NEW DELHI – Suspended Gujarat IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt has said the Godhra carnage was an intelligence failure and not a conspiracy. Bhatt said this to a group of activists who say that they are being persecuted for their work.
Bhatt, many see to be taking on the Chief Minister Narendra Modi made that important point yet again as he fielded a volley of questions from activists across India.
Answering questions about threat to his life, Bhatt said, “Yes, there is threat to my life.”
Many activists campaigning in their respective fields find themselves at the receiving end and like Sanjeev are out on bail, others are fighting battles which are decades old with hardly any solution in sight.
“There are many like me who don’t know whether they should lead the lives of widows or wives,” said Parveena, an activist from Kashmir.
Irom Sharmilla’s Brother said, “Since 2000, Irom is in custody which is why, here in India I need to protect her.” So the activists are now joining hands to fight back.
Human Rights Action Alert Henry Thipagne said, “We have a platform called human rights defenders alert. It has to expand, not expand to cover the rights of visible, but expand to cover the rights of thousands of those who are invisible.”
“As soon as we hear that a human rights activist is arrested or tortured immediately within 24 hours we will have an emergency response. We will provide solidarity to their families, legal support immediately,” said another activist.
Activists from across the country have gathered to join hands to forge a strategy on how best to defend themselves.
