On 14th June there was an altercation between a civic society group – Indian People’s Tribunal – and members of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Orissa. Members of the IPT have issued a statement that they were threatened with physical violence and molestation.

The Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights (IPT) has been traveling throughout the state as part of its investigations on communalism in Orissa. The primary investigations of the Tribunal took place from June 11-14, 2005.

While conducting a hearing with Hindu nationalist organizations on June 14th, at 11 am, at the Red Cross Bhavan in Bhubaneswar, Sangh Parivar members verbally attacked Tribunal members, made false, defamatory, and inflammatory statements, sought to seize information gathered during the investigations, and shouted threats, including the promise to rape attending female members of the tribunal.

The event began without incident. Invited representatives of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) came to offer testimonies. The first person to depose was Mr. Ramachandra Behera, a journalist representing the Media News Agency and also a supporter of the Bajrang Dal. Tribunal members had taken his consent for tape-recording the testimony. Sangh Parivar members Mr. Bansidhar Pradhan, Mrs. Padmaja and Ms. Mamta Mallik also deposed. During the depositions these persons received a fax from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Orissa. The fax was given to Tribunal members by Sangh Parivar members.

The fax made allegations against the Tribunal, its conduct, and against persons associated with it. Details of the altercations have been presented by the tribunal.

Members of VHP and Bajrang Dal then demanded that the tapes of the testimonies be returned, threatening violence if they were not. The members of IPT destroyed the tapes in the presence of the members of VHP and Bajrang Dal.

Later, members of Bajrang Dal and VHP became increasingly abusive and violent in their speech, shouting, "this is an IPT funded by the foreign funding agencies to tarnish the image of the Hindu Rashtra and we will rape those women". When the Tribunal staff was leaving, one of the Sangh Parivar members said that: "We will parade them naked". Ms. Mallik of the Sangh Parivar also forcibly took a picture on her mobile phone of Dr. Chatterji, saying that: "we will make sure that everybody knows your face". The Parivar members also took down the vehicle numbers of the Tribunal.

The Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights was constituted by a people's mandate in 1993 to investigate human rights violations and cases of environmental degradation. The IPT is particularly concerned about cases that affect the lives and livelihood of a vast majority of urban and rural poor. The IPT process endeavours to inquire into the exact nature of a problem, and provide a true picture by providing a space for all the concerned parties to present their views.

The Orissa Tribunal on Communalism is headed by Justice K.K. Usha, Former Chief Justice, Kerala High Court, and Justice R.A. Mehta, Former Acting Chief Justice, Gujarat High Court, and Former Director, Gujarat Judicial
Academy.

The Orissa Tribunal on Communalism is convened by Dr. Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor, Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies, and Mr. Mihir Desai, Indian People's Tribunal and Advocate, Mumbai High
Court and Supreme Court of India.

Other Tribunal Members are Dr. Chetan Bhatt, Reader, Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London; Dr. Asha Hans, Professor, Women's Studies, Utkal University; Ms. Lalita Missal, National Alliance of Women-Orissa Chapter; Dr. Shaheen Nilofer, Scholar-activist from Orissa; Mr. Sudhir Patnaik, Scholar-activist from Orissa; Dr. Ram Puniyani, EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity.

This note was prepared by Deepika D'Souza, National Coordinator, Indian People's Tribunal, 4th Floor, CVOD, Jain High School, 84, Samuel Street, Dongri, Mumbai -
400009
Deepika D’Souza may be contacted at:
Phone : 00-91-22-23439651 / 23436692 Fax: 00-91-22-23433698
Email : iptindia@vsnl.net

The IPT has also drafted a petition criticizing the behavior of the members of the Sangh Parivar.