Lynching Culture

Lynching Culture

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - One Hundred Sixty SIX

Palash Biswas


Kalam asks West Bengal to pursue focussed development agenda while Rights group for special court to try Nandigram offenders.
Dalit enslaved population is presecuted countrywide!

It is Lynching Culture which prevails in West bengal and promoted by Ruling Class and media. This help to solve law and order headache as well as elimination of opposition. State machinery used it so well in seventies to cool the Thundering storm. Now, we see similar instances in Singur and nandigram!

The debate over the entry of non-hindus into the Guruvayur temple in Kerala rages on. On May 28, 2007, there was a meeting of the temple high priests, where they have decided to introspect further into the issue while strongly coming out on the stance that the government should not impose itself on religious matters. The statement from the temple priest could lead to further controversies as Kerala's Left Front government has clearly stated, the government would consider bringing in a legislation for allowing the non-Hindus to worship in the temples. Devaswom Minister, G Sudhakaran has mentioned, the LDF government was of the opinion that all believers of the higher self should be allowed to worship in the temples. The Guruvayur Temple controversy erupted post the purification ritual carried out by the temple priests after the visit of Union Minister, Vayalar Ravi's son. The rite was conducted on the ground that Vayalar Ravi's wife is a Christian.
Caught in a row over denial of his son's entry to the Guruvayur temple, Union Minister Vayalar Ravi today raised questions over the Kerala Government's idea to bring a legislation for allowing non-Hindus to worship in temples.

in KOLKATA, a mob in a south Kolkata neighbourhood took law into their hands by lynching a local goon who had been torturing and extorting money from people. And hundreds of women celebrated his death by playing an untimely holi by smearing each other with colours.
The alleged criminal, Pradip Mallik alias Dom Pradip, was killed in Chetla area Saturday night. And women in large numbers gathered outside Maa Sarodamoyee Sporting Club Sunday and played holi, the festival of colours that usually falls in March, to rejoice.

Police said no arrests had been made so far. "We have filed a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. We will take necessary action after the situation becomes normal in the area," Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (south division) Ajoy Kumar said.

The residents, however, are not repenting. They alleged that Pradip and his henchmen used to torture people to extort money from them. They used to walk into houses and humiliate women at gunpoint.

Despite several police complaints, no action was taken, the residents said.

"Now it's a relief and a good enough reason to celebrate," said Rebati, a Chetla resident.

Concerned over the need to bridge regional disparities, President A P J Abdul Kalam today asked the World Bank to build a region-wise database on popular needs to pursue development agenda in a focused manner. Kalam said the database may assist the World Bank in fixing the strategy to meet the development agenda of a particular area with state or private assistance, the President said while inaugurating the India Development Marketplace-2007 exhibition in New delhi.He said though the Indian economy is in the ascent phase and is growing at nine per cent annum, the growth is not fully reflected in the quality of life of a large number of people, particularly in rural areas. To overcome the problem of linking growth with the quality of life, Kalam said we have evolved what is called a National Prosperity Index (NPI), which is a summation of annual GDP growth, improvement in quality of life of people, particularly those living below poverty line, and the adoption of value system derived from our civilisational heritage. The NPI, according to the President, would also take into account efforts at promoting joint family system, creation of a spirit of team work, leading a righteous way of life, removing social inequities and, above all, promoting a conflict free society.

The World Bank, Kalam suggested, could also encourage other nations to adopt NPI as an indicator of integrated development of their countries.


In Kolkata, a People's Tribunal on Nandigram, an initiative of a civil liberty group, Monday recommended the setting up of a special court to ensure speedy justice in cases of rights violations in the trouble-torn region where violence broke out since early January over a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).The Tribunal, organised by the All India Citizens Initiative, heard depositions from victims, witnesses, social activists, intellectuals, doctors, human rights groups and other concerned organisations in both Nandigram and Kolkata for three days since Saturday.


The tribunal was headed by S.N. Bhargava, former chief justice of the Sikkim High Court.


Tribunal members, veteran journalist Prabhash Joshi, social activist Lalita Ramdas, National Integration Council member John Dayal and psychiatrist Jyotirmoy Samajder, visited the site of police firing of March 14 that killed 14 people and injured hundreds besides other places in Nandigram to understand the circumstances and nature of the violence.


'However, East Midnapore district magistrate Anup Agarwal has issued a letter to the organisers of the Tribunal asking under what 'law of the land' such a tribunal was being organised,' said a statement by the organisation.


'The All India Citizen's Initiative in its reply said that the Tribunal had been organised under Article 51 of the constitution, which calls upon every citizen of India to promote harmony and spirit of brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic, regional and social diversities,' it said.


The Tribunal received over 39 oral and 142 written depositions at the hearings held at primary schools in Gokulnagar and Sonachura and the University Institute Hall in Kolkata.


It concluded that there were grave violations of human rights in Nandigram besides a disturbingly large number of reports of sexual violence against women.


It also called for an urgent need for a thorough, independent investigation of the events of March 14 besides reaching immediate medical attention for many and compensation for the victims.

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"The Government cannot get into matters of faith. It cannot go beyond a certain point. Administration of temples is okay, but it cannot decide on faith," Ravi, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, told PTI here. His comments came after state minister for Temple Affairs G Sudhakaran's statement that the CPI(M)-led Government was of the opinion that all believers should be allowed to worship in temples and if necessary it will bring in a law. Ravi is embroiled in a controversy over the conduct of a purification ceremony by Guruvayur temple authorities after the visit of his son Ravikrishna on the ground that his mother hailed from a Christian family.

The purification has triggered a fresh debate on the entry of non-Hindus into Guruvayur, a issue which came to the fore after the temple authorities prevented renowned singer Yesudas from entering the temple.

In Kolkata, altogether 38 Trinamool Youth Congress workers, including three women, were today arrested for demonstrating before of the central gate of the state secretariat, Writers' Buildings, today. The demonstrators also shouted slogans against the West Bengal Government's land acquisition policy.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) P K Chatterjee said that the demonstrators with party flags demanded immediate return of the land to farmers at Singur who were unwilling to give it for the Tata Motors small car project.

Guwahati, May. 28 (PTI): The Coordination Committee of different trade associations in Assam today demanded the state government convene immediate "unconditional" talks with the banned ULFA.

The association, which organised a protest today against the recent bomb blast in the state, said the government should organised talks within a week or it would intesify its stir.

"Everybody, including the ULFA wants talks, but by neglecting the issue the government is letting the situation out of hand and paving the way for violence," a member of the umbrella body of 30 trade associations, Vijay Gupta, told PTI here.

"The Assam Government is helpless and the Centre is skirting the issue (of talks) and hence the problem," Gupta said.

"If the government does not initiate the talks process immediately, we will intensify the agitation and submit memoranda to the President, Prime Minister and Union Home Minister", he said.

Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh's name has sprung up as a possible candidate for the presidential polls as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday held parleys with the UPA leadership on the ticklish issue. The name of the HRD minister started doing the rounds as Karunanidhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The HRD minister, however, denied that he was in the reckoning for the top post. "I am not in the race. It is for the party to decide."


Not a soul in New Delhi is unaware that Mayawati was in town.A guessing game over Bahujan Samaj Party support to either United Progressive Alliance or National Democratic Alliance on the presidential polls continued with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday declining to open her cards before discussing the matter with party leaders.Despite the Left and some of the UPA allies insisting on a political person as the Presidential candidate, Congress spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi did not rule out an apolitical person for the top post. BSP supremo Mayawati, whose party holds the key to the next Presidential candidate, held talks with Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week and has promised a decision after consulting party MPs and MLAs in the coming days.

The task is ticklish for the UPA given the fact that the ruling alliance could not become a winner unless its nominee is backed by the Left as also the BSP.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil is being seen as a dark horse in the race for Raisina Hills.

Incumbent A P J Abdul Kalam is retiring on July 24 and the elections for the high office is expected to be announced anytime now.

Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has emerged as the hot favourite of the NDA which has not announced any name so far.

Shekhawat is also banking on his 'friends' across the political spectrum with his supporters claiming that they can tilt the election in their favour with a little support from south of the Vindhyas.

Pawar, a known friend of Shekhawat, has however, made it clear that he would be with the UPA.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said he would be happy to see a person from the state making it to the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

"I would be happy just like any other person from the state. But the final decision on the issue rests with the Congress President," he said.




Mayawati arrived with a bang. Her Lutyens bungalow in a bylane of Humayun Road is decorated as if some Rajasthani maharaja of yore has returned from the battleground after conquering enemy territory.


As the UPA leadership held discussions with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today on finalising a candidate for the Presidential elections, the DMK supremo indicated a decision is unlikely before the first week of next month.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi held parleys with DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi even as the Congress did not rule out an apolitical person for the top job .

Congress declined to speculate by when a candidate will be finalised but Karunanidhi after his meetings indicated it may take some more time saying it was not an easy job to arrive at a decision.

"So far no decision has been taken. We will talk. I will come back to Delhi in the first week of June (for talks). We will come to a decision only then," he told reporters after his 25-minute meeting with Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence.

Karunanidhi with whom CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and NCP chief Sharad Pawar held separate parleys at the Tamil Nadu House said that all views were being considered and talks among the coalition partners would continue on the issue.

DMK is the third largest constituent of the UPA after Congress and the RJD.

Karunanidhi's statement indicated that the process of selection of a Presidential candidate is facing a lot of pulls and pressures given the fact that the Vice Presidential polls are scheduled immediately after the Presidential elections. There have been reports that some UPA allies as also supporting parties have some candidates in their mind.

Karunanidhi also had a meeting with CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan.


The all-party peace talks on Nandigram, which collapsed last week, may resume with the Left Front Monday saying a meeting would be held June 2 to end the standoff between the communists and Trinamool Congress.

'I have spoken to Left Front chairman Biman Bose and fixed June 2 for discussion on Nandigram,' said West Bengal Forward Bloc secretary and Front leader Ashok Ghosh.

His comments came as the ruling communists readied for a meeting within its fold to fix the agenda for a proposed second round of talks to restore peace in trouble-torn Nandigram.

Ghosh, authorised by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to hold all party meetings on Nandigram, said he wanted a discussion with the Left Front before he contacts Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee.

The all-party meeting to restore peace in Nandigram got stalled last week after Banerjee staged a walkout after a heated exchange with the CPI-M that refused to term the March 14 police firing in Nandigram as 'genocide'.

However, Ghosh, who initiated the peace talks, claimed the meeting was successful and the Trinamool chief has communicated her views on the initiative.

He also said though there were differences on semantics, Banerjee was sincere on return of peace in Nandigram.

At least 21 people have been killed, hundreds injured and several raped in Nandigram, about 150 km from here, in protests since January against a special economic zone (SEZ) being set up in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim Group.Thousands are living in camps since the flare-up.

The West Bengal government, still grappling with the Nandigram row, has started re-negotiating with the SEZ promoters - Salim Group - for an alternate site, the Indonesian firm's Indian partner said on Monday.
The Nandigram Special Economic Zone, which had received the Union Cabinet approval, was to be set up by Indonesia-based Salim Group and the Gurgaon-based real estate major Unitech in a joint venture.
"Government is calibrating with us and Salim Group on different options," Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra said.
The government is looking at alternative locations, he added.
The Board of Approval is the Commerce Ministry had approved the Nandigram SEZ for chemicals to come up at 4,000 hectare land.
Since the project involved a large foreign equity, it was also later cleared by the Union Cabinet.
However, the West Bengal government had to cancel the project at Nandigram following a large scale protest and violence.


It is very difficult to restore peace in Nandigram despite chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee’s best efforts, veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu said on Sunday.

“As I understand, it is really very difficult. But the chief minister has stated that he is trying hard,” Mr Basu, the former West Bengal chief minister, told newsmen in response to a query if he was hopeful that peace would return to Nandigram soon.

On the role of opposition parties, he said, “Their attitude is not correct. They know that there is a court case and an administrative inqury is on. They are alleging that there have been incidents of rape, but who are those raped and what are their names?”

Basu, who attended a meeting of the party’s labour wing CITU, however, stressed the need to bring peace in the area. “How is it possible that one part of the state is outside the purview of the state administration? About 200 of our party supporters have been evicted.”

Hundreds of villagers — mostly owing allegiance to CPM — have been evicted from their homes in Nandigram in recurring violence between Marxist supporters and those of the Trinamool-led Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee, he said.


CBI to probe Noida land scam


The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday decided to recommend a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry in the controversial allotment of land in Noida during the previous Samajwadi Party regime.

Principal Secretary (Home) K Chandramauli said a communication in this respect is being sent to the Centre.

Altogether 99 people including politicians, bureaucrats, media persons and others had been allotted land in Noida in 2005.

The allotments had raised protests and a PIL was filed in the Allahabad high court seeking quashing of certain land allotments.

The high court had later quashed the allotments and ordered a CBI probe.

The Supreme Court on November 11, 2005, had stayed the high court order directing the CBI probe after taking into consideration that the Noida authority had withdrawn the allotments.

Though Chandramauli said that he did not have the details with regard to the issue, he maintained that it was related to the matter raised by Union minister and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal.

Sibal had released a list on April 29 during election campaign containing names of the beneficiaries in Noida which included several senior bureaucrats close to the then regime.

The list also said to contain names of kin of retired and serving high court and Supreme Court judges besides politicians, most of them associated with the SP.

The decision comes close on the heels of the state government recommending a CBI probe into the killing of former BSP MLA Raju Pal, who was shot dead in Allahabad last year.

SP Lok Sabha Member Ateeq Ahmed and his brother were the prime accused in the case.



'Dalit rights are Human rights'
A charter of Dalit human rights


Preamble
Whereas, Dalits in India are the people of Mother Earth, people from a labouring community, people who believe and live a sustainable life and people who belong to and are rooted to the community. Whereas, the power of Dalit resilience, the power of Dalit culture simply can not be wiped out, the spirit of this Charter expresses our dreams and aspirations for the future emanating from a strong spirituality of hope and strength.

Whereas, Dalits in India have the capacity to transform our pains and struggles into power, our efforts are:

To establish Dalits' lost humanity, dignity and security;

To liberate Dalits from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination;

To assert Dalits as people, claiming that it is our Earth, an earth that is Dalit in character;

To assert our aspirations for self-governance with Dalit leadership, to change power equations in economic, cultural and political positions.
Whereas, India has a liberation history of over 50 years from colonial powers and that this has not brought the Dalits, women, tribals and many other such people into the mainstream operations of the Nation Sate.

Whereas, Dalits are distinct from others, because of their specific historical context, violations, exploitation and atrocities, the basic rights to life, liberty and security, particularly of women and children are denied every day. Life is filled with violations rooted in caste, ruled by Varna, Karma and sanctioned by Dharma. We assert that the Dalits are in need of liberation from the hegemony of the dominant caste forces in India.

We are ashamed:
by the fact that much more than the violence that is committed on the Dalits, one of the worst and barbaric forms of the Varnashrama Dharma is 'untouchability', which no sensible human being can think of. That this is called a religion is an insult to the whole of humanity. That this is being practised at a time in history, which claims to have arrived at 'enlightenment', is an assertion of the existence of pitch darkness. It is a declaration of the underlying paradigm that some people are considered irrelevant and a nuisance to the dominant forces of the world.

We demand
A global effort to be made to abolish untouchability in all its manifestations and its practice to be considered a heinous crime against humanity and be punished in the severest form possible.

We consider:
that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as other Human Rights treaties have developed a human rights discourse based on individual liberty. For those of us whose life is an eternal struggle for survival it is the security of communities that is paramount.

We demand
That the United Nations (UN) and other international Human Rights bodies in the world overtake seriously the question of the security as a community in their discursive practices as well as in the praxis for of human rights.

We are shocked:
by the fact that serious discussions on human rights have been clouded by an excessive focus on individual liberty, because of the predominant focus on the individual contemporary Western thinking. An individualism of the type and intensity that is being promoted by the West, which is in sharp contrast to the culture of community living of the indigenous people in general and Dalits and tribal people in particular.

We demand
The discourse of individual security to be taken to its next logical step in the context of the Dalits i.e. the security of the community of people.

We are enraged:
by the fact that Dalits are deprived of their basic need by the law enforcement of the dominant caste forces in India and South Asia. This embodies the dominant caste aspirations. The needs of the Dalits are in the material realm and not in the metaphysical. When basic human needs are denied, there is a violation of human rights. To the extent human rights are violated, national and global security are impaired.

We demand
The denial of the material needs of the Dalits to be treated as denial of Dalit Human Rights. Therefore the translation of the discourse of individual and community security will have to necessarily manifest itself in the praxis of addressing the basic needs of the communities of Dalit people.

We are appalled:
that Human Rights violation against Dalits takes place largely in the context of governance, which is the power for allocating resources in India. This allocation of resources causes the most important violation of human rights. The violations manifest themselves in the denial of the right to livelihood of communities and in the unbalanced allocation of resources to individuals belonging to particular dominant castes.

We demand
Dalits to be guaranteed their right to livelihood, which will ensure a dignified living enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and protest against any such biased allocation of resources, by the caste biased forces of governance.

We are angered:
that Dalits are denied the right not only to the means of livelihood, but also access to the process of allocation. Virtually denying Dalits not only the means to live, but also the right to create their own space for living. That the access that given is marginal and made to look as if they are a payoff by the dominant caste forces.

We demand
an equal access to all state institutions and the subsequent processes of allocation.

We are enraged:
that the conventional village Panchayat (village council) system has been a political and cultural form of oppression of the Dalits, where they have no right to present their cases. Leave alone the fact that they are even denied the right to sit as equals with other dominant caste forces. Whenever they sought an alternative by actively participating in the state institution of the Panchayat Dalits have been attacked and even killed.

We demand
full protection to the Dalits to participate in the Panchayat Raj institutions and other democratic institutions of the country's polity.

We are anguished:
that Dalits have been denied access to resources like land, water and other means of production. Whatever resources they possessed from mother earth, have been forcefully taken away. By taking away land from people who have worshipped the land, Dalits have been deprived of a long cherished relationship with the earth. Both culturally and economically they have suffered deprivation.

We demand
the lands to be restored to the Dalits by distributing all land available with the government.

We consider:
that the only means of securing a livelihood left with the Dalits as of now is their labour. The State, in agreement with the dominant caste civil society, has done a grossly underestimation of the costs involved in Dalit labour.

We demand
from the present manner of fixing minimum wages for labour, that the State effectively fixes a living wage for Dalits. Taking seriously into consideration, the changing economic situation with its escalating prices, reduction of subsidies, withdrawal of the welfare state and a shifting of development responsibility to the Dalits themselves.

We justify:
the withdrawal of the welfare state, in as much as it is a withdrawal, from development responsibility with regard to the rich, neo-rich and dominant caste forces. A greater and more responsible provision of equal opportunities to the Dalits must accompany such a withdrawal. In the mechanism of governance as well as in State institutions like education, health, communication, technology, markets.

We demand
the State, instead of withdrawing itself from its welfare responsibility to the Dalits through privatisation of the service sector, to assume more and more responsibility for provisioning, safeguarding and protecting the rights of equal opportunity to Dalits.

We recall:
that the history of denial of opportunities to the Dalits and intended exclusion of the Dalits from all social, political and economic institutions is much more ancient than the establishment of the National State in its present form. That it is the civil society that is actively guilty of the caste system and untouchability, through religion and has forces in human forms of existence on the Dalits. Now the responsibility for reversing such a situation lies with them.

We demand
the State not to, only effectively, ensure the prevention of atrocities on Dalits by civil society, but also guarantee the right of reservation to Dalits and all other most backward castes in all private enterprises and companies, which enjoy one or more forms of subsidy from the Government.

We are outraged:
that the dominant caste, civil society has established its control over the labour of Dalits through the offensive system called 'bonded labour'. When in reality the labour of Dalits constitutes one of the major national resources as well as guarantees the livelihood, this is another form of slavery. The State connives with the dominant caste civil society by denying the existence and prevalence of such a system and by partially claiming that this system has been abolished.

We demand
te State to take more stringent measures to bring to book all those that indulge in this form of slavery and abolish this institution of the dominant caste civil society in India.

We recognise:
that the denial of education to Dalits throughout the history of oppression has resulted in the dominant caste society establishing its authority over the minds of the Dalits in multiple forms. This has ultimately resulted in the denial of the right to freethinking and freedom of expression. The right to the freedom of expression will necessarily entail the right to dissent and produce countervailing discourses by the Dalits. Such countervailing discourses have invariably resulted in further increase in atrocity on the Dalits.

We demand
The right of freedom of thought and expression be protected for the Dalits in spirit in letter.

We equate:
the culture of Dalits with that of the dominant caste culture can not be accepted. As Babasaheb Ambedkar asserts: 'We are different people and all attacks on the cultural heritage must be stopped forthwith. India is a multi-cultural society, and there must be room for the cultural expression of all people living in it. While attacking the homogenisation of cultures at the global level, the Indian State as well as the dominant caste civil society seeks to impose its cultural forms on the Dalits in the name of nation culture. At the same time the cultural forms of the Dalits and other indigenous people are commercialised through the media for greater economic benefits of the dominant caste society'.

We demand
the rights of the Dalits to identify themselves as culturally different from other groups are guaranteed that the commercialisation of their cultural forms is stopped and state allocations are made for the promotion and preservation of the cultural forms of the Dalit people.

We recognise:
strongly that Dalit women have three fold discrimination. They are discriminated because, they are women (gender), Dalits (caste) and Dalit women by their own men-folk (gender and caste). The situation of Dalit women is alarming in India, to say at least. Caste and gender discrimination is perpetrated in its worst forms on Dalits women.

We demand
that special measure is to be taken for the protection of the rights of Dalit women in all the above said areas.

We consider:
that Human Rights organisations all over the world have till now focused on violations by the State and its institutions as human rights violations. That all other forms of atrocities have been relegated to the realm of civil strife by these bodies. Such a position is untenable. In India the state and civil society are hand in glove in the denial of rights to the Dalits and other indigenous people of the country.