[L-I] [ INDIA ] ML Update Vol. 7 No. 32 11-16 Aug 2004

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.7  No. 32  11-16 Aug 2004


Manipur's Battle Is India's Battle

Manipur is witnessing an unprecedented mass upsurge. Sixty-two years after
the original Quit India movement, the spirit of the freedom movement seems
to have truly come alive in this north-eastern state. Indeed, Manipur is
fighting for freedom. Freedom from the draconian military rule that the
Indian state has imposed on this state for the last four and a half decades.
Manipur is one of those Indian provinces where the armed forces enjoy
special powers and the people are thus subjected to a special misery, to
live permanently at the mercy of the army in a supposedly free and
democratic country.

When the Assam Rifles jawans abducted the thirty-one year old Manorama Devi
from her house, raped, tortured and killed her, and then threw away her
brutalised body, they were merely going through the motions of a routine
exercise that the security forces have been told is both their right and
duty. Yes, this is what the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is all about.
And they do it in the name of maintaining 'public order'. The only plea the
army has for meting out this treatment to Manorama is that she was an
activist of the PLA. Under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the army can
act merely on the basis of suspicion and it enjoys complete immunity from
the law of the land.

It was therefore all routine - perfectly 'legal and constitutional' - for
the army, but the women of Manipur chose to challenge this routine. In the
past, the women of Manipur have waged several brave battles against colonial
rulers, battles that have become famous in Manipur's history as 'nupi lan'
or women's war. In a spirited act of protest, on 15 July a group of women
reached the Assam Rifles headquarters in Imphal, took off their clothes and
unfurled banners that screamed "Indian Army, Rape Us" and "Indian Army, Take
our Flesh". As subsequent events have proved, it was not one of those fancy
protests aimed at making just a visual statement. This was merely the
beginning of one of the greatest mass movements in 'free' India against the
Indian Army and the Indian state.

The people of Manipur are not demanding merely posthumous justice for
Manorama. They know what the army did to Manorama was not an accident or
aberration. It was routine and could have happened with anybody. They are
therefore demanding an end to the AFPSA itself. This Act was passed by
Parliament in 1958 after a debate that lasted only seven hours. Like many
other features of the Indian  state, this Act too is a relic from the
colonial era which has been preserved and reinforced by the post-colonial
state. And like most other draconian laws, it was also mooted as a temporary
measure with highly restricted applicability. But now it has become a
permanent weapon of the Indian state to defend 'public order' in any area it
considers 'disturbed'. Introduced for Assam and Manipur, over the years the
Act has been applied virtually in the entire North-East, Punjab, Jammu and
Kashmir and even Andhra Pradesh.
The AFSPA is the mother of all black laws in India. When the Act was
legislated in 1958 to 'combat' insurgency there was only the Naga movement
in the north-east. Over the forty-five years the Act has been in force, it
has only contributed to the rise of more and more insurgent outfits in the
region. While parliamentary democracy requires the army to be kept away from
the tasks of internal policing and administration, the AFSPA virtually
introduces military rule in a democratic garb. Manipur alone has witnessed a
series of massacres and 'disappearances' The Army itself says that till date
it has had to punish 66 of its men in the north-east as they were found
guilty of excesses even though it asserts that only 25 of the 451 complaints
received were found valid in its internal scrutiny.

The fighting people of Manipur and especially the brave sisters of Manorama
and Sharmila (who has been on a protest fast since 6 November 2000) deserve
all our support and solidarity for their exemplary courage and
determination. The central government's response to the Manipur agitation
has of course been typically arrogant. Incidentally, Manipur at the moment
is ruled by a coalition (Secular Progressive Alliance led by the Congress
and backed by the CPI) which is quite akin to the UPA combination at the
centre. The Centre is therefore also trying every trick to browbeat the
state government and prevent it from recommending a withdrawal of the Act
from the state.

On the eve of the fifty-seventh anniversary of our freedom from colonial
rule, let all of us join the fighting people of Manipur in demanding an end
to draconian laws. There can be no place for black laws like AFSPA, TADA or
POTA in a democracy.


Convention Against TADA-POTA Calls for Nationwide Movement

Left parties' leaders and prominent citizens call upon Parliament and
Government to repeal POTA, withdraw all cases of TADA and POTA with
retrospective effect remitting sentences against those convicted under these
laws, and slam Bihar govt. for not withdrawing TADA charges against the
agricultural labourers of Jehanabad

In the aftermath of statewide agitation raging in several parts of Bihar for
the withdrawal of TADA cases imposed on a score of political activists and
leaders as well as poor agrarian labourers in Jehanabad district of the
state, a timely Convention was held in Delhi on 6 August. Political leaders
from a broad spectrum of the Left and prominent citizens from all walks of
life including jurists, advocates, human rights activists, academicians,
writers, journalists, and students joined this convention and called for a
nationwide movement against murder of democracy at the hands of black laws
like TADA and POTA. They called upon Parliament and government to repeal
POTA, withdraw all cases of TADA and POTA with retrospective effect
remitting sentences against those convicted under these laws. They also
slammed the Bihar govt. for not withdrawing TADA charges against CPI(ML)
activists and agricultural labourers of Jehanabad. The Convention was
organised by Forum For Democratic Initiative.

The Convention also decided to meet the President of India and the Prime
Minister in this regard. It passed several resolutions including the one
which demanded repeal of the notorious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
1958. [This notorious Act is creating havoc in the life of the people of
Manipur and other North-Eastern states. Entire Manipur is now up in arms
against this Act.]

The Convention was chaired by eminent human rights activist Kuldeep Nayyar
and addressed by a host of political leaders and prominent citizens of Delhi
including CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(M) MP
Dipankar Mukherjee, Forward Bloc leader Devrajan, RSP MP Abani Roy, CPI
leader Atul Anjan, Justice Rajendra Sachar, writer and activist Arundhati
Roy, Editor of 'Mainstream' Sumit Chakravarty, Supreme Court lawyers Nandita
Haksar and Prashant Bhushan, Associate Editor of EPW Gautam Navlakha, Prof.
Kamal Mitra Chenoy from JNU, Prof. Tripta Wahi and Prof. SAR Geelani from DU
and the representative of Manipur Students' Association, Delhi. The
Convention was conducted by Radhika Menon, Convener of the FDI.

CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya hailed the rural poor of
Bihar and the people of Manipur who had paid with their blood, their liberty
and their lives to make laws like TADA, POTA, AFSPA a national issue. He
recalled how in 1988, it was sustained struggles that had made the police
firing on labourers in Arwal a national issue, and today it was Manorama
Devi's murder and the protests that follow it, which had forced the horrors
of AFSPA onto the consciousness of the nation. He said that the democratic
forces in the country, who had made POTA an issue in the elections, were now
being taken for granted. He proposed that the Convention resolve to take a
delegation to meet the President and PM on the issue. He appealed the house
to send a team to see the situation in Jehanabad first hand. He stressed the
need for a mass movement to exert pressure on the govt., and called upon
people to participate in the People's Tribunal on TADA to be held on August
12 at Patna. CPI(M) MP Dipankar Mukherjee, Forward Block leader  Devrajan,
CPI leader Atul Anjan, and RSP MP Abani Roy expressed solidarity with the
struggles against black laws. Abani Roy questioned the definition of
terrorism, saying even Bhagat Singh was branded a terrorist by colonialists,
and today workers and poor peasants were being booked under "Terrorist
Laws". He appealed to strengthen the forces fighting against these laws and
to go for a vigorous struggle unitedly.

Speaking at the Convention writer Arundhati Roy said India was showing the
world how terrorism laws can be used. For the US 'War against Terror' is
nothing but a bogey to justify imperialist aggression. In their view,
"terrorism" is defined to mean people resisting colonial occupation. All
over the world, poverty too is conflated with "terrorism". The machine of
neoliberal capitalism imposes one law after another to suppress those who
resist it. To view these laws as mere "human rights violations" is to wish
away their political implications. The machine that assaults the poor, the
colonised and the minority nationalities cannot be reduced to 'Bush' or
'BJP'. What is called for is a movement against the system itself.

Addressing the Convention, eminent jurist Rajinder Sachar said that the fact
that the UPA government has failed to repeal POTA yet, and is instead
speaking of retaining some of its clauses is an instance of 'hypocrisy in
politics'.
Supreme Court lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Nandita Haksar cautioned against
divorcing struggle against such laws from politics. Ms. Haksar said that
even if POTA is repealed or TADA cases withdrawn, it does not guarantee that
political establishment will allow the democratic voices to be raised in
people's interests. As talks of repealing POTA are under way, there are
apprehensions that the anti-people provisions of this law be included in the
Indian Penal Code itself to eliminate any need for the establishment to
enact a separate law as draconian as POTA. Moreover, our police and law and
order machinery is equally able to undermine democracy even without such
laws. They emphasised the bias inherent in our criminal jurisprudence,
whereby the white-collar criminals roam under bail, and cases are withdrawn
with witnesses being bought off, while the people's activists and the poor
are implicated in false cases and have to fight legal battles for years.

Gautam Navlakha, Associate Editor EPW, pointed out that leaders of landlord
armies which massacre dalit poor are never convicted under "Terror Laws",
whereas even lapsed laws like TADA are invoked  to sentence dalit landless
labourers to life imprisonment and even death. Clearly, he said, the issue
is not merely of 'civil liberties' but one of politics - since such laws
clearly had the political intention of snuffing out specific movements. The
judicial procedure also needs to be scrutinised thoroughly as even in
Supreme Court a verdict is issued by the three-judge bench though one of
them explicitly says the facts put up before the court as evidence by the
state are 'appalling'.
Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy and Tripta Wahi pointed out that the ruling classes
always brand class struggles as "anti-national", and uses "national
security" as an excuse to crush dissent.

DU lecturer SAR Geelani spoke of systematic shrinkage of democratic space in
India, saying that India could be considered "free" only if it was truly
democratic. He said laws like TADA, POTA, AFSPA were a threat to each
citizen, not just Kashmiris, Manipuris or the dalit poor of Andhra and
Bihar.

Speaking at the convention Sumit Chakravarty, editor of 'Mainstream',
emphasised the real anti-people character of the laws like TADA and POTA by
asking how many terrorists had actually been booked under these laws, which
had in fact been targeted at democratic struggles, poor tribals and peasant
activists. He expressed his solidarity with the struggle of the CPI(ML) for
the release of 14 convicted under TADA and 17 others who are facing TADA
cases though the Act is now not in existence. He questioned the UPA govt.
for it agrees to repeal POTA but has said nothing whether it will be with
retrospective effect or not. By enacting black laws, they intend to make the
people of the nation more and more insecure, he said.

CPI(ML) leader from Jehanabad Mahanand presented a detailed account of
repression of agri. labourers by the feudal-kulak-criminal-police nexus
enjoying protection of the state government that led to the conviction for
life for 14 activists of the CPI(ML) while 17 are still facing charges under
TADA in the district court of Jehanabad. He spoke of the Arwal TADA case of
1988, in which a dispute over the harvest of singhada pond was the excuse
for imposing TADA on innocent citizens arrested at random (including 2
children aged 13 and 14) as well as local leaders of agrarian and democratic
struggles. The main accused in this case, who along with 13 others has been
sentenced to life imprisonment by a TADA court, is Shah Chand, founding
secretary of Inquilabi Muslim Conference, and a former mukhiya whose work to
introduce innovations in canal irrigation and development work free from
corruption was hailed by the official quarters as the "Chand Model". Shah
Chand and 13 others are in jail today, the Supreme Court having upheld the
TADA court judgement in which the possession of easily available Marxist and
Kisan Sabha literature is the only 'evidence' cited.
In another case from Jehanabad, 17 agricultural labourers face trial under
TADA. They found themselves charged under TADA in 1989 when they complained
to a labour inspector of a wage dispute. Amazingly, the "social justice"
government of RJD, a key ally of the UPA, has chosen to open the TADA cases
against the likes of Shankar Mehtar, a sweeper, Vijay Paswan and other dalit
labourers, whose only crime was that of protesting against the public
humiliations and paltry wages imposed by feudal landlords- a shame in
independent India. Notably the TADA case (in the selfsame district of Bihar)
against a notorious chieftain of the 'Sawarn Liberation Front' (an upper
caste private army), Ramadhar Singh, stands withdrawn.

Social scientist Yogendra Yadav, journalist Anil Chamadia, writer Pankaj
Bisht, and poet Pankaj Singh also participated in the convention.

Kuldeep Nayyar concluded by calling for a movement against the state
machinations which brand the movements of the poor and marginalised as
"terrorism". He appealed to the leaders of the Left parties supporting the
govt. to exert much more pressure on the UPA govt. for repealing POTA and
TADA. He also expressed his feelings saying that if the govt. does not pay
any serious attention they should resign from the Co-ordination Committee of
the UPA in protest against the continued use of such draconian laws.
The Convention adopted resolutions against anti-national, anti-democratic
draconian laws and ended with resolve to intensify the movement against
them.



RESOLUTIONS

(Adopted at the Citizens' Convention Against TADA, POTA held in New Delhi on
6 August 2004)

It is with great concern that we note that nine years after TADA was allowed
to lapse the state is still using it to crush political dissent and
democratic protest. It is shocking that this draconian law is still in use
while most political parties have agreed that its successor, POTA, should be
repealed.
In the case of the Bhadasi village of Arwal Police Station (Bihar) 14 well
known CPI(ML) activists, including Shah Chand, Dr Jagdish Yadav, Churaman
Bhagat and Arun Bharati, who have struggled against social inequalities,
police repression and feudal terror of the landlords, were charged and
punished under TADA in the trial conducted in August 2003 by the sessions
court of Jehanabad. In April 2004, the Supreme too upheld this verdict
treating peasant leaders as terrorists and peasant association manuals as
terrorist literature. This case clearly indicates nine years after TADA was
allowed to lapse, the draconian law is still being used as a tool for
political victimisation.
Two other TADA trials are also going on in Jehanabad, in the Mehandia thana
case no 1/90, 17 agrarian labourers are being tried under TADA, by the same
Jehanabad court. The case has its origins in a wage strike of agricultural
labourers in Belsar panchayat of Kaler block in 1989, when they complained
to the Labour Inspector against the Panchayat Mukhia, Vijay Narain Sharma.
The Mukhia, who is now with the Ranveer Sena, implicated the labourers on
concocted charges of making an attempt on his life! In another case no.
108/89 under Kako P.S. of Jehanabad district, as many as fifty-two
agricultural labourers and poor peasants are being victimised under TADA.
We find it particularly galling that in a district notorious for police
repression and massacres of the oppressed rural poor, TADA has not been
applied against any guilty police official or feudal oppressor. In the only
one case in which TADA was invoked against a feudal oppressor (Ramadhar
Singh alias Diamond, founder of the notorious Sunlight Sena and prime
accused in Sawanbigha massacre of 21.09.91 in which six dalit agricultural
labourers were killed) it was withdrawn soon after. On the other hand as
many as 16 TADA cases have been slapped on CPI(ML) activists in the
district.
We find that laws like POTA and TADA erase the vital difference between
democratic protest and terrorism and must therefore necessarily be repealed.
As persons concerned about human rights violations and political
intimidation of activists of democratic movement  we feel that draconian
laws like TADA and POTA can have no place in a democracy.
 We also condemn the recent incident of rape and murder of a woman in
Manipur by the armed forces' personnel. This is a glaring example of one
more such repressive and discriminatory Acts, the "Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act 1958" which is widely being used by the armed forces as a
licence to abuse, rape and even murder of womenfolk, raids and tortures of
common people and to suppress democratic movements particularly in the
north-east and other bordering states.
Hence we demand that :
.        The parliament repeals POTA.
.        The union government ensures that all cases under TADA or POTA are
summarily withdrawn.
.        The union government ensures unconditional and immediate release of
all social and political activists detained under POTA and TADA.
.        The Bihar government withdraws the cases filed under TADA and
ensures the release of the 14 persons sentenced to life imprisonment, in the
Bhadasi case of Arwal as well as of 4 dalits sentenced to death under TADA
in the Bara case.
.        The "Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958" is withdrawn with
immediate effect from Manipur and other affected states.



Join
Jan Sunwai
(People's Tribunal)
Against
Imposition of TADA on Agricultural labourers in Bihar

Organised by
All India Agricultural Labour Association
(A I A L A)

To be held on
12 August , 2004
At
Ravindra Bhavan, Patna



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