JOINT STATEMENT ON THE ARBITRARY ARRESTS OF DR.SUNILAM AND DAYAMANI BARLA

JOINT STATEMENT ON THE ARBITRARY ARRESTS OF DR.SUNILAM AND DAYAMANI BARLA:   
Withdraw all cases against them   
Release them unconditionally. 

 

We the undersigned are appalled and anguished by the continuing state repression on mass movements and social activists by a pro-business state which is giving up its democratic pretensions with each passing day to suppress all genuine protests by farmers, workers, adivasis and different marginalized social groups who are driven to the brink of starvation, dispossession, mass peasant suicides imposed on them by an increasingly authoritarian state which goes out of its way to serve its imperial masters and the big business. Binayak Sen and Seema Azad were given life sentence by an equally complicit judiciary. The former were guilty of taking sides with the oppressed masses. Thousands of false criminal cases were imposed on the activists of POSCO and Koodankulam. The list is endless. The latest examples are Dr Sunilam and Dayamani Barla.

Imprisonment of Dr Sunilam, a socialist politician from Madhya Pradesh has been received with a sense of deep concern and dismay as part of a trend to silence voices of public interest by misleading the judiciary to save vested interests. Dr Sunilam has been part of Indian People's Movement against WTO and anti-corruption movement in the country.  Former legislator and President of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Dr Sunilam led Kisan Andolans. On 12 January, 1998 which was a black day for the farmers’ movement of our country, the State Government under the leadership of Digvijay Singh brutally crushed the non-violent farmers’ movement using the state police.

Taking note of Dr Sunilam’s background, the appeal for supporting him merits endorsement of all the concerned citizens who love democracy and cherish citizen’s liberty.

The case of Dayamani Barla who is a journalist turned anti-displacement, tribal, woman activist from Jharkhand as part of a similar trend to harass public interest persons. She was granted bail by a local court of Ranchi on October 18, 2012. But she was arrested again when friends and colleagues of Dayamani reached jail to receive her, they were told that she is been arrested in the Nagadi case and can’t be let off. She was sent to Jail on October 16, 2012 in fourteen days judicial custody, after she surrendered before the court in a matter of April 25, 2006. This not the first time when she is intimidated or harassed but the government is leaving no chance to target her. The recent intimidation and arrest is due to her leading a restless, successful and mostly peaceful (except once when police opened fire on villagers) struggle against the acquisition of fertile land at Nagari, a village situated at few kilometers from the state capital and where government wants to build IIM, IIT and National Law School. The government is desperately trying to crush the movement, by hook or crook.

It is not a matter of Dr Sunilam and Dayamani Barla alone. Harassment of activists on fake pretexts and conviction in fabricated cases has become a trend that merits the response of the sane legal, social and political minds to defang the bite of the strategic lawsuit against public participation.  

We condemn this dastardly act of incarceration of Dr Sunilam and Dayamani Barla and urge the governments of MP and Jharkhand to withdraw all cases against them and release them unconditionally.           

A K. Arun, Yuva Samvad, Delhi

A. K. Maleri (Prof) - State Press Secretary, Association for Democratic Rights, Punjab

Afsar Jafari - Focus on the Global South

All India Forum of Forest Movements

Amalendu Upadhyay - Editor, Hastkshep.com

Amitadyuti Kumar, Working President APDR, Kolkatta

Amresh Kumar, Forward Blok, Delhi
Anil Chaudhary - PEACE Delhi

Anil Tharayat - Delhi Solidarity Group

Arati Chokshi - PUCL, Karnataka

Arjun Prasad Singh - PDFI

Ashok Chowdhury - NFFPFW

Ashwani Kumar , Delhi University, Delhi
Asit Das - Writer & Activist Delhi

Atal Behari Sharma, Socialist Front, Delhi
B. Viveknandan (Prof.)

B. P. Yadav, Bangladesh Bharat Pakistan Peoples Forum, Delhi
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal

Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila stationary Karmachri Sangh, Bhopal

Bhopal Group for information and action, Bhopal

Bhargavi - Delhi Forum

Biswajit Mohanty, Teacher, Delhi University

Buts Singh, Punjab

C. Sundeep Reddy

Chandra Prakash Ojha, PEACE, Delhi
Children against Dow Carbide, Bhopal

Chitranjan Singh - PUCL

Gangadhar Patil - D.N.A. Mumbai

Gopal Krishna - TWA Delhi

Jagadish, New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India), Bangalore

Jaya Jaitly, The Other Side (Socialist Journal) DelhiJiterndra Chahar, Sangarsh Samvad, Delhi
KT Hafis - Jamia Students Solidarity Forum

Kamal Nayan Kabra, Delhi

Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Mumbai

Kavita Srivastava, PUCL, Rajasthan
Khushal Singh - Student JNU

Kiran Shaheen - Water rights Campaign, Delhi

Kirity Roy - MAUSUM, West Bengal
Laxmi Thakur Singhal, India Nirman Kendra, Delhi 

Madhuresh Kumar - NAPM Delhi

Mahtab Alam - Human rights activists, Delhi

Mamta Dash, New Delhi

Mangalura Vijay, Karnataka

Manju Mohan, Socialist Party, Delhi
Moha Das - Teacher Delhi University

Mukul Dube, Writer, photographer, Editor, Delhi

N. D. Pancholi , Citizens for Democracy, Delhi
N. Jayram

Nilesh Sinha , Rashtriya Swamiman Andolan, Delhi
P.K Sundaram - CNDP Delhi

PM Salin - Student Islamic Organization of India

P.T George - ICR Delhi

Pankaj Bidhyarthi, Rashtriya Swamiman Andolan, Delhi 
Pawan Kumar Kaushal

Pradeep Estves - Context India, Bangalore

Adv. Prashant Bhushan, IAC, Delhi
Prem Singh, Delhi
Pushpa Achanta - WSS Karnataka

Pushpa Toppo - Jungle Bachao Andolan, Jharkhand

R. Sahai, PUCL, Delhi
Rabin Chakrabarty

Rahul Banerjee, Indore

Justice Rajender Sachar, PUCL, Delhi
Rajiv Kumar - Indian Socialist

Rajnikant Mudgal, Socialist Front, Delhi

Rajiv Bhrigukumar, Socialist Front, Delhi  
Rakesh Kumar , Nigam Parshad Socialist Front, Delhi
Rakesh Rafik, Anna Team, Muradabad
Ram Sharan, Ganga Mukti Andolan, Bhagalpur, Bihar
Ravi Kiran Jain, PUCL, Allahabad
Ravi Kumar , Delhi
Rita Kumar, Prabasi Jan Manch, Delhi
Sanjay Basu Mullick - Jharkhand Jangal Bachao Andolan

Sanjay Kanojia , RJD Party , Delhi

Satyender Singh, Lok swamy Patrika, Delhi 
Shashi Kiran Deshetti - Warangal

Shripad Dharmadhikari - Manthan Adhyan Kendra, Pune

Shubhash Bhatnagar, NMPS, Delhi
Prof Shyam Sunder Pasrija Socialist Janata Party, Delhi
Shweta Tripathi - SRUTI Delhi

Soumitra Ghosh, North Bengal Forum of Forest People and Forest Management

Sreedevi Lakshmi Kutty - Trivandrum

Subhash Bharitya, Rashtriya Swamiman Andolan, Delhi
Sudha Reddy, Bangalore

Sukla Sen, Mumbai

Sunil Kumar, PDFI, Delhi
Uma Chandru - PUCL and WSS, Karnataka

Vandana Mishra, Delhi
Vinod Singh, Kisan Manch, Varanasi
Vivek Sundara - Human Rights Activist, Mumbai

Vinay Bhat - Santa Clara Califonia

W.A. Laskor

Wilfred Dcosta - INSAF
Yudhvir Singh, Bhartiya Kisan Union Delhi& others

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