What does government want in Junglemahal ?
Posted by Admin on August 30, 2010
Umakantha Mahato, PCPA Leader
Photograph: Deadbody of Umakanta Mahato. Anandabazar Patrika, 28 August, 2010.
Yesterday, Umakanta Mahato, leader of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) was found dead in Lalgarh. According to the police sources he was killed in an encounter although no casualty of police has been reported. Not only in this particular case, but also in last two encounters in Ranja and Metla forests where joint forces gunned downed total fourteen PCPA leaders-supporters including Sido Soren, no casualty of joint forces was reported. It is therefore very possible that police and joint forces have been killing the leaders of PCPA in clod blood and want us believe that they were killed in encounter.
Fake encounter is not something which we have never hard of. In seventies, so many students and youths were killed in the name of encounter in West Bengal. Although in their words government is keen to restore peace In Jangalmahal, but actually prefers to eliminate the leadership of PCPA, the organization leadading the democratic movement against police atrocities. They are not going to stop the brutal state repression, rather aggravates it.
The day before Umakanta’s cold-blooded murder, Director General (DG) of West Bengal police said there was not a single camp of CPM goons (or Harmad) in Jangalmahal. And when the body of Umakanta Mahato was laying on the soil of Lalgarh, Susanta Ghosh, the minister of West Bengal state government addressing a CPM rally in Goaltore claimed that with arms CPM was going to capture the whole Jangalmahal soon. Obviously, CPM harmads have been working in unison with joint forces to unleash the terror over the people of Junglemahal.
Umakanta Mahato was the prime accused in Gyaneshwari derailment case. PCPA however several times denied the allegation. Surprisingly, police who brought the allegation did not show the enough courage and confidence to produce Umakanta before a court of law; rather preferred to kill him. It once again strengthens PCPA’s allegation that Ganeswary derailment was the handiwork of CPM.
Not only the leadership of PCPA, every organization or individual, who stands for the struggles of people, is the target of the government now. Last week police arrested Naba Dutta, well known activists and general secretary of Nagarik Mancha, a mass organization working for labour issues and environment. Couple of months back police arrested Hemanta Mahato, environment activists of Jhargram. These incidents show the fascist face of the government. They even do not spare the democratic-progressive voices. A space for democratic forces is therefore a daydream now.
Red Barricade condemns killing of leaders of PCPA in fake encounters and all forms of repression unleashed by state machinery and CPM goons (Harmads).
Indian Vanguard 
som said
Hell, that’s funny :P. PCPA-Maoisists killed many CPM workers in that region……..didn’t you think that similar things might happen with you ? If you consider it a war, then accept such outcomes of war.
kalobaran said
OK then, Som. CPM kills Maoists and the Maoists kill CPM. Nobody complains and let the game go on ad infinitum. You and I can enjoy our safe and secure bourgeois lives in big cities and cheer at this bloody game just as if its a football match. If you had some humanity in you, you would have realized the plight of the common man in those places whose allegiance to the CPM or the Maoists is really divided by a very thin line. A sane individual would have tried to stop the war instead of applauding it from a safe vantage point over the net.
And if you think it is OK to kill an accused without fair trial, please don’t cry over the state-sponsored killings of CPM activists in the early seventies. Even crocodiles will get ashamed.
xyz said
PCPA fights against police atrocities.
In any movement, the form of the resistance is determined by the form of the repression.
I personally do not like dead bodies, even that of the police informers laying on the roadside. But, in order to resist the repression, for the people what alternative is available given that state machinery not only responds to the the popular demands, rather intensifies the repression?
Let me know the form of movement by which people can stop the severe repression?
When I am to choose either the repression or the resistance, for sure I will stand for the resistance. It is becoming immaterial that I personally prefer non-violence.