[chhattisgarh-net] Digest Number 1830

chhattisgarh-net Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:32:17 -0700

Title: chhattisgarh-net

Messages In This Digest (3 Messages)

1.: Krishna Iyerâs plea on behalf of Binayak Sen From: Shubhranshu Choudhary

2a.: Re: 1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India From: Shubhranshu Choudhary

3.: Democracy in Maoist citadel From: Shubhranshu Choudhary

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1.: Krishna Iyerâs plea on behalf of Binayak Sen

Posted by: "Shubhranshu Choudhary" s...@cgnet.in

Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:30 pm (PDT)

Krishna Iyer ¢â ¹s plea on behalf of Binayak Sen

The text of a letter written by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, former Supreme
Court Judge, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dated April 17, 2009:

I would like to bring to your attention a case of grave injustice which is a
cause of much shame to Indian democracy: that of Dr. Binayak Sen, the well
known paediatrician and defender of human rights.

This good doctor has been incarcerated in a Raipur jail for nearly two years
now under the Chhattisgarh State Public Security Act, 2005. Among the
charges against Dr. Sen, who is renowned worldwide for his public health
work among the rural poor, are ¢â ¼treason and waging war against the state. ¢â ½

Chhattisgarh State prosecutors claim that Binayak, as part of an unproven
conspiracy, passed on a set of letters from Narayan Sanyal, a senior Maoist
leader who is in the Raipur jail, to Piyush Guha, a local businessman with
allegedly close links to the left-wing extremists. He was supposed to have
done this while visiting Sanyal in prison both in his capacity as a human
rights activist and as a doctor treating him for various medical ailments.

The trial of Dr. Sen, which began in a Raipur Sessions Court late April
2008, has, however, not thrown up even a shred of evidence to justify any of
these charges against him. By March 2009, of the 83 witnesses listed for
deposition by the prosecution as part of the original charge-sheet, 16 were
dropped by the prosecutors themselves and six declared ¢â ¸hostile ¢â ¹, while 61
others have deposed without corroborating any of the accusations against Dr.
Sen. Irrespective of the merits of the case against Dr. Sen, there are very
disturbing aspects to the way the trial process has been carried out so far.

As if all this were not enough, Dr. Sen has also been repeatedly denied bail
by the Bilaspur High Court (in September 2007 and December 2008). And the
Supreme Court of India rejected his special leave petition to have the bail
application heard before it (in December 2007).

Given the paucity of evidence in the trial of Dr. Sen so far, in all
fairness the Raipur court should have dismissed the case against him
altogether by now. Certainly the weakness of the prosecution ¢â ¹s position
should entitle him to at least grant of bail. Dr. Sen is a person of
international standing and reputation, with a record of impeccable behaviour
throughout his distinguished career. In May 2008, in an unprecedented move
22 Nobel Prize winners even signed a public statement calling him a
¢â ¸professional colleague ¢â ¹ and asking for his release.

Normally bail is refused only in cases where courts believe an accused can
tamper with evidence, prejudice witnesses or run away. In Dr. Sen ¢â ¹s case
none of these apply, as shown by the simple fact that at the time of his
arrest he chose to come to the Chhattisgarh police voluntarily and made no
attempt to abscond despite knowing about his possible detention.

Today Dr. Sen, a diabetic who is also hypertensive, is himself in urgent
need of medical treatment for his deteriorating heart condition. In recent
weeks his health has worsened and a doctor appointed by the court to examine
him recommended that he be transferred to Vellore for an angiography and
perhaps, if needed, an angioplasty or coronary artery bypass graft without
further delay.

Instead of recognising their social contributions, the Indian state, by
wrongly branding Dr. Sen and many other human rights defenders like him as
¢â ¸terrorists ¢â ¹, is making a complete mockery of not just democratic norms and
fair governance but its entire anti-terrorist strategy and operations.

The repeated denial of bail which results in ¢â ¸punishment by trial ¢â ¹
constitutes an even graver threat to Indian society. The sheer injustice
involved will only breed cynicism among ordinary citizens about the
credibility and efficacy of Indian democracy itself.
* *

http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/19/stories/2009041955680900.htm

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2a.: Re: 1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India

Posted by: "Shubhranshu Choudhary" smita...@gmail.com shu36garh

Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:57 pm (PDT)

Dear friends,

Heading of this report is misleading. 1500 farmers commit suicide in Chhattisgarh every year, that is 4 every day. This is the highest rate of farmers suicide in the country ( 6.49 per 100,000 population) but the state remains in denial saying not a single farmer has committed suicide due to debt. Though the police records of the state give details of 1500 farmers who committed suicide every year and many of them due to debt (according to same police records). For more on the story please go to : http://cgnet.in/A/farmersuicide/index_html/document_view

regards
Shubhranshu Choudhary
s...@cgnet.in

+91 9811066749--- In chhattisgarh-n...@yahoogroups.com, Yuvraj Gajpal <gajp...@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/1500-farmers-commit-mass-suicide-in-india-1669018.html
>
> Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven
> to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.
>
> The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.
>
> "The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet
> a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told
> Down To Earth magazine
>
> "Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do
> not have a bore well."
>
> Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year.
> Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and
> economic distress.
>
> In another village nearby, Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was
> among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his
> son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual labourer.
>
> His family must repay a debt of ¦Â£400 and the crop this year is poor.
>
> "The crop is so bad this year that we will not even be able to save any
> seeds," said Lakhnu's friend Santosh. "There were no rains at all."
>
> "That's why Lakhnu left even before harvesting the crop. There is nothing
> left to harvest in his land this time. He is worried how he will repay these
> loans."
>
> Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the
> Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle
> created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops
> fail, they are left with no option other than death."
>
> Mr Prakash added that the government ought to take up the cause of the poor
> farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.
>
> "Development should be for all. The government blames us for being against
> development. Forest area is depleting and dams are constructed without
> proper planning.
>
> All this contributes to dipping water levels. Farmers should be taken into
> consideration when planning policies," he said.
>
> *This article is from The Belfast Telegraph*
>

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3.: Democracy in Maoist citadel

Posted by: "Shubhranshu Choudhary" s...@cgnet.in

Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:38 pm (PDT)

Democracy in Maoist citadel
PRAVEEN SWAMI
Kotiya * Why adivasis in insurgency-hit Koraput risk their lives to
participate in the elections *

Tied to a bamboo pole that seems to stretch to the sky, the red flag of the
Communist Party of India (Maoist) flutters high above the hamlet of
Ganjaipadar.

But draped all around it are green Biju Janata Dal flags, emblazoned with
the party ¢â ¹s conch logo, and Congress posters extolling the virtues of
nine-time Member of Parliament Giridhar Gamang.

Not a single police officer is visible in or around Ganjaipadar, but Maoist
insurgents seem to be making no effort to enforce their call for an election
boycott. By 10:00 a.m., 147 of 510 voters had exercised their franchise; the
number had more than doubled by lunchtime.

Ganjaipadar lies in the cluster of adivasi hamlets around the village of
Kotiya ¢â ´ the mountain bastion of the Maoist insurgency in Orissa ¢â ¹s troubled
Koraput district.

For all practical purposes, Kotiya has disappeared from Orissa ¢â ¹s map. Buses
stopped making the 26-kilometre journey from National Highway 43 years ago.
Last year, Koraput district authorities gave up the effort to stop what
remains of the road from dissolving into the red earth, after a contractor
fled the area. Police officials in Koraput admit it has been months since
they attempted to send patrols into the area.
Democracy and development

Why do large numbers of Kotiya villagers spend their time ¢â ´ and risk their
lives ¢â ´ on participating in the democratic process as voters and party
activists?

Kotiya is among the most impoverished regions in Orissa, but democracy seems
to have part-delivered. Its residents have access to a functional primary
school, which gives students an education ¢â ´ and, no less important, lunch.
Kotiya has a rudimentary dispensary; its footpaths have been paved, and
Indira Awas Yojana grants have enabled more than half of its 490 residents
access to a weather-proof home.

Orissa government engineers have even stretched power cables across the
mountains to Kotiya and ¢â ´ for a few hours every day ¢â ´ there are lights,
among other things, for late-evening volleyball games played on the court
built by the Gram Panchayat.

Most important of all, the local residents ¢â ¹ votes have brought a degree of
food security. Most Kotiya families have access to cards which entitle them
to 25 kilos of rice at Rs. 2 a kilo. In Ganjaipadar, the election campaign
revolved around the fact that just 25 of 110 families had cards ¢â ´ a result
of badly-framed rules and poor implementation.

¢â ¼I ¢â ¹m voting, ¢â ½ says Kotiya resident Shakunta Hemla, ¢â ¼to show that I support
the people who brought us cheap food. ¢â ½

Learning from experience, insurgents have avoided confrontation with local
politicians. Cadres of both the Congress and the Biju Janata Dal told this
correspondent they had an arrangement with Maoists: no attacks would take
place as long as no police personnel were brought into the Kotiya area. But
in the face of other challenges, those that go beyond the provision of cheap
food or municipal facilities, democracy isn ¢â ¹t doing quite so well.

Koraput is the advertisement for the new Orissa the State ¢â ¹s politicians have
been working to create. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited operatives a massive
facility that produces engines for Sukhoi and MiG combat jets. The National
Aluminium Company Ltd. runs Asia ¢â ¹s largest alumina refinery here. Nearby, in
the town of Jeypore, hotels are packed with British and Russian engineers
who have come in to help develop new mining and industrial projects.

But the district ¢â ¹s residents have benefited relatively little from these
investments. HAL, local politicians complain, refuses to conduct job
examinations locally, while much of NALCO ¢â ¹s work goes to contractors from
outside the region.
Little progress

More important, industrial growth has done little to accelerate human
development. Just 36.2 percent of the district ¢â ¹s 11,97,954 residents are
literate; less than one in four women can read and write. Among adivasis,
who make up just over half of the population, the literacy rate is estimated
at just over 20 percent.

Put simply, the bulk of Koraput ¢â ¹s population has neither the education nor
the capital needed to exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities that
industrial growth is opening up. Koraput ¢â ¹s already-marginalised adivasi
population, in particular, has little reason to look to the future with
hope. Democracy needs to provide answers to the looming crisis ¢â ´ or could
face defeat.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/18/stories/2009041856091300.htm

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