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Prisoners denied condoms in Tihar jail; Parliament, Judiciary & Executive of no help

By ABVA Collective

Prisoners still do not have access to condoms as an anti-AIDS preventive measure at Tihar jail – one of the largest prison complex in South Asia.

 

In 1994 ABVA had filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court asking for inter alia striking down of Section 377, IPC; supply of condoms to prisoners in Tihar jail, New Delhi. Lawyers repeatedly pleaded with the judges to let condoms be provided to prisoners as an interim measure. But the court refused to pass such orders and merely asked the petitioners to wait till the time the case would come up for final argument (which it did seven years later in 2001). The petition was dismissed then but crucial seven years were wasted as prisoners could not have the preventive measure.

 

Later heavily funded NGOs with their slick lawyers compromised and watered down the prayers to partial repeal of S. 377, IPC. The 2018 Supreme Court judgement on partial relief has not helped the prisoners a wee bit.

 

In the last three decades Parliament has stone-walled efforts to get a debate on the crucial real life issues pertaining to the sexual minorities – to wit the Gay Manifesto documented in ABVA’s report “Less than Gay”. The Executive, too, has been insensitive on the issue. In January 2022 ABVA filed an RTI application (scanned copy reproduced below) with the prison authorities at Tihar jail to enquire if prisoners have access to condoms within the jail premises.

  

A scanned copy of the reply received is reproduced below. The answer is NO.

So nothing has changed at the ground level even after the 2018 judgement. Ashley Tellis had prophesized this scenario right then that nothing will change at the ground level even after this judgement. On 6^th September, 2018 at 5.13 p.m. Ashley had opined:

 “I don’t think there will be any actual change on the ground.”

 He was right on the dot.

Read also:

Inmate alleges sodomy, Tihar starts probe

No Army Veteran Dares To Publish How Rulers ‘Ambushed’ Indian Army From Preventing 1984 Sikh Genocide

 

I salute the veterans who recently dared to write to the President and Prime Minister of India regarding “open call of the genocide of Indian Muslims”; their letter also mentions targeting of other minorities like Christians, Dalits and Sikhs. These brave soldiers and other eminent personalities have written exactly what needed to be said to the powers that be – and at a considerable risk to themselves and their families.

Equally true, even 37 years after the 1984 Sikh genocide, no veteran – with a ring side view – has shown the courage and honesty to publish a book on how the services of Army were called in late during November 1984; how their deployment was delayed; what pressures were put on the soldiers to bid their time on the streets; and at what level in army hierarchy were obstacles created by the political masters of the day. These and other related questions beg an answer; more so because there has been no real reconciliation and peace building process involving the victim community. Not even a formal proper apology has been forthcoming – Manmohan Singh’s utterances in 2004 in Parliament 20 years after the genocide notwithstanding. He appears to have been outsourced to do the most minimal by the remnants of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

The Indian Armed Forces has 1455550 active personnel and 1155000 reserve personnel (Wiki). Besides there are about 2.6 million ex-servicemen. (Wiki) Yet not one has had his/her conscience pricked over this hidden conspiracy of the then rulers. What about the debt the Indian Army owes to posterity? It could take a cue from Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah’s memoirs: “The Sarkari Mussalman: The Life and Travails of a Soldier Educationist” released belatedly in 2018 – but nevertheless at least released. This book throws new light on the delay in deployment of the Army during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. Zameer was Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army at that time.

Zameer got a chance to document the events leading to the pogrom. He wrote about Ahmedabad being aflame; fires burning all across the city; about lack of vehicles and logistic support provided; rampaging mobs and police standing as mute spectators; delayed availability of transport, maps, police guides and magistrates; crucial hours lost; hundreds of soldiers and officers witnessing all this; and the official war diaries which had documented the same.

Irrespective of the time elapsed truth must come out. A similar book by a veteran on the 1984 Sikh genocide would be a step towards truth and reconciliation for the Sikh community. Justice of course is too much to hope for!

I do hope that such a book sees the light of the day before I – an Indian first and then a Sikh – exit this world.

P.S.: I have gone through the author background of 21 books written around 1984 violence against Sikhs; if any book written by a veteran has escaped my attention I apologize in advance.

[P.S. Sahni has worked amongst the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh violence along with a group of professionals for 26 months continuously from the first week of November 1984 onwards in a non-funded, non-party way. Also see by the same author: State Sponsored Terrorism Against Sikhs In November 1984 & The Role Of Peace Warriors:Lessons For The Indian Army]

First published on 7/1/2022 @ https://countercurrents.org/2022/01/no-army-veteran-dares-to-publish-how-rulers-ambushed-indian-army-from-preventing-1984-sikh-genocide/

Middle Class Hindus Need To Speak Up Even As Fringe Elements Call The Shots

 

Presently India is fast galloping towards a fascist Hindu state. The Muslim, Sikh, Christian minorities as also the Tribals and Dalits in India are facing threats to their very existence and don’t feel safe anymore.

The dilemma in which middle class Hindus find themselves today is no different from the predicament faced by the same class of Sikhs during the height of militancy in Punjab in 1980s when demand for a theocratic state pushed aside urge for a genuine Federal setup. The Sikh professionals, retired and serving army personnel, religious/spiritual leaders, politicians and other opinion makers were afraid to take a public stance on the issue. True, there were exceptions and some of them paid with their lives. The Sikh community as a whole got labelled as ‘Khalistanis’ by the corporate press leading to its alienation. In a few instances Hindus were selectively targeted by the militants in Punjab. It resulted in simmering anger in the majority community all over India. This got capitalized by the political class to consolidate majority community votes. Rajiv Gandhi government got elected with over 400 seats in parliament. The Sikhs paid a heavy price by way of Operation Blue Star and genocide of Sikhs in 1984 – a term used by the Delhi High Court in its judgement sentencing senior Indian National Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment.

Indeed there is a lesson to be learnt from the silence of the opinion makers amongst the Sikh community in 1980s. Even though the vast majority of Hindus are peace loving and tolerant; but their failure to take a stance on the process of converting India into a theocratic state needs to be reversed. The opinion makers amongst the majority community will have to stick their necks out. Also, its high time ordinary members of this community muse over the adage:

“Is Chuppi Ko Todo” (Break this silence).

[P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal are concerned citizens of India.]

First published: https://countercurrents.org/2022/01/middle-class-hindus-need-to-speak-up-even-as-fringe-elements-call-the-shots/

Also at: http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=113048

‘Toofan Aur Deeya’ (Storm and Lamp) – Why Countercurrents should not get extinguished

Binu Mathew, the editor of Countercurrents.org and the editorial team have been working selflessly with minimal funds and accepting no advertisements. Besides CC abhors foreign institutional funding, corporate funding or government aid. It has been in existence for about two decades and standing on the side of the people and taking an anti-establishment stance. To that extent it is like a lamp pitched against the storm, thus far not extinguished.

It is amazing that with the sort of authors Countercurrents is able to attract, Binu still has to beg to collect one million rupees to run the web portal. All around one sees heavily funded NGOs taking centre stage in the name of civil society. I find it shocking that there are well funded centers which finance and file public interest litigations in India. PIL has become an industry! All through one had felt that local resources and local human power should be utilized for any campaign/movement. In fact funding (both foreign as well as governmental) is principally responsible for subverting/hijacking peoples’ campaigns and movements globally. This pattern came into existence in India after Mrs. Gandhi’s Internal Emergency period. She realized that the best way to keep activists at bay is to get them hooked on to funded work so that protest politics withers away. Which it has. The radicalism projected in the articles carried by CC is not matched by the liberal heartedness in ensuring that funds for CC get collected without much fuss.

In a very humble way we opted for the non-funded route over the last four decades. For this reason we would like to see that CC continues to function. We see CC as a poor man’s EPW. True it is pitted against journals which receive huge funds annually for their existence. Most progressive journals online with radical editors I personally know for forty years are receiving crores of rupees from the corporate sector. CC has to compete and outwit these journals even as it fights an emerging Hindu Rashtra/fascism in India. It reminds one of the title song of the Hindi film ‘Toofan Aur Deeya’ viz ‘nirbal ki ladai balwaan se’ soulfully rendered by the inimitable Manna De, which recurs several times during the film highlighting the exigent situation the protagonist is faced with. The song conveys the sublime message of hope and belief that with determination and unstinting efforts no adversity is impossible to overcome.

You can support Countercurrents here https://countercurrents.org/subscription/

[P.S. Sahni is a member of AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan and PIL Watch Group. Both groups are non-funded.)

Vaccine Hesitancy or Resistance?

 by

P. S. Sahni

• Ever since COVID-19 pandemic appeared, the year 2020 saw advocates of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) vending it as a preventive and later curative medicine for Coronavirus infection. The Indian Government ‘gifted’ HCQ to sixty odd countries. Subsequent research found the drug to be useless.
• Till date no curative medicine has been discovered. Whatever treatment is given in clinics/hospitals/ICUs qualifies only to be symptomatic management.
• The year 2021 saw experts propagate COVID-19 vaccine as a mantra to end the pandemic. The experts emphasized that if 70% of population in a country is fully vaccinated, the rest of 30% will escape infection due to the ‘herd immunity’.
• Recent developments indicate that developed countries in Europe; the USA – where about 70% population has been fully vaccinated – are seeing increase of cases often exponentially. Whither herd immunity? India with only 30% fully vaccinated people is seeing decreasing number of cases.
• More people have died due to COVID-19 in USA for instance in 2021 than in 2020 – the year when vaccine was not even in existence.
• Throughout 2021 there have been worldwide protests against compulsory vaccination seen in USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia e.g. India (Nagaland) and Africa e.g. Morocco.
• Everywhere the protesters have been dubbed as vaccine hesitant. No attempt has been made to enter into a meaningful dialogue with the protesters. The judiciary – in many countries as well as the European Court of Human Rights – is seen to have aligned itself with the political class, corporate press, drug industry and international medical establishment (WHO). Dissent is being stifled.
• People with conscientious objection to compulsory COVID-19 vaccination have no redress. Under the garb of COVID-19 democratic, constitutional, legal and human rights of citizens of the world are being buried six fathoms deep.

[P. S. Sahni is a member of AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) and has worked in six epidemics/infectious diseases – Cholera (1971) West Bengal, bordering Bangladesh; Small Pox Eradication Program (1974) Bihar; Leprosy (1984-89); Cholera (1988) Delhi; Plague (1994) Delhi; HIV/AIDS (1988 onwards).

He has stopped using the prefix Dr. with his name in a personal, principled protest against the ‘sarkari’ (read ‘durbari’) medical experts; a section of bureaucracy and politicians of all hues (opposition as well as ruling party) against COVID-19 management].

Email: aidsbhedbhavvirodhiandolan@gmail.com]

First published in Countercurrents.org on 02.12.2021. 

See link: https://countercurrents.org/2021/12/vaccine-hesitancy-or-resistance/

Less than Gay ( Draft 2nd edition, November 2021)

Thirty years after the publication of ‘Less than Gay’ in November 1991, its 2^nd edition (draft) is being carried on ABVA’s blog today viz 21 November 2021.

See link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19mELphevasPUOs7KfG3q6ESiFZPt3lC6/view?usp=sharing

Note for Interns/ Researchers/ Authors/ Writers / Film-makers

 

PHILOSOPHY AT ABVA

 

ABVA members numbering around 18 to 24 since its inception in 1988 volunteered to go and work with/learn from communities viz commercial sex  workers; professional blood donors; drug abusers; gay community. The enhanced consciousness thus gained is shared with others through citizens’ reports; petitions in court and parliament; engaging with bureaucrat and ministers; protest actions. Thus we learn from the communities and spread the message to the ‘outside’ world. All our reports have been prized between Rs. 5/- to Rs. 30/-. Lastly whatever we have to share with everyone is put on the ABVA’s blog which is constantly updated. Photographs, reports etc cannot be republished without explicit written permission from ABVA.

Lakhbir Singh’s Murder Notwithstanding – A Wake-up Call for the Sikh Community

 by P. S. Sahni

Thank you Vidya Bhushan Rawat for mincing no words in your piece “Sacrilege or blasphemy: The dirty attempt to cover up the caste prejudices against Dalits.” The underbelly of a progressive community stands exposed. It is a wake-up call for the Sikh community. The deathly silence of the Sikh leadership in not unequivocally condemning the ghastly murder is reminiscent of the silence by the Sikh intellectuals and senior retired army officials based in Delhi over the selective killings of minority (Hindu) community members in Punjab during the turbulent 1990s.

When I read Rawat’s piece the images which crossed my mind was the burning alive of Sikhs in 1984 in Delhi and northern India. Those images were no different from the image which get conjured up of butchering of a Dalit, Lakhbir Singh.

I am reproducing the comment (slightly edited) which I had sent to CC in response to Rawat’s piece. The left of the centre activists bends over backwards for rights of religious minorities; but are loathe to condemn their fault lines. (quote)

“Vidya Bhushan Rawat’s piece is an honest, courageous and an eye-opening one for Sikh community in particular and rest of the Indians in general…

During my medical student years in Delhi there used to be 150 students in the MBBS class in 1969; when attendance would be taken and names called out e.g. that of C.S. Kain, another student a Jat Sikh would yell out: “Scheduled Caste Hai”; when Sadia Din’s name would be called out the same gentleman would shout “gone to Pakistan”. No student or professor ever raised objection! Thus began my exposure to caste and communal bias; and also the anti-Pakistan feelings.

Reforms in the Sikh community would have to come primarily from within keeping the following in mind:

• The Mazhabi Sikhs – untouchables – (Scheduled Castes) live in separate clusters in villages in Punjab; are forced to live in less desirable areas in the village.
• This community accounts for 32% of population in Punjab as per 2011 Census.
• Only 3.5% of private farmland belongs to Dalits as per Agriculture Census of 2015-16.
• The Mazhabi Sikhs cannot use Gurudwaras frequented by higher caste Sikhs and
• They must use special cremation grounds.
• The Shiromani Akali Dal, a religio-political party founded in 1920 is dominated by Jat Sikhs. The SGPC (Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee) is Jat controlled.
• The British Raj system of land allocation in Punjab worked against the Mazhabis. The Jats received most of the 4,000,000 acres that became available between 1885 and 1940 while outcastes were excluded entirely. Thus the relationship of a Jat Sikh and a Mazhabi is invariably that of a farmer and landless labourer.
• Marriages between Jats and untouchables does not even enter one’s mind since in very few reported cases beheading of such couples follows suit.
• Such is the environment created by casteism that Kanshi Ram; Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Mayawati; Dr. B. R. Ambedkar opted to work outside of Punjab.”

Guru Nanak the founder of Sikhism had the courage and – if I may dare say the little space/freedom to mock at Brahminism over five centuries earlier. Such space should accrue for all times to come to those who interpret/analyze Holy Scriptures differently without disrespecting the holy books. Tolerance of diverse views would result in peaceful coexistence.

First Published in Countercurrents.org on 27.10.2021. 

See link: https://countercurrents.org/2021/10/lakhbir-singhs-murder-notwithstanding-a-wake-up-call-for-the-sikh-community/

THE STRUGGLE WILL CONTINUE TILL PARLIAMENT DEBATES - NAY CONCEDES - THE GAY MANIFESTO, 1991

 

This document titled The Struggle Will Continue Till Parliament Debates – Nay Concedes – The Gay Manifesto, 1991 New Delhi, India stresses that by way of partial repeal of Section 377, IPC, the apex court has merely thrown crumbs at the sexual minority community. Meaningful liberation will come if the whole section is repealed in toto and the Gay Manifesto conceded.