An evening at Action 2007 - 27th March 2007

A day at Action 2007

For those who don't know what Action 2007 is, here is a good link, taken from their official site
. Basically it is a common platform of many people's movements from across the country who have started an indefinite struggle in Delhi starting from 19th March 2007 to fulfil their objectives. For the sake of giving updates, over 60 activists from the this gathering were arrested on 22nd March by the police. Their fault? They had sought an appointment with the Planning Commission and didn't get it ... and they were peacefully demonstrating in front of the planning commission building. That's when the police arrested them, in the process manhandling several, even about 50 women. The arrested were transferred to Tihar Jail. The charges under which they were booked included rioting and violation of act 144. For some people like Medhadidi, old charges were brought up again. It was good that many people all over the city reacted promptly at this outrageous incident, and most of the people were freed today.

Today was the last day of the Jan Sansad. There were some very informative and to-the-point presentations made by people from Orissa, and also by the people from Manipur (there were also other sessions going on before we arrived). The theme was state militarisation and repression. An audience comprising of ordinary people struggling for years against adversity (brought on by the administration) listened with rapt attention to the description of how the Armed Forces Special Powers Act had been making life unbearable in Manipur (here is a good site on this struggle). After the Jan Sansad was over, Anand bhai announced the good news that the arrested people were being released on bail and that they would be welcomed by all present with red handkerchiefs.

Here's a very short video of what we saw. In the background you can hear the beautiful song 'Jaan ne ka Haq' being sung.

AID Kolkata puts up a stall at Jadavpur University on 26th and 27th February

AID Kolkata chapter put up a stall at the film festival Juxtapose arranged by the arts students' union FAS (Forum for Arts Students) at the Vivekananda Hall in Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Sonia, who is volunteering with AID San Diego, helped us immensely. She, along with Bodhisattwa, Indraneel and Debabrata managed the stall. Rahul, Ritesh, Juhita, Sombodhi and Satabdi also helped them to set up the stall and manage it. Malay Bhattacharya from West Bengal RTI Manch visited our stall on the second day. We put up 5 awareness posters, 3 on Bhopal and 2 on RTI. We also had AID Kolkata pamphlets, which were distributed by the FAS volunteers to the people who were coming to watch the movies. FAS also kept announcing about AID in between the film screenings.

We had khadi clothes, pottery items from ARTRC, AID Orissa, t-shirts from Folkmart, a few notebooks made by DRCSC (Development Research Communication Services Centre) - an NGO operating in West Bengal. We also had a few calendars on Singur made by Kolkata Nagarik Manch, books and calendars on the struggle of Mehdiganj people. Our main aim was to spread the word about AID and various issues on which we are working.

For more photos, visit the AID Gallery