By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Coalition of Democratic Movements, a joint body of civil groups, is going to organize a public convention on 29th April 2011 at Constitution Club in New Delhi. The convention will discuss hurdles in the way of the fight against corruption in the country and express outrage at personal attacks on the probity of civil society members in the Joint Drafting Committee of Jan Lokpal Bill.
“The recent outpouring of public outrage at the spate of corruption, scandals, and scams involving public money, and the real possibility of a strong Lokpal Bill appears to have shaken sections of politicians, the media and the business interests. Therefore, instead of discussing the details of the proposed Lokpal Bill, and vigorously debating ways of making it more effective, a series of personal attacks are being carried on the probity of civil society members in the Joint Drafting Committee. The civil groups are, therefore, going to meet and express their outrage at this attempt to cover up the colossal acts of corruption that have become a feature of our public life,” the organizers said in a statement.
“The particular target is lawyer Prashant Bhushan as well his father Shanti Bhushan. Both are well known and respected by social movements and civil society for his public work for years. Prashant Bhushan appeared against the central and state governments and numerous multinational corporations in numerous cases of irregularities and scandals including Bofors scam, 2G Spectrum, Bhopal Gas Accident case, GM Food case, All India Drug Action Network case in 90s multinationals and Vedanta University Land Acquisition case. The attempted character assassination of these eminent lawyers is a crude attempt to derail the current people’s campaign against corruption” they alleged.
The program will be organized from 4 to 7 pm. The speakers of the convention include Arundhati Roy, Chittaroopa Palit (Sylvie), Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Seema Mustafa, Vinod Mehta, Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Aruna Roy, Nikhil De, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Mira Shiva, Kavita Srivastava, Prof. Anuradha Chenoy, Colin Gonsalves, Satinath Saranagi, Amarjeet Kaur, Gautam Mody, Abani Roy and Kavita Krishnan.