The Hindu : New Delhi News : Protest against arrests in Bengal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 14, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Protest against arrests in Bengal

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Several journalists and teachers joined students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia in staging a demonstration near Connaught Place here on Saturday to demand release of members of a fact-finding team who were arrested in West Bengal this past week.

The students shouted slogans against the West Bengal Government for "forcible acquisition" of land of the farmers for the proposed special economic zones (SEZs).

The six members, including student activists and political leaders, had gone to Nandigram in West Bengal to inquire into the peasants' grievances over land acquisition for a proposed SEZ. However, the team was arrested at Tekhali Bazar before they could reach Nandigram on January 4 and were booked under alleged false charges.

Demanding release of all team members, eminent journalist Praful Bidwai said it was the right of the people to protest. Noted journalist Javed Naqvi said: "Perhaps the West Bengal Government is trying to ape China as their policy of SEZ is very similar to what the latter did in Hong Kong."

Senior lawyer Colin Gonsalves, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation leader Prabhat Kumar and general secretary of JNU Students' Union Sandeep Singh also addressed the students and demanded that the West Bengal Government stop acquiring land for SEZs.

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