DSU Public Meeting: State Repression and Peoples' Resistance: Experiences from Lalgarh

DSU organised a public meeting on State Repression and People's Resistance: Experiences from Lalgarh on 7th Aug 2009, at 9pm at the KC Open Air Theatre, JNU. More than 400 students attended the meeting, where the DSU Fact-Finding Report on Lalgarh was released by the three speakers: Prof. Amit Bhattacharya of the Jadavpur University, Arundhati Roy the well-known writer, and Madan Kashyap the Hindi poet. The Report is the documentation of a nine-member DSU team's visit to lalgarh, West Bengal from 7 June to 10 June this year, barely a week before the paramilitary operations were unleashed on the masses of Jangalkhand. The following is the transcript of the first few minutes of Ms. Arundhati Roy's speech that evening:

"Very nice to see so many here…. Actually I have read the report and I do want to congratulate the students who wrote it because it really does come across as a very humane document and a document with which it’s pretty hard to argue because it does really make a lot of space for peoples’ voices as opposed to some preachings from some previously indoctrinated position.

I really want to congratulate; very nicely written work… It’ s very comforting to know that people from this university do go out and do listen; I think one of the troubles we are having these days is that people have just stopped listening. Everybody is full of information, full of..., so sure of themselves and even when we appear to be listening we are not really listening! So I think that this document somehow has a lot of listening and I appreciate that. The last line of this report says that ‘Lalgarh should become a model of resistance in the rest of the country’ and… I want to talk about that actually because you have heard quite a lot of detail exactly what are the ins and outs, what the texture of the movement and I just think that it’s pretty clear that the distinctions that are being made in the corporate press and the corporate civil society trying to separate Adivasis and the Maoists and the governments and talk about people being sandwiched in the middle is a very apolitical position which eventually in some cases in a naive and well-intentioned way and in some cases in a pretty malafide and not at all well-intentioned way but... support the status quo and then people talk of peace and what that kind of peace ends up meaning is ‘can you peacefully allow the corporates to take over the land!?’ So Peace is a very contentious word!

I just want to defocus a little bit and talk about the larger scenario that is unfolding in this country. To say that we are in a very dangerous position because over a period of time …. certain things have been put in place and it’s very difficult for people to understand it systemically unless they are very political people. But basically what has happened is what we think of democracy has been emptied out and each of its institutions hollowed out and we have something of a plastic bag above our heads...."

Stand in solidarity with the struggling masses of Lalgarh! Participate in the Lalgarh Solidarity Convention!

Voice your protest against the violations in OBC Reservation! The struggle for social justice must be continued!

After the results for new admissions in all the courses were declared, DSU has already pointed out the gross violations and non-implementation of reservations in JNU, especially the OBC reservation. In MPhil/PhD programmes, the percentage of students selected is 14.5% for SC category, 6.5% for ST category, 11.9% for OBC category and 1.8% for PH students, clearly indicating a shortfall in every category. In MA/MSc/MCA too they are shortfalls in almost every category, and particularly for OBC where the total seats offered is a mere 13.6%! In many Centers the number of OBC students taken is NIL while in some other Centers it is nominal. The administration apparently planned 18% OBC reservation this time but keeping with its casteist track-record, it has again flouted the reservations.

The casteist designs to subvert OBC reservation started right after the declaration of 27% OBC reservation. After the recommendations of Veerappa Moily Committee, 54% seat increase was made conditional to the implementation of 27% reservation. That gave the foremost excuse to the university administrations to implement reservation in a staggering manner, which was three years in JNU. Although the administration has been appropriating the massive amount of funds from UGC and MHRD to ‘build infrastructure’ so that 27% reservation and 54% seat increase can be implemented, in reality there had been a regular and consistent denial of OBC reservation since last year. Earlier with the deprivation points the number of OBC students who could get admission was much higher, more than 20%. Last year after the implementation of the first phase of reservation, which was stipulated at 12%, only 9.95% OBC students could take admission due to the faulty implementation.

First, the faulty ‘Wait-list System’ introduced last year was extremely anti-student, which ensured that students coming from far-flung regions or deprived socio-economic backgrounds are unable to take admission in the short notice. It resulted in the non-fulfillment of quotas in all categories, and an actual reduction of overall seats in JNU. This system was replaced with the old ‘Offer System’ this year as a result of strong student agitation. Another weapon used by the administration to scuttle OBC reservation has been the ‘Ten Point Cut-Off’ for OBC students as a Merit Cut-Off (relaxing ten points from the last marks scored by the last general category student), rather than setting it at the Eligibility Cut-Off (relaxing ten marks from the eligibility marks which is 40). This is casteist, arbitrary and also in complete violation of even the MHRD guidelines in this respect. With the illogic of ‘maintaining merit’, the casteist-communal administration is actually ensuring that seats reserved for OBC candidates are not fulfilled this year too.

Last year there was a massive students’ agitation against non-implementation of reservation along with seat-cut, and the system of waiting list. In the face of the agitation the administration formed two committees, which were supposed to be time-bound and would look into all the violations. The JNUSU leadership also conceded to that and called off the agitation. The two committees however, never met till very late and at the end came up with contradictory recommendations. The Rupamanjari Ghosh Committee suggested same minimum eligibility for general and OBC students, while the Aditya Mukherjee Committee recommended differential minimum eligibility for the two. The administration however chose to do what it was determined to do, and maintained same eligibility criterion for both and set the Ten Points Relaxation at merit cut off. The reluctance, contradiction and undemocratic functioning of these committees prove that they were just a farce and the administration had never taken them seriously.

The role of JNUSU leadership is condemnable in this crucial fight for social justice. Last year the AISA-led JNUSU conceded the fight at the mere administrative assurance of the farcical committees. They, however, did no agitation to ensure that these committees atleast meet. They cribbed and complained at the end when the pointlessness of these two committees were clear but did not confront the administration at all to ensure reservation this year. Very conveniently they remained silent and called no agitation nor mobilise students on the day of the crucial Academic Council Meeting held on the 21st of April. They called for a token protest demo later and buried the issue with no outcome. More shockingly, even after the blatant denial of reservation this year, the JNUSU has not called for a single protest demo or any kind of agitational programme to confront the casteist administration. They held one half-hearted ‘protest meeting’ in the JNUSU office in silence and one public meeting, where too no concrete charter of action was taken. It only reflects their spinelessness along with the NGO-brand of politics which they are practicing despite their ‘Marxist-Leninist’ pretensions. SFI too is silent on this issue. It is understandable since their (il)logic to support the exclusion of ‘creamy layer’ has fallen flat, when seats for OBC students are being left vacant.

Students of JNU have a history to fight for social justice. The Deprivation Point system which is implemented in JNU has no legal standing. Yet this progressive policy was made possible by assertive students’ movements. And now in JNU we the students are not even being able to ensure what is legally and constitutionally granted! The casteist and communal nature of this administration is well known to the students by now. It is never going to grant reservation on its own and will always find newer means to bypass it, unless we force them to do otherwise. The fight for full implementation of reservation must continue even if the complacent and complicit JNUSU leadership betrays or gives up the fight.

JNU administration scuttles OBC Reservation once again! Shortfall in SC and PH Reservation continues!

The JNU admission results for all courses and all schools this year has now been declared, with the announcement of MPhil/PhD results in the last two days of this week. The results have once again confirmed the JNU administration’s undemocratic and anti-student position in its functioning, the implementation of reservations being no exception to this rule. The administration has shown its extreme lack of respect for social justice and democratic norms over the years, not only in its day to day functioning but also in implementing policies mandated by law and the Indian constitution. The casteist and anti-Dalit/OBC/minority position of the administration is no secret for the JNU student community, which has repeatedly seen that it has always protected the brahmanical, ‘upper-caste’ and Hindu interests over that of the oppressed castes, communities and religious/national minorities. In spite of prolonged student agitations for social-justice and for democratization of education in JNU by way of challenging the dominant caste’s hegemony, the administration has devised newer ways to protect these very interests, sometimes through the ‘waiting-list’ system and sometimes through the ‘merit cut-off’! Its no surprise that the casteist and Hindu-communal JNU administration has once again undermined and subverted the OBC reservations this year too, while the SC and PH reservations have also been left unfulfilled.

The administration has decided to implement OBC reservation in a staggered manner giving the excuse of ‘lack if infrastructure to accommodate new students’, despite students’ demand that it be implemented at one go. Last year too, we have observed that they admitted only 9.5% students under OBC reservation though the decision was to take in 12%. According to JNU administration’s own plans, this year 18% OBC reservation was to be implemented. However, as expected, there is a shortfall of about 4% this year in OBC reservations, while there is a shortfall of more than 1% in SC and .5% in PH reservations. Let us look at the MPhil/PhD results this year:

M.Phil/Ph.D: 540 (66.9%) [Unreserved], 101 (12.5%) [SC], 54 (6.6%) [ST], 96 (11.9%) [OBC], 15 (1.8%) [PH]

Some Centres and Schools have been particularly notorious for its casteist behaviour, which also is also reflected in the way they have scuttled the OBC reservations, as shown in the table on the left. While these Centres have not admitted a single student under OBC reservation, there are many more Centres which implemented reservations, including OBC, very nominally.

MPhil/PhD (Unreserved, SC, ST, OBC, PH)
SAA (15, 4, 2, 0, 0)
INP (SIS) (7, 2, 1, 0, 0)
ITD (SIS) (8, 0, 0, 0, 0)
USS (SIS) (8, 1, 0, 0, 0)
EUP (SIS) (9, 2, 1, 0, 0)
Ancient History (CHS-SSS) (7, 2, 1, 0, 0)
EDU (CZHE-SSS) (14, 2, 4, 0, 1)
Linguistics (SL) (11, 1, 2, 0, 0)
Russian (SL) (7, 0, 1, 0, 0)
Philosophy (SSS) (11, 0, 1, 0, 0)

In the MA (School of Languages) results declared this week, out of 55 students selected, 46 (83.64%) are in the Unreserved Category, 3 (5.45%) in SC, 1 (1.82%) in ST, 5 (9.09%) in OBC and 0 in PH categories. Thus the tally of results this year for MA/MSc/MCA admissions comes as shown in the following table:

579 (60.95%) [Unreserved], 141 (14.84%) [SC], 74 (7.79%) [ST], 130 (13.68%) [OBC], 26 (2.74%) [PH]

This gives the break-up of 2024 students selected for admissions to the Bachelor, Masters and MPhil/PhD Courses this year (268 in BA 1st Year, 950 in MA and 806 in MPhil/PhD). The following table gives the total category-wise break-up for this year’s admissions:

Total: 2024, 1254 (61.96%) [Unreserved], 280 (13.83%) [SC], 155 (7.66%) [ST],
285 (14.08%) [OBC], 50 (2.47%) [PH]

The resistance by the administration to the implementation of OBC reservations is expected, but not from JNUSU, led by the ‘Marxist-Leninist’ AISA! So far the concrete programmes of the AISA-JNUSU regarding the non-fulfillment of reservation have been mere tokenism! They called for a half-hearted ‘protest meeting’ in Teflas with representatives from other universities, where no concrete plan of action was charted out. They called one more public meeting to ‘discuss’ the issue of reservation. While there is nothing wrong in holding public meetings, isn’t it too late to just discuss the issue and end it there? Half of the admission procedure is over by now. The fact that OBC reservation has not been fulfilled is glaring. Especially after the M.Phil/Ph.D results have been declared the shortfall is found to be even more acute. The JNUSU however has not declared a single protest action till now. In the last one year too the JNUSU did nothing to ensure that the shortfall of reservation in the last year and the two committees were sitting on it. The reason of ‘merit cut-off’ etc. was known to the campus in the previous year too. The Academic Council meeting took place on 21st April this year, where the modalities of implementing OBC reservation was decided. JNUSU called no protest. We know that by merely calling public meetings and token protests social-justice cannot be ensured. It is not clear at all how they are going to confront this extremely casteist administration and its clear designs to blatantly deny reservation, without mobilisng the students for a serious confrontation with it.

No matter who is in the government, BJP or Congress, colour of the state machinery always remain saffron!

No matter who grabs the seat of power in Delhi, be it the BJP or the Congress, the Indian state machinery is owned by the communal fascist forces and they will go to any extent to maintain the repressive ‘Hindu order’. Be it the Congress government in the center or the BJP state government, justice remains a far fetched fantasy when it is sought against the communal fascists. From M.P. to Delhi this is being proved over and over again, in the countless witch hunting of minorities, in the atrocities on the dalits, in the killings of the likes of Prof. Sabharwal who dares to challenge the saffron brigade...an so on. The army, the police, the court, the organizations like NHRC and lastly the media are all used regularly by the ruling class and the feudal forces to safeguard their regime.

NHRC recently gave a clean chit to the police in the Batla House fake encounter: so much for ‘human rights’. The NHRC report refuted all the points raised by Kamran Siddiqui, General Secretary of an NGO Real Cause and proclaimed that the police fired in ‘self-defense’ as the two dangerous ‘terrorists’ had attacked the police frontally with sophisticated weapons. Shockingly, the entire report of NHRC is based only on the report and response of the police to its queries. They have not even taken the testimony of a single resident of the area, many of whom had openly attacked the police version of the entire incident in front of the media.

The feeling among the residents of Batla house region now is understandably full of despair and anger on the police and state version of the incident which has been shamelessly vindicated by the NHRC. The report of NHRC deals in details on the post mortem report of M.C. Sharma which has again been provided by the police. On the basis of that, they refute any chance of M.C Sharma being shot at the back, as was reported or even visually proved through photographs. They however, are extremely brief on the postmortem reports of the two men who were killed, Atif Amin and Mohammad Sajid. They make no mention at all about the six shots found on Md Sajid’s head, which very clearly shows that they have been shot from point blank range and can not be a result of a ‘shoot out’. In the brief reporting on their postmortem reports they have however mentioned that some injuries on the two men were sustained because they were hit by some blunt objects. This does not corroborate with the police version that they died because they sustained bullet injuries only. The NHRC however has not commented on that. The NHRC has justified the Home Ministry’s response as to why there was no magisterial enquiry ordered by the Lt. Governor, on the incident, which is compulsory after any encounter. ‘Dangerous terrorists’ like Atif and Sajid deserves no further probing said the state and NHRC agrees in silence. Questions were raised about the impossibility of the claims made by the police that two other ‘terrorists’ had escaped while the ‘shoot out’ was on, as the building L-18 in Batla house has only one entry/exit which was heavily guarded by the police.

The NHRC once again has upheld the police version in this regard, which is extremely opaque and open ended. They further maintained that they are not interested in this point because it does not fall directly under the purview of the incident, i.e. The encounter! They simply reiterated the police version and made no efforts at all to to probe beyond that. Such blatant and shameless efforts to shield the police and its bloody histories only expose the inherent bias of the NHRC itself. Such bodies in the past too have tried to safeguard this communal and repressive state machinery and its various organs. Justice on its own will always be on side of the police, the army, the political parties and other agents of the ruling class and the dominant feudal forces and never to common people, unless it is forced upon by assertive people’s movements.

The acquittal of the murderers of Prof. Sabharwal, and murder of another person yesterday night, only proves this further. Prof. Sabharwal was murdered in full view of hundreds of police men, teachers, students and office staffs of Madhav College, Ujjain in 2006. The Nagpur high court however, recently acquitted all the six accused goons of ABVP who had killed him. Further, yesterday, Parminder Singh, a friend and accountant of prof. Sabharwal's son, Himanshu Sabharwal, was killed by unidentified people in DU, North Campus. They along with some other people were pasting posters yesterday night about a protest march against the unjust acquittal of the killers of Prof. Sabharwal. After that Parmindar Singh was killed. Himanshu Sabharwal alleges that it was the ABVP goons again who had killed him too.

And these acts of violences are 'official, justified and legal'. The perpetrators of these acts are therefore never convicted by the 'rule of law'. State terror gets vindicated and safeguarded every time while the same law brands people's movements for their lives, livelihood and dignity as 'terrorist/ extremist' etc. This will continue if we do not fight this fascist state machinery and their agents. Because it is only organised, assertive movements of the people which can and have always defeated fascism

Para-military seize of Lalgarh completes a month! The people refuse to succumb, and continue their struggle!

Yesterday, the joint para-military operation in Lalgarh has completed a month. The news no longer flashes in national media much, not just because the corporate media thinks this news has lost its ‘market value’ but also because of unofficial state-censorship which is preventing the media from depicting the brutal realities of the para-military operation as well as the bold fight back by the people who simply refuse to succumb even to this extreme terror. Such is the nature of ‘democracy’ as defined and designed by the Buddhas and the Chidambarams.

However, the atrocious state repression is going on unbridled: The para-military is ‘cleansing’ area after area. Burning down houses, brutally lathicharging on old people, women and children, ransacking their houses, urinating and adding excreta and poison in their drinking water. They have stripped around 70-80 women naked in the pretext of check and molested them. They have burnt down people’s poultries and crops and arresting people randomly. They are looting, burning the houses of the people and then forcefully shifting them to ‘relief camps’. Forcing people to shift into ‘relief’ camps is an old model of state repression. Destroy their livelihoods, and give them ‘relief’. Haven’t we seen that already in Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, the North East, or in Tamil Eelam? The people are however refusing to accept relief from the state. Quite a few incidents of beating people up in the relief camps were also reported. Many people have emptied the relief camps and gone back to villages. Many of them took refuge in the camps run by the People’s Committee Against police Atrocities (PCPA) and other organisations. One pregnant woman, Parvati Kishku refused to take help from the government, even after the BDO himself intervened. She preferred to give birth to her child in the relief camp of PCPA. But still hundred people are also kept forcefully in the government relief camps in pathetic conditions. They run short of food, space and medical facilities and the people holed up there live with utmost difficulty.

The state is taking help of American and Israeli intelligence agencies to obtain satellite pictures of the area under operation! As the people refuse to co-operate with the state to hand over the Maoists, the state is taking help of bigger war-experts US and Israel to help them with satellite images! Such is the desperation of the Indian state. The self-proclaimed ‘anti-US/Israel’ pseudo-Left CPM has no problems at all with this military aid from these agencies.
Schools have been closed down to turn them into army camps: Replicating the Chhattisgarh model, 14 Schools of Midnapore, Lalgarh, Jhargram, Shalboni, Goaltore areas have been closed down and they have been turned into army camps. More than 15,000 students are being affected by this. Even hostels have been vacated to make space for the police and para-military. One week back, the students of Binpur high school staged a protest in front of the school against conversion of their school building into a makeshift police camp. They were beaten up mercilessly with lathis and rifle butts. The police declared unambiguously that these students will be arrested if they dared to protest again. The students on the other hand have given a week’s time to the police to clear their schools, failing which they will resist more vibrantly this forceful occupation of school building. The health center of Katapahari which was completely dysfunctional before but was run by the PCPA successfully in the last eight months has been turned into a police camp as well.

Ground zero is a no-entry zone for civil bodies: Not only media, but nobody is allowed to go inside the Lalgarh and adjacent areas. The first team of Calcutta-based intellectuals and human rights activists went inside Lalgarh. They met the people and even spoke to Chhatradhar Mahato the leader of PCPA. Their cars were repeatedly checked by the police but they were not stopped. After coming back once they became vocal about state atrocities, they were implicated with the charge of breaking 144. After that an all India seven member team of civil right activists were restricted in the Midnapore town itself which is out of the area under 144 and were stopped from going inside. And the same charge of breaking section 144 was put on them. A third team consisting of Medha Patekar, Anuradha Talwar, Sujato Bhadra and others were stopped once again on the highway. The state was less tolerant this time and on of the team members, reputed film maker Gopal Menon was beaten up mercilessly with rifle buts. He had to be hospitalized with fractures and internal injuries. Some journalists, especially photographers were beaten up on the same day. Later a team of Amnesty International was stopped as well from gong inside Lalgarh. The operation must take place in silence, in isolation, without the knowledge of common people. These restrictions however are not applicable for the CPM goons who came from outside in a big numbers to hold motorcycle rallies right inside Shalboni and Goaltore. On being pressed by the media, the Home secretary of West Bengal shamelessly proclaimed that is ‘outside the 144 zone’ and so there was no question of taking action against them! The state indeed decides the boundaries of law!

The people however are refusing to give up: The army is ‘recapturing and sanitising’ village after village but with no people in it. The activities of the committee have not reduced in the mean time. They have held processions, meetings braving police attacks. In a number of occasions the CRPF has open fired on such processions but yet the struggle has not stopped. The PCPA had called for a strike in the three districts of West Medinipur, Bankura and Purlia on the 8th of July and to the surprise of the state it was completely successful. All government and private offices, schools, colleges, communication etc were stopped. They have declared another strike for 72 hours from the 19 July in the three districts. The state said people are terrorized by the Maoists and therefore they were forced to go on strike. By doing this, state is refusing to see the justness of the peoples’ movement of Lalgarh. And recognize the power of the people…

The casteist administration once again denies reservation to OBC students!

The results for new admission in BA and MA courses have been announced in JNU. The results have made it clear that once again the 18% reservation (which is anyway less than the 27% which was supposed to be implemented this year) for the OBC students have not been properly implemented. The figures for the total number of OBC students admitted this year are shocking and in many centers it is far less than the stipulated 18%. In certain cases like School of Arts and Aesthetics, International Economics (EIL), the number of OBC students is NIL. In Modern History the number of students in OBC category is nil, only one OBC student has been taken in the general category. Even in big centers like CESP or Political Science the number of OBC students is 3 and 4 respectively, which is nowhere close to the 18% of the total seats offered.

More shocking was to see that even SC/ST and PH quota has remained unfulfilled in certain centers. Going by this overall pattern it is pretty clear that after the final lists of M.Phil/Ph.d are published, the total number of students taken in the reserved category will once again fall short of the stipulated quota.

We have seen deliberate subversion and non-implementation of reservation especially for the OBC students in the last year. The overall number of OBC students admitted last year was 9.95% whereas it was supposed to be atleast 12%, through reservation. There was also a shortfall in SC/ST and PH reservation as well. After a widespread protest from the students’ community, the administration had promised to form two committees to look into the overall violations of reservation as well as to carry over the shortfall to the next academic year. With this promises the JNUSU leadership had also withdrawn the struggle. This year however, it is already clear that far from accommodating the shortfall of the previous year, the administration has once again shamelessly ensured further non-implementation of reservation, particularly that of OBC students. Some schools like SSS and Arts and Aesthetics particularly have denied reservation to students blatantly.

The casteist administration is bound to defend itself with the ‘logic’ of non-availability of eligible candidates. Administration very cunningly has interpreted the ten marks relaxation, which is mandatory according to the MHRD directives for OBC students, from the merit cut-off, (the mark scored by last student in the general category) instead of the eligibility cut-off (the pass marks for all students). This year also the merit cut-off has ensured that the OBC reservation remains unfulfilled.

The role of JNUSU leadership, its inaction and lack of struggles for the proper implementation of reservation has emboldened this casteist administration. The JNUSU leadership did nothing to ensure that the two committees that were formed atleast meet or function. The committees which were supposed to be ‘time-bound’ never even met for once, till very late. They finally came up with contradictory statements and never bothered to inform or discuss with JNUSU. Silence and complicity was the reply of JNUSU to this. More crucially they did not inform or mobilise students at all on the day of the Academic Council meeting in April 2009 when all the decisions regarding implementation of treservation was taken. All they did was to croak and cry on the ‘insensitivity and casteist mindset’ of the administration after the battle was lost. They staged a token protest demonstration and washed their hands off.

Now the casteist administration has once again blatantly denied reservation. Inaction and complicity can never defeat these casteist forces. JNUSU must pro-actively mobilise students to confront these recationary forces and fight the non-implementation of reservation immediately.