuccessful in exposing what turnedout to be a blatant frame-up. Geelaniwas acquitted and released. TheGeelani case revealed the extent towhich democracy can be subvertedby the discourse on ‘nationalsecurity’. However, it alsodemonstrated that spaces fordemocratic intervention are notentirely closed off.Of course, this was only a partialvictory and the December 13thattack on parliament has a darkerstory behind it which we cannot gointo now, the latest episode of whichwas the unjust execution of AfzalGuru for a crime the Supreme Courtconceded he did not commit.Another set of citizens’ initiativesthat came since 1984 and themassacre of Sikhs were several anti-communal groups in different partsof the country. One of the earliest ofthese was a forum called the NagarikEkta Manch, formed in 1984 itself.This was an initiative where peoplefrom different backgrounds andvocations came together to work inthe relief camps – collecting anddistributing relief materials, helpingpeople file claims and so on. At aboutthe same time, another group, theSampradayikta Virodhi Andolan(SVA) was formed in Delhi, focusingprimarily on public campaigns,attempting simultaneously to find adifferent language in which toconduct such campaigns. A widedebate was sparked in secularcircles by one of the slogans evolvedby the SVA to counter the Hinduright-wing campaign onRamjanmabhoomi, discussed inChapter 2. This slogan, in a radicaldeparture from secular strategy,appealed to the religious Hindu – kan-kan mein vyaape hain Ram/Mat

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bhadkao danga leke unka naam(Ram is in every atom / let not Hisname be used to incite violence).These could be said to have beenprecursors to a series of newinitiatives in different towns and citiesof India that came into being in the1990s, especially in the wake of thedemolition of the Babri Masjid andthe communal violence that followed.Perhaps the most significant part ofthe citizens’ actions of the 1990s wasthat they took up the struggle thatwas all but abandoned by politicalparties – whether ruling oropposition, Right or Left. Throughthis period groups have workedthroughout India, engaging in a rangeof activities – street demonstrationsand sit-ins to engage the public indebate and discussion, designingand implementing educationalprogrammes, monitoring the media,pursuing cases in court, providinglegal and other assistance to thevictims of communal violence andmaking every effort to see that theguilty officials and political leaderswould not escape punishment.Again, in the aftermath of the Gujaratcarnage of 2002, during the longmonths of continued violence,innumerable individuals and newlyformed groups from all over India wentto Gujarat, helping in running reliefcamps, coordinating collections anddistribution of relief materials,running schools for children of thevictims – and of course, providing thelegal support to fight the cases.These efforts might well compriseone of the most glorious chapters ofcitizens’ interventions in post-independence India.Urbanism could be said to be one ofthe fledgling movements incontemporary India. Prior to the1990s issues of the urban poor,(pavement dwellers, hawkers andvendors, rickshaw pullers) wereraised by Left political parties,individuals and groups in Mumbaiand Kolkata, largely as questions ofpoverty and the ‘state’sresponsibility’ to the poor. The oldNehruvian state was also much moreresponsive to this call ofresponsibility. It was in the 1990s,with India’s rapid global integration,that urban space really began toemerge as an arena of struggle.Alongside the contests over spacearose newer concerns regarding

urban congestion, pollution andconsequent concerns about health.The state’s response – prodded bya section of environmentalists andthe judiciary – was to revive the oldmodernist fantasy of the ordered andzoned city. It was around theseissues that struggles startedseriously erupting in the late 1990s.In Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata andBangalore, citizens’ initiativesbrought together questions ofenvironment and workers’ rights andlinked them up with the largerquestion of urban planning. Somegroups conducted mass campaignsthrough their constituent politicalgroupings, but the most significantimpact they had was in making urbanplanning a matter of public debate,drawing architects and planners withalternative visions into the debate.The question of a public transportsystem, road planning and suchother questions came into the ambitof the debate for the first time. Insome cities alternative data wasgenerated on the availability andconsumption of water, electricity andother amenities in settlements of thelabouring poor as well as the affluent.Today as Arvind Kejriwal begins hiscivil disobedience campaign on theinflated costs of water and electricity,we can see the historical links toearlier forms of activism.Since the late 1980s, non-partymovements and citizens’ initiativeshave grown and functioned in acomplicated relationship with NGOs.The apprehension of being driven byfunder agendas, becomingdepoliticized and being co-opted byfunding has kept most movementsand citizens’ initiatives consciously‘non-funded’. At the same time manyNGOs often provide movements withvital support in terms of infrastructure,campaigns and educationalmaterials. Thus, while the peoples’movements fight their battles infaraway rural or forest areas, with littleaccess to the media, it is theseNGOs that set up and house thevarious metropolitan ‘support groups’whose task it is to approach friendlyand influential people in the media,bureaucracy and academia toadvocate the cause of the movementconcerned. Such NGOs have oftenalso provided critical research inputson technical details, environmentalimpact and other information required

to conduct a credible campaign. Astriking example of such a symbiosisis the Narmada Bachao Andolan.These citizens’ initiatives were rarelymass movements, but in the firstdecades on the 21st century wehave begun to see massmovements of this new,coalitional kind , arising around theissue of land acquisition. Suchmovements have brought into crisisthe hitherto unquestionedassumption that industrialization andeconomic development of a particularkind are natural stages in humanhistory. This assumption is sharedacross the political spectrum fromRight to Left and so thesemovements come into sharpcontradiction with an Old Leftframework that has still notunderstood the deep ecologicalcrisis our planet faces and the needto rethink entirely the idea of endlessgrowth, which is in fact impossible.Increasingly, movements againstland acquisition are coming togetherwith the movement against nuclearenergy, from Jaitapur toKudankulam. In these massmovements we see the new form ofcoming together of political energies.That is, around a single issue, arange of forces come together, fromreligious forces like the Jamat inSingur and Nandigram and theChurch in Kudankulam, to thefamiliar spectrum of individuals andgroups – Gandhians, Dalit groups,NGOs, left groups and sometimesleft parties and so on. The anti-nuclear energy movements ofcourse, go back to the era ofcitizens’ initiatives when groups likeAnumukti, Network to Oust NuclearEnergy (NONE) and Committee fora Sane Nuclear Policy (COSNUP)were set up. Such citizens’ initiativeswere undertaken to highlight issuessuch as the dangers of radiation tocommunities located in uraniummining sites, the undemocratic andopaque nature of functioning of India’snuclear establishment, and asalways, the injustice of displacingpopulations from their homes andoccupations in order to set upnuclear energy plants. Moreimportantly, these groups developeda critique of nuclear energy as such,asserting, along with a growingchorus of voices globally, that it was‘neither clean nor safe nor cheap.’

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While this work did not have a massmovement dimension until now, wesee the coming together of theseolder initiatives with the massmovements in Kudankulam andJaitapur.Again, the Old Left is completely outof tune with these newdevelopments, as in its imaginativehorizon, nuclear energy is central toa strong nation state. For example,the proposal to build a giant nuclearpower station in Haripur in WestBengal is a central governmentproject, but is fully supported by theLeft Front. The ecological and socialconsequences of building a nuclearplant in the densely populatedGangetic delta region are fearsometo contemplate, and the CPI (M)’senthusiastic support for it is deeplytroubling.Coming now to the women’smovement , it has functioned moreor less in the form of citizens’initiatives of the kind I have described,with occasional mass mobilizationby political parties. In the 1980s, the“autonomous women’s movement”emerged from the patriarchy andcontrol of left-wing political parties.The first national-level autonomouswomen’s conferences were thusattended by non-funded, non-party,self-defined feminist groups. Over the1990s, very few of these survived asnon-funded organizations, and theseventh conference in 2006, held inKolkata, referred to above, wasalmost entirely attended by fundedNGOs. It is also important to notethat many “non” governmentalorganizations receive funding fromthe government for specific projects.Thus, the only groups that werefinally excluded were non-funded leftwing and radical women’sorganizations, which seemed tomany feminists to be a strangeparadox. Increasingly however, in thelast few years, coalitions aroundissues such as sexual violence andthe rights of LGBT people, includepolitical parties of the Left. Feministsalso perceive the close link betweenmovements around livelihood andecological sustainability, and thewomen’s movement - Nalini Nayak,who works with fisher-people’smovements on these issues, termsecological movements the “resourcebase of our feminism”.And so we arrive at the end of the

first decade of the 21st century, adecade in which we see two kinds ofnew political action. One -unprecedented urban massmovements in the city of Delhi andin other cities and towns, around twoissues – corruption and sexualviolence.Two – social media drivenmobilizations by young upper classwomen around the issue of women’srights to public space.Both these kinds of mobilizations,quite opposite in character to eachother, have proved difficult for olderLeft and women’s movementperspectives to come to terms with,for they follow none of the olderpatterns of mobilizing, there is nocomprehensive programme of action,only one narrow slogan, and themass character necessarily meansthere can be no broader agreementaround large political issues.Let me start with the secondphenomenon I mentioned.Two campaigns have caught mediaattention. One, the Pink Chaddicampaign. In 2009, men of a hithertolittle known Hindu right-wingorganization called Sri Ram Sene,physically attacked young women inpubs in the city of Mangalore. Theseattacks, supposedly an attempt toprotect Indian culture from defilementby western values, were met withprotests and solidarity campaigns allover the country, but the mostimaginative one came to be calledthe Pink Chaddi campaign. A cheekyFacebook group was launched byDelhi journalist Nisha Susan, with thename of ‘Consortium of Pubgoing,Loose and Forward Women’, whichcalled upon women to send pinkchaddis (underwear) to the leader ofthe Ram Sene, Pramod Muthalik, asa gift on Valentine’s Day, in a non-violent gesture of ridicule and protest.Over 2000 chaddis were in factdelivered to the Ram Sene office, andthe organization was a butt of ridiculeall over the world. It is striking thatthe campaign used the word ‘chaddi’rather than ‘panty’, simultaneouslydesexualizing the piece of clothing,ungendering it (chaddi refers tounderwear in general, not just towomen’s panties), and playing onthe pejorative slang for Hindu right-wingers, after the uniform of theirparent organization, the RSS, whosemembers wear khaki shorts. At one

level an undoubtedly successfulcampaign, it faced criticism fromconservative opinion for obviousreasons, and also from the left of thepolitical spectrum.The latter chastised the campaignfor elitism (‘after all, only westernizedwomen in cities go to pubs’) and fordiverting attention to such a trivialissue when for most women in India,their very survival is at stake. Is goingto pubs what feminism is about, wasthe question such critics raised. Ofcourse not. And nor did the‘Consortium’ claim it was anythingas large as ‘feminism’ itself. It was aspecific campaign in response to aspecific attack, and as Nisha Susanput it, ‘for many of those who signedup, neither Valentine’s Day nor pub-going meant anything. What weagreed on is the need to end violencein the name of somebody’s idea ofIndian culture’ (2009). The campaignbrazenly owned up to the identitiesthe Hindu right-wing attributed towomen in pubs – ‘loose and forward’– and made them badges of pride.And it clearly touched a chord acrossthe country, for most peopleunderstood it as defiance towards theHindu right’s moral policing ingeneral, not merely about women’sright to drink in pubs.The other instance was theorganizing of Slut Walks in Delhi andBhopal. Slut Walks, both inEuropean and American cities aswell as in some Indian ones, mustbe understood as a critique of thevictim blaming culture that surroundsrape. The original Slut Walk was areaction to a Canadian police officer’sremark that if women dress ‘likesluts’, they must expect to beraped. However, the overwhelminglypositive responses world-wide to SlutWalks, reveal that blaming the victimis not an attitude restricted to theWest.In India, within the feminist camp,there were misgivings expressed thatthe English word ‘slut’ has noresonance at all here. In response,the organizers of the march added aHindi phrase explaining the name,so that it became Slut Walk arthaatBesharmi Morcha, drawing on theHindi word besharam meaning‘without shame’ or shameless, oftenused for women who refuse to liveby patriarchal rules. What wasinteresting about Slut Walks in India

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(held in Bhopal and Delhi in July2011), was that they were notorganized by the establishedwomen’s movement organizationsand well-known feminist faces, butby much younger women new topolitical organizing, who wereexpressing, however, an old andpowerful feminist demand - the rightto safety in public spaces.If this was elite mobilization, what isthe problem for the Left with massmobilizations? It appears that thenon-party Left has a deep-rooted fearof the masses, which it can only seeas communal and casteist, andpolitically regressive. Throughout theAnna Hazare phase of the IndiaAgainst Corruption movement, wesaw from this section, which formsour community, strident demands forabsolute purity of the radical position(for example, what do these peoplehave to say about Kashmir?). Wesaw a sort of aggressive self-marginalization and self-exile to ahigh ground where all credentialswere closely scrutinized, and wesaw the absolute incomprehensionof and contempt of people who areour friends, for ’the people’ whenactually confronted by them.Interestingly, political parties of theLeft, especially CPI (ML), weresupportive of the movement andactive in various ways, this sharpcriticism came from individuals of thenon-Party left.What I saw was a carnivalesquecelebration of the pure ideals ofdemocracy – of the idea that ‘we thepeople’ are sovereign, thatpoliticians are the servants of thepeople, that laws must originate inthe needs and demands of thepeople.What my community saw though,was a mindless mob of communaland casteist - and even “fascist”middle classes.For twelve days, a city in whichprotest had been consigned to amuseumized space, Jantar Mantar,was reclaimed for protest by acrashing tide of humanity so huge,so peaceful and non-violent, that itsimply took back the city. Noviolence. No untoward incidents andno hysteria (except on televisionchannels). How is this fascism? Areall large gatherings of the massesfascist?Since many of the critics swear by

some form of ‘Marxism-Leninism’, letme quote from Lenin who said in 1916of the 1905 revolution:“Whoever expects a ‘pure’ socialrevolution will never live to see it.Such a person pays lip-service torevolution without understandingwhat revolution is…The RussianRevolution of 1905 was a bourgeois-democratic revolution. It consisted ofa series of battles in which all thediscontented classes, groups andelements of the populationparticipated. Among these there weremasses imbued with the crudestprejudices; there were small groupswhich accepted Japanese money,there were speculators andadventurers, etc. But objectively, themass movement was breaking the[back] of Tsarism and paving the wayfor democracy.”Another kind of critic speaks not inthe name of revolution, but ofdemocracy; a democracy disciplinedthrough representative institutionswith The People entering the stageevery five years. The People are acontinuous source of anxiety,casteist and communal as all of themare. Little wonder then that this setof Leftist and Left-liberals remainedsilent when the government deniedpermission for the protest andarrested Hazare on August 16; someeven denying that there had been aviolation of civil liberties.Law-making needs to be demystified– “it’s a very complex process”, theexperts on TV kept saying. But whatthe movement did was it made itlegitimate to say that we have a rightto the information that will enable usto arrive at a conclusion. I heard ayoung law student stumblinglyexplain before a TV camera inEnglish, which was clearly not hisfirst language: ”They say theParliament is sovereign. No. Theyshould read the Constitution. Thepeople are sovereign.”And I loved the way people said tothe camera – Main Kapil Sibal sekehna chahta hoon, mainManmohanji ko batana chahti hoon– directly, they addressed the“leaders”, the politicians, as if theyhave a right to. This is neither antipolitical nor anti political classes – itis the exact opposite. It is theinsistence precisely that “we thepeople” are political, we demandaccountability from those whom we

send to Parliament.It is by now established that therewas substantial Muslim and Dalitparticipation despite their leaders’disapproval. The othermisrepresentation being continuallypurveyed is that the supporters of thismovement are the middle classes. Ifthe lakhs of people who participatedin the protests over twelve days inDelhi alone, are all ‘middle class’,then India must be Shining after all!Anybody who moved around whereprotests were happening could haveseen that the large majority ofparticipants were lower middle classto working class people. In Delhilocal protests happened everywhere,far away from TV cameras – in middleclass housing societies, workingclass ‘unauthorized’ colonies,around local mosques in poorlocalities, small temples.We also know from newspaperreports that there was growingparticipation of workers throughout -railway workers affiliated to AITUC;1800 temporary-for-years DelhiTransport Corporation workers whowere sacked for going to RamlilaMaidan; dabbawalas in Mumbai whohave not struck work for 140 years;sections of auto drivers; Marutiworkers from Manesar in Haryana.The other argument against an anti-corruption law is that ‘corruptionprovides a little shade to the poor’.As a skeptic about the law and thestate, I have often written about thefreedoms made possible by goingunder the radar of the state. But howto understand the poor and workingclass who throng the movement?Perhaps ‘corruption’ is precisely notto be in the shade, to be forced intoengaging with the force of Law, butoutside the protection of the law.Perhaps the ‘corrupt’ peopleprotesting corruption would like tolive a life in which they wouldn’t haveto be corrupt just to survive everyday? We need to recognize that theterm ‘corruption’ as it plays out inthe movement, condenses within ita range of discontents – anaccumulating anger over repeatedbetrayals of democratic expectationsover years, but especially over thelast decade. The immediate triggerof the movement was the series ofinstances of looting of the publicexchequer that came to light recently– the Commonwealth Games, the 2G

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Spectrum scam, the Niira Radiatapes that exposed how ministerswere being fixed to benefit particularbusiness houses, and so on. Butcorruption is also an everyday matterfor the poor – the thelawala payinghafta to the beat constable; thelabourer whose muster rolls arefaked, the agricultural worker whoseNREGA payment is swallowed up;every poor undertrial in jail ontrumped up charges (was itsurprising then, that the undertrialsin Tihar fasted in solidarity withAnna?); the farmer whose land isseized to be passed on tocorporates, an issue mentioned byAnna Hazare in his speech at RamlilaMaidan (kisanon ki zameenzabardasti chheeni ja rahi hai); theaspirant to own an auto rickshawcosting 1 lakh, who ends up payingmore than a car costs, and drownsin debt.A young working class boy we know,falsely implicated in a theft case bythe police for over four years, rangup at the height of the agitation totell us jubilantly that the beatconstable had told him that thecases were being closed – “Annahazare ke chakkar mein pulis saarecase khatam kar rahi hai” (All thisAnna Hazare stuff is going on, sothe police are closing all the cases.)We don’t know what made him thinkthis had anything to do with AnnaHazare. But this is the Annamoment. This is what the SubalternStudies historians drew our attentionto, the multiple meanings Gandhihad for different sections of people,the ‘rumours of Gandhi’ thatgalvanized a variety of protests thatdirectly addressed local issues.But also, maybe the police werescared for an instant?To all those who woke up to the IndiaAgainst Corruption movement in April2011 – a gentle reminder that this isthe crystallization of a long processthat began in the villages, initiatedby the campaign around the Rightto Information. The RTI Act (2005),instrumental in exposing corruptionin a range of spaces from NREGA tomunicipal schools, was theculmination of one phase of themovement; the establishment of anOmbudsman or Lokpal was alwaysplanned as the next stage.Corruption is tied fundamentally tothe RTI Act that exposes it, so

effectively that several RTI activistshave been murdered.Now of course, Arvind Kejriwal hasdecided to go the way of a politicalparty, but what we see of the AAPso far, it is clearly not a conventionalparty with a top-down leadership, andit appears to be genuinely seeking anew way of being a party, with actualmass participation in decisionmaking, which might change theground rules for all parties.The experience of the mobilizationsaround IAC were behind the massiveprotests around the Delhi gang-rape . This time, the voices of critiquewere muted, although a prominentcritic was Arundhati Roy, whoimmediately termed the protestsupper class. But again, this was notthe case. The protests were sparkedoff by the rape of a girl on a bus at9.30 at night. She could have beenanybody – she was not in a car, oreven an auto. Nobody knew her caste– later it turned out she is from avery poor family and from the Kurmicaste, which is by no means anupper caste – but the point is nobodyactually knew who she was – shewas Everywoman.And again, exactly like the IACmovement, there were right-wingvoices as well as left-wing andfeminist voices against sexualviolence. These feminist thoughtswere being articulated by not onlypeople calling themselves feministsbut ordinary middle class people whomay not consider themselves to bevery political at all. There werethousands of submissions to theJustice Verma committee and manyof these have been made by ordinarypeople, resident’s WelfareAssociations and so on, asking forchanges in the broader patriarchalcontext of society – things likewomen’s safety and policesensitivity.There has been a ground level shiftamong people reflecting decades offeminist intervention at differentlevels, but there is a real disconnectbetween the people and politicians.Feminist understandings have caughton in the ordinary public but this isnot matched by the understandingof state agencies. Not only was afeminist position NOT articulated byanyone in a position of power or anypolitical organization in a consistentway, most politicians from Left to

Right came out with the mostmisogynist and regressivestatements about women and aboutsexual violence.And again, people did not have to bemobilized by any organized left wing,right wing or feminist groups. Thetransformation that has taken placein the last 4-5 years is that peoplefeel like they own the city and cancome out in protest on the streets –and I think this can be tracked backto India Against Corruption.Any mass movement brings togetherdisparate and sometimes starklycontradictory tendencies. Don’t weknow that from the Indian strugglefor independence? Was the Indianbourgeoisie absent from it? Or thereligious right of all sorts? Or casteistand Brahminical forces? If absolutepurity and a point-to-point matchingof our full political agenda is requiredfor us to support a movement, thenfeminists would be permanentlystuck restively in the waiting roomof history, for I can assure you thatevery mass demonstration you seeanywhere ever, is packed withpatriarchal men and patriarchalizedwomen! Nor does any movementexcept the women’s movement everraise patriarchy as an issue. Butwhat is it that we take into accountwhen we do support a movement?One – does the movement expressa goal or demand that we support?Two – Does the movement as suchexplicitly take positions that are anti-women or anti-anything-we-stand-for? (The answers of course, shouldbe yes and no respectively).The huge movement in Goa thatsucceeded in scrapping the SEZ Billwas composed of precisely such abroad formation – from the Churchto the Hindu Right, to all of the othersof my community as describedabove. They came together; theywent their separate ways once theircampaign succeeded. Nandigramsaw a similar formation. Many non-party non-funded citizens’ forumshave too. The Narmada BachaoAndolan is another broad alliancecoalescing on a single issue. For thatmatter, at Tahrir Square there wereIslamists (Muslim Brotherhood), andpeople and groups who stand for full-scale capitalism apart fromsecularists and feminists andworkers and trade unions. Now it’sa struggle of secularists against the

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Muslim right-wing in Egypt, but thatis a historically contingent, notnecessary or inevitable development.It is the logic of the development of amass movement in all its messinessthat we should seek to understand,rather than look for that pure, 22-carat revolution where everything willproceed according to the programmelaid down by the Left elite. From thisperspective, nothing less than ourmaximum agenda is acceptable –from SEZs to farmers’ suicides, fromAFSPA in the Northeast to themurder of democracy in Kashmir. Ifyou will not accept even one of thesepoints, you’re out - we will havenothing to do with you. It is not “they”who say ‘if you are not with us youare against us’; this arrogant divisive

slogan has always been ours, on theLeft.Those issues listed above are ourissues too, but what if a massmovement does not raise them?What if it articulates itself around amore generalized and widespreadconcern? Any student of massmovements anywhere in the worldknows that mass movements of thisscale only arise around issues wherethe largest sections of the people feelaffected by it. They can never arisearound sectional issues – howeverbig the sections concerned may be.And the question really is of thepotentiality of the movement ratherthan what it is, at any given point. Itwill only be inclusive to the extentthat it is able to draw in the largest

number.We will of course have to part waysat some point to fight our separatebattles, but we can come togetherfor a specific limited goal.We stand at the beginning of a newkind of politics that has all kinds offorces within it, but one of these iscertainly the potential to radicallytransform and rejuvenate democracy.We should be prepared to ride thatpotential, not undermine it. (Thislecture is based on material from myearlier published work, some of itsingly authored, some jointly writtenwith Aditya Nigam, in continuingconversation with whom these ideashave developed.)

*The JP Memorial Lecture organized bythe PUCL and delivered at the GandhiPeace Foundation, New Delhi on 23rd March2013. ❑❑❑❑❑

PUCL Press Release: 17.4.2013

Chaining of Santosh Shahani in West BengalPUCL is shocked by the chaining ofSantosh Shahani, SFI studentleader, to the hospital bed in theNorth Bengal Medical College andHospital, Siliguri where he wasadmitted after his arrest. Suchbarbaric acts are extremelyreprehensible and PUCL condemnsthis action of the state police andhospital authorities.PUCL is extremely concerned aboutthe repeated incidents of policehighhandedness and State apathy inthe State of West Bengal. Therecently reported statement of Mr.Partha Chatterjee, Industries andCommerce Minister, West Bengal(also Gen. Secy. TMC) alleging thatthe vandalism last week of the famousPresidency University and thehistoric Baker Laboratories inKolkota by flag wielding studentsbelonging to a political party was`staged', as an unacceptableinterference with fair investigationinto the incidents. If true, it marks abrazen attempt to derail fair,transparent and independentinvestigation into incidents allegedlyperpetrated by the students' wing ofthe ruling TMC party. As a seniorMinister of the State Government thestatement of the Minister has the

tendency to indicate to theinvestigating police, the line ofinvestigation desired by the rulinggovernment. This is a total violationof the rule of law and also amountsto a subversion of constitutionalgovernance.PUCL regrets that the StateGovernment, instead of ensuring fairand independent investigation, isindulging in muddying the waterswhich will end up in obfuscation offacts, derailing investigation andneedlessly politicising the issue oflawlessness by political workerscaught on camera indulging inhooliganism, vandalism and injuringpeople. That this is not an isolatedincident can be gauged by theintolerance of none less than the CMof West Bengal to anything evenremotely critical of her governmentand governance. The police havebeen used to brazenly subvert thelaw by false prosecutions, arrests,intimidation and worse.It needs to be stressed that there isa constitutional duty cast on thepolice under Article 20 and 21 of theIndian Constitution to conduct fair,unbiased and independentinvestigation into the custodial deathof Sudipta Gupta so thatresponsibility can be fixed for the

tragic death of the young student.Anything less will be in violation ofthe Constitution. No political party,especially if it is also the ruling partycan be allowed to violate theConstitution with impunity. At stakeis the primacy of the Constitutionand democratic ethos.PUCL expresses concern that insuch a vitiated atmosphere and inthe light of the concerted attempt bythe State Government to derailinvestigation, fair, transparent andindependent investigation into thecustodial death of SFI leader, SudiptaGupta on 2nd April, 2013 in Kolkotamay not be possible if done by thestate police. PUCL demands that anindependent SIT be set up under thedirect monitoring of the judiciary sothat free, fair and independentinvestigation is not only done but isalso seen to be done. PUCL alsodemands the immediateunconditional release of all the SFIactivists who were arrested andremanded in Siliguri and stringentaction against all officials responsiblefor the chaining of the SantoshShahani.Prof. Prabhakar Sinha, NationalPresident, PUCL; Dr. V. Suresh,National Gen. Secretary, PUCL ❑❑❑❑❑

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PUCL Delhi statement: 13th April 2013

Supreme Court Judgment in 'Bhullar' Case too Shocking -Review Demanded

The recent judgment of the SupremeCourt rejecting the mercy petition ofDevender Singh Bhullar is tooshocking, particularly to the humanrights community, which is veryupset. The Court has remarked thathuman rights activists have failed intheir persistent attempt to persuadethe Central Govt. to abolish deathpenalty because "In recent years thecrime scenario has changed all overthe world" and that"monster of terrorism has spread itstentacles in most of the countries".The Court relied in this context onthe case of 'Kartar Singh Vs. Stateof Punjab (1994) 3 Sec 569' whichupheld validity of 'TADA'. However,unfortunately the Court failed toappreciate that in spite of Court'sapproval of TADA, the Central Govt.had to withdraw it soon after becausethis law had turned out to be unjustand counter-productive. And Bhullar

was convicted under this unjust andlawless law!The remarks of the Court that "It isparadoxical that the people who donot show any mercy or compassionfor others plead for mercy" and that"many others join the band wagonto espouse the cause of terroristsinvolved in gruesome killings andmass murder of innocent civilians andraise the bogey of human rights" arevery disturbing. Filing petition U/s 72of the Constitution by a death convictfor reprieve/mercy is a constitutionalright which is available to all andthere is nothing paradoxical in availinga constitutional right.So far as remark about the 'bogey ofhuman rights' is concerned' one ofthe reasons for the demand of thehuman rights activists for abolitionof death penalty is about possibilityof error in judicial pronouncements.The five judges bench of the Supreme

Court itself, in the matter of 'KeharSingh Vs. U.O.I: AIR 1989 SC 653'has quoted: "The administration ofjustice by the Courts is notnecessarily always wise". Thereforein such an uncertain situationinvolving the issue of life and deathof a person, the punishment of 'deathpenalty 'is considered totallyundesirable. Such generalizedremarks by the Court castingaspersions on the human rightsactivists are totally uncalled for andunwarranted. Human rightsmovement in the country hasrendered great service to the nationand it is unfortunate that SupremeCourt has passed such unpleasantremarks against it. It is hoped thatthe Court will review its judgmentgiving relief to Bhullar and expungeun-necessary remarks regardinghuman-rights activists.N.D. Pancholi, President, PUCL(Delhi) ❑❑❑❑❑

NAPM Statement on POSCO Violence:

State is Sponsoring and Promoting Violence not the PPSSPunish the Criminals, Halt Land Acquisition

New Delhi, March 3: In the continuingsaga of state violence andoppression, when nearly 6 platoonsof police were present in the area forstarting the forceful land acquisitionprocedure, bombs were hurled ataround 6:30 pm on a meeting roomof Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti,at Patna Village, Dhinkia,Jagatsinghpur, killing Manas Jena -Age 32 died on the spot. Two othersNabanu Mandal - 35 and NarahariSahoo - 52 succumbed to theirinjuries, since police didn't respondto their call for ambulances on time.Mr. Laxman Paramanik was criticallyinjured and is undergoing treatmentat the moment.This act of terror is extremelycondemnable and will not deter thespirit of resistance. It is alsounfortunate that rather than takingaction against the companysponsored goons, who have attacked

in past too, the districtadministration has been spreadingcanards that the people died whilemaking bombs. The history of PoscoPratirodh Sangram Samiti showsthat the movement has been non-violent and peaceful even when thethe state forces and goons haveattacked them with ferocity on manyoccasions latest being on February3rd.It need to be mentioned that themovement has faced severalinstances of state repression,document in a recently release factfinding report titled, "CaptiveDemocracy". The report says that"230 cases had been filed implicatingabout 1500- 2000 villagers resistingPOSCO between 2006 and 2012.Most of the complaints have left thenumber of accused open-ended,which allows the police to implicateany person in any case, despite not

being specifically named therein. Alarge number of these cases havebeen filed by government officialsduring times of peacefuldemonstrations by the members ofthe PPSS."Shri Abhaya Sahoo, the Presidentof the PPSS was arrested on twooccasions and has over 50 casesregistered against him, includingcases when he wasn't present in thevillages on the day of the allegedoffence. Manorama Kathua,President Women's Wing of thePPSS, aged about 29 years hasseveral cases filed against her andhas been unable to apply for bail dueto financial constraints and has notleft the village in 6-7 years. Theseare just few instances of arbitraryactions of the police and the impactsof the same.Hence, it is unfortunate that the stateis again trying to criminalise the

PUCL BULLETIN, MAY 2013 10

movement and forcefully acquire theland. The sacrifices made by theactivists to save their land and rightto earn a dignified living must berespected. The actions of Orissagovernment is in complete violationof democratic norms and principlesof justice. As of now theenvironmental clearance given by theMinistry of Environment and Forests(MoEF) on January 31, 2011 standssuspended by the order of NationalGreen Tribunal (NGT) dt March 30,2012. The project does not even havea memorandum of understanding

with the state government now, withone signed on July 22, 2005 havinglapsed. So what is the basis onwhich the state is acquiring land forthe project?The nation needs an answer for thiscontinued brutality and loss of life andlivelihood and constant harassmentand complete disruption of normal life.People's movements from across thecountry stand in solidarity with thestruggle of villagers of Jagatsinghpurand condemn this barbaric action ofthe state government and company-sponsored goons.

Asian Centre for Human Rights Report: 22 March 2013:

Children being Detained, Tortured and Executed in India's ConflictAfflicted Districts

New Delhi: Releasing “Nobody’schildren: Juveniles of ConflictAffected Districts of India”, the firstever report on the state of juvenilejustice in conflict afflicted districts ofIndia, Asian Centre for Human Rights(ACHR) stated that though a heateddebate has been raging at nationallevel with respect to lowering the ageof juveniles in the wake of thegruesome rape of a young womanon 16th December 2012 in Delhi, in197 districts of India officially notifiedas affected by internal armedconflicts i.e. 91 districts notified as“disturbed” under the Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act (AFSPA) and106 districts declared as Left WingExtremism (LWE) affected, theedifice of the juvenile justice does notexist. Children, irrespective of theirage, are treated as adult andsubjected to gross human rightsviolations including arbitrary arrestand detention, torture, extrajudicialexecutions and sexual assaults aspart of the counter-insurgencyoperations. Juveniles in thesedistricts are denied access tojuvenile justice unlike theircounterparts in rest of the country.The 197 districts which have beennotified as conflict affected include71 districts notified as “disturbed”under the Armed Forces SpecialPowers Act (AFSPA) in Assam,Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,Nagaland, Tripura and Jammu andKashmir; and 106 districts declaredas Left Wing Extremism (LWE)

affected in nine states of AndhraPradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradeshand West Bengal.“The report highlights 15 cases ofarbitrary detention and torture andsix cases of detention under thePublic Safety Act of Jammu andKashmir, 15 cases of extrajudicialexecutions and five cases of sexualassault such as rape by the securityforces. In a number of cases of theseblatant violations, the NationalHuman Rights Commission hasalready awarded compensation andthe orders of the NHRC establish thetruth beyond any reasonable doubt.”– stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Directorof Asian Centre for Human Rights.1. State of juvenile justice inconflict afflicted districtsIn 151 districts out of 197 conflictafflicted districts in 16 States i.e.76.64% of the total conflict afflicteddistricts do not have ObservationHomes and Special Homes implyingthat juveniles who are taken intocustody are kept in police lock upand camps of the army and para-military forces in clear violation of theJuvenile Justice (Care and Protectionof Children) Act, 2000 [JJ(C&PC)Act] and the UN Convention on theRights of the Child. Among theseStates, the worst are Jammu andKashmir which has only twoObservation Homes, and Manipurwhich has only one Observation CumSpecial Home. This denies access

to justice to many juveniles detainedfrom other districts as they need tobe produced before the respectiveJuvenile Justice Boards (JJB) orcourts in the case of Jammu andKashmir.In conflict afflicted districts, theJuvenile Justice Boards exist onpaper while their functioning remainsdeplorable. The Government ofManipur had submitted falseinformation to the Ministry of Womenand Child Development that nineJJBs had been operating in the Statewhile in reality only one JJB wasfunctioning. As the State governmentfailed to establish the JJBs, theProject Approval Board (PAB) in its35th Meeting under Integrated ChildProtection Scheme (ICPS) held on17 January 2012 had no other optionbut to decide not to sanction furthergrants for the nine JJBs for thecurrent Financial Year 2012- 2013until a report on the functioning ofJJBs with complete details ofmembers, case pendency, etc aresubmitted by the State Government.In Jharkhand, there were over 3,500cases pending before various JJBsin the state as on 11 July 2012 whilethe Observation Home for Boysestablished in the LWE affectedPalamau district was converted intoa girl’s residential school - KasturbaGandhi Balika Vidyalaya, and thejuveniles were shifted to theObservation Home, Ranchi, which isabout 165 km away. This requirestravel arrangements to be made for

Medha Patkar, Dr. Sunilam,Prafulla Samantra, ArundhatiDhuru, Sandeep Pandey,P Chennaiah, Ramakrishna Raju,Sister Celia, Suniti S R, GabrieleDietrich, Maj GenS.G.Vombatkere (Retd), AnandMazgaonkar, GautamBandopadhyay, Vimal Bhai,Mukta Srivastava, SuhasKolhekar, Rajendra Ravi,Bhupender Singh Rawat, SeelaMahapatra, Madhuresh KumarNational Alliance of People'sMovements ❑❑❑❑❑

PUCL BULLETIN, MAY 2013 11

the juveniles to come to Palamaudistrict and be produced before theJuvenile Justice Board, whichinvariably delays justice. In Assam,replies received from JJBs under theRight to Information Act showed thatnot a single review of the pendencyof cases before the JJBs has beenconducted by the Chief MetropolitanMagistrate or Chief JudicialMagistrate in Kokrajhar district;Dibrugarh district; Darrang district;Lakhimpur district; Udalguri district;Dhubri district; Goalpara district;Barpeta district; Golaghat district;Morigaon district; Chirang district;Dhemaji district and Nagaon districtfrom date of their constitution till 30thMarch 2012.2. Violations of juveniles’ rightsin conflict affected districtsChildren in the conflict affecteddistricts are subjected to arbitraryarrest and detention including underthe national security laws, torture,extrajudicial executions and sexualviolence. In many cases, theperpetrators got away by producing“No Objection Certificate” orstatements obtained under duressfrom villagers or victims stating thatthey had not committed any offence.a. Cases of arbitrary arrest,detention and tortureIn this report, Asian Centre forHuman Rights cited 15 cases ofarbitrary arrest, detention andtorture. Though crimes of arbitraryarrest, detention and torture aredifficult to establish, ACHR has beensuccessful to obtain compensationin at least three cases (two of whichare highlighted below) to establishthe patterns of violence againstchildren.Case 1: Illegal detention andtorture of Soumen Mohanty,OrissaOn 17 November 2010, SoumenMohanty (17 years), son of Mr.Sudhir Charan Mohanty of NetajiNagar was arrested in connectionwith Madhupatana police stationcase No. 218 dated 17.11.2010 underSections 506/34 of Indian Penal Codeand Sections 3 & 5 of the ExplosiveSubstances Act in Cuttack, Orissa.On 23 November 2010, ACHR filed acomplaint with the NHRC whichforwarded it to the Orissa HumanRights Commission (OHRC) for

taking necessary action. The Policesubmitted misleading report and thiswas challenged by the ACHR.Thereafter, the OHRC asked itsDirector (Investigation) to conduct anindependent inquiry and the inquiryreport dated 6.11.2012 wassubmitted.The Director (Investigation) of theOHRC found that “(i) JuvenileSoumen Mohanty was taken intodetention at Madhupatana policestation on 17.11.2010 between 7.30pm to 8.30 pm and interrogated bythe police in connection withMadhupatana Police Station case no.218 of 2010; (ii) Soumen Mohantywas “tortured physically and mentallyby ASI Satayanarayan Senapati inpresence of Inspector Jayant KumarMohapatra and Sub-Inspector, S.B.Jena, (iii) It was ASI SatyanarayanSenapati who assaulted SoumenMohanty for which he is liable to beprosecuted under sections 341/323IPC; (iv) Inspector Jayant KumarMohapatra is liable for illegaldetention of Soumen Mohanty formore than 40 hours under sections342/341/323/109 IPC; and (v) Policerecords were manipulated showingthat Soumen Mohanty was arrestedon 18.11.2010 at 8.30 pm to coverup the illegal action of InspectorJayant Kumar Mohapatra and ASISatyanarayan Senapati whichamounts to misconduct anddereliction of duty.”The Orissa Human RightsCommission also found that whenSoumen Mohanty was producedbefore the CJM-cum-Principal,Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Cuttackon 19.11.2010, the JJB observed asfollows: “Soumen Mohantycomplaints of ill-treatment by policewhile in custody. He has shown hisright hand where marks of assaultare visible.” Therefore, the OHRCaccepted the report of the DirectorInvestigation on 23rd November 2012and awarded compensation of Rs50,000 /- (Rupees fifty thousand) tothe victim. The Commission directedthe authorities to decide about theaction to be taken against the erringofficials for having assaulted SoumenMohanty and manipulated therecords.Case 2: Illegal detention andtorture of a minor, Assam

On 16 August 2009, 12-year-oldDipak Saikia (name changed) ofSanitpur village was tortured byManuj Boruah, Officer In-Charge atthe Sungajan police station inGolaghat district, Assam. On 16August 2009 at about 11 am, a groupof about six police personnel enteredthe house of the victim and draggedhim out without giving any reason.He was taken to the Sungajan policestation and on reaching the policestation, he was ordered to sit on thefloor of the verandah. Mr ManujBoruah, Officer In-Charge of thepolice station tied the minor’s handson his back with a chain and torturedhim. The victim was beaten up witha stick repeatedly on his bodyincluding in the thigh, knees, foots,sole, back, arms, elbows and ears.The Officer-In-Charge also asked theminor to keep his hand on his tableand was beaten on the nails. He wasagain hit on the head, neck and noseuntil Dipak became unconscious.Pursuant to a complaint filed with theNHRC by ACHR, the Superintendentof Police, Golaghat district, videcommunication dated 07.12.2010submitted a report to the NHRCconfirming that the accused SubInspector Manuj Baruah directed hissubordinate police officials to pick upthe victim from his home at 10.00am, caned him and detained him inthe police station. The report of theSP further stated that accusedpolice officer willfully omitted to makenecessary entries in the GeneralDiary of the police station, pertainingto the whole episode including thepicking up of the victim, his illegaldetention and subsequent release.The report further stated that aDepartmental DisciplinaryProceeding has been drawn upagainst the accused officer forcriminal misconduct and derelictionof duty. The NHRC ordered the stategovernment to provide acompensation of Rs. 50,000 to thevictim. On 20 April 2012, the NHRCclosed the case after the JointSecretary to the Government ofAssam, Political (A) Department videcommunication dated 7.4.2012informed that payment ofcompensation amounting to Rs.50,000/- was paid through cheque tothe victim.

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Special focus: Arrests under thePublic Safety Act, Jammu andKashmirChildren continue to be arrestedunder the Public Safety Act (PSA)of Jammu and Kashmir J&K whichprovides for preventive detention uptotwo years without trial in the nameof public safety. The cases ofdetention of juveniles in J&Kincluding under the Public Safety Actare given below:Case 1: On 7 February 2011, FaizanRafeeq Hakeem was arrested for hisalleged involvement in “stone-throwing.” He was 14 years, eightmonths and 11 days old at the timeof his arrest. He was booked underthe PSA and shifted to KotbalwalJail. Finally, Chief Minister OmarAbdullah ordered his release.Hakeem was released on 5 April2011.Case 2: In May 2011, MurtazaManzoor, aged 17 years, wasreleased from jail after the High Courtintervened and found hisimprisonment to be unlawful. He waslocked up for more than three monthsin administrative detention under thePSA.Case 3: On 17 June 2010, 15-year-old Sheikh Akram, son of SheikhZulfikar of Jogilanker Rainawari.Akram and a student of Class 8thwas arrested under the Public SafetyAct after allegedly attending thefuneral procession of Tufail Mattoo.After his arrest, Akram was grantedbail by the Principal District andSessions Court but in order to foilthe bail, on 3 July 2010, DistrictMagistrate of Srinagar Meraj AhmadKakroo issued orders to book himunder PSA and was sent toKotBhalwal jail.Case 4: In November 2010, HarrisRasheed Langoo (15 years), a class9th student, was arrested from hishome at Malik Sahab Hawal foralleged involvement in stone peltingand detained under the PSA. Harriswas granted bail twice by the courtbut continued to be detained. The firstbail was granted almost a week afterthe arrest but police detained him ona new charge. The second bail wasgranted on 15 November 2010 buthe was detained in a new charge.Case 5: Omar Maqbool, aged 13years, was detained on 27 October

2010 under the PSA and faced similartrauma of re-arrest like HarrisRasheed Langoo.Case 6: Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh,aged 14 years, was detained underPSA without evidence on 9 April 2010.He was granted bail after eight days,but was re-arrested on 21 April 2010.He was finally released on 10February 2011.b. Cases of extrajudicial killingsof childrenChildren are routinely picked up andextrajudicially killed including inalleged fake encounters. In thisreport, ACHR provided 15 cases ofextrajudicial execution of children. Ina number of cases, extrajudicialexecutions have been established bythe National Human RightsCommission. Two emblematic casesare given below:Case 1: Killing of Rakhal Gaur (13)by CRPF, AssamOn 8 December 2011 morning, Cobracommandoes of the Central ReservePolice Force reportedly shot dead 13-year-old Rakhal Gaur at his village,Malasi Namkhi Gaur village underDolamara police station in KarbiAnglong district of Assam. On 9December 2011, ACHR filed acomplaint with the NHRC urging itsimmediate and appropriateintervention. NHRC registered thecomplaint (Case NO.348/3/8/2011-PF) and issued notice to DirectorGeneral, CRPF, New Delhi andSuperintendent of Police, KarbiAnglong district, Assam calling forreports within four weeks. The stategovernment of Assam paid acompensation of Rs.300,000 (threelakhs) to the next of kin of thedeceased from the Chief Minister’sRelief fund and in view of this, theNHRC closed the case.Case 2: Killing of 15-year-oldJatan Reang by Assam Rifles,AssamOn the night of 14 May 2010, JatanReang (15 years) was killed in firingby the personnel of 14th AssamRifles and arbitrarily arrested fourother tribal villagers at Gudgudivillage under Katli Chara PoliceStation in Hailakandi district, Assam.The five tribal villagers including thedeceased (Jatan Reang) werereturning from Boirabi bazaar whenthey were ambushed by the 14th

Assam Rifles from North Tripura overa bridge at Gudgudi village at around10 PM on 14 May 2010. The 14thAssam Rifles personnel opened fireindiscriminately without anyprovocation and killed Jatan Reangalthough they were unarmed andinnocent. Following the killing ofJatan Reang, the Assam Riflespersonnel arrested the four otherReang tribal villagers and handedthem over to Katli Chara policestation. On 23 July 2010 ACHR fileda complaint with the NHRC urgingits immediate and appropriateintervention. The NHRC registeredthe complaint as Case No.170/3/21/2010-PF/UC and issued notice to theSecretary, Ministry of Home Affairs,Government of India. During thecourse of proceeding, the NHRCreceived the Magisterial EnquiryReport, Investigation Report of theSuperintendent of Police,Hailakandi, and the Post-MortemReport. The reports confirmed thatthe minor was fired at from pointblank range by a jawan and injuredhis right thigh. But, the minor wasnot provided medical care and hedied on account of excessivebleeding. The NHRC directed theMinistry of Home Affairs to pay acompensation of Rs. 500,000 to thenext of kin of the deceased.C. Cases of sexual violenceChildren especially the girls facesexual violence from the lawenforcement personnel in the conflictaffected areas. ACHR cites twocases below.Case 1: On 23 February 2011, a 15-year-old minor tribal girl was rapedby a personnel of Tripura State Rifles(TSR) identified as Tejendra Barui atNandakumarpara village in Khowaisubdivision in West Tripura district,Tripura. The accused was deployedin the Village Committee Election forthe Tripura Tribal Areas AutonomousDistrict Council. According to thefamily members, the accused TSRpersonnel dragged the victim to anearby jungle forcefully when shewas returning home from her relatives’house and raped her. On 25 February2011, ACHR filed a complaint withthe NCPCR which was registered asCase No. TR-19023/21623/2010-11/COMP. Pursuant to NCPCR’sintervention, the District Magistrate

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and Collector, West Tripura districtvide letter dated 13 May 2011informed the NCPCR that acompensation of Rs.40,000 wasrecommended to two victims underthe Tripura Victim CompensationFund Rules, 2007. On 21 June 2012,ACHR further intervened with theNCPCR to ensure that thecompensation is enhanced.Case 2: In April 2011, a 14-year-oldmentally challenged girl was rapedby a Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) personnel near the CRPFcamp in Warangal district, AndhraPradesh. The victim was an inmateof a Shelter Home run by an NGO.The matter came to light only whenthe victim was admitted to a localhospital and gave birth to a prematurebaby on 5 November 2011. ACHRfiled a complaint with the NHRC on14 November 2011. The NHRCdirected the Director General, CRPF,New Delhi and Superintendent ofPolice, Wrangal district to submitreports. In compliance, the DirectorGeneral, CRPF submitted a reportwhich stated that during investigationthe Caretaker of the Home revealedthat a CRPF Constable had rapedthe girl in the month of April 2011 asa result the victim might havebecome pregnant. An FIR No. 256/2011 dated 29.12.2011 was alsoregistered under Section 376 IPC atKakatya University Campus policestation, Warangal against anunidentified CRPF personnel andCaretaker of the Home. The NHRCvide its proceedings dated 13 April2012 directed the CRPF to submit afurther report regarding the status ofaction taken.3. Nobody’s childrenThe Government of India deniesexistence of armed conflicts in India.In its first periodic report (2011) on

the Optional Protocol to theConvention on the Rights of the Childon the Involvement of Children inArmed Conflict states, “Even thoughIndia does not face armed conflict,there are legislative provisions thatprevent involvement of children inarmed conflict and provide care andprotection to children affected byarmed conflict.” This statement of theGovernment of India is not true.The Ministry of Women and ChildDevelopment launched IntegratedChild Protection Scheme (ICPS) from2009-10 aimed at building aprotective environment for children indifficult circumstances. The Jammuand Kashmir government hasastoundingly refused to avail theICPS while the remaining States havenot submitted any proposal toaugment the juvenile justice systemin the conflict affected districts.Under the ICPS, the Ministry ofWomen and Child Developmentsupports activities proposed by theState Governments which invariablyignore the conflict affected districts.The National Commission forProtection of Child Rights, amongothers, at the request of the AsianCentre for Human Rights started aprocess for drafting “StandardOperating Procedure (SOP) fordealing with arrest, detention &death in custody and in encounter ofchildren in Internal SecuritySituations” in June 2012 and aconsultation was held on 29 July2012. The NCPCR is yet to finalisethe same and a mere statement ofthe legal procedures is unlikely tohelp.The UNICEF’s Child ProtectionProgramme in India focuses mainlyon three areas of intervention: childlabour, child trafficking, and childrenin difficult circumstances. Its website

fails to provide any information as tothe work undertaken in the conflictaffected districts.“It is clear that juveniles in conflictaffected districts do not seem to beanybody’s priority and they are beingdenied the equal access to juvenilejustice as being provided to theircounterparts in the rest of thecountry.” – further stated MrChakma.4. RecommendationsIn its report, Asian Centre for HumanRights recommended to the Ministryof Women and Child Development,Government of India and the StateGovernments must undertakeinitiative and allocate financialresources to establish all theinstitutions as provided under theJuveniles Justice (Care andProtection of Children) Act in all the197 conflict affected districts; to theNational Commission for Protectionof Child Rights to develop “StandardOperating Procedures” which shallspecify the responsibility to theDistrict Magistrate and the StatePolice, Central para-military officersand the army to submit the monthlyreport with respect toimplementation of the JuvenilesJustice (Care and Protection ofChildren) Act in case of arrest,detention, torture, rape, extrajudicialexecutions, etc; to the UNICEF toinclude children from these 197districts in its programme on childrenin difficult circumstances; to theState Government of Jammu andKashmir to issue an order prohibitingarrest of children under Public SafetyAct; and to sign the Memorandumof Understanding with the Ministryof Women and Child Development forimplementation of the IntegratedChild Protection Scheme. ❑❑❑❑❑

NAPM Press Release on Police Complicity in murder of an anti-corruption crusader: 24.03.2013

Fact finding Team Raises Issue of Police Complicity in the Murder ofCrusader against Corruption in Muzaffarpur

A six member fact finding team ofthe NAPM (National Alliance ofPeople's Movements) today visitedRatnauli village of Muzaffarpur districtin Bihar, where Ram Kumar Thakur,a lawyer and RTI activist was shotdead yesterday evening, 23rd March.

Ram Kumar was returning by cyclefrom the courts with his nephew earlyyesterday evening. On reachingPurshottampur village, Jamaruapanchayat, at around 4:30 pm theywere surrounded by six men whocame on two motorcycles. The men

who have been identified by thenephew are Raj Kumar Sahni,Brahmanand Sahni, ParmanandSahni, Rajesh Kumar Sahni, MaheshSahni, Sukhdev Sahni. According tonephew, Sujit Kumar, It was RajeshKumar Sahni, the son of the Mukhiya

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who gave instructions to surroundthem and shoot. Ram Kumar wasbeing rushed to the nearby hospitalin a tempo when they were met bythe police who transferred ram kumarto a bolero with a missing numberplate and told the accompanyingpeople to reach Prashant Hospital,but instead of taking Ram Kumar toPrashant Hospital the police took himto Ma Janaki hospital. Thoseaccompanying Ram Kumar havesaid that the police caused a delayof two hours as a result of whichRam Kumar was brought dead to thehospital. An FIR stating the abovehas been filed in Manihari thaana thisafternoon.Ram Kumar Thakur had been activelyraising the issue of corruption in hisvillage, Ratnauli, for the last fewyears. He had filed a number of RTIapplications on the implementationof the MNREGA and IAY. In a socialaudit conducted by the Departmentof Rural Development in September2011, Ram Kumar Thakur, amongothers had raised objections to theinclusion of 'ghost' names in themuster roll that were read out duringthe public hearing. This resulted inan uproar where the Mukhiya and hissupporters vociferously opposedthese claims as false. The socialaudit could not be completedbecause of the disruption which thenerupted into a fight where those whohad objected to the fudged musterroll were beaten. Ram Kumar Thakurwas also beaten by the Mukhiya'smen during this incident. After thisincident an FIR was filed against theperpetrators by the districtadministration, however action is yet

to be taken.Most recently Ram Kumar had fileda case with the State VigilanceCommission on the installation ofsolar lights under the MahatmaGandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Programme. The casewhich was filed along withSundeshwar Sahni of Lok JagranManch, an NGO based inMuzaffarpur raised questions on theallocation of money under the projectand alleged mis-management offunds by the Mukhiya, Raj KumarSahni. The issues raised by themwere even investigated by the Sub-Divisional Officer. The findings of thisinvestigation are not yet available.Following this, in the month ofDecember, Ram Kumar Thakur andhis family had received death threatsfrom the Mukhiya's son, RajeshSahni. A letter asking for protectionwas even sent to the DIG of policeby Ram Kumar Thakur asking forprotection.Over three months since Ram Kumarreceived threats at his home, overthree months since the letter askingfor protection was sent to the police,and well over a year since the fightthat broke out during the social auditin which he was beaten, Ram Kumarwas killed by the perpetrators ofprevious incidents of violence whowere well known to the police anddistrict administration. Had the policeand administration taken notice ofRam Kumar's appeal for protection,Ram Kumar Thakur would still bealive. Ram Kumar is succeeded byhis wife, two daughters and a son.Based on the facts that have come

to light the NAPM demands that:1. Those named in the FIR be

arrested immediately2. Speedy trial is undertaken.3. Immediate compensation of Rs.

20 lakhs be given to the victim'sfamily

4. Police complicity is investigated.5. A complete investigation into the

corruption issues raised by RamKumar in Ratnauli Panchayatshould be done by the RuralDevelopment Department,Government of Bihar.

6. This is the fifth case of murderof a RTI activist/ whistleblowerin Bihar, making a serious noteof this the Government shouldwork towards a comprehensivelaw for the protection of suchpersons.

Ram Kumar was also an associateof the Bihar MNREGA Watch, whichhas been spear heading anunprecedented mobilization ofworkers in Ratnauli panchayat, andhas in the past years spread to otherblocks of Muzaffarpur. Sanjay Sahniand others of Bihar MNREGA Watchhave been actively raising their voicesfor securing entitlements underMNREGA and the national and statepension schemes for close to twoyears through public meetings,demonstrations and application filing.Members of the NAPM fact findingteam included Shahid Kamal(NAPM), Ashish Ranjan (NAPM),Mahendra Yadav (NAPM), RanjitPaswan (JJSS), Sanjay Sahni(Bihar MNREGA Watch) and ArvindKumar (JJSS). ❑❑❑❑❑

Appeal from Jail: Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, Manesar, Haryana:

Stand in Solidarity with us for Justice(Reg. No. 1923, IMT Manesar)

We are workers of Maruti Suzuki, whoare behind bars since 18.07.2012 aspart of a conspiracy, and without anyjust investigation. 147 of us are insideGurgaon Central Jail.Since July 2500 permanent andcontract workers have been terminatedfrom our jobs. In these past more than8 months, we have sent our appeal toalmost all administrative officials and

elected representatives, includingChief Minister Haryana and the PrimeMinister of India. But neither have ourappeals been heard nor have we beengranted bail. The Chargesheet filed bythe Haryana police in the Court has nonames of any witnesses, and henceis incomplete. This is only a glimpseof the continuous attack on ourdemocratic rights on arbitrary grounds,

and we see how law is bent towardssiding with company owners. Many ofour fellow workers are without parentsor guardians, and have beenshouldering the entire burden of thehousehold. Many workers’ wives werepregnant when we were put behindbars. And even when the time of theirdelivery came, the workers were notgranted bail, or even parole custody.

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We do not know under whatcircumstances their deliveries tookplace. We give a few instances:1. One of our fellow workers, Sumit s/oLate Shri Chattar Singh, has no one inthe family except his wife. Even then,when she gave delivery on 6.12.2012in a hospital in Gurgaon, the bail pleaor parole custody plea of Sumit wasrejected.2. One of our fellow workers, Vijendras/o Dalel Singh was the lone earningmember in his family. His mother stayssick at most times and was not able toaccompany or help her daughter-in-law when she gave her delivery on10.01.2013 in a hospital in Jhajjhar.Even then, Vijendra was neithergranted bail nor let off on parole.3. In the case of one of our fellowworkers, Ramvilas s/o Late Shri SilakRam, his grandmother, who fell sickafter Ramvilas was put behind the barsas he was too affectionate to her,passed away on 26.02.2013. Ramvilaswas not even let off on parole to meethis grandmother on her death-bed orto attend the funeral. After few dayswhen it was the time of his wife’sdelivery, his request for bail or parolecustody was turned down. It caused amental shock to him.4. One of our fellow workers, Prempal,s/o Shri Chhiddilal, had theresponsibility to look after his familyalone, as his family’s livelihooddepended entirely depended on hisearnings. When he was thrown into jailarbitrarily, his two years old daughtermourning her father’s absence, fell sickand breathed her last. This wound wasyet to heal, when Prempal’s motheraggrieved by the imprisonment of herson and the death of hergranddaughter fell sick and passedaway. But even after this, Prempal’smeager one-week parole leavepermission was rejected and he wasallowed only a one-hour parole visit onthe next day of his grandmother’sfuneral. His wife, now alone in thehouse and mourning the death of herdaughter and Prempal’s mother, fellsick and had to be hospitalized. She isstill unwell and there is no one to lookafter her. It has caused terrible mentalagony for Prempal.5. One of our fellow workers, Rahul, s/o Shri Vinod Ratan, was the only sonof his parents, along with a sister. Hissister got married on 16.11.2012. Buthe was not even granted parole custodyto attend the ceremony for kanyadan.

The marriage of the sole daughter tookplace in an environment of sadness,and Rahul is yet to recover from thiswound.6. One of our fellow workers, Subhash,s/o Shri Lal Chand, was very close tohis grandmother. After hisimprisonment, his grandmotheralmost stopped taking food and all thetime used to think of his grandson, andpassed away in grief some days later.But Subhash was not allowed even toattend her funeral on parole custody.These and many other incidents thatgo on daily in our lives are enough tofill up the pages of an entire book.About ourselves: our identity, familyand work We all are children ofworkers and peasants. Our parents,with huge effort and sacrifice, ensuredour 10th standard, 12th standard or ITIeducation, helped us stand on our feetto do something worthy in our life andhelp our family in need. We all joinedMaruti Suzuki company after passingthe written and viva-voce testsconducted by the company and on theterms and conditions set by thecompany. Before our joining, thecompany carried out all kinds ofinvestigations, like police verificationof our residential proof or whether wehad criminal records! Neither of us hadany previous criminal record. When wejoined the company, the Manesar plantof the company was underconstruction. At that stage weforeseeing our future with the progressof the plant invested huge energy anddiligence to lift the Manesar plant ofthe company to a new height. Whenthe entire world was struggling underthe economic crisis, we worked extratwo hours daily to materialize aproduction of 10.5 lakh cars in a year.We were the sole creators of theincreasing profit of the company, andtoday we are implicated as criminalsand murderers, and those whoengage in ‘mindless arson’! Almost allof us are from poor worker or peasantfamilies which has been dependenton our job. We were struggling to weavedreams for our and our family’s future,such as of our own homes, of the bettereducation for our brothers-sisters andchildren so that they could have a brightfuture and ensure a comfortable lifefor their parents who took the pain tobring after them.But in return, we were being exploitedinside the company in all possibleways, such as:

1. At work, if any worker was unwell, hewas not allowed to go to the dispensaryand was forced to continue with thework in that condition.2. We were not allowed to go to thetoilet, the permission was there onlyat tea or lunch time.3. Management used to behave withthe workers very rudely with abusivelanguage, and used to even slap ormake them murga in order to punishthem.4. If a worker was forced to take 3-4days leave because of his ill health orsome accident or other seriousproblem in his family or because ofthe death of a relative, then half of hissalary which amounted to almost Rs.9000 used to be deducted by thecompany.Because of this continuousexploitation, the workers felt the needof forming a Union. Maruti Suzukicompany was against the idea of aunion, and because of that, threestrikes of the workers took place in2011. After the third strike, thirty fellowworkers of ours were forced to resignas they had participated in the strikes.But at last in February 2012 we weresuccessful in registering our Union, inwhich the then HR Manager, Late ShriAwanish Kumar Dev, helped us. Thecompany was angry with Mr. Devbecause of his helpful attitude towardsus and as a result, Mr. Dev resignedfrom the company. But the companydid not accept the resignation of himas they were afraid that their misdeedscould get exposed. To crush the unionand to remove Mr. Dev from its way, thecompany with a previously chalked outplan called the bouncers andhooligans in the factory premises on18th July 2012 and materialized the‘accident’.The present situation of the workersinside the JailWe, 147 workers in total, were thrownbehind the bars without any justenquiry, and we are now here for morethan 8 months. We are under severepsychological stress inside the jail.Many of us are suffering from diseaseslike tuberculosis, piles, mentalimbalance and several otherdiseases. Almost all of us wereearning members in our family and weare in jail now. Due to this our familiesare approaching the situation of dyingof hunger. The education of the femalemembers of the family and the childrenhave stopped, which are otherwise

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their fundamental rights. The future ofours and our families has plunged intodarkness. All the members of ourfamilies are mentally too disturbed. Weare afraid lest they not take any wrongstep because of the mental pressure.The present situation of theterminated workers outside the jailApart from putting 147 workers behindthe bars, the company terminated theservice of almost 2500 regular andcontract workers without any domesticenquiry and these workers areunemployed now. The condition of theirfamilies is also very serious. Thesituation is that they don’t have anyproof of work experience, their careeris doomed and whoever of themcomes forward in our support, he isarrested and jailed immediately (thearrest of Imaan Khan, who was amember of Provisional Working

Committee of MSWU and whose namewas not there in the FIR, Charge-sheetor SIT report; also the names of 65workers are under non-bailable arrestwarrants). None of the jailed workersor the terminated workers outside haveany occupation to sustain the livelihoodof people dependent on them and it isputting everyone under mentalpressure. Still, against all these odds,the struggle for justice of our fellowworkers outside is giving us hope andenergy behind the bars. In this strugglethat has gone outside the factory insociety now for more than 8 months,news of the solidarity that we havereceived from various parts of thecountry from workers, toilers andcommon people has continued to giveus hope and enthused our spirits.There is no door of any electedrepresentative that we have notknocked in the space of these 8

Governors in the dockThey turn a blind eye to laws overriding tribal rights, complains National Commission

JitendraIssue Date: Apr 15, 2013GOVERNORS of states withsizeable tribal population have comein for indictment over not performingtheir special administrative roles. Toensure partial autonomy in tribalareas, the Constitution entrustsgovernors with immense powers tosupervise the administration andgovernance in such areas. They canallow or disallow any law ordevelopment programme in tribalareas to protect self-governance anddevelopment needs. They can alsomake regulations for harmony andeffective governance. But governorsare hardly doing so, finds the NationalCommission for Scheduled Tribes.In a confidential report sent to thePresident, the Commission hasrecommended that governors bemade more accountable indispensing their special duties intribal areas notified under ScheduleFive of the Constitution, whichprotects tribal interests. This comesat a time when the government isallocating large development fundsfor these areas, many of which arereeling from Maoist insurgency.“There is a need to evolve amechanism for the governor … inscheduled areas to monitor and

ensure implementation (ofconstitutional provisions) in letter andspirit. So that governors may playan oversight role in the matter,”states the report sent in June lastyear and seen by Down To Earth.The Commission, a constitutionalbody, sends an annual report to thePresident on the state of affairs intribal areas notified under ScheduleFive.According to sources, the President,who also enjoys special powers inSchedule Five areas, has sent thereport to the tribal affairs ministry. Itshould have been placed inParliament after a review by theministry. But the ministry, due toreasons known to it best, did not doso. “We did not table it in Parliamentdue to complex procedures andnonavailability of a Hindi version ofthe report,” A K Dubey, joint secretaryof the ministry, says. He does notelaborate“complex procedures”.Since its inception in 2004, theCommission has sent five annualreports to the President. Except forthe first one, no report has yet beentabled in Parliament.Review all lawsThe latest report indicates constantfailure of governors in overseeing

developments in Schedule Fiveareas.The most important responsibility ofthe governor is to ensure that thespecial panchayati raj law for tribalareas, known as PESA—Panchayat(Extension to the Scheduled Areas)Act—is implemented effectively andany law that contradicts it is putaside. Through a notification, agovernor can annul, restrict or modifystate and Centre’s regulationswithout seeking the opinion of theCouncil of Ministers headed by thechief minister.Governors’ reports rarely mentionpoor governance, insurgency ordisplacementHowever, according to B D Sharma,the last commissioner for ScheduledCastes and Scheduled Tribes, “Allthe laws are automatically applicableuntil the governor does not want toimplement or amend as per the needof the Fifth Schedule areas.” Asgovernors fail to perform this duty,general laws have automaticallybeen applicable to tribal areas, oftenleading to conflicts.The confidential report hasrecommended a review of all laws fortheir adaptation in Scheduled Areas.Every year the governor is supposed

months. We’ve taken our appeal forjustice from the State Industriesminister to the Chief Minister, but thegovernment is bent backwards in tryingto take side with the companymanagement and owners rather thanlisten to us workers. We appeal to thegovernment for the last time, thatbefore we are forced into a situation ofcommitting suicide or killing others, weare given justice which is due to us.We hope to have your solidarity andyour opinion.Maruti Suzuki Workers Union(The entire Union body of MSWU isbehind the bars of Gurgaon CentralJail, where a total of 147 workerscontinue to languish without anyjustice, or even bail. This letter ofappeal has been sent from there.)Contact:marutiworkerstruggle@gmail.com ❑❑❑❑❑

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to send a TACs conducted meetingstill December 2012. Senior journalistB G Verghese, who has writtenextensively on the issue, sayssarcastically that it is mutelyaccepted by the Government of Indiathat the governor in the FifthSchedule, meant to be a “governor-in-council”, is acting on the aid andadvice of his council.The confidential report hasrecommended a review of all laws fortheir adaptation in Scheduled Areas.Every year the governor is supposedto send a report to the President onthe state of affairs and his/herinterventions.The commission has suggested thatthe ministry of tribal affairs shouldissue a uniform format for preparationand submission of governor’s report.The format should have a provisionfor review of Union and state lawsand their compatibility with theconstitutional provisionssafeguarding tribal interests. Itshould also have a specification forlisting steps taken to protect theconstitutional rights of tribals.In reviewing laws, governors canconsult the Tribes Advisory Councils(TACs) constituted by the states withtribal areas. In the current financialyear, four states out of the 11 thathave TACs conducted meetings tillDecember 2012. Senior journalist BG Verghese, who has writtenextensively on the issue, sayssarcastically that it is mutely

accepted by the Government of Indiathat the governor in the FifthSchedule, meant to be a “governor-in-council”, is acting on the aid andadvice of his council.The confidential report hasrecommended making TACs moreaccountable. The advisory councilsshould be reconstituted regularly andmeet at least twice a year, says thereport.Out of focusGovernors’ role in Schedule Fiveareas has been under scrutiny eversince the enactment of PESA. Itgained urgency in the recent pastwith large-scale industrialisationtriggering conflicts in several tribalareas.Governors are not only irregular insending annual reports to thePresident (see map), but also evasiveon the subjects these reports aremeant to address. R R Prasad,director of the National Institute ofRural Development, has analysedsuch reports. According to him, noneof these reports talks about burningissues like displacement, poorgovernance and insurgency.“The reports are hardly objectiveassessments as required by the law.Largely, they read like a laundry listof physical targets and financialallocations under various schemesas reported by the stategovernment’s department,” saysPrasad. “It is time a more stringentsystem is put in place so that the

annual report truly reflects thecondition of tribes in these areas.”There is no proper record of theannual reports submitted to thePresident. Non-profit CommonwealthHuman Rights Initiative soughtrecords on governors’ reportsbetween 1990 and 2008 through theright-to-information route. But thetribal affairs ministry furnished reportsdating from only 2001, citing thereason that the ministry was createdin October 1999.This is not the first time government’sown wing underscored governors’negligence in tribal areas. In 2008and 2011, during governors’ meetingsin Delhi, the then president requestedthem to look into their roles in tribalareas more seriously. In April 2012,the Central government for the firsttime issued a directive to a governorin respect to his constitutional dutyin Scheduled Areas. V KishoreChandra Deo, Union Minister forTribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj,asked the governor of AndhraPradesh to cancel the memorandumof understanding signed for bauxitemining in the state’s Scheduledareas. The governor, however,ignored the directive.The Commission’s report hasofficially raised an issue that hasbeen simmering for some time now.Sent by: Arun Khote , NationalMovement For Land, Labor & Justice-NMLLJ ❑❑❑❑❑

Coimbatore Press Release: 08.04.2013

Threat to Tigers, Forests and Forest Dwellers Including TribalsThe Tamilnadu Government notified1408.405 sq kms (793.493 sq kmsCore Area or Critical Tiger Habitatand 614.912 sq kms Buffer Area) ofSathyamangalam Forest Division asthe fourth Tiger Reserve of the Stateon 15 March 2013. Earlier on 13August 2012 the government notified1,595.412 sq. kms as the Buffer Areaof the three existing Tiger Reserves- Mudumalai, Kalakad-Mundanthuraiand Anamalai, more than doublingthe area under Tiger Reserves to3,769.412 sq kms. Now the totalarea taken over in the name of tigerin Tamilnadu has further increasedto 5177.817 sq kms. All these Tiger

Reserves are notified under Sec.38V of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972as amended in 2006. Thesenotifications are fast converting theseregions into conflict areas betweenlocal inhabitants and the forestdepartment. There are also reportsof yet another Tiger Reserve inMeghamalai and expansion ofexisting Tiger Reserves.These notifications have come in forstrong condemnations from localpeople and organizations, politicalparties, human rights andenvironmental organizations etc.There have been sustained massprotests. These conflicts are over the

illegalities and blatant violations ofWildlife Protection Act 1972 asamended in 2006 and the ScheduledTribes and Other Traditional ForestDwellers (Recognition of ForestRights) Act 2006 by the government,and particularly the ForestDepartment.A. The violations under the WildlifeProtection Act are that:a. No scientific and objectivecriteria have been developed todetermine the extent of Tiger Reserveresulting in arbitrary demarcation ofTiger Reserves.b. 'The process of recognition anddetermination of rights' now under the

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Scheduled Tribes and OtherTraditional Forest Dwellers(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act2006 has not been initiated andcompleted [Sec.38V(5)(i)] in any ofthese areas notified as TigerReserves.c. The local inhabitants were notconsulted and their 'consent' was notobtained [Sec.38V(5)(ii) and (iii)]d. No consultation were held with 'anecological and social scientistfamiliar with the area' [Sec.38V(5)(ii)and (iii)] to determine the area wherethere are no options for co-existenceto be designated as Critical TigerHabitat (CTH) and where co-existence is possible as buffer area;d. No resettlement programmeproviding 'livelihood for the affectedindividuals and communities'[Sec.38V(5)(iv)] was prepared.Instead the government continues toannounce the outdated and legallyinvalid 'Centrally Sponsored Scheme'where the central government wouldprovide Rs.1 lakh now increased toRs.10 lakh with the rest to beprovided by the State government,either as a cash package or aresettlement package. The TigerReserves constituted under theWildlife Protection Act provides for'livelihood' (not cash compensation)and under the Forest Rights Act 2006'secure livelihood'.e. No resolution from the GramSabhas concerned that recongisitonand vesting of rights in the effectedarea is complete has been obtainedas required under [para 2(a) and 4(vi)of the "Guidelines to notify criticalwildlife habitats" issued by theMinistry of Environment and Forestson 30.10.2007]. No rights have beenrecognised till date nor suchresolution obtained. Therefore, 'theprocess of 'acquisition of land orforest rights' 'is complete'

[Sec.38V(5)(i)].h. The details of the TigerConservation Plan for the TigerReserves approved by TigerConservation Foundation/stategovernment and/or the National TigerConservation Authority were notprovided to the concerned GramSabhas;B. Further, the Tiger Reservenotifications also violates theprovisions of the Scheduled Tribesand Other Traditional Forest Dwellers(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act2006. These are:a. The recognition of rights underthe Act in the area intending to bedeclared as CWH are not only notcompleted [Sec.4(2(a)] but havebeen kept on hold even though theChennai High Court had ordered theimplementation of the Forest RightsAct with the issue of titles afterobtaining the approval from the Court(in M.P No.1 of 2008 in W.P No.4533of 2008]. This has also been furtherclarified to the Tamilnadu governmentby the Ministry of Tribal Affairs,Government of India vide its letter of4 March 2013.b. The government has notestablished that the continuedpresence of the inhabitants willthreaten the wild life [Sec.4(2(b)].Therefore government has notified theTiger Reserves without concludingthat there are no other optionsavailable such as co-existenceexcept to relocate and resettle them[Sec.4(2(c)],d. No resettlement packageproviding 'a secure livelihood' (notmere livelihood nor cashcompensation) to both individuals andcommunities were communicated tothe affected people [Sec.4(2(d)];e. The concerned Gram Sabhas didnot give their free informed consentin writing to the resettlementpackage [Sec.4 (2(e)];

All the legally mandated provisionsunder both the Wildlife Protection Actand the Forest Rights Act have beenviolated in all the 4 Tiger Reservenotifications. Notably the widespreadsustained democratic mass protestsin all these Tiger Reserves areagainst the violations of these lawsby the government while the localpeople are demanding that thegovernment and officials upholdthese laws that seeks to protect thetigers, forests and forest dwellers.Therefore, PUCL condemns theblatant violations of the relevant lawsby the government and the supportgiven to these violations by a fewelitist so-called wildlife andenvironment NGOs. PUCL supportsthe democratic and legitimateprotests of the local inhabitants inall these 4 Tiger Reserves anddemands:Immediate withdrawal of the illegalnotifications of all the 4 TigerReservesCompletion of the implementation ofForest Rights Act 2006 in the Statestrictly as per the provisions of thelaw, and particularly in the areaswhich are now designated as TigerReservesTiger Reserves be reconstitutedstrictly as per the relevant provisionsof Sec.38 V of Wildlife Protection Actand Sec.4(2) of the Forest Rights Act2006PUCL also cautions the media to becautious about the false propagandato cover up these widespreadviolations under the guise ofprotecting the threatened Tigers. Theviolations of these relevant laws bythe government, particularly by theforest department, constitute thebiggest threat to tigers, forests andforest dwellers including tribals.S. Balamurugan, General Secretary,PUCL Tamilnadu & Pondicherry ❑❑❑❑❑

Press Release: Bangalore: 08 April 2013

World Bank's sham 'Consultation' to Review Its Environmental andSocial Safeguards Shut Down in Bangalore

About 25 activist representatives,researchers, environmentalspecialists, policy analysts, lawyersand health professionals from a widerange of social and environmental

action groups, peoples networks andmovements of Karnataka, forced theclosure of The World Bank’s‘consultation’ on the review of itsenvironmental and social safeguards

in Bangalore today (08/04/2013). The‘consultation’ was slammed as a‘complete sham’ which ‘must bedenounced by anyone genuinelyconcerned about the nature of

PUCL BULLETIN, MAY 2013 19

democracy and broad based publicinterest, and committed to the principleof Free, Prior and Informed Consent(FPIC), climate justice, sustainabledevelopment through democraticdecision making and the Principle ofIntergenerational Equity’. Moreover itwas made into an occasion todenounce the various projects thathave destroyed the environment andvarious communities, and to demandthe World Bank to quit India.Stephen F. Lintner, Senior Advisor,Operational Policy and Client Servicesof The World Bank had flown in fromWashington DC (USA) to hold the‘consultation’ at Hotel Atria inBangalore, along with Preeti Kudesia,Senior Operations Officer of the Bank.The meeting was supposed to havebeen facilitated by Anubrotto Kumar(Dunu) Roy, Honorary Director ofHazards Centre, New Delhi.Of those invited by the Bank, about 5represented various civil society andresearch organisations, and a dozenor so officials represented variousagencies of the Karnataka and AndhraPradesh governments. Theconsultation was held barely a stone’sthrow from the Karnataka LegislativeAssembly, and yet, shockingly, not oneParliamentarian, Legislator, MunicipalCouncillor or Panchayat member fromanywhere had been invited. This amplydemonstrated what a mockery ofdemocracy the exercise was.The invited gathering of about 20 odd‘representatives’ of ‘civil societyorganisations’ and Governments ofvarious Central and Southern Statesof India were probably invited by theBank to accord a certain legitimacy tothe review exercise. Were it not for theintervention of progressive social andenvironmental action activists, thischarade of ‘consulting’ the ‘public’would probably have been passed ofas a successful process, and theexercise possibly used to legitimisethe weak safeguards of the Bank.Clifton D’ Rozario of the Alternative LawForum read out a detailed statement(attached) which strongly critiqued theWorld Bank’s ‘consultation’ processand also its investment policies. Heattacked the Bank’s double-speak onclaiming belief in democratic decisionmaking, when, in fact, all it does is talkto an elite section of society and claimsuch opinion gathering held in classy

hotels as peoples’ sanction to theBank’s investment policies. He alsoreminded the World Bank of itsresponsibility in regard to thedevastation heaped on the lakhs ofadivasis and farmers in the NarmadaValley due to Sardar Sarovar dam,which it fails to own up to even today.He also decried the so-called‘knowledge production’ by the WorldBank as methods to monetise andcommodify all resources and evenrelationships.Leo Saldanha of Environment SupportGroup criticised the flawed process ofthe Bank’s consultation mechanismsand said it amounted to ritualising theFPIC Principle. He demanded that theBank cancel the charade beingpassed of as a ‘consultation’ as it wasagainst the jurisprudence that hadevolved in India which required deepapplication of FPIC Principle indecision-making. The current processseriously compromised people’s rightto know and participate in decisionsthat affect them and exposed theBank’s vacuous claim of being a‘change maker’ in developingprogressive environmental and socialsafeguards.Kshitij Urs of Action Aid slammed theBank for being satisfied by this charadeof a ‘consultation’ held amongstselected ‘stakeholders’ that especiallyexcluded elected representatives. Hesaid the Bank had over the decadessucceeded in creating a perception ofbeing progressive, when in fact it hadstructurally damaged nationaleconomies and devastatedcommunities everywhere it lent. TheBank’s interests were too stronglyaligned with imperialist designs of theUS and other Northern economies andthis was seriously compromisingIndia’s sovereign power to decide itsdevelopmental process. QuotingObama, he said, ‘Enough is Enough’,and asked the World Bank to pleaseleave.Speaking on behalf of the JanaarogyaAndolana Karnataka (JAAK) AkhilaVasan said the World Bank’s policieshave fragmented and progressivelyweakened the public health systemthrough introduction of various formsof contractual arrangements. Under theinfluence of the Bank’s ‘universality’policies, Karnataka is aggressivelypushing numerous insurance

schemes and ‘managed care’ modelsthat are leaving people to the mercy ofthe exploitative, predatory private healthsector, and resulting in furtherimpoverishment and destitution. ‘Userfee’, introduced by the Bank’sinvestment policies, is blatantly anti-poor, and an unscientific policy that hasits roots in the larger structuraladjustment process initiated by theWorld Bank. She accused the Bank ofarm-twisting governments intopursuing several privatization models,including Public Private Partnerships,which enabled Corporate/for profitagencies to enter the ‘health care’market in various ways with disastrousconsequences on livelihoods andsurvival of several communities.Madhu Bhushan of Vimochana in animpassioned intervention said theWorld Bank’s policies and lendingpatterns have deeply affected the livesof women in India and particularly thepoor women. As a Bank it can onlyperceive every relationship as aneconomic transaction – women arecommodified and reduced to beingconsumers and led towards greaterindebtedness. New vulnerabilitieshave resulted as a consequence, shesaid, which not only increased violencein private and public spaces but alsogreater social and economic violence.The classic example of this is themicrofinance project of the Bank –supposedly initiated as a means toincrease self-reliance and reduce thedependence on exploitative localmoney lenders amongst rural andpoor women. The number ofdocumented cases of suicides ofwomen who are unable to repay hasdramatically increased wherever theBank promoted ‘self-help group’ loans,and caused divisiveness within ruralcommunities, Bhushan said. “If this isnot an agenda of Genocide, what is?”she enquired. Reacting strongly toLintner’s intervention that these factswould be taken on record, she askedhim to stop patronising by offering totake concerns on record, thus reducingpeople to mere footnotes in a Bankdocument.Vinay Sreenivasa of Alternative LawForum perturbed by the Bank holdingthe consultation in Bangalore when noeffort whatsoever was made tocommunicate in local languagesdemanded the ‘consultation’ must

PUCL BULLETIN, MAY 2013 20

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PEOPLE'S UNION FORCIVIL LIBERTIES

Founder : Jaya Prakash NarayanPresident : Prabhakar SinhaGeneral Secretary : V. SureshTreasurer : Ritu Priya (Ms)Vice Presidents : Binayak Sen;P.B.D’Sa, Ravi Kiran Jain;Sanjay ParikhSecretaries: Chittaranjan Singh;Kavita Srivastava, Mahi Pal Singh.

PUCL BULLETINChief Editor : V. SureshEditor : Mahi Pal SinghEditorial Board : Rajni Kothari,Rajindar Sachar, R.M. PalChief Editor, Editor.Assistance : Babita Garg

Printed and Published by:Pushkar Raj, General Secretary, PUCL,270-A, Patparganj, Opp. AnandlokApartments, Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi-110091for People's Union for Civil LibertiesPrinted at: Dixit Printers, 108, BasementPatparganj Indl. Area, Delhi-110092

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immediately be abandoned and theprocess revisited only after all thepolicies were translated to locallanguages and effectivelydisseminated publicly. He pointed outnot one of the Bank’s officials knewany of the languages spoken in theregion, and yet the institution had thegaul to hold a ‘consultation’ in SouthIndia claiming it was an opportunity forlocal people to engage with proposedrevisions of the critical environmentaland social safeguards.Rajendra Prabhakar of the CampaignAgainst Water Privatisation attackedthe Bank as an agent of neo-liberalcolonisation. The so-calleddevelopment programmes of the Bankwere undermining democracy as itcreated debt traps, that attacked thevery idea of sovereignty, citizenship andgenuine progress of people, he said.Bhoga Nanjunda of CIEDS Collectivejoined issue and said the Bank wasnot in India to promote genuinepeople’s development, but to pursueits business of lending. He assertedthat India is a not a market forpromoting the World Bank’s business.Bhargavi Rao of Environment SupportGroup presented a nuanced analysisof the careless disregard the WorldBank cultivated for its ownenvironmental and social standards.She attacked the International FinanceCorporation, the private sector lendingarm of the World Bank, of massivelyfinancing the expansion of the WestCoast Paper Mills in Dandeli (NorthKarnataka) even after it had beenofficially informed that the company hadfor decades violated all environmentalnorms and discharged its waste intothe Kali river devastating its ecologyand the lives of downstreamcommunities. Bolstered by the Bank’slending and promotion of ‘industrialfarming’ practices, the company wasnow colonising local forests with pulp-wood plantations on the dubious claimthey were degraded.Similarly, Nitin Rai of the Ashoka Trustfor Research in Ecology andEnvironment (ATREE) presented hisexperience of the World Bank’s GlobalEnvironmental Facility funded Eco-Development Project implemented by

the Indian Ministry of Environment andForests, which he said was donewithout any adherence to the Bank’ssocial and environmental safeguards.He expressed his deep shock anddismay that the World Bank had chosento hold a ‘consultation’ in such anintransparent manner.Arati Choksi of People’s Union of CivilLiberties attacked the World Bank’s‘pro-poor’ policies as reeking of a planto make profit out of the povertyalleviation programmes. What isparticularly worrisome, she said, is theinsidious and coercive manner ofWorld Bank in implementing the tenpoint agenda of the WashingtonConsensus, of not just fiscal profit, butplacing its own partner stake holdersfirmly in control of all public sectorenterprise and resources - water,energy, transport, health, and education– for continual and perpetual financialextraction.Despite repeatedly being urged tospeak, not one of the officialsrepresenting various Governmentagencies chose to spoke. Mr. S. M.Jamdar, a senior bureaucrat of theKarnataka Government who recentlyretired, also did not speak. He,however, spoke to media personswhere he is reported to have said thathe shared all the concerns being aired,and said it is critical that thesemessages reached senior politiciansand bureaucrats of the Governmentwho were complicit in perpetuatingsuch systemic problems.In the face of such informed criticismof its actions, policies and‘consultation’ procedures, StephenLintner decided finally that the‘consultation’ had ended without anyadherence to the Agenda the WorldBank had proposed.The organisations that participatedwere People’s Union for Civil Liberties– Karnataka, Environment SupportGroup, Alternative Law Forum,Peoples’ Campaign against WaterPrivatisation, Janaarogya Andolana– Karnataka, Vimochana, CIEDSCollective, CIVIC Bangalore andvarious others in their individualcapacity. ❑❑❑❑❑