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----- Original Message -----
From: Niloufer Bhagwat
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: [humanrights-movement:2457] EKTA Condemns Attempt
toIntimidateArundhati Roy
Whereas one may have reservation on the strategy and tactics of the CML(
Maoist) and the vital issue that the confrontation with the armed Para military
forces of the State would inevitably lead to annihilation of the very people
they represent which is the real objective of the Companies who have signed the
MOUs , namely clearance of habitations and villages of thousands of acres and
the people ; we speak and write from what is a very safe distance from actual
conditions on the ground . Again while speaking of the necessity for those
who represent the affected people resorting to alternative political
strategies, none of us can deny that hitherto the present policies of the
State and Corporations seizing land and water resources are themselves
genocidal for the vast majority of the peasantry and tribal people in that
entire region extending from one state to another .
Detaining and arresting those who work to assist people in the region and
journalists and writers who painstakingly explain conditions on the ground like
Arundhati Roy among others , is a reflection of the absence of democracy and
democratic culture which was visible on TV and in the press media while
referring to the article in the Outlook which promoted a better understanding
of conditions on the ground . The language used in respect of intellectuals
dissenting from official positions was fascist . Some of her political
formulations may be categorized as ' romantic ' and one may not agree with
every one of her political conclusions , however she has the courage and
literary integrity to describe actual conditions of people wrongly being
described as the 'Enemy' and needs our support .
Once again I repeat , let us not take a path which lead to the conditions
from which Latin America has just emerged after centuries of brutal
colonization . This was not the path taken by us during the freedom movement
against the colonial rule of British Companies .As it is in the Western
regions of the country anyone from the working population and lower middle
classes can be arrested , tortured and charged with being a terrorist, for
planting bombs as he is a Jehadi ( read Muslim ) with impunity . Similarly at
will Christian institutions can be attacked in places where Jehadis do not
exist .
Some have seriously suggested , with all political sobriety that the CML(
Maoist) participate in elections, even as it has been reported that for Ward
elections in Bengaluru crores have been spent in each ward . Does our democracy
rest on the basis of an election which requires crores from one Ward election
to another from one constituency to another , in what appears to be the
Americanization of Indian democracy .This was not the democracy envisaged by
the framers of the Constitution of India .It is their vision of democracy ,
that dreamt of by those who led the Indian Freedom Movement which has to be
restored , not the corrupted version .
Niloufer Bhagwat
----- Original Message -----
From: Sukla Sen
To: [email protected] ; [email protected] ;
[email protected] ; [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 7:19 AM
Subject: [humanrights-movement:2457] EKTA Condemns Attempt
toIntimidateArundhati Roy
The just published news report that a "private citizen", or rather a
"social worker", has filed a police complaint against Arundhati Roy on the
ground that her recent essay 'Walking with the Comrades: Gandhians with a Gun?'
carried by the Outlook magazine in its March 29 issue has glorified Maoists and
asked for actions under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act
2005 is extremely disturbing.
It is an obnoxious move to muzzle freedom of expression which is
highly condemnable.
The move is comparable with the demand for banning of the 'Satanic
Verses' or the 'Moor's Last Sigh' by Salman Rusdie or ‘Shivaji: Hindu King in
Islamic India’ by James Laine or such other publications. Or endlessly
harassing MF Husain through court cases and threats of arrest for his works of
art. In fact here the implications could be even grimmer.
It is hardly anybody's case that a celebrity cannot be publicly
questioned or critiqued for her/his public role and works. And glorification of
gory violence, by whosoever, needs be stoutly opposed. But an attempt to muzzle
voice, when there is no case of any "hate speech" or so, and intimidate dissent
is utterly distasteful and dangerous.
We do strongly condemn it and urge the government of Chhattisgarh to
desist from taking any rash action.
We also appeal to the common citizenry to protest against any such
move in that direction.
Sukla Sen
for EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity)
Mumbai
13 04 2010
Peace Is Doable
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