He deserves all the fame and applause ❤️
An ambulance staff member in Chamba carried a 7-month-old baby through a dangerous stretch of falling stones, putting his own life at risk so the little one could make it to safety.
I write a letter to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, as the SCBA President and a concerned citizen, seeking judicial enquiry and immediate action on unprovoked police lathi-charge during the peaceful student demonstrations at Jantar Mantar and Sansad Marg, New Delhi.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
― Desmond Tutu, Ṅobel Laureate
These are not just students standing there, they are the future of our country. Tomorrow, they may wear the uniform of officers, serve the nation. Respect their voices, because the hands holding books today will carry India’s responsibility tomorrow, Jai Hind 🇮🇳💔
The first casualty of state brutality is the record/evidence of it.
Accountability is fixed on the basis of evidence, but evidence has a short shelf-life and sometimes crucial evidence is lost, which impedes justice and accountability.
It needs to be preserved.
So, if you were present yesterday, or know someone who was, at the protests, preserve evidence.
The following categories of evidence (photos, videos, audio) may be relevant, by way of example:
1)Personnel not displaying name plates, badge numbers, or unit identification.
2)Persons in plain clothes acting aggressively alongside uniformed personnel, or with their acquiescence.
3)Use of force, and force disproportionate to the occasion. For eg : Instances of force suddenly being used without warning and without any provocation.
4)Persons retreating, fallen, or offering no resistance - including women and young - and still being struck.
5)Refusal of medical aid, water, or obstruction of those rendering it.
6)Damage to public or private property, and who caused it.
7) Stones, damaged vehicles or other material, if any, where they lay, and when they first appeared.
8)Any identifying detail captured : vehicle numbers, unit markings, names.
9) Keep the record of medical injuries through photographs, hospital records, prescriptions, MLCs, etc. (If govt. hospitals/doctors are not entertaining you, go to a private doctor to preserve evidence of your injuries.)
10) Any property destroyed, phones seized/destroyed, spectacles, etc.
11) Whether people had a reasonable opportunity to disperse through safe exit routes, if and when a declaration was made.
12) Note the names and contact details of the people who would be willing to testify later, who were with you. Details of any police/medical calls made and response.
13) Preserve the original recording device and the original, unedited files. Also, maintain secure backups in more than one location.
Note: Don't just rely on evidence available on social media handles, as it may expire or may be taken-down/not preserved.
Remember, authentic evidence is what finally leads to Truth and Justice.
Courage:
The half-submerged tribal women of MP who lay on pyres and stood beneath nooses,
just to save their rivers, their forests, and their land.
The thousands who marched yesterday in Delhi, asking for accountability.
The girl from Bihar who boarded a crowded general-compartment of a train with 20 rupees in her pocket because she thought showing up matters.
The journalist who ran, coughed, wiped the tear gas off her eyes, and kept reporting.
The young girl, under a rain of batons, asked the police, "Am I not like your child?”
The labourer who sat in solidarity, very aware of the day’s wages he is going to lose.
The young doctors who dressed wounds while being beaten up themselves.
The rickshaw driver who ferried students to the protest for free.
The blind man who couldn’t see the crowd but handed water bottles to everyone.
The strangers who anonymously sent food and the volunteers who served.
The boy from MP, who brought peanuts and an onion in a tiffin box
to a protest that met with batons and tear gas.
The brave student who after being struck on the shin with a baton, asked for another blow.
Those who stood, when standing came at a price.
When overcome by fear, courage was the only option.
History will remember those who looked at a nailed baton in the eye and did not flinch.
Te remind us that our nation was, is and will forever be, of the people.
The idea of India is dying a slow death, being sold to the highest bidder, with the agencies meant to protect the people acting as middlemen in the largest sale of a populace in history…
@dhrumil_soni@sanjayuvacha Isn’t that what a ruler is supposed to do? Use whatever resources he has for his best, or do you expect a ruler to do everything on his own. The current Supreme ruler could learn a bit from his fellow illiterate.