---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: prasad chacko <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 01:57:30 +0530 Subject: The fascist state in Gujarat targeting Human Rights Activists and Dalit activists To: shabnam hashmi <[email protected]>, Paul Divakar <[email protected]>, [email protected], "Vijayan M.J." <[email protected]>, ram puniyani <[email protected]>, CSSS <[email protected]> Cc: Avinash Kumar <[email protected]>, hozefa ujjaini <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Dear all, About a month back all of you may have been informed about the arrest of Avinash Kulkarni, a widely respected activist who has been working on the human rights of Adivasis in Gujarat. His contribution to the formulation of the Forest Rights Act and later on in monitoring its implementation by enabling a large number of Adivasis to claim their land rights is well known. Avinash is now languishing in jail, with charges of fomenting Maoism, waging war against the nation and a host of other false charges slapped on him. We have still not completed our mission emanating from the genocide of 2002; many of the human rights activists in Gujarat are still trying to counter the diabolic strategies of the Modi government to decimate human rights activism in the Adivasi areas in Gujarat; and now the Gujarat Police have arrested another highly respected Dalit activist Amrit Vaghela (known as Ambubhai), Srinivas Sattayya Kurapati (Kishore) and Kishore’s wife Hansa (Ambubhai’s niece, who is an employee of SEWA Ahmedabad) on charges that they are Maoists! All of us who have been active on Dalit issues in Gujarat know Ambubhai since the 80s; he has been a cultural activist par excellence, who founded the Lok Kala Manch in 1980, which has since produced and performed several plays on Dalit issues, on women’s issues, political satires, particularly productions on communal harmony and the dangers of the ideologies of communal hatred. He has been active in countering the Sangh Parivar and the Modi brigade long before 2002 and more intensely after 2002. His activities definitely did create a major setback to the strategy of VHP-Bajarangdal-BJP vis-à-vis Dalits. It is a known fact now that cadre of the Parivar which had some Dalit presence, particularly in Ahmedabad is now faced with significant desertion of these communal outfits by many of the Dalit cadres. Recently he led a major grassroots level movement known as ‘Swabhiman Andolan’ against the bootleggers in Gomtipur area of Ahmedabad, exposing conclusively the well-known nexus between the police and the bootleggers. His courage and integrity has always posed a threat to the police and the political establishment of the BJP. Srinivas (Kishore) hails from a remote village in Andhra Pradesh; he had migrated to Surat in search of employment and had become quite active in the trade union movement in Surat. He worked in Surat from 2000 to 2006 and then joined Darshan, an NGO in Ahmedabad which promotes socio-political awareness through theatre and cultural activism. He was working as a computer operator there. It was really horrendous to see the Gujarati TV channels such as TV 9 airing the ridiculous police version today how this simple NGO worker and trade union activist being described as the mastermind of the Maoist strategy in Gujarat, and even linked to the ‘Maoists’ who perpetrated the Jhargram railway sabotage! Hansa, Kishore’s wife, is a grassroots level worker in SEWA, and her only involvement has been in the cultural programmes and theatre of Lok Kala Manch in recent times! The office of Darshan, the NGO where Kishore has been working has been raided today evening and their computer was taken away by the crime branch. The Director of Darshan, Hiren Gandhi has been summoned for questioning by the crime branch tomorrow. Unconfirmed reports from confidential sources reveal that the police have listed out all the NGOs which have been working towards justice for the Muslim victims of the genocide and would be investigated for their suspected Maoist links! As a person who has known and respected Ambubhai since the 80s, I have only one thing to say; this a move that is orchestrated by the Modi administration to silence the human rights discourse in Gujarat. Their may be several views on the effectiveness of human rights activism following the genocide in 2002, but many of us who have been involved in activism following 2002 firmly believe that the civil society in India and Gujarat has definitely succeeded in countering this fascist dispensation and the Sangh Parivar. All of you would agree that the Modi administration has been highly disturbed by the convictions in a number of 2002 cases, the various rulings on the cases by the Supreme Court, and most recently on the SIT and the encounter cases. The arrest of Abhay Singh Chudasma, the rogue police officer which the CBI has identified as the chief mastermind of the Sohrabuddin encounter, the magisterial inquiry report on the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and a number of other judicial pronouncements have resulted in a number of skeletons rolling out of the cupboard. It is imperative for Modi that certain diversionary tactics have to be deployed for political damage control. It is established now that the recent Shahpur riots were a creation of the highly nervous crime branch group owing allegiance to Abhay Singh Chudasma hands in glove with the VHP cadre in Shahpur. There is no doubt among the human rights activists in Gujarat that Modi is trying to get maximum leverage out of the high pitch alarmist reactions being orchestrated by the media under the watchful eyes and careful manipulations of the Central Home Ministry. Modi would be a political novice if he did not create Maoism out of thin air in Gujarat, in the current hyped up anti-Maoist propaganda that pervades the whole country! We appeal to all the human rights activists, Dalit and Adivasi rights organizations and concerned civil society leaders to come out openly against such victimization of human rights activists like Ambu bhai and NGOs supporting grassroots level work. There will be a meeting at ANHAD office in Delhi at 6.00 p.m. on the 1st of June 2010. All those who are in Delhi may kindly make it for the meeting so that we could decide on a possible course of action. On behalf of a number of concerned citizens of Gujarat, Sincerely, Prasad Chacko PS: Please circulate to any person or group that you feel should be informed. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Rightsinterface" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rightsinterface?hl=en-GB. -- Bobby Kunhu http://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
