Kerala Police "brutally" came down and lathicharged Puthuvypeen residents, "unlawfully" detaining children

Counterview Desk
A National Alliance of People’s Movement’s (NAPM’s) letter to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking urgent intervention in the matter of police action against peaceful protestors of Puthuvypeen, Kochi:
We are writing to you in the context of the serious repression by your Government on the people of Puthuvypeen, near Kochi who have been peacefully protesting against the LPG Import Terminal Project of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for the past 108 days.
Just as we were pleased to note certain positive decisions by your government on other fronts, we are constrained to note that like in any other state, people’s voices and struggles continue to be muzzled in Kerala, particularly when the justifiability of ‘development projects’, pushed against popular consent is questioned in democratic ways.
It has come to our notice that the Kerala Police, by way of lathi charge of women and men, mass arrests and even unlawful detention of children, has brutally come down on the residents of Puthuvypeen. We would like to stress here that most of the people of Puthuvypeen are poor, landless people and many of them belong to the fishing community. Their concerns of livelihood loss, environmental and health impacts must be addressed by the State, not crushed in this manner.
We were extremely disturbed to see pictures of women and children detained at police stations, protestors with broken/ fractured limbs and police ruthlessly demolishing the Satyagraha pandal, all in an attempt to enable IOC to start the project work. We received information from reliable sources that until yesterday late night, more than 325 people are under the custody of the police in different stations, of which over a 100 are children!
While 45 children, along with women are in one station, about 15 children are in yet another station. Some women and children are in the nearby hospitals. This action of the police is in complete violation of basic human rights, criminal procedure and juvenile justice laws.
While we do not wish to bother you with legal technicalities of the IOC Project at this stage, we have gathered that certain matters in this regard are still pending before the Southern Zonal Bench of the Hon’ble National Green Tribunal and the matter has been listed on 4th July, 2017 for further hearing by the NGT.
The order dated 24/4/2017 of the NGT also indicates that the Union Environment Ministry has sought time to file reply. We are at pains to understand as to how the plant works could have been initiated, much less using physical force when the matter is sub judice before the NGT. Your government owes an explanation to the NGT and people-at-large in this regard.
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) expresses its solidarity with the people ofPuthuvypeen and calls upon your government to immediately and unconditionally withdraw charges, if any, and release all those who have been arrested or detained, along with ensuring medical, legal aid and compensation for police excesses.
We hope you will immediately intervene in this incident and also issue orders for appropriate legal action against the administrative and police officials for unlawful detention and physical force used on the peaceful protestors. We urge you to ensure that the project works are put on hold until there is a clear informed consent of the local people, final approval of the NGT and compliance with all environmental laws. Kindly take a positive step for facilitating a dialogue between the concerned departments and representatives of the people, to ensure an amicable solution.
---
Signatories include Medha Patkar (Narmada Bachao Andolan), Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan), Prafulla Samantara (Lok Shakti Abhiyan), Lingraj Azad (Samajwadi Jan Parishad - Niyamgiri Suraksha Samit), Binayak Sen and Kavita Srivastava (People’s Union for Civil Liberties), Sandeep Pandey (Socialist Party), others

Comments

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

The selective memory of a violent city: Uttam Nagar and the invisible victims of Delhi

By Sunil Kumar* Hundreds of murders take place in Delhi every year, yet only a few incidents become topics of nationwide discussion. The question is: why does this happen? Today, the incident in Uttam Nagar has become the centre of national debate. A 26-year-old man, Tarun Kumar, was killed following a dispute that reportedly began after a balloon hit a small child. In several colonies of Delhi, slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram” are being raised while demanding the death penalty for Tarun’s killers. As a result, nearly 50,000 residents of Hastsal JJ Colony are now living in what resembles a state of confinement.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Gujarat government urged to introduce heat-stress safety rules for construction workers

By A Representative A representation submitted to Gujarat Labour, Skill Development and Employment Minister Kunvarji Bavaliya has urged the state government to introduce legally enforceable safety standards to protect construction workers from extreme heat and heatwaves, and to launch a financial assistance scheme for labourers affected by climate-related health risks.

Search This Blog