Peoples Union for Democratic Rights30th Annual Dr. Ramanadham Memorial LectureonIMPRISONED VOICES: POLITICAL PRISONERS AND DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS INTRODUCTION BY: Ms. Kanchan Bala, मेहनतकश महिला संगठन, दिल्ली SPEAKERS:Mr. Arun Ferreira, Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), MumbaiMr. Mehmood Pracha, Advocate, DelhiMr. Sujato Bhadra, Vice President, Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) TIME, DATE & VENUE4.30 PM, Saturday, 12 September, 2015Auditorium, Indian Social Institute, 10, Institutional Area, Lodhi Colony, New Delhi, Delhi 110003 (Near Sai temple) PUDR invites you to the 30th Annual Dr. Ramanadham Memorial Lecture. Dr A. Ramanadham, a pediatrician and civil liberties activist was the Vice President of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC). On 3 September, 1985, he was killed in his clinic in Warangal by a group of men from a policeman's funeral procession. Since then, this day has been observed as a day to uphold the struggle of civil liberties and democratic rights. On this occasion, PUDR has always held an annual lecture on an issue concerning people's rights and democracy. This year, we wish to examine issues related to political prisoners. In contemporary India, the category of political prisoners includes members/supporters of proscribed/banned organisations, and/or those charged under draconian laws (which aggravates the offence and thus the sentence), and/or millions of people living in conflict zones. In short, all those individuals and groups, whose political views fall foul of the authorities and who are persecuted for the same, are for us Political Prisoners. The issue of political prisoners cannot be separated from the nature of the Indian criminal justice system. It is a system biased against the economically and socially deprived, the Muslim minority, lower caste Hindus or tribal people. This bias also extends to political and social organisations working among these marginalized groups. Thus instead of meeting demands for democratic political solutions or justice, the response of the State is the creation of the category political prisoner. The category political prisoner is important because it tells us about the nature of the State. There is persecution by the State for holding or propagating and mobilising views contrary to it. Thus individuals become political prisoners not only in armed conflict zones where local people are targetted because of their potential to form mass base for the organised movements and struggles but also in areas where non-violent resistance to majoritarian agendas or interests of capital are found. While political prisoners do not demand any special privileges; jail authorities, responsible for the personal security of all prisoners in their custody, have been guilty of imposing ‘special’ punitive measures against a prisoner, on grounds of their political crimes as members/sympathisers of a banned organisation. Members of banned organisations are marked out inside the jail and subjected to torture, mental and physical and their rights are also curtailed. While rights of all prisoners need to be respected, it is an anomaly and distinction which State espouses, namely “High Risk Prisoner”, which singles them out for special treatment. The presence of double standards and virtually two systems of criminal law, therefore, goes to the heart of the problem of making of a special category “Political Prisoners”. Therefore, PUDR argues for protecting the rights of political prisoners because of the special ways in which they are segregated inside the jails, subjected to mistreatment and abuse at the hands of jail authorities, even by the Police and IB although they are in judicial custody. All this stems from the tunnel vision of a State which has failed in protecting life and liberty of its citizens, let alone life of dignity, and instead of remedying this it chooses to criminalise resistance. We hope to discuss all these and more issues related to political prisoners at this annual lecture. Please circulate this invitation to friends who may be interested. Please find attached a Poster and Hindi invite for circulation. About speakers:Ms. Kanchan Bala is a Delhi based activist who works in slums with working class people. She is an activist with the Mehnatkash Mahila Sangathan (मेहनतकश महिला संगठन). She also writes for a bi-monthly newspaper called Tootati Saankle (टूटती सांकलें). Mr. Arun Ferreira is a political activist who had been incarcerated for almost five years as an undertrial under charges of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. After his acquittal and release he has been working for the unconditional release of Political Prisoners and is also a member of the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Mumbai. Mr. Mehmood Pracha is a Delhi based Advocate who is defending a large number of Muslims who have been charged in 'terrorist' offences. Mr. Sujato Bhadra is the Vice President of the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners(CRPP). He has been involved in work related to cases of political prisoners like Chhatradhar Mahto and others in West Bengal for a number of years. In solidarity,Megha Bahl and Sharmila Purkayastha(Secretaries, PUDR)Contact: [email protected], +91-9013292099 _______________________________________________ Activist mailing list [email protected] http://mail.pudr.org/mailman/listinfo/activist_pudr.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
[humanrights-movement:7924] PUDR Invite: Dr. Ramanadham Memorial Lecture on Political Prisoners and Democratic Rights on Sep 12th
'Ranjana' via humanrights movement Wed, 09 Sep 2015 01:51:09 -0700
