3rd Degree Torture By Indian Police
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Editorial : AEROPLANE RIDES FOR CORRUPT POLICE & CORRUPT JUDGES OF INDIA
TORTURE CHAMBERS OF INDIA - 3RD DEGREE TORTURE PERPETRATED BY POLICE IN INDIA - Gross violations of human rights by police
Aeroplane is the most cruelest form of 3rd degree torture perpetrated by police on suspects. Many innocent people have confessed to crimes hey have not at all committed unable to bear the torture , pain. Many innocents have been murdered in lock-ups by police during these type of 3rd degree torture. Even if we go by the logic of police that criminals only sing under torture & they rightly deserve it , when a petty criminal stealing Rs.10000 is fit for “AEROPLANE TORTURE” , what about criminals stealing crores of rupees , what about corrupt police who aid tens of such big time criminals by filing B-report , by putting weak case of prosecution , by delaying tactics allowing for destruction of evidences , etc , what about judges who acquits big time criminals , who give judicial orders while they are in a drunken state , who acquit big criminals by conducting hearings even on dates of government holidays (concocted). ARE NOT THESE CORRUPT POLICE & JUDGES FIT FOR “BUSINESS CLASS AEROPLANE RIDE TORTURE as per the same logic of police.
At the outset , e - Voice salutes the few honest police personnel who are
silently doing their duties inspite of pressures , harassment by
political bosses & corrupt superiors , inspite of frequent transfers ,
promotion holdups , etc. overcoming the lure of bribe ,those few are
silently doing their duties without any publicity or fanfare. we salute
them & pay our respects to them and hereby appeal to those few honest
to catch their corrupt colleagues.
The police are trained , to crack open the cases of crimes by just
holding onto a thread of clue. Based on that clue they investigate like
"Sherlock holmes" and apprehend the real criminals. nowadays , when
police are under various pressures , stresses - they are frequently
using 3rd degree torture methods on innocents. Mainly there are 3
reasons for this :
1) when the investigating officer (I.O) lacks the brains of Sherlock
holmes , to cover-up his own inefficiency he uses 3rd degree torture on
innocents.
2) When the I.O is biased towards rich , powerful crooks , to frame
innocents & to extract false confessions from them , 3rd degree torture
is used on innocents.
3) When the I.O is properly doing the investigations , but the
higher-ups need very quick results - under work stress I.O uses 3rd
degree torture on innocents.
Nowhere in statuette books , police are legally authorized to punish
let alone torture the detainees / arrested / accussed / suspects. Only
the judiciary has the right to punish the guilty not the police. Even
the judiciary doesn't have the right to punish the accussed /
suspects , then how come police are using 3rd degree torture unabetted.
Even during encounters , police only have the legal right , authority
to immobilize the opponents so as to arrest them but not to kill them.
There is a reasoning among some sections of society & police that use
of 3RD DEGREE TORTURE by police is a detterent of crimes. It is false
& biased. Take for instance there are numerous scams involving 100's
of crores of public money - like stock scam , fodder scam , etc
involving rich businessmen , VVIP crooks. Why don't police use 3rd
degree torture against such rich crooks and recover crores of public
money where as the police use 3rd degree torture against a
pick-pocketer to recover hundred rupees stolen ? double standards by
police.
In media we have seen numerous cases of corrupt police officials in
league with criminals. For the sake of bribe , such police officials
bury cases , destroy evidences , go slow , frame innocents , murder
innocents in the name of encounter , etc. why don't police use 3rd
degree torture against their corrupt colleagues who are aiding
criminals , anti nationals ? double standards by police.
All the bravery of police is shown before poor , innocents , tribals ,
dalits , before them police give the pose of heroes. Whereas , before
rich , VVIP crooks , they are zeroes. They are simply like scarecrows
before rich crooks.
Torture in any form by anybody is inhuman & illegal. For the purpose of
investigations police have scientific investigative tools like
polygraph, brain mapping , lie detector , etc. these scientific tools
must be used against rich crooks & petty criminals without bias.
Hereby we urge the GOI & all state governments :
1) to book cases of murder against police personnel who use 3rd degree
torture on detainees and kill detainees in the name of encounter
killings.
2) To dismiss such inhuman , cruel personnel from police service and to
forfeit all monetary benefits due to them like gratuity , pension ,
etc.
3) To pay such forfeited amount together with matching government
contribution as compensation to family of the victim's of 3rd degree
torture & encounter killings.
4) To review , all cases where false confessions were extracted from
innocents by 3rd degree torture.
5) To make liable the executive magistrate of the area , in whose
jurisdiction torture is perpetrated by police on innocents.
6) To make it incumbent on all judicial magistrates ,to provide a
torture free climate to all parties , witnesses in cases before his
court.
7) To make public the amount & source of ransom money paid to forest
brigand veerappan to secure the release of matinee idol mr. raj kumar.
8) To make public justice A.J.Sadashiva's report on "torture of
tribals , human rights violations by Karnataka police in M.M.HILLS ,
KARNATAKA".
9) To make it mandatory for police to use scientific tools of
investigations like brain mapping , polygraph , etc without bias
against suspects rich or poor.
10) To include human rights education in preliminary & refresher
training of police personnel.
11) To recruit persons on merit to police force who have aptitude &
knack for investigations.
12) To insulate police from interference from politicians & superiors.
13) To make police force answerable to a neutral apex body instead of
political bosses. Such body must be empowered to deal with all service
matters of police.
14) The political bosses & the society must treat police in a humane
manner and must know that they too have practical limitations. Then on
a reciprocal basis , police will also treat others humanely.
15) The police must be relieved fully from the sentry duties of biggies
& must be put on detective , investigative works.
Nowadays , we are seeing reports of corruption by police & judges in the media
and are also seeing reports of raids by vigilance authorities seizing crores of
wealth from such corrupt police. Some Judges have also amassed crores of wealth.
Who gives them money ? it is rich criminals , anti-nationals . By taking bribe &
hiding the crimes of criminals , the corrupt police & judges are themselves
becoming active parties in the crimes , anti-national activities. Those
shameless , corrupt police & judges are nothing but traitors & anti – nationals
themselves. When an innocent is subjected to 3rd degree torture to extract truth
with justification by investigating agencies that all for the sake of national
security , what degree of torture these corrupt , anti-national police & judges
qualify for ? what type of aeroplane or helicopter the corrupt police / judges
must ride ? ofcourse , for protection of national security. Here also police &
judges have double standards , what a shame.
We at e – voice are for "Rule of Law" & abhor all type of violence. Truly these
police & judges are not building a Ram Rajya of our Mahatma Gandhi's dream.
Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.
Your's sincerely,
Nagaraj.M.R.
At the outset , e - Voice salutes the few honest police personnel who are
silently doing their duties inspite of pressures , harassment by
political bosses & corrupt superiors , inspite of frequent transfers ,
promotion holdups , etc. overcoming the lure of bribe ,those few are
silently doing their duties without any publicity or fanfare. we salute
them & pay our respects to them and hereby appeal to those few honest
to catch their corrupt colleagues.
The police are trained , to crack open the cases of crimes by just
holding onto a thread of clue. Based on that clue they investigate like
"Sherlock holmes" and apprehend the real criminals. nowadays , when
police are under various pressures , stresses - they are frequently
using 3rd degree torture methods on innocents. Mainly there are 3
reasons for this :
1) when the investigating officer (I.O) lacks the brains of Sherlock
holmes , to cover-up his own inefficiency he uses 3rd degree torture on
innocents.
2) When the I.O is biased towards rich , powerful crooks , to frame
innocents & to extract false confessions from them , 3rd degree torture
is used on innocents.
3) When the I.O is properly doing the investigations , but the
higher-ups need very quick results - under work stress I.O uses 3rd
degree torture on innocents.
Nowhere in statuette books , police are legally authorized to punish
let alone torture the detainees / arrested / accussed / suspects. Only
the judiciary has the right to punish the guilty not the police. Even
the judiciary doesn't have the right to punish the accussed /
suspects , then how come police are using 3rd degree torture unabetted.
Even during encounters , police only have the legal right , authority
to immobilize the opponents so as to arrest them but not to kill them.
There is a reasoning among some sections of society & police that use
of 3RD DEGREE TORTURE by police is a detterent of crimes. It is false
& biased. Take for instance there are numerous scams involving 100's
of crores of public money - like stock scam , fodder scam , etc
involving rich businessmen , VVIP crooks. Why don't police use 3rd
degree torture against such rich crooks and recover crores of public
money where as the police use 3rd degree torture against a
pick-pocketer to recover hundred rupees stolen ? double standards by
police.
In media we have seen numerous cases of corrupt police officials in
league with criminals. For the sake of bribe , such police officials
bury cases , destroy evidences , go slow , frame innocents , murder
innocents in the name of encounter , etc. why don't police use 3rd
degree torture against their corrupt colleagues who are aiding
criminals , anti nationals ? double standards by police.
All the bravery of police is shown before poor , innocents , tribals ,
dalits , before them police give the pose of heroes. Whereas , before
rich , VVIP crooks , they are zeroes. They are simply like scarecrows
before rich crooks.
Torture in any form by anybody is inhuman & illegal. For the purpose of
investigations police have scientific investigative tools like
polygraph, brain mapping , lie detector , etc. these scientific tools
must be used against rich crooks & petty criminals without bias.
Hereby we urge the GOI & all state governments :
1) to book cases of murder against police personnel who use 3rd degree
torture on detainees and kill detainees in the name of encounter
killings.
2) To dismiss such inhuman , cruel personnel from police service and to
forfeit all monetary benefits due to them like gratuity , pension ,
etc.
3) To pay such forfeited amount together with matching government
contribution as compensation to family of the victim's of 3rd degree
torture & encounter killings.
4) To review , all cases where false confessions were extracted from
innocents by 3rd degree torture.
5) To make liable the executive magistrate of the area , in whose
jurisdiction torture is perpetrated by police on innocents.
6) To make it incumbent on all judicial magistrates ,to provide a
torture free climate to all parties , witnesses in cases before his
court.
7) To make public the amount & source of ransom money paid to forest
brigand veerappan to secure the release of matinee idol mr. raj kumar.
8) To make public justice A.J.Sadashiva's report on "torture of
tribals , human rights violations by Karnataka police in M.M.HILLS ,
KARNATAKA".
9) To make it mandatory for police to use scientific tools of
investigations like brain mapping , polygraph , etc without bias
against suspects rich or poor.
10) To include human rights education in preliminary & refresher
training of police personnel.
11) To recruit persons on merit to police force who have aptitude &
knack for investigations.
12) To insulate police from interference from politicians & superiors.
13) To make police force answerable to a neutral apex body instead of
political bosses. Such body must be empowered to deal with all service
matters of police.
14) The political bosses & the society must treat police in a humane
manner and must know that they too have practical limitations. Then on
a reciprocal basis , police will also treat others humanely.
15) The police must be relieved fully from the sentry duties of biggies
& must be put on detective , investigative works.
Nowadays , we are seeing reports of corruption by police & judges in the media
and are also seeing reports of raids by vigilance authorities seizing crores of
wealth from such corrupt police. Some Judges have also amassed crores of wealth.
Who gives them money ? it is rich criminals , anti-nationals . By taking bribe &
hiding the crimes of criminals , the corrupt police & judges are themselves
becoming active parties in the crimes , anti-national activities. Those
shameless , corrupt police & judges are nothing but traitors & anti – nationals
themselves. When an innocent is subjected to 3rd degree torture to extract truth
with justification by investigating agencies that all for the sake of national
security , what degree of torture these corrupt , anti-national police & judges
qualify for ? what type of aeroplane or helicopter the corrupt police / judges
must ride ? ofcourse , for protection of national security. Here also police &
judges have double standards , what a shame.
We at e – voice are for "Rule of Law" & abhor all type of violence. Truly these
police & judges are not building a Ram Rajya of our Mahatma Gandhi's dream.
Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.
Your's sincerely,
Nagaraj.M.R.
AN APPEAL TO THE HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT OF USA , CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA & CHIEF JUSTICE OF PAKISTAN
- By American Citizens
Our country was known as " Heaven On Earth" , "Land of Equality & Equal
Oppurtunity" & the "Statue of Liberty" rightly symbolized the spirit of our
country. Now USA is known as a "Terror State".
In the last 3 – 4 decades , the persons who occupied the office of President USA
,in their individual capacity took wrong , inhuman decisions , meddled in the
internal affairs of other sovereign nations , spent our resources to create
terrorist outfits like al-queda , Taliban in those countries.
In turn these terrorist outfits terrorized , murdered millions of innocents &
this Frankenstein monster came home to roost on September 9 / 11 . After
September 9 / 11 , each terror suspect is severely tortured in hell like Abu
Garibh prison , elsewhere by our authorities. For argument sake let us accept
that these terrorists who murder innocents don't deserve kid glove treatment &
rightly
deserve 3rd degree torture. When a single terrorist deserve such inhuman 3rd
degree torture , what quantum of punishment , torture – previous presidents of
USA deserve – who created , aided & abetted thousands of such terrorists ,
terrorist outfits ?
Herby, we appeal to the honourable Supreme Court of USA to order the federal
government to to make public :
1. how much US resources were spent from US TREASURY , to finance terrorist
outfits , military juntas in other sovereign nations ?
2. is not Al-queda , Taliban creations of USA ?
3. did September 9 / 11 WTC attack truly happened by hijacked airplane or was it
planned by US authorities ? see
http://www.neiu.edu/~ayjamess/hmmm.htm#Main
4 . is racial profiling , profiling a particular community & suspecting all the
muslims as terror suspects , right?
5. if it is right , the cretors of such terrorist outfits – past presidents of
USA – who were Christians makes it logical to assume whole of our Christian
community as terror suspect ?
6. is not use of 3rd degree torture on all type of suspects in US prisons & in
the prisons of US allied countries at the behest of US authorities , right ? is
it not violation of human rights & US laws ?
7. did US find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq , which was the main
reason for US attacking Iraq ?
8. why not US authorities use scientific interrogation techniques like polygraph
, lie detector tests instead of inhuman 3rd degree torture on terror suspects &
suspects in other criminal cases ?
9 . what legal right our President of USA have , to illegally spend billions of
our dollars on inhuman , llegal acts of terrorism , military coup , creation ,
aiding & abetting of terrorists , etc , in other sovereign nations ? while we
are suffering from loss of jobs ,loss of home due to natural calamities , etc ?
Crux , Foundation of all religions is humanity , kindness & universal
brotherhood. It is the preachers who misrepresent it. Terrorism created , aided
, abetted by anybody is inhuman & wrong . Terrorism is creation of power hungry
, selfish people & they must be legally punished .
Hereby , we appeal to the honourable court to legally prosecute Previous
PRESIDENTS OF USA in the last 4 decades , for crimes of terror , as per the
present US anti-terror laws.
Recently , in the issue of last week "The Week" , cabinet minister of government
of srilanka (previously a deadly terrorist & right hand man of LTTE chief
Prabhakaran ) Mr. Karuna , Himself has stated in an interview that LTTE received
arms training in Tamilnadu State of India , to wage war against Government of
Srilanka. The Justice Jain Commission Of Enquiry , which probed late PM Rajiv
Gandhi's assassination case , also stated that Tamil Terrorist outfits in
Srilanka Received monetary , financial , arms training support from government
of India. GOI has even setup a radio station for tamil terrorists of srilanka ,
within Indian territory. GOI spent billions of dollars of Indian taxpayer's
money for aiding & abetting terrorism , while billions of Indians were half
starving & going without a single meal , without proper health care.
Recently in the last week , in a media interview the president of Government of
Pakistan Mr. Jardari himself has confessed that in the previous years the
government of Pakistan has aided & abetted Terrorism for tactical gains of
Pakistan , spending billions of dollars of Pakistani taxpayer's money. While
ordinary ordinary Pakistanis were suffering from starvation , lack of health
care , etc.
All the above proves that Previous Presidents of Government of USA , previous
Presidents of Government of Pakistan & Previous Prime Ministers of Government of
India were the real master minds of TERRORISM , founded , aided , abetted
TERRORISM FOR THEIR OWN SELFISH GAINS. In turn murdering lakhs of innocent human
beings.
These guilty previous presidents & prime ministers are deadly than OSAMA BIN
LADEN.
Hereby , we appeal to the supreme courts of USA , INDIA , PAKISTAN &
INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL , to legally prosecute the previous Prime
Ministers of INDIA , the previous presidents of USA & PAKISTAN , on charges of
master minding TERRORISM.
CRIMINALS IN POLICE UNIFORM
- An appeal to union home minister & Karnataka state home minister
The ABC of police force in India is apathy ,
brutality & corruption . in India, police are not impartially enforcing
law instead are working as hand maidens of rich & mighty. The corrupt
police officers are collecting protection money from criminals ,
collecting money to go slow on investigations , to file B- reports , to
fix innocents in fake cases , to murder innocents in lock-up /
encounters . they are hand in league with land mafia , today C.M of
Karnataka himself issued a warning to police officials about this.
Even in lock-ups , jails, the rich inmates bribe
officials get better food from outside , mobile phones , drugs , drinks
, cigareetes , etc. they get spacious cells & get best private medical
care . where as the poor inmates are even denied food , health care ,
living space as per the provisions of law. The corrupt jail officials
instigate rowdy elements in the jails to assault poor inmates & to toe
their line. More corrupt the police more wealthier he is. Even CBI
officials are no different. The only beacon of hope is still there are
few honest people left in the police force.
Hereby , e-voice urges you to make public the following
information in the interest of justice.
1.how many CBI officials & Karnataka state police officials are facing
charges of corruption , 3rd degree torture , lock-up/encounter deaths
, rapes , fake cases , etc ?
2.how you are monitoring the ever increasing wealth of corrupt police
officials?
3.how many officials from the ranks of constable to DGP have amassed
illegal wealth?
4.what action you have taken in these cases ? have you got
reinvestigated all the cases handled by tainted police?
5.how many policemen have been awarded death penalty & hanged till
death , for cold blooded murders in the form of lock-up deaths /
encounter deaths ?
6.why DGP of Karnataka is not registering my complaint dt 10/12/2004 ,
subsequent police complaints ?
is it because rich & mighty are involved ?
7.e - voice is ready to bring to book corrupt police officials subject to
conditions, are you ready ?
8.how many police personnel are charged with violations of people's
human rights & fundamental rights ?
9.how many STF police deployed to nab veerappan were themselves
charged with theft of forest wealth?
10.how you are ensuring the safety , health , food , living space of
inmates in jails?
11.how you are ensuring the medical care , health of prisoners in
hospitals & mental asylums?
12.How you are ensuring the safety , health , food , living space of
inmates in juvenile homes ?
TORTURE CHAMBERS OF INDIA
They are our own Gitmos. Where, far away from the eyes of the law, 'enemies of
the state' are made to 'sing'. THE WEEK investigates
By Syed Nazakat
Little Terrorist, as the intelligence sleuths came to call him, turned out to be
a hard nut to crack. No amount of torture would work on 20-year-old Mohammed
Issa, who was picked up from Delhi on February 5, 2006. The Delhi Police
believed that he had a hotline to Lashkar-e-Toiba deputy chief Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhwi, who later masterminded the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. At a secret detention
centre in Delhi, the police and intelligence officers tried every single torture
method in their arsenal-from electric shock to sleep deprivation-to make Issa
sing. He stuck to his original line: that he had come from Nepal to visit a
relative in Delhi. Only, they refused believe him.
According to the police, the youth from Uttar Pradesh, who had moved to Nepal in
2000 along with his family after his father, Irfan Ahmed, was accused in a
terrorism case, returned to India to set up Lashkar modules in the national
capital. More than six months after he was picked up, the police announced his
arrest on August 14. He has since been shifted to the Tihar jail. His lawyer
N.D. Pancholi said Issa was kept in illegal custody for months. If not, let the
police say where he was between February 5 and August 15, he challenged.
Issa could have been detained in any of Delhi's joint interrogation centres,
used by the police and intelligence agencies to extract precious information
from the detainees using methods frowned upon by the law. As one top police
officer told THE WEEK in the course of our investigation, these torture chambers
spread across the country are our "precious assets". They are our own little
Guantanamo Bays or Gitmos (where the US tortures terror suspects from
Afghanistan and elsewhere for information).
Not many admit their existence, because doing so could result in human rights
activists knocking at their doors and bad press for the smartly dressed
intelligence men. It is a murky and dangerous world, according to K.S.
Subramanian, Tripura's former director-general of police, who has also served in
the Intelligence Bureau. "Such sites exist and are being used to detain and
interrogate suspected terrorists and it has been going on for a long time," he
told THE WEEK. "Even senior police officers are reluctant to talk about the
system." So are people who have been to these virtual hells that officially do
not exist.
THE WEEK has identified 15 such secret interrogation centres-three each in
Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Kolkata and one in Assam.
(One detention centre that is shared by all security and law enforcement
agencies is in Palanpur, Gujarat.) Their locations have been arrived at after
speaking to serving and retired top officers who had helped set up some of these
facilities. Those who have spent time in these places had no idea where they
are. They were taken blindfolded and were allowed no visitors. The only faces
they got to see were those of the interrogators, day in and day out.
The biggest of the three detention centres in Mumbai, the Aarey Colony facility
in Goregaon, has four rooms. The Anti-Terrorism Squad questioned Saeed Khan
(name changed), one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006,
here. He was served food at irregular intervals (led to temporary
disorientation) and was denied sleep. Another secret detention centre maintained
in the city by the ATS at Kalachowky has a sound-proof room. Sohail Shaikh,
accused in the July 2006 train bombings, was held here for close to two months.
"He was kept in isolation for days together," said an officer. "He crumbled
after being subjected to hostile sessions. Intentional infliction of suffering
does not always yield immediate results. Sometimes you have to wait for many
days for the detainee to break. It is a tedious process." The smallest of the
three facilities at Chembur has just two rooms.
Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district in Kashmir, was illegally detained
in Delhi for over a month for allegedly trying to plot mass murder in the
national capital on behalf of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Delhi Police's
chargesheet says he was arrested from the Azadpur fruit market in Delhi on
October 14, 2006. But according to Parvez's flight itinerary, he travelled from
Srinagar to Delhi on September 12 on SpiceJet flight 850. The flight landed at
Delhi airport at 12.10 p.m. He had to catch another flight at 1.30 p.m.
(SpiceJet flight 217) to Pune, where, according to his parents, he was going to
pursue his Ph.D. But he never boarded the Pune flight as he disappeared from the
Delhi airport.
Parvez wrote an open letter from the Tihar jail, where he is currently held, in
which he said he was arrested from the airport on September 12 and kept in
custody for a month. Apparently, he was first taken to the Lodhi Colony police
station and then to an apartment in Dwarka, where electrodes were attached to
his genitals and power was switched on. (Delhi's secret detention centres are
located at Dwarka in south-west Delhi, the Inter-state Cell of the Crime Branch
in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi, and the Lodhi Colony police station in south
Delhi.)
"After my arrest on September 12, I was taken to Pune, where I was shown
pictures of many Kashmiri boys," Parvez said in the letter. "They wanted me to
identify them. As I didn't know any one of them, they brought me to Delhi again
and threw me into the torture chamber of Lodhi Road [sic] police station. They
took off my clothes and started beating me like an animal, so ruthlessly that my
feet and fingers started bleeding. I was later forced to clean the blood-stained
floor with my underwear. They gave me electric shocks and stretched my legs to
extreme limits, resulting in internal haemorrhage. I started passing blood with
my urine and stool. Later I was shifted to one flat near Delhi airport [he later
identified the place as Dwarka]. From the adjacent flats, voices of crying and
screaming had been coming, indicating presence of other persons being tortured."
Throughout his detention, wrote Parvez, he was asked to lie to his parents that
everything was fine. In the letter he also gave the mobile number from which the
calls were made-9960565152. His family is trying to collect the call site
details of the number to prove his illegal detention.
Delhi-based journalist Iftikhar Geelani, who spent nine days in the Lodhi Colony
police station after his arrest in 2002 on spying charges, is yet to get over
the traumatic experience. "There are lock-ups with such low ceilings that a
person will not be able to stand," he said. "There is an interrogation centre
within the police station where people are brutally tortured with cables, and
some are completely undressed and abused. They also have a facility to raise the
temperature of the cell to a point where it is unbearable and then suddenly
bring it down to freezing cold."
Assistant Commissioner Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for the Delhi Police, denied the
existence of such facilities. "Nobody ever asked me the question [about secret
detention centres]," he said. "We don't operate any such facility in our police
stations."
But Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB, confirmed the existence
of secret detention centres in Delhi and other parts of the country. He was
convinced that detention outside the police station and torture are an
inevitable part of the war on terrorism. "Now I would never dream of doing the
things I did when I was in charge," said Dhar. "But security agencies need such
facilities." Interrogating suspected terrorists at secret detention centres, he
said, is the most effective way to gather intelligence. "If you produce a
suspect before court, he will never give you anything after that," he said. In
other words, once you record the arrest you are within the realm of the law and
you have to acknowledge the rights of the accused-arrested and contend with his
lawyer.
An officer who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme
physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo
Bay, is used to extract information from the detainees. It includes assault on
the senses (pounding the ear with loud and disturbing music) and sleep
deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly
administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity. "The
interrogators isolate key operatives so that the interrogator is the only person
they see each day," he said. "In extreme cases we use pethidine injections. It
will make a person crazy."
Molvi Iqbal from Uttar Pradesh, a suspected member of the
Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami who is currently lodged in Tihar, was held at a secret
detention centre for two months according to his relatives. They alleged that
during interrogation a chip was implanted under his skin so that his movements
could be tracked if he tried to escape. "He fears that the chip is still inside
his skin," said one of his relatives. "That has shattered him."
Kolkata has its own Gitmos in Bhabani Bhawan, now the headquarters of the
Criminal Investigation Department, and the Alipore Retreat in Tollygunj, a
bungalow that is said to have 20 rooms. They were bursting at the seams at the
height of the Naxalite movement, but are more or less quiet now. "A large number
of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after
being taken to such secret detention centres," said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based
human rights lawyer. "Their bodies would later be found, if at all, in the
fields."
That was how militancy was tackled, first in Punjab and then in Kashmir. Today
no secret prison exists in Kashmir officially after the notorious Papa-2
interrogation centre was closed down. But secret torture cells thrive across the
state. The most notorious ones are the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp
in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district. Then there are
the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Anantnag district and Talab
Tillo and Poonch areas in Jammu region. Detentions at JICs could last months.
Lawyers in Kashmir have filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the
whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.
The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who
was picked by the SOG from Alucha Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family
alleged that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly
beaten up. He died the same night. Following public outrage, the officer in
charge of the camp was dismissed from the service in June.
Maqbool Sahil, a Srinagar-based photojournalist who was held at Hariniwas
interrogation centre for 15 days, says it is a miracle that he is alive today.
"If you tell them [interrogators] you are innocent, they will torture you so
ruthlessly that you will break down and confess to anything," he says.
Human rights organisations are understandably concerned. Navaz Kotwal,
coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that there should
be an open debate on the illegal detention centres. "The US had a debate on the
Gitmos. Our government should come forward and respond to these allegations,"
she said.
No one wants to compromise the nation's safety, but the torture becomes
unbearable, and questionable, when innocent people like the 14-year-old boy
Irfan suffer (see box on page 30). The security of the country and its people is
important and terrorism should be crushed at all cost. But the largest democracy
in the world should also ensure that human rights are not violated.
Dhar defended the secret prison system, arguing that the successful defence of
the country required that the security establishment be empowered to hold and
interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without
restrictions imposed by the legal system. "The primary mission of the agencies
is to save the nation both by overt and covert means from any terrorist threat,"
he said. "But to keep the programme secret is a horrible burden."
with Anupam Dasgupta
Forty secret interrogation cells unveil real face of India [The Nation] 05 Jul,
2009
Worlds oldest democracy United States may have been forced to close Guantanamo
Bay detention centre, but the largest democracy India runs 40 such secret
chambers across the country, where suspects are subjected to extreme
interrogation for months and years.
A leading news magazine The Week in its forthcoming issue, accessed by KT News
Service (KTNS), revealed the horror of torture chambers, far from the eyes of
law.
The investigating team of the magazine identified 15 secret interrogation
centres-three each in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in
Kolkatta and one in Assam. Officials admit that there could be more and roughly
put their numbers at 40. In Palanpur region of Gujarat all security agencies
share one detention centre, the magazine report said. It maintained that mostly
suspects were brought blindfolded so they could hardly pinpoint the place,
adding, the only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators.
The magazine quoted Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district, a student in
Pune University, who was illegally detained in Delhi, as saying that he, in his
open letter, from notorious Tihar jail, wrote that electrodes were attached to
his genitals and power was switched on during interrogation in the centre.
A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have
disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres, said Kirity Roy,
a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer.
The report further said that in Kashmir, there were many interrogation centres
like the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar
and Humhama in Budgam district.
There are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Islamabad district
and Talab Tillo in Jammu and one in Poonch.
It said that the lawyers in Kashmir had filed 15,000 petitions since 1990
seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without
avail.
The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who
was picked by the SOG from Aloochi Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family
said that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly
beaten up.
He died the same night.
Quoting KS Subramanian, former Director General of Indian police who had also
served in the Intelligence Bureau, the report said that these sites existed and
were being used to detain and interrogate suspects and it had been going on for
a long time.
An officer, who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme
physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo
Bay, was used to extract information from the detainees.
It included assault on the senses like sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners
naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through
the rectum to further break down their dignity.
In India, Torture by Police Is Frequent and Often Deadly
By Rama Lakshmi
MEERUT, India -- Rajeev Sharma, a young electrician, was sleeping when police
barged into his house a month ago and dragged him out of bed on suspicion of a
burglary in the neighborhood, his family recalled.
When his young wife and brother protested, the police, who did not show them an
arrest warrant, said they were taking Sharma to the police station for "routine
questioning."
"Little did we know that we would lose him forever," said Sunil Sharma, Rajeev's
brother, recounting how he died while in police custody. "Their routine
questioning proved fatal," he added, sitting beside his brother's grieving
widow.
Rajeev Sharma, 28, died at the police station within a day of his detention.
Police said he committed suicide, but his family charges that he was beaten and
killed.
The case highlights the frequent use of torture and deadly force at local police
stations in India, a practice decried by human rights activists and the Indian
Supreme Court. A little more than a decade after Parliament established the
National Human Rights Commission to deal with such abuses, police torture
continues unabated, according to human rights groups and the Supreme Court.
According to the latest available government data, there were 1,307 reported
deaths in police and judicial custody in India in 2002.
"India has the highest number of cases of police torture and custodial deaths
among the world's democracies and the weakest law against torture," said Ravi
Nair, who heads the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center. "The police
often operate in a climate of impunity, where torture is seen as routine police
behavior to extract confessions from small pickpockets to political suspects."
He said that laws governing police functions were framed under British colonial
rule in 1861 "as an oppressive force designed to keep the population under
control."
Police records show that, two weeks before his detention, Rajeev Sharma made a
electrician's service call at the home of a wealthy businessman. On that day,
the man reported that $500 worth of gold jewelry and about $100 in cash were
missing, police said.
After Sharma's detention, his brother called the police station and was told
that Sharma had confessed to the theft, he said. The brother said he and other
family members rushed to the station and were able to see Sharma briefly.
"His eyes were red, his mouth was bleeding and he could hardly walk. They had
beaten him very badly. That was the last glimpse we had," said Sunil Sharma, 35.
"By the evening, the police informed us that he had committed suicide in the
lockup by hanging himself with a blanket. The suicide story is a coverup; my
brother died of police torture."
The death in police custody sparked two days of rioting and protests in Meerut,
about 45 miles from New Delhi, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Angry
residents surrounded and threw stones at the police station, burned police
vehicles and blocked traffic.
Thousands participated in Sharma's funeral procession; protesters demanded an
open inquest by a panel of physicians and the immediate arrests of those
responsible.
Police conducted an autopsy in private, lawyers close to the case said. But
authorities did issue arrest warrants for the man who said he had been robbed
and for six police officers, an apparent reaction to the unusual popular outcry,
family members and lawyers said. The merchant is in jail, alleged to have
participated in beating Sharma, but the police officers apparently have fled,
authorities said.
Although the Indian government signed the international Convention Against
Torture in 1997, it has not ratified the document. Some members of Parliament
have argued against ratification, saying they oppose international scrutiny and
asserting that Indian laws have adequate provisions to prevent torture. Human
rights advocates said Uttar Pradesh ranks highest among Indian states in the
incidence of police torture and custodial deaths.
Some police officers justify the use of torture to extract confessions and
instill fear.
"The police in India are under tremendous pressure, as people need quick
results. So we have to pick up and interrogate a lot of people. Sometimes things
get out of control," said Raghuraj Singh Chauhan, a newly assigned officer at
the station where Rajeev Sharma died. "After all, confessions cannot be
extracted with love. The fear of the police has to be kept alive -- how else
would you reduce crime?" he added, fanning himself with a police file folder.
A senior police officer in Meerut, on condition of anonymity, openly discussed
torture methods with a visiting reporter. One technique, he said, involves a
two-foot-long rubber belt attached to a wooden handle.
"We call this thing samaj sudharak," the officer said, smiling, using the Hindi
phrase for social reformer. "When we hit with this, there are no fractures, no
blood, no major peeling of the skin. It is safe for us, as nothing shows up in
the postmortem report. But the pain is such that the person can only appeal to
God. He will confess to anything."
Last September, in a written ruling in a case of police misconduct, the Supreme
Court criticized the use of torture. "The dehumanizing torture, assault and
death in custody which have assumed alarming proportions raise serious questions
about the credibility of the rule of law and administration of the criminal
justice system," the court said. "The cry for justice becomes louder and
warrants immediate remedial measure."
In addition, the severity of the torture problem is probably worse than
statistics indicate, because victims, fearing reprisals, rarely report cases
against the police, human rights advocates said.
"About 40 percent of custodial torture cases are not even reported. They are
just grateful for God's mercy that they are alive and free," said Pradeep Kumar,
a human rights lawyer who has represented police torture victims in Uttar
Pradesh. "Torture sometimes leads to permanent disability, psychological trauma,
loss of faculties."
The National Human Rights Commission, led by a retired Supreme Court justice,
has faced criticism that it is too dependent on the government and lacks
enforcement power.
"We have not been able to build a human rights culture in the police force,"
said Shankar Sen, a former police officer and an ex-member of the commission.
"It is not only individual aberration but a matter of systemic failure."
The commission has ordered that cameras be installed in police stations to
monitor and deter police brutality.
"In the past year we have spent about $600,000 to equip most of the police
stations in New Delhi with a camera. This will make police functioning
transparent and have a big impact on torture," said Maxwell Pereira, a senior
police official in the capital.
But critics and families of victims said they had not seen changes. In a
much-publicized case in New Delhi last fall, five policemen were charged with
beating and killing Sushil Kumar Nama at a police station.
Nama had been detained on suspicion that he was working with neighborhood
gamblers. Four of the police officers were arrested in April, but one remains at
large, authorities said. Police officials denied that Nama was tortured, saying
he died of a heart attack after he was released from custody.
"My two children are so traumatized that now they run home scared every time
they see a policeman on the street," said Nama's wife, Rekha, 29. "They know
that danger lurks behind that uniform. They are not policemen, they are wolves."
On the wrong side of law
By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi
Chunchun Kumar
Chunchun Kumar's wound is still raw
For Chunchun Kumar of Bihar's Nawada district, it was just another evening as he
lounged around at a tea stall in his village along with a friend.
But, then something happened that changed his life.
"It was 17 March of this year. There were six of them. When we first saw them,
they were beating up the temple priest. He was lying on the ground, they were
kicking and punching him," Kumar says.
"Then they started hitting two other men. Then they came into the tea shop and
they beat us black and blue. Then they fired at us."
Kumar lifts up his shirt to show a bullet mark on his abdomen. The wound is
still oozing.
The perpetrators were no ordinary criminals.
Says Kumar, "They were all policemen. I don't know why they were angry. They
were all drunk, they were like drunk elephants, they went on a rampage."
The shocked villagers complained to the police authorities, and the offending
policemen were suspended from duty and arrested.
'Very serious'
Additional director general of police in Bihar Anil Sinha confirmed the
incident.
"Two of the policemen who were inebriated vandalised the tea shop and began
firing despite protests from their other colleagues. They were arrested and,
although they have been released on bail, they are facing criminal charges."
Kumar's fight for justice recently brought him to the Indian capital, Delhi,
where he narrated his story at India's first National People's Tribunal on
Torture.
Activists say torture by police is rampant in India.
"The problem of torture is very serious. Today we have around 1.8 million cases
of police torture each year in India," says Henri Tiphagne of People's Watch, an
NGO.
Policemen in India
The police are often a law unto themselves, say campaigners
Mr Tiphagne says the victims mostly are from the poorer sections of society.
"They are generally the (low-caste) Dalits, the tribals and the Muslims. And
torture is used by those who are in power, those who possess, the landlords and
the companies who put pressure on the police to carry out torture," Mr Tiphagne
says.
Mr Anil Sinha says cases of human rights violations involving the police are
"exaggerated" by activists.
"It's a kind of stereotype being dished out by the NGOs and activists. And
because police have a bad reputation, so people take such allegations to be
correct.
"We do not condone any human rights violations by police in any manner, and such
cases are rare. We have a mechanism in place to deal with such cases and
penalise the guilty," Mr Sinha says.
Shankar Sen, a retired police officer and former member of the human rights
commission, says: "The policeman's work is very complex, there are pressure on
him to deliver results, the police are exposed to extraneous influences and
pressures."
But, he says, that does not condone torture. "It's illegal, and as a policeman I
know it doesn't work."
Mr Sen admits that police torture is prevalent. "Torture does take place, it's
very common, but it's unacceptable. Some allegations against the police are
shocking."
Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch says nearly every police station in
India can be held guilty of torture.
'Arbiter of justice'
In many parts of the country, she says, the situation is so bad that people will
not got to a police station to file a case fearing prosecution and retribution.
"There is this pattern of impunity. The fact that police believe they can get
away with it has added to the problem," Ms Ganguly says.
"The greater problem is that an average policeman believes himself to be the
arbiter of justice. Instead of going to the court, he himself is delivering
justice.
Arun Kumar with parents PP Raju and Lakshmi
Arun Kumar's mental age has been reduced to one year
"The policeman is not supposed to punish the criminal, he is supposed to catch
the criminal," she says.
For the victims of torture and their families, it is a long haul.
Arun Kumar of the southern city of Bangalore was picked up by the police after
his employer suspected him of having an affair with his wife.
Kumar's parents, PP Raju and Lakshmi, say their family home was ransacked, Kumar
was taken to the police station where he was beaten up and tortured for days.
Unable to bear the pain and the trauma, Kumar drank pesticides in an attempt to
kill himself.
He survived, but his parents say their son's mental age has been reduced to one
year - he is on medication and requires constant care.
The guilty policeman was suspended for a week, but reinstated later. The family
has a long fight ahead of them.
'Deterrence'
Says Mr Tiphagne, "A case I initiated in 1981 ended in 2007 with the dismissal
of the officer. So I have hope in Arun Kumar's case too."
But, he says, this long wait can be a huge deterrence for even the most
determined.
Henri Tiphagne of People's Watch.
Mr Tiphagne says nearly 2 million cases of torture take place in India every
year
"The torture at the police station ends, but the torture of institutions
continues. It's more of a psychological and mental nature, it is very
challenging. Most people don't have the courage to withstand that, very few
survive that," Mr Tiphagne says.
So while the victims continue to live with the trauma, most of the perpetrators
get away.
They are also emboldened by the fact that India has no clear law on torture.
The country signed the UN Convention on Torture in 1997, but even 10 years
later, it has not ratified it.
"We have to change our culture. We have to create awareness that torture is
illegal. The civil society will have to get involved," says Meenakshi Ganguly.
"People will have to get past the fact that torture happens only to other
people. And once that happens, it will change," she says.
href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/11283133/Police-Torture-and-Police-Reform"
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Torture and Police Reform
INDIA: No to torture, establish rule of law!
The first Prime Minister of India Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru said "Police is standing
on a quadrilateral from where they can protect and also violate human rights?"
But it seems that his words are of no use in India today since there is an
enormous increase in the incidents of police torture during past few decades.
It is apparent that police is the largest agency constituted with the purpose of
establishing the rule of law and human rights. One can read into the Indian
Penal Code, with certain difficulty, the prohibition against torture. Statements
recorded from witnesses under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code are not
blindly admissible in a criminal trial. If the law is so, the next obvious
question is then why do the police resort to torture?
The main reasons are feudal and colonial structure of police, scarcity of
resources in the police department, political intervention and the lack of an
independent agency to investigate the crimes committed by the police themselves.
Modern investigation is unheard of within the police department. In addition,
India's feudal society condones the use of torture.
The definition of torture as envisaged in the UN Convention Against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defines torture as an
"act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a
third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third
person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or
coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any
kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or
with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in
an official capacity."
Section 176 (A) of Cr.P.C. have provisions for the investigation in the each
case of custodial death. However, this section is not used in any case in the
entire Uttar Pradesh state. Neither have any Magistrates issued search warrants
under Section 97 of Cr.P.C. when persons were taken into illegal custody.
The Supreme Court of India had issued guidelines to be followed by
law-enforcement officers at the time of arrest and questioning in the case D.K
Basu vs. West Bengal. It is mandatory for the law-enforcement agencies to
follow, but is been negated in the state. Regarding encounter killings, the
National Human Rights Commission has directed the country's police to register
cases in every case of reported encounter killings. The Commission has also
directed to send it a video of the post-mortem examination in each case of
custodial death. This also is not followed in the state and to the information
of the PVCHR anywhere in the country. The question than is what is the value of
the Supreme Court and the NHRC in the country?
There is a provision for interim relief to be awarded as compensation under
Section 19 of Human Right Act. Article 21 of Indian Constitution guarantees the
right to life with dignity, which is also against torture. But torture
continues unabated in the state. Do laws in the country have any meaning then?
If we look at the statistics, it is mostly the poor, the marginalised, the
Dalits and the members of the minority and backward communities are subjected to
torture. Those who have mafia gangs and known antisocial elements are not
victims of this, cruel practice other than some rare occasions. Only the
ordinary people are afraid of the police and the torture they practice. So does
India have two types of citizens -- the one with rights and those who do not
have them?
Police along with the criminals have established the rule of the lords.
Corruption and discrimination are no more mere practices, but the second nature
of the police. Rule of law can be established without preventing police torture.
Let us come together to enlighten ourselves and fight against torture to stop it
and thus establish rule of law.
What you can do?
1) Protest on 26th June against the practice of torture by street plays,
organising discussions and sending letters to the Prime Minister, and through
press releases in newspapers condemning torture and inform us what you did;
2) Indian Government has signed the UN Convention in 1997 but has failed to
ratify it. Send letters to the Prime Minister and the President of India asking
them to require the government to accede the convention;
3) In protest of the cases of torture happening right under the nose of the
National Human Rights Commission, organise a protest in front of the Commission;
4) Write letters to the editor of publications condemning torture;
5) To sensitize the people about torture and its forms, take down cases that
you come across and send it to us so that we could follow it up on your behalf;
6) Write to the Supreme Court asking why its orders and guidelines are not
followed;
7) Write to the government urging the government to provide resources to the
police to function properly.
Thank you
Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi
Convener - PVCHR
SA 4/2 A, Daulatpur
221002Varanasi
INDIA
Telephone: +91-9935599333
E-mail: pvchr.india@...
Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib... Bagram?
INVESTIGATION: US detention centre under suspicion as eerily familiar claims OF torture and rendition flights surface from the airbase on the outskirts of
Kabul. by Ian Pannell, BBC Afghanistan Correspondent
NOOR HABIB'S hands shake as he draws a picture of how he says he was abused. He
claims that he was taken to a small, darkened cell where his arms were tied to
the ceiling and he was made to stand in waist-deep water for six hours at a
time.
[Mohammad Nasim says he was asked if he knew Osama Bin laden.]Mohammad Nasim
says he was asked if he knew Osama Bin laden.
He says he was beaten, threatened with dogs, and deprived of sleep. He also
claims there was nothing unusual about his treatment, "everyone else has the
same story".
Habib was an inmate at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, an American
military detention center outside Kabul. Now, for the first time, detailed
allegations of widespread abuse and neglect have been made about this top-secret
camp.
"I didn't think a prison like Bagram ever existed on earth. It is a place that
has no rules or law," says Sabrullah, another ex-inmate.
Over a period of more than two months, we tracked down 27 former detainees.
There were others, but they were afraid to speak or had been warned not to. Just
two said they had been treated well. Many allegations of ill-treatment appear
repeatedly in the interviews; physical abuse, the use of stress positions,
excessive heat or cold, unbearably loud noise, being forced to remove clothes in
front of female soldiers and in four cases, being threatened with death at
gunpoint.
The account of an inmate known as Dr Khandan is one of the most harrowing. He
says he was kept in isolation for months and treated worse than an animal: "They
deprived us of sleep, they put us in a cold room and turned the air conditioning
on and would take away the blanket. They poured cold water on you in winter and
hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol to your head
and threatened you with death. They put some kind of medicine in the water to
make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you."
All the men who spoke to us were interviewed in isolation and they were all
asked the same questions. They were held at times between 2002 and 2008 and they
were all accused of belonging to or helping al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
None of the inmates were charged with any offense or put on trial; some even
received apologies when they were released. While none of the allegations can be
independently verified, the ill-treatment they describe also appears in an
inquiry by US Senators into the handling of detainees in US custody, and they
match the findings of interviews with ex-inmates conducted by human-rights
organizations and legal groups. They are very similar to the methods that were
used at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"The conditions at Bagram were harder than Guantanamo," says Taj Mohammed. The
camp has held thousands of people over the last eight years and a new
multi-million dollar detention center is currently under construction.
Most of the inmates are Afghans but some were captured abroad and brought here
under a process known as "extraordinary rendition", including at least two
Britons. The Obama administration says they are dangerous men and it classifies
them as "terrorist suspects" and "enemy combatants" rather than "prisoners of
war".
It is a legal classification that critics say deliberately denies inmates access
to lawyers or the right to appeal or even complain about their treatment.
The Pentagon has denied the charges and it insists that all inmates are treated
humanely. We were not allowed to visit Bagram, nor was anyone made available for
an interview. Instead, a spokesman for the US Secretary of Defense responded to
written questions. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright insisted that conditions at
Bagram meet international standards for care and custody. In a statement, he
said: "Department of Defense policy is and always has been to treat detainees
humanely. There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not
followed, and service members have been held accountable for their actions."
The US military said it would investigate any serious claims of abuse, but none
of the men interviewed had been made aware of any formal complaints procedure.
But another former inmate, known as Mirwais, said: "They have no respect for
human beings. They blame others for violating human rights. You just go and see
how they violate human rights."
Since coming to office, president Barack Obama has banned the use of torture and
ordered a review of its policy on detainees, which is expected to report next
month. But unlike Guantanamo Bay, the prisoners at Bagram have no access to
lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention.
Tina Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, a legal
support group which is bringing a test case in the States to try to win
representation for four detainees, says the inmates at Bagram are being kept in
"a legal black hole, without access to lawyers or courts".
She is pursuing legal action that, if successful, would grant detainees the same
rights as those still being held at Guantanamo Bay, but the Obama administration
is trying to block the move.
Last summer, the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo should be
given legal rights. Speaking on the campaign trail, Obama applauded the ruling:
"The Court's decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration's attempt to
create a legal black hole at Guantanamo. This is an important step toward
re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and
rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas
corpus."
Foster accuses Obama of abandoning that position and "using the same arguments
as the Bush White House".
In its legal submissions, the US Justice Department argues that because
Afghanistan is an active combat zone it is not possible to conduct rigorous
inquiries into individual cases and that it would divert precious military
resources at a crucial time. Pentagon spokesman Wright says: "Detention during
wartime is not criminal punishment and therefore does not require that
individuals be charged or tried in a court of law."
Obama has also ruled against an earlier decision to release photos that show
abuse of prisoners in US custody in Afghanistan.
Ex-inmate Esmatullah says he has trouble breathing when he thinks about Bagram,
he gets nervous at the very mention of its name. Like many others, he also
claims that he was beaten and threatened during interrogation: "The Afghan
translator told me he has orders to take out my eyes, break my legs and hands. I
said I am not afraid of dying. Then he hit me with a stick so hard that I had
severe pains in my back for a month and a half."
Unlike Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Bagram has received scant attention so
far. The men would like an official apology, recognition of the abuse they say
they have suffered and compensation.
These revelations come at a time when president Obama is trying to re-set
America's relationship with the Muslim world and he is redoubling US efforts to
win the war in Afghanistan. It is a controversy that has already attracted much
attention in the Afghan and Pakistan media and seriously threatens to tarnish
the image of the new Obama administration on both sides of this troubled border.
INDIA: Structural breakdown of the justice system must be addressed
The reports that appeared yesterday in the Indian media quoting 'informed
sources' that the Tamil Nadu state police has decided not to produce detainees
in courts exposes the extent to which the justice institutions have broken down
in India. According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 it is
the statutory duty of the state police to assist the courts in the country for
its day-to-day functioning. It is also mandatory for the police to produce the
detainees remanded to judicial custody before the courts, as and when required
by the courts. Any decision by the police, express or implied, against this
official duty must not go unpunished.
The decision of the Tamil Nadu state police is a wilful dereliction of official
responsibility, negation of judicial supremacy and the very function of the
police in maintaining law and order. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and
its sister concern the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have been
continuously reporting instances suggesting the systematic breakdown of rule of
law in India, particularly concerning the police. The decision by the state
police of Tamil Nadu to disregard the provisions of law, substantiates ALRC's
position that there are apparent and deep-rooted problems affecting the rule of
law in India.
Lawyers engaged in professional misconduct, judges failing to perform duties and
police officers committing crimes, assaulting persons and destroying property
have become the defining characters of the justice dispensation system in the
country. The structural breakdown is apparent. Yet, instead of gearing up to
repair the ruptures, it appears that the government is forcing the people to get
used to the reality.
The approval by the Government of India for recruiting, training and deploying
Salwa Judum, in Chhattisgarh state, in the excuse of countering Naxalite
activities in that state is an example. Salwa Judum is nothing but an armed
mercenary group operating with impunity in Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh state
administration finds it convenient to arm a faction of organised civilians to
fight anti-state movements like the Naxalites. By promoting Salwa Judum, the
state is trying to absolve from its responsibility of maintaining law and order
in its territory.
The Government of India, instead of preventing the Chhattisgarh state
administration from continuing with the deployment of Salwa Judum, insisted yet
another state administration, the Manipur state government, to resort to similar
tactics in 2008. The same practice was implemented years ago in the state of
Jammu and Kashmir during the time of rightwing BJP led government in India.
Neither in Jammu and Kashmir, nor in Chhattisgarh or in Manipur, has the
situation improved since then.
In the past two years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of
extra-judicial executions reported from India. In the Indian context, such
murders are referred to as 'encounter killings'. As of now, there is no legal
framework in the country by which an impartial enquiry and investigation is
possible in a case of encounter killing. The practice is, a superior officer and
later the court, accepts a report sent in by the police involved in the murder
and no further action is initiated. The murder is often rewarded by the
administration, so much so, there are more than three dozen 'encounter
specialists' serving as police officers in various parts of the country.
Impunity for the police to murder and the lack of punishment trivialises the
practice of custodial torture in the country. The practice of torture is
widespread and is accepted as an essential requirement for law enforcement.
On June 15 this year, the Speaker of the Kerala State Legislative Assembly, Mr.
K. Radhakrishnan, declared at the annual conference of police officers of the
state, that the use of third-degree methods by the state police cannot be
condemned. The Speaker during his keynote address argued that it is ridiculous
to insist that the police officers in India respect human rights. According to
him, it is difficult to do policing and respect human rights at the same time.
He made it clear that when the police investigate a crime, it is natural and
often required for the investigating officer to use torture to prove the case.
Among those listening to these remarks were the Director of the State Police
Training College and the Director General of Police.
Breach of law by the law enforcement agencies in the country meets no bounds.
Corruption, nepotism and the disregard to the law flourish within state
agencies, particularly in the police. The society quiver under the writ of fear
when the law enforcement agents commit crimes with impunity. In spite of
repeated and legitimate requests from national and international human rights
groups and the thematic mandates holders of the UN like the Special Rapporteur
on the question of torture, the Government of India has failed to criminalise
the practice of torture or to ratify the Convention against Torture.
In fact, the government has failed in implementing the directives of its own
Supreme Court. The directives of the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case are
yet to be implemented in the country. The implementation of the Court's
directives is important for improving the state of policing in India, since half
of the issues concerning the police, including the practice of torture and
participation in crimes by the police officers, are carried out at the behest of
corrupt politicians in the country. Having a law against torture while the
ultimate writ above the police entrusted with a corrupt politician will not
improve policing in India.
It is in this context that the protest called in by the Tamil Nadu state police
becomes relevant in exposing and addressing the situation of rule of law in
India. The very fact that the police can intentionally negate the supremacy of
law shows the vacuum of authority in the country. The incident illuminates the
impunity that the police have enjoyed so far that they have now dared to openly
challenge judicial supremacy.
Instead of actively engaging in the situation, the Tamil Nadu state government
has allowed the police to continue with their follies. The police action on
February 19 inside the compound of Madras High Court that injured police
officers, lawyers, judges, court staff and ordinary persons is not of such
triviality that it could be resolved by a fast declared by the state Chief
Minister. The police-lawyer confrontation and the subsequent sequels of
non-cooperation between three important limbs of the justice dispensation system
of the country is not an issue that can be camouflaged with political gimmicks
and ignored.
The February 19 incident is the clarion call for intervention by a system, which
is left to breakdown and disintegrate. The subsequent protest orchestrated by
the state police refusing cooperation to the functioning of the judiciary is a
failure of the constitutional machinery that require a legitimate intervention
by the Government under Article 356 of the Indian Constitution. The failure of
the Government of India to take affirmative actions to correct and revitalise
its criminal justice system poses legitimate challenges to India's democracy and
the country's position in the UN Human Rights Council.
The reports that appeared yesterday in the Indian media quoting 'informed
sources' that the Tamil Nadu state police has decided not to produce detainees
in courts exposes the extent to which the justice institutions have broken down
in India. According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 it is
the statutory duty of the state police to assist the courts in the country for
its day-to-day functioning. It is also mandatory for the police to produce the
detainees remanded to judicial custody before the courts, as and when required
by the courts. Any decision by the police, express or implied, against this
official duty must not go unpunished.
The decision of the Tamil Nadu state police is a wilful dereliction of official
responsibility, negation of judicial supremacy and the very function of the
police in maintaining law and order. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and
its sister concern the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have been
continuously reporting instances suggesting the systematic breakdown of rule of
law in India, particularly concerning the police. The decision by the state
police of Tamil Nadu to disregard the provisions of law, substantiates ALRC's
position that there are apparent and deep-rooted problems affecting the rule of
law in India.
Lawyers engaged in professional misconduct, judges failing to perform duties and
police officers committing crimes, assaulting persons and destroying property
have become the defining characters of the justice dispensation system in the
country. The structural breakdown is apparent. Yet, instead of gearing up to
repair the ruptures, it appears that the government is forcing the people to get
used to the reality.
The approval by the Government of India for recruiting, training and deploying
Salwa Judum, in Chhattisgarh state, in the excuse of countering Naxalite
activities in that state is an example. Salwa Judum is nothing but an armed
mercenary group operating with impunity in Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh state
administration finds it convenient to arm a faction of organised civilians to
fight anti-state movements like the Naxalites. By promoting Salwa Judum, the
state is trying to absolve from its responsibility of maintaining law and order
in its territory.
The Government of India, instead of preventing the Chhattisgarh state
administration from continuing with the deployment of Salwa Judum, insisted yet
another state administration, the Manipur state government, to resort to similar
tactics in 2008. The same practice was implemented years ago in the state of
Jammu and Kashmir during the time of rightwing BJP led government in India.
Neither in Jammu and Kashmir, nor in Chhattisgarh or in Manipur, has the
situation improved since then.
In the past two years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of
extra-judicial executions reported from India. In the Indian context, such
murders are referred to as 'encounter killings'. As of now, there is no legal
framework in the country by which an impartial enquiry and investigation is
possible in a case of encounter killing. The practice is, a superior officer and
later the court, accepts a report sent in by the police involved in the murder
and no further action is initiated. The murder is often rewarded by the
administration, so much so, there are more than three dozen 'encounter
specialists' serving as police officers in various parts of the country.
Impunity for the police to murder and the lack of punishment trivialises the
practice of custodial torture in the country. The practice of torture is
widespread and is accepted as an essential requirement for law enforcement.
On June 15 this year, the Speaker of the Kerala State Legislative Assembly, Mr.
K. Radhakrishnan, declared at the annual conference of police officers of the
state, that the use of third-degree methods by the state police cannot be
condemned. The Speaker during his keynote address argued that it is ridiculous
to insist that the police officers in India respect human rights. According to
him, it is difficult to do policing and respect human rights at the same time.
He made it clear that when the police investigate a crime, it is natural and
often required for the investigating officer to use torture to prove the case.
Among those listening to these remarks were the Director of the State Police
Training College and the Director General of Police.
Breach of law by the law enforcement agencies in the country meets no bounds.
Corruption, nepotism and the disregard to the law flourish within state
agencies, particularly in the police. The society quiver under the writ of fear
when the law enforcement agents commit crimes with impunity. In spite of
repeated and legitimate requests from national and international human rights
groups and the thematic mandates holders of the UN like the Special Rapporteur
on the question of torture, the Government of India has failed to criminalise
the practice of torture or to ratify the Convention against Torture.
In fact, the government has failed in implementing the directives of its own
Supreme Court. The directives of the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case are
yet to be implemented in the country. The implementation of the Court's
directives is important for improving the state of policing in India, since half
of the issues concerning the police, including the practice of torture and
participation in crimes by the police officers, are carried out at the behest of
corrupt politicians in the country. Having a law against torture while the
ultimate writ above the police entrusted with a corrupt politician will not
improve policing in India.
It is in this context that the protest called in by the Tamil Nadu state police
becomes relevant in exposing and addressing the situation of rule of law in
India. The very fact that the police can intentionally negate the supremacy of
law shows the vacuum of authority in the country. The incident illuminates the
impunity that the police have enjoyed so far that they have now dared to openly
challenge judicial supremacy.
Instead of actively engaging in the situation, the Tamil Nadu state government
has allowed the police to continue with their follies. The police action on
February 19 inside the compound of Madras High Court that injured police
officers, lawyers, judges, court staff and ordinary persons is not of such
triviality that it could be resolved by a fast declared by the state Chief
Minister. The police-lawyer confrontation and the subsequent sequels of
non-cooperation between three important limbs of the justice dispensation system
of the country is not an issue that can be camouflaged with political gimmicks
and ignored.
The February 19 incident is the clarion call for intervention by a system, which
is left to breakdown and disintegrate. The subsequent protest orchestrated by
the state police refusing cooperation to the functioning of the judiciary is a
failure of the constitutional machinery that require a legitimate intervention
by the Government under Article 356 of the Indian Constitution. The failure of
the Government of India to take affirmative actions to correct and revitalise
its criminal justice system poses legitimate challenges to India's democracy and
the country's position in the UN Human Rights Council.
Match Fixing in Cricket , IPL , Police , Judiciary & Government in India
Match Fixing in Indian Judiciary ? Questions CJI is Afraid to Answer & Crimes CJI is covering-up
http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/match-fixing---are-you-sleeping ,
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/match-fixing-in-indian-judiciary ,
Failure of duties & questions not answered by public servants
Circle Inspector of Police , Vijayanagar Police Station , Mysore City , Karnataka
Read full questionnaire
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/nice-corridor-questions-to-chie\
f-minister
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/nice-corridor-questions-to-chie\
f-minister
CROSS EXAM OF HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF
INDIA -
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF GOVERNOR , RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ , http://theftinrbi.rediffblogs.com/
, http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/
CROSS EXAM OF MUDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA , MYSORE –
http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/
, http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF BDA COMMISSIONER , BDA , BANGALORE –
http://crimesofbda.blogspot.com/ , http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,
CORPORATE CRIMES RPG CABLES LIMITED
http://crimesatrpg.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesatrpg.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/218
MEGA FRAUD BY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
are you ready to catch tax thieves ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
MOBILE PHONES , CURRENCY SCANDALS
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
reliance industry where is accountability ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
crimes at infosys campus
http://crimeatinfy.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimeatinfy.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/214
crimes by B.D.A against a poor woman
http://crimesofbda.blogpot.com/ ,
http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
crimes of land mafia in India
http://landscamsinindia.blogspot.com/ ,
http://landscam.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
currency thefts in RBI Press
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/80
killer colas & killer medicines of India
http://deathcola.blogpot.com/ ,
http://deathcola.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/201
Reclaiming The Red Fort
By Sourav Chatterjee
Lalgarh, the arena of the latest of India’s tribal rebellions, has a name that is mildly ironic. Literally translated, it means the “Red fort”, that hallowed seat of the world’s largest secular democracy. But here, in this faraway Red fort, a tribal hamlet in West Bengal, Indian democracy shows a very different face. It bears little resemblance to the tolerant democracy of Gandhi and Nehru, or even the corrupt but benign version of the State that the Indian city dweller is accustomed to. The reality of Lalgarh seems like an anachronism amidst the glitz and glamour of India’s shining new economy. In fact, it seems prehistoric.
Lalgarh’s development statistics are few and little cared for, perhaps a sure sign of Government apathy. The few reports that exist paint a grim picture. 95% of the children between 6 and 35 months suffer from anemia. The average number of working days in 2008-09 under the NREGA scheme was 6.02, 6.72 and 8.06 in the violence affected districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia1. Merely 6.5% of the population of Lalgarh receives clean drinking, and only 12.5% of the land is irrigated2.
Combine this with the oppressive social picture that is slowly emerging from the media reports at recent times. While the Left Front Government, with its ambitious land reforms program, had managed to transform the feudal hierarchy of the landed gentry, a new hierarchy, consisting of local party leaders and musclemen has taken its place. Nobody exemplifies it better than Anuj Pandey, general secretary of the Lalgarh zone of the CPI(M). Pandey had amassed a fortune as a CPI(M) leader, and his palatial two storey house on a sprawling 20 acre land, stood as the only “pucca” house in the whole village3. Angry villagers razed it to the ground and smashed refrigerators, LCD television and air conditioners in the house in an act of mob revenge, as the movement had finally given them a voice. Anuj Pandey’s story seems to be picked out of a seventies Bollywood flick, in its grotesque excesses and dramatic climax. In collusion with the local leaders are the police, whose stories of oppression are now coming out in the open. In fact, the movement at Lalgarh started out as a protest against police atrocities. Numerous cases of rapes of Adivasi women, strip searches of schoolgirls, police torture of pregnant and elderly women have been reported in the area4.
While there is a broad agreement about the genuine demands of the tribals, it is the form of the tribal resistance that has been questioned, in Dantewada and elsewhere. To civilized India, the violent forms of tribal resistance often appear medieval. However, in Lalgarh, the tribals answered not in the language of the violence that they have been subjected to, but in the language of a democracy, of which they never received any. The “People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities” (PCAPA) came up as a democratic organization, with its modest demands of the apology of guilty police officers and the removal of police camps from schools and Panchayet offices 4. Their political activity was in the form of gheraos, boycotts and peaceful assembly. For the moment, it appeared that a new paradigm in tribal politics was emerging, with West Bengal’s mainstream political opposition Trinamool Congress (TMC) standing behind Chatradhar Mahato.
However, things changed quickly. The democracy of PCAPA was answered not by democracy, but by the primeval brutality of force. The administration did not heed their modest demands. On the other hand, Chatradhar was captured in an illegal manner, and is being held in custody under the draconian anti-terrorism law, POTA. About six months have elapsed since his arrest, but the police have still not been able to produce evidence to back up the charges made against him5. The TMC and intellectuals close to the TMC have also increased its distance from the PCAPA, citing it as a frontal organization of the Maoists, after the party joined the Central Government. Regardless of political affiliations, mainstream political parties have failed to lend any helping hand to democratic voices emerging from the tribal areas. On February 2010, the Government forces led another blow to PCAPA, killing their president, an elderly Lalmohan Tudu, in a suspected “fake encounter”. Tudu was not known to have any Maoist leanings, and was never known to carry arms, not even the traditional bow and arrow that the tribals always carry with them. Various eye witness accounts suggest that an unarmed Tudu, and two of his relatives were picked up from their house shot at by a police force, which was apparently engaged in anti-Maoist operations6.
Thus, the events at Lalgarh, as they unfold before us, clearly suggest the administration’s intention of stifling democratic voices raised against it. There is little disagreement over the fact that the adivasis of Lalgarh have genuine grievances pertaining to the lack of development and law and order in the region. The only solution, albeit a slow one, is to reach out to movements fighting for the Adivasis, establish meaningful dialogue with leaders like Chatradhar Mahato, and most importantly, to make a sincere effort to develop these regions. This would not be difficult for a nation riding on the powerhorse of 8% growth rate. Unfortunately, the State has decided to act otherwise. It refuses to see the rebellion as representing the aspirations of disenchanted masses who the State has failed. Rather, in order to evade the problem, those in power have created their own spin on the turn of events, labeling it as a “law and order problem”. The Maoists suit this purpose just fine, and clubbing all anti-State movements as Maoist allows the administration to go on the path of “extermination”.
The argument equating the tribal resistance to a Maoist uprising is based on entirely false premises. The tribals and the Maoists have a symbiotic relationship at present with regard to their common goal of a fight against an administration that has been unjust to the tribals. The Maoist ideology, attempting a violent overthrow of elected Governments, is not compatible with that of democracy and their mindless violence and destructive ambitions must be dealt with severely, within the ambit of law. However, it would be a grave error to believe that the tribals, who are now the foot soldiers of the Maoists are also stringent believers in the ideology, and unleash a full fledged war aimed to “exterminate” them.
The justifications of violence have been debated long and hard. Violence is not sought for, whichever side it comes from. However, even free India (and every other civilized democracy for that matter), built on the ideals of Gandhi found it difficult to resolve conflicts without violent interventions, both inside and outside the country. The maintenance of law and order, however, one would argue, is legitimized by the authority vested on the State by the people, in a democratic system. What if the people are not represented? What if the State has failed its people, not once or twice, but at each and every instance? Does it still retain that legitimacy? The violence of the tribals is a desperate battle for survival and the violence of the State has lost its legitimacy in these tribal hamlets. The endless debates on the form of the movement are thus a diversion from the real problem. To lose oneself in the quagmire of the morality of violence, without an analysis of its context is dangerous and unproductive. It must be realized that the resistance of the tribals have taken a violent form (and aligned itself with the Maoists) in the absence of development and because of the stifling of democratic means of resentment. The State must respond not with unthinking violence, but with diplomacy and humanism towards its own subjects, who have been wronged for the last sixty years. The use of military power without a functional democracy in place is not the hallmark of a People’s State, but that of a military dictatorship, the last thing that the founding fathers had wished for this country.
References:
1. Sankar Ray (23 July, 2009). “Where have the Maoists gone?” The Statesman.
2. http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lalgarh_fama.pdf
3. Rabi Banerjee (Feb 7, 2010). “Comrade Bourgeois” The Week.
4. Amit Bhattacharya (2009). “Singur to Lalgarh via Nandigram” Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan
5. Sujit Nath and Aloke Mukherjee (March 9, 2010). “PCAPA leader gets bail in most cases” India Today.
6. Tusha Mittal (March 13, 2010). “Attack On CRPF Camp Or Fake Encounter?” Tehelka.
Industry Thrives On Massive Subsidies
By Devinder Sharma
In 2009, when the world was bogged down by economic recession, and some ripples were also felt in the country, India too provided a bailout package, in three installments, totaling approximately Rs 3.5 lakh crore.
While we blame farmers and the people living ‘below the poverty line’ for living on government doles, the fact remains that business and industry receive several times more subsidies and tax holidays. In many ways, the profits that business and industry post every year is directly related to the subsidies they get. And you thought it was economic growth!
In February 2010, when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was to present the annual Budget, the media had launched an orchestrated campaign saying that the economic bailout package should not be withdrawn. You could see almost every TV channel (and the pink newspapers) bombarding day and night how damaging it would be for the national economy if the bailout package was withdrawn.
In my interventions, I did make it loud and clear (to the discomfort of the economists on the TV panels) that the bailout package was not required in the first instance, and should be withdrawn immediately. Subsequently, I heard the Prime Minister say that only 1.5 lakh jobs were created in 2009 against the projected 1.2 crore. I guess this statement was used by the industry and business to defend the need for the continuation of the bailout package.
In my understanding, the bailout package was actually a dole to the industry and business to strengthen its bottom line. If you think that the layoffs in the industry were because of the economic recession, you are highly mistaken. Recession was very conveniently used by the industry to go in for labour-shedding, nothing more than that. Ask those journalists who have lost their job recently, and they will tell you they were laid-off not for reasons of economic meltdown.
I fail to understand how business and industry, at times of an economic crisis, be on an acquisition spree buying companies in Africa, Latin America and Europe. There have been 11 major acquisitions by Indian companies in the recent past. In fact, India has emerged as a major player in global mergers and acquisitions, and surprisingly at times of economic crisis.
Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) for instance is now planning to make its 6th global acquisition, this time in Argentina. Since 2000, Tata group has acquired as many as 27 companies abroad at a total cost of over Rs 16,000 crore. The proposed merger between Bharti Telecom of India and MTN of South Africa is billed as the biggest merger in recent times. And so on.
In reality, the economic meltdown provided an excellent opportunity for the rich to amass more wealth. Otherwise there is no way that the world's wealthiest club can grow wealthier at times of an economic meltdown. The financial bailout packages came handy for the rich to accumulate more wealth, and that too in the name of rebuilding the national economy.
Otherwise, how can one explain that the number of billionaires from India has doubled in 2009-2010? Income of the rich doubling at a time of recession is something that is not easily palatable. Let us look at another indicator. Not only had the rich, even the middle class purchased 25 per cent more cars in 2009-2010, buying 1,526,787 cars. I don’t think people buy cars at a time when they have less money in their pocket. In fact, 2009-2010 also saw the highest number of car launches in India so far.
According to Forbes magazine, the richest-of-rich club has 49 billionaires from India, up from 24 last year. Isn't it strange that at a time when the sails were fluttering, the number of billionaires from India should actually double? I don’t understand how can an industry, which could not create more than 1.5 lakh jobs in a year, ensure that its own wealth swells? How can that be possible at a time when the chips were down?
What made the wealth of the richest actually multiply were the bailout packages. It is as simple as that. In other words, the world follows an amazing economic prescription: “Socialising the costs, privatising the profits.” You and me pay for the bailout packages, and the rich pocket it neatly. What we don’t realise is that it is the people who actually subsidise industrial growth. There is no bigger fool than the average citizen, who refuses to understand the corporate manipulation of what is actually his due.
Take the case of Uttar Pradesh government, which has sanctioned a new international airport at Kushinagar, near Gorakhpur. After a lot of deliberations and consultations, the UP government has finally agreed to provide 550 acres of land (out of a total of 750 acres allocated for the airport, and real estate ventures like malls and hotels) at a nominal fee of Rs 100, for a 60 years lease. An acre of land being given for Rs 5.50 paise for a period of 60 years!
Strange that a time of economic crisis, more than 1046 proposals for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZ) be granted approvals in various parts of the country. Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have the largest number of approved SEZs in the country. Large number of SEZs have been granted approval in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat, Orissa and West Bengal as well. Ten year tax holiday plus a whole lot of concessions make it easier for the companies to make more money.
The Rs 40,000-crore IPL cricket honey pot has also seen freebies being given to billionaires and millionaires. Ironically, this is happening at a time when the government is desperate to bring down the food subsidy bill. The current projected cost, computed on the basis of the proposal to provide 25 kgs to every BPL family at Rs 3 works out to Rs 28,860 crore. It will touch Rs 40,400 crore if the government raises the entitlement to 35 kgs per family. Even in the case of the second scenario, the burden on the exchequer would be lower than the existing Rs 56,000 crore annual food subsidies.
The cost of feeding the hungry must be reduced, and only then can we feed the rich.
This happens every time when the world faces an economic crisis. In 2007-08, when the world was faced with an unprecedented food crisis, the stocks of the food giants swelled to an unprecedented level. The poor went hungry (with the number of hungry going up by another 100 million) whereas the food companies profited. More recently, when India was faced with an unprecedented rise in sugar prices, the stocks of nearly 25 sugar companies went up.
Mainline economic thinking has made it much easier and simple for the corporate and big business to make more money. You don't have to indulge in any financial swindle; the credit rating agencies and the economists do it for you. And that too without the world even questioning what in simple terms means thuggery.
edited , printed , published & owned by NAGARAJ.M.R. @ : LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR ,HEBBAL , MYSORE -570017 INDIA cell : 09341820313 home page: http://groups.google.co.in/group/e-clarion-of-dalit/ , http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/ , http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/e-clarionofdalit/ , http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit ,
e-mail : nagarajhrw@hotmail.com , naghrw@yahoo.com
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