IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – June 21st, 2010

by Publisher on June 21, 2010

In this issue

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

News Headlines

Plea in HC for action on VHP for post-Godhra bandh
call (Jun 19, 2010, Times of India)

After the metropolitan court rejected his demand to initiate criminal
action against chief minister Narendra Modi and former VHP secretary
Kaushik Mehta for the bandh call the day after Godhra carnage in 2002,
complainant Noormohammed Shaikh filed a petition in the Gujarat High
Court. Shaikh has challenged the lower court’s order and sought punitive
steps against Modi and Mehta. This petition may come up for hearing
next week.

Interestingly, the metropolitan court took eight long
years to reject Shaikh’s complaint. This resident of Dariapur had filed
the application in October 2002, and the magisterial court rejected it
in 2010. Shaikh had based his complaint against Modi and Mehta on a
verdict by the Supreme Court, which has held bandh’ calls as
unconstitutional and illegal’. In the cited verdict pronounced by a
bench of then Chief Justice JS Verma, Justice BN Kirpal and Justice VN
Khare had considered all the calls of bandhs’ as illegal’ and
unconstitutional’ while upholding a judgement of the full bench of
Kerala High Court.

Shaikh had argued that VHP’s call for the
bandh on February 28, 2002 was unconstitutional and the state government
supported it, which automatically becomes an illegal action. Hence,
criminal proceedings should start against the leaders, because this
bandh call was responsible for the loss of life and property during the
riots. The metropolitan court rejected this application on the ground
that Shaikh failed to point the provision of the CrPC, which constituted
an offence committed by Modi and Mehta.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6065372.cms

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Mystery shrouds sponsor Alam Khan in Modi ad (Jun
15, 2010, Times of India)

The issue of advertisements published in a section of newspapers in
Bihar praising Chief Minister Narendra Modi and to highlight the status
of Muslims in Gujarat, is getting curiouser and curiouser. Apart from
the controversy over a photograph of Muslim girls using computers and
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar taking umbrage on being featured with
Modi, the focus is now on unravelling the mystery of one of the sponsors
mentioned in the Kumar-Modi advertisement.

The question being
asked by Bihar police and the state’s intelligence agencies is about
Alam Khan – one of the sponsors – among 40 whose names have been carried
in the Kumar-Modi advertisement. Of the sponsors, majority belong to
Surat. Alam Khan’s name figures along with six others from the minority
community from Surat. However, police here are believed to have traced
all the sponsors in Surat, and all, but Alam Khan, belong to the local
textile industry. Sources in the police department do, however, indicate
that Alam Khan is from Siwan district of Bihar.

K K Sharma,
president of Bihar Vikas Parishad, one of the organisations that paid
for the now controversial advertisement, and director of local Indian
Diamond Institute, said, "I don’t know who this Alam Khan is. I don’t
know how the advertisement appeared in the newspapers with all these
names. It is still a mystery to me and others from the parishad."
Sharma’s name also appeared in the advertisement as one of the sponsors.

Meanwhile, the local sponsors from minority community are a
worried lot as they fear a backlash from their community members back
home in Bihar, along with police action. "Now it is dangerous for us to
go back to our home in Bihar following the Modi advertisement focusing
on Muslims. Our names were used without showing us the advertisement
material. Our family members back home in Bihar are also in danger,"
said one of the sponsors, whose name is mentioned in the advertisement.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6048671.cms

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CBI court turns down Chudasamas bail plea (Jun 16,
2010, Indian Express)

The Special CBI Court, on Tuesday, turned down the temporary bail
application of suspended IPS officer Abhay Chudasama. The officer, an
accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh Fake Encounter case, had sought
temporary bail for three months to undergo hip replacement surgery at
Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad. His counsels are now planning to
challenge the order in the Gujarat High Court. CBI Judge G K Upadhyay
refused to grant bail to Chudasama. He observed that the Ahmedabad Civil
Hospital has all facilities to handle such surgeries and that there is
no need to release him on bail. The court also observed that there is a
possibility that Chudasama may hamper the CBI probe if he is out on
bail. In his application, Chudasama had contended that he had met with
an accident in 1994 following which he had undergone two hip replacement
surgeries.

He added that after a prolonged pain in the left hip,
he was advised to undergo the same surgery again. Chudasama had sought
the court’s permission to undergo the operation at Sterling Hospital
under the supervision of Dr Harsh Shah who has been treating him since
1994. CBI had opposed the plea, stating that Chudasama should be allowed
to undergo the operation as per the statutory provisions. CBI lawyers
said they had evidence to prove show that Chudasama had tried to
influence witnesses in the case. They also apprehended that the accused
officer might hamper the probe, which is at a crucial stage, if he is
released on bail.

The court had sought assistance from the
Superintendents of Nadiad District Jail and Sabarmati Central Jail in
this regard. The two jail authorities had communicated to the court that
generally, as per the provisions of the Bombay Jail Manual, they refer
the undertrial to the Government Civil Hospital for remedy of any such
illness and that the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad is equipped to carry
out the hip replacement surgery. Taking the opinion of the jail
authorities into consideration, the court further said that when the
surgery can be performed at the Civil Hospital, there is no need to
grant bail to Chudasama.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/634405/

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Mecca Masjid blast: 2 RSS men remanded in custody
(Jun 18, 2010, Rediff)

The long-pending investigations into the three-year-old Mecca Masjid
blast case on Thursday moved forward with the Central Bureau of
Investigation producing two suspects RSS pracharak Devender Gupta and
his accomplice Lokesh Sharma in a special CBI court in Hyderabad.

14th
additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate remanded the two to the
judicial custody till June 30. A CBI team brought the two from Ajmer
jail on a prisoner transit warrant after the CBI submitted a memo to
Hyderabad court that Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma and two other
absconders were wanted in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast.

The
Nampally criminal court complex was turned into a fortress by deploying
a large number of policemen inside and outside the complex. All the
gates were sealed and armed policemen were also deployed on the vantage
points as part of the strict security arrangements for the suspects.

http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jun/17/slide-show-1-rss-men-produced-in-court-in-mecca-masjid-balst-case.htm

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Ajmer blast: Cops named victim a suicide bomber
(Jun 14, 2010, Rediff)

Syed Salim was at the Ajmer Dargah on October 11, 2007, like a lot of
others offer his prayers on Ramazan, when a bomb ripped through the
shrine. However, little did he know that he would be tagged as the
bomber. A hasty and irresponsible investigation by the Rajasthan police
has scarred Salim’s family. Two years after wrongly implicating him as
the suicide bomber in the Ajmer dargah blast, the Rajasthan police
finally accepted that Salim was not a terrorist but one of the victims.
The Hyderabad-resident was not alive to see his humiliation and relief,
however his family has lived through it all — the pain and humiliation
apart from the agony of his death.

The Central Bureau of
Investigation, which is probing the case, concluded that Salim was not
the suicide bomber after it was confirmed that the blast had been
carried out by Hindu groups. Salim’s wife and two children refused to
talk about the incident, however his close relatives told rediff.com
that the police interrogated the family very often for two years to find
links between Salim and the blasts. While his family lived in
Hyderabad, Salim had been working in Ajmer for he wanted to be close to
the dargah. "The family found it difficult to come out in the public. It
is difficult to step out when a member of their family was accused of
being a suicide bomber," a relative said on condition of anonymity.

On
the fateful day, while removing the bodies from the spot, the police
stumbled upon Salim’s body and found a Telugu newspaper on him, which
led them to believe that he was from Hyderabad, said police sources. The
Rajasthan police even claimed that they had found IED in Salim’s pocket
and that he belonged to the Hyderabad module that carried out the Mecca
Masjid blasts too. They had stated Salim was part of the
Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihadi, which conducted the blast to create
communal tension.

Relatives and friends of Salim said he was a
soft-spoken person and a pious Muslim, who could have never done such an
act especially at a holy shrine that he visited so often. "Salim went
to Ajmer because he wanted to spend more time at the dargah as he had
immense faith in the shrine. Why would such a man even think of carrying
out a blast?" his friend Farooq asked. He had always wanted to open a
shop near the Ajmer dargah so that he could visit the shrine often, he
added.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/14/ajmer-blast-cops-named-victim-a-suicide-bomber.htm

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Communal violence bill reworked (Jun 18, 2010,
Times of India)

With Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi batting for
civil rights and minority groups in the six-year-long battle for a law
on communal violence, the law ministry has completely rewritten the
widely criticized draft prepared by the home ministry. The new bill,
currently being vetted by the home ministry, has incorporated most of
the demands made by activists, said a highly placed source in the law
ministry. If the bill passes into law, it will fundamentally alter
criminal jurisprudence on communal violence, bringing it in line with
the international convention on genocide. Just for illustration, it
means that a Narendra Modi can be brought to book in future should there
be a repetition of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Or a Sajjan Kumar would face
speedy trial for a 1984-like anti-Sikh riots.

This was one of
the key demands of activists who were pressing the government to
incorporate in the proposed law the principle of "command/superior
responsibility" so that state and non-state actors who plan or
facilitate mass acts of communal violence are criminally liable for
complicity. The source said Gandhi had asked law minister Veerappa Moily
to hold consultations with civil rights activists and minority groups
in a bid to break the impasse that had developed over the draft prepared
by the home ministry. These groups had rejected the first draft that
was placed in the Rajya Sabha in 2006 and mounted a campaign for a
stronger law with a radically different approach to incidents of mass
communal violence.

Last year, home minister P Chidambaram, after
talking to these groups, had incorporated as many as 59 amendments in
the original draft. These, too, were rejected as "cosmetic" and a
stalemate threatened to develop with the home ministry adamantly
sticking to its position. A national convention organized by ANHAD in
February this year, which included participants like Harsh Mander and
Farah Naqvi, who are now members of Gandhi’s National Advisory Council,
urged the government to revise the bill. "(This bill) will not only be
weak, it will be dangerous. It will not only fail to secure justice for
communal crimes, but will actually strengthen the shield of protection
enjoyed by those who plan and sponsor these crimes. Further, it
continues to perpetuate the silence around gender-based sexual crimes," a
press release issued at the end of the convention stated. It was after
this that Gandhi swung into action and brought in the law ministry to
resolve the stalemate.

The law ministry source said most of the
demands of these groups have been met. They include: a new definition of
communal violence as a targeted attack on any particular caste or
religious group; broadening the definition of gender-based crimes to
include sexual violence like stripping and mutilation of genitals;
three-tier councils at the district and state and national levels that
will be empowered to act on complaints filed by victims and recommend
action to state governments; providing uniform standards for
compensation and relief; recognizing the rights of victims; making
public servants accountable for action or inaction by vesting courts
with the power to prosecute them if the government fails to punish them.

The proposed draft is likely to be discussed by NAC at a meeting
on July 15. If it meets with the council’s approval, the government
will move it in Parliament in the monsoon session. One provision that
could prove to be contentious is the clause that calls the declaration
of an area as "communally disturbed". Civil rights groups had objected
to this because it gives the State sweeping powers like shoot-at-sight.
However, law ministry officials maintain that the Central government
cannot intervene in a situation of communal violence without this
provision.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6061431.cms

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Justice a far cry for Bhopal gas protestors (Jun
15, 2010, IBN)

Today, 70-year-old Ganeshi Bai can be put in jail for 3 years – a
year more than the sentence the 7 Indians accused got for the Union
Carbide gas tragedy. The reason for her sentencing is because she raised
her voice in protest in 2009, when Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh,
stood at the very factory and said that there was no toxic waste there.
Ganeshi Bai, who can barely walk and lives just 100 metres from the
Union Carbide factory, couldn’t believe what she was hearing. For years,
she and her family have been drinking contaminated water because of the
toxic waste that got mixed with the ground water and for protesting.
The police slapped a case of rioting on her. "We have to go to court
every month. We don’t have anything to eat. We are drinking poisoned
water and on top of that cases have been registered against us," said
Ganeshi Bai.

Meanwhile, 65-year-old Bano Bee who lives in the same
locality also faces a similar charge. Bano Bee said, "We have to go to
court. The government should not this we were beaten up for protesting.
This is not justice." However, many would say that Ganeshi Bai and Bano
Bee should be thankful that the charges against them are only for
rioting. Activists who have been fighting for gas victims for years have
been booked for far more serious charges – even attempt to murder and
are today facing several trials in Bhopal’s courts. Ironically, those
responsible for the gas tragedy were never booked under similar charges.
Satinath Sarangi, activist said, "Police came to the health clinical
that we used to run and took me to Bairagarh in a jeep. There I was kept
in a lock up and the next day I was sent to jail for 18 days. The
charges against me were that of attempt to murder of government
officials which according to the police I had planned with chemicals and
iron rods. Nothing was substantiated in court."

Another activist,
Abdul Jabbar said, "False case were registered against us. Once they
made a woman complain against me, accusing me of misbehaving with her
and cutting her hair. When she was brought to court, the judge asked her
is Abdul Jabber around and she could not even identify me and the case
was dismissed." This is the price one has to pay for fighting for
justice. Those who were responsible for killing more than 15,000 people
and maiming millions for life were either allowed to roam free or else
slapped with minor charges while those who have been pleading for
justice for the past 25 years are intimidated with court cases.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/justice-a-far-cry-for-bhopal-gas-protestors/124446-3.html

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Dozen Maoists killed in Jharkhand encounter: Cops
(Jun 14, 2010, Times of India)

A CRPF personnel was shot dead and a dozen Maoists possibly killed
during an encounter in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district, police said
today. The security forces – a combined team of CRPF and state police -
also recovered claymore mines, ammonium nitrate and other items after
the almost 24-hour gunbattle in Bandgaon which ended last night.

Himmat
Singh, a commando of the 203 battalion of the Special Action Force
(SAF) of the CRPF, was killed while six CRPF personnel injured in the
encounter, a senior CRPF officer said. "About a dozen Maoists were hit
by the security forces and there is all possibility that they might have
been killed," West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Jha
said.

However, bodies of the Naxals are yet to be recovered, Jha
said. Villagers in the district have also indicated that some Maoists
were killed in the operation, the CRPF officer said. The recovery from
the hideout includes 20 claymore mines, 60 bags of ammonium nitrate,
three containers of liquid explosive, one electric metal cutter, three
solar panel plates and 300 kgs of rice and fish, the CRPF officer said.

All
the injured security personnel were admitted to a hospital in Ranchi.
Self-styled Maoist area commander ‘KP’ and his comrades Anmol and
Animesh were among the Maoists, who fired around 5000 rounds during the
encounter, the SP said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6045655.cms

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Shun khap, Muslim leaders tell community (Jun 14,
2010, The Telegraph)

Several Muslim groups have asked community members not to oppose
inter-caste and intra-caste marriages, worried over the increasing
instances of khap diktats against such matches. Zakat Foundation of
India (ZFI) has issued such an appeal, signed by all major groups
representing the community, saying Muslims have been asked to take the
side of religion and not caste because Islam does not restrict
inter-caste and intra-caste marriages. "The Holy Quran has given clear
guidelines about marriages with relatives. Any restriction beyond
Quranic teachings has been created by people themselves," said the
foundation president, Zafar Mahmood.

Of late, there have been
several instances when Muslim-dominated khap panchayats – traditional
caste councils with no official standing, yet influential – had issued
such diktats. Recently, a khap panchayat in Haryana annulled the
marriage of Ikhlas, a 22-year-old Indian Reserve Battalion policeman,
with Anjum, who is from Rajasthan. They were told the marriage was
illegal because their families were part of the same clan nearly 125
years ago.

The panchayat’s argument was that the girl’s family had
migrated from the boy’s village nearly 100 years ago. The families of
Ikhlas and Anjum were socially boycotted after the marriage. The couple
moved court against the decision. The khap head, Ramzan Chaudhary,
defended the decision saying that Haryana’s khap panchayat culture was
as important to Muslims as their religion.

Muslim community
leaders are also planning to hold a series of meetings in
Muslim-dominated rural belts. They have held three meetings in Haryana,
where they urged the Muslims to follow the Shariat, the doctrines that
regulate the lives of those who profess Islam, and not any "un-Islamic
culture".

According to Zafar, Islam does not permit any caste or
gotra system: "Nikah is permitted between any believing man and
believing woman." Muslim leaders are of the opinion that khap panchayats
are "un-Islamic". "A true Muslim should always follow the Shariat and
not these un-Islamic cultural practices," said Anwar Jamal of Jamiat
Ulema.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100614/jsp/nation/story_12562874.jsp

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Dalit lynched for stealing cellphone (Jun 13,
2010, Times of India)

A man was lynched at Torana village under Sheosagar police station of
Rohtas district on Saturday allegedly for stealing a cellphone, said
police. This is the tenth incident of lynching of a Dalit-Adivasi in
Rohtas and Kaimur districts over the past two years. Sources said Buchan
Musahar of Mojari village under Sheosagar PS went to Torana village to
catch rats.

While drinking water from a hand pump after finishing
his job, villagers gathered there and started thrashing him allegedly
for stealing a mobile phone. Though he repeatedly kept on denying the
charge, the mob kept on beating him up. Later, his body was dumped
before the house of a chowkidar. Even after two hours, police failed to
reach the spot.

The spurt in the lynching of Dalits, accusing
them of being thieves, has raised a question mark on the functioning of
the police. In fact, this has been going on for sometime now. On August
6, 2009, five Dalits, alleged to be thieves, were stoned to death by the
people of Kudra village in Kaimur district.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6042237.cms

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Opinions and Editorials

Together apart – By Coomi Kapoor (Jun 16, 2010,
Indian Express)

After the recent cold war between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
and the BJP in Patna, with Nitish even withdrawing his dinner invitation
to BJP leaders, it would appear that the two allies are on the brink of
a messy divorce. But, despite the sound and the fury, the 15-year-old
partnership could survive the public spat. With an assembly election due
at the end of the year, both allies have a lot at stake. Nitish needs
the upper caste voters which the BJP could bring to the table. The BJP
desperately needs to be on the winning side in a state election, after a
string of electoral defeats which belie its claim to be a national
alternative to the Congress. Such public hostility between the two camps
may look like political hara-kiri, but not everybody in the BJP and the
JD(U) is discomfited by the turn of events. The two political parties
are not exactly natural allies and each wanted to send a strong message
across to its supporters. Nitish has to prove to Muslims that his ties
with the BJP are out of necessity, not affection. The BJP wants to
establish that it is not simply the junior partner which can be pushed
around by the chief minister, that it had to protect its self-respect.

Caste
is the major currency of Bihar’s politics and the partners in the
JD(U)-BJP alliance draw their strength from diametrically opposite ends
of the social spectrum. In fact, the JD(U)-BJP combine has been termed
an alliance of opposites. Nitish has carefully cultivated the most
backward sections of the caste pyramid, which till his chief
ministership had been largely kept out of the state’s power structure.
Nitish’s strategy of focusing on the EBCs (extremely backward OBCs) and
mahadalits (the most deprived sections of the Scheduled Castes) was not
just to end social inequalities but also to counter his arch-rival, Lalu
Prasad. Bihar’s former chief minister had for years emerged victorious
on the back of a formidable Yadav-Muslim votebank. By empowering the
EBCs and the mahadalits, even instituting quotas for them at the
panchayat level, Nitish has upset not just Lalu’s constituency but also
the upper castes, Bhumihars and Thakurs, who in the last election had
voted for the NDA.

There is bound to be a conflict of interest
between supporters of Nitish and the BJP. A government commission even
suggested a radical land reform, bestowing rights on the land to the
tillers of the soil rather than to the original legal owners. Nitish
hastily put the commission’s proposal, known as the "batwara bill", into
cold storage when he saw the outrage it evoked among the landed
classes. But for the Bhumihars and Thakurs, the "batwara bill" remains a
threat. As a consequence, Nitish has alienated not only the BJP’s
voters – the BJP is of relatively minor consequence in Bihar – but also
eroded his own upper caste support. Two prominent JD(U) members, Rajiv
Ranjan Singh (Lallan Babu) and Prabhunath Singh, quit the JD(U) because
of Nitish’s slant towards EBCs and mahadalits. Lalu, meanwhile, is
trying to reclaim his Muslim support base. Muslims constitute 16 per
cent of the population and Lalu has been citing Nitish’s alliance with
the BJP to question his secular credentials. The photograph of Nitish
and Modi joining hands at the Ludhiana election rally of 2009 has become
a powerful propaganda tool for Lalu. Which is why the short-tempered
Nitish lost his cool with the BJP and made every effort to distance
himself from Modi, even suggesting that the money from Gujarat for Kosi
flood victims could be returned.

It is not just Nitish’s Muslim
backers who need reassurance, but also the BJP’s followers. Over the
last four-and-a-half years, they have felt neglected and accuse the BJP
of forsaking their interests. A common grouse is that Nitish ignores
MLAs and MLCs and runs the state as his fiefdom with the help of
powerful bureaucrats. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, an OBC, is not
exactly popular with his own party for playing second fiddle to the
chief minister. He has survived only because of support from the BJP’s
central leadership. The BJP fears that its potential voters could switch
to a somewhat rejuvenated Congress because of their dislike of Nitish.
The only thing that could hold the upper caste voters back is the
prospect of Lalu’s return as chief minister. Lalu’s record as an
administrator was dismal, but he blames his poor governance on a
shortage of funds, accusing the Central government of step-motherly
treatment. In the caste cauldron of Bihar, Nitish’s excellent
performance as chief minister, showing visible improvement in law and
order and several other spheres, appears not to be the overriding
concern for voters.

Apart from the spat between the BJP and
Nitish, there was another significant development at the BJP’s national
executive. Narendra Modi practically hijacked the Patna meet. Modi is
clearly positioning himself as the BJP’s prospective prime ministerial
candidate. A carefully calculated strategy has been put in place to
project Modi. The mild-mannered BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, was a
bemused observer to the unfolding drama. Although the advertisement
which offended Nitish was ostensibly brought out by a group of Gujarati
businessmen based in Bihar, it was okayed by Modi, and the concept and
copywriting were done in Gujarat. To be acceptable at the all-India
level, Modi knows he has to somehow overcome the stigma of being an
untouchable for potential allies. To which end, he has launched a media
campaign citing statistics from the Sachar Committee report to establish
that his government has a far better record of looking after minority
welfare than most other state governments. This, however, is not going
to cut much ice among Muslim voters who have not forgiven him for the
post-Godhra violence in Gujarat. Nitish’s infuriated reaction at being
linked with Modi indicates that the Gujarat chief minister will find it
difficult to live down his past.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/634292/

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Justice denied – By Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta and
V. Venkatesan (Jun 19, 2010, Frontline)

June 7, 2010, marks a milestone in disaster litigation in India. On
that day a trial court in Bhopal pronounced its verdict in the case
relating to the gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in the Madhya
Pradesh capital on the night of December 2-3, 1984. The world’s worst
industrial disaster killed at least 20,000 people and left thousands
maimed and helpless. Thousands of victims and activists had gathered in
front of the district court building in the city where Chief Judicial
Magistrate (CJM) Mohan P. Tiwari read out the nearly 100 pages of his
judgment, convicting seven accused, in two hours. He resumed again after
lunch to award the sentence and with it bring to a close one of the
sordid chapters of the Bhopal gas litigation. In the past 25 years,
excruciating years for the victims, the law had been circumvented and
the delivery of justice delayed. When justice came in the end, it had
been greatly diluted. The grossly disproportionate punishment of two
years’ imprisonment that the Judge handed out to the seven convicted
persons jolted civil society out of its years of indifference to the
victims’ plight and forced it to ask uncomfortable questions. Among them
were questions on the role of the political leadership and the
collusion of institutions in encouraging the impunity of the accused.
The CJM’s helplessness in awarding appropriate punishment to the accused
was obvious to all. He simply obeyed the Supreme Court’s direction in
1996 not to bring the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to
murder (under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code) and charge
the accused with committing a rash and negligent act causing death
(under Section 304A of the IPC). The maximum punishment under Section
304 Part II is 10 years’ imprisonment, while it is only two years under
the latter section.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),
entrusted with the prosecution of the accused, had charged 12 persons,
of whom three were corporate judicial persons. All of them were charged
with committing a rash and negligent act resulting in death. One of the
accused, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), had a factory at Berasia
Road, Bhopal, manufacturing pesticides Sevin and Temic, which involved
the use of methyl isocyanate. The plant also manufactured MIC and stored
it in underground tanks, identified as tanks no.610, 611 and 619. On
the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, from 12-00 to 12-45 a.m.,
MIC escaped from tank no.610 in large quantities, causing the death of
thousands of human beings and animals and injuring the health of lakhs
of human beings. The manufacture of MIC is known to involve an extremely
hazardous process. But there was no information available at the
factory site about the precautions to be taken if the gas leaked and
spread, and there was no warning given to people residing around the
factory. Later, a team of scientists, led by S. Varadarajan,
Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR), found that MIC was stored in large quantities and that it was
the possible entry of water into tank no.610 during washing that caused
the disaster.

The CBI examined 178 witnesses and presented the
evidence against the accused to the CJM’s court. The trial court framed
two major issues for consideration: 1) Whether the Bhopal plant was a
defective one run without reasonable care, which resulted in the leakage
of poisonous gas from tank no.610 of the agricultural products (A.P.)
division of UCIL Bhopal, and whether the accused, sharing the common
knowledge of the defects, did not do anything to avoid the escape of the
gas; 2) Whether the accused were guilty of not informing the local
people about the remedial precautions, which resulted in the leakage of
the gas endangering human life and personal safety and causing simple or
grievous injuries to the people. One of the accused, Union Carbide
Corporation (UCC), was a company with its headquarters in the United
States and having affiliated and subsidiary companies throughout the
world. The subsidiaries were supervised by four regional offices. The
UCIL was a subsidiary of UCC and had 14 factories in India, including
the one in Bhopal. Another accused was Union Carbide Eastern Inc. (UCE),
which has its office in Hong Kong and is the regional office of UCC,
USA. It controlled UCIL Bhopal, besides others. UCIL initially imported
Sevin from the U.S. in 1960 and marketed it after adding dilutants to
it. Subsequently, it decided to manufacture Sevin in the Bhopal plant
and accordingly created facilities for its production. The MIC required
for the purpose was initially imported in 200-litre-capacity stainless
steel drums from UCC. In 1973, the Bhopal plant, with a foreign
collaboration agreement with UCC, began to manufacture MIC.

Among
the accused, Warren Anderson, chairman, UCC, remained absent throughout
the trial and was a proclaimed absconder. UCC and UCE also were
proclaimed absconders, having not subjected themselves to trial. These
three accused continue to face the charge of culpable homicide not
amounting to murder. Their cases were separated from that of the Indian
accused during the trial. The Indian accused included eight officials of
UCIL and UCIL itself as a juristic person. The eight officials are:
Keshub Mahindra, chairman, UCIL; Vijay Gokhale, managing director, UCIL;
Kishore Kamdar, vice-president, incharge, A.P. Division, UCIL; J.
Mukund, works manager, A.P. Division, UCIL; Dr R.B. Roy Choudhary,
assistant works manager, A.P. Division, UCIL (he died during the trial);
S.P. Choudhary, production manager, A.P. Division, UCIL; K.V. Shetty,
plant superintendent, A.P. Division, UCIL; and S.I. Qureshi, operator,
A.P. Division, UCIL. Both Keshub Mahindra and Vijay Gokhale argued that
they had no connection with the day-to-day affairs of UCIL. The other
accused denied that there was any recklessness or negligence on their
part and attributed the disaster to design defect. In law, negligence
means failure to use reasonable care. Negligence is the doing of
something which a reasonably prudent person would not do, or the failure
to do something which a reasonably prudent person would do under
similar circumstances. As a cause of damage, negligence must directly
and in natural and continuous sequence produce such damage that it can
reasonably be said that if not for the negligence, the loss, injury or
damage would not have occurred.

However, CJM Mohan Tiwari, in his
judgment, cites several instances of the accused having sufficient
knowledge of the disaster potential of the plant and its operations.
Indeed, the CBI’s main contention was that the defect of the plant and
its poor maintenance were the direct and proximate causes of the
disaster. A document issued by UCC (Exhibit P-576) regarding the
properties of MIC reveals the procedure regarding its storage and
handling. The CJM, after examining several prosecution witnesses,
rejected the contention that the Bhopal plant was similar to the parent
plant in the U.S. or to Carbide’s other plants worldwide. Counsel for
the accused argued that defects would necessarily have to be with
reference to the knowledge of the necessary technology available at the
relevant point of time. They suggested that when the plant was set up in
Bhopal, there was no online analyser coupled with an alarm system for
determining the quality of MIC before it entered the storage tanks. The
CJM rejected this argument saying the safety manuals of UCIL revealed
that such type of devices had been attached to the equipment concerned
in the plant and pointed out that the pressure gauge temperature meter
was not responding at the time of the incident. …

http://flonnet.com/fl2713/stories/20100702271300400.htm

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Some lessons from the Bhopal outcome – By V.R.
Krishna Iyer (Jun 14, 2010, The Hindu)

The mass slaughter that occurred in Bhopal on December 2, 1984 was
the consequence of an American multinational corporation dealing with
Indian lives in a cavalier manner. Some 20,000 people were
"gasassinated." Yet, after 26 years of trial, the culprits get two years
of rigorous imprisonment as punishment. Such a thing can happen only in
bedlam Bharat. The President of the United States and the white world,
and the Prime Minister of brown India, shout themselves hoarse against
terrorism by the Taliban and the Maoist-naxalites. However, when it came
to carnage caused by an American company in a backward region of India,
it took all of 26 years to get a court judgment. India is but a dollar
colony, and so the "gasassination" has been treated as a minor crime.
This is Macaulay’s justice of Victorian vintage still ruling India. Our
Parliament and the Executive are less concerned with the lives of ‘We,
the People of India’; their deprivation is of little consequence. The
judiciary is another paradigm of insouciance and it is often indifferent
to its fundamental duty of issuing a swift verdict. Parliament is too
busy making noises to be able to make laws to defend citizens’ lives.
The investigative-judicial delay that has occurred is unpardonable for a
crime of this kind.

Indian courts will do justice — if proper
judges are appointed and fair procedures are made, if sensitive and
sensible laws are enacted and the Executive has the needed independence,
alacrity and integrity. Meanwhile, this socialist democracy continues
to be a cause for despair for the common people. This contradiction must
end. We have enough human resources to redeem the pledge of the Father
of the Nation whose ambition was to wipe every tear from every eye. This
trust of Indian sovereignty was ludicrously violated in Bhopal. Every
poor man in hungry despair resisting the British Empire was once called a
Congressman. When the Congressman came to power after freedom, every
hungry militant was called a Communist. When the Communists came to
power in some States and still kept many people starving, these poor men
were called naxalites. Does India have a future? Yes, provided the
glorious Constitution and the marvellous cultural tradition, sharing the
vision of both Karl Marx and Mahatma Gandhi, are realised. Have we such
a sensitive perception? Have the instrumentalities under the
Constitution a noble mission and a passion? Have the judges such an
ambition? The Bhopal decision shows that India is still in a Victorian
imperial-feudal era, distances away from the socialist dream.

One
extraordinary feature of the outcome is that the highest officer who was
involved in Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, is nowhere in the picture.
This is but mockery of justice. If the chief criminal is beyond the
party array, the millions who are the victims are being mocked by the
trial of lesser offenders. In exempting the powerful from criminal
jurisdiction, the law has become lame. Is an American criminal immune to
investigation by an Indian court order? Such discrimination makes
justice risible. Over the 26 years it took, what was the Supreme Court,
with so many judges who have original jurisdiction to try cases when
fundamental rights are violated, doing? The Government of India did not
move the court for an early trial? Now the Law Minister says he is not
happy with this two years’ rigorous imprisonment that has been granted.
During these 26 years, no amendment to Sections 300 to 304 of the Indian
Penal Code was moved or enacted, or severe punishment written into the
Penal Code. This by itself constitutes dereliction of duty on the part
of Parliament and the Executive. The political parties that were in
power during these years are also guilty of culpable neglect: they slept
over the noxious infliction on Indian humanity.

Fair compensation
has not been paid to the victims. A huge hospital financed by Union
Carbide was built in Bhopal. But it is not for the poor but the rich. It
is over the bodies of the poor that the hospital building was built,
and still the have-nots have no access to it. The Supreme Court,
seemingly lost in issues relating to its own allowances and perks, did
not call up the case from the trial court and decide it at once. Warren
Anderson is a closed chapter for the U.S. The most powerful nuclear
nation has its bizarre sense of justice which should give courage for
the Indian plural masses to resist dollar colonialism. Americans are
above our rule of law. Brown India must be satisfied by White Justice
where MNC bosses are indicted. Washington swears by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. But it uses a nuclear treaty to leverage
things to its own advantage. India has no guts to call this bluff. We
have MNCs with cosmic jurisdiction. Anderson is an American, so is Union
Carbide. Its ukase is just on Asian fuel in earth. Indian justice is
for municipalities and panchayats, not beyond.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/14/stories/2010061461291300.htm

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Dimensions Of Malegaon Blasts: Samjhauta Express -
By Mustafa Khan (Jun 19, 2010, Countercurrents)

Malegaon blast cases of 2006 and 2008 have many more dimensions than
we have been able to see. Soon after the arrest of Lt Col Shrikant
Purohit on the night of November 5, 2008 disturbing news started coming
out through his interrogation. It is doubtful that such an army official
like him or Colonel (retired) SS Raikar commandant of Bhonsla military
school would be subjected to third degree torture but reports of
Purohit’s arrest suggest that he was tortured. His relative Vilas Anand
Dalvi submitted an affidavit describing specific instances of torture:
so badly beaten that his left hand was paralyzed, fingers of right hand
fractured, knees injured. (Purohit tortured, family tells court Indian
Express Fri Nov 14 2008). Raiker like Purohit was in the capacity of
liaison officer with the military intelligence before retirement. On
November 14, 2008 ADG VN Rai of Haryana police was in Mumbai
investigating Samjhauta link. Raikar said that the trail went to Indore
and then became cold. DGP Ranjiv Dalal also remarked that Indore was an
important link in the plot of Malegaon and Samjhauta train explosions, a
town where the Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and Purohit had met to hatch
the conspiracy and from where things were procured.

Because of
the intervention of National Security Advisor MK Narayanan in the
process of investigation the Indore connection even when very strong was
not thoroughly vetted and searched. He felt that it would dramatically
change the world opinion that India had created by blaming every
terrorist attack within India on Pakistan. India was in a fix. Then
followed: the tergiversation. The Haryana police officers were stalled
from proceeding further. The whole world was watching and perhaps that
would not have been that material had not the Pakistanis been keeping a
tab on this matter. For, they raised Samjhauta train blasts issue at
every conference to brow beat us. Though 68 Pakistani passengers lost
lives and many more were seriously injured in the devastating inferno
caused by the two explosions it was also a symbolic terrorism aiming at
dismantling the rapprochement between the two South Asian neighbours.
The jihadists would not countenance it but there are desi jihadists who
not only view Pakistan as enemy but a part of ancient India sawed off
through ballot based on religious strength of different communities.
They never hide their aspiration to regain the whole of ancient India
into one integral land. Purohit’s constitution matches the articles of
faith of the RSS.

To cover up one lie man tells many others. This
simple human folly was lost on the NSA as well as the Intelligence
Bureau and RAW. As a result of this the cooked up lame excuse that in
2006 a Pakistani had a fracas on the train and jumped off it when it was
about to start. India gave details of this agent provocateur to
Pakistan calling him as one of the two responsible for the twin blasts
on the friendship train. As the Pakistanis tried to ascertain who this
national of theirs jumping out was when the train would be going into
Pakistan soon in the middle of the night they could not find anyone of
that name among the passengers on record as well as in their country.
There was also no plausible reason why should he be jumping out of the
train and why should he be quarreling with fellow Muslims and fellow
Pakistanis on a foreign soil that, too, was hostile despite the fact
that the special train was maintained as a friendly gesture to improve
bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.

Three years ago
the Haryana sleuth were doing a commendable work that matched what their
counterpart in Hemant Karkare was doing for the Malegaon blast. They
found the leads that led to Indore and went cold as in Malegaon 2006
case, too. But then they did the wisest thing people thoroughly
professional do: disseminate knowledge (like Kunta Kinte to his daughter
in Alex Haley’s epoch making "Roots"). They gave information of what
they had found that the bags used for explosion on Samjhauta express
were bought from the Abhinandan Bag Centre in Indore’s Kothari Market
and they also identified the tailor who sewed the suitcases for that
purpose. They even had found out that the other ingredients of the
explosives like pipe, Super Saurabh plastic boxes, etc. were procured
from there within a radius of a mile and half. The cat was out of the
bag but Narayanan and the Madhya Pardesh BJP government put it back into
the bag.

How come India could allow this to happen? It must now
be history that the US and Israel have become so brazen to defy world
opinion that come what may even the most publicized event cannot dent
their strategic interest in the middle east or elsewhere. This is
particularly true of the Palestinian problem. India has chosen to side
with them in the so called ‘war on terrorism’. By closely associating
with the Israelis we have also veered to disregarding public misgivings
at home and international concern abroad. In the case of Gujarat
genocide and Samjhauta express attack we have come a cropper! Even so
our newly strategic allies had responded in measure. The US state
department had refused to call the attack on the American consulate
library in Kokata at the beginning of the 21st century as terrorist
attack. It called it revenge mounted by private individuals to settle
score with the police for having killed their relatives somewhere in
Gujarat. But in the case of Samjhauta express the response and concern
is not so candid!

http://www.countercurrents.org/mkhan190610.htm

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Relief For Manipur – Editorial (Jun 16, 2010,
Times of India)

An end to the crisis in Manipur seems near. With the Centre ordering
paramilitary troops to clear the two-month-old blockade of two national
highways to Imphal, prices of essential goods should ease up. The Naga
Students’ Federation (NSF), taking a cue from the Centre’s move, has
declared that they’ll temporarily suspend the siege. The chief
secretaries of Nagaland and Manipur are to meet in New Delhi to review
the situation. Welcome steps, surely. But why did it take so long for
officials – at the Centre and in states – to step in? It’ll now take a
while before ethnic relations in the region are repaired. And, the blame
rests squarely on unimaginative and insensitive politicians and public
officials who let the crisis grow.

The blockade was the fallout
of identity politics in the region. Within Manipur, the divide between
tribes, especially Nagas, living in the hills and people in the Valley
has widened. The state government in Imphal must hear out the Naga
groups and their fears regarding dilution of the powers of autonomous
district councils. Imphal fears that the demand for autonomy could shore
up the claim of the NSCN, the Naga rebel group led by Th Muivah, which
wants a greater Nagaland by including parts of Manipur. The Centre must
assure Manipur that the state’s boundaries will not be tampered with.
But Imphal should also realise that various ethnic communities have to
stay together if Manipur’s interests are to be protected.

The
immediate task for the state government is to facilitate reconciliation
between various communities in the state that stand divided. Political
groups must desist from championing exclusivist identities. It is
possible, and necessary, in this increasingly globalising world for
people to have multiple identities. The autonomy of a Naga identity can
surely coexist with Manipuri and Indian identities. And, of course, a
person need not necessarily subscribe only to these state or
community-centric identities.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6052967.cms

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Dantewada Rapes: The Line Of No Control – By Tusha
Mittal (Jun 26, 2010, Tehelka)

At a clearing in the forests of Chhattisgarh, barely a kilometre from
the Chintalnar CRPF camp, a man in civvies walked up to our local
guide. "Don’t take them any further. Remember, you have to live in this
state," he threatened. A few hours earlier, we had chanced upon a Naxal
poster nailed on a tree, saying 10 women were raped by the forces. We
were waiting for motorcycles to visit their villages. The narrow strip
of road slowly disintegrates ahead of Chintalnar, after which the
‘interior villages’ are considered Maoist strongholds. In the myopic
narrative of the state, any attempt to venture into these areas is seen
as an attempt to assist the Maoists. Despite repeated attempts, security
forces did not allow TEHELKA to go beyond the Chintalnar camp. Reasons
ranged from safety concerns to the pretext of a Naxal bandh. "No one is
being allowed into the area," said Dornapal Assistant Sub-Inspector SK
Dhurve. We watched as trucks and buses passed through without hindrance.
TEHELKA then met the rape victims by crossing over into Andhra Pradesh,
traversing an alternative back route through deep forests. What was an
80-km journey stretched to atleast 300 km. In the Chhattisgarh conflict,
there are many tools of war – the clampdown on civil society, the
unplugging of Adivasis from access to the media or the judiciary, the
arming of civilians, fake encounters, the arbitrary detention of
villagers, and now a brutal targeting of tribal women. Rape has become a
way to terrorise an entire community into submission. The Adivasis of
Dantewada are increasingly being left with two choices – become part of
the ‘mainstream’ or flee further into the forests. Already, a new exodus
has begun. The village of Mukram, only a few kilometres from where the
Maoists ambushed 76 security personnel, is turning into a ghost village.
On May 22, three girls were raped and five people including the
Sarpanch picked up. Facing a backlash from the troops, most of the 115
families are fleeing to Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. "The forces broke
into my house during search operations," says Mangal Kunjam. "Who knows
what they might do next. We are leaving for Orissa tomorrow." At the
edge of the forest, under a bamboo thatch, a lone clay pot simmers on a
log fire. Crushed chillies and strewn clothes are the only markers of
habitation. This clearing in the forest is now home to two sisters -
Madvi Hidme and Madvi Aimla – who recently fled their mud huts in
Mukram. A third girl, Madvi Posse, hides in her aunt’s hut a few
kilometres away.

Hidme, Aimla and Posse are the new pawns in a
brutal war raging inside India’s heartland. All three girls, 14-18
years, accuse the forces of rape. At around 4 pm on May 22, they were
sorting mahua flowers when they were picked up by patrolling troops and
taken towards the Chintalnar CRPF camp. Two men held each girl by the
arm. Midway, the women were thrown on the ground and beaten. They say
the assaulters were a group of SPOs – Special Police officers – in
shirts and lungis, joined at varying points by men in uniform. "You are
so healthy, the Naxals must be feeding you well," a man sneered at
Hidme. "They stamped on us with their boots. They kicked us in the
stomach. They thrashed our backs with a gun and poked us with rifle
butts. They beat us till our skin turned black and blue and until we
soiled ourselves. They tore our clothes off. They accused us of helping
the Naxals attack the forces," says Hidme. When the men tried to press
themselves upon her, Hidme began screaming for help. She was gagged with
a towel. "I was kicked in the genitals till I bled," she says. She
recalls being ‘groped’ by several men before she lost consciousness.
There were nail marks across her chest and her genitals bled for several
days after. "Don’t go back home, I’ll marry you," one of the assaulters
told Hidme. "If you run away, we will find you, cut you up into pieces
and bury you in cement." When Hidme regained consciousness, she was
ordered to wash up in the pond. By then, Hidme’s mother had arrived to
save her daughters. All four women were taken inside the CRPF camp and
beaten again. "They pulled us by the hair, and twirled us around in
circles," Hidme says. At the camp, the men said that these women were
part of the Chetna Natya Manch (CNM) – the Maoist cultural outfit – and
had been picked up while they engaged in song and dance. It was only
when an officer told his men, "Are you going to eat them? Let them go,"
that the three women were let off. "We have no knowledge of any rapes
last month," says TG Longkumer, Inspector General of Bastar. Ask Madvi
Hidme if she wants her assaulters punished, and the horror of her story
becomes more evident. You expect a fierce cry for justice. It does not
come. Instead, there is a quiet statement: "These Cobras and SPOs should
leave Dantewada. They should be sent out." She has never heard of the
Supreme Court, or any court, but says she’s willing to testify.

Justice,
perhaps, is an urban idea. Perhaps that is why six women in Samseti
village are yet to see any trace of it. TEHELKA’s cover story in July
2009, detailed the rape of six women in Samseti village in Dantewada. In
court hearings, the state claimed that the accused SPOs are absconding.
But TEHELKA tracked two of the accused. Soyam Muka, leader of Konta
camp, was interviewed at his home a few kilometres from the police
station. Budo Raja, leader of Injaram camp, lives opposite the CRPF camp
and greeted us with a jawan by his side. In Lacchipara, barely a few
hundred metres from the Chintalnar CRPF camp, villagers say at least one
woman was raped, while attempts were made to rape two others. Madavi
Nanda had stepped out of her bath and was barely clothed when the forces
dragged her out of her house towards a distant handpump," says her
mother-in-law. She was stripped naked and beaten. Another woman who was
also dragged to the spot says she saw the forces lift Nanda’s petticoat.
"They would have raped me too, but villagers had gathered," she says.
"It has become a pattern for the forces to harass the women when the men
are out in the fields," says Jago, a farmer. He alleges that they tried
to rape his wife while she was cooking. "The forces tried to steal a
hen I bought from Andhra for Rs 300," says neighbour Madkam Sodi. "When I
protested, a man grabbed my throat and bit my cheek." In many ways,
Dantewada is rapidly descending into a zone of no control – a
battlefield where both armies have little writ over their soldiers. The
Naxals continue to kill Adivasis as police informers – villagers say it
is often personal enmity, done without the knowledge of top comrades.
The troops and SPOs continue to loot homes, steal chicken, threaten
children, kill farmers and rape women.

This month, 600 more men
arrived at the Chintalnar camp. TEHELKA has lernt that 150 SPOs were
recruited this year and there is talk of inducting at least 1,000 more.
To understand why this is significant, wander the 23 ‘relief’ camps in
Bastar, set up in June 2005 after the raising of the Salwa Judum. Though
the term means ‘Peace March’ and is touted as a local uprising against
the Maoists, it is widely accepted that the Judum is a statesponsored
militia responsible for evacuating 644 villages, killing countless
tribals and displacing at least 1.5 lakh people. In a sense, the Judum
split Bastar into two – the camps and the villages, the roadside and the
‘interiors’, the State and the Naxals. It left no other options. That
is what continues to be reinforced brutally on the ground. That is why a
Sarpanch and his wife, an anganwadi worker, had to rent a room by the
road in Dornapal. "It’s not safe in the village. You never know when
homes can be attacked," says Madvi Podiyam. His own friends in the Salwa
Judum have warned him: "Don’t go to the interiors. If we see you during
a search operation, we might kill you." Inside the Injaram camp,
villagers are virtually under curfew. "We feel caged – we have to come
back by 6 pm. We can’t even trust the forces. If they bump into us on
the road at night, they’ll think we were helping the Naxals," says Madvi
Bhime. In Konta town, Aslam Bhai can barely sustain his family. Before
the Judum days, his income was Rs 10,000 per month – now it’s barely Rs
3,000. A flourishing trade of tora (a fruit), mahua and tamarind brought
thousands of villagers to the Konta town market every Thursday. "No one
comes now," he says. "They are either in the camps or the villages."

In
April 2008, an Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Congressman
Veerappa Moily recommended the disbanding of the Salwa Judum. Additional
Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam asked: "How can the State give arms
to some persons? The State will be abetting a crime if these private
persons kill others." On February 5, 2009, the state government assured
the Supreme Court that the Salwa Judum was on its way out. Yet, on the
ground, Judum leaders themselves claim the movement is alive. Thousands
continue to live as refugees, forcibly brought to the camps, unable to
return home, and forever trapped in their identity as part of the Judum.
More among them are now being made SPOs. "How can they claim the Judum
is over?" asks Kora Podiyam, a Sarpanch living inside Dornapal camp. "We
have come here in the name of the Judum. We help the forces. If we get
information about Naxals, we inform them immediately. Until we are here,
the Judum exists." "There is no question of the Salwa Judum
dissolving," exclaims Judum leader P Vijay. "In fact, more and more
people want to join us." Most of these are families affected by Naxal
violence or unemployed boys in the camps. Like Rajesh Arvind, who became
an SPO when he was 12. "I had nothing else to do," he explains. "It was
good money." His monthly salary of Rs 2,150 will increase to Rs 3,000
starting July 2010. Then there is Madkam Moriya from Banda village. "The
forces barged into my village and began burning men alive," he says.
"We had no choice but to flee to the camps. Then the Naxals burnt the
remaining homes." When he reached the Konta camp, "Netas asked me to
become an SPO." And so he did. Madkam Munna, 19, has been living in the
Dornapal camp since 2005. In the violence that ensued at the start of
the Judum, Naxals killed three people in his village, including his
uncle. He became an SPO in August 2009. Within six months, in February
2010, he was made part of the elite Khoya Commandos and trained in
operating SLRs, LMGs, AK-47s, hand grenades and rifles. In the past one
month, Munna has been on 20 search operations and picked up five people.
The SPOs are a lethal tool in a divide- and- rule policy that is
rapidly pitting Adivasi against Adivasi. Though the government claims
that SPOs are distinct from the Salwa Judum, such stories blur the
lines. The irony is that the women being raped and the SPOs assaulting
them are pawns in a dangerous game. At present, insiders estimate the
total number of SPOs in Chhattisgarh to be at least 12,000. Sources told
TEHELKA that the state police are hoping to induct more SPOS into the
District Force (DF), where Rs 12,000 is the starting salary. In the last
batch of DF vacancies that opened up this month, 70 of 120 posts have
been filled by SPOs who need only to have passed Class 5. In a way, this
could turn the DF into a sort of ruthless militia. …

http://tehelka.com/story_main45.asp?filename=Ne260610the_line.asp

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Related posts:

  1. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – June 7th, 2010
  2. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – June 28th, 2010
  3. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – June 14th, 2010
  4. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – December 21st, 2009
  5. IAMC Weekly News Digest – March 21st, 2011

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