1 सितंबर:31 अगस्त की रात पुरुलिया की अयोध्या पहाडियों में नौदुली गाँव में तीस हथियारबंद लोग घुसे , गांववालों को घर से न निकलने का हुक्म पुकार कर सुनाया, फिर वे लतिका हेम्ब्रम के घर में घुसे जहां वह अपने पति गोपाल के साथ सोई थी. राइफल के कुन्दों से लतिका को पीटते हुए उन्होने धमकी दी कि उसे उन्होंने एक साल पहले ही सी.पी.एम. छोड देने को कहा था पर उसने अब तक यह किया नहीं और अगर वह अभी भई यह नहीं करती तो वे उसे जान से मार डालेंगे. लतिका स्त्री है, ग्राम पंचायत की प्रमुख है, पर उसकी उसके पति के साथ जम कर पिटाई की गई. हवा में गोलियां दागते हुए वे दस किलोमीटर दूर एक दूसरे गांव जितिंग्लहर पहुंचे और देबिप्रसाद के घर पहुंचे. देबीप्रसाद के मां-बाप इनके पैरों पर गिर पडे और अपने बेटे के प्राणों की भीख मंगने लगे. पर उसे ठोकर मार कर जगाया गया और छाती में दो गोलियां मारी गईं. देबी प्रसाद की मौत हो गई. देबीप्रसाद सी.पी.एम. का सदस्य था.
Continue reading बेलगाम हिंसा और मानवाधिकार आंदोलन का ज़मीर
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Search No More
A new search engine ImHalal.com promises a more spiritually cleansed experience of the internet (“Search Halal, I am Halal!”). With three levels of Haram content defined, the search engine either throws up no results or warns you that a particular search term is rated at 2 and could and have potentially haram content before you proceed at your own moral peril
Jailing Journalists: Pradeep Jeganathan
This is a guest post by PRADEEP JEGANATHAN from Colombo.
The sentencing of J.S. Tissainayagam is deeply distressing.
While I’m neither a attorney, nor conversant with the details of the evidence presented by the prosecution, nor the text of the judgment delivered — and so can not comment on those areas, it seems clear that this judgment and sentence was only possible given the Prevention of Terrorism Act, of 1979. Two features stand out, given the PTA– the narrow bounds allowed for freedom of expression, on certain themes, and the admissibility of a ‘confession’ as ‘evidence,’ which is not allowable under the penal code. Taken together they make for a curtailing of freedom which is telling. There is an appeal pending, I understand, and there may be a possibility of a pardon, if that process is exhausted to no avail.
Notes from a Metro (Pun Unintentionally Intentional)
Enter Delhi: The boy was about 13, perhaps less. He was riding a bike which was about three times his size. He swerved between the vehicles on the road at Karol Bagh, very much in the wrong in terms of which side of the road he ought to be on, and therefore also in terms of the traffic rules and regulations. But he could not care. I looked at him and wondered,
Dilli dilwalon ki hai – Delhi is a city of the large-hearted, of the daring, the bold and the courageous.
A few days later, one of the auto drivers remarked to me during a journey,
Kehte hai dilli dilwalon ki hoti hai. Lekin yeh jhoot hai. Sabhi log yahan paise ke peeche pade rehte hai aur har koi aapko lootne ki koshish karna chahta hai – It is a saying that Delhi is a city of the large-hearted. But this is false. Everyone here is behind money, and each person is out to loot/cheat you.
Continue reading Notes from a Metro (Pun Unintentionally Intentional)
Anand Jon wants to be tried in India – I would too, if I were him
Fashion designer Anand Jon has been sentenced by a Los Angeles court to 59 years in prison for violent sexual assault on seven young women, some of them under-age. His defence tried to move for a mistrial on the grounds that one of the jurors had contacted Jon’s sister during the trial, but a new trial was not granted by the judge. The concerned juror delivered a “guilty” verdict along with the other 11 jurors in the case.
A month ago, his sister Sanjana had pleaded with the Indian government to extradite him as he would not get a fair trial in the US, being Indian. She claimed then, and did so again after the verdict on September 1, that Jon is a victim of racist discrimination.
Would Anand Jon have been acquitted of such charges in an Indian court? Almost certainly, yes. In a justice system in which alleged rapists are routinely acquitted for “lack of evidence” and proven rapists given a reduced sentence because of their youth and the promising life ahead of them, Sanjana is right to insist that he be tried in an Indian court. In an Indian court, the testimony of women who had willingly gone to his home on the promise of jobs in the fashion business, and then claimed they were raped, would be dismissed out of hand. Especially if the women are white. Gratuitous references to “western women” and their supposed attitudes to sex, pepper judgements and statements by officials on rape in India.
Continue reading Anand Jon wants to be tried in India – I would too, if I were him
Remembering Rajani and Re-Reading The Broken Palmyrah
I am posting below a much longer version of an article that is published in Himal Southasian. The Broken Palmyrah is out of print, but the entire book is on the UTHR(J) website.
Remembering Rajani and Re-Reading The Broken Palmyrah
September this year many will remember Rajani Thiranagama, a feminist, an activist, a Marxist, a scholar, a doctor and a teacher assassinated twenty years ago on September 21st, 1989. Among the reasons for her assassinations was the publication of that profoundly grounded work, The Broken Palmyrah, which she co-authored with three other academics from the Jaffna University. While we commemorate the life and work of Rajani at a time when the war has come to an end, in many ways the Palmyrah is still broken. It is in this context that I return to that inspiring work, which has much to teach us, in particular for those of us belonging to the younger generations of activists after Rajani. Inspiring, for despite the worst cruelties of war, it carried a message of hope, an analysis of possible ways forward and faith in the resilience of ordinary people. Continue reading Remembering Rajani and Re-Reading The Broken Palmyrah
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 