Guest guest Posted January 11, 2003 Report Share Posted January 11, 2003 can we have a protest .... jayasimha India's high profile animal rights activist and former minister for welfare Ms Maneka Gandhi has been removed from her position as chairwoman of the government's Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals. The committee had earned the wrath of Indian scientific researchers over recent years for its approach to animals in scientific research and for its " raids " on both government and private laboratories (BMJ 2002;325:1192)[Free Full Text]. The committeewhich gives permission to registered institutions to carry out animal experimentationhas inspected 467 laboratories nationwide since December 1998. It has found that 400 did not have basic facilities for housing and care of laboratory animals, according to the latest committee report published in the women's journal Manushi, which has devoted an entire issue to the subject of animal welfare. Ms Gandhi says that the conditions in Indian laboratory animal houses and the practices used in experiments with these animals are among the worst in the world. " While millions of animals have been killed in the name of research in India, almost 90% of this research has been useless and has been unnecessary duplication of research already done abroad, " she told the BMJ. Sandip Basu, the director of the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, calls the raids " non-governmental organisation-type actions of the Maneka brigade. " His institute was inspected by the committee twice, but no report has been provided to them, despite his demands, said Dr Basu. He vehemently contradicts the committee's assertions publicised in its newsletter under the title " Primates pickled in cages for 18 years " (www.cpcsea.com). " I can vouch only for my own institute and say that the animals have been kept in conditions that are not only internationally acceptable but have been recorded by collaborative institutions like the US National Institutes of Health, " he said. " This is an anti-science mindset that we are up against, and Maneka Gandhi is just a symbol of that, " said Dr Basu. Scientists have demanded a thorough restructuring of the committee to include " technically knowledgeable experts rather than the emotional ones. " As for Ms Gandhi, she remains unfazed and unapologetic: " It is quite obviously a conspiracy of the scientific establishment to get me removed, " she told the BMJ. " The scientific establishment would like to turn the committee into a toothless body, but I don't think they will succeed now. " can we have a wide protest against this jayasimha Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 11, 2003 Report Share Posted January 11, 2003 jaya iyengar wrote: >can we have a protest .... >jayasimha There is an Indian Government web page where one can submit comments to the office of Prime Minister Vajpayee. http://pmindia.nic.in/writetous.htm Unfortunately, the format for typing comments is very user-unfriendly, and submitting the comments just leads to an error message. Does anyone know either an email address for Prime Minister Vajpayee, or his full snail-mail address? The snail address I have is incomplete (but would probably work): Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee New Delhi India Fax: 011 91 11 3016857 Officially, Maneka Gandhi was removed from office because her post was deemed to be an " office of profit " and, therefore, incompatible with her status as a Member of Parliament (http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?gid= & id=106840). In fact, she was probably removed not only for her animal rights work, but also because she is at odds with Sonya Gandhi (http://www.the-week.com/21dec02/events2.htm). Here is a draft of a protest letter: Dear Prime Minister Vajpayee, I am writing to protest at the removal of Maneka Gandhi from her post as Chairperson of the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals. Although the official explanation of her removal from office was that her post was an " office of profit " and, therefore, incompatible with her status as a Member of Parliament, it appears that Maneka Gandhi's support for the welfare and rights of animals contributed to her removal from office. Maneka Gandhi, while serving in her former post, pointed out that " While millions of animals have been killed in the name of research in India, almost 90% of this research has been useless and has been unnecessary duplication of research already done abroad " . I urge you to implement measures to discontinue this unnecessary animal experimentation. And here is a shorter version, formatted for the unfriendly web form at http://pmindia.nic.in/writetous.htm (if anyone gets that page to work, I'd be interested to know): I am writing to protest at the removal of Maneka Gandhi from her post as Chairperson of the CPCSEA. Officially, she was removed because the post was deemed incompatible with her status as a Member of Parliament. But it appears that she was fired because she promoted animal rights, and criticised animal experiments, stating that 90% of those conducted in India are unnecessary. I urge you to implement measures to discontinue these unnecessary animal experiments. If anyone wishes to use either of these texts, or to improve on them, please feel free to do so. Gerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 16, 2003 Report Share Posted January 16, 2003 Gerry Morgan wrote: >And here is a shorter version, formatted for the unfriendly web form at >http://pmindia.nic.in/writetous.htm (if anyone gets that page to work, I'd >be interested to know): Just to follow up on this, the page worked when I tried it again today, and I have submitted my comments to the Indian PM's office. Gerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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