Stop treating dissenters as criminals by Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Hundreds of activist joined in a symbolic protest in the Uttar-Pradesh Bhavan, Delhi against the illegal detentian of Shri Bhupendra Singh Rawat, a farmer leader and member of National Alliance of People's Movement. Bhupendra Rawat was very active in the movement for creation of separate state of Uttaranchal. Lately Bhupendra has been working in Delhi's slum againast their eviction.
Bhupendra was the main force behind the farmer's uprising against Reliance Industries. He initially went there on a fact finding team to investigate into the matter of police manhandling of sitution on the previous night of Shri V.P.Singh's visit to the area and later decided that the people would have to be organised to protest against this loot of national resources.
The result was that the people's protest against the illegal grabbing the most fertile land of INdia by one of the most notorious industrial houses in India got momentum. After former Prime minister V.P.Singh took up the issue, the issue of Special Economic Zone ( SEZ) has now acquired importance in public debate. Dadari today symoblised farmers resistance against the onslaught of the looters, builders and leaders together.
Fearing this, the Muluam Singh Yadav government of Uttar-Pradesh unleashed a rein of terror in village Bajhara Khurd. Farmers are not allowed to even venture out of their houses. PAC has surrounded the villages. Even the children are not spared.
Yesterday's protest at UP Bhavan was symbolic and as Medha Patakar rightly moaned how a person who publicly spoke against WTO at the anti WTO platform, Mulayam Singh yadav's socialist credentials are now questioned. Ambanis, Amitabh Bachchans and Subroto Roy will not bring socialism to Uttar-Pradesh. It is more ironical that on the birthday of Jai Prakash Narayan (11th october), who fought for democracy against the tyranny of Indira Gandhi's authoritarian regime, the Samajwadi workers in Uttar-Pradesh were celebrating the birthday of the new mascot of their party Shri Amitabh Bachchan. There cannot be a bigger irony than this that the current Samajwadi regime in Uttar-Pradesh is a blot on the very word of Samajwadi.
It is not just Mulayam Singh Yadav but all those in power have put their conscious aside and are selling the precious land of the farmers to new thugs, who have media on their side. The middle classes who dream of having their children working in UK and US give a shit to this. Their only concern about India comes through the idiotic mumbai movies. When the farmers die or tribals are killed, that hurt their national pride because in this age of lobbying and India shining.' we only want to listen good news'. People like us who have such news are considered 'persona non grata'. why the hell we always get depressing news.Unfortunately, the political class does not want to bring cheers to all of us. They are surrounded by the self serving bureaucrats, India\'s servile class which looted the people and robbed them from their resources. If Dadari like situation are not tackled properly and if the looters continue to act on their fency, government will not be able to keep this country united. Already there are revolt every where. From Kalinganagar in Orissa to Maharastra, Chhatisgarh to Jharkhand, people are rising in protest against this onslaught which will ultimately rock India.We all have seen the tragedy that happeend to not only Enron but a number of companies which never fulfilled their promises. Ultimately people threw them away. Enron's director became bankrupt and the company was unable to pay its debt. For the people of Maharastra, Enron's promises could never fulfilled. Instead, the electricity crisis worsened in the state.Behind these great malls, dams and buildings are displacement of millions of poor people, Dalits and Adivasis. They will rise and demolish the structure of this nation if it failed to address their concern. We will only have to blame to ourselves and not to the others. Time for the government not to treat the activists who do not confirm to a particular ideology and those who raise their voice against the terror or police or injustice done to people, as criminals. Unfortunately, can we expect it from those in power who give z plus security to criminals and where the policemen behave like goats in front of these criminals masqurading as leaders?
Details of cases against Bhupendra Singh Rawat and other farmer activists
Update-1
October 7, 2006
Anti-Eviction Activists in Jail for the past 10 days;UP Government and Reliance resort to violent repressions and Goonda Raj Senior activists raising the social and economic issues of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) are in Ghaziabad District Jail (UP) jail for the last 10 days. They were fighting against the illegal land grab by Reliance India in the Dadri area after Ghaziabad (30 kms from Delhi) The Dadri Kisan Union Activists Bhupendra Singh Rawat, Jagmohan Rawat, Ompal Singh Bachoda, Sonu Bachoda, Charan Singh, Satpal Singh and two women Vimalesh and Veeru were arrested by unidentified policemen from the Uttar Pradesh Police force on 27th September 2006, while they were travelling to meet the Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and attend a press conference in Delhi. They were to join a delegation comprising of Medha Patkar, Prashant Bhushan, Rajendra Ravi, Arun Kumar, Sanjay Sangvai and Rifat Mumtaz. Mr. Bhupendra Rawat, a farmer leader and an active member of National Alliance of People's Movements, has been part of the struggle fighting against the illegal capture of farmers' land by the Reliance in the nearby villages. The police had resorted to extreme violence against the farmers, including women and children in many instances during the first week of July 2006. Against this a mass action and rally was organised by the movement on 9th July. The police retorted with brutal violence and mass arrests. They also filed many \nfalse and fictitious cases against the leaders of the movement including Mr. Rawat. There are reports that these activists were manhandled badly and did not spare even the women. Women were beaten by men police and they were misbehaved too.These activists have been in jail for the past 10 days . The UP police arrested them on charges including attempt to murder, rioting and violence against police personnel on duty. They have already secured bail under three cases they have been charged under. However, as they get bail on some cases, the police are \nclamping new fabricated charges on these activists to deter their release from the Jail. This has been happening for the past 7 days. A team of activists including Adv. Prashant Bhaushan, Prof. Ajit Jha, Joe Athialy, Shree Prakash and Vijayan MJ along with villagers from Dadri had tried to visit the activists in jail on October 6, but were denied permission to meet any of those in prison on flimsy technical grounds. The police denied permission for even the senior Supreme Court Lawyer in the team.
27th September 2006, while they were travelling to meet the Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and attend a press conference in Delhi. They were to join a delegation comprising of Medha Patkar, Prashant Bhushan, Rajendra Ravi, Arun Kumar, Sanjay Sangvai and Rifat Mumtaz. Mr. Bhupendra Rawat, a farmer leader and an active member of National Alliance of People's Movements, has been part of the struggle fighting against the illegal capture of farmers' land by the Reliance in the nearby villages. The police had resorted to extreme violence against the farmers, including women and children in many instances during the first week of July 2006. Against this a mass action and rally was organised by the movement on 9th July. The police retorted with brutal violence and mass arrests. They also filed many false and fictitious cases against the leaders of the movement including Mr. Rawat. There are reports that these activists were manhandled badly and did not spare even the women . Women were beaten by men police and they were misbehaved too.These activists have been in jail for the past 10 days . The UP police arrested them on charges including attempt to murder, rioting and violence against police personnel on duty. They have already secured bail under three cases they have been charged under. However, as they get bail on some cases, the police are clamping new fabricated charges on these activists to deter their release from the Jail. This has been happening for the past 7 days. A team of activists including Adv. Prashant Bhaushan, Prof. Ajit Jha, Joe Athialy, Shree Prakash and Vijayan MJ along with villagers from Dadri had tried to visit the activists in jail on October 6, but were denied permission to meet any of those in prison on flimsy technical grounds. The police denied permission for even the senior Supreme Court Lawyer in the team.
We are trying to get more details about the case and the charges levelled against them by the police. Once we get that we will send you all an action alert, requesting to write to the Chief Minister, NHRC and so on. Please extend your support to the people who are in jail by mobilising faxes, phone calls etc to the concerned.
Ajit Jha, Vijayan MJ, Joe Athyali, Vimalbhai, Shivani Chaudhry
(011-26680883/26680914 Mobiles: 9868165471/9891814707)\n \n \nUpdate – 2\n9th October 2006.
Update – 2
9th October 2006
Privatisation of India - Kar Lo Duniya Muthie Main
Kar Lo duniya muthie Main, this slogan of late dhiru bhai Ambani seems to have worked as miracle motto on U. P. administration that is going out of the way to imbibe this motto in letter and spirit and leaving no stone unturned in falsely implicating the social activists in various police cases filed on the behest of reliance industries. The ghost ofcapitalism, let loose by reliance in the state of U. P. seems to have completely infected the entire apparatus of government machinery to the extent that it seems to have turned the police staff into robots whose mechanical actions are visible in the form of false cases registered against the social activist Bhupendra Singh Rawat and Jagmohan Singh Rawat of Delhi.
The ordeal of these two social activists began on 27 September 2006 while they were on their way to Delhiin a Maruti van after having spoken to the villagers of village Bejghera khurd. These social activists along with satpal singh sisodia, Charan Singh, Sonu Rana, Ompal Singh and two women who had taken lift in their Maruti van were on their way to Delhiwhile they were intercepted near khera More and taken to police station pilkhuwa. On reaching police station, the two women were let of but at the police station a senior police officer who was not wearing any name plate on uniform asked , Bhupendra Singh Rawat to ensure that henceforth, there should not be any participation on his part in the protest activities of"Bejhera Khurd. In relation to the impending issues for which villagers have been protesting or else case will be registered against him to teachhim a lesson. However, the explanations of Bhupendra Singh Rawat could not yield anything except the following police cases against him and his Co- passengers of Maruti van and his neighbour Jagmohan Singh Rawat who had fated himself to accompany Bhupendra Singh Rawat that day. (1)Police Station Dhaulana,Crime No.108,FIR No.84 dated 15/09/06 U/S 147/323/342/504/506 IPC against 1) Shankar singh 2)Rohtash 3)Yudhister\n 4)Jagdish 5)Bhupendar Rawat 6)Rakesh 7)Rajender 8) Dharampal 9) Jaipal 10)\n Sher Singh 11) Ompal 12) Devendra 13) Rudey Singh 14) Rampahl 15) Dharampal 16) Kamal Singh 17) Puran Sing 18) Ratiram 19) Babu 20)\n Kishanpal and 50-60 unidentified persons.\nIn this case the arrestees of 27 September 2006 have already been granted ", bail by the honourable court. (2) Police Station Dhaulana, crime No 200 FIR No. 76 dated 25/8/06 U/S 147/148/149/332/353/504/506 IPC against yudishter Singh, Rakesh Rana, Shankar Singh Rana and 400-500 unidentified personsIn this case also the arrestees of 27 September 2006 have already been granted bail by the honourable court(3) Police Station Pilkhua, crime No 168, FIR No 114 dated 08/7/06 149/307/332/336/353/504/506 IPC against 1) Anil Bhardwaj 2) Major Himanshu singh 3) Somveer Singh 4) Subash 5) Chander 6) Satyapaul 7) Ram Kishan 8) Dhanna 9) Buddha 10) bhojraj and 100 unidentified persons
In this case the hearing against the arrestees of 27 September 2006 is fixed for 9 October 2006(4) Police Station Pilkhuwa, crime No 167, FIR NO 113 dated 7 July 2006\n under section 1\n47/148/149/307/332/333/353/435/224/225/504/506 IPC and 7 \ncriminal law amendment act against 1) Manoj Bhardwaj 2) Satish 3) Prem 5) Tookey 6) Sunil Giri 7) Monu 8) Begu 9) yudishter 10) Rakesh 11) Sanjay 12) Jaipal and a list of 100 names mentioned on the plain paper and enclosed.In this case also hearing has been fixed for the arrestees of 27 September 2006 for 9 October 2006The arrestees of 27 September 2006 were again produced in the court of \ngaziabad on 6 October 2006 in connection with three fresh cases that have ",1] in Mussoorie with case No 151/06 under section 147/504/506/120B of IPC And case No 168/06 under section 147/148/149/307/506 of IPC and case No 231/06 \nunder section 147/148/149/307/332/353/336 IPC against Bhupendra Singh Rawat.The prejudice of the police is very much evident against the 06 persons\n who are being detained in custody with fresh cases cropping up everyday\n and it is violative of all the democratic norms of a civilised society. It may not be out of place to mention here the case of Deepak Gupta alias\n bittoo son of Rajendra kumar Gupta resident of Hapur who was not even\n remotely connected with this protest of the farmers of village Bejhera \nKhurd.He is into the business of construction material and had come to", Pilkhuwa to collect the pending payments from his clients.During the course of dealing with the clients on the issue of pending payments,he had an altercation with a police official who was supporting the defaulter of pending payment and to settle the score the police official got him\n arrested in connection with the farmers protest cases and hehad to spend 15 days in jail before being bailed out.
Aridaman/Ajeet Jha,
