PUCL Supports the Inalienable Right of SoniSori and Other
AAP Leaders to Meet the CM and Air Grievances
CHHATTISGARH LOK SWATANTRYA SANGATHAN
(PEOPLE’S UNON FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES,
CHHATTISGARH)
___________________________________________________________________________
22nd October 2015
The Democratic Right to Get Heard in
a Conflict Zone
PUCL Supports the Inalienable Right
of SoniSori and Other AAP Leaders to Meet the CM and Air Grievances
PUCL Chhattisgarh strongly
condemns the action of Chhattisgarh State Police in Dantewada, and the CRPF
teams stationed there in subverting democratic processes and preventing AAP
leaders including SoniSori, and some villagers from meeting with the Chief
Minister Dr. Raman Singh on the issue of alleged fake encounter in the village
of Nilavaya in Dantewada district on 13th October. It is even more distressing to learn that
similar high-handedness of the police was on display again on the 19th
of October, when an AAP political rally trying to raise the same issue was
again blocked. This behavior of the
police shocking in the extreme, considering that in both instances,all
requisite permissions from the administration had already been obtained by the organizers.
At a time when the Chief Minister is publicly asking for an open debate on the
human rights of adivasis in Bastar, it is outrageous that the police would
thwart political leaders from even meeting with the Chief Minister to express
their concern over an issue of such vital importance.
PUCL has learned that on the
morning of 6th October, BhimaMadvis/o Handa, a 50 year old farmer
living in Patelpara, Nilavaya village in Dantewada district,was shot by the
security forces. He was returning back from visiting his sister in the
neighbouringhamlet of Milkanpara. The
villagers of Nilavaya, who wanted to take his body for a post-mortem were
prohibited from doing so by the police and coerced into cremating it on the
morning of the 8th of October. When AAP leaders, including SoniSori
and Sukulprasad Nag, and social scientist Bela Bhatia, tried to register an FIR
about the incident at the Aranpur Police Station on the 8th of
October, the police refused to register it, and instead threatened to put a
case against them for encouraging villagers to cremate the body and destroy
valuable evidence.[1]
Refusing to be cowed down by
these threats, the AAP leaders decided to use the opportunity of the Chief
Ministers’ visit to Dantewada on the 13th of October to raise the
issue of police unaccountability directly with Dr. Raman Singh. Accordingly,
they applied for and obtained passes to meet with the CM during his stay at the
Transit Hostel in Dantewada, duly signed by the Dantewada SDM HareshMandavi.
They were scheduled to meet with CM after his public address, between 1:00 to
2:00 pm. Photos of these passes are annexed below as Annexure 1.
However, on the appointed day of
the 13th of October, when the villagers of Nilavaya started from
their homes to come to Dantewada, they were stopped by the CRPF at the Sameli
camp and not permitted to go any further. Even when SoniSori herself went to
meet the villagers and explain to the CRPF personnel that the villagers had an
appointment with the CM, they did not allow any villagers to cross the
check-point. Disturbed by this, SoniSori
decided to go ahead with the original plan and meet the CM to raise the
Nilavaya issue with him, even in the absence of the villagers and set out to
Dantewada alone. However, she also got
stopped multiple times along the way, and finally was stopped from going any
further at Kuakonda police station around 1:00 pm. A photo of the villagers who
were stopped at Sameli is annexed as Annexure 2, and another photo of
SoniSori herself kept waiting at the Kuakonda police station is annexed as Annexure
3.
Not ready to give up on the
opportunity to make the CM aware of the ground situation, SoniSori, while
detained at the Kuakonda police station, called up her party members waiting
for her in Dantewada. Explaining the situation to them, she asked them to go
ahead and meet with the CM and present their memorandum that had already been
prepared. Soon after she made this call,
her party members including the elderly Sukulprasad Nag, the AAP Bastar
in-charge JagmohanBaghel and AAP member Sameer were all stopped when they were
enroute to meet with the CM and detained in the Kotwali PS in Dantewada for two
hours, till the CM had departed from the area.
In the meanwhile, the TI of
Kuakonda had released SoniSori from the police station, however, it was too
late for her to now make it to Dantewada in time to meet with the CM. Disturbed by this turn of events, SoniSori
refused to leave the police station till the police gave her reason for her
detention, or showed her the orders under which she was detained. The Kuakonda police refused to do this, only
making the weak excuse that there was some mistake of some kind. In the evening, when other AAP colleagues
joined her in Kuakonda PS, they decided to do a padyatra from Kuakonda to
Dantewada, to register their strong protest at their treatment by the police in
stopping them from meeting with the CM. A photo of SoniSori and Sukulprasad Nag
on this padyatra is annexed as Annexure 4
This concerted effort of
different police stations and the CRPF in stopping Nilavaya villagers and AAP
leaders in different police stations across Dantewada, in order to block them
from meeting the highest elected representative of the state is appalling and
is strongly denounced by PUCL. But what is even more frightening is that
despite being widely reported in the local media (see Annexure 5), the
impunity of the security forces did not end, but this behavior was repeated
again six days later, when the AAP party decided to take out a rally to
Dantewadaon the same issue. Once again, the AAP functionaries duly informed the
Dantewada collector of their decision to hold a rally on Monday, the 19th
of October from Nilavaya to Dantewada. On the Collector’s request that they consider
altering their plans since the authorities are already stretched during
Navratri in the temple town of Dantewada, the AAP leaders agreed to cooperate
by taking the rally only till Kuakonda instead of bringing it all the way to
Dantewada.
However,
on the appointed day, once again, the villagers who had turned up for the rally
were stopped from coming on to the main road, and forcibly turned back at
various points. The 20-25 member strong delegation of AAP which had travelled
all the way from Raipur and beyond, were stopped at Palnar and not allowed to
proceed further to meet the villagers.
Once again, the police and CRPF refused to pay heed to the fact that the
requisite permissions had been obtained and the rally was indeed permitted by
the Collector. Many hours later, when
the AAP leaders were finally released from their illegal detention, it is to
their credit that they still made their way to the villages, met with the affected
villagers and heard their stories first hand. But why the police should
interfere with a democratic expression of peaceful public discontent is
unimaginable.
Democracy is not established by
the process of elections alone. A functioning democracy should, at the very
least, guarantee lawful access of common people to their elected
representatives. This coordinated thwarting of adivasis and their leaders from
meeting the Chief Minister in order to address an issue of such vital
importance, and later to take out a peaceful rally – is a staggering testimony
to the dysfunction of democracy in the highly militarized zone of Bastar today,
where ordinary rights of citizens are being subjected to extra-ordinary
restrictions. A genuine dialogue on the issue of human rights of tribals in
Bastar is not possible unless the authorities are willing to listen to what the
adivasis might have to say.
Dr. Lakhan Singh Advocate
SudhaBharadwaj
President General
Secretary
Mo.
09926603877. “Janhit”,
Near Indu Medical, Ring
Road No. 2, Maharana PratapChowk,
Bilaspur.
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