India: Recent Arrests in Haryana Expose the Pro-Rich Policy of the Government and Call into Question the Farce of Maoist Path

-Rajesh Tyagi; 10 June, 2009

Several activists, allegedly linked to the Maoist party, CPI(Maoist), have been arrested by the police in Haryana, on the charges of inciting the villagers to boycott the polls in recent general elections and instigating them against the landlords and the government. The arrestees, which include agricultural labourers belonging to dalit castes, a female teacher, a doctor and students, were first abducted, kept in illegal custody for days together, and physically tortured by the police. Alleged incriminating recoveries from the arrestees, apart from the firearms, also include paint, brush, paper, pen, handwritten draft, leaflets, CDs etc. etc. which according to police are the virtual instruments of terror.

Those who refused to work on the fields of landlords demanding a higher wage, have been selectively rounded up on the suspicion of being ‘naxalites’. The arrests are clearly politically motivated as the interrogation of the arrestees by the police as to “why then they refused to work on the fields of landlords if they are not naxalites”, itself makes the point amply clear. Others are obviously arrested for instigating the rural youth to rebel against the landlords and the government.

These arrests of political activists made by the police in Haryana, expose, on the one hand, the fallacy of Maoist path, while on the other, lay bare the class essence of the pro-rich government and its policies.