Petition to stop harrassment of Dr Mallika Sarabhai

Stop harassment and intimidation of Dr Mallika Sarabhai

To
Hon’ble Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
India


Dear Hon’ble Vajpayee:

You are urged to take immediate steps to stop the harassment and intimidation of Dr Mallika Sarabhai, who is the Pride of Gujarat. Times of India of Tuesday, October 28th 2003 has headlined a story entitled “Mallika Sarabhai Is Being Framed” and it has put the Government of India and the State Government of Gujarat in a very bad light.

As you very well know that Dr. Mallika Sarabhai has been very outspoken in condemning the massacre of innocent human beings in the State of Gujarat after the Godhra incident of February 2002.

Dr. Sarabhai has refused to withdraw her case against the State Government of Gujarat for lack of failure to prosecute the perpetrators of the senseless violence and also the failure of the State to provide adequate relief and rehabilitation of the survivors in the Supreme Court.

Dr. Sarabhai has categorically denied any wrongdoing and the charges of human trafficking against a person of her stature is absurd. Despite this she did co-operate fully with all the inquiries of the authorities.

Efforts of Gujarat Government to deny her bail is gross miscarriage of justice. Many prominent citizens of India such as Rajmohan Gandhi , Kuldeep Nair, Shabana Azmi, Asghar Ali Engineer, J B D’souza, Dolly Thakore Alyque Padamsee B G Verghese have already protested this outrageous effort to silence one of the few voices of sanity in the State of Gujarat.

We respectfully ask you to take immediate steps to reverse the misguided effort to force Dr Mallika Sarabhai to withdraw her public interest litigation, otherwise irreparable harm will be done to India’s reputation that got tarnished in all parts of the world.

We the undersigned Non-Resident Indians both individuals and organizations are awaiting your confirmation that the right steps have been taken to set the wrong that has been done to Dr Mallika Sarabhai.


Sincerely yours,

Individuals:
Shrikumar Poddar, USA
Dr K S Sripada Raju, USA
Uma Balakrishnan, USA
Kaleem Kawaja, USA
S.M.Bhagat, USA
Hari Sharma, Canada
Rasheed Ahmed, USA
Ruchira Gupta, USA
Imtiazuddin, USA
Gautam & Urvi Desai, USA
Amit Shah, USA
Zubair Patel, USA
Rajesh Veeraraghavan, USA
Sami Uddin. USA
Dr. Chander Balakrishnan, USA
Srividhya Venkataraman ,USA
Dr. Jawaid Quddus, USA
Mayurika Poddar, USA
Dr. Satinath Choudhary
Zafar Iqbal, PhD


Organizations:
International Service Society, USA
Vaishnava Centre for Enlightenment, USA
India Development Society, USA
India Foundation, USA
Seva International, USA
Bharatiya Educational Foundation, USA
Assn of Indian Muslims of America,, USA
Develop in Peace, USA
Gujarati Muslim Assn of America, USA
International South Asia Forum, Canada
Am Fed of Muslims from India, USA
S.Asian Network for Secularism & Democracy, Canada
NRIs for Secular and Harmonious India


CC:
The President of India
The Deputy Prime Minister of India
The Chief Minister of Gujarat
The Speaker of Indian Parliament