Medha Patkar "rearrested", as protests break out across India; complaint filed with NHRC, UN Special Rapporteur

Patkar after her release from Indore hospital

By A Representative
In a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday afternoon, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader was "discharged” from Indore’s Bombay Hospital following a court order on the basis of a habeas corpus application, only to be "rearrested". On her way to Badwani, Patkar’s car was intercepted by nearly 35 police vehicles. In her 14th day of indefinite fast, the car’s driver was forced out, and she was taken to Dhar jail.
Meanwhile, NBA has released a list of 47 persons who were injured and are under treatment during the police lathicharge on August 7 in Chikhalda village, where Parkar is on indefinite hunger strike since July 27 for 40,000 oustee families of Narmada dam who have still not been rehabilitated.
After picking up fasting Patkar from Chikhalda village on August 7, the Madhya Pradesh cops took her to Indore, even as taking nine those who were on hunger strike to Dhar. The injured people were admitted in Badwani.

Dhar jail

Earlier in Indore, two senior NBA activists trying to meet Patkar, Chinmay Mishra and Bilal Khan, were detained by the police but released after they were interrogated at two separate spots.
An NBA communique said, the whole scenario shows that the Madhya Pradesh chief minister was "lying" about his concern for the health of Patkar. "The fasting people have been illegally detained and are not allowed access as normal patients", it added.
In a related development, NBA has submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), asking it to take strict action against "violent attack" by police officials and others involved in lathicharging NBA activists in Chikhalda.

NBA submitted a separate complaint to the UN Rapporteur on Housing about "forcible eviction" of thousands of Narmada dam oustees and effort to resettle them in poorly prepared resettlement sites.

Protest in Pune

Meanwhile, protests took place at several placed in the country against "the high handed" action of the Madhya Pradesh police, belonging to two different districts, Dhar and Badwani, which led to the detention of Patkar and other testing NBA activists and injury to 47 others, some of whom have been admitted in ICU in Badwani.
In Delhi, protestors marched to the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan and submitted memorandum demanding immediate release of all from the hospitals and allow them to discuss their next course of action. They also demanded action against the district magistrate, the superintendent of police and other officials "responsible" for the "high handedness" of the police, seeking dialogue with the NBA.

Protest in Delhi

A delegation of Hannan Mollah (former CPM MP), Yogendra Yadav (Swaraj Abhiyaan), Kavita Krishnan (All-India Progressive Women's Association), among others, submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Resident Commissioner and Joint Resident Commissioner, signed by 30 representatives of people’s organization.
Those signed also included social activist Shabnam Hashmi, Rajendra Ravi of the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM), Gandhian intellectual Sandeep Pandey, Faisal Khan of the Khudai Khidmatgar, Bhupendra Singh Rawat of the Jan Sangharsh Vahini, and Ramesh Sharma of the Socialist Unity Centre.
Madhuresh Kumar, national convener, NAPM, the apex body of tens of people's organizations, including NBA, and a Patkar associate, gave a brief account of the incident which led to the detention of Patkar and others. Kumar said, the government has used violent tactics, but "we will keep our fight on."

Protest in Tumkur

"Since August 7, Patkar and others have been admitted in Indore and Dhar hospitals, respectively, with limited access. The government has maintained that they are concerned about their health and they are only hospitalized. If they are hospitalized then shouldn’t they be treated like normal patients with visitation rights by their colleagues, friends and, family?", he wondered.
"The government claims that it is concerned about their health, which would have meant that all the 12 should have been kept in the same hospital. But this has not happened. Nine of them are n the Dhar district hospital and two, Rukmani Bahan and Bhagwati Bahan, have been left at the Chikhalda protest sit, where they continue to fast", he added.

Yogendra Yadav said, "The protesters are asking very basic things, rehabilitation of all the affected people and on the issues. The Madhya Pradesh government is lying all over and using forces on peaceful protestors. The movement has exposed the development model and given the protesters courage to ask what development means for to people."

Protest in Bhopal

Sandeep Pandey said that the government "is not acting for the benefit of the people, but just as the Gujarat government destroyed the Sabarmati River, the Madhya Pradesh and Central governments are doing the same with people of Narmada Valley."
Protest actions also took place in Bengaluru and Tumkur (Karnataka), Bhopal, Hyderabad, Pune, Bhopal, Varanasi, and Bhubneshwar. In Chikhalda, the village where Patkar and others were on fast, students of Salsabeel Green School raised slogsns against the arrest of Patkar and others.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Counterview

Search This Blog