Ltr No. appeal/0046/Mum/16122010, Date-16/12/2010, Sub: staff of President causes closure of Dantewada’s first public library and banishment of its coordinator, Ref: PRSEC/E/2010/11751, Hon. Madam President, This letter is written to inform you how your staff caused closure of Dantewada’s first public library and banishment of its coordinator, I.
Having grown up in a pacifist tribal pocket of erstwhile eastern MP and then working for a decade in an engrossing medium like TV production/programming in Mumbai and SE Asia did not give the writer much of an understanding of Human Rights. Early in 2010, disillusioned due to emotional setbacks, i retired to my home state Chhattisgarh starting a small public library in the most backward part, southern Bastar Dantewada. As voluntary advisor to various government agencies, district administration and certain NGOs I helped with planning on subjects like nutrition, healthcare and education.
Insights of the controversial location thus gained, were shared with your esteemed self, in a letter sent from your official website on July 29th, seeking help for the library and, an audience by 7-9 August. This letter wrecked havoc when I sat on agitation on the eve of Independence Day, demanding proper nutrition and hygienic living for tribal orphans of govt-run Astha Gurukul where i took occasional evening classes. I was unofficially banished from the district by the police and my school-teacher, widow mother faced late night intimidating visits by police.
While interrogating me, soon after I was picked up from the site of agitation, SSP-Dantewada told me that my friendly collector has grown wary of me since a faxed letter arrived from Rashtrapati Bhavan seeking to check my credentials before my request for a meeting with the President can be processed.
He remained angry at my temerity to write to the President despite my humble submissions that those two paragraphs were in letter by way of contextualizing the library in the given development & security scenario and most of the statements were factually correct and were already published by illustrious intellectuals. Finally, he told me that I have to leave the district immediately so he can write back that I was nowhere to be found! In fact, a week before that I had received a call from an OSD at Rashtrapati Bhavan (apparently he had been SDM-Dantewada in late 90’s), enquiring about the personal & work-related details.
He raised doubts how a foreign-return Creative Director has shifted base to Dantewada, for good? Probably unconvinced, he sought a reference from the district administration but this amounted to throwing me to wolves because your staff forgot to follow up the matter so a timely decision could be taken to grant me an audience within the period I had requested. Till date, I have not received any response from your secretariat.
Never complained again to you because I just lost faith in your office upon realizing that I’m exiled for the sole crime of writing a letter to the president of my country. Today, the new collector has refused permission for a harmless educational workshop on exam preparations citing so-called “negative feedback” of his predecessor and thus I’m writing this letter so you learn what a great loss you have caused to the hugely disadvantaged and immensely demoralized children of Dantewada.
Please ponder over the reality that despite professed inability to run education system properly, the administration doesn’t allow volunteers like me to operate due to intolerance for criticism. This fear psychosis is a clear contravention of article 19 of the Constitution of India (besides a cover for lethal corruption) which you’re under oath to protect.
Thanks for nothing.
yours sincerely,
BK Manish
Coordinator- Pustak Pravaah, Dantewada
(in-exile)
Tel: 9920577521
