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BURNING BRAIN NEWSLETTER - September 2006
Women; Human Rights & The Protectors: The Indian Scenario.
Females are prone to sexual exploitation in a place like India is a well known fact. Exploitation of vulnerable women by bureaucrats, politicians, policemen and whosoever is in a position to do so is also an open secret. But sexual harassment of women in broad day light by the same police which is supposed to protect their honour is indeed shocking. If all this is done in the presence of the Chief Minister (Of Punjab) and with his tacit (or otherwise) consent; such acts become a shame for the whole nation. What adds to the shock is that when the public protested and took the matter to the Chief Minister, he is quoted as saying that his police forces did the right thing and such kind of miscreants should be dealt with in this manner only.
You may think what crime these young females committed which evoked such an inhuman action and such harsh words by the Chief Minister. Well, these young women (Mostly Veterinary Doctors) dared to exercise their democratic right of peaceful protest in Punjab (The part of India from where the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh comes). During a public meeting in Ludhiana, these young doctors were raising slogans demanding jobs which were earlier promised by the government. The police immediately swung into action and while it packed all the male protesters in buses and took them to the police station; the female protesters were left to be dealt later. And the action which the police initiated later is visible in the pictures above. I was still too naive to think that the delinquent police officials would be dealt with strictly after some national newspapers highlighted this kind of behaviour of the police. The Punjab Government cared two hoots to the public outburst against the criminal action by the Punjab Police. The CM ignored the concerns of citizens and civil society organisations. Those who wrote to him have not received any reply till date. The National Commission for Women was no different. Our complaint to the NCW has still not evoked any response or action. (After all the chairperson of NCW and the CM share the same umbrella organisation.) Fortunately, there are still some agencies which are out of control of the oppressive and dictatorial (But apparently democratic) governments. The Punjab & Haryana High Court took suo motto action on the basis of the newspaper report and has issued notice of motion to the Punjab Government for October 10, 2006. Subsequently "Punjab State Human Right Commission" also ordered an inquiry. The saddest part of the whole story is that the victims of the incident are too frightened to come out and speak up. No doubt that this incident has further waned the faith of people in law and justice. The ordinary people have been successfully subdued by a corrupt, insensitive and unaccountable system. The victims and their families are too afraid of Punjab Police and the Punjab Government which is evident by the fact that not a single victim has lodged or initiated any form of complaint. They don’t want to talk to the press too; lest the fury of the police may unfurl. I am writing this on October 2, 2006; the birth day of Mahatma Gandhi. I don't know what Gandhi'ji would have done if faced with such inhuman acts. Probably he too would be clueless and without a strategy because even the "Colonial Britishers" never dared to oppress the protestors by using suchlike criminal tactics. Yours,
Complaint Made to NCW BBS/NCW/2006/02 National Commission for Women, Telephone: 91-11-23237166, 91-11-23236988 SEXUAL EXPLOITATION; VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND CONTRAVENTION OF THE SUPREME COURT GUIDELINES IN PUNJAB Madam, We would like to bring to your notice instances of grave violations and criminal acts against women in the State of Punjab. What is most unfortunate that the perpetrator of such criminal act is the Punjab Police and the Government of Punjab itself. It was a shame to see the photograph on the front page of the newspaper “The Indian Express” dated Sep. 22, 2006. The front page photograph showed policemen brutally pulling a girl student and physically molesting the girl. The picture also shows the hand of a male police official trying to unstring the “salwar” of the girl and disrobe her besides the other acts of sexual molestation. All this was done in full public view and in the presence of the Punjab Chief Minister. Instead of taking action against the police officials engaged in such criminal acts, the chief minister sided with the police and got a case registered against these students itself. Agitating peacefully is a constitutional right and policing is a state duty. So without debating on the merit of the agitation and the right of the state to police; we wish to highlight the cruelty and criminality of the Police and the state in dealing with the female students with a clear intention to insult the modesty of the women and sexually harass them. Another picture of the same agitation (But a different picture) appears in the newspaper “Times of India” dated September 28, 2006. The picture shows a policeman with her hands on a women’s breast. As a social activist, I still don’t know what it takes to make the political leaders react and act when such brutalities and criminality against women comes to light. What would happen if tomorrow the same thing is done with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi or Mrs. Parneet Kaur (When they are agitating/protesting or sitting on a dharna: which every political person has to do). Will the state and the NCW still not act in such cases? From our end, the least we could do is to call the NCW to take cognizance of these actions and take strong measures so that no one dares to indulge in suchlike criminal acts in future. The NCW should not see these girls as merely ordinary students but rather act as if such actions have happened with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. The minimum which any citizen expects from the NCW is to pass instructions for registration of criminal cases against the erring police officials and instruct the state government to terminate (Not merely suspend) all such policemen from service. Expecting to see immediate and effective action, Yours cordially Hemant Goswami Chairperson: Burning
Brain Society Attached:
News from ToI is also available for download;
BBS Actions making
Global Impact
This month BMJ (TC Journal) has covered all the stories which we brought to limelight. Just click on the link to read them.
News analysis
The
Politician-Tobacco Corporate Nexus create concerns Further to the expose by Burning Brain Society in April 2006 (See http://www.burningbrain.org/tobacco_politicians.htm) a young and dedicated journalist, Khushwant Singh again highlighted the nexus of politicians and tobacco companies in a front page story of 'Times of India" dated September 16, 2005. The news created a ripple in the political circle and highlighted the important question of whether the politicians should accept money from the tobacco industry at all. The reason seemed to be more religious as one of the parties which accepted the money was the “Akali Dal,” which claims to follow the Sikhism tenets. In the following mirth of political mudslinging, the larger question whether tobacco money should be accepted at all by any political party got away to some extend. All political functionaries do accept the fact (in private) that tobacco money was bad but unfortunately not many are willing to speak openly. A public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking directions for banning the recognised political parties from accepting donations from tobacco companies figured in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 20, 2006. However the court expressed its inability to give any such direction and asked the petitioner to approach the government and represent to the political parties. See some of the news reports at;
Page 1; top news from "Hindustan Times" mentioning that all political parties
have received money from tobacco.
A front page news in "Hindi" newspaper "Dainik Bhaskar" on the Tobacco Money
Scam. Also available at
A news in "Hindi" Newspaper "Punjab Kesri" highlighting that 18 political
parties had received political donation from tobacco companies; as highlighted
by Burning Brain Society. Also available at More front page news in “Punjabi” newspaper "Desh Sewak" is available at http://gallery.globalink.org/v/members/goswamih/tobpeople/BBS_tobacco_politician4.jpg.html
Carried forward to 2nd
Page;
Another news from Times of India
Another News Report “Tobacco money” is not merely a religious issue: BBS Chandigarh: September 19, 2006:- Burning Brain Society (BBS), the NGO which exposed the links of tobacco companies and politicians by revealing about the donations given by tobacco companies to parliamentarians expressed strong resentment on the casual way in which the government and the election commission is taking this matter and the issue of political donations to influence the parliament. Reacting to the furor created by the revelations of donations by tobacco company ITC to Shrimoni Akali Dal (SAD), Hemant Goswami, chairperson of BBS said that it was not only SAD which has accepted the tobacco money but 18 political parties having representation in the parliament have received the tobacco money. Fourteen of these political parties belong to the ruling alliance and the lions share has gone to Congress and BJP who among themselves received 28.1 million rupees. Mr. Hemant said that the issue is not merely of religious importance but rather of great public and social importance which highlight the important question of raising funds for elections through business organizations wanting to influence the policies of the country, which may be otherwise against the larger public interest. If it is merely a question of a Sikh receiving election fund, then Mr. Badal, Captain Amarinder Singh and Dr. Manmohan Singh all are at par, as it’s the tobacco money which is helping them in their political functioning. BBS spokesperson said, “It’s quite shameful that even the most trusted political parties have decided to be a part of the tobacco genocide and sided with tobacco companies despite the fact that every year nearly a million people die because of tobacco use and about two million youngsters become new tobacco addicts in India.” Mr. Goswami rued that “While many social activists are spending and risking their lives to fight the misdeeds of the tobacco giants, but unfortunately the politicians whose actual duty is to save millions from dying are finding ways to mitigate the good work done on tobacco control.” “We shall be soon approaching the Election Commission to draft new rules on a policy to accept political donation from organisations whose influence on the parliament can work against public interest and welfare,” Hemant informed. WHO GOT WHAT – DETAILS According to the 2005 financial report of ITC Limited: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - Rs. 0.06 Crore; All India Trinamool Congres - Rs. 0.04 Crore; Bahujan Samaj Party - Rs.0.19 Crore ; Bharatiya Janata Party - Rs.1.37 Crores; Biju Janata Dal - Rs.0.11Crore ; Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - Rs.0.16 Crore; Indian National Congress - Rs.1.44 Crores; Indian National Lok Dal - Rs.0.03 Crore; Jammu & Kashmir National Conference -Rs. 0.03 Crore ; Nationalist Congress Party - Rs.0.09 Crore; Samajwadi Party -Rs. 0.36 Crore; Shiv Sena - Rs.0.12 Crore; Telegu Desam Party - Rs. 0.15 Crore; Janata Dal (United) - Rs.0.08 Crore; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha - Rs.0.05Crore; Rashtriya Janata Dal - Rs. 0.21 Crore; Shiromani Akali Dal - Rs. 0.08 Crore; Telangana Rashtra Samithi -Rs. 0.05 Crore.
ONGOING CAMPAIGN
Become a vigilant citizen; Participate in the Citizens Report project
It appears that the unaccounted actions
and arbitrary decisions of many government officials are going to face some real
challenge ahead and may become a thing of the past. Burning Brain Society (BBS)
and Society for Prevention of Crime & Corruption along with the support of many
other national and international organisations has decided to use the Right to
Information Act to bring out a citizen’s report on the functioning of various
departments of the government.
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