Anti-Narmada dam activist Lakhan Musafir detained, whereabouts "not known", student activists "attacked"

Dubbed “anti-Gujarat” by deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA)-organized Rally for the Valley ended on June 7 amidst news that a top Gujarat activist, attached with the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, Vadodara, Lakhan Musafir, remains under detention for the last three days.
An NBA sympathiser fighting for the rehabilitation of Narmada dam oustees, according to sources, the police did not produce him before the magistrate even though it is required to do it within 24 hours of detention to prove the reason behind detention.
“He has been kept him at an unknown place”, claimed a source close to NBA, whose top leader Medha Patkar and other participants in the Valley to the Rally, including Green Nobel winner Prafulla Samantara, were detained on June 7 afternoon after it entered Gujarat from Madhya Pradesh, but released later in the evening.
Musafir is learnt to have been detained after he was suddenly asked by the cops of Narmada district to accompany them during a dinner at someone’s residence on June 6 evening, saying their officer wanted to talk to him. He was brought to Jitnagar, Rajpipala, in the district. On Thursday, according to unconfirmed sources, he was sent to Rajpipla sub-jail.
Seeking “immediate release Lakhan Musafir, illegally detained by Gujarat police”, NBA in a detailed statement has said, following the arrest of Patkar and other activists, the Gujarat police “turned violent and detained all the protestors, dragged women protesters, beaten up two children Kaamil and Hasim of Salsabeel Green School studying in 9th and 8th standard.”

Pointing out that “Kaamil left injured with a possible fracture in his shoulder”, NBA said, “Police also tried to run over their vehicle on two of the protesters, Aswathy and Rohit, young activists with NBA. They suffered injury on their legs. Rohit’s left leg was fracture, and Aswathy’s left leg suffered bruises on her calf muscle.”

A large number of students from all over India, including from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad Central University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi University, and school children accompanying their parents, were part of the Rally for the Valley, which began on June 5.NBA has filed a detailed complaint with Nanpur police station against the “brutal and unconstitutional attacks” carried out by the Gujarat Police.
Meanwhile, a senior farmers’ leader, Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat, has called the detention of Musafir and attack on NBA activists “absolute illegal and anti-constitution”, adding these reminds one of “brutal fake encounter stories of recent past, even as indicating how brazen the Gujarat police is, and up to what extent police can it go to obey oral orders to please their master.”
Rabari said, not giving permission to hold protests has become a norm, adding, the latest in the series when the farmers of 68 villages, who were supposed to take out a vehicles rally to hand over a memorandum to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani were denied permission.

“Heavy police force was deployed at the venue to terrorize the villagers not to come out of their villages”, he added.

Comments

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Whither Jeffrey Sachs-supported research project which 'created' Gujarat model of development for Modi?

Even as Donald Trump was swearing-in as US President, a friend forwarded to me a YouTube video in which veteran world renowned economist Prof Jeffrey Sachs participated and sought an answer as to why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "afraid to fly" despite being invited to Donald Trump's swearing in ceremony. This took my memory to 2003, when I -- as representative of the Times of India -- had a short tet-a-tat along with a couple of other reporters with Sachs in the chief minister's office in Gandhinagar.

Busy taking books to the needy, this rationalist exposes miracles in a superstition-infested Gujarat society

I knew his name as a campaigner against the sheer wastage of the large amounts of ghee brought by devotees from across India for a major religious ceremony conducted every year in Rupal village, near Gandhinagar, the Gujarat capital, on the ninth day of Navratri. I had seen him at several places during my visits to different NGO meetings as well as some media conferences.

No to free thought? How Gujarat's private universities are cowing down their students

"Don't protest"—that's the message private universities across Gujarat seem to be conveying to their students. A senior professor told me that students at the university where he teaches are required to sign an undertaking promising not to engage in protests. "They simply sign the undertaking and hand it over to the university authorities," he said.

'Potentially lethal, carcinogenic': Global NGO questions India refusing to ban white asbestos

Associated with the Fight Inequality Alliance, a global movement that began in 2016 to "counter the concentration of power and wealth among a small elite", claiming to have members in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, the Philippines, and Denmark, the advocacy group Confront Power appears all set to intensify its campaign against India as "the world’s largest asbestos importer".

To be or not to be Sattvik: Different communities' differing notions of purity and fasting

This is a continuation of my last blog on Sattvik food. When talking about Sattvik, there is a tendency to overlook what it may mean to different sections of people around the world. First, let me redefine Sattvik: it means having a "serene, balanced, and harmonious mind or attitude." Derived from the Sanskrit word sattva, it variously means "pure, essence, nature, vital, energy, clean, conscious, strong, courage, true, honest, and wise." How do people achieve this so-called purity? Among Gujarati Hindus, especially those from the so-called upper castes who are vegetarians, one common way is fasting. On fasting days, such as agiyarash —the 11th day of the lunar cycle in the Vedic calendar—my close relatives fast but consume milk, fruit juices, mangoes, grapes, bananas, almonds, pistachios, and potato-based foods, including fried items. Another significant fasting period is adhik maas. During this time, many of my relatives "fast" by eating only a single me...

Sattvik Food Festival: Shouldn't one question notion of purity, cultural exclusion in food choices?

Recently, I visited the Sattvik Food Festival, an annual event in Ahmedabad organized by Anil Gupta, professor emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A). I have known Prof. Gupta since 1993, when I sought an appointment to meet him a few months after joining The Times of India in Ahmedabad—one reason why I have always been interested in the activities he is involved in.

Beyond the Sattvik plate: Prof Anil Gupta's take on food, ethics, and sustainability

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a rather lengthy comment (I don't want to call it a rejoinder) on my blog post about the Sattvik Food Festival, held near the Sola Temple in Ahmedabad late last year. It came from no less a person than Anil Gupta, Professor Emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), under whose guidance this annual event was held.

World Bank approved $800 for Amravati despite negative internal view, court, NGO objections: CFA

Despite over 170 representatives by civil society organisations, hailing from 17 countries, all of them written to the World Bank’s executive directors calling upon the top banker to defer its approval, even as seeking further detailed studies, the Bank’s board of directors has approved $800 million for the Amaravati Capital City project.

Search This Blog