Out of curiosity, what is the substance of the claim against Mallika Sarabhai? No one nor any site has mentioned the actual claim of "trafficking" brought against her by the supposed Modi government.
Perhaps I am not looking in the right places? I'd like to know what exactly they are accusing Mallika of, and what basis they have for these claims. Surely they are not wholly fabricated?
Naiya
Sanji Boparai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sanji Boparai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
If anyone would like to discuss this situation in Sapac, please some to the
next meeting, this is an email update:
October 29, 2003
Partial Success at Hand?lt;br>
Mallika Sarabhai Granted Bail Today!
Dear Friend of Freedom:
Just received word that despite tremendous pressure on Gujarat Judges,
Mallika has been granted bail?
However, this does not mean that the Modi government in the State of
Gujarat will not do everything in its power to continue to frame her in
false case of human trafficking.
We must put tremendous pressure on the highest officials in India to
tell Mr. Modi that the Court of World opinion will not accept his dirty
tricks.
Please add your personal name and country as well as the name of your
organization as signatory to the following letter going via courier to:
v The President of India
v The Prime Minister of India
v The Deputy Prime Minister of India
v The Chief Minister of Gujarat
v The Speaker of Indian Parliament
If you have already signed, please make sure that your name, country
and organizations are spelled correctly.
WE WILL RELEASE THIS LETTER TO THE MEDIA IN INDIA RIGHT AWAY AND CLOSE
THE SIGNING BY NOON, SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1ST 2003
I have also attached a very moving letter from Dr Mallika Sarabhai,
which was written prior to her getting bail.
With warmest personal regards,
Yours for Freedom,
Shrikumar Poddar
Shrikumar Poddar
35 C C I Chambers, Mumbai 400 020 Phone 2202-7320 or 2282-4055
Fax 2204-0108 Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PS: Please Phone Five or More Friends to ask them to join you in signing the
statement.
Dear Mr. Vajpayee:
You are urged to take immediate steps to stop the harassment and
intimidation of Dr Mallika Sarabhai, who is the Pride of Gujarat. Times of
India of Tuesday, October 28th 2003 has headlined a story entitled 밠allika
Sarabhai Is Being Framed?and it has put the Government of India and the
State Government of Gujarat in a very bad light.
As you very well know that Mallika has been very outspoken in
condemning the massacre of innocent human beings in the State of Gujarat
after the Godhra incident of February 2002.
She has refused to withdraw her case against the State Government of
Gujarat for lack of failure to prosecute the perpetrators of the senseless
violence and also the failure of the State to provide adequate relief and
rehabilitation of the survivors in the Supreme Court.
She has categorically denied any wrongdoing and the charges of human
trafficking against a person of her stature is absurd. Despite this she did
co-operate fully with all the inquir! ies of the authorities.
Efforts of Gujarat Government to deny her bail is gross miscarriage of
justice. Many prominent citizens of India such as Rajmohan Gandhi ,
Kuldeep Nair, Shabana Azmi, Asghar Ali Engineer, J B D뭩ouza, Dolly Thakore
Alyque Padamsee B G Verghese have already protested this outrageous effort
to silence one of the few voices of sanity in the State of Gujarat.
We respectfully ask you to take immediate steps to reverse the
misguided effort to force Dr Mallika Sarabhai to withdraw her public
interest litigation; otherwise irreparable harm will be done to India뭩
reputation that got tarnished in all parts of the world.
We the undersigned Non-Resident Indians both individuals and
organizations are awaiting your confirmation that the right steps have been
taken to set the wrong that has been done to Dr Mallika Sarabhai.
Sincerely yours,
Individuals
Shrikumar Poddar! , USA
Dr K S Sripada Raju, USA
Uma Balakrishnan, USA
Kaleem Kawaja, USA
S.M.Bhagat, USA
Hari Sharma, Canada
Rasheed Ahmed, USA
Ruchira Gupta, USA
Imtiazuddin, USA
Gautam & Urvi Desai, USA
Amit Shah, USA
Zubair Patel, USA
Rajesh Veeraraghavan, USA
Sami Uddin. USA
Dr. Chander Balakrishnan, USA
Srividhya Venkataraman ,USA
Dr. Jawaid Quddus, USA
Mayurika Poddar, USA
Uttara Mashruwala, Australia
Ahmad Raza, USA
J. Mohan Rao, USA
Dr. Beheruz N. Sethna, USA
Daksha Mashruwala, India
Kay Jamieson, Australia
Dr. Beheruz N. Sethna, USA
Parul Zaveri, India
Nimish Patel, India
George Abraham, USA
Dr Andree Grau, United Kingdom
Kristine Landon-Smith England -
Franz Probst, Switzerland
Jhelum Paranjape,India
Uma Dogra, India
Tushar A. Gandhi,India
Ann Tonks, Australia
Deepak Raja, United Kingdom
Zafar Iqbal, USA
Mayank Mansingh Kaul,
Organizations
International Service Society, USA
Vaishnava Centre for Enlightenment, USA
India Development Society, USA
India Foundation, USA
Seva International, USA
Bharatiya Educational Foundation, USA
Probst Rechtsanw?te, Switzerland
Assn of Indian Muslims of America,, USA
Gujarati Muslim Assn of America, USA
International South Asia Forum, Canada
Am Fed of Muslims from India, USA
S.Asian Network for Secularism &
Democracy, Canada
KJ, Australia
Kaishiki, India
Develop in Peace, USA
Peace on Earth, USA
Coalition for a Secular & Democratic India, USA
Samved Societ! y for Performing Arts, India
LETTER FROM MALLIKA SARABHAI...
My dear friends,
Over the last 20 months many of you have been aware of my stand
against the Anti Muslim pogrom that happened in Gujarat.
With many of you I have had personal conversations, and many of you
know that I have had to go underground and that I and Darpana [The 60 year
old performing arts institute in Ahmedabad, begun by Mrinalini Sarabhai,
Mallika's mother.] have been harassed and threatened continuously, amongst
other things to try and cow me down into withdrawing my public interest
litigation about this in the supreme court and to stop me talking at a
variety of fora about the continuing boycott of the Muslims, the continuing
lack of justice and other issues.
Those of you who are in India or who log onto Indian news portals
are already aware of their latest move, i.e. to frame a crim! inal case
against me of fraud and intention to cheat, through a young woman who was a
short term student of Darpana's.
I will not go into the case in detail just now - she is accusing
me/Darpana of having promised her a United States Visa and thereby a false
dance tour ruse to illegally immigrate to the states; she also claims that
when the visa was rejected I intimidated her and refused to return the money
taken for tickets, visas and other charges.
Without going into this further, I want you to know only that there
is not an iota of truth in it, that all monies for the cancelled dance tour,
as per the contract with the students, were returned, as were their
passports, and that this is a huge and apparently successful attempt to
defame me and the institution and family, nationally, through the media. It
is also a huge attempt at intimidation.
Under the Indian criminal law, once a First Inform! ation Report or
FIR is accepted by the police, the police, if they so wish can arrest you
and throw you into jail till they produce you before a magistrate.
Guilty till proved innocent. Given the high visibility of my name
and the issue, my lawyers have asked me to apply for anticipatory bail,
which I have, in the session뭩 court. There are tremendous pressures being
brought on to the judiciary, for obvious reasons.
My detractors have planned this well. The court is on vacation and
works only two hours a day. The backlog in the court is big so my bail
hearing has taken 48 hours to be heard instead of 24. It will be heard in
the next hour. If the session뭩 court rejects it, the courts are shut for
four days for Diwali, so the earliest we can apply in the high court is on
Tuesday.
Meanwhile I have to be unavailable for arrest. Non-euphemistically,
that means in hiding and on the run. ! Yet again, I veer between despair and
anger. Between wanting to be a martyr for truth if that is what my larger
purpose in life is, and wanting to throw up my hands and say 'neither the
country nor its people for whom I have spent 25 years working deserve me'.
This is a democratic country and they are doing this to one of the
most known faces and voices. What of the millions of others?
I am trying to keep sane and sensible. All my colleagues at Darpana
have been and continue to be wonderful and out in the open. And my brother
and my daughter who are there in Ahmedabad. And as happened before, the many
idealistic 'friends', well-wishers and intellectual seekers of truth in
Gujarat have deafened me by their silence.
Where there is smoke there is fire, I hear them saying. But isn't
that a saying that is no longer valid? When dalits in a village get their
eyes gouged out for daring to look at their b! etters, which is the smoke and
which the fire? When young women get acid thrown at them because they
refuse advances from men, which is the smoke and which the fire?
When law courts say that rape could not have happened because the
men are respectable and the woman but a tribal where is the smoke and where
the fire?
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, I hear them saying.
But is it inconceivable that some of us live in glass houses because we want
to be transparent, because we want to make our lives open books?
I don't know if I will be able to write again or when. Nor what
today holds. But I wanted you all to know that if I go down it shall be
fighting for what I believe is true and right.
---
Mallika Sarabhai
_________________________________________________________________
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