RYA’s Open Letter To The Speaker Of Lok-Sabha
Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) Punjab wrote a letter to the Speaker, Lok Sabha, demanding that Parliament initiate an open debate on the ‘Life, Contribution and Though of Shaheed Bhagat Singh’. Accusing Parliament of trying “to honour him as a character of history, so as to avoid honouring him as an ideologue, as a visionary of a socialist India instead of the India which the ruling class has built”, RYA demanded that Bhagat Singh be depicted in Parliament with Batukeshwar Dutt, in the pose of throwing voice bombs; the slogan "Long live revolution", and "Down with imperialism" be inscribed on the statues in all Indian languages; and the statues be inaugurated on 8th April of coming year, the day when the revolutionaries threw the bomb in the Parliament.
AIPWA Team Meets Women Agitating in Patna Remand Home
An AIPWA investigation team comprising Meena Tiwari, Prof. Bharati S Kumar, Shashi Yadav and Anita Sinha visited Patna-based Remand Home on April 3, where women had been on hunger strike for the last 3 days demanding speedy trial of their cases. The administration, instead of heeding their just demand, summoned the police which resorted to a lathi-charge, forcing them to break their hunger strike. Only 3 months back, there had been an incident of lathi-charge in the home when the husband of some detainee came to meet her. He was dragged inside the home and beaten. When the girls protested, they too were beaten. On that occasion, one lady constable had complained that girls from the Home are taken out to 'serve' the big-wigs. When AIPWA leaders inquired about it the officials said that the complainant had been removed immediately and the Government had constituted an inquiry committee which had submitted its report to the Government. The detainees told the investigation team that despite proof that they had become adult they were forcibly kept here in the name of being minors. There are pregnant women, children and their mothers too in the home but there is no arrangement of doctors. There are neither fans nor cots in the Home. Despite tall claims of women empowerment, the Chief Minister and the State Women’s Commission are least concerned for these hapless women. The ‘reform home’ has been converted into a prison. AIPWA has demanded action against the officials responsible for the lathi-charge, speedy trial of the cases and other reforms in the Home. Meanwhile, after the AIPWA intervention was widely covered in the press, the High Court too has intervened and summoned the women detained under the charge of (love) marriage despite being minors.
