Incarceration of undertrials associated with "illegal" TU activity in Jharkhand termed violation of international law

An MSS rally before it was banned

By A Representative
In an unprecedented move, the Jharkhand government has put four persons, accused of being associated with "illegal" trade union activity, Ajay Hembrum, Mohan Murmu, Daya Chand Hembrum and Damodar Turi, all of them undertrials, under solitary confinement, allowing them to mingle with other prisoners only twice a day for two hours.
Arrested and put in Giridih Central Jail after the crackdown on the Mazdoor Sangathan Samiti (MSS), a registered trade union, banned on December 22, the relatives of these prisoners have complained that the cells in which these undertrials have been kept are unclean and without any basic facilities.
Worse, according to the relatives, they are prevented from giving basic items like mosquito repellents, food and clothes to the four inmates, with the number of persons who can visit and the frequency of visits having been "arbitrarily curtailed."
Bringing this to light, a civil rights organization, Persecuted Prisoners’ Solidarity Committee (PPSC), led by veteran human rights activist Stan Swamy and trade union leader and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj, have said that that Turi is not even a member of MSS.
In an email alert, PPSC has said, "These and other undertrial prisoners have been put in solitary confinement since March 23, 2018", adding, "In response, prisoners went on a hunger strike on March 27."
According to PPSC, following the hunger strike, "under pressure, since April 2 the jail administration allowed these prisoners to mingle with other prisoners only twice a day for two hours", calling the solitary confinement a "violation of the constitutional and statutory rights of prisoners as guaranteed by the law of the land."
According to PPSC, "It is unconstitutional and illegal to keep undertrial prisoners under solitary confinement in India. Solitary confinement is envisaged only for convicts (s.73, 74 IPC) and that too on compliance of strict statutory conditions." "Further", PPSC says, "it is only under an order of a Court that such confinement can be authorised (Sunil Batra v Delhi Administration, 1978 AIR 1675)", adding, "Internationally, solitary confinement is recognised as a form of torture."
Notably, India is a signatory to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1987.
MSS was declared an unlawful association under section 16 of the CLA Act, 1908, accused of being a “frontal organisation of the CPI (Maoist)." It has been working for the rights of doli mazdoor and other workers since 1989 in Giridih, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Ramgarh, Gaya, Kharsawan and Jhalda districts of Jharkhand.
Claiming to have membership of around 22,000 workers, MSS, says the PPSC email alert, has "exposed the fake encounter killing of one of their members Motilal Baske in June 2017, and has been protesting against the amendments to the land laws (Chotanagpur Tenancy Act 1908 and Santhal Pargana Act 1949) aimed at dispossessing Adivasis and Moolvasis of their land."
Says PPSC, "As part of the ongoing repression, the government has also banned another organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) in February leading to 3 FIRs, arrests of its members and sealing of their offices", adding, "PFI has been involved in exposing the role of administration and cow-vigilante groups in lynchings of Muslims and intimidation of their families."
Meanwhile, PPSC has demanded that the ban on MSS and PFI be revoked,cases against members of MSS and PFI be withdrawn, and persons incarcerated be released immediately.

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.

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

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.

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.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Counterview

Search This Blog