Our movement for Adak and Bera’s release will continue: PCPA

Rebel kill-&-burn spree
OUR CORRESPONDENT
The blaze at the sponge iron factory. (Samir Mondal)

Jhargram, Dec. 18: Maoists killed three CPM workers, set ablaze oil tankers on a national highway and torched a sponge iron factory and over a dozen vehicles on the first day of a protest against arrests which police denied having made.

Raju Adak and Joyram Bera had allegedly been picked up from Lalgarh on December 6, but no one by those names has been produced in court — in Jhargram or Midnapore — in the past few days.

“No such arrest has been made,” West Midnapore police chief Manoj Verma said.

The People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities identified the duo as its leaders and vowed to continue the agitation for their release.

Police sources said the duo were “hardcore” Maoists who used the committee as a front. Residents of Lalgarh, they have over 30 murder cases against them.

“The Maoists committed today’s murders and engineered the arson,” said Verma.

Forces leave Lalgarh school

OUR CORRESPONDENT
File picture of a students’ protest against the shutdown at Gohomidanga High School

Midnapore, Dec. 3: The government has started shifting security forces camping in schools in the Lalgarh region, days after Calcutta High Court set a December 31 deadline for doing so.

About 200 CRPF and state police personnel today vacated Gohomidanga High School, where protests against the halt to classes began in July.

The forces had entered the school in June after marching into Lalgarh to end a seven-month siege led by Maoists.

Today, the jawans marched 15km to Chandra, where a temporary camp has been set up on the panchayat premises.

West Midnapore district police chief Manoj Verma said the high schools under security forces’ occupation in Kantapahari, Bhimpur, Lalgarh and Nachhipur would be vacated in the next seven days. “New buildings to house the forces are almost ready. Work on water and power supply is on.”

State brutality against the tribals of Lalgarh

The Free Thinker

State brutality at Jhargram, 11 November 2009

State brutality at Jhargram, 11 November 2009

State brutality at Jhargram, 11 November 2009

Picture Courtesy: Anandabazar Patrika, Sangbad Pratidin, Bartaman

Mahato’s supporters, associates punishable: WB

A file picture of Peoples Committee against Police Atrocities Chatradhar Mahato. Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury.

In a warning to associates and supporters of arrested PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato, the West Bengal government on Saturday said that those demanding his release were punishable under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

“The UAPA says that those helping banned organisations in various ways like providing funds and publicity are punishable under the act. Thus, those who are advocating his release are also punishable,” Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakraborty told newsmen here.

Mr. Chakraborty was reacting to a question whether the government would take any action against those lobbying for the release of Mahato who was arrested on September 26 under UAPA at Lalgarh.

He said that those associates whose names were revealed by the Maoist leaders and workers last week were also punishable in the eyes of the law.

Mahato’s arrest by CID in the guise of journalists had raised the hackles of the press fraternity which had accused the state government of compromising with their livelihood.

Yesterday, Maoist leader Kishenji had contested the police’s claim that Mahato owned property, had bank accounts and a fabulous insurance policy, challenging the government to seize the property and release the related documents to the press. The Hindu

Lalgarh: The Pawn In A Dangerous Game

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 40, Dated October 10, 2009

Chhatradhar Mahato could have played Lalgarh’s peace broker. Now his arrest may fuelmoreviolence. TUSHA MITTAL & SUMAN BHATTACHARYA report

Negotiator Mahato (seated at right) with Bengal’s intelligentsia in Lalgarh in 2008
Photo: PINTU PRADHAN

AROUND 20 KM from Lalgarh, the battle lines are clearly drawn. It is March 2009 and thousands of adivasis are assembled outside a remote village called Saranga in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district. They are facing an enormous contingent of policemen with guns and riot shields at the ready. If the tribals dare march any further, the police will fire.

Days earlier, the adivasis were scheduled to hold an organised peaceful rally in Saranga village. The police imposed Section 144 and arbitrarily arrested several tribals. Now, the tribals have organised themselves again. They want to march into the village to assert their rights, but the police will allow no such freedoms.

Lalgarh: Media protests West Bengal police misrepresentation

The arrest of Chhatradhar Mahato by policemen posing as journalists may have been the stuff of spy thrillers but the adventure has come in for criticism from representatives of the media, among them former editors and the globally networked International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

The elusive convener of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities) was dramatically picked up on Saturday from a village near Lalgarh in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district. Though officially in hiding, Mr. Mahato had been in regular contact with local journalists which fact was used by the police to trap him.

As reported by The Hindu on Sunday, policemen, pretending to be journalists from a foreign news agency, approached two local reporters, who, unaware that they were part of an undercover police mission, led them to Mr. Mahato’s hideout. The decoy reporters conducted a mock interview after which one of them whipped out his revolver and secured Mr. Mahato’s arrest.

“Deeply disturbed”

Reacting to this, the IFJ said in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed” by the implications of the operation. “The police operation in West Bengal compromises the status of journalists and spreads a pall of suspicion over the profession,” said the organisation’s Asia-Pacific Director, Jacqueline Park. Ms. Park said the IFJ was concerned that the incident would seriously impede the freedom that journalists in India enjoyed to “meet and interview all parties in an evolving situation.”

Columnists and former editors Nihal Singh and Inder Malhotra described the incident as unfortunate. Mr. Singh said it had “diminished the role and profession of journalists.”

Pointing out that Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance chief Ahmed Shah Massoud had been killed by Al-Qaeda assassins posing as news camerapersons, Mr. Singh said, “We must draw a line between professional journalism and such misrepresentation.” He argued that whatever was the objective of operation, it denigrated the profession. “After all, journalism trades in only one thing — integrity. And if that integrity is lost, it is not a good development.”

Mr. Malhotra said he found sting operations problematic and unethical, whether that involved policemen posing as journalists or journalists posing as other people. He said he did not see any public good being served by such deception. Tje Hind

Let Us Raise Our Voice for Unconditional Release of Chaatradhar Mahato

Posted by Indian Vanguard on September 26, 2009

Today police has arrested Chaatradhar Mahato, the popular leader of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) of Lalgarh. Police conducted an operation in disguise of journalists of Singapore TV. Shortly after engaging Mr. Mahato in a so called ‘phone in’ at Singapore TV, they arrested Mr. Mahato.

Chhatradhar Mahato has been leading the popular movement against state repression in Lalgarh since November last year. Their democratic demands attracted many people of different strata of the society and enjoyed mass-support. Actually it is the movement which has drawn in the mainstream media the issue of severe inhuman condition where people of Junglemahal including Lalgarh have to live. Condition of the people of Lalgarh after three decades of ‘leftist rule’ in West Bengal has opened the eye of the people. Arrest of Mr. Mahato can not make the end of the movement led by PCAPA.

Leading a democratic movement is not a crime in a civilized society. Rather ignoring the democratic and justified demands of the people of Lalgarh and PCAPA, the government has proved its anti-people and undemocratic character. Today, arresting Mr. Mahato, a leader of mass-movement it has once again showed its fascist face. His arrest shows that not a single progressive-democratic movement will be spared.

Let us raise our voice demanding unconditional release of Mr. Mahato.
Posted by Red Barricade

LALGRAH & MISCONCEPTIONS OF SOME MISGUIDED INTELLECTUALS

by Ajay [From People’s March, vol. 10, #10, Oct. 2009]

There are many well meaning individuals who are genuinely confused on the issues that the Maoist movement in general has thrown up and this has more particularly been raised by the intellectuals of West Bengal in the light of the Lalgarh mass upsurge. Some of these intellectuals are well meaning progressives, but others, claim not only to be Left, but also of the M-L camp. Here we take some arguments presented mostly from the two Bengali journals Aneek and Shramjeevi (of Santosh Rana). Here, in India, the mis-conceptions mostly centre around the issue of revolutionary violence. Our intellectuals actually rarely see violence in their own lives and so are, quite naturally, horrified by violence. Yet, this is surprising as India is probably one of the most violent societies in the world, with violence on a scale not probably seen even in any backward country. Of course we are here not talking of the type of butcheries unleashed by the US on a country like Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, nor its massacres (peace-time) perpetuated in countries of Latin America, Indonesia, etc. What we are talking of is everyday violence that the poor of this country have to face over and above the violence associated with acute poverty and a sub-human existence (India is on a par with countries of Sub Saharan Africa). What we are speaking of is the additional violence on women and dalits that no other society of the world face (genocide of Muslims in India is part of what they face in other parts of the world whether in Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya or even in west China). The continuous so-called „dowry killings‟ of women is a phenomena not seen in any other country of the world; the lynching of dalits and the inhumanity and subtle violence of the hierarchical caste system is a phenomena too not seen in other parts of the world.

Though our intellectuals may not face this violence it is important that they are sensitized to the varied forms of oppression and exploitation that the masses face. Not just excruciating poverty, but the varied forms of humiliation, oppression and intolerable dis-crimination, is something that our intellectuals should feel even if they do not experience it. There is necessity to first and foremost put one‟s heart in the right place (i.e. feel for the suffering of the masses) and then see all intellectual exercises in this framework. Democracy, violence, peace, et al are only words thrown around by one and all (including the rulers) but to what purpose. The single purpose can only be justice, humanity and equality for the vast masses of the population — and then everything would be seen with in this framework. Or else we get lost in the wilderness of words.

Encounter deaths, custodial beatings of PSBJC members, and the lajja-bisarjan protest

Posted by Rajeesh Kollakkandi on September 11, 2009
Sanhati Sept 8, 2009

By Partho Sarathi Ray and Koustav De. Sept 8, 2009

Police reported an extended encounter with Maoists on September 2 near Madhupur in which allegedly 2 Maoists were killed, and two others were arrested.

Anandabazar.com

However, the PSBJC has asserted that the persons arrested and killed were all common villagers, supporters of PSBJC who were attending a rally called to protest the rape of a adivasi woman by the police. The police allegedly raped the woman by entering her house in the name of search-operation. The rally was reportedly 12,000 strong and unarmed when police started firing on the people without provocation. The PSBJC fully rejected the news of the encounter, stating it to be completely fabricated.

Pamphlets and Articles by Amit Bhattacharyya, Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

1. • Lalgarh Update 2, August 1, 2009 (67 pp.) PDF Version (700 KB)
   • Lalgarh Update, June 22-23, 2009 (8 pp.) PDF Version (303 KB); MS Word Version (72 KB)
   • Fanshen in Lalgarh, June 5-22, 2009 (10 pp.) PDF Version (250 KB); MS Word Version (64 KB)
     Alternate Link: http://sanhati.com/news/1604
   • Singur to Lalgarh via Nandigram, April 2009 (48 pp.) PDF Version (710 KB)
     Alternate Link: http://no2displacement.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121:singur-to-lalgarh-via-nandigram&catid=45:documenst&Itemid=136