Gandhi Foundantion revise citation of International Peace Award-2011, Dr. Binayak Sen and Bulu Imam selected for award

By Sanjeev Shekhar
With apparent pressure from various tribal forums to change the name of the Gandhi International Peace Award-2011 to be given away to Dr Binayak Sen and Bulu Imam representing the “The Tribal People of India”, the Foundation has revised the citation and recognised personal contribution of their work among tribals. The award ceremony would be held on November 9, 2011 at Amnesty International (UK).

In a fresh citation sent to Sen and Bulu Imam, the Gandhi Foundation has recognised their personal endeavours and how they worked in different ways to address the growing violence . Bulu Imam has circulated the copy of the citation to clear the mission of the award, the copy of which has reached this scribe too.

The letter of the Gandhi Foundation read, “The insurgency has been dubbed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as ‘India’s biggest threat to its internal security’. In 2009, his Government launched a paramilitary offensive in five states against the Maoists and tribals who have joined, or are considered to be supporting or sympathetic to, the Maoists. The government claims the offensive, labelled ‘Operation Green Hunt’ by the media, is necessary to rid forested areas of Maoists. Others claim it as a way to clear Adivasi out of the forests in order to make way for more mining and industry. Two years on, violence and human rights abuses by all parties to the disputes continues and is escalating. The Gandhi Foundation and Amnesty International hope that this Award to two men who have worked in different ways to address the growing violence will serve both to raise awareness in the UK of the issues at stake and to offer practical, non-violent steps that can be taken in the UK to help bring about peace.”

The citation praised the efforts and work of recipients. It said, Dr Binayak Sen is a Bengali paediatrician, public health specialist and activist. He is the national Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He originally started working as a paediatrician extending health care to poor people in the rural-tribal areas of the Chhattisgarh state, doubling up as a human rights activist. While working with the state on health sector reform, he strongly criticized the government on human rights violations during their anti-Naxalite operations advocating non-violent political engagement instead.

Bulu Imam has worked for over thirty years in his home state of Jharkhand to preserve Adivasi culture, traditions and their environmentally sustainable way of life. These have all suffered under the onslaught of industrial projects to extract the mineral resources under their land. Increasingly violent confrontations over land rights led him to develop a theory of "Intellectual Satyagraha”. He describes this as an updated version of Gandhi’s Satyagraha in that, when realised, violent confrontations are reduced to an absolute minimum, read the citation.

Given the backdrop, the panel member of the Planning Commission Gladson Dung-Dung wrote to the Gandhi Foundation recently regarding the sentiments of various tribal organizations protesting the Foundation decision to handover the Gandhi International Peace Award 2011 to “The Tribal People of India” to non-Adivasi. Tribals under the banner of “Jharkhand Human Rights Movement” and “Jharkhand Indigenous People’s Forum” jointly lodged their protest to the President of the Gandhi Foundation, Richard Attenborough. Either, they urged him to change the name of the award or if the award was to be given to Adivasis it should be given to Adivasi representative, who struggled for their cause.

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