To
Shri Arvind Kejriwal
Chief Minister
Govt. of Delhi
19th January 2014
Sir,
Subject: Condemnation of Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti and his supporter’s alleged racist slur and humiliation of African women in Delhi
We strongly condemn and express our deep concern over the incident that took place on the night of 17th January 2014 in New Delhi when six African women were humiliated and subjected to racist abuse by a member of your cabinet and his supporters. The media also reported that the Minister ordered a raid without a warrant of a premise in Khidki village where the African women were staying accusing them of being part of a sex and drug racket.
Your cabinet colleague Mr Manish Sisodia, in defense of his cabinet colleague, has stated in the press “The police enter poor people’s homes as and when they want, without warrants. But refuse to act against a sex and drug racket.”
Mr Kejriwal, this is precisely our concern. Police in this country is known for its high-handedness and has always been biased against the aam aadmi and aurat. Mr Bharti’s action only legitimizes such illegal searches by the police and sets a very dangerous precedent. Two wrongs cannot make a right and we expect a party like the AAP, which has promised rule of law, to conform to legal and constitutional provisions and not indulge in arbitrary application of mob force that amounts to vigilantism.
We understand the need to rid a city of its crime and make it safe for its citizen, but displaying power and acting like a moral zealot cannot do that. There has to be a process and law needs to be followed by all. A city can be made safe if its citizens are tolerant of each other. The racial profiling displayed by your Minister and his supporters against the African women is a matter of great shame to all Indians and can only make all our urban spaces more unsafe and the city unsafe and breed an intolerance dangerous to Indian democracy.
We sincerely hope you will have the incident investigated and take immediate steps to both compensate the African women who have been grievously wronged by your Minister and his supporters as well as take proper action against the Minister for his uncivilized and unlawful behaviour.
Sincerely,
Madhumita Dutta, Researcher, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Nityanand Jayaraman, Independent Journalist, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Satya Sivaraman, Independent Journalist, West Bengal
Sadanand Menon, Columnist, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
V. Chandrika Radhakrishnan, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Prof A. Marx, Writer, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
T. Venkat, Researcher, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Rupesh Kumar, Independent Researcher, Bangalore, Karnataka
D. W. Karuna, Historian, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Shalini Sharma, Researcher, Guwahati, Assam
Karen Coelho, Assistant Professor, MIDS, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Shweta Narayan, Activist-Researcher, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Dharmesh Shah, Activist-Researcher, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Archanaa Seker, Activist, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Aparajay, Researcher, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, Columnist, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Feminist and Activist, Mumbai, Maharashtra
January 20, 2014 at 3:00 am
None of you are from delhi and you have concluded that the police was right and the residents of that area were wrong? Why don’t you go and ask the residents instead of listening to the police or the drug addicts or prostitutes.
January 20, 2014 at 11:00 am
How can we decide they are drug addicts and prostitutes. The lab report of their urine says they were not used any kind of drugs.
January 20, 2014 at 3:58 am
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kejriwal-attacks-delhi-police-calls-kiran-bedi-a-modi-supporter/446275-81.html
January 20, 2014 at 8:20 am
Fully agree.Don’t think that I am OK you are not OK
January 20, 2014 at 10:57 am
Thank you , Rajdeep Sirdesai !
Thank you for conducting that brutal interview of Arvind Kejriwal , Saturday evening
Normally , Arvind is a very reticent fellow
But you managed to rattle him !
But for your penetrating questions , Arvind would not have volunteered to reveal on his own , the following :
> RESERVATION OF 90 % SEATS
– It is only for 28 colleges which are partially or fully funded by Delhi
Government
It is for ANY student ( from any state of India ) , who passes his / her
10th standard from any Delhi school
> FREE WATER
– Only 20KL per month is free
Our goal is to ” Reduce Consumption / Conserve ”
Hence it makes sense to charge those who continue to consume more
than 20 KL .
If they want FREE , they must cut back on consumption !
Again it makes lot of Economic Sense , to give water free , only to
those who have meters
Lakhs of households will now get motivated to install meters !
A very powerful incentive
That will introduce ” Measurement of Resource ”
> NO WATER IN SLUMS / UNAUTHORISED COLONIES
– This is a physical problem of laying 150 Km of new pipe-lines /
installation of pumps etc
No one asked Congress government re this for 15 years !
It is totally unfair to expect AAP to do this in 15 days !
> DIFFERING VIEWS / OPINIONS AMONGST AAP LEADERS
– This is what democracy is all about !
We encourage ALL to speak their minds without fear / reservations
Ideas must flow unhindered
We believe in brain-storming , not in suppressing views !
But ,
PAC members / MLAs / Core Committee Members etc will need to toe the
FINAL PARTY POSITION ( arrived after fierce internal debate / evaluation /
consensus ) in public , irrespective of their personal views
As far as millions of ORDINARY MEMBERS are concerned ( including Capt
Gopinath / Mallika Sarabhai etc ) , they are at liberty to criticize even the
FINAL PARTY POSITION
We impose PARTY DISCIPLINE , only on office bearers
And since Vinod Binny is our MLA , he is bound by this internal CODE OF
CONDUCT .
He must leave the party , if he cannot comply
> SOMNATH BHARATI TAKING LAW IN OWN HANDS
– If Delhi police won’t act against drug mafia / sex racketeers , despite a
pile of complaints from local citizens , then our ministers will come out on
the streets , in support of the oppressed
We will not hesitate to join their agitation / revolt against the corrupt !
Even Mahatma Gandhi , had to break the unjust British Laws
We will do the same
If we cannot change the law with the support of our MLAs , then we will
break it with the support of the suffering public
Make no mistakes about it !
> AAP ENGAGING IN ANARCHY / CHAOS / POPULISM
– Another TV channel editor said , we are continuing ” Activism ”
Still another TV anchor says , AAP failed to graduate to ” Governance ”
Use any – and all – adjectives you can , to describe our behavior / actions
We are not guided / governed by any ” Ideology ” ( Left / Right / Center )
When we take any decision / action , we only apply ” Gandhi Guideline ” ,
viz ; ” Will this help the poorest person ? ”
> AAP TAKING CONGRESS SUPPORT
– If they like , let them withdraw their ( unasked for ) support today
Let there be re-elections
People of Delhi will bring us back with 50 seats
> CONTESTING LOK DABHA SEAT ?
– I may , if Party asks me
[ Arvind ,
Whereas all the rest of your answers were most appropriate , this was
the most disappointing !
If you succumb to the ” wishes ” of your colleagues , not only the
people of Delhi , but of entire India , will conclude that ,
# You are an opportunist
# You are after power
# You cannot be trusted
# You have betrayed them ]
Once again , thank you Rajdeep ,
But for your grilling , public would have continued to believe the canards being dished out by those pseudo – experts trying to drown out each other , on panel discussions / obsessions !
* hemen parekh ( 20 Jan 2014 / Mumbai )
January 20, 2014 at 10:57 am
What Mr. Kejirwal is going to protest Union Minister’s Office with him MLAs. This is not accepted and as the CM he need to warn his subordinates not to break the law and the AAP volunteers not to take law in hand.
January 20, 2014 at 6:56 pm
It is guiven guidance and Directions to AAP to control sex racket and drug racket mafia black money corruptions
January 21, 2014 at 11:11 pm
I am totally disgusted by the Law minister. If a Minister did this in England he would be in jail for incitement of racist violence. Crime will not be stopped by seeing a racial group as guilty before innocent. This one of the most disgusting incidence’s I have read about recently.