Solidarity Committee Members

1. Dr. (Col.) Lakshmi Sehgal is a living legend who founded the Rani Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose. She lived for several years in Burma during the days of India’s freedom struggle against British imperialism. She is a doctor and even today at the age of 94 practices medicine. She was the presidential candidate of the left front in 2003. She has always shown an especial solidarity with the Burmese movement for democracy and her home is always open for the Burmese students living in exile in India.
2. Dr Ashok Mitra was the former finance Minister in West Bengal and chief economic adviser to the Union Government. He is a regular columnist in various newspapers and journals and his biting satire and political commentary have been appreciated for their fearless honesty. He has expressed his solidarity with the Burmese movement on many occasions, and taken up their cause whenever the need has arisen.
3. Sumit Chakravartty is the editor of the current affairs weekly, Mainstream. He is a member of the South Asia Press Commission. He is known for his fearless journalism and principles stands on political issues. He has had a long association with the Burmese community living in exile and is a member of Friends of Burma which is an organization set up to look after the welfare needs of the Burmese refugee community in Delhi.
4. Surendra Mohan has been called the torch bearer of the socialist movement in India. He has been a Member of Parliament. He is at present editor of Janata and also President of the Janata Dal (Secular). He has been associated with trade union movement and has supported human rights causes. He was in jail during the Emergency and his sympathies lie with political prisoners. He has a long association with the Burmese socialist leaders and with the Burmese living in exile in India.
5. Sujata Bhadra has been a human rights activist working since the 1970s. He is the Secretary General of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), West Bengal. He has been a part of innumerable fact finding teams all over the country and has been systematically documenting the human rights violations in West Bengal. He has been especially involved with the question of political prisoners’ rights. He has expressed his solidarity with the Burmese pro-democracy movement on many occasions.
6. Nandita Haksar is a human rights lawyer and activist with an international reputation. She has been taking up cases of political prisoners for the past twenty years. She was the first lawyer to take up the cases of Burmese refugees when they arrived in India in the wake of the repression in 1989. She got many of the Burmese student activists out of jail in Imphal and it was her intervention that helped the Burmese get the protection of the UNHCR. She also took up the case of the Burmese hijackers resulting in their acquittal. She sponsored an art exhibition called Battle for Peace by a Burmese artist in exile and made a film based on the exhibition which was used by the Burmese students in exile both in India and abroad.