Letters

Re-arrests of Political Activists
Yet again the People of West Bengal are being witness to another instance of police brutality, trampling all constitutional norms, perpetration of third degree torture in police lock-up and the submission of false statements in the court of law. In its treatment of dissident voices, the present Mamata-led government is no different from the previous Buddhadev-led government which had ruled the state of West Bengal for more than 3 decades.

On 19 April 2013, Zakir Hussain and Sabyasachi Goswami were produced in Bankshall Court, Kolkata. The police force (STF) as usual showed them to have been arrested on 18 April from Behala in Kolkata for having Maoist links. Zakir had signs of police torture in STF lock-up all over his body and was almost unable to move. Actually, Zakir was arrested on 15th from Dharmatala in Kolkata-a place other than what was stated before the court. He was produced after four days of arrest-a clear violation of Supreme Court directives which make it binding for the police to produce an arrested person within 24 hours of arrest. Zakir's face was covered by a mask by the police in the lock-up to escape identification. Then he was beaten black and blue to extract confession-yet another violation of court directives and UN Covenant relating to Civil and Political Rights. Sabyasachi Goswami was picked up on 18 April from Piyali, Canning in South 24-Parganas. He was subjected to mental and physical torture and was not allowed to sleep the intervening night between 18 and 19. They, as usual, were implicated in false cases like carrying arms and indulging in seditious acts, having Maoist connections.

Both Zakir and Sabyasachi were arrested and incarcerated earlier for years together in another case and both were acquitted and released in 2011 after spending six years in prison. Both of them had been attending courts regularly since then in cases where they were released on bail. Last year, the STF raided the house of Sabyasachi and threatened his relatives. His mother who had been suffering from various ailments had a traumatic experience and she expired recently-a clear case of death by torture, brutal police forces driving a mother to her death by intimidation. This is how 'democracy' works in 'this largest democracy' in the world.

Re-arrests of activists who have been acquitted of previous trumped up charges that too after prolonged periods of incarceration-in this case six years-has become a regular feature of the modus operandi of the police forces whether it is in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa,Bihar etc. This while undoubtedly shows the growing impunity of the police and other special forces as well as investigating agencies is further becoming a standard operating procedure vis-a-vis criminalizing all forms of political dissent in the subcontinent.
SAR Geelani, President
Amit Bhattacharyya, Secretary General
Sujato Bhadro, Vice President
M N Ravunni, Vice President
Rona Wilson, Secretary Public Relations
Committee for the
Release of Political Prisoners

Judiciary’s ‘‘Fatwas’’
I wonder, how cauld such a fine scholar and writer like Sumanta Banerjee write the letter (Judiciary’s ‘‘Fatwas’’, 3-9 March 20123)! Why should he not be tried for contempt of court? After Afzal Guru's execution on 9th February ’13 morning in Tihar jail, some scribes also wrote in his defence and flawed the Supreme Court's judgement and President's rejection of his mercy plea, but Indian people do not agree with them. Now Mr Banerjee has joined these critics and gone a step further by stressing "the need to organize a mass campaign against these members of the judiciary, demanding the setting up of an independent tribunal to examine their judgement and seek ways and means whether they can be brought to trial for culpable homicide" and so on. Can anything be more perverse and unpatriotic? Guru confessed his involvement in the terrorist attack in Parliament on 13th December 2001 and much else in all the three courts that tried him—the TADA court (2002), Delhi High Court (2003) and Supreme Court which rejected his appeal in 2005. If he was not involved, why did he make mercy pleas to President who finally rejected it on 3rd February '13? He was accused and convicted on four charges- murder, conspiracy, waging war against India, and possession of explosives–none of which he denied or refuted. The then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi and a host of ministers and MPs would have been killed by his five-member gang if the Lok Sabha had not been adjourned, that day, 45 minutes before the mayhem and most of them had not left the House. True, the sentence was to be carried out on 20th October 2006, but was stayed by the Government of India for undisclosed reasons. I am not aware of any legal provision that permits dilution of sentence for 'inordinate delay' in executing it. The death sentence to an accused in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination case was commuted to life imprisonment, with apex court's permission and following clemency plea by the convict, by Sonia Gandhi.

The problem with Mr Banerjee is that he cannot get over the hangover of Naxalite involvements in his youth, which cost him his job in a major English daily around 1969. I remember, and protested to, a piece by him in your weekly, chastising the CPI (M) leaders in West Bengal for failing to nip in the bud Mamata Banerjee's march to power. When will he wake up to realise that Marxists are on the run in India too and their dreams of Revolution lie shattered in numerous barbarities and perfidies, committed on the people of Kerala and West Bengal?
Bandana Ray, Kalyani

Cash tranfers
The Public Distribution System (PDS) in India is a big one. It however suffered from various leakages, and failed to serve the targeted groups satisfactorily. Of course, the PDS has been conceived as an anti-inflationary mechanism, and a measure to mitigate misery.

The Government is supplying some essential commodities-through fair price shops at subsidised prices. With the rise in Minimum Support Prices (MSP), the food subsidy has been rising rapidly and reached a level of Rs 85,000 crore per year. Studies, however, show almost 40 percent of the foodgrains allocated for PDS never reach the targeted groups. There are as many as 20 million bogus ration cards.

The Government wants to dilute the role of PDS by introducing the scheme of cash transfers linked to Aadhaar Card. However, this card is of no help in selecting the deserving beneficiaries. It only ensures that benefits do not flow more than once to the same beneficiary.

The cash transfers are meant to eliminate the role of middlemen, corruption and leaks in the long distribution chain. They can also avert distress migration. But, what happens to the cash transferred is the real issue. There is no shortage of liquor shops. After receiving the cash, the beneficiary may enhance his liquor consumption. The cash transfers thus become counter productive.

Because of poor grain storage capacity, the post-harvest losses are high. The foodgrain stocks should be kept at a reasonable level. The Government is implementing anti-poverty programmes. A part of the wage may be paid in kind. Any system meant for the poor should work with accountability and transparency to enhance its credibility. The Government has to first address the cash transfer conundrums.

 I Satya Sundarm,
Machilipatnam, AP

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 44, May 12-18, 2013

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