Expose SFI-CPM's Lies! Stand by Lalgarh's Struggle against State Repression!

Masses make their own histories, not in the best of circumstances

of their own choice but in the circumstances given to them. -Marx
The old is dying and the new is struggling to be born;

in this interregnum there arises a great diversity of morbid symptoms. -Gramsci

.........

As more and more write-ups and commentaries on the people's uprising in Lalgarh is pouring in, it is important to respond to some of the salient points that keep coming up albeit couched in political sophistry. Whether it is from the sensation-crazed media or from Karats to Yechury, Biman Bose or Buddhadeb and their likes in the Liberation, or the SFI and AISA in this campus, all have striking similarities. The most striking aspect which also speaks volumes of their political bankruptcy is their latent and mortal fear to accept that people, the masses of the people, can also think. They do have a political will determined by their objective and subjective experiences of the harsh realities of eking out a livelihood in some of the most economically backward regions of the subcontinent. This is a deliberate vice of all ruling class ideologies and their practitioners to portray people as lifeless beings, empty receptacles who can only be 'gullible' and 'innocent'. So like the "white man's burden" it is for the righteous CPM, Liberation and their torchbearers in the campus -including some of the learned faculty- to show the people the 'true' path. But this path is of servility to the existing exploitative, blood-thirsty policies promoted by all the political parties that have put their money-bags in the parliament.

Why are these parties insisting that the people of Lalgarh are gullible, ignorant, innocent, illiterate…? It is only in that way they can justify their massive police-paramilitary build up in the region to 'liberate' the people from the clutches of the Maoists who have led them astray under the barrel of the gun. What CPM, Liberation, SFI and AISA is conveniently forgetting is that the same people of Lalgarh has long been fighting the harmads, the fascist goons of the CPM armed to the teeth with ammunition provided from the government ordinance factories. These storm-troopers were the forces through which the CPM used to maintain their control over the people, enforce elections, corner government money meant for the development of the adivasis, and maintain an informers' network which used to work in tandem with the police. So to say the Maoists have terrorised the people of Lalgarh into submission to indulge in their 'infantile disorder' is to refuse to admit the bold and daring initiative of the masses of Jangalkhand, their efforts to build a future free from all forms of exploitation and domination. The efforts to build health centres, roads linking up all the villages, small check dams and other water harvesting methods through which they have managed two crops a season are all definite indicators of the political will of the people, their vision of their future. Through these efforts where the people -adivasis and dalits were at the centre of development and not CPM and its village strongmen - the impoverished masses of Lalgarh has succeeded in freeing themselves from CPM's stranglehold in the last eight months of the movement against state repression, and to reverse their dependency on migratory labour outside the region. This people who have dared to manage their own future can rebel against any form of domination and exploitation, and as per SFI if the Maoists are doing that, then they too will be taught a lesson by the masses. The People's Committee have given an open call for everyone to visit these areas to have a first hand knowledge of what is becoming and what is passing away in the unfolding struggle of Lalgarh. Perhaps the SFI and AISA members should go to these areas and see the initiative of the masses for themselves, and discover the truth.

SFI was quoting Mao perhaps to teach the DSU a lesson or two on the need for politics to be in command of all the actions by the revolutionaries. But strangely one thing that is missing in all the SFI and AISA pamphlets was politics from the point of view of the oppressed, deprived, discriminated and exploited. While reading Mao, SFI might have also come across this great insight from that Marxist practitioner-to have faith in the masses and only the masses. All the parliamentary parties fear the masses. Whenever the masses rise in revolt they grab the constitution which normally and conveniently they forget. They turn upside down all dissidence of the people into a 'law and order' question. So when Yechury is busy asking Manmohan Singh to show his seriousness by deploying the forces with immediate effect in Lalgarh and adjoining areas, Prakash Karat makes a song and dance about the virtues of dealing with the Maoists politically and 'administratively'. To add to this, Brinda Karat has gone senile to the extent that she has harped on the imperialist backed (for CPM's alleged opposition to the Nuke Deal) efforts of the Congress-Trinamul-'Ultra Left' combine to dislodge a democratically elected government of West Bengal. In all this double-talk of the CPM leaders, their fascist face could not be hidden from the masses. Soon they set the gun on Chidambaram's shoulder to declare the CPI (Maoist) as a terrorist organisation. So much for their political and ideological dealing with the Maoists. They have even declined to differentiate between the Maoists and the members of the People's Committee leading the struggle, paving way for the persecution of one and all resisting state repression. When we look into the arms-haul made from the CPM office in Khejuri near Nandigram-which Mamata Banerjee had declared as 'liberated from the clutches of CPM'-nobody asked as to how a party could have police uniforms and ammunition from the ordinance factories in its office. Predictably, there was no police-paramilitary operation against Mamata's 'liberated' Khejuri. This also shows the class character of ruling class oppression of all forms of dissent -whether armed or unarmed- that are genuinely from the masses of the people. As long as it is turf war between CPM and Trinamul, Congress or BJP, it is not a law and order question.

SFI has blamed the Maoists for making people's struggles a 'law and order' question. Does that mean the people do not have any right to defend themselves against the flagrant violation of their right to livelihood, dignity, and security? There was also an indication that in Kandhamal it was due to the Maoist killing of the Hindu Fascist Lakshmanananda that the people of Kandhamal had to suffer the persecution of the RSS-Bajrang Dal goons. So does that mean by the same standards, the people of Lalgarh have to suffer in the hands of the security forces because the Maoists sided with the oppressed masses? The SFI should come clear. They would make even an RSS and ABVP proud with their findings, which lacks any class analysis and reads like the handout of the officialdom.

Today anyone who defiantly speak against the anti-people policies of the government and at the same time keep all ruling class parties away from their struggle are branded Maoists. And Chidambaram-Buddha combine have also called the Maoists as terrorists. The SFI taking cue from that has also started profiling the very ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. If they have differences with the ideology of the revolutionaries, they should state first their ideological-political differences. Who is the genuine representative of the revolutionary ideals of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao and all people's heroes will be determined by those who have dared to make their own histories not in circumstances of their own choice but in circumstances given to them. Lalgarh and its people have dared to do it. The progressive and democratic forces including the Maoists have said they are with them. It is only the CPM, SFI, Liberation and AISA by indulging in duplicity have turned against the fighting masses, or are parroting the oft-repeated sophistry that 'innocent' [read ignorant] people are caught between the state and the Maoists. They should know that the failure of the revisionist CPM in West Bengal or Kerala does not mean the defeat of communist ideology in the subcontinent. It only shows the failure of a party that turned against the cause of social change by caricaturing Marxism, by becoming a part of the Indian ruling class, and thereby the trusted agents of imperialism, feudalism and the big bourgeoisie. The complete failure of CPM in addressing the genuine demands of the adivasis and poor peasants even after their 30 years of virtual reign in West Bengal is a tell-tale sign of the party's deviation from the basics of Marxist politics. Their reactionary political ideology as is visible from the failure of land redistribution among the masses, and also from the invitation to the Tatas and Jindals for establishing the industries at the cost of poor peasants and adivasis. It is no different from Congress and BJP's pro-imperialist political line.

Branding anyone who is standing against state oppression as Maoists has become a license to torture and kill. And it is not a new tactic, it was employed when dalit Christians were burnt alive by the RSS goons in Orissa, in persecuting adivasis in the name of Salwa Judum, in the cold-blooded murder of adivasi youths on mere suspicion of being Maoist supporters in Chattisgarh, and in the present state repression in Lalgarh. The SFI is trying hard to justify the butchering of poor adivasis because they have started to resist the perpetuation of decades of organized and systemic violence on the most oppressed sections of the society. The SFI is ruing the punishment of Avijit Mahatos and Anuj Pandeys of the CPM, who has generated people's wrath because of their fascist stranglehold over the poor masses. SFI must understand that Marxist politics is not what is propagated by CPM, but what is manifested by the conviction of Lalgarh's adivasi masses to fight against the ruling class's dictatorship. No amount of 'course-correction' and 'introspection' can save CPM from its eminent doom, and no amount of repression can break the resolve of the heroic Lalgarh masses for their liberation.

Fight the Communal-Fascist ABVP and the Sangh Giroh!

(The following is the statement signed by more than fifty JNU students against ABVP's fascist call for state repression on DSU and its activists for upholding its political belief:)

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn ABVP and its demand for persecution of DSU and its activists. ABVP in their pamphlet of 23rd June has asked for imposition of draconian laws like UAPA on DSU and its activists. It said ‘We demand that DSU office bearers should be immediately arrested and booked under the provisions of UAPA . The administration should immediately stop the activities of DSU by seizing its literature, propaganda materials, its accounts and office’. This is nothing but an open call for fascist repression by the state and the administration on a section of the JNU’s students for their political belief and exercising their democratic right to organize themselves and to dissent.

It is no surprise that it comes from ABVP which is threatened by a progressive and democratic students’ movement on campus, as well as by militant people’s movements outside. The communal-fascist ABVP and its masters RSS-BJP-Bajrang Dal-VHP brigade is known for targeting and repressing minority communities, dalits, adivasis, women as well as others who dare to question and resist their Hindu-fundamentalist agenda. They are also known to use the state apparatus in furthering their politics of repression. By using the same weapon that the state uses to carry out its repression on people’s movements, by terming them as ‘terrorist’, ‘Maoist’ etc. the ABVP and its like now are trying to target student’s organizations and activists in JNU. We will collectively resist any such nefarious design by the ABVP, or its protectors, the administration and the state.

Rape as instrument of oppression: Down with the use of systematic sexual violence against Kashmiri women! Punish the guilty in the Shopian rape case!

North East, Kashmir, Gujarat, Orissa, Chengara, Nandigram, Lalgarh.…be it the Communal-Fascist BJP or Social-Fascist CPM, Sexual violence has been the weapon of choice in the state’s repressive arsenal, whatever may parliamentary party in power be. Women become the most vulnerable targets of violence during war, communal violence or military occupation. That is the reason why, even in movements of the landless peasants, Dalits and Tribals, women forms the most militant section of a struggling population. In Nandigram, Singur, Lalgarh or anywhere else where land was being grabbed or the state and ruling parties has unleashed its violence upon the people, women were seen taking the lead in the struggle against it. Sexual violence has become the best weapon for the state to crush this surging tide of rebellion. Rape is used as an instrument of subjugation. The names of Tapasi Mallick and Manorama Devi are still fresh in our memories. The rape of adivasi women in Bastar by the state forces or the notorious Salwa Judum that has unleashed a reign of terror through rape and other forms of sexual assault, demonstrates the particular vulnerability of women. Similarly the Sri Lankan armed forces have been accused for decades for systematic violence of Tamil women.

The case of the rape and murder of two women in Shopian in Kashmir on May 29 by the security forces has again exposed the real face of the Indian state. This is the same state that is now yelling for ‘law and order’ situation in Lalgarh, the place where the CPM goons/Harmads in nexus with police/CRPF has been sexually assaulting women and other since a long time. In this Shopian dual rape and murder case, the state government initially denied any incident of rape, but later medical reports established that women were gangraped by 15-18 men. That the Jammu and Kashmir state administration and police was involved in a cover-up and destruction of evidence in the Shopian cases has been proved even by the state-appointed judicial commission. The commission report describes in detail the involvement of all state officials right from the police officials to the medical officers in hushing-up the case and passing it off as accidental death by drowning. The government was forced to take some action following massive protests in Shopian and across the state. But the culprits have not yet been caught due to the destruction of substantial evidence by the police and district officials, and the guilty officials too have not been punished sufficiently. The people in Kashmir have yet again come out to protest in large numbers demanding punishment against the culprits, but more importantly demanding the repeal of AFSPA, and an end to the terror of security forces. It is only because of the mounting protests and public outrage that the state government woke up after its week-long silence and was forced to order an enquiry. It was the collective public anger that forced the police to register a case of murder and rape, which it had refused to do till now.

This particular incident of rape is one among the many that take place on regular basis in the Kashmir that has been militarized and occupied by Indian security forces. In both Kashmir and the Northeast, time and again cases of abuse by the troops have come to light, but the state has never punished them for their crimes. According to a 1994 UN report, there were 882 rape cases by the security forces in Kashmir between 1990-92. According to Indian National Human Rights Commission, there were 1,039 cases of human rights violations (which include, rapes, terrorizing, abduction & killing of innocent women, children and youngsters & communal violence) by the security forces from 1990-1999, an average of 109 per year. These are just the official figures. The real numbers must be even higher as most of the cases go unreported out of sheer fear. As we know there are all legal measures to shield these illegal actions done under the cover of the AFSPA in Kashmir and North-east, PSA (Kashmir), the Disturbed Areas Act (DAA) etc. Draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) grants enormous powers to the security forces, to search, arrest, detain or shoot-to-kill anyone on the basis of suspicion-of course all in the name of ‘maintaining public order’ in so called ‘disturbed areas’. The abuse of power by security forces has resulted in incidents of arbitrary detention, torture, rape, molestation, harrasement and killing. It also protects military personnel responsible for serious crimes from prosecution, creating a pervasive culture of impunity.

The people of Kashmir have long been subjected to terror, abuse and brutality of the Indian security forces. The armed occupation of the valley is the biggest method of the Indian state of controlling the popular aspirations of the people for self-determination. The people of the valley have consistently fought against state repression and occupation. The Shopian rape and murder case has pushed people to the brink of tolerance of state and army’s violence and has again made them come out on the streets in large numbers to demand justice and independence of Kashmir.

Stop para-military operation in Lalgarh! Stop atrocities on the protesting people in the name of ‘flushing out’ Maoists!

A war is being waged by the Indian state on the most marginalized people of Lalgarh and Jangal Mahal (the forested and tribal dominated areas of Medinipur, Bankura and adjoining districts) in West Bengal right now. 11 companies of Para military forces including 6 Companies of BSF, one company of CoBRA have been deployed. 11 more companies of CRPF (and if required the notorious Grey Hounds) are on their way. This huge number of army is being posted to “sanitize” the entire Lalgarh, Shalboni, Ramgarh and Goaltor Block, off a ‘handful of Maoists’! Thus ‘Operation Lalgarh’ has become the news of the day. Unfortunately even after the sixth day of operation this huge army with its full force has failed to ‘flush out the handful of Maoists’. Rather, what they have been doing in the name of ‘combating Maoists’ is to unleash utter state terror on the villagers. The same villagers who had ‘dared’ to boycott police for the last seven months as a retaliation to the extreme terror unleashed on them on last November, were beaten mercilessly by the police and para-military on their way to the ‘operation’. They have been dragged out of their houses, beaten up ruthlessly and forced to stay in ‘relief camps’. They have been used to detect land mines. Their drinking water has been polluted at a number of places by the para-military. Their houses have been ransacked. A number of cases of molestation of women have also been reported in the media. The women have been specially beaten around their private parts. The local schools have been turned into temporary ‘relief’ camps. It is exactly the Salwa Judum model that is being replicated in West Bengal. The colour of the flag notwithstanding, its once again clear that all parliamentary political parties will unleash the same kind of terror whenever people rise up to challenge their power, question their authority and demand for justice and rights. The state government is showing bonhomie with their ‘arch enemy’ Congress while planning the state terror. The ‘ideological differences’ always vanish when the ruling parties ally with each other against the people. Thus Buddhadeb has vested full faith in his political opponent Chidambaram and the Congress, a bigger expert in state terror, rather than listening to his own people, and now the state has forbidden any independent scrutiny of the paramilitary operations in fear of public outcry against it.

The CPM-led state government is carrying out a massacre in the name of its ‘operation’ against ‘Maoists’ in Lalgarh, and is forcing people to stay in relief camps. The bourgeois media is hiding the fact that the thousands of villagers are being forced to run away from their homes ever since the ‘operation’ began, out of fear of persecution and torture by the security forces. Despite severe repression, many thousands are still resisting the entry of armed security forces by blockading the roads and retaliating state violence by using their traditional weapons. The armed forces are moving forward only by tear-gassing, brutally lathi-charging and beating up the protesting masses. TV images clearly show the police and CRPF openly dragging people out of their houses, and thrashing them with rifle butts, and also vandalizing entire villages. Yet, the media is silent about the blatant police brutality on the villagers, betraying its true class character.

This area of Jangal Mahal has seen extreme backwardness, hunger deaths, malnutrition and lack of development. The government for the last sixty two years since the so-called independence, including the 30 years of the so–called left government has done virtually nothing for the people. There are no roads, no electricity, absolutely no health facility or any sources of livelihood inside the villages. More shockingly there has been no provision for irrigation and drinking water in these extremely dry regions. The people here were forced to live an inhuman life for years. As the discontent of the people developed into a resistance against the government since 1996, state repression intensified in these areas. The CRPF was first deployed way back in 2006. Since then the people of this region have faced extreme state terror. The police regularly arrested people in mere suspicion without producing any legal ground. There have been forcible ‘checks and raids’ in the houses at night by the police when they used to ransack houses, beat up people and molest women. The CPM played two roles in the areas. The leaders siphoned off the entire money allotted for developmental activities while the cadres worked as informers to the police about the various political affiliations of the people. As a result regularly before any elections many non-CPM activists of various organizations were picked up as ‘Maoists’. The anger of the people therefore is directed massively against the CPM cadres and leaders in these regions. The natural outburst of that was seen when a thousand people gathered to demolish the palatial house of CPM leaders.

This is not an armed clash between the state and the ‘Maoists’ as the corporate media would like us to believe. For the Indian state, anyone who challenges its authority and power, and fights for an end of the exploitative system, is termed a ‘Maoist’. In that case, the tens of thousands of people of lalgarh and jangal mahal area can be labeled as ‘Maoists’ because they are all fighting the state. This also nullifies the argument coming from some sections of the media, and even the intelligentsia, that the adivasis are stuck between the Maoists and the state. Those making this ridiculous claim fail to see that the people have organized and are fighting their own battle. In this struggle, the people of jangal mahal have not only shown a model of resistance but have also attempted to undertake basic developmental work on their own, which the Indian state and the CPM deprived them of. The state with its full force wants to repress this movement, so that it does not become a model for all the other oppressed and struggling people of the country. But the state cannot stop Lalgarh from becoming a glorious example of people’s struggle against exploitation, against state repression and for social justice, like it could not stop Nandigram or Naxalbari from becoming part of the legacy of militant people’s resistance.

LALGARH: The Bastion of People’s Resistance against State Repression

Continued state repression had been underway in Lalgarh and its adjacent areas from November 2008, after the landmine blast on the convoy of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, while he was returning from the inauguration of the SEZ of Jindal Steels in Salboni, about 50 kilometres from Lalgarh. In the name of arresting ‘Maoists’, the police went on a rampage arbitrarily arresting villagers, most of them adivasis, and beating them up mercilessly, leaving three persons dead with many gravely injured. These well-planned brutalities have been targeted particularly against women and children. Following this the people had formed the Pulishi Santrash Birodhi Janasadharoner Committee (PSBJC) or the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities to resist the fascist onslaught of the CPI(M)-run state machinery. Lalgarh and other areas were made out-of-bounds for the security forces in order to prevent them from carrying out their atrocities. In this moment of sharply divided battle-line between the adivasi peasants and the State reminiscent of the great Naxalbari uprising, DSU felt the need to visit Lalgarh with the aim of extending solidarity to the ongoing people’s movement, and to bring out the ground reality that has been deliberately overlooked or maliciously obscured by the mainstream corporate media and pro-state forces. A nine-member DSU fact-finding team visited Lalgarh from 7th to 10th June 2009. The team visited over 25 villages in that region and interacted extensively with the people. From these interactions it had become clear that the incidents of police atrocities in November last year were not unique, but merely a continuation of such state and police terror that the people of the region have been subjected to since 2000. What is unique this time is the people’s resistance, which has taken an organized and sustained shape this time around.

The history of police atrocities: The people in all the villages we visited conclusively verified police torture. They described how the police used to enter their houses very late at night, and in the name of ‘raids’ and ‘checks’ vandalized their houses and mercilessly beat them up, how any movement of the villagers at night even to look for their cattle was enough to act as proof for them being ‘Maoists’. Almost every family had one or more members who had been booked for being a ‘Maoist’. We were told about the 90 year old Maiku Murmu of Teshabandh who was beaten to death by the police way back in 2006. Young school girls were regularly molested by the police in the pretext of ‘body checks’. Women were forced to show their genitals at night during ‘raids’ in the pretext of confirming their gender. Before every election 30-40 people from every village would be picked up as ‘Maoists’ in order to weaken the opposition to the ruling CPI(M). The incident of police brutality in Chhotopelia, where a number of women were ruthlessly beaten up and one of them Chhitamoni lost her eye, acted as the last straw. The arrest of three students on the baseless charge of ‘waging war against the state’ further enraged the people. Lalgarh have now risen up-in-arms against this long drawn atrocities and organised oppression of the CPI(M) and the entire exploitative system they represent.

CPI(M)’s white terror: For the villagers, police terror was coupled with the terror unleashed by the social-fascist CPI(M). In fact, the police and CPI(M) are not just in alliance with each other, they meant one and the same thing for the villagers. In Madhupur, the local panchayat office had been turned into a camp of the harmad vahini [armed CPI(M) goons]. They told us how the ‘motor cycle army’ of the harmads roamed around the villages, terrorizing people, tearing down their houses, firing in the air, and beating people up, exactly the same way they used to operate in Nandigram. The police not only stood as mute spectators whenever the harmads went on a rampage, it supported them in all possible ways. The harmads even used police jeeps to move around. To return these ‘favours’, the local CPI(M) cadres acted as informers for the police. We met one villager whose house was demolished by the harmad, during which he kept calling the police for help, but they never came. Similarly, they narrated the incident of Khash Jongol where the harmads open fired on a village meeting and killed three people, injuring three others. It was only after an armed resistance was put up by the villagers, that the harmads were forced to retreat to Memul and then to Shijua. It is the same CPI(M) which is today shamelessly describing the resistance in Lalgarh as ‘anarchy’, whereas all this while its own cadres were perpetuating a reign of terror on the people. Recently the local CPI(M) leaders with active help of the police floated the so called Maoist Resistance Force with 200 cadres to terrorize the masses and collect ‘taxes’ on the stretch of the highway they controlled. Abhijit Mahato, which SFI celebrates as a ‘student leader’, along with many others were its local ring leaders. This way, the state and CPI(M) wanted to replicate the notorious Salwa-Judum style operations against the militant adivasis of West Bengal. It is therefore no surprise that masses themselves have now decided to retaliate and punish such criminals.

Who is really anti-development? This entire region in Midnapore (as also the districts of Bankura and Purulia) is marked by extreme poverty and backwardness. Agriculture is dependent on rainfall, which is scanty. We saw the dysfunctional government canal, which is lying dry. Villagers showed us the pathetic condition of roads which become completely inaccessible during the monsoon. About the state of medical facilities, the less said the better, with not a single functioning health centre for miles. Villagers have extremely limited sources of livelihood, depending largely only on picking of saal leaves and cultivation of limited crops. Starvation-deaths in the neighbouring Amlasol shows the precarious the lives of the adivasis in this region are, while the CPI(M) members continue to amass huge wealth at their expense. This is the real face of the CPI(M)’s ‘pro-poor’ rule of 30 years. Today it is branding as ‘anti-development’ those forces which are challenging the oppressive state machinery. A living proof against this typical propaganda is the developmental work done by the Committee against Police Atrocities. The Committee was formed against police atrocities but has also been carrying out people-centred developmental work in Lalgarh region in the past seven months. On its own has made 20 km of roads with red stone chips (‘morrum’), with villagers volunteering their labour. They have repaired several tubewells, and have installed new ones at half the price than the panchayat. They have also started constructing a check dam in Bohardanga to fight the water crisis. Two major works undertaken by the committee is the process of land distribution and running a health center in Katapahari. The government was supposed to distribute wasteland among the landless, but never did so. Now the Committee is taking initiative in Banshberi and other villages to distribute the wasteland adjacent to the forests to the landless people. We witnessed the distribution of the patta in one village. The Committee has also turned a dysfunctional building in Katapahari into a health center, which attends to more than 150 patients every day. Organs of people’s political power are being developed by the villagers throughout the region, with village after village forming people’s committees to look after their own needs and taking decisions for their benefit in a collective manner. Today in more than 200 villages there exist such committees, which have become the real institutions of people’s democracy. This makes it clear who is in favour of development for the poorer and marginalized classes and communities, and who is against it. As the nodal organisation of the people, the PSBJC is fulfilling the tasks of people-centric development and redistribution of wealth that the ruling classes of the country could never achieve in the last 60 years of so-called independence.

We also observed that the CPI (Maoist) enjoys mass support of the people in this area. Its posters could be seen everywhere. We were informed by the villagers that Maoists have held meetings attended by thousands of people. The villagers seemed very clear about the need for an armed resistance in the face of regular joint attacks by the state and CPI(M), and in anticipation of a brutal all-round assault. The restriction imposed by the state on adivasis against carrying their traditional weapons is another sign that the state is threatened by the collective strength of the oppressed masses of Lalgarh.

The ‘anarchy’ of the state vs. the resistance of the people: Our team was witness to the genuine anger and suffering of the people of Lalgarh. Therefore, we strongly condemn the media branding of the resistance there as ‘anarchy’ and ‘lawlessness’. We also believe that the police, administration and CPI(M) are solely responsible for the current situation in Lalgarh. In the past few days, people have demolished houses of local CPI(M) leaders and some of their party offices in the area. The crowds were jubilant as they tore down the house of CPI(M) leader Anuj Pandey because, as we too witnessed, the common people now have nothing but utter hatred for CPI(M) mis-rule and terror. The sight of the lone palatial house of this CPI(M) leader in the sea of poverty of Lalgarh was a disgusting proof of what the CPI(M) actually stands for in this state. People are demolishing CPI(M)’s party offices with their traditional weapons with the same anger that they are demolishing police camps. Every rally or meeting held by the PSBJC in the area is attended by people in their thousands. Our team was witness to one such big rally on 7th June attended by about 12000 people from various villages across the district, as well as several other meetings across the area during our visit. Inspite of seeing this organized assertion by the adivasis for their dignity and freedom, the CPI(M) has the audacity to claim that the adivasis are being ‘used as human shields’ by the Maoists. They are claiming to have the overwhelming support of the adivasis as proved by their victory in the Jhargram seat in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The hollowness of this claim can be understood by the fact that just about 12 % votes was cast in the region with an overwhelming majority boycotting the polls, and this 12% represents the combined ‘strength’ of all the parliamentary parties in the region, including the CPI(M), Trinamool and Congress!

In the dictionary of the ruling class, ‘anarchy’ and ‘terror’ are words to describe the organized resistance of the masses who have been pushed to the brink. These words are not meant for the armed gangs and mercenary armies of the rulers who attack, kill or suppress people to maintain their iron-grip over state-power and people’s lives. CPI(M) is crying hoarse about their party being ‘attacked’ in Khejuri, but it maintains a silence about the seizure of the huge cache of arms from its members in Khejuri last week. It is an open secret that CPI(M) and Trinamool possess more arms and ammunition than any other political force in the region.

Things stand at a crucial stage in Lalgarh today. With the entry of the central and state armed forces, nothing short of a full-scale war and a large-scale massacre of the fighting people can be expected. Rather than starting discussions on the people’s charter of demands which enumerates the problems faced by people of Lalgarh, the state is resorting to brute force, which is the only answer that it knows to a legitimate struggle of the oppressed. During the first day’s face-off yesterday, more than 50 peaceful protestors have been arrested, and 65 were injured due to the unprovoked assault by the security forces. Following on the heels of the state forces, CPI(M)’s harmads too have entered Lalgarh today and demolished the People’s Health Centre at Chakadoba. SFI is now that a democratic country cannot tolerate anarchy and lawlessness. This democratic country that SFI believes in can most definitely tolerate years of poverty, backwardness, state repression and brutality. CPI(M) and its ivory-tower ‘intellectuals’ can condemn mass movements of the oppressed classes. But the masses of Lalgarh have resolved to continue their fight to the finish. They are finally beginning to taste a life free of state terror and are participating in their own development, which they are ready to protect at all costs. In the different villages we visited, many residents held one opinion in common, ‘we have got independence for the first time’. The fight eventually is for much more than freedom from terror alone. It is a fight to end exploitation of one human by another, and the people of Lalgarh are showing the way to us in that struggle. No amount of fascist state–terror and repression can crush the people’s aspiration for freedom and justice. Red salute to the heroic masses of Lalgarh!

'Stop Police-military action in Lalgarh! Resolve problems through discussions!'

Let us look at the context of the present situation in Lalgarh. Ever since the police committed atrocities in November last, people’s discontent took the form of a mass rebellion against state terror. The joint attacks by the police and the main ruling party were repulsed by the adivasi people of the area under the leadership of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities. Four members of the committee lost their lives as a result of such attacks.

Despite persistent demands for the punishment of those policemen who committed crimes, the state government has done absolutely nothing in this regard. On the contrary, in the post-election period, they had made the blueprint for police action and further complicated the situation by arresting some people on cooked-up charges. On 12 June at Dharampur, the hermads (goons) of the main ruling party launched attacks against the members of the People’s Committee. The consequent resistance against such attacks took the form of a mass revolt and the residence of a person identified as an oppressor and his party office was attacked.

We hold that the inefficiency of the State government as also the backing given to unholy forces by them have created such an explosive situation. The steps the state government has taken for its ‘solution’ will create a dangerous situation and lead to more bloodshed. The employment of the central para-military force and the butcher ‘cobra’ units effectively implies declaration of war against the people. Needless to say, it would close the door for the restoration of democratic atmosphere.

We believe that the Lalgarh struggle is rooted in centuries of deprivation, exploitation and humiliation. It is rooted in socio-economic exploitation. It can never be an ‘administrative’ or ‘law and order’ problem. The question is political, not military. We condemn in unequivocal terms this deployment of para-military forces by the state and central governments in Lalgarh. We maintain that the state should immediately come out of this path of bloody confrontation and sit down for talks with the representatives of the struggling people of Jangal Mahal and make a sincere attempt to arrive at a solution.

Kolkata, 18-6-09

Signatories:

Mahasweta Devi, Aparna Sen, Bibhas Chakrabarty, Sujato Bhadra, Amit Bhattacharyya, Joy Goswami, Subhendu Dasgupta, manas Joardar, Chaitali Datta, Tarun Naskar, Tarun Sanyal, Pallab Kirtaniya, Kalyan Roy, Bratya Basu, Shanta Dey, Bhaskar Gupta, Debabrata Panda, Jibankrishna Dey, Debaprasad Roychoudhuri, Sanchita Bhoumik, Kamala Adak, Gopa Mitra, Layla Khaled, Ratna Sengupta, Ranjan Chakraborty, Siddhartha Saha, Sukhendu Bhattacharya, Gopa Mukherjee, Debashis Goswami, Dipanan Roychoudhry and many others.

A Preliminary Report on the Lalgarh Movement by the DSU Fact-finding Team

A 9 member DSU fact-finding team comprising of students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and journalists recently visited Lalgarh, to probe into the reality of the ongoing movement of the people in the area. Here is a preliminary account of our observations. We would like to appeal to you to highlight on certain issues of the movement, which have so far been overlooked and neglected by the media.

We heard through various media and other sources that massive state repression had been underway in Lalgarh and other adjacent areas since November 2008, after the attempted mine blast on the convoy of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. We had learnt of the incidents of rampant police atrocities after this land mine blast, especially on women and school children in the area. Following this the people there had formed the Pulishi Santrash Birodhi Janasadharoner Committee (PSBJC) or the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) and have blockaded Lalgarh and other adjoining areas from police and other administration. With these preliminary facts in hand, we visited Lalgarh from 7 to 10 June, 2009. The team visited the villages of Chhotapelia, Katapahari, Bohardanga, Sijua, Dain Tikri, Sindurpur, Madhupur, Babui Basha, Shaluka, Moltola Kadoshol, Basban, Papuria, Komladanga, pukhria, Korengapara, gopalnagar, Khash jongol, Shaalboni, Shaal danga, Andharmari, Darigera, Bhuladanga, Chitaram Dahi, Teshabandh, Bhuladanga and talked extensively to people. We attended a big meeting called by the People’s Committee in Lodhashuli on the 7th of June and witnessed other small meetings which were held inside the villages. A firing and frontal battle between the people on the one hand and the state and armed gangs of the CPM on the other, in Dharampura and Madhupur/Shijua had started during our stay in Lalgarh.

The visit to Lalgarh and interaction with the people broke many of the myths which we still held before going there. After listening to the chronological narrative of the history of police atrocities in the area, we realized that the November incidents were not unique. It was merely the continuation of extreme state terror and police atrocities that the people of the region have been subjected to since 2000. What is unique this time is the resistance, which has taken an organized and sustained shape this time around.

The people in all the villages we visited conclusively verified police torture. They described how the police entered houses very late at night, and in the name of ‘raids’ and ‘checks’ vandalized their houses and mercilessly beat them up, how any movement of the villagers at night even to look for their cattle was banned. Almost every family had one or more members who had been booked for being a ‘Maoist’. We were told about the 90 year old Maiku Murmu of Teshabandh who was beaten to death by the police way back in 2006. Young school girls were regularly molested by the police in the pretext of ‘body check’. Women were forced to show their genitals at night during ‘raids’ to confirm their gender. Before every election 30-40 people from every village were picked up as ‘Maoists’ in order to weaken the opposition to the ruling CPI (M). The incident of police brutality in Chhotopelia, where a number of women were ruthlessly beaten up and one of them Chhitamoni lost her eye, acted as the last straw. The arrest of three students on the baseless charge of ‘waging war against the state’ further enraged the people. Lalgarh have now risen up-in-arms against this long drawn atrocities and organised oppression of the CPI (M).

For the villagers, police terror was accompanied by the terror unleashed by CPI (M). In fact, the police and CPI (M) are not just in alliance with each other, they meant one and the same thing for the villagers. Our team was taken to Madhupur, where the local panchayat office had been turned into a camp of the harmad vahini (armed gangs of the CPM). They told us how the ‘motor cycle army’ of the harmads roamed around the villages, terrorizing people, breaking their houses brutally, firing in the air, and beating people up, exactly in the same way they did in Nandigram. The police not only stood as mute spectators whenever the harmads went on a rampage, it supported them in all possible ways. The harmads even used police jeeps to move around. To return these ‘favours’, the local CPI (M) cadres acted as informers for the police.

We met one villager whose house was demolished by the harmad, during which he kept calling the police for help, but they never came. Similarly, they narrated the incident of Khash Jongol where the harmads open fired on a village meeting and killed three people, injuring three others. It was only after an armed resistance was put up by the villagers, that the harmads were forced to retreat to Memul and then to Shijua.The Committee was formed against police atrocities but has also been carrying out alternative developmental work inside Lalgarh in the past seven months. These areas are marked by extreme poverty and backwardness. Agriculture is dependent on rainfall which is scanty. We saw the dysfunctional government canal, which is lying dry. They showed us the pathetic condition of roads which become completely inaccessible during the monsoons. The Committee on its own has made 20 km of roads with red stone chips (‘morrum’), with villagers volunteering their labour. They have repaired several tubewells, and have installed new ones at half the price than the panchayat. They have also started constructing a check dam in Bohardanga to fight the water crisis. Two major works undertaken by the committee is the process of land distribution and running a health center in Katapahari. The government was supposed to distribute wasteland among the landless, but never did so. Now the Committee is taking initiative in Banshberi and other villages to distribute the wasteland adjacent to the forests to the landless people. We witnessed the distribution of the patta in one village. The Committee has also turned a dysfunctional building in Katapahari into a health center, which attends to more than 150 patients every day. Doctors from Kolkata and other regions visit there thrice a week.

We had also attended a huge meeting called by the Committee in Lodhashuli against a sponge iron factory located in the region. We visited the factory site and saw the adverse effect of pollution on the trees, water bodies and land. The people informed that even the paddy grown in the region have turned black, so much so that even the panchayat has refused to accept the paddy. The meeting was attended by around 12000 people from many villages of the district, despite a bus strike called by CPM. It was a vibrant meeting, where the committee resolved among other things to boycott the factory and bring about its closure.

The presence of the Maoists within Lalgarh was one of the most contended issues during our visit. Our team observed the presence of Maoists and that they had mass support of the people in this area. Their posters could be seen everywhere. We were informed by the villagers that Maoists have held meetings attended by thousands of people. The people seemed pretty clear about the need for an armed resistance in the face of the regular joint attacks by the CPM and the state. The restriction on carrying traditional arms by them is a clear signal by the state to debilitate this movement.

This team was witness to the genuine anger and suffering of the people. Therefore, we do not agree with many sections sections of the media which brand the resistance there as ‘anarchy’. We also believe that the police, administration and CPM are solely responsible for the current situation in Lalgarh.

By the time we left Lalgarh, the struggle has intensified. By then, the people had been successful in making their immediate enemy CPM to escape along with the police. The enthusiasm we saw in the people was exuberant. For the first time they are being part of not some vote-minting political party but a committee which is their own organization. They are living a life free of state terror and building their own developmental projects. In different villages many residents held one opinion in common, ‘we have got independence for the first time’. Their fight is against age old exploitation, deprivation, torture and terror. In this way, it is a historic fight.

We urge the media to revisit Lalgarh. The movement has its roots in extremely impoverished socio economic conditions increased by the inaction of the state. The state is bound to strike back at this fight of the people. The CRPF and other central forces will soon come with the orders to open fire on the resilient masses. The state government is also shamelessly asking the notorious and infamous Grey hounds and Cobra to come and crush the people’s movement. That will be the most unfortunate and condemnable thing. The anger of the masses against massive state terror, underdevelopment and corruption is valid. And so is the fight against it. This team will publish a detailed report based on our visit about this movement in Lalgarh. We remember the progressive role played by some sections of the media especially the regional media in Bengal progressive role during the Nandigram movement and would appeal to you to also stand by the people of Lalgarh and their genuine fight before the state carries out yet another genocide.