Indian author fasting to protest book ban
Posted by Surinder K Singh
Indian author fasting to protest book ban
Posted by Surinder K Singh on Monday, 5/18/1998 10:18 AM MDT
| Waheguruji ka khalsa Waheguruji ki fateh I am posting a news article from CNN news. Das Surinder Singh News article from CNN http://cnn.com/books/news/9804/08/indian.author.reut/index.html Indian author fasting to protest book ban April 8, 1998 Web posted at: 5:16 p.m. EST (2216 GMT) NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- The author of a book on India's 1984 anti-Sikh riots said Wednesday he had begun a fast to the death to demand the lifting of a ban on his publication. The book, "Government Organized Carnage," describes in graphic detail the communal strife which left more than 3,000 Sikhs dead in the three days following the assassination of Indian premier Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. "The ban is obnoxious and wholly unwarranted, it is against the freedom of speech and expression in a democracy," the book's author, Gurcharan Singh Babbar, told Reuters. Sitting under a tree outside the Raj Ghat, the memorial to India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Babbar had near him banners that said "Fascist attack on freedom of speech - ban on a book." His fast started Tuesday. Babbar: 5,000 died in riots after Gandhi's death Rioters targeted the Sikh community, which constitutes two percent of India's 950 million population, after Gandhi was shot dead by two of her own Sikh bodyguards. "My book is aimed at highlighting the sufferings of the victims, so that the killers can be punished." -- Gurcharan Singh Babbar, author of "Government Organized Carnage" The guards were seeking revenge for Gandhi's decision to send the army to flush out Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine, four months earlier in the city of Amritsar. Babbar said 5,000 people died in the riots. Book deemed abusive and provocative Babbar's book was banned on March 20 after a petitioner, Suresh Chauhan, went to a local court saying the work had abused the judiciary, hurt feelings of many people and could trigger fresh riots. Babbar said, "My book is not fictional, it is an authentic record of happenings during the black days of November 1984." Babbar, a graduate from Delhi whose family owns a transport firm, said more than 1,900 widows and 5,500 orphans were still seeking justice. Human rights activists say no significant conviction leading to punishment has taken place in Indian courts in the cases concerning murders that took place during the riots. "My book is aimed at highlighting the sufferings of the victims, so that the killers can be punished," Babbar said. Babbar said 16,000 copies of the book had been sold in India and abroad since its publication six months ago. "The book has been printed by my own publishing company because no other publisher was ready for it," he said. |
 | Indian author fasting to ... (Surinder K Singh - 18.May.98) |
