An Appeal to Readers and Members to send in their Comments, Suggestions and Ideas for making the PUCL Bulletin More Interactive
By V. Suresh, General Secretary, PUCL and Chief Editor, PUCL Bulletin, on behalf of the Editorial Board, PUCL Bulletin
Greetings from the Editorial Board, PUCL Bulletin
“Voting becomes fundamental to changing Governments and is also fundamental to bringing about a social transformation. The inarticulate right implied in this is the right to revolution. This extension is theoretical, and one need not fear the possibility unless governance degenerates” – K.G. Kannabiran, former National President, PUCL.
“Unless governance deteriorates,” Kannabiran’s prescient words written just before the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, is pregnant with meaning as the country prepares for the next round of general elections. Governance, in India, has not just failed and degenerated; it has collapsed. It does not matter which party is in power; most governments, whether in the states or in the centre, have uniformly and flagrantly exhibited their disregard for the rule of law and with impunity have set about looting and plundering the country’s resources. With impunity, the governments, and the mafia of corrupt and venal politician – bureaucrat – businessmen – goonda have launched a major offensive against the ordinary citizen, crushing them if they dared to protest or oppose them. On one hand we are witness to the era of the `mega scams’ – coal scam, the 2G scam, the CWG scam and the list is endless; on the other, we are also witnesses to the valiant battles of ordinary citizens across India, fighting for their right to life – to live in peace, safety and security – in the places they have been living; from the Dongria Konds of Niyamgiri (Odisha) to the coastal communities fighting the POSCO steel plant in Odisha; the villagers of Jaitapur in Maharashtra or Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu united by their fight against nuclear power plants, a thousand mutinies are being waged daily. Occasionally news about these heroic struggles filters to the national media; to be forgotten even before the ink on their newsprint has dried.
Unfortunately these issues – of life and death, of the type of development path our country has adopted, about increasing disparity between poor and rich, about the impunity of the policeman who daily harasses ordinary citizens – which are crucial to the lives of the ordinary citizen will hardly receive any attention as the major parties ready them for the electoral battle ahead.
So how can we in the PUCL make use of the election context to widen the debate and discourse on human rights? Is there a possibility that we, as ordinary citizens, can demand that all the political parties declare their position on safeguarding, protecting and expanding human rights – of the dalits, of landless labourers, of farmers and fishermen, of women, of tribals displaced by development projects, of the crores of defenceless, voiceless marginalised peoples of India?
Can we go to the citizens with the message that elections is much more than merely voting; that voting is just one step towards participation in democracy. And that demanding compliance with well-recognised human rights principles is an essential step towards reclaiming democracy.
These issues will not be raised by the mainstream political parties during the election campaign. They have no time or interest in these issues. We are already witnessing the electioneering being reduced to a fight between personalities, rather than a debate over the vision of a future egalitarian, inclusive, equitable, sustainable and human rights affirming democracy.
It is thus the responsibility and task of the human rights movement to utilise the context of general elections to forcefully raise these issues in the public domain. It is a daunting task. But let us take inspiration from the lakhs of ordinary citizens who during the December, 2013 Delhi Assembly elections taught the main political parties a lesson by voting against them and ensuring that they did not come back to power. The victory of the Aaam Aadmi Party is as much a victory of the ordinary citizen who has signaled that they are sick, tired and disenchanted with the mainstream political parties who have only given them corrupt bureaucracies and technocracies, anti-people administration, bad-governance and a brutal, police raj. The AAP success is both a symbol of hope as also an assertion of the coming of age of a younger generation willing to openly challenge and fight inequitable and status quo relations. The signs are clear – there is a younger generation wanting to be heard; waiting to assert themselves. It will be wise to reach out to this new, young citizen-force and to imbue them with a human rights consciousness so that they will be the future vanguards of the human rights movement.
Over the last 2 decades, PUCL units in different states like in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan etc have undertaken innovative and impactful ways of intervening during election processes to promote and safeguard human rights. In fact, the National PUCL unit in 1989 had come out with a `Charter of Demands’ of human rights demanding key policy interventions by the Central Government. These included that radio and TV institution should be put under control of autonomous, legally constituted agencies; repeal of draconian laws like the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and so on. PUCL Rajasthan has played a key role in monitoring elections and PUCL Tamil Nadu has worked with other organizations to constitute citizens committees to monitor elections and ensure compliance with election laws and other laws of the land by all participants in the election process. Thus, while PUCL itself does and will not endorse any political party or engage in campaigning or supporting any candidate, there are many ways by which PUCL can intervene from a human rights perspective. We invite our readers to share with us their experiences to ensure that election process was transparent, accountable and democratic.
Starting from this issue of the PUCL Bulletin, we plan to carry a few specially written articles on select human rights themes of topical interest. This issue focuses on the Central Monitoring System (CMS) a scary electronic eavesdropping programme launched by the Government of India similar to the PRISM programme of the US. Gautam Bhatia explains in simple language what the CMS implies for free speech in India. Readers may remember that PUCL had filed a PIL in the SC in November 2013 challenging sec. 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 which criminalizes even innocuous comments made in Facebook postings or email messages. Karuna Nundy has written a short summary of the key issues in the PUCL PIL for the benefit of readers and members.
We invite readers and members to send in their comments, suggestions and ideas for making the PUCL Bulleting more interactive and as a forum of exchange of views and ideas. We also request readers to suggest themes on which special articles could be requested by experts in the subjects.
V. Suresh, General Secretary, PUCL and Chief Editor, PUCL Bulletin, on behalf of the Editorial Board, PUCL Bulletin