Mangalore, April 1: “We should gain inspiration from Irom Sharmila's non-violent struggle to fight against corruption, police brutality and all forms of draconian laws,” said activist G Rajshekhar.
He was addressing a public meet organised by Dakshina Kannada district committee of Social Democratic Party of India as part of its national campaign “Free the Innocent, Eradicate Corruption”, in front of the office of Deputy Commissioner here on Friday evening. Around 300 people participated in the meet preceded by a rally from the taluk office.
Rajshekhar said the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), against which, the Iron Lady of Manipur, has been continuing her unparalleled protest by fasting since past 11 years, is prevalent in different forms and different names in many parts of the country including Mangalore.
The AFSPA was passed in 1958 by an act of Parliament. It conferred special powers upon armed forces in allegedly "disturbed areas" in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. It was consequently extended to Jammu and Kashmir as The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 in July 1990. Hence, the security forces, in these areas, can "Fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law" or against "assembly of five or more persons..." It can arrest without a warrant and can also enter and search any premises to make arrests.
Rajshekhar pointed out that the police in the coastal districts of Karnataka are enjoying a power similar to that of AFSPA, as no one is there to question them if they arrest an innocent, torture him and put behind bars without any reason or allegation. “Though AFSPA does not apply to Karnataka, all the draconian aspects of this brutal law are in practice in this state too”, he added.
“Many people in this part of the country, especially Muslims have already experienced helplessly the brutality of this law” he said.
Popular Front of India's Karnataka State President Ilyas Mohammed Thumbey argued that terrorism in India became widespread only after the demolition of Babri Masjid.
He said: “Although now it is clear that several terrorist attacks in the country in the past decade including many of the bomb blasts in Karnataka are the conspiracy of 'saffron terrorists', thousands of innocent Muslim youth, including a considerable number of students, are rotting behind the bars and are subjected to brutal torture under the pretext of inquiry.”
On the contrary, the real accused of many bomb attacks are enjoying a star status in the country, he said referring to Colonel Purohit, Indresh Kumar, Pragya Singh and others.
SDPI State committee member Nirvanappa said a united struggle is the need of the hour to put an end to the “evil system”. “People from back ward classes, minority communities and Dalit should join their hands together to fight against corruption, casteism, communalism and all other evil practices,” he urged.
Bengaluru, Feb 14: After the swearing-in of ten former JDS and Congress MLAs, political boundaries seem to have become more fluid, with little clarity on who is on whose side. When Honnali BJP MLA Renukacharya visited senior Congressman DK Shivakumar at the latter’s residence, many eyebrows were raised over the reason behind the meeting. There was speculation over why Renukacharya would be meeting a man who is, in all likelihood, slated to be the next KPCC president.
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