PUCL condemning house search of Kavita Srivastava

Kavita Srivastava, a respected social activist

1. People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) (National) strongly condemns the high handed police action in raiding and searching the house of Kavita Srivastava, a respected social activist who is the  National Secretary of PUCL and President of the Rajasthan State unit of the PUCL on the morning of 3rd October, 2011.

2. The police purportedly raided her house to search for a `naxalite’ whose identity is not clear. The search was led by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Rajendra Singh Shekawat. It was apparently done on the request of Chhattisgarh Police which was led by one Memon in plain clothes. The raid was calculated to intimidate and create fear as a truck load of Special Task Force Police were stationed outside her house. Police were positioned out side the PUCL office as well. Kavita was not present in the house during the raid. Despite the fact that the family members of Kavita fully co-operated with the search party, Kavita’s 80 year old father who is on a pace maker was shoved around. Her sister and a guest who had just left the house were detained outside the house for more than an hour. The family’s domestic helpers were also not spared and were harassed and intimidated. The search party obviously did not find any fugitive from law taking refuge in her house.

            3. Kavita and her family are old residents of Jaipur and are well known and respected . As an office bearer of PUCL she has been continuously interacting with the local police as well as the State authorities on several issues concerning the poor and the oppressed in Rajasthan. Thus her bonafides are well established and a search of this nature is completely un- warranted and uncalled for.  It is most disconcerting how a search warrant against her could have been so casually issued

when the Supreme Court has cautioned against it and observed that “issuance of a search warrant is a serious matter and it would not be advisable not to dispose of an application for search warrant in a mechanical way by a laconic order. Issue of search warrant being in the discretion of the Magistrate it would be reasonable to expect of the Magistrate to give reasons which swayed his discretion in favour of granting the request. A clear application of mind by the learned Magistrate must be discernible in the order granting the search warrant.”

            4. It is well known that Kavita Srivastava, in her capacity as the National Secretary of the PUCL has been active not only in the campaign for release of Dr. Binayak Sen but has also been in the fore front of raising issues of rights violation with impunity by the State of Chhattisgarh and its police force. In the recent past she has been spear- heading the campaign against the arbitrary BPL criteria set by the Planning Commission and the attempts of the Central Government to exclude vast sections of the poor from receiving any of the PDS and other services.  She had also taken up the issue of recent attacks on the minority community in Rajasthan.

            5. It is thus evident that the early morning raid in her house is nothing but an act of harassment and an attempt at intimidating not just Kavita Srivastava as a person but PUCL as an organization and all other human rights and social activists who dare to raised issues of rights violations. The PUCL states that the action of police authorities is in violation of article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders which mandates that States shall protect human rights defenders from pressure and arbitrary action as a consequence of their legitimate actions to defend and protect human rights.

            6. The PUCL demands that the States of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and their respective Police Officials refrain forthwith from pursuing such intimidating tactics in future against Kavita Srivastava and other human rights activists and to carry out their obligations under the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders .

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D. Nagasaila, Advocate
Dr. V. Suresh, Advocate
National Secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Hussaina Manzil, III Floor, 255 (Old No. 123), Angappa Naicken St., Chennai 600 001
Ph.: +91-25352459 / 42621386-87 / Mobile: +91-94442-31497

Sikhs are protesting against PM's Singh's Govt's policy

SIKHS TO HOLD "JUSTICE RALLY" DURING PM SINGH'S ADDRESS TO UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) announced that a "Justice Rally" will be held during PM Manmohan Singh's address to the UN General Assembly on September 24^th from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon. Sikhs are protesting against PM's Singh's Government's policy of impunity towards Congress (I) leaders who organized and participated in the killing of Sikhs during November 1984.

In November 1984, thousands of Sikhs were massacred, their properties looted and burnt, all across India, with the active connivance of law enforcement and on behest of leaders of Congress Party Leaders. Kamal Nath, Amitabh Bachchan, Arun Nehru, Vasant Sathe, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, were seen instigating and leading the killer mobs that attacked Sikhs in November 1984. Twenty Seven (27) years after the massacre, PM Singh has failed to prosecute those responsible and instead have rewarded the killers of Sikhs with seats in the parliament and positions in the Cabinet.

According to attorney Gurpatwant S. Pannun legal advisor to SFJ, PM Singh is not only protecting Kamal Nath in India but is also actively working to get him immunity from prosecution before U.S. Federal Court where he is being tried for his role in November 1984 Sikh Genocide. PM Singh's Government has been sending Démarches to the U.S. Department of State seeking immunity from prosecution for Kamal Nath added attorney Pannun. While Indian Governments claims of democracy, human rights, justice and equality grow louder, bolder and loftier; its actions of shielding the human rights abusers defy the same.

SFJ along with victims of November 1984 have filed a class action law suit against Indian National Congress (Congress I) and Kamal Nath (SFJ v. INC. & Nath SDNY (10 CV 2940)) under Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) for their role in the killing of Sikhs in November 1984. US Court issued summons against Kamal Nath on April 06, 2010 while summons against Congress Party were issued in March 2011.

A Letter from NAAM

Press Release  Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 10:45 AM                                                                                                                        For Immediate Release March 13, 2011  National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM) 42/27 Esankai Mani Veethy Parakkai Road Junction Nagercoil 629 002 Tamil Nadu, India Contact: S. P. Udayakumar, Coordinator Mob: 9865683735; Email: spudayakumar@gmail.com We would like to express our great concern and deep anxiety about the deadly radioactive explosion that has happened at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan (some 150 miles north of Tokyo). Both online and television images of the thick white smoke hovering over the exploded nuclear power plant have come to haunt the world public opinion. The Japanese authorities have extended the evacuation zone to 20 kms. The dangerous explosion is said to have blown the roof off the reactor building, brought down walls and caused a very heavy radiation leak. Even after the plant’s chain reaction was stopped, the fuel rods continue to produce heat and must be cooled in order to avoid the meltdown of the fuel. The plant needs a continuous supply of electricity to run the water pumps and the instruments. Since the emergency diesel generators at the Daiichi plant failed, pressure mounted in the reactor, the normal cooling function stopped and resulted in the explosion. The Tokyo Electric Power Co., who operates the exploded power plant has said that the explosion happened “near” the No. 1 reactor. The Japanese nuclear authorities have claimed that “small amounts of radioactive material were likely to leak out.” This is the universal attitude and approach of the nuclear departments of all countries. We will come to know the full and complete details of this worst nuclear disaster in a few more weeks or months. As the world is gearing up to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the deadly nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl on April 26, 2011, another calamity has stuck the humanity. India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) will try to reassure the people of India that they are far more superior than everybody else in the world and this kind of accidents would never happen in Indian facilities. On January 7, 2005, Dr. L. V. Krishnan, the former director, safety research and health physics at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, claimed in an interview with rediff.com that the Kalpakkam reactors escaping the wrath of the ‘Big Wave’ was a cause of pride for India, as these reactors had been built solely by indigenous effort.  Although Dr. Krishnan admitted that tsunami was not taken into consideration when the Kalpakkam reactors were built, the Koodankulam nuclear power plant authorities claimed that they had built the tsunami factor into their project design without giving any proof. The Indian public have to sit up, think and decide here and now how we want to proceed with the dangerous nuclear power program the Indian government and the nuclear establishment have been scheming with very little transparency, accountability and popular participation. Common sense would instruct us not to tread this path of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima but generate energy from safe and sustainable sources. We demand the Government of India to reverse its nuclear adventurisms immediately and chart out a different course to achieve energy security that also incorporates human security.

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Peace Is Doable

Another Shame Discovered in Haryana after 26 Years

NOVEMBER 1984 SIKH GENOCIDE

JUSTICE CAMPAIGN YOUR SUPPORT

MASS GRAVE OF "SIKHS" KILLED IN NOVEMBER 1984 DISCOVERED IN HARYANA AFTER 26 YEARS A mass Grave of Sikhs killed in November 1984 has been discovered after 26 years in village Hondh-Chillar, District Rewari, Haryana. The village was inhibited by several Sikh families and on November 02, 1984 in an organized and well planned attack, the entire village was burnt along with its Sikh population and Gurudwara. The village consisting of torched houses, burnt Gurudwara and scattered human bones has been now been discovered.

As per attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun Legal Advisor to Sikhs For Justice, the forlorn debris and human remains at village Hondh-Chillar discovered after 26 years are the most specific and convincing evidence of Sikhs localities being attacked and wiped out throughout India in a identical pattern. The evidence discovered on site indicates systematic pattern in which armed groups lead by Congress Leaders would cordon Sikh neighborhoods, rape the women and burn the men and children alive. "The discovery of Mass Grave of Sikhs in Haryana proves that Nanavati Commission's scope of inquiry into the killing of Sikhs was gravely insufficient and eyewash because the commission did not look into killings of Sikhs that took place outside Delhi", added attorney Pannun.

According to Karnail Singh Peermohammad scores of Sikhs living in the village were burnt to death on November 02, 1984 and the Police neither identified the dead nor investigated the killing of Sikhs. According to the FIR filed by Ghanpat Singh Sarpanch and other eyewitnesses, the Sikh population of the village was attacked on November 02, 1984 by a group of about 500 people who came in Trucks and were armed. The group was shouting "Ye Sardar Ghaddar hain, Inn ko khatam karain ge" (These Sardars are traitors and we will wipe them out).

Echoing a shock felt by numerous international human rights organizations and activists, Jatinder Singh of Sikhs For Justice added "It is unthinkable the way in which these Sikhs must have been systematically targeted and subjected to the most gruesome methods of mass killing known to humankind.  It is horrifying to think that these murders took place with state complicity through carefully orchestrated genocidal acts by armed groups of Indian men, transported from village to village by the state."  Adding to this shock, Jatinder Singh also cited that, "An entire village ethnically cleansed of a religious minority is the gravest violation of human rights and the most clearest proof of the Sikh Genocide. The innocent families of Hondh-Chillar village, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters were all exterminated simply because of their religious beliefs differed from the majority of India."

In addition to the statements made by AISSF and SFJ, researchers have brought forth information that on November 02, 1984 attackers surrounded Sikh houses and attacked by throwing petrol bombs into Sikh homes. Men and children were beaten and thrown into the burning houses and women were first raped and then thrown into the fire. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib was also desecrated and Gurudwara was put on fire as indication of the murderous rage of the mob, looking to destroy any and all traces of Sikh identity. In light of the recent discovery, AISSF and Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) will approach United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and South Asian Human Rights Commission to visit the site of Sikh Mass Graves in village Hondh-Chillar and investigate the attack on Sikhs that took place throughout India in November 1984. The genocidal site of village Hondh-Chillar is discovered by the sustained and unceasing efforts of Engineer Manvinder Singh Giaspur

Why is the Governement afraid of this good Doctor?

The Committee for the Release of Binayak Sen, Mumbai unequivocally condemns the brutal and undemocratic police action against students

and human rights activists holding a peaceful demonstration at Churchgate, and sitting in a collective at The Oval Maidan,Churchgate.

 The demonstration was against the manifestly unjust decision of the Chhattisgarh High Court prolonging the incarceration of Dr. Binayak

Sen, an internationally reknowned physician facing the persecution of the State, because he spoke up for the oppressed and Adivasis.

Daniel Mazgaonkar, a septuagenarian Gandhian activist, along with others- mostly college professors and students, were jostled and dragged away to Azad Maidan police station.

Kamayani Bali Mahabal, a lawyer and human rights activist, was brutally assaulted by the police and dragged to Colaba Police Station,along with student bystanders who protested against such high-handedness. Her crime- standing at Kala Ghoda silently with a poster proclaiming peace and justice!

 If, in a "democracy", the law and its guardians act with such impunity in throttling every voice of public dissent, then very "democracy" and civil liberties and human rights are in grave peril.

- Committee For Release of Binayak Sen, Mumbai

Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal

Have a Heart: Release Prisoners of Conscience

First he was denied the right as a doctor to treat his patients. Now Dr. Binayak Sen is denied the right to his own treatment. He needs an urgent Heart Checkup and possible bypass surgery urgently We DEMAND the Chhattisgarh Government IMMEDIATELY allow Dr. Sen to seek the best medical care for his heart condition wherever he Chooses!. This is his FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT not charity of his captors! Design: Hiran Venugopal Download Posters Below JPG – BIG SIZE(6.5MB) PNG – BIG SIZE(10.8 MB) PDF – A4 SIZE (3.6 MB) PS: Please ask your printer to adjust the contract of image properly to display poster well