Sunday, November 18, 2012

CPIM led Candle Light protest in Tamilnadu to highlight the power crisis in the state


Cadres of Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged a demonstration  and held a candle light protest on Saturday across Tamilnadu condemning the State government for the prolonged power cuts.


CPIM Memo to President: Targetting of Muslim Youth

Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the CPI(M) led a delegation to meet President Shri Pranab Mukherjee regarding targeting and persecution of scores of Muslim youth in terrorism related cases.  The memorandum submitted to the President has demanded that:
1.Compensation and rehabilitation for the innocent persons implicated in such cases.
2.Provision of Special Courts with time bound procedures to settle cases within a year.
3.In cases where the court has held that evidence has been concocted or misrepresented by the investigating agencies to implicate innocents, action must be taken against those responsible.
4.The draconian provisions in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act must be reconsidered and removed.
The other members in the delegation were Subhashini Ali, member of the Central Committee of CPI(M), Mohd. Yusuf Tarigami, MLA, Jammu & Kashmir and member of the Central Committee of CPI(M), Sehba Farooqui, member of the Delhi state committee of CPI(M) and three young men who were jailed for long periods and then acquitted by the courts.  They are Mohammed Aamir from Delhi (in jail for 14 years), Maqbool Shah from Srinagar (jailed for 14 years), Syed Wasif Haider from Kanpur (in jail for 8 years).
Following is the Text of the Letter Addressed to the President                                     
                        November 17, 2012
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhawan
New Delhi
Dear Rashtrapati ji,
I write to draw your attention to the grave miscarriage of justice to scores of Muslim youth who were and are being wrongly arrested and charged in cases related to terror attacks in different parts of the country. In some cases these young men have been incarcerated for ten to fourteen years as undertrials and then finally acquitted by the courts as being innocent. Several reliable groups of concerned citizens and organizations who have collected the details of these cases, have revealed how the court judgements themselves have strongly indicted the investigation agencies for the biased mentality against the Muslim youth and in several cases the manipulation and presentation of concocted evidence against innocent young men. It would appear that the investigation agencies are more driven by the requirement to show “results” in their investigation rather than to ensure that it is the actual culprits who are caught. 
Muslim youth are the most vulnerable targets today. The draconian provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act are used to deny the normal processes of justice, while there is no time bound procedure for the judicial processes. There is a growing feeling of fear and apprehension on the one hand and anger on the other that innocents are being implicated. Young lives have been destroyed, families stricken, forced into social isolation, driven into debt to pay the huge expenditures in legal fees—the terrible conditions caused by State led injustice.
As an illustration, the cases of the four young men Md. Aamir from Delhi, Syed Maqbool from Srinagar, Wasif Haider and Mumtaz Ahmed from Uttar Pradesh are presented before you. They were arrested arbitrarily when they were just eighteen or nineteen years of age, implicated in dozens of cases, incarcerated for over ten years and each one of them was, as held by the courts, innocent. They are today without jobs, considered unemployable, with dark and uncertain futures.
While no quarter can be given to any individual or group which is responsible for dastardly terror attacks, the arrest of innocent Muslim youth has reached serious dimensions which requires immediate attention. It is a blot on the principles of secular democracy. At the same time, the arrest of innocent people means that the actual culprits go free. There are three aspects, which require to be looked at:
1. Compensation to and rehabilitation of the innocents. While in some cases, with the intervention of the Minority Rights Commission and other agencies, some monetary compensation may have been given in a few cases, by and large most of the victims of State  injustice are in a terrible condition. It is essential to ensure justice by providing compensation as well as the means towards a livelihood through provision of employment or any other avenue suggested by the victim.
2. The provision of Special Courts with  time bound procedures is essential so as to end the sometimes deliberate prolonging of the cases. All such cases should be settled in a year.
3. In cases where the Court has held that evidence has been concocted or misrepresented by the investigating agencies to implicate innocents, action must be taken against those responsible. This will act as a deterrent in the deliberate implication of innocents.
We believe also that the draconian provisions in the UAPA must be reconsidered. At the time of the passage of the Bill in Parliament the CPI(M) had warned of the consequences of keeping such provisions on the Statute book akin to TADA and POTA. Experience has shown the legitimacy of the apprehensions expressed at that time.
We request you to take up these issues urgently with the Government of India. We also enclose relevant information and documents with further details.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
Prakash Karat
(General Secretary)

Annexure
Examples of some of the cases of acquittal and discharge of youth wrongfully charged and incarcerated
01 – Mohd Marouf Qaamar (Delhi), ….     Acquitted on 11.11.2008, Tis Hazari Court Delhi
02 – Tariq Ahmad Dar (Kashmir),           Discharge 2006    Case of Tis Hazari Court, Delhi
03 – Tasleem (Muradabad – UP), Discharge – Release on 1998, Tis Hazari Court No. 19, Delhi
04 – Najeem (Muradabad – UP) Discharge – Release on 1998, Tis Hazari  Court No. 19, Delhi
05 – Shamim Akhtar (Kolkata),  Discharge – Release on 1998, Tis Hazari Court No. 19, Delhi
06 – Syed Maqbool Shah (Kashmir) Acquitted on 08.04.2010, Patiala House Court, Delhi
07 – Mohd Aamir Khan (Delhi)  Acquitted  - 17 Cases (Delhi & NCR), Release on: 09.01.2012
08 – Haroon Rashid (Bihar),  Acquitted on Jan – 2010, Tis Hazari Court, Delhi Case
09 – Dilawar Khan (Orissa), Acquit on Jan – 2010, Tis Hazari Court, Delhi Case
10 – Salman Khurshid Kori (Manipur)Acquitted on 14.12.2011, Tis Hazari Court, Delhi Case
11 – Syed Mubarak (Sitapuri – UP)         Acquitted ………….Case of Bareli Dist Court – UP
12 – Abdul Mubeen (Sidhard Nagar)       Acquitted ……………Case of Agra Dist Court – UP
13 – Ghulam Mohd (Kanpur),                 Acquitted on 12.08.2009, Case of Kanpur City – UP
14 – Sajjad-ul-Thman, (Kishtuwar)         Discharge on 14.04.2011, Case of Lucknow – UP.
15 – Mumtaz Ahmad (Sopur)                 Acquitted on 06.08.2003 Case of GRP – Kanpur, UP.
16 – Faheem Ansari (Maharashtra)         Acquitted case of Mumbai, 26.11.2008, Session Court & Supreme Court
17 – Saba uddin (UP),  Acquitted Case of Mumbai, 26.11.2008, Session Court to Supreme Court!
18 – Jogeshvari Rly st Case,                 2 Persons Acquitted Mumbai Maharashtra Case
19 – Tilak Nagar Rly st Case,  2 Persons discharge & 2 Acquitted. Case of Mumbai,
20 – Ghaat – Kopar 2003 Case  9 Persons Acquitted, Case of Mumbai, Maharashtra
21 – Gateway of India Case,                 2 Persons Acquitted, Case of Mumbai, Maharashtra
22 – Rehmana Farooqui    Acquitted by Delhi High Court in 2007 in 2000 Red Fort Case.

Left Front will Spread Movement on Attack Against Women All Over The State: Biman Basu



The West Bengal Left Front Committee issued its absolute dissent over the rampant of anti-women crime in the State of West Bengal at Rashmani Road in Kolkata near Dharmatala. Thousands of protesters gathered today at Dharmatala to strengthen the call of the Left Front to protect women from growing social disasters that curb out social security and democratic space in West Bengal. The Left Front vowed its discontent over the passive and continual sponsorship of the State Government to the growing felony and criminalization against women. Rapes, physical harassments, incidents of abuse are getting surfaced in this state every now and then. The State Government is doing away with this towering criminalization with their hypothetical ‘created incident’ or ‘done by CPI(M)’ theories, which are not getting welcomed by common people. The West Bengal Government has created so much of ground level chaos through its autocratic attitude that the people of West Bengal are much angry than frustrated that they have no other way but to launch protest on the streets. On the 17th of November 2012 the state witnessed just one of a kind protest led by Left Front which was going to get followed by waves of protests voicing the rejection of TMC Government. The meeting was presided over by the Left Front Chairman Biman Basu; it was women of this state on the front-foot this afternoon.

Left Front Chairman Biman Basu while addressing the crowd pointed out that there are plenty of cases where TMC leaders are allegedly associated with such incidents. He also made it clear how the State Government’s responses with ‘created incident’ theory that either way deciphers their attitude towards criminalization against women. Sharply criticizing the role of state police Basu mentioned how the police have been acting indifferently or in some cases counter-productively to the victims of those brutal incidents. Innocent college girls are not even spared these days from the wild intensions of the offenders who are mostly TMC supporters, said Basu. He also mentioned that the State Government’s passive endorsement had caused the towering high on this sort of anti-women crime which we are tolerating every day. It is not only the subject of anti-women crime that the Chief Minister is endorsing, same way she is doing away with the disasters of police firing either at Loba Village, Birbhum or at Tehatta, Nadia. The way she is trying to cover up the incidents translates either to a direct endorsement of anarchy which may be in some way or other helping her or her party to do whatever she is targeting for, or on her gross incompetence to maintain social rest, law and order. It is the people of this state who are facing series of attacks, molestation and killing every day. Basu asked people of the state of West Bengal to unify and fight against the role of the Government. He then issued ultimatum to the State Government that this specific meeting is not the ending; it marks the start of continuous protest movements against their anti-people installations. 

The leader of opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra started addressing the huge gathering by expressing his concern over growing rate of crime against women throughout India. He discussed about the situation of Hariyana, Karnataka and Delhi regarding this issue. Then coming back to West Bengal he drew everyone’s attention by saying that the larger share of anti-women crimes are being committed in the rural areas of the state. So it was his understanding that protest movements must have to be organized in rural areas, village specific mobilization discarding those criminal tendencies against women is a must to do task for every leftist of the state. Speaking on the state sponsorship to the criminal offenders he said that if the people are aware of the attitude of the Government then they must translate their discontent in to massive protests. It is the misfortune of the people of West Bengal that Left Front Government is not in power; when women are attacked, molested, that means democracy is under attack. The draconian TMC Government has turned this state to an endangered state in just 19 months, said Mishra. He also said that it is the utmost priority of the leftists to stand beside the oppressed people; the duty of Left Front workers start with helping people out there. He thoroughly discussed the cases of the developed countries where women are playing key role, women are accounted for 2/3rd of net labour worldwide where they are consuming only a half of net production and wealth generated. If leftists are sworn to fight for the peasant’s rights and labour interests, if the leftists are foot soldiers of class struggle, Mishra mentioned that then fighting for the rights of women is no split phenomenon than that. All the issues of social disorder, capitalist oppression and the issues of caste division must be addressed uniquely but the protests must be united in order to deliver the gravest blow to the anti-people ruler to ensure the emancipation of the oppressed, said Mishra. CPI State Secretary Manjukumar Majumder, RSP leader Mihir Byne and Manoj Bhattacharya were among the left leaders, who spoke to the gathering regarding the issue of growing attack against women.

SFI All India Protest Day on 19th November

The Central executive committee of the Students’ federation of India in strongest possible words condemns the recent spate of Imperialist aggression spearheaded by Israel leading to an unrelenting military attack on the Gaza city killing as many as twenty one people including a number of children in the last three days.

More than 280 strikes have been launched against Gaza in the last 72 hours, killing 21 Palestinians and injuring almost 200 people. Those killed include Hamas military chief Ahmad Jaabari and a number of innocent children.

The US backed Zionist aggression has been the root cause of current crisis in Gaza. In the meeting of the UN Security Council USA has again shamelessly advocated for Israel clearly reflecting its own strategic designs.

The UPA government in the centre has again chosen to remain silent on this issue debunking the historic position of our country, which has always stood with the liberation struggle of Palestinian people.
 
We demand that the central government must immediately denounce the Israeli aggression and work with other countries to push for immediate truce in Gaza.
The CEC of SFI stands in complete solidarity with the people of Palestin
e and calls upon all its units to rise in protest against the heinous and barbaric Israeli aggression. The CEC of SFI calls upon all its units to observe an All India Protest Day on 19th of November throughout the country in this regard.