---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Venugopalan K M <[email protected]>
Date: Apr 23, 6:25 pm
Subject: Fwd: Please endorse>> Statement ontheKhap Maha Panchayat
To: humanrights movement
I endorse the statement.
In solidarity,
K M Venugopalan
Kerala
On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 4:33 PM, Niloufer Bhagwat
<[email protected]>wrote:
> The Union of India is unable to deal with defiance to the Constitution
> and laws on its doorsteps , even as it sends para military forces for more
> effective seizure of tribal land and resources by Companies .
> The Khap Panchayat reflects the defiance of the Constitution and laws by
> upper castes/classes all over the country with total defiance and
> impunity even as socio-economic weaker sections including minority
> groups are being hounded , whereas privileged groups even while violating
> the law are protected by the machinery of the state .
> I endorse the statement . I had raised the issue in public fora four
> years ago and in a documented paper.
> Niloufer Bhagwat
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Kamayani <[email protected]>
> *Sent:* Thursday, April 22, 2010 9:32 PM
> *Subject:* [humanrights-movement:2481] Fwd: Please endorse>> Statement on
> theKhap Maha Panchayat
> Dear all,
> Please see below statement about the recent Khap Maha Panchayat. If you
> would like to endorse this statement, please send us a mail by Sunday 25th
> April 2010. We are planning to send it to the Chief Ministers of Delhi,
> Haryana, UP and Rajasthan.
> In Solidarity,
> Janaki and Deepti
> for Saheli
> [email protected]
> **
> *Love, Honour and Killer Khaps*
> We read with shock and outrage about the Khap Maha Panchayat held in
> Kurukshetra on the 13th of April 2010 at which over 4000 khap panchayat
> members from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi vowed to fight for
> the seven people convicted recently in a “honour-killing” case. They
> valorised those who killed Babli (19) and Manoj (23) and argued that those
> who murdered them “honoured traditional values” which must be upheld. The
> khaps decided to collect money from all Khap members to provide support to
> the convicted and vowed to mobilise public opinion against the court order.
> They also decided to give 1 lakh Rupees to the families of those convicted.
> Such barbaric acts and support of these acts must be condemned. No caste or
> community has the license to kill under any pretext, nor to glorify such
> murders.
> In June 2007, Babli and Manoj from Karoran village near Kaithal in Haryana
> were killed. The ‘sin’ for which they were fatally punished was that they
> married each other against the wishes of Babli’s family. Babli’s family’s
> disapproval was linked to both of them belonging to the same ‘gotra’
> (lineage). This led the panchayat to declare the marriage as ‘void’ and a
> witch-hunt for the two was ordered. Within a month of their marriage, they
> were tracked down and brutally murdered by Babli’s family members to uphold
> the verdict of the khap panchayat. Babli was poisoned and Manoj was
> strangled. Their bodies were thrown into a canal. As in most cases of so
> called ‘honour’ killings, in this case too the killers were family members;
> Babli’s brother, two of her cousins, two uncles and a distant relative.
> The couple had clearly feared the violent reaction from the community,
> because when they eloped and got married they had sought protection from the
> High Court in Chandigarh which in turn had directed the Haryana Police to
> provide them with security. The policeman who was deployed to provide them
> security is suspected of revealing their whereabouts to Babli's family! He
> is currently facing departmental action.
> Manoj’s mother, Chanderpati, refused to take this lying down and decided to
> fight to get justice. She filed a complaint with the police and also
> approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court for justice. Chanderpati lives
> a very difficult life because she has been ostracised by the villagers. They
> do not speak to her, do not sell her any groceries and blame her for wanting
> to seek justice. This is believed to be one of the first instance in Haryana
> where an affected family has gone to court against such a killing.
> As a result of this case, a court in Karnal (Haryana) held 7 people guilty
> and pronounced its Judgement in April 2010. Those sentenced to death were
> all family members of Babli. The head of the panchayat in Haryana's Kaithal
> district, which ruled against the couple's marriage, has been given life
> imprisonment and a driver found to have helped abduct the couple was given a
> seven-year prison term. This verdict was pronounced by Additional District
> and Sessions Judge Vani Gopal Sharma, who herself unfortunately is facing
> threats for this judgement and has been provided a security cover by the
> Karnal Police. She continues to face the Khaps’ ire and has recently
> requested a transfer.
> This was not the first time that Haryana's Khap panchayats have come in the
> way of lovers. In many cases diktats have been made against young couples
> who are believed to have crossed community and caste rules and familial
> authority. In many cases the real threat appears to have been ‘choice’
> marriage itself. (Although, in some cases marriages arranged by the parents
> of a couple have similarly faced Khap-terror because it was found out later
> that the couple were of the same *gotra*).
> These pronouncements have often led to many young lives being brutally
> snuffed out. While we hail the judgement made in the District and Sessions
> Court as a step in the right direction to bring not only the killers but
> also the khap panchayats to task, we do not support the death penalty. It is
> important that steps are taken to curtail the powers of these self-styled
> panchayats which function contrary to rights laid down in the Constitution
> and act as a law unto themselves. It is also extremely important to
> strengthen people’s faith in the police and judiciary so they can complain
> against such diktats that deny the right to life and liberty and the right
> to choice marriages.
> There are no official statistics on the number of ‘honour’ killings in
> India, but media reports are full of such cases where young couples are
> driven to suicide or killed by family members for marrying outside caste,
> community, or within the village and *gotra*. It is extremely important to
> recognise these so–called ‘honour’ killings as a crime and find ways to
> prevent these killings.
> Not only has the Khap mahapanchayat held on the 13th of April, 2010
> glorified the killers, but they have also given a loud and clear message to
> the government that caste and family ‘honour’ is above the law. They also
> demanded that the Hindu Marriage Act be amended to ban marriages within the
> same *gotra* for the sake of ‘restoring social norms’.
> *We demand:*
> - That further action is taken against the Khap leaders who made statements
> at the Khap Mahapanchayat that amount to the glorification of murder and the
> valourisation of the killers.
> - That the State Governments and Courts take *suo motu* cognizance of
> various media reports and institute an enquiry into incidents of ‘honour’
> killings in Northern India.
> - That state governments take strict action to protect the rights of
> citizens to choose their own partners.
> - Strong action be taken against all those who have threatened Sessions
> Judge Vani Gopal Sharma to ensure that the members of the judiciary are not
> intimidated in this manner.
> - That action is taken against all those policemen who did not perform
> their duty, leading to the killing of Babli and Manoj. The ugly nexus
> between Khap leaders, the police, and local politicians should be exposed to
> ensure that fundamental rights laid down in our Constitution are upheld.
> Signatures:
> 1. Saheli, New Delhi
> 2.
> --
> Saheli Women's Resource Centre
> Above Unit 105-108
> Defence Colony Flyover Market
> New Delhi 100 024
> --
> Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal
> +919820749204
> skype-lawyercumactivist
> "After a war, the silencing of arms is not enough. Peace means respecting
> all rights. You can’t respect one of them and violate the others. When a
> society doesn’t respect the rights of its citizens, it undermines peace and
> leads it back to war.”
> -- Maria Julia Hernandez
>www.otherindia.org
>www.binayaksen.net
>www.phm-india.org
>www.phmovement.org
>www.ifhhro.org
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You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot
build up a
nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build
on the
foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole.
-AMBEDKAR
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