[Reader-list] A Tale of Two Encounters: Statement by the Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: manisha sethi <manisha.sethy at gmail.com>


Date: Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 5:58 PM
Subject: A Tale of Two Encounters: Statement by the Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group
To: 


Jamia
Teachers Solidarity Group

 

A
Tale of Two Encounters: Dehradun and Batla House

 

Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Group extends
its heart-felt condolences to the family of Ranbir Singh, the youth who was
killed in a police encounter in Dehradun last week. This encounter again brings
to the fore the trigger happy ways of the Indian police who kill and torture
for medals and promotions. We demand exemplary punishment for the guilty
policemen. 

 

However, the manner in which the Indian
State and the mainstream political parties have responded to the encounter in
Dehradun is in striking contrast to the reaction to the shooting down of two
young men in Batla House in Delhi last September. Both encounters were followed
by mass anger and upsurge which spilled onto the streets of the capital cities
of Uttarakhand and the country. While the ‘secular’ Congress has put its weight
behind the agitation in Uttrakhand, joining the peoples’ demand for fair probe
and crying foul over human rights violation, the BJP not to be left behind in
the Human Rights race sent its emissary in the form of BJP President’s and
Ghaziabad MP’s son to the family of the slain youth to reassure them that the
probe into the encounter would be fair and independent, without the involvement
of the accused Dehradun Police. A CB-CID enquiry has already been ordered and
all police men involved in the shootout have been charged for murder. 

 

Recall now the jingoist hysteria created by
Congress and BJP alike, aided by a section of pliant media, in which all calls
for independent and impartial enquiry in the Batla House encounter were branded
as unpatriotic and downright insulting of the bravery of Special Cell cops.  The Congress, which today preens on the
retrieval of its minority vote, persistently bulldozed all demands for a probe
into the Batla House ‘encounter’. So much so, that even the simple, procedural
requirement for a magisterial enquiry was subverted through the Lieutenant
Governor, who refused to grant permission for an enquiry on flimsy grounds. The
post mortem reports of the deceased—the killed boys as well as Inspector
Sharma—have been accorded the status of State secret. 

 

So, what could be the reason for this
speedy demonstration of justice for Ranbir Singh, and the obstinate refusal to
concede to the widespread demand for an enquiry into the killings of Atif Ameen
and Mohammad Sajid? Except that Atif and Sajid fall in that unfortunate
category of ‘encounterables’—those whose killings can be justified, explained,
and remain unmourned by our society and polity. It is all right to snuff out
the lives of young men as long as they are drawn from a certain demographic and
reside in areas identified as ghettoes. What we are being told here is that Atifs
and Sajids cannot claim the framework of democratic rights—the only framework
that they must exist in is that of national security.  

 

JTSG reiterates its demand for a judicial
probe into the Batla House incident, and the application of the same standards
of justice for Atif and Sajid as those applied in the unfortunate and tragic
case of Ranbir Singh. 

 

Sd/

Manish Sethi and Adeel Mehdi for JTSG      
(9811625577 and 9990923027)



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