From the Galician Committee of Support to the Paople’s War in India

(unofficial translation)

Lidia Senra, member of the European Parliament from Galician Left Alternative (GLE), presented a question to the European Commission about the situation of Professor GN Saibaba and the position of the EU on this matter, as well as the harassment on the well-known writer Arundhati Roy.

The Galician Committee of Support the People’s War in India appreciates the very positive attitude of the internationalist GLE representative Brussels.

Below an excerpt of the official statement by Lidia Senra:

This week GLA recorded a parliamentary question questioning the EU on their business partnerships with poor countries. The Indian Government, with which the EU maintains different trade agreements, is carrying forward since 2009 a military and paramilitary operation called Operation Green Hunt in the name of which is expelling and imprisoning in concentration camps the tribal people originating from this states rich of important natural resources. Multinationals companies calculate they would get profit for more than 80 million euros of they could exploit, without being bothered by the population, all these resources.

Dr. GN Saibaba, international activist for human rights, professor at the Ram Lal Anand College of Delhi University, publicly defended the human rights of dalits and adivasis and participated in campaigns against Operation Green Hunt. He suffers a 90% physical disability and is bound to a wheelchair but, as absurd as it may seem, he is accused to be “dreaded Maoist”. In 2014-2015 he has been jailed for 14 months while no evidence against him was provided. Released on bail on May 2015 due the dramatic worsening of his health in prison (paralysis of left side, severe damage to the heart, kidneys and spine), on December the High Court of Bombay ordered he was put in jail again, while filed a case against the well-known Indian writer Arundhati Roy for having written article “professor, prisoner” (Outlook Magazine, May 2015). The almost complete paralysis of Dr. GN Saibaba increases the complication from the harsh conditions of isolation to which it is subjected. It is feared his life is in danger.

Thus, Galician Left Alternative in Europe asks the Commission to consider how the Indian government is fulfilling the respect of human rights and promoting peace established as condition by the Strategic Cooperation Agreement EU-India and the Joint Action Plan; and we also want to know whether the EU is considering to question the Indian government about the case of Dr. Saibaba and Mrs. Roy.