Fwd: Public lecture on Operation Greenhunt, by two activists from Chattisgarh, on Nov 1
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: neeraj jain <neer...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:55 AM
Subject: Public lecture on Operation Greenhunt, by two activists from
Chattisgarh, on Nov 1
To:
Dear friend,
Here is an announcement from Lokayat about two important programs on
Human Rights:
PROGRAM ONE:
Public Lecture:
What will happen because of government’s Operation Greenhunt?
Speakers: Advocate Sudha Bhardwaj, Himanshu Kumar
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2009
Time: 5.30 – 8 pm
Venue: Rajwade Sabhagruh (Hall), Bharat Itihas Sanshodhan Mandal,
Next to Bharat Natya Mandir, Sadashiv Peth, Pune – 30
Even though human rights groups all over the country after a 2 year
long campaihgn succeeded in winning the release of Dr. Binayak Sen
from prison, the human rights issues in Chattisgarh which he was
highlighting because of which the Chattisgarh government incarcerated
him in an attempt to silence him are still very much alive, and in
fact getting worse. In another event of police goondaism, the police
bulldozed the Ashram of the renowned Gandhian activist Himanshu Kumar
some months ago. The ashram was located in Dantewada district of
Chattisgarh and was renowed its educational and health work among the
adivasis of the region. Himanshu was also instrumental in helping the
over 3 lakh adivasis return to their homes after they were brutally
uprooted from their villages by the police in the name of fighting
terrorism in an operation infamously known as Salwa Judum, which even
the Supreme Court has held to be blatantly violative of the
constitution. For this ‘crime’, the police bulldozed the ashram just a
few months ago!
And now the government is planning to launch Operation Greenhunt, an
armed operation which it claims is being launched to curb the growing
Naxal menace. In actuality, it will only be an excuse to further
advance the offensive launched by the government to uproot the tribals
of Chattisgarh and seize their mineral rich lands for handing them
over to giant foreign and Indian corporations. This was also the real
motive of Salwa Judum, and now in the next phase it is planning to
launch an even more brutal crackdown on the tribals who are not
willing to vacate their lands and see their way of life destroyed for
ever, and so are heroically fighting back.
All this is not to say that there is no violence being done by the
Naxalites in the region. There is, and we obviously do not support it.
But the point is that what is providing a fertile ground for the
spread of Naxalism is the brutal offensive of the state on the
adivasis of the area. When the adivasis do not get justice, when they
find that the police-courts-political parties-bureaucracy are all in
collusion and seeking to uproot them from their ancestral lands for
the profits of a few giant corporations, they are going to fight back.
The militant and bold adivasis are not the docile people of the plains
who take injustice lying down, so fierce were their struggles against
the British that even they had to back off. And so some of the
adivasis are joining the Naxalites.
To further discuss the human rights issues in Chattisgarh and evolve a
plan of action to advance the struggle for human rights in Pune,
Lokayat along with some other progressive organizations of Pune is
organizing a talk by two well-known activists from Chattisgarh who are
visiting Pune on November 1 and 2, 2009. Sudha Bhardwaj is a renowned
trade union leader from Chattisgarh and is the leader of Chattisgarh
Mukti Morcha, the famous movement begun by the iconic trade union
leader Shankar Guha Niyogi. She also happens to be the daughter of the
well known economist Krishna Bhardwaj, and has been fighting for the
rights of peasants and workers of Chattisgarh for the last 22 years.
Himanshu Kumar is the well known Gandhian activist about whom we have
described above.
PROGRAM TWO:
ONE DAY TOKEN HUNGER STRIKE IN SUPPORT OF
THE EPIC HUNGER STRIKE OF SHARMILA IROM
Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009
Time: 8 am to 8 pm
Venue: Mahatma Phule Putla, Mandai
Around one hundred and forty organisations have given a call to
initiate solidarity actions on the eve of the tenth year of the hunger
fast by Sharmila Irom against the rule of the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur state. Protests, one-day symbolic fasts,
film festivals, posters, letters to the Chief Minister of Manipur and
Prime Minister as well as solidarity poems by students in different
parts are being planned in many places. The central idea behind the
campaign is to support not just Sharmila Irom’s demand to repeal AFSPA
in Manipur. Ultimately, there is a need to remove such repressive laws
wherever they are in place, in the entire north east, Jammu and
Kashmir, Chattisgarh, etc. But for that, it is important that people
all over the country rise up in protest and come out to voice their
protests against the increasing authoritarian nature of the Indian
state. The fact that so many different organizations all over the
country are organizing solidarity actions between Nov 2 and 7 in
support of Sharmila Irom is an indication that people of the country
are beginning to stir.
Lokayat is organizing a token one day hunger strike on November 7 in
solidarity with this all India effort.
Lokayat calls upon all of you to join us if not for the whole day then
for a few hours in support of Sharmila Irom's epic hunger strike,
which is now going to enter its tenth year!
in solidarity,
--
Neeraj Jain
"Mrudanga", Bldg No. 3A, Flat No. 6,
Naad Brahma Society, Warje,
Pune - 411 058
Ph. 94222 20311