by Prasanna D Zore
Branded a Maoist by the Maharashtra police, Arun Ferreira was released on bail on January 5.
At his first press conference after his release, he spoke about his ordeal and how the State has been muffling the voice of dissent. Prasanna D Zore reports.
The sarcasm in 40-year-old Arun Ferreira's voice is not completely misplaced.
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January 6, 2012
By Stan Swamy, Sanhati
This article is an introduction to the trajectory of peoples' movements against displacement in Jharkhand in the last few years. As the author writes, the resistance in Jharkhand has resulted in the fact that "[o]ut of the about one hundred MOUs signed by Jharkhand government with industrialists, hardly three or four companies have succeeded in acquiring some land, set up their industries and start partial production." - Ed.
Displacement is painful for anybody - to leave the place where one was born and brought up, the house that one built with one's own labour. It is most painful when no alternate resettlement has been worked out and one has nowhere to go. And when it comes to the indigenous Adivasi People for whom their land is not just an economic commodity but a source of spiritual sustenance, it can be heart-rending.
A very conservative estimate indicates that during the last 50 years approximately 2 crore 13 lakh people have been displaced in the country owing to big projects such as mines, dams, industries, wild-life sanctuaries, field firing range etc. Of this, at least 40%, approximating 85 lakhs, are Indigenous Adivasi People. Of all the displaced, only one-fourth have been resettled. The remaining were given some cash compensation arbitrarily fixed by local administration and then neatly forgotten.
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Amit Bhattacharyya
On 24 November 2011, the body of the Maoist leader Kishanji, with multiple injuries all over the body, was found in the Burishole jungle of the Jhargram area of the West Medinipur district of West Bengal. One of the main operatives of the Chidambaram-Mamata joint forces, Mr. Vijay Kumar, the DG of the CRPF, described it as a ‘clean and successful operation’. The mutilated body bore marks not only of bullet wounds, but wounds of four types. One was the bullet wounds; the second was the wounds caused by sharp weapons; the third was wounds caused by burning; and the fourth was the wound caused by pounding parts of the body such as fingers by heavy instruments.
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CALLS IT VINDICITVE ACTION OF RAJASTHAN POLICE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF MLA RAMESH KHANDELWAL & the MINING LOBBY
*WILL GO TO NHRC HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS CELL*
*CARRY OUT A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE RELEASE OF KAILASH MEENA.*
Jaipur, 20th December, 2011
*APPEAL*
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COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS (185/3, FOURTH FLOOR, ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-110025)
On the Occasion of the acquittal of people's cultural artist Jiten Marandiand 3 others from death sentence by the Ranchi High Court
Let Us Demand that those police officials who fabricated evidence against Jiten and others be brought to book!
Oppose Death Penalty as a Form of Punishment of the State!
Invitation for a Convention: Multi-purpose Hall, India International Centre, Lodhi Road, Delhi
20 December 2011, 12.00 noon to 8 pm
Program and Speakers
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Let Us Demand that those police officials who fabricated evidence against Jiten and others be brought to book! Oppose Death Penalty as a Form of Punishment of the State!
Invitation for a Convention: Delhi, India International Centre, Lodhi Road
20 December 2011, 10 am to 8 pm
Dear Friends, We extend our greetings from the Committee for the Release of Politicial Prisoners.
As we all know the Ranchi High Court have acquitted people's cultural artist Jiten Marandi and 3 others on the 15 December 2011. In this occasion the convention which was to be held on the 20 December 2011 demanding the acquittal of Jiten Marandi and Manoj Rajwar, Chatrapati Mandal and Anil Ram, who were framed in the notorious Chilkhari case will happen albeit with a slight change in the demands.
This convention has assumed significance at a juncture when the state is criminalising all forms of dissent with impunity. It is significant that Jiten Marandi who is from a poor peasant family, being from his own social location as well seeing the hardships of his people, through his songs of protest was trying to expose the growing trend of impunity of the state and the need for the vast sections of the masses to unite against all forms of oppression and exploitation. Jiten Marandi is also one of the secretaries of the CRPP. Jiten who became part of the Jharkand Aibhen a cultural platform of the oppressed and exploited Adivasis of Jharkhand gave vent to the anguish and sufferings of his people. In that process his voice became that of not only the oppressed and exploited in Jharkhand but of all those in the subcontinent who wanted to see an end to such dehumanising existence. He became the rallying point for all forms of resistance that gave voice to the anguish and anger of the most deprived, oppressed and exploited. For the first time a people's cultural activist was given death row for the only reason that he echoed the grave concerns of the toiling masses against the anti-people policies of the government.
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Let us demand that the police and the politicians who were hand in glove in fabricating evidence against him be brought to book!
Let us continue our struggle for the abolishment of Death Penalty as a form of Punishment by the State!
COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS, 16/12/2011--We at the CRPP are proud to share the good news of the acquittal of people's cultural activist Jiten Marandi and 3 others, Manoj Rajwar, Chatrapati Mandal and Anil Ram, who were framed in the notorious Chilkhari case where on 26 October 2007 cadres of the CPI (Maoist) party allegedly killed 19 members which included the son of former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi. What the papers later reported was that the 19 members who were killed belonged to the vigilante gang-a la Salwa Judum of Chhattisgarh-Nagarik Suraksha Samiti which was propped by Babulal Marandi and was wreaking havoc in the lives of the poor people of the region. By now the grave injustice to Jiten and 3 others through political conspiracy and vendetta which took the form of acts of impunity of the police and the powers that be which was brought to the notice of the world by CRPP and other democratic and freedom loving sections has been vindicated through the acquittal of all the four by the High Court of Jharkhand.
It took exactly 3 years 8 months and 3 days for the sustained campaign from all democratic and progressive sections of the masses of the people to realise the final acquittal of Jiten Marandi and 3 others. Further the case slapped on Jiten Marandi and the consequent award of death sentence to him and 3 others is a pattern in the method of impunity that the so-called guardians of law indulge in to perpetuate an undeclared emergency in the length and breadth of the subcontinent where the poorest of the poor are fighting against a sustained policy of loot and plunder of their resources, their lives and livelihoods.
It is high time that we demand that those who are responsible for such acts of impunity be brought to book.
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Jharkhand High Court acquits convicts of Chilkari massacre
Ranchi, Dec 15: Jharkhand High Court today acquitted four main convicts of Chilkari massacre who were awarded the death sentence by a court in Giridih on June 23.
A divison bench, comprising Justice R K Merathia and Justice D N Upadhaya, acquitted Jiten Marandi, Chhatrapati Mandal, Manoj Rajwar and Anil Ram due to lack of evidence.
Earlier on June 23, Additional District and Sessions Judge(First) I D Mishra had ordered that all the four accused be hanged till death for perpetrating the massacre.
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MOGA CONVENTION AGAINST ATTACK ON DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
The Democratic Front Against Operation Green Hunt, Punjab held a well-attended convention at Moga on the International Human Rights Day i.e. 10th December. The convention held in the back-drop of killing of M. Koteswara Rao @ Kishenji - the CPI (Maoist) leader in an "encounter" mired in suspicion; death sentence awarded to Jatin Marandi-the peoples singer and theater-artist of Jharkhand; brutal & inhuman torture inflicted by Chhattisgarh Police on a tribal teacher, Soni Sori and a decade long fast by Irom Sharmila, the indomitable woman from Manipur, in protest against continuation of draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act; was to focus on the significance of these events from the standpoint of human rights movement in the country and to chalk out its future direction.
As a prelude to this convention, a press briefing was held at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Halkl Jalandhar on 4th December on these issues. The fact finding report prepared by the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organizations (CDRO), about the killing of Kishenji was translated and printed in Punjabi and widely circulated amongst democratic sections throughout Punjab.
The convention venue, Shaheedi Park was decorated with flexes, banners and placards having photographs of Kishenji, Jatin Marandi & Irom Sharmila and slogans highlighting struggle and demands for protection of democratic rights.
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