International Campaign against the War on People in India–Launched

Posted by Ka Frank on February 14, 2010

This is an important new initiative that can play a crucial role in exposing and isolating the brutal Indian government, which has launched an unprecedented military offensive to seize the lands of this country’s poorest people, the adivasis or tribal peoples.

The International Campaign Against War on the People of India (ICAWPI) is being launched to work as a coordinating centre seeking international support for the resistance of the people of India against the all out military offensive of the Indian state against its own citizens.

ICAWPI is an international extension of widespread opposition and initiatives against this genocidal war to forcefully crush the heroic resistance of the tribal peoples in the heartlands of India and to hand over these lands rich in minerals and raw materials to international corporations such as Vedanta, Rio Tinto, Posco and others.

This overt war serving to facilitate the looting of the land and resources by Indian and international corporations for fabulous profits and the destruction of the livelihood of the countless numbers of the poorest of the poor in India is named as “Operation Green Hunt”. While in different regions of the country the same operation may be named differently, the Indian state shamelessly tries to hide this banditry against the people of India and utterly open servitude to the imperialism as “war against the Naxalites”– imposing a severe reign of terror and repression on progressive and democratic forces and individuals everywhere across the country.

Countless intellectuals, authors, film makers, academics, and other professionals such as lawyers and doctors who abhor the Indian state’s total lies and open disregard for civil and human rights have joined mass gatherings and rallies and various forums in India in order to raise their own voices and join forces to oppose the State and to defend the just cause of the oppressed tribal people in India.

In the course of this gathering movement countless people have been arrested and imprisoned. Untold suffering and restrictions have been imposed on the people.

Yet, international public opinion is kept grossly in the dark about these issues while the mainstream media continue to follow and repeat the Indian State’s claims that “India is the largest democracy in the world” and that the Maoists, as the biggest security threat to this “democracy” must wiped out at all costs. Thus they justify their silence and bless the Indian State in perpetrating these crimes in the name of a “war on terror”.

Already more than one hundred tribal people have been killed in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand as part of this brutal war, “Operation Green Hunt”. Several thousand tribal people have been tortured, maimed, and pushed out of their villages, women raped, houses burnt and villages burnt to ashes. Though the Government of India unofficially imposed a censor on media to publish reports from the killing fields, democratic journalists, and civil rights bodies have been making efforts to bring the facts of this war out for the public.

ICAWPI aims to reach out to all democratic and freedom loving people across the world concerned about the plight of the people in India to unite and take initiative to break this silence internationally and to rally much needed support and solidarity to the just struggles of the people of India.

Information on Operation Green Hunt and the people’s resistance are available through www.icawpi.org – a website designed to carry material related to this issue and the campaign.

We request all democratic and progressive formations to take initiative and coordinate their efforts with ICAWPI. All reports of actions, meetings and letters of solidarity and concern will be published at this site.

In order to launch this campaign, ICAWPI calls on everyone to join demonstrations and protest actions in front of Indian embassies and consulates on February 5, 2010 where ever possible. A list of organized events will be published on the website as they become available. Further actions, events and meetings are being planned and will be announced soon after.

The website will also publish information about events in Europe and elsewhere, for discussion about the issue and to find ways of raising local awareness and taking joint actions.

Please contact ICAWPI through info@icawpi.org to inform us of your proposals to bring the campaign to your area.

Feb 3, 2010

** In order to receive regular updates on breaking news about Operation Green Hunt and the international campaign, please join the public mailing list of the campaign by sending a blank email to info-request@lists.icawpi.org with a subject line: “subscribe” or simply contact info@icawpi.org

Jan Myrdal Interviews CPI(Maoist) Leader Ganapathy

(This interview was posted in Sanhati.)

(Click here for PDF version of the interview)

In Conversation with Ganapathy, General Secretary of CPI(Maoist)

Jan Myrdal and Gautam Navlakh, January 2010

Far inside the jungles of the Eastern Ghats we met the general secretary of the CPI (Maoists) Ganapathy aka Mupalla Laxman Rao. After welcoming us and inquiring from us whether we, in particular Jan Myrdal, faced any problem having to travel the rough terrain, the interview began. Following is the summary of the interview with him. We have retained the interview in the form in which it was given, read and approved by him with some minor language changes. In particular we draw attention of readers to the General Secretary laying down concisely his party’s stance on the issue of talks in light of the disinformation spread by the Union Minister of Home P Chidambaram that CPI(Maoist) had “scoffed” at the Indian Government’s offer for talks. Indeed he told us:

To put concisely the main demands that the party has placed in front of the government [of India] for any kind of talks are 1) All-out war has to be withdrawn; 2) For any kind of democratic work, the ban on the Party and Mass Organizations have to be lifted; 3) Illegal detention and torture of comrades had to be stopped and they be immediately released. If these demands are met, then the same leaders who are released from jails would lead and represent the Party in the talks.

However, we consider the full text of the interview of importance for all those who want to know more about the policies of the party which the Government of India considers its main internal security threat.

Mass Protest vs Operation Green Hunt

Source: Marxist updates

Citizens protest against war orchestration of Chidambaram and chief ministers in Kolkata: A report

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati. February 9 2010

The citizens of West Bengal again came out on the streets, braving state repression, to loudly declare that they will not allow P Chidambaram and the chief ministers to plot their genocidal plans in the heart of the city

Banner: Murderer Chidambaram go back!

Around 2000 people participated in a lively and militant march from College Square to the Metro Channel. Many organizations such as MKP, IFTU, APDR, Bandi Mukti Committee, SEZ-Birodhi Prachar Mancha, Lalgarh Mancha, Samrajyabadbirodhi Mancha, various students’ organizations and numerous individuals participated.

Also participating was a large contingent of the people from Nonadanga, who have been evicted there from the slums, and who identify their eviction with the eviction of adivasis from their land and resources.

Mahasweta Devi was present in College Square from where the march began. In the beginning, the police set up a barricade with lathi and shield-wielding policemen in front of the gates of College Square and said that they would not allow the march to proceed. After rounds of altercations and negotiations, there was direct physical confrontation between the police and the protesters and when protesters forcibly broke the barricades and went forward, they had to allow the march to proceed.

The march then continued unhindered till the Esplanade area. There were slogans ranging from “Chidambaram go back”, to “Vedantar dalal Chidambaram Tatar dalal Budhhadeb ek hai ek hai” to “Lalgarh-er janaganer bullet noy khadya chai” (we demand food, not bullets, for the people of Lalgarh).

The march ended with the burning of effigies of Chidambaram and Buddhadeb at the crossing of S N Banerjee Road and J L Nehru Road. Then participants of the march went and joined the demonstration that had been organized by a forum of ML parties at the Metro Channel where the speakers condemned operation Green Hunt and the state repression on activists, rights workers and trade unionists in the name of combating Maoists.

MKP banner: Down with the State terror Chidambaram-Buddha-Mamata!

While this was going on the members of the West Bengal State Govt. employees union (Nabaparjay) held a loud demonstration and a march through the corridors of the Writer’s building in protest against the meeting.

Chidambaram left through a back gate for the meeting with the new agent of Delhi in the Raj Bhawan, M.K. Narayanan.

(Nabaparjay is a militant left-wing anti-CPI(M) union of state government employees, which came out of the Coordination Committee in 1979, because some state government employees thought that the Left Front was deviating from what it had promised. They have 85000 members all over West Bengal and are a major ground force behind the SEZ-Birodhi Manch.)

Banner: Nonadanga Jankalyan Samiti

Banner: Samrajyabad Birodhi Gana Manch (front), Lalgarh Manch (middle), IFTU (back)

*******************

Call for protest on February 9 2010

On 9th February, at Kolkata, P Chidambaram is meeting with the chief ministers of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh, to chalk out the war strategies against the people in the forested regions east-central India. In protest, a wide range of mass organisations have called for observing the 9th February as a Black Day and have demanded –

(1) The joint forces operating in the jangal mahal areas must be withdrawn.

(2) The UAPA and all other Black laws must be repealed,

(3) Operation Green Hunt must be withdrawn.

As part of the protest, a mass rally is being organised in Kolkata on 9th February. It starts at 11:30am from College Square.

This is a direct challenge to the citizens of Kolkata – only by descending on the streets of city in large numbers, it would be possible to express our anger and loudest protest at the plans of the governments to wage a murderous war against our own people. We urge everyone to join in this mass protest.

Announcement of the protest – poster in Bengali

————————–

Message from Mahasweta Devi –

The combined forces are firing on peaceful masses. People are dying. Children don’t go to school. They are hungry. Schools are police camps. All with taxpayer’s money. Asim Dasgupta allots 30 crs to combined forces. Our money kills the poor. Chidambaram will meet Buddha to kill more. Everyone protest. Observe BLACK DAY on February 9. All come to rally at College Square at 11.30 a.m. Bring placards and posters, not organizational banners.

The Rich Revolutionary Life of People’s March Editor Swapan Dasgupta

Source: Revolution in South Asia Posted by Ka Frank on February 9, 2010

Swapan Dasgupta(19 April 1949—2 February 2010)

Swapan Dasgupta, the editor of Bangla People’s March, published from Kolkata, died in jail custody as the first political prisoner to die as a UAPA/Unlawful Activities Prevention(Amended) Act of 2008 prisoner.

He breathed his last on 2 February 2010 in the ITU, Mackenjee ward of SSKM hospital, Kolkata as a result of physical and mental torture in the police lock-up since his arrest on 6 October 2009 and utter negligence on the part of the government to give him proper medical treatment both inside Presidency Jail, Kolkata as also in the SSKM hospital.

Many people and democratic forums described his death as murder and sections of urban literati have raised the demand for enquiry about the circumstances leading to his death. Swapan Dasgupta was the editor of Bangla Peoples’ March since its inception in August 2004 and carried on his task to the best of his ability with courage, dedication and sincerity. Even when the English People’s March was banned by the government, he continued to publish the journal disseminating revolutionary ideas and news about revolutionary struggles in different parts of the country and also beyond, braving all odds. Intimidation from the state could hardly make any impact on his mind.

Why maoists? The real Avatar: Mine – Story of a Sacred Mountain

Why maoists? The real Avatar: Mine – Story of a Sacred Mountain

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Operation green hunt

UP: ‘Naxal’ couple were running magazine for four years

Retired labour commissioner M P Srivastava, father of Seema Azad, reads Dastak. Express Photo

Booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their alleged Naxal activities, 35-year-old Seema Azad and her husband Vishwavijay Azad have been publishing Dastak Nai Samay Ki, a monthly Hindi magazine for the last four years.

The magazine, duly registered with Registrar of Newspaper for India, focusses on public issues pertaining to politics and social causes.

And while the police maintain that there is no case against the magazine, the arrest of Seema and her husband has come as a shock to friends and relatives.

“There was no need to publish a monthly magazine for almost four years for sustenance, if Seema was associated with Naxal activities,” said Neelam Shankar, a writer associated with Dastak Nai Samay Ki. “Seema focussed on national and international issues, social causes and policies of the government. She used to cycle several miles to distribute the magazine and it was in last October that her father-in-law bought her a moped for the work.”

Seema and Vishwavijay decided to publish the magazine as they thought it was a noble profession and would help them financially, said Seema’s father M P Srivastava.

UP: Family Protests as PUCL UP Secy among ‘Naxals’ Held in State

(Yahoo! India News, 8 February 2010):

Among the three alleged Naxalites arrested from Allahabad and Gorakhpur by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force on Saturday was the state secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Seema Srivastava. She was picked up along with her husband, Vishwavijay Azad alias Kamalji.

While Srivastava, 35, and Azad were arrested from Allahabad, Asha alias Heerman Munda was arrested from Gorkhapur.

Produced before a court in Allahabad, Srivastava said she or her husband had no links with Naxals, nor were they involved in any illegal activity. While she claimed they together brought out a monthly magazine called Dastak, the police say Azad is the head of the Uttar Pradesh State Organising Committee of the CPI(Maoist).

PUCL state president Chitranjan Singh confirmed that Srivastava was the organisation’s state secretary, and said they would approach the National Human Rights Commission. Rajeev Yadav, organising secretary of the PUCL, said the couple had been targeted as Srivastava had organised protests against the “encounter” that killed Kamlesh Choudhary, a Naxal leader, in Sonbhadra district in November.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Brij Lal said the couple were arrested following disclosures made by Asha, who is reportedly a member of the CPI(Maoist)’s Central Mahila Sub-Committee.

The STF team seized banned Naxal literature, a camera and Rs 1.11 lakh from the three, he said.

The Additional Director General said Azad and Srivastava, residents of Madhuban village in Allahabad district, had been working to expand the Naxalite base in the state for the past three to four years. Munda, according to him, was a native of Tinkara village of Bihar’s Chapra district and had been staying in Krishnanagar colony area of Gorakhpur.

Srivastava’s father M P Srivastava, a retired assistant labour commissioner, however, termed the arrest a conspiracy against her. “She was a good student, and completed her Masters in Psychology from Allahabad University in 2000. She got married to Vishwavijay Azad and entered student politics. As a father who has (seen her) since childhood, I do not subscribe to what police claim of her,” M P Srivastava told The Indian Express.

Azad, a former student leader of Allahabad University, belongs to a rich family of Mau district.

In their magazine Dastak, Srivastava and Azad had been very vocal against the sand mafia in Allahabad and adjoining regions. M P Srivastava said Seema, the younger of his two daughters, has always been very “upright and bold”. “She has never compromised with her values. She could have been a teacher and would have spent her life with ease, but she preferred to serve the downtrodden.”

“Why did the police arrest her like a criminal?” he asked. “She was coming from New Delhi by Rewanchal Express on Saturday. Her husband went to receive her at the Allahabad junction. The STF arrested the duo and kept them at an undisclosed location. The police informed me only today (Sunday) morning about her arrest.”

Seema is a human right worker, not a ‘Naxali’

To,
The Chairperson,
National Human Right Commission
New Delhi,

sir,

We want to acknowledge you that Seema Azad ,journalist ,human right worker and executive member of peoples Union for civil liberties (PUCL), and her husband former student leader Vishwavijay and friend Asha, were detained by the police on Allahabad Railway Junction without any proper reason on Saturday(6th Feb 2010). Both of them were returning from World Book Fair, New Delhi by the Reewanchal Express. According to police they all are Naxalite.
Sir, the organization wants to highlight the background of detention. PUCL has continuously raised the voice against the atrocity done by the police-Bahubalies nexus in kachhari region of Allahabad and Kausambi district on the sand mining labours. Due to the pressure of politician and Bahubalies , DIG of Allahabad has framed many fraud cases against the labour movement leader. DIG had banned the ‘Lal Salam’ cited it as against the nationality. PUCL had condemned the ban saying that it was natural address of Communist party. According to PUCL ‘Lal Salam’ is a common address of labourer across the world. Raising the cause of fighting labour against the illegal collection and illegal mining of sand in Nanda ka Pura village of Kausambi, the minster Seema azad and advocate K. K. Roy of PUCL has issued a report on human right violation. In past one month the police and PAC jawans has unleashed the Lathicharge couple of times in Nanda ka Pura village. Police had torched the local office of CPI (ML) New Damocracy in Nanda village. And their leader were detained in the jail for several days in fraud cases. The voice against them , doesn’t suit the mood of DIG of Allahabad and police. Police doesn’t want that the voice should be raised by any organization against their working style. The arrest of Seema Azad , her husband Vishwavijay and friend Aasha is done by the police in the revenge. Seema Azad has no any connection with the Naxalite and she is working in the field of human right for past several years. She is also editor of a monthly magazine ‘Dastak’. She has made report on serious issues like human right situation in eastern Utter Pradesh, labour movement, SEZ, situation of Mushar cast and Encephalitis disease. Vishwavijay, husband of Seema Azad , and his friend Aasha were active student leader of Central university of Allahabad for a long time. They have strongly raised the concerned problem of students under the banner of ‘INQUALABI CHHATRA MORCHA’. The persons which are naxalite, according to the police, are working in between students and labour for a long time.
Sir, in past also UP Police has threatened the leader of PUCL working for the human right concern. PUCL has raised the questions against the encounter of Kamlesh Chaudhoury in Chandauly dated 9th November. After that , in a press conference dated 11th November 2009, DGP Brijlal has articulated that “the action would be taken against the PUCL leader”(see Dainik Hindustan of November 12, 2009). The Allahabad arrest of Seema Azad is a chain of the same retaliation.
Hence, we appeal for the prompt action in the matter and also we appeal that police atrocity and human right violation should be stopped. We also demand that Seema Azad and her friend should be released as soon as possible.

– Sincerely

Vandana Mishra, General Secretary, PUCL, U.P.
Chitranjan Singh, National Secretary, PUCL
K.K. Roy , Advocate, state executive member, PUCL
Ravikiran Jain, state executive member, PUCL
Satendra Singh, Convener, People’s Union for Human Rights(PUHR)
Sandeep Pandey, winner of Magsaysay award and state executive member,PUCL
S. R. Darapuri, former police director, state executive member,PUCL
Anshu Malviya, Shehri Garib Sangharsh Morcha
Shahnawaz Alam, Organization Secretary ,PUCL
Rajeev Yadav , Organization Secretary,PUCL
Vijay Pratap, Freelance journalist and human right worker
http://naipirhi.blogspot.com/2010/02/seema-is-human-right-worker-not-naxali.html

Silent procession with Peoples March editor’s body

Related News from The Indian Express: Kolkata editor of Maoist mouthpiece dies in custody

Kolkata: A silent funeral procession was taken out on Wednesday with the body of Swapan Dasgupta, editor of a banned Maoist magazine, by politicians and activists who claimed he had a custodial death.

Dasgupta, who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) four months ago, died Tuesday at the SSKM hospital where he was admitted with asthma and respiratory complications on December 17, the hospital superintendent Debashish Bhattacharya said.

Dasgupta was the editor of the Bengali version of the Maoist magazine ‘People’s March’. Among those who took part in the march Wednesday were Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Sumon and theatre personality Bivas Chakra borty.

Suman, who courted controversy for opposing anti- Maoist operations in West Midnapore district and bringing out an album of songs on Chhatradhar Mahato, the jailed Peoples Committee against Police Atrocities leader, alleged that Dasgupta was killed in custody and demanded a probe.

"The government allowed him to die. When he was shifted from jail to the SSKM hospital on December 17, he was not given a bed and was forced to lie on the floor. Even after he was detected with blood cancer, blood was not provided as requisitioned," Sujato Bhadra, Secretary of human rights NGO APDR, told an agency.

The funeral procession to the Keoratala burning grounds was followed by marchers carrying placards describing Dasgupta as ‘the first martyr of the UAPA’.

PTI

Swapan Dasgupta killed in custody the first victim of UAPA

The Kolkata based human rights organization Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) expressed concern that Swapan Dasgupta, becomes the first fatal victim of UAPA inWest Bengal even before any trial, as he succumbs on February 2, 2010 at about 5am to growing illness at SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.

He was arrested under this Act on 06th October 2009 for publishing ‘Peoples March’ (in Bengali version), though the publication is still not banned. He was denied bail and detained under jail custody in appalling conditions. As he was achronic asthma patient, distressing treatment at custody aggravated his illness. UAPA undoubtedly proves it’s cruel futurity.

MASUM said it was informed that the inquest was done by Mr. Swapan Kumar Ghosh, Additional Commissioner of Police (4), South Division, Kolkata Police under Bhowanipur Police Station Inquest number 141. MASUM secretary Kirity Roy lamented that this very act was a gross violation of criminal procedure code of India.

He alleged that the government of West Bengal purposefully violated the section 176 (1A) of Cr. P.C. where it is mandatory that in case of any custodial death, the inquiry should be made only by a judicial (Metropolitan) Magistrate.

If India proclaims to be a democratic state, he said that it is supposed to ensure the ‘right to oppose’ and curbing the voice of opposition defies the basic premise of democracy. Application of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on Maoists and some other political persons in recent past inWest Bengal manifests the tendency of defying democratic principles, he added.

MASUM said that UAPA is nothing but the latest legal weapon by the state for arresting and detaining the people with dissent voices even before a fair trial and project it as preventive detention. The draconian law includes the provisions of repealed TADA and POTA, and surpasses all erstwhilecriminal laws in ruthlessness.

During the debate of UAPA at Indian parliament, Roy recalled that some of the parliamentarians opposed the law, especially those of CPI(M). However, contrary to their stance,West Bengal government, mainly ruled by the same party has been one of the frontrunners in implementing this draconian and anti-people law.

Consequently, he deplored that many persons who are otherwise ‘innocent’ have been arrested under this law. It clearly shows that though the parties differ on ideological plain, they are just different sides of same coin on the question of power structure.

He said that MASUM always stands against the violent politics, whether it is practiced by Maoists or any other political party. “We understand that, if any political or non-political citizen involves in any violent action viz. murder, rape, destroying properties etc., the existingcriminal laws are sufficient to penalize them to the highest degree. UAPA is completely uncalled for in this direction”, he added.

If one observes all social and political violence during previous 25-30 years in West Bengal, he lamented that it would be evident that CPI(M), the leading party in the government, has been most instrumental behind them. It needs to be mentioned that most of the perpetrators are roaming scot-free with administrative patronage, he pointed out.

Following the tradition of procedural violation is adding ‘feather to the flock’. Swapan Dasgupta, a detainee under UAPA has expired due to extreme inhuman treatment at jail and hospital as well. MASUM reckon his untimely death as judicial killing with utmost disregard towards law of the land, he said.

Roy said that the unfortunate incident is only an indication to the prevailing heinous criminal justice system which underlies UAPA also. Hence, he said they condemn the draconian law and demand repudiation of the same immediately. Merinews

Naxals not blocking NREGA farm productivity schemes: Study

New Delhi: The programmes taken up under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which increase agriculture productivity in the rural areas, are not being "blocked" by the Naxalites, a study has claimed.

Council for Social Development (CSD), a study group of social workers and social scientists, also noted in its draft report that "as a combined result of NREGA and Naxalites’ pressure, contractors are paying higher wages to the manual workers (in the areas hit by left-wing extremism)".

The Naxalites have been blocking road construction but not the other kinds of permissible works under NREGA, CSD claimed in its report. The study had been jointly sponsored by the Rural Development Ministry and UNDP.

"Especially, land development works on the lands owned by scheduled castes and scheduled tribes….In short, those works which increase agricultural productivity of the rural poor are not blocked by Naxalites," it added.

The CSD conducted the study in tribal-dominated and Naxal-affected areas in Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh on implementation of NREGA and its impact there.

Sources in the ministry said that CSD was given the task to conduct a study in Naxal-affected areas after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had in one of the meetings of the ministry in October last year sought to know whether any study was conducted on the impact on NREGA.
PTI