Saturday, December 02, 2006

police preparedness vs terrorist attacks

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- e – Voice Of Human Rights Watch – e-news weekly Spreading the light of humanity & freedom Editor : Nagaraj.M.R.........................vol.2issue.38.......................................02/12/2006

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EDITORIAL : POLICE PREPAREDNESS Vs TERRORIST ATTACKS

Recently, in the peaceful city of mysore , police apprehended two terrorists who were planning to blow-up some important locations. In india, for every crime happenned common people blame the police force. Nobody thinks, is the police force really equipped to deal with all types of contigencies. Nearly 70% of the police force is literally doing sentry duties like guarding the bungalows of ruling elite & providing them security arrangements. 20% of police force only does the actual crime detection work & the remaining 10% only does the intelligence gathering. Intelligence gathering is the only way which can prevent crimes. Nowadays due to lack of stress on intelligence gathering crimes are frequently taking place & due to lack of stress on crime detection numerous prosecution cases are failing in the courts due to lack of evidences , criminals are going scot-free. The government must strengthen the intelligence & crime detection wings of the police force. The government must raise separate force on the lines of home guards & territorial army to attend to sentry duties, bandobust duties , to attend to rehabilitation work during natural & man made calamities.

The police are stressed out – their duty hours must be reduced to 8 hours/day , weekly-offs & holidays must be provided to them on par with other government employees. The police are at the forefront of dangers , troubles all the time risking their own lives, the government must insure each policeman to at least Rs.5 lakh. The government must treat police in a humane manner then they in turn will treat common folk in a humane manner.

The police must be given adequate training in crime detection & intelligence gathering with the use of modern methods & sensitized about human rights & constitution of india. The functions of transfer , promotion & disciplinary proceedings of police must be handled by a professional & autonomous body free from the influence of netas & babus.

Until there are criminals in the seats of power in the government – gobbling-up the resources meant for the poor, there will be mafia , underworld , naxalism & terrorism. To counter them – their proxy war intelligence gathering by police is the key. JAI HIND . VANDE MATARAM.

Your's sincerely,

Nagaraj.m.r.

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THE CLOUT OF LAND MAFIA IN INDIA -the governments daring to by-pass judiciary

An appeal ( PIL ) to the honourable supreme court of india

In india, various state governments have enacted " town municipal / city corporation laws & building laws" , to ensure orderly growth of cities & towns , to ensure the safety of buildings & it's occupants , to ensure the safety of pedestrians & road users.

Numerous educated people , ruling elite – ministers , police , government officials , M.Ps , M.L.As , etc knowing fully well about the laws have illegally built bungalows , commercial complexes , throwing to wind all laws. In their greed they have shown utter contempt towards law. They have encroached dried –up lakes , rivulets , rain flow paths , drainages , foot paths , civic amenity sites. In their building there are violations of- lack of fire safety exits , lack of parking space , encroachment of foot paths , conservancy line , drainages , etc.

There is wide spread corruption in the corporation / municipal authorities. For a price officials have converted CA sites to commercial purposes , authorised deviations / encroachments of public lands like foot paths , drainages , parking space , set-off , etc. The corporation officials themselves are violating city master plans. Even before authorising the conversions & encroachments of lands , the corporation officials are not making alternate arrangements. By all these corrupt deeds many of the corporation officilas have become millionaires . however more & more road accidents are taking place , building collapses & fire tragedies are occurring , during heavy rain falls water is getting clogged – ALL THESE RESULTING IN LOSS OF HUMAN LIVE & PROPERTIES. THE CRIMINAL LAND GRABBERS MADE DEATH THREATS & FORCED THE PIL APPLICANT IN THE KARNATAKA HIGH COURT ABOUT LAND GRABBINGS IN KORAMANGALA LAYOUT BANGALORE. The government of karnataka instead of protecting the PIL applicant & upholding the law has taken sides with the land grabbers.

The state governments of karnataka & delhi has got M.L.As & officials who have themselves violated building laws & grabbed govt lands. Now , the two govts are contemplating to bring in laws regularising these land grabbing crimes for a pittance as penalty. All to by-pass judiciary. The governments are least bothered about the lives of poor & only too caring towards the land grabbing criminals.

The same governments have not yet given land rights to poor slum dwellers / dalits , land rights to tribals living in forest since centuries , land rights to poor agricultural labourers, where as it is full of concern towards rich & mighty land grabbers – criminals. Bottom line – whatever be the magnitude of crime if you are rich & mighty law will be bended to suit you , by bad luck if you are a poor folk you are bound to suffer being on the right side of law also.

Hereby , HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH urges requests the honourable supreme court of india , to register this as a PIL , to provide protection to the PIL applicant in bangalore & to take appropriate actions against the GOK & GOD nipping at bud their illegal motives to regularise land grabbings.

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AN APPEAL TO HONOURABLE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

Dear Sir ,

INDIA: Government hospital negligence and police inaction about the killing of a woman

Name of victim: Mrs. Gouri Naskar, aged 35, the wife of Mr. Sushil Naskar, resided in Tentulpara, Naskarpara, Garia village under Sonarpura Police station in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal state, India Alleged perpetrators: 1. Mr. Bholanath Naskar, Mr. Sushil Naskar's uncle 2. Mr. Tabal Naskar, the son of Bholanath Naskar 3. Mr. Swapan Naskar, the son of Bholanath Naskar 4. Mr. Bapi Naskar, the son of Bholanath Naskar (All of them are residing in Tentulpara, Naskarpara, Garia village) Date of incident: At around 9:30pm on 8 August 2006

I am extremely disturbed to learn regarding the gross negligence of government hospitals and police inaction regarding a serious attack on the life of a woman. I have been informed that several government hospitals refused to provide emergency medical treatment to the seriously injured victim, which resulted into her untimely death. It has also been alleged that the local police apparently delayed to file a non-bailable charge against the alleged perpetrators despite the victim's relative's complaint and indirectly helped them to be bailed out by the court. It is believed that the police inaction is due to the nexus between the police and the alleged perpetrators, who are rich and influential figures in the area.

To briefly remind the case, Mrs. Gouri Naskar had a longstanding dispute regarding a piece of land with her husband's cousin family. On August 8, 2006 above mentioned perpetrators attacked on Mrs. Gouri with bamboo and concrete rods. As a result of brutal beating the victim became seriously injured by her head.

I was informed that Mrs. Gouri was brought to different government hospitals but none of these hospitals admitted her for emergency medical treatment although she was in critical condition that needs urgent medical treatment. The concerned hospitals are; Bangur Hospital of Kolkata, Chittaranjan Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, National Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata and S.S.K.M. Hospital, Kolkata. Finally Mrs. Gouri was succumbed to her head injury on August 14.

Such grass negligence of government hospitals is against the directions laid in the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Paschim Bangal Khet Mazdoor Samity and others Vs State of Bengal. In the judgment, the Supreme Court clearly mentioned that "failure on the part of the government hospital to provide timely medical treatment to a person in need of such treatment results in violation of his 'right to life' guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution".

I am also deeply concerned by deliberate police inaction into this matter. I was informed that even though the victim's sister-in-law lodged a complaint against the alleged perpetrators mentioned above on August 10 (FIR no. 260/06 dated 10/08/06 under section of 324/34 of IPC), the Sonarpura police did not take any initiatives to investigate the incident and arrest the alleged perpetrators. They did not even visit the incident place. Sections 324 is about "voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means" and section 34 is about "acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention". I was also informed that the Sonarpura police, in particular the Investing Officer (IO) of this case Mr. A Laskar, deliberately delayed to add a non-bailable charge (section 304 of IPC) against the perpetrators in the Charge Sheet for 46 days after the victim's death. I was informed that when the police finally added this section into the charge sheet on September 30, meanwhile, taking advantage of apparently delayed police action, the alleged perpetrators became successful to get bail from the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), Alipore on September 12. They are now arrogantly intimidating the victim’s family not to pursue the case against them.

I was also informed that the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Hong Kong wrote to Mr. Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health regarding this matter.

In light of the above, I strongly call for your immediate intervention into this matter. I urge you to appoint independent investigating authority to enquire the role of Investing Officer (IO) of Sonarpura Police Station for delaying the action against the perpetrators. If it is proven that the police inaction is due to the corruption, strong action must be taken those responsible. I also urge you to take proper action to arrest the alleged perpetrators and also inquire about the alleged intimidation on the victim's family by these people. I also urge you to initiate an extensive enquiry about the alleged negligence of government hospitals mentioned above which resulted into victim's death. Proper departmental and legal action must be laid against hospital staff responsible for such negligence. I also urge you to ensure that adequate compensation is given to the victim family.

I look for your urgent intervention into this case.

Your’s sincerely ,

Nagaraj.M.R.

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AN APPEAL TO HEAD OF PEACE & RECONCIALIATION COMMITTEE, GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN

Dear Mr Ali Ahmed al-Sayed,

As the next session of the National Assembly begins I am writing to you to urge the Peace and Reconciliation Committee of the National Assembly to take urgent and effective action to ensure the protection of civilians in Darfur.

In the past four months over 80,000 more people in Darfur have been displaced, some of them for the second or third time. There are now more than 2 million people displaced in camps and towns who have been unable to return to their villages for over three years.

In many areas of Darfur displaced people dare not leave camps because Janjawid militias occupy the surrounding area, which is now depopulated. Where people do venture outside the camps the Janjawid often attack them. Women who have to leave the camps to look for firewood are frequently raped by Janjawid. Such risks make the return of displaced people to their homes impossible.

The government has failed to disarm the Janjawid as it agreed to do in the Ndjamena Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement of 2004, the Darfur Peace Agreement of 2006 and many other agreements. Antonov planes of the Sudan Armed Forces are bombing villages in raids which almost invariably fail to distinguish between civilians and military targets.

There is an urgent need for an effective peacekeeping force to provide security for the civilian population, to ensure the safe and voluntary assisted return home of those who have been displaced, and to actively monitor and verify the disarmament of the Janjawid. The African Union Peace and Security Council resolved in March 2006 to hand over to a UN force with a strong mandate and better resources than the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), which has been carrying out peacekeeping duties in Darfur since 2005.

The UN Security Council in August 2006 mandated an expanded UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in Darfur but, although there are already 10,000 UN peacekeepers in Sudan under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, this deployment has so far been refused by the ruling National Congress Party. However other parties in the Government of National Unity accept the transition to a strong UN force with a mandate to protect civilians.

We urge you to use the weight of parliament and the National Assembly Peace and Reconciliation Committee to urge the government to accept UN peacekeepers. Until they come, the African Union and the international community must ensure that AMIS is strengthened and actively protects civilians.

We hope you will share our concerns with the other members of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee and the National Assembly so that active steps can be taken urgently to ensure the protection of the civilian population.

Your’s sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

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AN APPEAL TO HEAD OF JUDICIARY , GOVERNMENT OF IRAN

Your excellency,

I am deeply concerned for the safety of student activist and blogger Kianoosh Sanjari who was arrested on 7 October and is now being held incommunicado. I am particularly worried that he may be at risk of torture or ill-treatment and would urge you to ensure that he is treated humanely and granted immediate and unconditional access to his lawyer, family members, and any medical treatment that he may require.

I would also urge you to make public any charges which he now faces and ensure that these are communicated to both Kianoosh Sanjari and his lawyer without delay.

I am particularly concerned that Kianoosh Sanjari may be a prisoner of conscience held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. If this is the case I would urge you to immediately release him in accordance with your obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 19 of which states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression.

Your’s sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

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AN APPEAL TO HONOURABLE PRIME MINISTER , GOVERNMENT OF VIETNAM

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to urge the immediate and unconditional release of prisoners of conscience Nguyen Vu Binh and Truong Quoc Huy.

These men have only exercised their legitimate right to freedom of expression through the Internet; Nguyen Vu Binh by communicating with others outside Viet Nam about human rights and corruption and Truong Quoc Huy by taking part in an Internet chat room and expressing support for other dissidents advocating political reform.

Your government has said many times that Vietnamese citizens have the right to freedom of expression. Arresting and imprisoning people like Nguyen Vu Binh and Truong Quoc Huy directly contradicts this.

I call on you to uphold the rights of all Vietnamese citizens to freedom of expression,and association, to release Nguyen Vu Binh and Truong Quoc Huy immediately and stop the harassment and arrest of countless others who have a valid and positive contribution to make towards the progress of Viet Nam.

Your’s sincerely,

Nagaraj.M.R.

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HRW Documents Repression In Kashmir - By Parwini Zora & Daniel Woreck

A recent report by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) documents the systematic human rights abuses carried out by the Indian security forces in the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the protection of the Indian government and legal system.

HRW conducted research for the report, entitled “Everyone Lives in Fear: Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir,” from 2004 to February 2006 in Indian-controlled Kashmir. It was the first time since 1989 that the Indian government had allowed an international human rights body to visit and report on the state. HRW also conducted research in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in 2005 and 2006.

The report provides detailed accounts and interviews implicating the Indian security forces in torture, disappearances, arbitrary detentions and summary executions, which are concealed as “encounter killings”.

The report stressed that the estimated 700,000 Indian soldiers and paramilitaries in Kashmir carry out widespread repression with impunity. Indian laws protect members of the armed forces and civilian officials involved in crimes against Kashmiris. Soldiers responsible for murders and torture are rarely investigated or held accountable for their crimes.

The Asian director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, told the press in September: “Human rights abuses have been a cause as well as a consequence of the insurgency in Kashmir.... Kashmiris continue to live in constant fear because perpetrators of abuses are not punished. Unless the Indian authorities address the human rights crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, a political settlement of the conflict will remain illusory.”

The report also covers in significant detail the massacres, bombings and political killings committed by various armed groups opposed to Indian rule of Kashmir. While HRW equates the violence of the Indian military and that of the militants, the outbreak of the armed conflict in the late 1980s resulted from decades of oppressive, anti-democratic Indian rule of the majority Muslim state.

The continuing conflict in Kashmir underlines the inherently reactionary character of the 1947 partition of British India into the current Muslim Pakistan and a Hindu-dominated India. The division of the subcontinent along artificial boundaries that cut across national, ethnic and language groupings laid the groundwork for future conflicts and wars that resulted in some 2 million deaths, turned millions more into refugees and divided the Kashmiri region into Indian and Pakistani-held areas.

Subsequently, successive Indian governments have proved incapable of meeting the aspirations of the Kashmiri Muslims for genuine democratic rights and decent living standards. Seeking to ensure Indian domination over Kashmir, the Indian elite rescinded an agreement to give more autonomy to the state. Kashmiris began to take up arms in the late 1980s after the Indian government blatantly rigged state elections in Jammu and Kashmir

Since 1989, at least 20,000 Kashmiri civilians have been killed as a result of the armed conflict and tens of thousands more have been injured according to the HRW report. About 300,000 Hindu Kashmiris have been internally displaced and another 30,000 Muslim Kashmiris have fled to neighbouring Pakistan as refugees.

The report cited evidence of summary killings of suspected militants. Police and army officials told HRW that detained suspects were often executed rather than being brought to jail, on the grounds that “keeping hardcore militants in gaol is a security risk”. The deaths were often falsely recorded as the result of “encounter killings”. One example was the case of five men shot supposedly in an armed “encounter”. While the army and police claimed the men were responsible for the massacre of 36 Kashmiri Sikhs in 2000, forensic tests later showed the men to be innocent local villagers.

Indian security forces have extensive powers under the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act to use lethal force against anyone “who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area”. The report cited an incident on February 23, 2006 in which soldiers in Handawara shot at a group of people playing cricket because they suspected that a Kashmiri separatist was among them. Four boys, including an eight-year-old, were killed.

Kashmiri human rights defenders estimate that over 8,000 Kashmiris have simply “disappeared” since 1989. Most were last seen in the custody of Indian troops, who in turn denied holding the person. Many were tortured and then executed.

One case involved Manzoor Ahmed Mir, a 37-year-old state employee. A group of soldiers accompanied by three masked men took him away on September 12, 2004. Manzoor’s brother recognised the men as a police sub-inspector, with whom Manzoor had quarrelled, and the sub-inspector’s two sons. Manzoor’s family filed a habeas corpus petition in the Srinigar High Court but by February 2006 the police and army had not responded.

The HRW report stated that thousands of Kashmiris have been arbitrarily and illegally detained. One of India’s Additional Advocate Generals recently stated there were 4,500 suspected militants awaiting trial in jail. Many have been held for 10 years or more without being brought before a court. Indian authorities often detain Kashmiris under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, which allows for detention without trial for up to two years, because they have no evidence of guilt.

Many people have been detained beyond two years by simply rolling over preventative detention orders. Amnesty International reported on the case of Farooq Ahmad Dar, who was detained in November last year under his ninth consecutive PSA order. He has been in continuous detention since 1991.

Based on information from Mian Abdul Qayoom, president of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, HRW reported that individuals had filed at least 60,000 habeas corpus petitions since 1990 to contest detentions or “disappearances”. However, according to HRW, there are few, if any, cases in which “officials have been held responsible for failing to respond in a timely manner to a court order in a habeas corpus case or for failing to release a detainee pursuant to a court order in Jammu and Kashmir”.

Those in state custody are commonly tortured. “Relatives of militants are also taken into custody and tortured, either to discover the whereabouts of a suspect, or as a way of forcing the militant to surrender,” the report stated. The brother of a wanted Kashmiri told HRW that Indian forces had beaten him and given him electric shocks while in custody to try to force his brother to surrender. The torture only stopped when soldiers killed his brother.

Legal immunity

Most cases of serious human rights abuse in the Jammu and Kashmir region are not officially investigated. In the rare instances where abuses are probed, there has not been a single individual in the Indian army, paramilitary or the police convicted of a criminal offence. In fact, since 1989 only 134 army personnel, 79 members of the Border Security Force and 60 policemen have been subjected to “disciplinary action”.

There is no civilian control over the proceedings of the military justice system. In addition, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of 1973 protect any member of the armed forces from arrest for “anything done or purported to be done by him in the discharge of his official duties except after obtaining the consent of the central government”.

Section 197(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code is a sweeping immunity provision that applies throughout India. In the words of the HRW report, this code “makes it mandatory for a prosecutor to obtain permission from the federal government to initiate criminal proceedings against public servants, including armed forces personnel”. According to Amnesty International, the Jammu and Kashmir government had made almost 300 requests for permission to prosecute last year, but none were granted.

Security forces have used the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act to justify firing indiscriminately on peaceful demonstrations, including protests in January and October 1990 in Srinagar and in 1993 in Beijbehara.

The HRW report is one more account of the widespread and sustained use of repression for over a decade in Jammu and Kashmir. There is no reason to believe that the current Congress-led government in New Delhi will take any more notice of its recommendations than any of the previous calls for justice.

The report underscores the fact that in India, which is commonly referred to as the world’s largest democracy, the systematic abuse of basic democratic rights is widespread.

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Is someone Holding India Hostage? Late Prime minister mr. Rajiv gandhi’s assassination By Jawed Naqvi

Sonia Gandhi recently made a startling statement about her husband's premonition of death, but it went largely unnoticed. Describing her meeting with Rajiv after Indira Gandhi was assassinated on an October morning in 1984, she told a TV channel recently: "My husband was away. He was in West Bengal. He arrived and came straight to the hospital. It was a very difficult moment. He did say that is what was expected of him (to step into his mother's shoes) and I did beg him not to take that responsibility. I did say that, because I thought he would be killed too. He replied he would be killed in any case."

So Rajiv and Sonia knew that Rajiv would be inevitably killed whether or not he became prime minister? And who did they both think were going to target the future prime minister of India? We all parrot the easier lines. Sikh bodyguards killed Indira Gandhi at her residence in 1984. A Sri Lankan Tamil woman suicide bomber assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in Siriperembudur in 1991 and, of course, Sanjay Gandhi died because he was playing the fool with a private plane, plunging to his death near his mother's home.

Since the LTTE was not even remotely an issue for India on the day of Indira Gandhi's death, when the exchange with Sonia took place, the source of Rajiv Gandhi's fears was evidently elsewhere. Was he alluding to Sikh insurgents because they had got his mother in a shower of bullets with frightening ease? Would he be killed "in any case", by the same Sikh rebels? Is that what he was afraid of but defied nevertheless to become prime minister? Yes. It could be a possible source of worry. And that is why perhaps the prime minister's security detail ever since does not have a single Sikh personnel, even more ironically for a prime minister who is himself a Sikh – at a time when the army chief too is a Sikh. But to consider not becoming prime minister because a bunch of terrorists were out to get him? It's a little difficult to digest.

No that's not what Sonia Gandhi and her husband were afraid of. There had to be something more menacing, more capable of striking at will, more entrenched and threatening. Were the two thinking of a foreign country, as his mother was given to fearing about. An extremely powerful foreign agency perhaps? Or some highly motivated people within the Indian system itself, or both? These are probably very old questions, but unanswered questions nevertheless. They are relevant today because the threat to the future prime minister, should there be another from the Gandhi family, still looms large. Or has that threat waned.

A reasonable approach to these questions would be to scan the various anti-bodies that surrounded the Gandhis in their moment of crisis. There were three or four things that Rajiv Gandhi did during his turbulent five-year rule and later as opposition leader that may offer clues into his death.

To begin with, in his early days as prime minister, Rajiv had annoyed the business lobbies within his own party by declaring a war on the "politics of moneybags". The purported author of that famous speech in Mumbai in 1985 was believed to be Mani Shankar Aiyar, once Rajiv's man Friday. It is possible that the business lobbies that felt threatened by him had rejoiced at his death. But could they have plotted his extermination? Only as conduits, if at all.

Then there were political rivals within his Congress party, some of whom had approached President Zail Singh to dismiss his government. The commissions of inquiry that went into the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi pointed to the possibility of the enemy within. But there's a global angle too. In the Cold War context, Indira Gandhi was seen as a Soviet protégé. She had often spoken of the threat from the CIA and from the Hindu revivalist RSS. Both are believed to have penetrated her porous Congress party and successfully destabilised her from within.

Indira Gandhi's emergency rule between 1975 and 77 was supported by the pro-Soviet Communist Party of India. In a post-Vietnam world, with the United States looking to avenge its humiliating exit from Saigon, Indira's move to fortify herself against the swirling threat from the right was of a piece with the global pattern. Within a short span Mujibur Rehman was assassinated in Bangladesh, Bhutto in Pakistan, Allende overthrown in Chile, the Iranian and Afghan revolutions were brewing with Soviet support and Zia ul Haq was being groomed to wage jihad with motivated Muslim foot soldiers against the communist government in Kabul. If we look around further there would be more examples of the global cat and mouse.

So CIA definitely. It must be a source of worry to Rajiv Gandhi. And why not? If we regard his proximity to the Soviet leaders of his time, his landmark handshake with Deng Xiaopeng and his strident disapproval of the Chandrasekhar government's refuelling facilities given to American war planes that were heading for the Gulf during the first war against Iraq. All this made him stick out like a sore thumb with the Americans. Just compare the two situations. BJP's foreign minister Jaswant Singh invites American troops to fight the Afghan war from Indian soil. And here was Mr Gandhi unrelenting on a core principle against foreign troops.

It is of course no longer embarrassing for an Indian to be identified as a CIA man. Some of them wear the proximity like a badge of honour. The Pew survey, not the most reliable yardstick, nevertheless showed Indians as resolutely supportive of President Bush when everyone else seemed to have deserted his destructive policies. The new flavour in India is America. Forget the Indira Gandhi days, no one today talks anymore about the CIA's presence in India, about its ability to penetrate the nation's polity, to strike deep inside its labyrinthine security agencies, of its insatiable appetite for informants and assassins, for moles inside the country's armed forces, for stealing invaluable secrets. (And gullible as we are, we continue to capture in droves the Jama Masjid-type looking men with some yellow paper that contains a secret map for Pakistan, Nepal or Bangladesh. Is there any secret left to be sold after the National Security Council was cleaned out very recently by we know who?)

Is it wrong to fear the worst under the given circumstances? Why did the most crucial file on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination disappear from Prime Minister Rao's office? Is it outlandish to suspect that India's lurch to the right was plotted with the help of key assassinations? And the answer should come from Sonia Gandhi. Who is threatening her that she decided to surrender a mandate that was hers to a bunch of people who have either never won an election or were defeated in the last polls. Only she can tell if someone is holding the country hostage, someone who perhaps controls the stock markets that rocked like an earthquake when she was about to be anointed in May 2004.

Someone she had in mind in her interview recently.

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Edited , printed , published owned by NAGARAJ.M.R. @ # LIG-2 / 761,HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR ,HEBBAL , MYSORE – 570017 INDIA………cell : 9341820313 home page : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw , http://groups.google.co.in/group/hrwepaper/ http://indiapolicelaw.blogspot.com/ , http://hrwpaper.blogspot.com/ contact : naghrw@yahoo.com , nagarajhrw@hotmail.com A member of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INDIA

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1 comment:

Setu Madhavan said...

It is indeed regrettable that the top Netas - Pradhan Mantriji and Raksha Mantriji included - have their Pugdis and Lungis tied into a collective knot over the "gross indiscipline" of the Army, relying solely on the version of the Kolkata cops.

The media, as always, have declared the Army officers GUILTY as charged. They have also pre-empted the need to have a victim, or even her statement - and have gone ahead and declared the Army jawans GUILTY anyway. So the Neta-Babu-Patrakar-Pandu Chowkidaar axis plays Prosecutor, Judge, Jury and Executioner.

After everyone from the PM, the defence minister, External Affairs minister, and the PMO, rushed to personally call and assure the WB Chief Minister that the GUILTY Army officers and jawans would be given exemplary punishment, the cops' story has begun to unravel.

By the way, when was the last time anyone heard of the PM personally rushing to inquire about common men and women who are tortured, even killed, by police high handedness?

Turns out that Park Street Cops were working overtime on New Years Eve to nab random members of the public, slapping them and locking them up on trumped up charges of drunkenness, eve teasing or hooliganism and extorting money from them. One couple has also registered a complaint with the NHRC to the effect (the husband was picked up by the park Street Cops as he and his wife were crossing the road. When he asked to know his offence, he was slapped by the cop, who took him to his superior who declared, 'You are a drunkard', slapped him some more, and ordered that he be locked up.) Just so happened that the police snared the wrong fish - the Army Officers - and promptly ended up getting paid in their own coin - by being placed at the receiving end of a (well deserved) beating.

The media immediately jumped on the "casting aspersions" bandwagon and sullied the Army. As the truth slowly begins to emerge - and the usual shenanigans of Indian cops wear thin - we see that there is no woman that complained about being teased or groped.

Four bouncers of this hotel thrashed an Army Major because he demanded his meal for a valid coupon he held. They then put him in a taxi and brought him to Park Street cops. Hafta happy cops who have good 'relations' with this hotel dutifully locked up the officer - inspite of him informing them of his identity. 'No one tells us what we are supposed to do here', so saying the cops beat up the Major before locking him. This is a clear violation of the law - but pandu chowkidars obviously have no clue about the Army Act passed by the Parliament. Soon a captain reaches the police station to reason with the Pandus to free his superior officer. 'Dont tell us what we are supposed to do here' so saying they lock up the Captain as well and for good measure book him for guess what? 'Crossing the road at the wrong place'! Wow, that is so cute. Isnt it?

Unfortunately for the cops, the Captain had called his Commanding Officer on his cell before he was locked up. The Commanding Officer (CO) of the 3 Madras regiment (Madras regiment is the oldest Regiment in the Indian Army - a small trivia for you - inconsequential to the case) comes with soldiers of his unit - soldiers that have fought with, and under the leadership of, these officers for 5 years in Siachen and Kashmir and have lost some of their men there - witness the badly beaten Major and Captain. The CO, a Lt. Colonel, gets the cop to open the lockup, and as the Major steps out the jawans get to see the real extent of the beatings handed to their officer. To make matters worse the cop speaks rough and insults the Major in the presence of his jawans. The 3 Madras jawans known to give their life to rescue their own from the enemey, fly into blind rage and all hell breaks loose. Their CO, the Lt Colonel restores order and disperses them, and himself waits for senior Police Officers to arrive. The cops immediately call the press, and the print and electronic media is full of stories about 'Yet another case of gross indiscipline in the Army'.

The Prime Minister, Defence Minister and External Affairs minister express their unhappiness at the 'indiscipline of the GUILTY Army officers' and call the West Bengal CM to offer full support! The Army refuses to hand over their own. The police chief is angry but when made to read and understand the letter of the law by the Army authorities, comes around. Now the cops end up looking like fools, because they obviously never went to the scene of the alleged eve teasing to investigate, or even bothered to take the statement of the 'victim' - they simply went by the words of the bouncers of Park Hotel.

The cops are now looking desperately for 'witnesses', and not being able to produce any, who do they come up with? The 4 bouncers themselves of course!!! Now they - the bouncers - claim that the 4 of them were beaten bad by the Major! So I guess these 4 were the eves that the Major teased. The cops now claim that they of course never knew that these were army officers - else they would have followed the law! The truth will slowly emerge and certainly the situation ended up much worse than it should have been. Neither party should be blamed or exonerated till the final picture is out. What stuns me is the alacrity with which the PM, defence minister and External affairs Minister of this country reacted to the 'shameful guilt of army officers' without so much as bothering to ascertain basic facts.

Why is it that so many cases of police excesses, and even some cases of army excesses against general civilian population in Kashmir / North East, does not elicit the same swift reaction from these folks? But touch their corrupt babus or pandus and Netas behave like a cat on a hot tin roof. Of the press' eagerness to besmirch the Armed forces, the lesser said the better. A few quick questions for the Neta-babu-Patrakar-Pandu axis...

1. The Army officers indicted in Tehelka scam are serving prison time - after being court martialed by the Army. What about the bureacrats involved? Any guesses? Of course absolutely nothing happens to them.

2. The army officer accused in the Kashmir molestation case has been tried by the army, punished and discharged from service. What about the cop - the SHO - who was also involved? You guessed right. Even an FIR has not been filed. So much for the indiscipline of the Army and the efficiency of the morally upright cops / neta / babu axis.

3. Why do Kolkata citizens complain that when ever riotous situations erupt in Kolkata the brave cops suddenly become incommunicado - and dont take any phone calls? Because when required to muster courage and discipline they do exactly what they did when confronted by jawans of 3 Madras Regiment - hide under their desks. Finally to control rioting mobs Neta / Babus requisition the 'indisciplined' Army and the jawans face up to the marauding mobs and bring things under control.

4. Where is the PMO and PM when widows of Kargil martyrs go running from pillar to post begging for the Gas stations that a grateful nation promised 8 years ago? Some of the widows have had to go on hunger strike, others threatened suicide. Of course the 'disciplined' bureacrats and ethical politicians hide behind various fig leaves like 'land acquisition problems' and 'procedural delays'. When it is time for these 'indisciplined and GUILTY' army officers and Jawans to lay down their lives there is never any 'procedural delay'.

5. Why doesn't the PMO, PM and Raksha Mantri ever commiserate with, and get so agitated over, long pending legitimate grievances of Armed Forces personnel regarding pay, pension, equipment, housing etc.?

Did you hear of the PM and PMO's displeasure at the Army chief's refusal to unilaterally withdraw Indian troops from Siachen as demanded by Pakistan as a "Confidence building meausure"? As a last resort the Indian Army chief requested the Netas - Defence Minister and PM - to bear down on Pakistan to jointly certify / delienate on maps the Indian positions prior to getting Indian soldiers to stand down. Neither the Indian PM, nor the Pakistani dictator ("Ataturk" wannabe and infamous Kargil architect) are happy with the Indian Army. Long story short, the army chief's insistence on the map has rained on the PM's expected "solution" to the Kashmir issue in addition to deferring / cancelling his proposed trip to Pakistan. For his efforts the Army Chief has incurred the displeasure of the External Affairs Mantri Mahodayji, and an informal gag on holding press conferences.

This is what the Neta / Babu nexus is upto. Of the police and trigger happy rent-a-cause Patrakar the lesser said the better.

By the way, did the cops lock KPS Gill up and beat him even after he confessed to groping / misbehaving with a woman?

Just a little crumb for thought - Now that the Chowkidaar-Neta-Babu axis have been educated on the provisions of the Army, Navy and Airforce Acts that disallow Pandu chowkidaar to arrest an Army Major, Lt Colonel or General (except on charges of Rape, Murder or culpable homicide), it wont be long before they work in tandem to amend these provisions through an Act of Parliament. Should that take long, pandu chowkidaars could now trump up charges of Rape, Murder, Culpable homicide against defence personnel including Senior Officers and promptly lock them up.

It is sad that when foreign Armies like the US Army, Canadian Army and Australian Army are sending their Army officers and soldiers to be trained in specialised warfare Schools of the Indian Army, fellow Indians - Pradhan Mantri Mahodayji, Raksha Mantri Mahodayji and External Affairs Mantri Mahodayji included - publicly berate Army Officers and Jawans before even waiting for the facts to emerge.

The Aam Janta's blind support for the police in any skirmish between Police and the Armed Forces (as evidenced by letters and comments in the blogosphere and print media) may seem surprising, confounding, even frustrating at first glance. However the unwritten "slave charter" that governs the one-way relationship between Pandu chowkidaar and "pulis se soshit peedit" Public can put things in perspective. In a subservience that mirrors slave Tom's ("Uncle Tom's cabin") reverence for his brutal white masters of slavery era America, the Indian public invariably forget and forgive the periodic brutality handed them by their Pandu chowkidaars - Bhagalpur blindings, fake encounter killings, rapes, custodial deaths, routine merciless beatings, the occassional urine therapy / golden shower / watersports (kind courtesy of Orissa Police), forced incest between mother and son (mission accomplished by Rajasthan Police circa 1996) and Systematic breaking of bones ("Emergency" era gift to the people from Kerala Police) to name just a few from this eminent collection.

However, come time for these very police brutes to receive their just deserts at the hands of the Military (as in the case of the Kolkata Police, or in case of the thrashing administered to Kerala police in Thevara police station, Kochi, by Naval Officers incensed over the beating, arrest, and locking up of a fellow Naval Officer over a trumped up petty traffic offense by a Kerala police constable - "So you are a Naval Officer? Let me teach you a lesson" - in 1992) the "pulis se peedit soshit laachar" Aam Janta, like slave Uncle Tom, invariably stand by their tormentor-in-chief - Pandu chowkidaar. Never the Army.

Slave Tom considered it his spiritual duty to serve his master (subservience to the earthly master as a prelude, almost a rite of passage, to serving the heavenly master). Right or wrong, my slave master is always right.

The Indian Public considers it democracy. Plain and simple. Right or wrong, between the Armed Forces and Police, my Pandu Chowkidaar is always right. Never the Armed Forces.

For all of Aam Janta's fawning obsequiousness, how does the Neta-Babu-Patrakar-Pandu nexus regard the common man? Exactly how the white masters regarded slave Uncle Tom and his ilk: "Bigger the fool, better the slave."

Jai Hind

Setu Madhavan exoticbronze@hotmail.com