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

India's chemical industry: The missing piece of Atmanirbhar Bharat

By N.S. Venkataraman* Rarely a day passes without the Prime Minister or a cabinet minister speaking about the importance of Atmanirbhar Bharat . The Start-up India scheme is a pillar in promoting this vision, and considerable enthusiasm has been reported in promoting start-up projects across the country. While these developments are positive, Atmanirbhar Bharat does not seem to have made significant progress within the Indian chemical industry . This is a matter of high concern that needs urgent and dispassionate analysis.

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.

Remembering a remarkable rebel: Personal recollections of Comrade Himmat Shah

By Rajiv Shah I first came in contact with Himmat Shah in the second half of the 1970s during one of my routine visits to Ahmedabad , my maternal hometown. I do not recall the exact year, but at that time I was working in Delhi with the CPI -owned People’s Publishing House (PPH) as its assistant editor, editing books and writing occasional articles for small periodicals. Himmatbhai — as I would call him — worked at the People’s Book House (PBH), the CPI’s bookshop on Relief Road in Ahmedabad.

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 ...

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.

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

Muslim women’s rights advocates demand criminalisation of polygamy: Petition launched

By A Representative An online petition seeking a legal ban on polygamy has been floated by Javed Anand, co-editor of Sabrang and National Convener of Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD), inviting endorsements from citizens, organisations and activists. The petition, titled “Indian Muslims & Secular Progressive Citizens Demand a Legal Ban on Polygamy,” urges the Central and State governments, Parliament and political parties to abolish polygamy through statutory reform, backed by extensive data from the 2025 national study conducted by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA).

As 2024 draws nearer, threatening signs appear of more destructive wars

By Bharat Dogra The four years from 2020 to 2023 have been very difficult and high risk years for humanity. In the first two years there was a pandemic and such severe disruption of social and economic life that countless people have not yet recovered from its many-sided adverse impacts. In the next two years there were outbreaks of two very high-risk wars which have worldwide implications including escalation into much wider conflicts. In addition there were highly threatening signs of increasing possibility of other very destructive wars. As the year 2023 appears to be headed for ending on a very grim note, there are apprehensions about what the next year 2024 may bring, and there are several kinds of fears. However to come back to the year 2020 first, the pandemic harmed and threatened a very large number of people. No less harmful was the fear epidemic, the epidemic of increasing mental stress and the cruel disruption of the life and livelihoods particularly among the weaker s...

Farewell to Robin Smith, England’s Lionhearted Warrior Against Pace

By Harsh Thakor* Robin Smith, who has died at the age of 62, was among the most adept and convincing players of fast bowling during an era when English cricket was in decline and pace bowling was at its most lethal. Unwavering against the tormenting West Indies pace attack or the relentless Australians, Smith epitomised courage and stroke-making prowess. His trademark shot, an immensely powerful square cut, made him a scourge of opponents. Wearing a blue England helmet without a visor or grille, he relished pulling, hooking and cutting the quicks.

Search This Blog