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Letters

Professors Emeritus
It is now known that twelve professors emeritus or emerita of JNU have been asked for their CVs so that the university may decide whether or not to permit them to retain their status. These are people who have been honoured by the university. They are no longer employees who may be dismissed. JNU pays them to salaries. There can be nothing in the CV of a retired teacher which constitues grounds for dismissal. How would the redoubtable Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar react if someone were to command that the CV of Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar be evaluated to determine whether the appellation "Guru" be withdrawn? The man earned the title by teaching zoology at BHU for three years.
Mukul Dube, Delhi

Jatindra Nath Das
90 years ago, one of our greatest freedom fighters Jatindra Nath Das breathed his last on September 13 after fasting for 63 days for protecting the rights of political prisoners. Earlier he had gone on another long fast at Mymensingh Jail for the same cause. His fasts had a very great impact on people and millions of them had gathered in various parts of the country to pay homage to him. At the time of his martyrdom his age was only 25. Ninety years later his memory is still cherished by a large number of people but to some extent it is also true that such memories are fading from the minds of people. Hence it will be very appropriate if his death anniversary is observed every year as the Justice for Political Prisoners Day.
Bharat Dogra, Delhi

Romilla Thapar's CV for "Re-evaluation"
"As per the ordinance, the university is required to write to all those who have attained the age of 75 years to know their availability and their willingness to continue their association with the university."
This is how the JNU administration tries to explain away its demand that Professor Emerita Romila Thapar send her CV for "re-evaluation".
Who is to carry out this re-evaluation? A two-member committee of Shri Dinanath Batra and Shri Mohan Bhagwat? Anyone with half a brain can see that all that is needed is a letter to Prof. Thapar asking about her availability and her willingness to continue her association with JNU.
Mukul Dube, New Delhi

Niyamgiri under Fire
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organizations (CDRO) severely condemns the death of Patnaik Harijan—a 45-year-old undertrial in Kalahandi district of Odisha on August 23, 2019. The deceased, a daily wage labourer from Rengapalli village of Lanjigarh block, was declared dead at VIMSAR, Burla where he was admitted by the Bhawanipatna jail authorities in critical condition. He had been in prison for four months. He is survived by five daughters and his wife. She collapsed immediately upon getting the news of his death and was hospitalised. Villagers began gathering in angry protest. But the administration-imposed Section 144 in the area around the refinery plant when his body was brought to the village. Both his arrest and his death have caused unimaginable distress to the family also because he was the sole earning member of his family. The entire area is grieving for his death.

CDRO demands a judicial probe into the custodial death of the undertrial prisoner caused by sheer medical negligence. While in prison, his family or friends were not informed of his illness or his being taken to the hospital. This makes the circumstances of his illness and subsequent death even more suspicious.

CDRO had recently probed into the random arrests and repression of people in villages around the Vedanta Aluminium Ltd refinery plant in Lanjigarh ever since the death of a contract worker named Dani Batra who succumbed to injuries inflicted by a vicious lathi charge by the Odisha Industrial Security Force on March 18, 2019 at the gates of the refinery plant. In the same set of incidents, a constable of OISF, Sujit Minz, also lost his life. Instead of conducting a thorough probe into the entire set of events, the police and administration unleashed terror in arresting people allegedly involved in the death of the constable only. The FIR that named 22 persons and 300 others led to people fleeing into the mountain for weeks and months under apprehension of being arrested. Patnaik Harijan, who died in jail custody on August 23, was one of the twenty-nine people arrested. They had been charged under grievous offences: IPC sections 147, 148, 149, 323, 325, 436, 302 and 506 and under the Arms Act.

The joint report by CDRO and GASS (Odisha) released on August 18, 2019 has urged the Odisha government to put an end to the increasing intimidation, random arrests and continuous surveillance by CRPF forces. On July 24, five Dongria Kondh members of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS) were arrested: Jilu Majhi, Tunguru Majhi, Range Majhi, Salpu Majhi and Patra Majhi. They were implicated in an earlier case in the year 2008-2009. On 15 May, Dodi Kadraka—a youth leader of the NSS—was arrested followed by the arrest of Sikunu Sikaka. The latter was referred to as a hard-core Maoist by the police. In the name of hunting down Maoists, the Odisha government dithers from entering into any dialogue with the local people and their just and democratic demands as assured by the Constitution and the Gram Sabha verdict of 2013.

Indeed, it is the biggest shame that those who seek to protect the grand Niyamgiri mountain and the entire  eco-system which is tied to their lives, livelihood, faith and culture are being penalized through state terror and suffer imprisonment. On the other hand, the ecological damage done by Vedanta is being overlooked and local villagers suffering the pollution caused by the plant are hounded by the administration under false cases and they languish in jail.

CDRO urgently demands that the Odisha government should immediately:
l    Conduct a judicial enquiry into the death of Patnaik Harijan and take action against the jail authorities.
l    Give cash compensation of Rs 50 lakhs to the family of Patnaik Harijan.
l    Withdraw all cases against those who are still in jail.
l    Withdraw all CRPF forces from the entire Niyamgiri region.
l    Implement the 2013 Gram Sabha resolution to protect the Niyamgiri mountain.
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organizations (CDRO)
August 25, 2019

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Frontier
Vol. 52, No. 12, Sep 22 - 28, 2019