Day: September 11, 2012

MNS: NEZCC will organise North East Women Writers Meet on 14 -15 September 2012 at NEZCC, Dimapur in association with the Nagaland Page. This Women Writers Meet is being organized as part of the ongoing Silver Jubilee Celebrations of NEZCC. The broad theme of the Literary Meet which will be attended by eminent Women Writers of North Eastern States including Sikkim will be “Shared Experiences” and similarities that finds voice in the Women’s writing in the North East.
The meeting will bring together myriad collection of women writers of North East representing many communities, culture, traditions, religion and value system. The effort will be to bring out the commonalties and thread of similarities among the experiences of North Eastern Women despite the diversity of the region.
The main aim of the meet is to bring the North East Women closer through face to face interaction to share the experiences of the living, giving and loving despite many differences. The meet will also attempt to provide a platform for interaction with publishers, young women writers and expose them to the work of Literature and its nuances.
The lists of invitees include prominent writers from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and the host State of Nagaland. Prominent National Publishers like National Book Trust (NBT), Zubaan and Heritage Publishing (Nagaland), as well as UN Women and other NGOs, will participate in the meet.
It is hoped that the meet would provide a platform for women writers of the region and through their interaction will forge a strong friendship that will lead to better understanding of cultural diversity in India and bring about unity through culture.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/ne-women-writers-meet/

New Delhi, Sept 11(ANI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday urged media not to overstep its ‘lakshman rekha,’ so as to ensure a fair trial to the accused and honour his/ her right to defence, and said the postponement of publication of trial court proceedings could be ordered by the apex court or any high court only for a short duration, without infringing upon the contents of the report ordered to be published later.
Passing a constitutional principle to the effect, a five-judge bench headed by Chief justice S.H. Kapadia and comprising of Justices D.K. Jain, S.S. Nijjar, Ranjana Prakash Desai and J.S. Khehar observed that media’s right to freedom of expression was not an absolute right, and the journalists should not cross their ‘lakshman rekha’ so as to prevent contempt charges.
The apex court however stopped short of framing broad guidelines for reporting sub-judice matters, saying it cannot be done “across the board.”

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/do-not-cross-your-lakshman-rekha-sc-tells-media/

Guwahati/New Delhi, Sep 11 (ANI): The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) while releasing its report, ‘Assam Riots: Preventable but not prevented’, today demanded that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh order an inquiry “into the refusal by the army to be deployed in the riot affected areas, fix the responsibility and take necessary measures including disciplinary action for criminal dereliction of duty by the army.
The ACHR recommended development of the Standard Operating Procedure to establish the supremacy of the Chief Minister as the Chairman of the Unified Command and deployment of the army on the Chief Minister’s instruction without any sanction from the Ministry of Defence in cases of riots or natural calamities.
“The Assam Government failed to deploy its 27,595 State Armed Police in the riot-affected areas. The Assam Government did not deploy the Central para-military forces at its command and instead waited for the Central Government to instruct West Bengal and Meghalaya to send para-military forces,” said Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
“The refusal of the army to be deployed directly led to increased loss of lives, displacement and consequent spread of hatred in the country. Both under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 wherein the Army operates in aid of civil power and the Sections 130 and 131 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the army is legally bound to obey the orders of the civilian authorities. By the time the army moved in on 25 July 2012, about 44 persons were killed and over 200,000 were displaced. There must be accountability for such criminal dereliction of duty,” added Chakma.
The ACHR’s report has been prepared following visit by researchers of the Asian Centre for Human Rights in the affected areas on 27-28 July 2012, followed by further visits on 11-12 August 2012 and 27-29 August 2012.
The ACHR stated that a number of anti-tribal secular activists from mainland India and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) have been distorting and misinterpreting facts that caused the riots and further interpret the riots along the communal lines.
The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in its report accused the Bodos of engineering the riots by stating that, “The Bodos need to be told firmly that they cannot under any circumstances engineer a mass exodus of non-Bodos. Nor would they ever get statehood this way.”
This statement of the NCM is self-contradictory as the NCM further stated, “Had prompt action been taken after two Muslims were killed on 6th July, or after four Bodos were snatched away from the hands of the police and killed by Muslims, this conflict could have been avoided.”
The ACHR lamented that a number of anti-tribal secular activists have described the riots as ethnic cleansing and the autonomous councils of the tribals as ‘incentivising ethnic cleansing’ when both the communities were affected in the riots and each time the riots started and spread because of the abysmal failure of the State to enforce the law.
The ACHR stated that communal tension has been building up in Assam since the controversial marriage of Congress MLA Rumi Nath to a Muslim in May 2012. A section of political leaders of the ruling Congress who have been leading ‘Oust Tarun Gogoi’ campaign exploited the situation to show the CM as an incapable administrator after the CM inducted his son as a member of the Congress Party in May 2012.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/achr-demands-inquiry-into-armys-role-during-assam-riots/

Guwahati/New Delhi, Sep 11 (ANI): The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) while releasing its report, ‘Assam Riots: Preventable but not prevented’, today demanded that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh order an inquiry “into the refusal by the army to be deployed in the riot affected areas, fix the responsibility and take necessary measures including disciplinary action for criminal dereliction of duty by the army.
The ACHR recommended development of the Standard Operating Procedure to establish the supremacy of the Chief Minister as the Chairman of the Unified Command and deployment of the army on the Chief Minister’s instruction without any sanction from the Ministry of Defence in cases of riots or natural calamities.
“The Assam Government failed to deploy its 27,595 State Armed Police in the riot-affected areas. The Assam Government did not deploy the Central para-military forces at its command and instead waited for the Central Government to instruct West Bengal and Meghalaya to send para-military forces,” said Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
“The refusal of the army to be deployed directly led to increased loss of lives, displacement and consequent spread of hatred in the country. Both under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 wherein the Army operates in aid of civil power and the Sections 130 and 131 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the army is legally bound to obey the orders of the civilian authorities. By the time the army moved in on 25 July 2012, about 44 persons were killed and over 200,000 were displaced. There must be accountability for such criminal dereliction of duty,” added Chakma.
The ACHR’s report has been prepared following visit by researchers of the Asian Centre for Human Rights in the affected areas on 27-28 July 2012, followed by further visits on 11-12 August 2012 and 27-29 August 2012.
The ACHR stated that a number of anti-tribal secular activists from mainland India and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) have been distorting and misinterpreting facts that caused the riots and further interpret the riots along the communal lines.
The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in its report accused the Bodos of engineering the riots by stating that, “The Bodos need to be told firmly that they cannot under any circumstances engineer a mass exodus of non-Bodos. Nor would they ever get statehood this way.”
This statement of the NCM is self-contradictory as the NCM further stated, “Had prompt action been taken after two Muslims were killed on 6th July, or after four Bodos were snatched away from the hands of the police and killed by Muslims, this conflict could have been avoided.”
The ACHR lamented that a number of anti-tribal secular activists have described the riots as ethnic cleansing and the autonomous councils of the tribals as ‘incentivising ethnic cleansing’ when both the communities were affected in the riots and each time the riots started and spread because of the abysmal failure of the State to enforce the law.
The ACHR stated that communal tension has been building up in Assam since the controversial marriage of Congress MLA Rumi Nath to a Muslim in May 2012. A section of political leaders of the ruling Congress who have been leading ‘Oust Tarun Gogoi’ campaign exploited the situation to show the CM as an incapable administrator after the CM inducted his son as a member of the Congress Party in May 2012.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/achr-demands-inquiry-into-armys-role-during-assam-riots/

Guwahati/New Delhi, Sep 11 (ANI): The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) while releasing its report, ‘Assam Riots: Preventable but not prevented’, today demanded that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh order an inquiry “into the refusal by the army to be deployed in the riot affected areas, fix the responsibility and take necessary measures including disciplinary action for criminal dereliction of duty by the army.
The ACHR recommended development of the Standard Operating Procedure to establish the supremacy of the Chief Minister as the Chairman of the Unified Command and deployment of the army on the Chief Minister’s instruction without any sanction from the Ministry of Defence in cases of riots or natural calamities.
“The Assam Government failed to deploy its 27,595 State Armed Police in the riot-affected areas. The Assam Government did not deploy the Central para-military forces at its command and instead waited for the Central Government to instruct West Bengal and Meghalaya to send para-military forces,” said Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
“The refusal of the army to be deployed directly led to increased loss of lives, displacement and consequent spread of hatred in the country. Both under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 wherein the Army operates in aid of civil power and the Sections 130 and 131 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the army is legally bound to obey the orders of the civilian authorities. By the time the army moved in on 25 July 2012, about 44 persons were killed and over 200,000 were displaced. There must be accountability for such criminal dereliction of duty,” added Chakma.
The ACHR’s report has been prepared following visit by researchers of the Asian Centre for Human Rights in the affected areas on 27-28 July 2012, followed by further visits on 11-12 August 2012 and 27-29 August 2012.
The ACHR stated that a number of anti-tribal secular activists from mainland India and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) have been distorting and misinterpreting facts that caused the riots and further interpret the riots along the communal lines.
The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in its report accused the Bodos of engineering the riots by stating that, “The Bodos need to be told firmly that they cannot under any circumstances engineer a mass exodus of non-Bodos. Nor would they ever get statehood this way.”
This statement of the NCM is self-contradictory as the NCM further stated, “Had prompt action been taken after two Muslims were killed on 6th July, or after four Bodos were snatched away from the hands of the police and killed by Muslims, this conflict could have been avoided.”
The ACHR lamented that a number of anti-tribal secular activists have described the riots as ethnic cleansing and the autonomous councils of the tribals as ‘incentivising ethnic cleansing’ when both the communities were affected in the riots and each time the riots started and spread because of the abysmal failure of the State to enforce the law.
The ACHR stated that communal tension has been building up in Assam since the controversial marriage of Congress MLA Rumi Nath to a Muslim in May 2012. A section of political leaders of the ruling Congress who have been leading ‘Oust Tarun Gogoi’ campaign exploited the situation to show the CM as an incapable administrator after the CM inducted his son as a member of the Congress Party in May 2012.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/achr-demands-inquiry-into-armys-role-during-assam-riots/

Mumbai, Sep 11 : Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil on Tuesday said injustice will not be meted out to
Kanpur-based cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, presently under judicial custody on charges of sedition.”The investigation is underway. We will do all that is possible as per the law and try to close this case as soon as possible. We don’t want to do injustice to anybody. The investigation officer will assess all the charges,” said Patil.
“It would not be appropriate for me to comment on this case as the investigation is on,” he added.
According to certain media reports, while the sedition charges against Trivedi will be dropped, he will still face the charges of insulting the national emblem.
Patil had earlier on Monday said there were no grounds for the police to arrest.
“The government is trying to get him released as soon as possible. I am personally looking into the matter. The police will surrender its custody,” he said.
India Against Corruption (IAC) member activist Arvind Kejriwal earlier in the day announced that he would begin a protest starting Saturday if all the charges levelled against the cartoonist were not dropped.
Kejriwal, who met the cartoonist presently in jail, said Trivedi is a patriot and is fighting against corruption for the last one year.
“We met Aseem now. I appreciate the courage of this boy. He can never be a traitor. He fought for Lokpal. Those who steal coal they are true patriots and those who fight against corruption are traitors. The nation will not tolerate the attitude of this government,” said Kejriwal.
“If all charges against Aseem Trivedi are not dropped by Friday and he is not release from jail then we will sit outside here from Saturday,” he added.
Kejriwal had earlier on Monday said it is wrong to send Trivedi to judicial custody.
The chairman of Press Council of India (PCI), Justice Markandey Katju, earlier defended Trivedi, saying the cartoonist has done nothing illegal. Justice Katju said these are occupational hazards, and politicians must learn to put up with them.
Trivedi, who was arrested by the Mumbai Police on Saturday for allegedly posting seditious and obscene content on his website which has now been blocked, has been sent to judicial custody till September 24. He was also charged under the IT Act and the 1971 National Emblem Act.
The cartoonist’s supporters, however, allege that his arrest is politically motivated and that he is being punished for backing Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign. The cartoons by Trivedi reportedly depicted Parliament as a commode and showed the national emblem with wolves instead of lions.
The police claimed that Trivedi had earlier exhibited similar cartoons at a rally organised by India Against Corruption (IAC) at the MMRDA grounds in Mumbai in December 2011.
The cartoonist’s supporters, however, allege that his arrest is politically motivated and that he is being punished for backing Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/injustice-will-not-be-meted-out-to-cartoonist-trivedi-r-r-patil/