Friday, November 6, 2009

Statement against Government of India’s planned military offensive in adivasi-populated regions: National and international signatories

October 12, 2009

Sanhati (www.sanhati.com), a collective of activists/academics who have been working in solidarity with peoples’ movements in India by providing information and analysis, took the initiative to bring together voices from around the world against the Government of India’s planned military offensive in Central India. A statement (Hindi version here, Bengali version here, Telugu version here, Italian version of Letter here, Italian version of Background Note here) and a background note were drafted in consultation with Indian activists, and duly circulated for endorsement. Readers are encouraged to endorse by mailing sanhatiindia [at] sanhati [dot] com with full name and affiliation.

To

Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister,
Government of India,
South Block, Raisina Hill,
New Delhi,
India-110 011.

We are deeply concerned by the Indian government’s plans for launching an unprecedented military offensive by army and paramilitary forces in the adivasi (indigeneous people)-populated regions of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal states. The stated objective of the offensive is to “liberate” these areas from the influence of Maoist rebels. Such a military campaign will endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of the poorest people living in those areas, resulting in massive displacement, destitution and human rights violation of ordinary citizens. To hunt down the poorest of Indian citizens in the name of trying to curb the shadow of an insurgency is both counter-productive and vicious. The ongoing campaigns by paramilitary forces, buttressed by anti-rebel militias, organised and funded by government agencies, have already created a civil war like situation in some parts of Chattisgarh and West Bengal, with hundreds killed and thousands displaced. The proposed armed offensive will not only aggravate the poverty, hunger, humiliation and insecurity of the adivasi people, but also spread it over a larger region.

Grinding poverty and abysmal living conditions that has been the lot of India’s adivasi population has been complemented by increasing state violence since the neoliberal turn in the policy framework of the Indian state in the early 1990s. Whatever little access the poor had to forests, land, rivers, common pastures, village tanks and other common property resources has come under increasing attack by the Indian state in the guise of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and other “development” projects related to mining, industrial development, Information Technology parks, etc. The geographical terrain, where the government’s military offensive is planned to be carried out, is very rich in natural resources like minerals, forest wealth and water, and has been the target of large scale appropriation by several corporations. The desperate resistance of the local indigenous people against their displacement and dispossession has in many cases prevented the government-backed corporations from making inroads into these areas. We fear that the government’s offensive is also an attempt to crush such popular resistances in order to facilitate the entry and operation of these corporations and to pave the way for unbridled exploitation of the natural resources and the people of these regions. It is the widening levels of disparity and the continuing problems of social deprivation and structural violence, and the state repression on the non-violent resistance of the poor and marginalized against their dispossession, which gives rise to social anger and unrest and takes the form of political violence by the poor. Instead of addressing the source of the problem, the Indian state has decided to launch a military offensive to deal with this problem: kill the poor and not the poverty, seems to be the implicit slogan of the Indian government.

We feel that it would deliver a crippling blow to Indian democracy if the government tries to subjugate its own people militarily without addressing their grievances. Even as the short-term military success of such a venture is very doubtful, enormous misery for the common people is not in doubt, as has been witnessed in the case of numerous insurgent movements in the world. We urge the Indian government to immediately withdraw the armed forces and stop all plans for carrying out such military operations that has the potential for triggering a civil war which will inflict widespread misery on the poorest and most vulnerable section of the Indian population and clear the way for the plundering of their resources by corporations. We call upon all democratic-minded people to join us in this appeal.


National Signatories
Arundhati Roy, Author and Activist, India

Amit Bhaduri, Professor Emeritus, Center for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU, India

Sandeep Pandey, Social Activist, N.A.P.M., IndiaMahashweta Devi, Social Activist and Writer, India

Manoranjan Mohanty, Durgabai Deshmukh Professor of Social Development, Council for Social Development, India

Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court Advocate, India

Nandini Sundar, Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India

Colin Gonzalves, Supreme Court Advocate, India

Arvind Kejriwal, Social Activist, India

Arundhati Dhuru, Activist, N.A.P.M., India

Swapna Banerjee-Guha, Department of Geography, University of Mumbai, India

Anand Patwardhan, Film Maker, India

Dipankar Bhattachararya, General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, India

Bernard D’Mello, Associate Editor, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), India

Sumit Sarkar, Retired Professor of History, Delhi University, India

Tanika Sarkar, Professor of History, J.N.U., India

Gautam Navlakha, Consulting Editor, Economic and Political Weekly, India

Madhu Bhaduri, Ex-ambassadorSumanta Banerjee, Writer, India

Dr. Vandana Shiva, Philosopher, Writer, Environmental Activist, India

M.V. Ramana, Visiting Research Scholar, Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy; Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University, USA

Dipanjan Rai Chaudhari, Retired Professor, Presidency College, India

G. N. Saibaba, Assistant Professor, University of Delhi

Amit Bhattacharyya, Professor, Department of History. Jadavpur University, Kolkata

D.N. Jha, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Delhi, India

Paromita Vohra, Devi Pictures

Sunil Shanbag, Theater Director

Saroj Giri, Lecturer in Political Science, Delhi University, India

Sudeshna Banerjee, Department of History, Jadavpur University, India

Achin Chakraborty, Professor of Economics, Institute of Development Studies, Calcutta University Alipore, India

Anand Chakravarty, Retired Professor, Delhi University, India

Anjan Chakrabarti, Professor of Economics, Calcutta University, India

Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta, Professor, Jadavpur University, India

Uma Chakravarty, Retired Professor, Delhi University, India

Kunal Chattopadhyay, Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, India

Amiya Dev, Emiritus Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, India

Subhash Gatade, Writer and Social Activisit, India

Abhijit Guha, Vidyasagar University, India

Kaneez Fathima, Librarian and Activist, Hyderabad

Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA, India

Gauri Lankesh, Editor, Lankesh Patrike, India

Pulin B. Nayak, Professor of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, India

Imrana Qadeer, Retired Professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, J.N.U., India

Neshant Quaiser, Associate Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia, Central University, Department of Sociology, India

Ramdas Rao, President, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Bangalore Unit, India

S. Jeevan Kumar, President, Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh, India

V.S.Krishna, State General Secretary, Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh, India

Shereen Ratnagar, Retired Professor, Center for Historical Studies, JNU, India

Rahul Varman, Professor, Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur, India

Padma Velaskar, Professor, Center for Studies in the Sociology of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India

Hilal Ahmed, Associate Fellow, Center for the Studies of Development of Societies, India

Reetha Balsavar

Sriparna Bandopadhyay, India

Chinmoy Banerjee

Kaushik Banyopadhyay, Student, IIT KGP, India

Pranab Kanti Basu, Department of Economics and Politics, Vishwa Bharati University, India

Durga Bhat, PUCL, Mangalore, India

Suresh Bhat, PUCL, Mangalore, India

Arunkanti Biswas, Former Deputy Director, NEERI, India

Nisha Biswas, CGCRI, Kolkata, India

Harsh Bora, Student, Delhi Law Faculty, India

Kaushik Bose, Reader, Vidyasagar University, India

Shitansu Shekhar Chakraborty, Student, IIT Kharagpur, India

Rabin Chakraborty

Indira Chakravarthi, Public Health Researcher, India

Dipankar Chakrabarti, Aneek, India

Tapan Chakraborty, Indian Statistical Institute, India

Nandini Chandra, Member of Faculty, Delhi University, India

Navin Chandra, Visiting Senior Fellow, Institude of Human Development, India

Jagadish Chandra, New Socialist Alternative, CWI, India

Pratyush Chandra, Activist, Freelance Journalist, and Researcher, India

Pritha Chandra, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT-Delhi, India

Dhiman Chatterjee, IIT Chennai, India

Aziz Choudry, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University, Canada

Jaison C Cooper, Janakeeya Manushyavakasa Prasthanam, Kerala, India

Debarshi Das, IIT Guwahati, India

Probal Dasgupta, Linguistic Research Unit, I.S.I., India

Sangeeta Dasgupta, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, India

Surya Shankar Dash, Independent Filmmaker, India

Ashokankur Datta, Graduate Student, I.S.I. (Planning Unit), India

Aniruddha Dutta, Gender Women’s and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota, USA

Soumik DuttaS. Dutta, Delhi Platform, India

Madhumita Dutta, Green Youth Movement, India, Chennai

Abhee Dutt-Mazumder, TASAM, India

Durga Prasad Duvvuri, Independent Management Consultant, India

Ajit Eapen, Mumbai, IndiaSampath G, Mumbai, India

Lena Ganesh

M.S. Ganesh

Anjan Ghosh, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, India

Aurnab Ghose, IISER Pune, India

Anandaroop Ghosh, India

Pothik Ghosh, Editor, Radical Notes, India

Rajeev Godara, General Secretary, Sampooran Kranti Manch, Haryana (associated with Lok Rajniti Manch), India

Siddhartha Gupta, Senior Medical Officer, Kolkata Port Trust, India

Jacob, South Asia Study Center

Manish Jain, Assistant Professor, Center for Studies of Sociology of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India

Shishir K. Jha, IIT Mumbai, India

Avinash K. Jha, Assistant Professor of Economics, Shri Ram College of Commerce, India

Partha Joarder, Scientist, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India

Bodhisattva Kar, Fellow in History, Center for Studies in Social Science, India

Harish Karnick, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur, India

Lateef Mohd Khan, General Secretary, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, India

Sumbul Jawed Khan, Biological Sciences and Bio. Eng. Department, IIT Kanpur, India

Reetika Khera, DSE, Delhi, India

Rajeesh Kollakkandi, indianvanguard.wordpress.com

Lenin Kumar, editor, Nisan, India

Ravi Kumar, Editor of Radical Notes and Assistant Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia, Central University, India

Abhijit Kundu, Faculty, Sociology, University of Delhi

P. Govindan kutty, Editor, People’s March, Ernakulam, Kerala

Shakuntala Mahanta, IIT Guwahati

Bodhisattwa Maity, India

Parthasarathi Majumdar, Senior Professor, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India

Soumik Majumder

Dishery Malakar

Julie Koppel Maldonado

Udai Malhotra, Activist, India

Mallanagoudar.P.K., Journalist, Gauri Lankesh Kannada Weekly, Bangalore, India

Prabhat Mandal, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India

Dr Nandini Manjrekar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Soma Marik

Satyabrata Mitra

Siddhartha Mitra

Tista Mitra, Journalist, India

Najeeb Mubarki, Assistant Editor, Editorial page, Economic Times, India

Dipankar Mukherjee, PDF, Delhi, India

Subhasis Mukhopadhyay, Frontier

Soumya Mukhopadhyay, Market Researcher - Independent filmmaker, Kolkata

Sakuntala Narsimhan, Writer, India

Nalini Nayak, Reader in Economics, PGDAV College, Delhi University, India

Soheb ur Rahman Niazi, Student, Jamia Milia Islamia, India

Rahul Pandey, India

Dr. Swadhin Pattanayak, India

Jai Pushp, Activist, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, India

Divya Rajagopal

Ramendra, Delhi Shramik Sangathan, India

V. Nagendra Rao, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad, India

Sankar Ray, Columnist

Partho Sarathi Ray, IISER, Kolkata

Kirity Roy, MASUM and PACTI, India

Atanu Roy

Anindyo Roy

Dunu Roy, Social Activist, India

Anil Sadgopal, Education Activist and Former Professor of Education, Delhi University, India

Sanjoy Kumar Saha, Reader, CSE department, Jadavpur University, India

Sandeep, Freelance Journalist

Dr. K. Saradamoni, Retired Academic

Madhu Sarin, Social Activist

Saurobijay Sarkar, Indian Institute of Marxist Studies

Satyam, Rahul Foundation and Dayitvbodh, India

Samriddhi Shankar Ray, Concern, IISc Bangalore, India

Sujay Sarkar

Meera Sehgal, Department of Sociology, Carleton College, USA

Jhuma Sen, Delhi

Samita Sen, Professor, Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, India

Santanu Sengupta, UDML College of Engineering, India

Ajay Kishor Shaw, Mumbai, India

Dr. Mira Shiva

Sheo Mangal Siddhantankar, General Secretary, CPIML-New Proleterian, India

Jagmohan Singh, Voices for Freedom Punjab, India

Sandeep Singh, Mumbai, India

Harindar Pal Singh Ishar, Advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court, India

Preeti Sinha, Editor of Philhal, Patna, India

Sirajuddeen K M, P A College of Engineering, Mangalore

Oishik Sircar, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, India

Satya Sivaraman, Journalist, New Delhi, India

Yogesh Snehi, DAV College, Amritsar, India

Srinvasashala, Human Rights Organisation, Hyderabad, India

K. Sriram

Viviek Sundara, Mumbai, India

Saswati Swetlena, Programme Officer, Governance and Advocacy Unit, National Center for Advocacy Studies, India

Damayanti Talukdar, Kolkata

Divya Trivedi, The Hindu Business Line, India

Satyam Varma, Rahul Foundation

N Venugopal, Journalist, Hyderabad, India

G. Vijay, Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Hyderabad, India

R.M. Vikas, IIT Kanpur, India

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International Signatories

Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, M.I.T., USA

David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, The C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center, USA

Michael Lebowitz, Director, Program in Transformative Practice and Human Development, Centro Internacional Mirana, Venezuela

John Bellamy Foster, Editor of Monthly Review and Professor of Sociology,University of Oregon Eugene,USA

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor and Director of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University, USA

James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science, Yale University, USA

Michael Watts, Professor of Geography and Development Studies, University of California Berkeley, USA

Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government, Departments of Anthropology and Political Science, Columbia University, USA

Mira Nair, Filmmaker, Mirabai Films, USA

Howard Zinn, Historian, Playwright, and Social Activisit, USA

Abha Sur, Women’s Studies, M.I.T., USA

Richard Peet, Professor of Geography, Clark University, USA

Richard Levins, John Rock Professor of Population Sciences, Harvard University, USA

Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London, U.K

Massimo De Angelis, Professor of Political Economy, University of East London, UK

Gyanendra Pandey, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of History, Emory University, USA

Brian Stross, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin, USA

J. Mohan Rao, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA

Vinay Lal, Professor of History & Asian American Studies, University of California Los Angeles, USA

James Crotty, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Haluk Gerger, Political Scientist, Activist, Political Prisoner, Turkey

Justin Podur, Journalist, Canada

Hari Kunzru, Novelist, U.K.

Louis Proyect, Columbia University

Biju Mathew, Associate Professor, Rider University, USA

Balmurli Natrajan, Campaign to Stop Funding Hate and South Asia Solidarity Initiative, USA

Hari Sharma, President, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, Canada

Harsh Kapoor, South Asia Citizens Web

Kim Berry, Professor of Women’s Studies, Humboldt State University, USA

Shefali Chandra, Professor of South Asian History, Washington University at St Louis, USA

Angana Chatterji, Professor, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, USA

Paresh Chattopadhyay, Département de Sociologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Stan Cox, Senior Scientist, The Land Institute, USA

Martin Doornbos, Professor Emeritus, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, Netherlands

Robert A Hueckstedt, Professor, University of Virginia, USA

Louis Kampf, Professor of Literature Emeritus, MIT, USA

Emily Kawano, Director, Center for Popular Economics, USA

Arthur MacEwan, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA

Bill Martin, Professor of Philosophy, DePaul University, USA

Ali Mir, Professor, William Paterson University, USA

Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Longman Professor of English, Oberlin College, USA

Kavita Philip, Associate Professor, University of California, Irvine, USA

Nicholas De Genova, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Latino Studies, Columbia University, USA

Peter Custers, Academic researcher on militarisation, Netherlands

Radha D’Souza, School of Law, University of Westminster , UK

Gary Aboud, Secretary, Fisherman and Friends of the Sea, Trinidad and Tobago

Mysara Abu-Hashem, Ph.D. Student, American University, USA

Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Professor of English, Montclair University, USA

Husna Haider Ali, People’s Resistance and Labour Party, Pakistan

Nadim Asrar, Ph.D. student, University of Minnesota, USA

Margaret E Sheehan, Attorney at Law, USA

Jude Baggo, Secretary General, Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, Philippines

Arpita Banerjee, Lecturer, Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, USA

David Barsamian, Director, Alternative Radio, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Oyman Basaran, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Deepankar Basu, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Kasturi Basu, Rutgers University, USA

Sharmadip Basu, Syracuse University, USA

Joseph A Belisle

Daniela Bezzi, Journalist, Italy

Varuni Bhatia, Assistant Professor, Religous Studies Program, N.Y.U., USA

Anindya Bhattacharya, Faculty, University of York, UK

Sourav Bhattacharya, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Swati Birla, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Norma G. Biňas, Secretary-General, International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Philippine Chapter

Peter J. Bloom, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Windel Bolinget, Secretary General, Cordillera Peoples Alliance, Phillipines

Rosalind Boyd, Centre for Developing-Area Studies, McGill University, Canada

Sister Maureen Catabian, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Philippines

Dominique Caouette, Département de Science Politique, Université de Montréal, France

Joan Carling, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), Thailand

Paula Chakravartty, Associate Professor, Department of Communications, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Ipsita Chatterjee, Assistant Professor, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Piya Chatterjee, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, University of California Riverside, USA

Ruchi Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA

Chitrabhanu Chaudhuri, Ph.D. Student, Department of Mathematics, Northwestern University, USA

Dan Clawson, Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USALen Cooper,Victorian Branch,Communication Workers Union Australia

Priti Gulati Cox, Artist, USA

Linda Cullen, Canada

Huma Dar, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia, Canada

Koel Das, UCSB, USA

Atreyi Dasgupta, MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA

Grace de Haro, APDH Human Rights Organization, Argentina

Nandini Dhar, Ph.D. student, University of Texas Austin, U.S.A.

Emily Durham-Shapiro, Student, University of Minnesotta, USA

Arindam Dutta, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, MIT, USA

Anne Dwyer, University of Washington, US

AIlgin Erdem, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. USA

T. Robert Fetter, USA

James D. Findlay, California State University, Northridge, USA

Kade Finnoff, Doctoral Candidate, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Sara Flounders, Co-Director, International Action Center, New York, USA

Nora O. Gamolo, Peace and Collaborative Development Network, Philippines

Kaushik Ghosh, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Bishnupriya Ghosh, Professor of English, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Vinay Gidwani, Professor of Geography, Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA

Wendy Glauser, MA candidate, Political Science. York University. Toronto, Canada

Ted Glick, Climate Crisis Coalition, Climate Crisis Coalition and Chesapeake Climate Action Network, USA

Ozlem Goner, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Inderpal Grewal, Yale University, USA

Shubhra Gururani, Associate Professor of Anthropology, York University, Canada

Anna L. Gust, University College London, UK

Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South

Arne Harns, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Free University of Berlin, Germany

Amrit Singh Heer, Graduate student, Social and Political Thought, York University, Canada

Azad Hoshiarpuri, Indian Worker’s Association, Great Britian

Helen Hintjens, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands

Adrienne Carey Hurley, McGill University, Canada

Zeba Imam, Ph.D. student, Texas A&M University, USA

Kajri Jain, University of Toronto, Canada

Dhruv Jain, Graduate student, York University, Canada

Mohamad Junaid, Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, USA

Jyotsna Kapur, Associate Professor, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA

Nada Khader , Executive Director, WESPAC Foundation

Jesse Knutson, University of Chicago, USA

David Kotz, Professor of Economics, UMass, Amherst, USA

Krishna MV, NIH, USAPeter Lackowski, Writer/Activist, USA

Thomas Lamarre, William Dawson Professor, East Asian Studies, McGill University, Canada

Maire Leadbeater (human rights activist Auckland New Zealand)

Joseph Levine, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

George Levinger, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

David W. Lewit, Alliance for Democracy, USA

Jinee Lokaneeta, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Drew University, USA

Ania Loomba, Catherine Bryson Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Sanjeev Mahajan

Sunaina Maira, Associate Professor, University of California Davis, USA

Panayiotis “Taki” Manolakos, Writer/Activist, USA

Red Maples for Teachers of English abroad in Korea (TEA-KOR)

Carlos Marentes, Farmworkers.org, USA

Erika Marquez, New York, USA

Thomas Masterson, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, USA

David Matsinhe, University of Alberta, Canada

Jim McCorry, Belfast, N. Ireland

Victor Menotti, Executive Director, International Forum on Globalization, USA

James Miehls, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Stephen Miesher, Associate Professor, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Raza Mir, Professor of Management, William Paterson University, USA

Katherine Miranda, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.

Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, Oakland Institute, USA

Roger Moody, Association for Progressive Communication, UK

Agrotosh Mookerji, Statistician and student, UK

Joshua Moufawad-Paul, Ph.D. student, York University, Canada

Sudipto Muhuri, Researcher, Germany

Yasser Munif, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. USA

Alan Muller, Executive Director, Green Delaware, USA

Jed Murr, University of Washington, USA

Sirisha Naidu, Assistant Professor of Economics, Wright State University, USA

Sriram Natrajan, Independent Researcher, Thailand

Nandini Nayak, SOAS, University of London, UK

Ipsita Pal Bhaumik, NIH, USA

Harsh Kumar Punja, Teacher, Rome, Italy

Moreno Pasquinelli, Spokesman of Antimperialist Camp

Shailja Patel, USA

Saswat Pattanayak, Editor, Radical Notes, USA

Ranjit Paul, Retired Professor of Physics, North Bengal University, India

Sukla Paul, Retired Reader in Physics, North Bengal University, India

Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project

Frank Peters, Associate Chair, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta, Canada

Bhanu Poudyal, Contemporary Marxism Study Group, USA

Ahmed Pouri, Coordinator of refugees organisation PRIME, (Participating Refugees In Multicultural Europe )

Mike Alexander Pozo, Political Affairs Magazine

Ashok Prasad, Dept of Chemical Engg, Colorado State University, USA

Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of California Irvine, USA

Kaveri Rajaraman, Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, USA

K. Ravi Raman, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester, UK

Smita Ramnarain, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Leena Ranade, AID India, USA

Nagesh Rao, Assistant Professor, The College of New Jersey, USA

Ravi Ravishankar, Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, USA

Chandan Reddy, Assistant Professor, University of Washington, USA

Bruce Rich, Attorney, USA

Dr. Andrew Robinson, UK

Mandy Rohr, Social Activist, Germany

Rose, on behalf of the Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA

Rachel Rosen, International Workers of the World and OSSTF, USA

Eric B. Ross, Professor of International Development Studies, The George Washington University, USA

Seth Sandronsky, Journalist, USA

Amit Sarkar, Visiting Fellow, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID/NIH, USA

Bhaskar Sarkar, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Erik Schnabel, San Franciscio, USA

Helen Scharber, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Anna Schultz, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, School of Music, University of Minnesota, USA

Svati Shah, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Abi Sharma, President - Progressive Nepali Forum in Americas (PNEFA), USA

Shaheen Shasa, USA

Sam Shell, Kasama Project, USA

Snehal Shinghavi, Assistant Professor, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Tyler Shipley, Department of Political Science, York University, Canada

Samira Shirdel, Community Advocate, Chaya: a Resource for South Asian Women, USA

Jon Short, Department of Communications Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Karin Astrid Siegmann, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands

Kuver Sinha, Texas A&M University, USA

Subir Sinha, SOAS, University of London, U.K

Julietta Singh, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA

Preethy Sivakumar, York University, Canada

Yannis Skalidakis, Ph.D., School of Political Sciences at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Ajay Skaria, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, USA

Stephen C Snyder

Nidhi Srinivas, Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management, The New School, USA

Chukka Srinivas

Poonam Srivastav, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Minnesota, USA

Priyanka Srivastava, Ph.D. candidate, University of Cincinnati, USA

Rachel Steiger-Meister, Graduate Student, Wright State University, USA

Makere Stewart-Harawira, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta, Canada

Raja Swamy, Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, USA

Usha Titikshu, Photojournalist, Nepal

Wendel Trio, Former Chair, European Alliance with Indigenous Peoples

Shivali Tukdeo, University of Illinois, USA

Sandeep Vaidya, India Support Group, Ireland

Chris Vance, York University, Canada

Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick, U.K

Ramaa Vasudevan, Dept of Economics, Colorado State University, USA

Nalini Visvanathan, Lecturer in Asian American Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA

Robert Weil, University of California, Santa Cruz Assistant Professor/Lecturer (retired) and social activist

David Welsh, San Francisco (California) Labor Council, USA

Daphna Whitmore, Secretary, Workers’ Party, New Zealand

T. Wignesan, Editor, Asianists’ Asia, Centre de Recherches, CERPICO and CREA, France

Michael Williss, Research Officer, Australian Education Union, Australia

Ferd Wulkan, Massachusetts Society of Professors, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

Daphne Wysham, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies, USA

Listed CPSEs to offload 10 pct: Chidambaram

[As part of imperialist plunder, government has decided to sale 10% shares of all public sector enterprises. However, ridiculously, finance minister said that it actually increased people's participation. We would remind finance minister that more than 70% of Indian population live a life that cannot sustain minimum calorie intake. They are not going to buy the share, even they cannot think of it.  These people, most likely  are not considered as citizen by finance minister. Red Barricade]


The government on Thursday decided that all listed central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) would increase the public holding to 10 per cent and all unlisted profitable state-owned entities should go public.

"All profitable listed CPSEs should need the mandatory listing of 10 per cent public ownership," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting of Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs here.

The government has also decided that all unlisted CPSEs which have made profit in the past 3 years and have a positive net worth should get listed on stock exchanges, he said, adding that CPSEs would enter the market at "appropriate" time.

The decision will have a bearing on mineral major NMDC and MMTC as the public shareholding in these companies is 1.62 per cent and 0.67 per cent respectively.

As per SEBI regulation, listed companies are required to divest a minimum of 10 per cent of the equity to the public.

The Minister further said the proceeds of the disinvestment would straight away go to meeting the capital expenditure of the government's social sector programmes, without being routed through National Investment Fund (NIF).

In pursuance of its disinvestment programme, the government had offloaded its stake in Oil India Ltd and NHPC in the current fiscal. It has also unveiled plans to reduce its shareholding in NTPC, Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam and Rural Electrification Corporation.

During the current fiscal, the government raised Rs 2,013 crore by offloading stake in the hydro-power major NHPC and Rs 2,247 crore from stake sale in OIL.

As per the disinvestment policy of the UPA, the government is committed to offloading equity in public sector undertakings while retaining 51 per cent stake.

"The public sector undertakings are the wealth of the nation, and part of this wealth should rest in the hands of people. While retaining at least 51 per cent government equity in our enterprises, I propose to encourage people's participation in our disinvestment programme," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in his Budget speech in July.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Telecom Scandal


[Following is the one of two editorials of the Statesman, 29 October 2009 which describes a scandal involving central minister that resulted revenue loss of something between Rs 60,000 and 100,000 crore.  And that minister is still in his chair.
To add stress few sentences were made bold by this blog.]

After the CBI raids on the headquarters of the department of telecommunications in New Delhi, headed by A Raja of the DMK, his continuance in the Cabinet of Dr. Manmohan Singh has become untenable. Probity in public life demands that he resign pending completion of the inquiry. As long as he is at the helm of affairs in the telecommunications department, the CBI will be inhibited from a free and open inquiry. If he is found innocent, he can always be re-inducted into the Cabinet with the same portfolio and free of any taint. 
Raja was the kingpin in the award of 2G spectrum licences in January last year at a price of Rs. 1,651 crores, fixed in July 2001, for a pan-India licence. The price then was arrived at through an open, multi-stage, transparent auction/bidding process. The telecom regulator, TRAI, recommended a similar exercise before the allocation of 2G spectrum. Raja ignored it. The scandalous events that took place when licences were being issued and spectrum allocated for 2G services, the way cut-off dates were changed and that too with retrospective effect, the scuffles that took place at Sanchar Bhavan, made headlines in the media at the time.
The real value of the spectrum can be gauged from the profit made by two of the lucky ones, Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless, favoured by Raja on first-come-first-served basis. Swan let UAE-based Etisalat acquire 45 per cent share in the company for $900 million, valuing the company at $2 billion, not because of its intrinsic worth but because of the spectrum it acquired, a scarce national resource. Similarly, Unitech let Telenor of Norway acquire 67.25 per cent share in the company, valuing it at Rs.9,100 crores.
There are three elements that are important in the spectrum issue. The first: what basis should award of licences and spectrum be decided on, auction or some other criteria? Second, if a non-auction route is chosen, what should the value of licence and spectrum be? Third, if the licence and the spectrum are given below market rates, how can the country guard against their re-sale by profiteers? Prima facie, Raja wantonly misused his position. He disregarded TRAI guidelines and a letter from the then finance secretary, D Subbarao, now Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, asking him not to implement his plan. As long as DS Mathur was DoT secretary, he refused to sign licences in a way that would cause the exchequer revenue loss. Mathur retired on 31 December 2007, other inconvenient officials were transferred out of the ministry, and the scheme was implemented without let or hindrance after Siddharth Behura took over as secretary in January 2008. Raja’s action has led to the loss of between Rs. 60,000 crore and Rs.100,000 crore to the government. Raja’s defence that he was only following Trai’s recommendation of not auctioning 2G spectrum does not hold water. The government’s telecom policy and TRAI wanted market forces to determine the fee for spectrum. If only he had followed that, the government would have realised its true value. The DMK, no doubt, will resist any move to drop Raja from the Cabinet, even temporarily, to allow the CBI to proceed with the investigation unhampered. It would be wrong for the government to shield Raja especially when auction of 3G spectrum is in the offing. The Central Vigilance Commission has decided to initiate action against top DoT officials, including Behura. Sparing Raja and punishing his underlings would be a travesty of justice.

Source: The Statesman, 29 October 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=273256

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Wrong Track

[On 27 October, day before yesterday Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) of Lalgarh blocked Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express near Jhargram in demand of the release of Chhatradhar Mahato. The agitators of PCAPA did not hurt any passenger or railway stuff. However, a section of media and the state propaganda machinery are crying and trying their level best to give an impression that something very unusual has happened—as if it is a threat to the security of the railway passengers. Railway track blockade and delayed arrival at their destination are not something unheard of about Indian Rail. In contrast, most of the trains run late. Therefore, this tune of propaganda actually reflects a particular politics of state machinery — demonization of an organization and movement. All human right activists and democratic people do condemn this approach. The state machinery does not like to understand that demonization of a movement based on democratic demands does not solve the problem; rather aggravates it.

Following is one of the two editorials of the Statesman 29 October 2009, which analyzes that issue. Although this editorial assumes to some extent that PCAPA is the same as that of Maoist organization, in contrast many human right activists and academicians believe that PCAPA is an independent organization fighting against police atrocities. It is the government which likes to make it irrelevant and label as Maoist. However, this editorial is worth reading.]


Let’s assume for a moment that every compartment of Tuesday’s Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express had had an armed jawan on board. On this basis, there may have been about 20 armed railway policemen on hand to protect passengers. It is doubtful in the extreme if they would have been able to prevent tracks being blocked, or indeed overpowered several hundred tribals who surrounded the train. All they might have achieved is some loss of lives ~ their own, and those of the attackers and passengers. Assuming the policemen had sanction, and governments the gumption to open fire in these circumstances, the train would still have been besieged. Ultimate responsibility for thwarting such attacks rests with the police on ground, and the intelligence apparatus of the State government. Both failed on Tuesday, as they have consistently over the past few months. The reason is that the government is unable to penetrate people’s movements; it has lost credibility with the tribal, and its public relations initiatives have been identified as insincere charades. This was the first battle that tribals won.
They, and the Maoists who supported them, won a second battle decisively on Tuesday. Fulminations of television anchors notwithstanding, they managed to garner considerable sympathy ~ first from passengers on the train they captured, then from others by releasing them without causing any hurt. It took a young boy on board the Rajdhani to convey this message to the governments of India and West Bengal. Poignantly, he told an interviewer that his captors had been good to him and to others on the train, and all that they wanted was for their demands to be considered. That these demands exist is testament to the failure of governance, to the massive diversion of development funds over years, nay decades, by the political class, including Communists. If popular support turns in favour of the protestors, and against the government, we will have to brace for greater upheavals.
The Maoists are winning a third battle, and this victory it seems will come by default. By failing to draw a distinction between the tribals and Adivasis, the destitute and the dispossessed on the one hand, and the Maoists on the other, the state and the media are falling into a trap. In effect, we are adding to the Maoist ranks every tribal with a grievance. It won’t be long before we push them all into the Maoist corner, even if their demand is only for a fair share of the development pie, and without any ideological underpinnings. The objective of government initiatives must be to isolate the Maoist, not populate his army.
The Maoist has won a fourth and possibly decisive battle in creating a Compact Revolutionary Zone that the government does not really recognize. Whether we like it or not, it is a geographical reality. Piecemeal approaches, or state-specific counter-moves are unlikely to work. As much as the Home Minister seeks a unified strategic command to combat Maoists, the Prime Minister must consider a similar structure to battle the causes of this unrest, in other words a single, bipartisan command structure to take up development. This suggestion might get the noses of some Chief Ministers out of joint. It is, though, the price they may have to pay for never having looked beyond their noses. Truly, India faces a mammoth challenge. So far, it hasn’t handled it very well.

Monday, October 26, 2009

What Muslims were to BJP, Maoists are to Cong: Arundhati Roy

New Delhi, 25 OCT: Supporting unconditional talks with the Maoists, Booker prize winner and activist Arundhati Roy has alleged that “economic interests” in mineral-rich states have driven the government and establishment to launch action against them.
“My fear is that because of this economic interest the government and establishment actually needs a war. It needs to militarise. For that it needs an enemy. And so in a way what the Muslims were to BJP, the Maoists are to Congress...,” Roy said in an interview with Karan Thapar in his programme Devil's Advocate for CNN-IBN channel.
When asked about the talks between the Government and Left Wing extremists, she said: “There should be unconditional talks with the Maoists.
“If I was a person who is being dispossessed, whose wife has been raped, who is being pushed of their land and who is being faced with this ‘police force’, I would say that I am justified in taking up arms. If that is the only way I have to defend myself,” she said when asked whether armed struggle was justified.
“We should stop thinking about who is justified...You have an army of very poor people being faced down by an army of rich that are corporate-backed. I am sorry but it is like that. So you can't extract morality from the heinous act of violence that each commits against the other,” she said. ;PTI

Source: The Statesman 26 October 2009

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=272919

Mayhem reigns supreme in Midnapore

Statesman News Service
MIDNAPORE, 25 OCT: The four-days detention of Mr Bimal Mahato of Pathra village in Sankrail, in Midnapore Kotwali police lock-up and his subsequent release yesterday revealed brought to the fore, yet again, what has long been alleged of the Midnapore police force.
He was picked up by the joint forces from his own motor garage hours after the Maoist attack on Sankrail police station on 20 October and detained because his father is a namesake of the Peoples’ Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), convener ~ Chhatradhar Mahato ~ who is now in jail custody. The youth's father Mr Chhatradhar Mahato today alleged that his son was severely beaten up and he will write to the West Bengal Human Rights Commission demanding investigation and action against the district police officers.
But Bimal is not the only one plagued by such atrocities. Such treatment is allegedly being meted out to Mr Ranjit Mahato of Laljal in Belpahari over the past fortnight. Mr Mahato, who was working as a labourer under a local WBSEB contractor, was arrested on 10 October after being framed in a false murder case and under Section 25 and 27 Arms Act. His wife Mrs Tapati Mahato said that her husband’s offence was that he had a well-toned physical structure, which he had developed through rigorous physical work as a labourer by pulling electric wires and planting heavy poles for years. “But the police", she said, “attributed his physique to the arms-training he obtained in Maoist camps as their man”. 
 
Source: The Statesman 26 October 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=272935

Saturday, October 24, 2009

'We were jailed by cops on false charges'

JHARGRAM (WEST MIDNAPORE): They came out of the prison and looked around in awe at the army of journalists, totally unaware of the high-tension drama that took place over the last three days that led to their release. One of them, a 70-year-old widow, stepped back in fear and clutched the woman who was helping her walk. She is accused of trying to murder police personnel. 

After being locked up in jail for nearly one-a-half months on serious charges — ranging from attempt to murder to sedition and waging war against the state — the tribal women didn't quite know how to react to their freedom. Like their arrest, their release was also a mystery to them. They were not aware that the Maoists had negotiated their release.

The Lalgarh women's first worry was how to get back home. No one had any money for the bus fare. And no family member had come to meet them — they are all hiding for fear of being branded Maoists as well. Most of the 23 women bailed out in exchange for the release of abducted sub-inspector Atindranath Dutta had never left Lalgarh before this and were on the verge of tears.

Their lawyer Mrinal Chowdhury stepped in, in the nick of time, gave them some money and helped them catch the right bus home. This group of 14 tribal women, released at noon on Friday, were arrested from Bansber village near Kantapahari on September 3, 2009. Their ages range from 22 to 70 years and all of them resembled the simple village folk from this impoverished part of the country. They were hesitant to speak at first. When one opened up, they all did, in a flood of emotion.

"Security personnel regularly ransacked our homes in the name of 'search operations'. Do we look like Maoists? But we never objected. They would verbally abuse us and damage whatever little we owned. By the time they left, we would not even have our earthen pots and pans to cook a meal. Police would keep asking about the 'people from the jungle'. How were we to know their exact location? When we told them this, they dragged us away. They claimed that we had tried to beat them up," said 22-year-old Phoolmani Soren.

It is difficult to visualize this frail, undernourished woman attacking heavily-armed securitymen. When arrested, she left behind a two-year-old son with her husband — a daily wage-earner. "I don't know how my husband managed. He may have left the child with neighbours when he went out in search of work," she said, wiping away tears.

Beside her stood 70-year-old Sudharani Baske, who cannot walk properly due to her age and lack of medical attention. She has been charged with attempt to murder for 'trying to assault' security personnel. She was in no position to even understand the questions thrown at her. The plight of others — like Pratima Patra, Nilima Hansda and Padmarani Baske — was similar. While in prison, nobody from their families could come to serve them food or ask about their well-being. One of them pointed to a piece of clothing that a fellow inmate had given her out of pity.

"You cannot imagine what we are going through. Our men cannot stay in the villages for fear of being picked up by the securitymen. If they enter the forests, they will be branded Maoists and arrested," one of them said.


Source: The Times of India 24 October 2009

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/We-were-jailed-by-cops-on-false-charges/articleshow/5155461.cms