Letters

After the Rape
In protest of the brutal incident of the 16th Dec gang rape a march was carried out in Karawal Nagar, Eastern Delhi. Hundreds of women and children along with men under the banner of Stree Mukti League and Nujawan Bharat Sabha took part in this march. Stree Mukti League and Disha student Organization also participated in candle light march in Delhi University. Shivani of Strre Mukti League told that the continuous rise in the crimes against women is happening because of three reasons. After the 1990 new economic policies of liberalisation-privatisation, a new class called neo-rich class has born coupled with the emergence of a new culture of "Eat-Drink-Enjoy". This new class believes that they can do anything and everything with money. The regressive capitalist culture has led to objectification of women, which in turn creates among this small new class blinded with money, a psychological desire to have that object. To a large extent, this new class is responsible for crimes against women. On the other hand, another new class has come into existence which is the lumpen petty bourgeois class, which has crossed all limits of the capitalist dehumanization, as also visible in the dehumanization of the 16th December, incident. The third reason has been present in every bit of Indian society for ages. This is the patriarchal psychology, which considers women as an object to be had and a machine to procreate sons. This in turn reinforces the anti-women psychology every second. Sunny from Disha Student Organization said that to actually eradicate such practices concerned people need to build such a system which is human centered and not profit centered. Only protests won't help. In order to move towards a revolution one will need a revolutionary thought process and a revolutionary organization. And to understand and build such a revolutionary alternative, youth, especially young women will have to come forward because women are victims of double hegemony: capitalism and patriarchy. Till the time such a system gets completely built up one can't be sitting idle. People will have to fight for their rights. For this also people will have to form a collective otherwise this public sentiment will disappear after anger is silenced and nothing will change.
Stree Mukti League

Arresting Gopal
We the undersigned professors, scientists, writers and rights activists are very much shocked to see the Kerala police picturing Mr Gopal who was arrested at Mavelikara on December 29, 2012 along with six others as an extremist. Gopal was a former scientist in Atomic Research Centers in Kalpakkam and Mumbai. He is a well known civil rights activist in Tamilnadu and is an active member in the Committee for the Protection of Civil Rights (Tamil Nadu).

He was never arrested before and no charges or cases are pending against him. He never went underground and no such lookout notice had been issued against him as described by the Kerala police and published in some news papers. We condemn Kerala police for spreading such an abuse against a reputed scientist and social activist.

We understand that out of the seven arrested, five of them are framed under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. We are much worried about the indiscriminate use of such a draconian preventive detention act against activists who have gathered in a hotel room to discuss some social issues of public interest.

We demand that the Kerala police should stop spreading abusive rumors against scientist Gopal and should apologize for having pictured him as an extremist and terrorist. We also demand that all those arrested in Mavelikara on 29th December should be released unconditionally and all the cases against them should be withdrawn.

We also feel that a national debate should be initiated about such vindictive usage of UAPA against Human Rights and Social Activists all over India.

Prof A Marx, People’s Union for Human Rights, Tamilnadu Chapter, Ko Sugumaran. Federation for People’s Rights, Puduchery UT, K Manoharan (S V Rajadurai), Writer and Senior Human Rights Activist, Tamil Nadu, Prof Praba Kalvimani, Association for the Protection for the Tribal Irulas, Tindivanam, Prof Dr P Sivakumar, Former Principal, Govt. Arts Colleges, Tamil Nadu, V Natarajan, Former Scientist, Atomic Research Centre, Kalpakkam, Prof M. Thirumavalavan, Former Professor of English, Govt. Arts Colleges, Tamilnadu, Prof S Kochadai, People’s Union for Civil liberties, Karaikuti, Prabanjan, Eminent Tamil Writer, Chennai, V Geetha, Eminent Writer and Scholar, Chennai, Advocate Rajini, People’s Union for Human Rights, Madurai, Advocate Manoharan, High Court, Chennai, Dr V Pugalenthi, Medical Practitioner, Kalpakkam.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 28, January 20-26, 2013

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