South Asia Citizens Web

We strongly welcome the Supreme Court order by Justice Sudershan Reddy and Justice SS Nijjar declaring the use and arming of SPOs as well as state support for Salwa Judum unconstitutional and directing the state to disarm SPOs, stop using them in counterinsurgency operations, as well as file FIRs and prosecute them vigorously, as also the CBI enquiry into the Tadmetla attacks. This landmark order is not a victory for any one side, but a victory for the Constitution itself over those who seek to violate and destroy it.

On 16th July 2011 Saturday eight platoons of police attacked and lathi
charged peaceful protesters in the village of Nuagaon, Jagatsinghpur
District, Odisha [India]. The protesters, despite being mainly women, were attacked by an entirely male police force, resulting in injuries to several and
serious injuries to one woman, who has now been hospitalised. The protesters were seeking to protect their forests and trees from being cleared by the police as part of the government’s land grab for the POSCO project. After the lathi charge the entire village joined the protest, eventually driving the police back and forcing them to retreat. We strongly condemn this brutal attack on a peaceful protest by people seeking to protect their legal and democratic rights.

The politics of Karnataka has verily become the theatre of the absurd! Having been ‘sworn- in‘ three years ago to govern the State, the political leadership was heading for a ‘swear- out‘ at Dharmasthala, an important seat of religion and spirituality in the State. This was to affirm one’s commitment to the truth. The Chief Minister (B.S. Yeddyurappa) challenging a former Chief Minister (H.D. Kumaraswamy) to testify before God at Dharmasthala by means of a government advertisement in all leading newspapers is clearly something exceptional in a secular state. The fact that the challenge was accepted was equally shocking. Before the days of plastic money, many shops had a board ‘In God we Trust, Rest Strictly Cash‘. This seems to be the new mantra of the political leadership in the State.

The proposed draft of Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011 is a step in right direction. The BJP is attacking the Bill precisely for the reason that it holds officers responsible for their acts and omissions and negligent behavior or willful failure in controlling riots. The Officers would not listen to their political bosses, else they could face prosecution if they are complicit. Organising, instigating and abetting communal violence will not be easy. The pretext these leaders are using is that the Bill does not propose to address communal and targeted violence perpetrated by the minority against the majority community. However, whenever that happens, the state has not been found wanting in taking appropriate action against those responsible.

Can there be any greater instance of collective hypocrisy? Politicians, including those in government, who are now unloading torrents of crocodile tears over Husain’s death in exile, hardly stirred themselves when circumstances were being created to hound him out of the country. Had they exerted themselves and taken a determined stand against the vandals who had targeted exhibitions of Husain’s works, it could have been a different story altogether. The prime minister and his cabinet colleagues looked the other way when atrocious anti-Husain incidents were taking place in the very heart of the nation’s capital.