Re: Sign Petition Online: Death of Dr. Srinivas Ramachandra Siras

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

Re: /message/11341

Where was INFOSEM to prevent this terrible event from happening?

Did we raise our voices loud enough when the incident happened?

--

Best wishes and regards

Vimla

Vimla V. Nadkarni, Pd.D.

Professor

Centre for Health and Mental Health

School of Social Work

Tata Institute of Social Sciences

V. N. Purav Marg, Sion-Trombay Road

Mumbai 400 088

Tel: 91-22-25525421

Fax: 91-22-25525050

Email: vimla@..., vimlanadkarni@...

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

Re: /message/11344

Yes, such henious crimes should be taken into account and anybody's private life

should be protected.

Habibullah Ansari (Ph D in Social Medicine, JNU)

Programme Coordinator

South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy (SADED)

(A Project at CSDS, Rajpur Road Delhi)

383, Bank Street Munirka

New Delhi - 110067

e-mail: <hbansari@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear Vimla Nadkarni,

/message/11344

I do not know how much you are aware of the antecedents of the matter but your

mail betrays a degree of ignorance.

INFOSEM is a coalition of many LGBT organisations in India. When Dr Siras was

first suspended and the news hit the media, his first reaction was to quietly

leave and forget about the whoe thing.

It was then that many LGBT organisations rallied in support of him, including

many members of INFOSEM.

INFOSEM itself through its members provided much support to Dr Siras.

The fact finding team that went to Aligarh also had INFOSEM members on it. IT

was largely through this support that Dr Siras ultimately decided to change his

strategy and challenge the suspension.

INFOSEM founding member Ashok Row Kavi also supported by active collaboration

with the Lawyers Collective that represented Dr Siras in the Allahabad High

Court.

In fact it would not be wrong to say that INFOSEM and/or its members were

largely responsible for Dr Siras's decision to challenge the suspension, a

challenge that he won.

Therefore yes, we did raise our voice loud enough when the terrible

suspension happened, and we are raising it now when the terrible murder of Dr

Siras has happened.

I agree that we were not present there pre-facto to prevent the suspension and

the sting on Dr Siras. But then as you would know from the various records, Dr

Siras was very much in the closet and we did not know that he existed. So it

would not have been possible for us to be present to prevent the sting.

Best regards,

Aditya Bondyopadhyay

e-mail: <adit.bond@...>