[sacw] S A A N Post | 11 August 00

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Thu, 10 Aug 2000 21:50:15 +0200


llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
South Asians Against Nukes Post
11 August 2000
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

#1. India: Hiroshima Day & cloth banner campaign in Bombay
#2. India: Another report on Hiroshima Day in Bombay
#3. India: Calcutta / Violent Attack on Anti-Nuclear Rally!
--------------------------------------------

#1.

(Recieved from Anand Patwardhan)

August 9, Bombay

In commemoration of Nagasaki Day the citizens committee of Bombay held up
large white cloth banners at Churchgate station on which passers by were
invited to write messages of peace or just sign their names. The word
"peace" in various languages had already been painted on at the centre of
each banner.

The action was held between 5 pm and 6.30 pm and the response from
commuters rushing home from work was overwhelming. Not only did they sign
and write messages but many asked for our contact numbers so they could
keep in touch with future activities. When it began raining we moved from
outside the station entrance, to carry on inside the station. Here station
officials asked us to desist but the public intervened saying that our
cause was too great to be constrained by station rules, at which we were
allowed to continue.

anand
for, the citizens committee to commemorate hiroshima and nagasaki
________

#2.

(Recieved from Sukla Sen)

Mumbai (Bombay) Observes Nagasaki Day

On 9th August, the Nagasaki Day, this year the peace activists in Mumbai,
the commercial capital of India, assembled in large number at the heart of
the downtown close to the Churchgate railway station in the late afternoon.
They displayed a number of posters and placards, rich in textual and
graphical contents conveying messages of peace, the determination to end
war and attain a nuclear weapon-free world. Members of the public returning
home at the of a busy day were engaged in lively discussions around the
theme of nuclear weapon, its utterly demonic nature as demonstrated in
Hiroshima, on 6th August, 1945, and Nagasaki, three days thereafter, and
the urgency to build a mass movement to put a decisive end to this menace
particularly against the backdrop of the nuclear explosions carried out by
the Indian state in May, 1998 to be followed by retaliatory blasts by the
neighbouring Pakistan in a fortnight's time. The grave dangers inherent in
the National Missile Defence and Theatre Missile Defence systems being
developed by the USA were also touched upon.

The high point of the event was, however, the campaign to obtain colourful
signatures from the passersby on one metre wide khadi cloth banners bearing
the central message of "Peace" in Hindi, English, Urdu and Japanese.
Members of the public enthusiastically came forward to endorse the call for
"Peace". Many of them added messages of their own. The Japanese priest in
traditional attire continuously beating his gong as a part of the milieu
added a measure of somberness to the whole event.

At the end of the day the activists returned home infused with new energy
derived from the lively engagement and creative interaction with common
people participating in the programme. Even intermittent light showers
failed to dampen their spirit.

The signed banners will be displayed on 13th November this year in Delhi,
the national capital, at the end of an anti-nuke all-national convention
along with similar banners brought from different corners of the country
and stitched together in a show of grand solidarity for the cause of
"Peace".

________

#3.

[South Asians Against Nukes doesnt endorse the view in the below article
that India's organised left party the CPM doesnt support the anti nuclear
movement in India; Many comrades from CPM have lent their weight behind
anti nuclear efforts out of deep politcial commitment & without any
ulterior intent and it is sincerely hoped that they will take up the
unfortunate violent attack on the anti nuclear rally in Calcutta. Should
any CPM comrades want to respond to the message below their views would be
shared on this list. ]

----

Violent Attack on Anti-Nuclear Rally!
Police Beat Up, Arrest Activists, Damage Material!

by Kunal Chattopadhyay

On 9th August 2000, a demonstration had been called by 77 organisations to
commemorate Nagasaki Day, and to protest against Nuclear weapons as well
as nuclear power plants. This year, this second issue was a live one,
because the government of west Bengal proposes to set up a nuclear power
plant in the sunderbans. Around a thousand persons came to the
demonstration, making it a relatively small one, compared to the 20,000
strong who had responded to the call of roughly the same combination in
1998. Of course, at that time, after Pokharan and Chagai, there had been a
greater awareness, which seems to have slipped since then. In addition,
this year there was a delay in taking up the initiative so that
ultimately, there was barely a fortnight's preparation time.

Nonetheless, it was a significant turn out, for two reasons. First, after
some initial hesitations on the part of some of the organisations, it was
agreed that this would be a non-sectarian demonstration, in which all
organisations would have the right to be present with their banners. The
range of organisations signing the call for the demonstration, and of
those actually participating, was truly impressive, since they included
political formations, science associations, women's organisations, trade
unions, cultural associations, human rights organisations, etc. Quite a
number of school children were present, while impressive tableaux on
trucks were an added attraction.

The demonstration was flagged off from Sealdah Station, and made its way
through Mahatma Gandhi Road, College Street, and on to the vicinity of
Metro Cinema, where it had been planned to hold a meeting. From the
beginning, there was police provocation. Twice, the police interrupted the
demonstration in the name of allowing traffic to pass. This is never done,
and clearly, it was meant as bait, expecting that the demonstrators would
protest, get into scuffles and thereby provide formal justification for
police action. Since this was not done, the police next denied permission
to halt opposite the Metro cinema. When this too was complied with, and a
halt made quite a distance ahead, close to the crossing of J.L.Nehru Road
and Lindsay Street, the police again intervened, announcing that since the
demonstrators did not have permission to use a microphone. The response to
this was a short announcement that the police seemed bent on violating the
democratic rights of citizens, but in view of the previous decisions,
there would be no resistance, so the meeting would be ended. This refusal
to confront the police in a violent manner enraged the police, who had by
now swelled to close to 100 baton wielding, shield carrying men and a
dozen or so women. They suddenly set upon the leading truck, smashed the
microphone, tore up banners, and started arresting people. Sujato Bhadra,
former General Secretary of the Association for the Protection of
Democratic Rights, was brutally beaten up and only then taken into custody.
The police also chased people who had retreated close to 200-300 metres,
encircled some of them and arrested them. One of them, Ms. Anuradha Talwar
of Sramajeevi Mahila Samity, was pushed and prodded with sticks by seven
male police personnel, and then dragged to the police car, though she was
insisting that she should be arrested by a policewoman, and further, that
she would in that case not resist arrest, so that dragging her was not
necessary.

This was no spur of the moment action by local police. An Assistant
Commissioner and a Deputy Commissioner of police led the attacking forces.
Participants in the rally could also hear them talking to higher officers
on their walkie-talkies. And subsequently, senior police officers at the
Lal Bazar office (Calcutta Police Head Quarters) admitted that they were
acting under instructions.

To understand why this happened, it is necessary to reflect on a few
developments. In 1998, the ruling CPI(M) had initially been silent about
taking out any major anti-nuclear weapons march. When a large combination
got together, and it became evident that even many supporters of the Left
Front would be joining the 6th August 1998 demonstration, the CPI(M)
decided to take over the movement. They tried to dictate terms concerning
the slogans, the kind of (extremely bureaucratic) discipline they wanted
imposed, and this led to a split. Many well-meaning liberals endorsed the
CPI(M) call in the hope that at least it would bring together a bigger
force. The traditional anti-nuclear forces, by and large, insisted that
pluralism was the life-blood of the anti-nuclear movement. This led to the
smaller demonstration of 20,000 mentioned earlier (smaller, though, is a
relative term. No other city had a turn out of 20,000 -- in Delhi the
combined anti-nuclear ant left forces mobilising a little more than 5000).
The apprehension of the anti-nuclear forces was not unwarranted. The
CPI(M) leadership at no stage called for an outright rejection of the
nuclear weapons. For them, whose hand controlled the trigger was the
important question, as well as who was getting political mileage out of the
Pokharan tests. As a result, the rally of 200,000 organised by the CPI(M)
left no political memory of significance behind it. It turned into one
more of the rallies the CPI(M) organises to keep together its support
base. Worse, the political stance it adopted then opened the door for
gradual acceptance of nuclearisation later. The proposal for a nuclear
power plant in the Sunderbans is totally unacceptable. According to even
the official stand of the India government, the abundant supply of coal in
West Bengal means that no nuclear power plant is necessary in that
province. But a nuclear power plant means big money, and the n-plant lobby
is willing to keep powerful people happy to get its way. Further, the
CPI(M) ambiguous stand on nuclear weapons now allows it to turn a blind
eye to the fact that a power plant is at the same time an instrument to
make bomb-grade fissile material. Finally, because it clings on to
outmoded ideas of progress and development, it even rejects the views of
people like Sankar Kumar Sen, former Power Minister and electrical
engineering specialist, who argue against nuclear power plants anywhere in
the world. Instead, it is now the CPI(M)'s wish to set up the power plant
at any cost. It therefore wishes to pretend that only political opponents,
notably Maoists, are opposed to setting up of a nuclear power plant.
Consequently, the police informed the media that a handful of "Naxalites"
had been causing disruption and had been removed by the police. The
pro-nuclear sections of the media also lapped this up. And over the last
two decades, the Left Front has developed this particular justification
greatly (though it is now wearing thin in the face of massive brutality by
police and CPI(M) cadres alike), that all its political opponents use
violence, and can only be met with counter-violence.

Thus, the attempt is to brand the anti-nuclear movement as Maoist, though
out of the 77 initial signatories to the appeal, hardly 10% of the
organisations fall in that category. Indeed, many of the non-party
organisations initially had a hesitation about calling in political
organisations. The real situation is, as the press handout of the
organisers of the rally pointed out after the police attacks, that the
right to protest, to argue about the dangers of nuclear power and even to
point out how dangerous nuclear weapons are, seem to have been removed
from the constitutional right to freedom of thought and expression by a
government which is bent on promoting its agenda if necessary by
throttling democracy.

The organisers have called for a day of Condemnation on 11th August, when
every supporter of the movement will be asked to put on black badges. On
the 12th, there is to be a protest meeting at College Square.

For outstation supporters, we request that protest messages should be sent
to Jyoti Basu, CM, West Bengal (fax no. 033 -- 221-- 5480) and Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee, Home Minister (fax no. 033-221--5495). In both cases,
international fax numbers will be 91--33-- rather than 033. Solidasrity
merssages to the organisers can be sent at soma1kunal@c...

________

#3.