Saturday, October 30, 2010

‘An independent Kashmiri nation may be a flawed entity, but is independent India perfect?’


Tehelka

As a section of the political class and the media bays for her blood, author Arundhati Roy tells SHOMA CHAUDHURY why her opinions do not amount to sedition

Speaking her mind Arundhati Roy’s views on the Kashmir issue have invited brickbats from all possible quarters

Speaking her mind Arundhati Roy’s views on the Kashmir issue have invited brickbats from all possible quarters

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

The State has been contemplating charges of sedition against you for your speeches in Delhi and Kashmir. How do you understand sedition? Did you see yourself as being seditious? What was your intention in speaking from those two platforms in Delhi and Srinagar under the rubric — Azadi: The only way.
Sedition is an archaic, obsolete idea revived for us by Times Now, a channel that seems to have hysterically dedicated itself to hunting me down and putting me in the way of mob anger. Who am I anyway? Small fry for a whole TV channel. It’s not hard to get a writer lynched in this climate, and that’s what it seems to want to do. It is literally stalking me. I almost sense psychosis here. If I was the Government of India I would take a step back from the chess board of this recent morass and ask how a TV channel managed to whip up this frenzy using moth-eaten, discredited old ideas, and goad everybody into a blind alley of international embarrassment. All this has gone a long way towards internationalising the ‘Kashmir issue’, something the Indian government was trying to avoid.

One of the reasons it happened was because the BJP desperately needed to divert attention from the chargesheeting of Indresh Kumar, a key RSS leader in the Ajmer blast. This was a perfect opportunity, the media, forever in search of sensation, led by Times Now, obliged. It never occurred to me that I was being seditious. I had agreed to speak at the seminar in Delhi way before it was titled “Azadi: The only way”. The title was provocative, I guess, to people who are longing to be provoked. I don’t think it is such a big deal frankly, given what has been going on in Kashmir for more than half a century.

The Srinagar seminar was called ‘Whither Kashmir? Enslavement or Freedom?’ It was really meant for young Kashmiris to deepen the debate on what they meant by and what they wanted from azadi. Contrary to the idea that it was some fire-breathing call to arms, it was really the opposite — it was about contemplation, about deepening the debate, about asking uncomfortable questions.

You have always been fiercely individualistic. Why did you choose to share a platform — or look aligned — with Syed Shah Geelani and Varavara Rao, who are both very doctrinaire and represent very specific political positions? (Your statements might have been received differently if you had made them from an individual platform as a writer/ thinker or a civil society platform.)
It was a civil society platform! A platform of people who hold no public office, who have a range of different views. After all, Varavara Rao and Geelani have very different ideologies. That in itself should tell you that here was a platform of people who have diverse views and yet have something in common. I expressed my views, as they did theirs. I did not stand up and say I was joining the Hurriyat (G) or the CPI(Maoist). I said what I think.

Geelani, in particular, is not just pro-azadi or anti-India. He is very vocally pro-Pakistan, pro-sharia, pro-Jamaat, and has had an ambiguous past with the Hizb and violent internecine battles within the Kashmiri leadership itself. While you were perfectly right to voice your perspective on Kashmir, why did you choose to do it in conjunction with him? Why would you not be as critical of him as you are of the Indian State?
There are many Kashmiris who seriously disagree with Geelani’s views and still respect him for not having sold out to the Indian State. Speaking for myself, I disagree with many of his views, and I’ve written about it. I made that clear when I spoke. If he was the head of a state I lived in and he forced those views on me, I would do everything in my power to resist those ideas.

However, things being what they are in Kashmir, to equate him with the Indian State and expect an even-handed critique of both is ridiculous. Even the Indian government, it’s all-party delegation and the new ‘interlocutors’ know that Geelani is a vital part of what is happening in Kashmir. As for him being involved in the internecine battles within the Kashmiri leadership — yes that’s true. Terrible things happened in the nineties, fratricidal killings — and Geelani has been implicated in some of them. But internecine battles are a part of many resistance movements. They are NOT the same thing as State sponsored killings. In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) and Black Consciousness had vicious fights in which many hundreds were killed, including Steve Biko. Would you say then, that sitting on the same platform as Nelson Mandela is a crime?

By talking at seminars, by writing and questioning what he says, Geelani is being persuaded to change — there is a world of difference between what he says now and what he used to say only a few years ago. But what I find so strange about your question is this — how many people questioned Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani when they accepted Gujarat Garima awards from Narendra Modi, and embraced him in public? It wasn’t a seminar, was it? They didn’t question him, they didn’t express their views as individuals, they did not criticise the mass killing he presided over… they backed him. They said he would make a great Prime Minister. That’s okay, is it?

Ditto for Varavara Rao. While their concern for social justice and critique of the Indian State as it stands may overlap with your own critique, the Maoists philosophically espouse armed revolution as the central path to change. In all your writings, that is not your position. So why choose to share a dais with Geelani and Varavara Rao at a particularly volatile moment in Kashmir?
I have written at length on my views about the Maoists and am not going to squeeze them into a sentence here. I admire Varavara Rao in many ways, even if we don’t agree about everything. But I speak about the Maoists and about what is happening in Kashmir precisely because it’s important to do so during critical times such as these, when the media is acting for the most part like a blood-thirsty propaganda machine, busy trying to drum the last intelligent thought out of everybody’s head. This is not theoretical stuff, it’s about peoples’ lives and safety and dignity. It doesn’t get more crucial than this.

Stamp of authority Paramilitary forces on guard in downtown Srinagar

Stamp of authority Paramilitary forces on guard in downtown Srinagar

PHOTO: TARIQ MIR

Again, you are critical of the concept of nation states and the power they wield over people’s lives. Why support a man who wants to wrest Kashmir from India and merge with Pakistan — another extremely (and perhaps more) flawed nation state?
Who is this man I am supposed to be supporting? Geelani? Are you, of all people, seriously asking this? Could you produce one thing that I have said that supports the idea of ‘wresting’ Kashmir from India and merging it with Pakistan? Is Geelani the only man asking for azadi in Kashmir? I support the Kashmiri peoples’ right to self-determination. That is different from supporting Geelani.

The second part of the question — yes, I am among those who are very uncomfortable with the idea of a nation state, but that questioning has to start from those who live in the secure heart of powerful states, not from those struggling to overthrow the yoke of a brutal occupation. Sure, an independent Kashmiri nation may be a flawed entity, but is independent India perfect? Are we not asking Kashmiris the same question that our old colonial masters asked us: are the natives ready for freedom?

The controversy over your speeches arises largely out of one point you made: “Kashmir is not an integral part of India. That is a historical fact.” Would you like to elaborate on why you said that? (Historical fact being different from legitimate sentiment arising out of ill treatment.)
The history is well known. I’m not going to give people a primary grade history lesson here. But isn’t the dubious history of Kashmir’s “accession” borne out by the present turmoil? Why does the Indian government have 700,000 soldiers there? Why are the interlocutors saying “draw up a road map for azadi”, or calling it a “disputed” territory? Why do we squeeze our eyes shut every time we have to look at the reality of the streets in Kashmir?

Even among those who defend your right to voice your views — no matter what they are — there are some people who say you could have framed your statement a bit differently to say “Kashmiris don’t feel they are an integral part of India,” or that “they want the right to self-determination and they should have that right”. Can you elaborate on why you wanted to be more categorical than that?
What if the British had said “Indians may not feel they are an integral part of the British Empire, but India is an integral part of the Empire?” Would that have gone down well with us? Are these well-intentioned “defenders” of my views unaware of what links people to their land? Does this well-intentioned “defence” apply to the Adivasis of Bastar — that the Adivasis are free to feel that they are not an integral part of India, but their land (with all its riches) certainly is! So the Adivasis should translocate their rituals and traditions to urban slums and leave their lands to the mining corporations, yes?

How do you interpret azadi? Going back to the earlier question about your critique of nation states, why would you be advocating the birth of a new nation state? Why not intellectually urge the dilution of nation states instead — more porous borders, less masculine constructs based on power and identity.
It doesn’t matter how I interpret azadi. It matters how the people of Kashmir interpret azadi. About my critique of the nation state — as I said, if we are keen to dilute its masculinity, let’s begin the process at home. Let’s dismantle the nuclear arsenal, roll up the flags, stand down the army and stop the crazed nationalistic rhetoric… then we can preach to others.

There is an allegation and heated anger that you urged people not to join the army and become “rapists”. This sounds as if it is tarring a big institution in broad brushstrokes. As hoary as its track record has been, I guess the story about the Indian Army is not a black and white one. Is this a mutilation of what you said ? Could you put on record what you said about the army in your speech?
The mutilation of what I say, and not just about this, is legion. I watched words I never ever said being attributed to me in TV debate after TV debate. It’s lazy, it’s convenient and it’s vicious. In many cases, it is deliberate. The Pioneer reported in banner headlines that I advocated Kashmir’s secession from “Bhooka Nanga Hindustan”. Many have pounced on this as an illustration of my “hate-speech”. What I actually said, and have written about in some detail, is the opposite: how angry and upset I was when I heard the slogan “Bhooka Nanga Hindustan, Jaan se pyaara Pakistan” on the streets of Srinagar during the 2008 uprising. I said it shocked me that Kashmiris were mocking the very people who were victims of the same State that was brutalising them. I said that to me this was blinkered, shallow politics. Of course, I know that this clarification will not make The Pioneer apologise. It will carry on lying. It has done it before. I have never called the Indian Army an institution of rapists. I am not a moron. What I said was that all colonial powers actually establish their power by creating and working through a native elite. It has done this in Kashmir. It is Kashmiris themselves, who, among other things, by joining the police and the CRPF and army are collaborating with what they see as an occupying power. So I said that perhaps if they were keen on dismantling the occupation, they should stop joining the police! This kind of idiotic conflation and absurdity is getting truly dangerous. I sometimes feel that my real campaign is against stupidity (talk of lost causes!) If what emanates from our TV channels is a measure of the nation’s intelligence, then we really are in deep trouble — the decibel level of the debates is in inverse proportion to the IQ. Fortunately, I travel around and speak to enough real people to know that things are not so bad.

‘The media is acting like a blood-thirsty propaganda machine, busy trying to drum out the last intelligent thing out of everyone’s head’

Your critics are accusing you of not being sensitive to the plight of Kashmiri Pandits.
Well my critics should read what I write and hear what I say. But for the record: I think what has happened to the Kashmiri Pandits is a terrible tragedy. I think that the story of the Pandits is one that still remains to be told in all its complexity. Everyone was at fault, the militancy, the Islamist upsurge in the Valley, and the Indian government, which encouraged (even helped) the Pandits to flee when it should have done everything it could to protect them. Apart from losing everything they had and the only home they really knew, the poorest Pandits are still living in camps in Jammu in the worst conditions, and have had their voices hijacked by some well-heeled and noisy charlatans who feed off the destitution of their own people to get a lot of cheap political mileage. They have a vested interest in keeping them poor, so they can show them off, like animals in a zoo. Do you think that if the government really cared it could not have helped those poor people to better their lot? In all my visits to Kashmir I have sensed that ordinary Kashmiri Muslims feel a terrible sense of loss at the departure of the Pandits. If that is true, it is the duty of the leaders of Kashmir’s present struggle to get the Pandits to return. That needs more than rhetoric. Apart from it being the right thing to do, it would give them enormous moral capital. It would also help shape their vision of what kind of Kashmir they are fighting for. Let’s also not forget that there are a few thousand Pandits who have lived in the Valley through these troubled years, and unharmed.

Your critics see you as disloyal and unappreciative of India and its strengths, even as you enjoy its freedoms. Could you explain how you see and understand your relationship with India?
I’m bored of my critics! They can work it out for themselves: I’m not going to explain my relationship with this country and its people. I am not a politician looking for brownie points.

Exposed: CPM double-speak on encounter killings



KOZHIKODE: THE comments from the CPM on the CBI special court verdict in the Varghese case has exposed the party's doublespeak on 'statesponsored terrorism.'

The party has enthusiastically welcomed the verdict and even wrote an editorial in 'Desabhimani' hailing the sentence awarded to former Inspector General of Police K Lakshmana.

But the party's national leadership, however, is still maintaining a studied silence on the demand for a judicial probe into the murder of CPI (Maoist) leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, even when the clamour for an investigation reached new heights.
The CPM indirectly consumed the police version that Azad was killed in an encounter at Adilabad in July. The party slammed Trinamool Congress leader and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee when she tried to pick up holes in the police story. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury blasted Mamata for aiding the Maoists by raising the demand for a probe into the killing.

The political situation in West Bengal, where the Maoists are targeting the CPM cadre, might have forced the party to keep mum on the murder of Azad. The CPM did not react even after national media brought to light the postmortem report, which clearly showed that Azad was shot from point blank range.

But the developments after the verdict in Varghese case will force the party to clear its stand on 'encounter killings' of Maoists. Sende Rajamouli, a politburo member of CPI (Maoist), was allegedly picked up from Kollam and was later killed in a stagemanaged encounter in Andhra Pradesh three years ago. The Kerala Government failed to react, though the arrest happened in its territory.

The CBI court verdict will add strength to the Maoist sympathisers and human rights activists to raise their voice more loudly against what they call 'state terror.' "More than 80 leaders of the CPI (Maoists) have been murdered by the police in the past five years alone.

We hope that the verdict will give more vigour to the human rights activists to demand inquiry into the police atrocities," said Ajayan Mannur, secretary of the Revolutionary Peoples Front (RPF), a proMaoist outfit.

K N Ramachandran, central secretary of the CPI (ML), told 'Express' that his organisation would demand probe into the killings of the Maoist leaders.

"This has been our demand for a long time, though we are opposed to the ideology of the Maoists," he said.



Friday, October 29, 2010

"They can’t buy her silence" : Tariq Ali on Arundhati Roy


Arundhati Roy is both loathed and feared by the Indian elite. Loathed because she speaks her mind. Feared because her voice reaches the world outside India and damages the myths perpetrated by New Delhi regardless of which party holds power. She often annoys the official Indian Left because she writes and speaks of events for which they are either responsible or of which they dare not speak. Roy will not allow her life to be subjugated by lies. She never affects a courage or contempt she does not feel. Her campaigns against injustice are undertaken with no view to either fame or profit. Hence the respect awarded her by the poor, ordinary citizens, who know the truth but are not allowed a voice in the public sphere. The authorities can’t buy her silence. One of the few voices in India who has spoken loudly against the continuing Indian atrocities in Kashmir, she is now being threatened. If she doesn’t shut up they’ll charge her with sedition, aping their colonial masters of yesteryear. Her response to those who would charge and imprison her is a model of clarity, conviction and refusal to compromise.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Former Kerala cop gets life term for Maoist's murder



Kochi, Oct 28 (IANS) A 40-year-old case came back to haunt a retired Kerala police officer Thursday when he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI Special Court for killing a Maoist leader in cold blood and passing it off as a shootout.

Retired Inspector General of Police K. Lakshmana, now 74, was found guilty of murdering the Maoist leader - popularly known as 'Naxal Varghese' - by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court judge S. Vijayakumar a day earlier.

Lakshmana, the second accused in the case, has been sent to the Central Jail in Thiruvananthapuram.

The case goes back 40 years to Feb 18, 1970, the day Lakshmana directed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constable Ramachandran Nair to shoot dead Varghese, who was in police custody, in Wayanad district.

Until Nair revealed the real story, it was believed that Varghese was killed in a shootout with police. The Maoist movement was very strong in Kerala at that time.

Nair, haunted by guilt, came out with the truth in 1998 and said he was asked to commit the crime and that there never was a police 'encounter' -- the official euphemism for deaths in real and staged gunbattles.

After a series of petitions, the Kerala High Court asked the CBI to conduct a probe.

Nair later passed away. But clinching evidence for the CBI came when Nair's colleague and retired constable A.K.M. Haneefa, who was a witness in the case, said Lakshmana was present at the spot when Varghese was shot dead.

The CBI court observed there was ample evidence to prove that Nair shot Varghese to death on the command of Lakshmana, who was an inspector then.

Lakshmana has been a controversial officer. He ran into trouble in the disappearence of engineering student Rajan, who was picked up by police during Emergency but was never seen again. After a long drawn legal battle, Lakshmana was exonerated in the case.

A. Joseph, Varghese's brother, said he was happy that truth had triumphed.

However, a third accused in the case, former director general of police P. Vijayan, was given the benefit of doubt by the court and exonerated.

The Man Who Went Behind Enemy Lines


Tehelka

The Indian State claims it cannot enter Maoist territory. But a Deputy Collector in Gadchiroli district dared. TUSHA MITTAL brings back Rajendra Kanphade’s astonishing story

Maverick The villagers’ pressing needs won’t cost more than the salary of two constables, says Kanphade

Maverick The villagers’ pressing needs won’t cost more than the salary of two constables, says Kanphade

PHOTO: TARUN SHERAWAT

ON 23 AUGUST, a Deputy Collector in Maharashtra’s Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district tied his long white hair into a ponytail, wore the only pair of sneakers he owns, and set off on a forbidden journey. Rajendra Kanphade, 57, left his spartan government quarter in Gadchiroli town to travel more than 250 km towards the dense forests of Abujmarh. Spread across Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, these forests — believed to be the stronghold of the CPI (Maoist) — have been untouched by the State for decades.

But Kanphade wasn’t going to Abujmarh. He was going into forests that have, in a sense, become no man’s land — into villages trapped between the non-existent Indian State and the almost mythical hold of the Naxals.

‘I am against violence, whether it is from the Naxals or the legalised violence of the State. The Naxals do targeted killings, but the violence of the police is random. It seems the villagers are more afraid of the police than the Naxals’RAJENDRA KANPHADE

Kanphade’s colleagues refused to accompany him. “You can’t predict where the mines are,” they said. The police warned of grave consequences. Gadchiroli SP Viresh Prabhu said he couldn’t provide protection or guarantee his safety. “It is my fundamental right to go anywhere in the country,” Kanphade says. “Just because the police can’t discharge their duty doesn’t mean I won’t do mine.”

Kanphade and seven volunteers left for Beenagonda, a village located 100 km away from the last police outpost on the Maharashtra border, forbidden because of the perceived threat of Naxals.

Kanphade emerged from his journey to challenge this very notion. He emerged more critical of the State than the enemy. “The quantum of the Naxal threat and terror has been exaggerated by the police,” he says. “The Naxal bogey is being used to get more funds and higher salaries.”

After almost a year-long lull, Gadchiroli has seen two Naxal attacks in the past week — four policemen were killed in Perimelli and a police jeep was blown up near Sawargaon. The last major attack was in October 2009 when 14 policemen were massacred in Laheri village in the district’s Bhamragad division. But, look at the larger picture and some of that exaggeration becomes apparent.

Sources in the Gadchiroli police’s Naxal cell said that there are about 300 uniformed Naxal cadres in the district. The combined strength of the state and paramilitary forces for the district alone is around 9,000 — including four CRPF battalions, 11 SRPF companies, the local state police and the C-60, a commando force.

‘In the so-called Naxal area, nobody pointed a gun at me. On coming back, my own police did,’ says Kanphade

A report on left-wing extremism by Gadchiroli’s District Planning Committee, accessed by TEHELKA, puts the figure of “armed assault by Naxals on police, resulting in death (blasting/encounter)” in the district for the 1980 to 2010 period at an alarmingly low 57 incidents — that is less than two fatal incidents per year for the past three decades.

Ever since the launch of a joint offensive against the Naxals last year, voices against the government’s operation have been gathering steam. Typically, these voices have been labelled as activists, Naxal sympathisers or manipulative politicians — not patriotic enough to support valiant soldiers fighting inside the country’s hinterland. But this time, it is a bureaucrat calling the bluff, showing that Naxalism doesn’t have to preclude development, asking for the paramilitary forces to be withdrawn — that is why what Kanphade says is significant. And perhaps that is why, two months after his expedition, he faces the prospect of a departmental inquiry.

The son of a headmaster, Kanphade grew up in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh. He studied in government schools, graduated from Nagpur University with an MSc degree in mathematics and physics, and began teaching at a Nagpur high school. He remembers his first encounter with the government: collecting a teacher’s certificate from a district office in 1984. “They asked me for a Rs. 2 bribe. It made me angry. I refused to pay,” he recalls.

In 1985, he joined the Civil Services to “mend the system”, but soon discovered that “honesty is the worst policy”. As a Deputy Tehsildar in 1988, he learnt of illegal tree felling on 22 hectares of forest land. He hatched a plan to catch the culprits. “If this is how you want to behave, why don’t you go back and teach,” the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) told him.

When he took over as Deputy Collector in March this year, Kanphade already had the reputation of a maverick who cannot be bribed. Perhaps, that is why when Collector Atul Patne asked 30 officers to check on ashram schools in the district, Kanphade was allotted the most inaccessible one, Beenagonda, a place officials believe is a Naxal stronghold. “It was given to me by ill-intention because there are no roads to get there,” Kanphade says. “I decided to not let that stop me.”

On 25 August, Kanphade and his team reached Beenagonda after walking for 20 km, trekking across hills, and wading through flooded rivulets. One team member almost got swept away by the current, but they saved him in time. It was pouring when the team arrived in Beenagonda. The village has 35 huts and 219 residents. Of the two wells, one is always dry and the other is clogged with rainwater. This monsoon, the villagers have been drinking water from muddy canals. There is no electricity and the nearest market is 57 km away. Two decrepit buildings are the only face of the State — the ashram school funded by the Tribal Welfare Department and a rural health centre, which has neither doctors nor medicines.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Arundhati Roy responds to reports of possible arrest on charges of sedition





October 26 2010

I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning’s papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state.

Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer’s husband and Asiya’s brother. We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get ‘insaf’—justice—from India, and now believed that Azadi—freedom— was their only hope. I met young stone pelters who had been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones.

In the papers some have accused me of giving ‘hate-speeches’, of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free.

Arundhati Roy

Monday, October 25, 2010

Maoists making comeback in Andhra Pradesh


Maoists have made inroads into northeast Andhra Pradesh bordering Orissa

Times of India, October 24, 2010

HYDERABAD: More than four years after they were thought to have been driven out of Andhra Pradesh, the Maoists have begun to rear their heads once again in the state. Sources say that Maoists are now active in six of the 11 mandals of Visakhapatnam district in northeast corner of Andhra. They are also flexing muscle and mulling over the prospects of activating themselves in the north Telangana districts. Intelligence reports suggest that balladeer Gaddar entered the Telengana movement recently only after being cajoled and coaxed to do so by the Maoists.

As of now, the activities of the Left ultras in north-coastal AP is restricted to felling trees, digging up roads, blasting government property and damaging road transport corporation buses. Presently, they are operating in the interior areas that can be accessed by kutcha roads. They operate out of Orissa and come walking between one to three hours on undulating terrain, indulge in violence and go back, an informed source said. He added: ”They have local support in these basically tribal villages.”

Right now, the activities of the Maoists are manageable from the law and order point of view. But sources say that the police zeal in combing these godforsaken places for Maoists is very low. This has been so since June 2008 when in the Balimela operations, scores of policemen lost their lives at the hands of Maoists. Ever since, the police have been on the backfoot. There is combing in these areas, but it is not that serious. Exchange of fire takes place once in a blue moon. In the last year-and-a-half, only seven times has there been an exchange of fire, a source said. If Maoists get caught, it is only by accident, the sources reveal citing the example of an ultra, Nilesh alias Jaipal.

“The ultra was going on the main road on a motorcycle when due to heavy rains the engine stopped. A police party was close at hand and the home guard accompanying the party, being an ex-Maoist, was able to recognise him. Thats how he was nabbed,” a source says.

What is worrying the police now are the agitations in the three districts of north coastal Andhra against projects perceived to be environmentally damaging. Though there is no direct Maoist hand in these agitations, the police believe that the ultras can step in to take advantage of the discontentment that is fomenting the agitations.

In some cases, they are believed to have already stepped in. The police believe that the blast that happened in the toilet of an activist in Sompeta earlier this month could have been the handiwork of the Maoists who have supporters in the area.

Although the police were able to contain the Maoists earlier, the porous borders with Orissa is a major cause of concern. Orissa does not have a serious anti-Maoist policy and the ultras have a base in the Malkangiri, Koraput and Rayagada districts of Orissa that adjoins the AP border. There are no border checkposts except on the highway and main roads. Whatever check posts were there have been blasted. To cap it, on both sides of the border the same Kondh Tribals live, a source said. In the emerging situation, Maoists may choose to operate indirectly by cashing in on local sentiments and operating the levers. They may not come out openly, a source speculated.

The Maoist operations on the Andhra Orissa Border (AOB) is looked after by a special zonal committee.

Arundhati Roy speaking at Azadi The Only Way Conference held in Dlhi the other Day



Campaign starts to arrest Arundhati Roy for support for Free Kashmir



Serial sedition: Will Govt act this time?

October 25, 2010 8:47:55 PM

Pioneer News Service | New Delhi

Under pressure from the BJP to act against controversial Booker prize winner Arundhati Roy for her latest reiteration of azadi for Kashmir, as the Congress-led UPA Government continues to weigh legal options, it turns out, social networking sites like the Facebook not only had the instant emergence of ‘Arrest Suzanna Arundhati Roy’ — like petitions no sooner than she made her opinion public a couple of years ago but also dished out the course of action.

The ‘arrest Roy’ petition on Facebook, addressed to the Government of India and the Prime Minister, demands arrest of the 49-year-old author-turned-political activist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 (amended in 2008).

“The offences listed under this law include any assertion or statement ‘which is intended, or supports any claim, to bring about, on any ground whatsoever, the cession of a part of the territory of India or the secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union, or which incites any individual or group of individuals to bring about such cession or secession’,” the petition points out to back its demand.

Roy’s remarks on Kashmir aren’t new. She has been there and done that on earlier occasions too, only to invite customary rebuttals like “Kashmir is and will remain an integral part of India”.

But often dubbed by critics as the ‘one-book-claim-to-fame’ author, Roy does seem to have perfected the art of hogging the limelight courting controversies with her opinions perceived by many as “anti-national” and a direct challenge to the law of the land. Be it her espousal of the cause of Kashmir’s azadi or her support to the Maoists; be it her terming as “unconstitutional” the Supreme Court’s death sentence to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru or her assertion that the Mumbai terror attacks were not akin to US’ 9/11 and could not be seen in isolation.

Not surprising then that pro-Pakistan websites and organisations have more than lapped up Roy’s remarks. In fact, much before her latest statements on Kashmir they had already gone around to highlight her reported assertions about how “Pakistan will win hands down” in case of a referendum in Kashmir in an interview to David Barsamian, her co-author of Checkbook & Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy.

Her statement to an English daily in 2008, when she visited the troubled State, that “India needs azadi from Kashmir as much as Kashmir needs azadi from India”, too got circulated big time. Roy has been reiterating this assertion ever since.

“For the past 60 days or so, since about the end of June, the people of Kashmir have been free. Free in the most profound sense. They have shrugged off the terror of living their lives in the gun-sights of half-a-million heavily-armed soldiers in the most densely militarised zone in the world…. …Hadn’t anybody noticed that in Kashmir even minor protests about civic issues like water and electricity inevitably turned into demands for azadi?” Her opinion in an article in an English weekly magazine the same year saw responses ranging from demands for booking her on charges of sedition to praises of being bold enough to speak out her mind.

But that didn’t deter her from speaking aloud her mind, even on an issue as sensitive as the Mumbai terror attacks. “November isn’t September, 2008 isn’t 2001, Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t America…. The Mumbai attacks are only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Indian towns and cities this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon have all seen serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of ordinary people have been killed and wounded…”

“In much the same way as it did after the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the Government of India announced that it has “incontrovertible” evidence that the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba backed by Pakistan’s ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks. So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy,” she wrote in her piece in UK’s Guardian newspaper.

If she justified the ‘war’ waged by the Maoists against the corporates wanting to have control over natural resources like minerals, water and forests, she termed the Operation Green Hunt against them as a ‘war’ by the Government to move tribal people to ensure the hundreds of “secret” MoUs the States of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal signed with the corporates translated into real money.

Her run-in with the Chhattisgarh police establishment too was much publicised. When asked why the State Government did not act against her, Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwaranjan said, “I don’t want to comment on a person who has been discredited across the nation. She had visited Chhattisgarh and went around meeting hardcore Maoists and their sympathisers in Dantewada and other places. She keeps on refuting her statements and we don’t want to give her that much importance.”

In 2006, Roy, who was jailed for a day for contempt of court in 2002, yet again took on the judiciary. She said the Supreme Court’s ruling that Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru must be hanged ‘to satisfy the collective will of the nation’ though there is no proof of his involvement is in itself “unconstitutional”.

With the latest controversy surfacing, whether the Government will or can act now remains to be seen.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

ചിതറയിലെ സി.പി.എം.-ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. സംഘര്‍ഷം ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം.പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ പോലീസ്‌സ്റ്റേഷന്‍ ഉപരോധിച്ചു



കടയ്ക്കല്‍ (കൊല്ലം):പ്രവര്‍ത്തകരെ ആക്രമിക്കുകയും കുടില്‍ കത്തിക്കുകയും ചെയ്ത സി.പി.എമ്മുകാര്‍ക്കെതിരെ നടപടി ആവശ്യപ്പെട്ട് ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ പോലീസ് സ്റ്റേഷനിലേക്ക് മാര്‍ച്ച് നടത്തി. വണ്‍വേ റോഡില്‍ പോലീസ് സ്റ്റേഷന് സമീപം മാര്‍ച്ച് പോലീസ് തടഞ്ഞു. പ്രതികളെ അറസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യുന്നതുവരെ അനിശ്ചിതസമരം പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ച് സ്ത്രീകളും കുട്ടികളും അടങ്ങുന്ന പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ രാത്രിയിലും റോഡ് ഉപരോധിച്ച് സമരം തുടരുകയാണ്.

ചിതറ ഐരക്കുഴി കണ്ണന്‍കോട് കോളനിയില്‍ ശനിയാഴ്ച രാത്രിയാണ് സംഭവം. ഐരക്കുഴി വാര്‍ഡില്‍ മത്സരിച്ച ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. സ്ഥാനാര്‍ഥി മഞ്ജുവിന്റെ ബൂത്ത് ഏജന്റുമാരെ സി.പി.എം. പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ മര്‍ദ്ദിച്ചുവെന്ന് ആരോപിച്ചാണ് പ്രശ്‌നം തുടങ്ങിയത്. തുടര്‍ന്ന് ഇരുവിഭാഗവും സംഘടിച്ചു. രാത്രിയില്‍ കോളനിയിലെത്തിയ സി.പി.എം. പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ താമസക്കാരെ മര്‍ദ്ദിക്കുകയും പ്രവര്‍ത്തകനായ ഷൈജുവിന്റെ കുടില്‍ കത്തിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തുവെന്ന് പറയുന്നു. സംഭവത്തെ തുടര്‍ന്ന് മൂന്ന് ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ കടയ്ക്കല്‍ താലൂക്ക് ആസ്​പത്രിയില്‍ ചികിത്സയിലാണ്.

ഞായറാഴ്ച ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക് 11 മണിയോടെയാണ് കടയ്ക്കല്‍ പോലീസ് സ്റ്റേഷനിലേക്ക് മാര്‍ച്ച് നടത്തിയത്. തിരുവനന്തപുരം, കൊല്ലം ജില്ലകളുടെ വിവിധ മേഖലകളില്‍നിന്ന് എത്തിയവരായിരുന്നു അധികവും. മാര്‍ച്ച് പോലീസ് തടഞ്ഞു. തുടര്‍ന്ന് മാര്‍ക്കറ്റ് ജങ്ഷന് സമീപംവരെ റോഡ് ഉപരോധിച്ച് സമരക്കാര്‍ നിരന്നു. പോലീസിനും സി.പി.എമ്മിനും എതിരെ മുദ്രാവാക്യം മുഴക്കി. പ്രതികളെ അറസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യുന്നതുവരെ സമരം തുടരുമെന്ന് നേതാക്കള്‍ പ്രഖ്യാപിച്ചു. ഉപരോധസമരം ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. സംസ്ഥാന ഓര്‍ഗനൈസര്‍ സലീന പ്രക്കാനം ഉദ്ഘാടനം ചെയ്തു. സംസ്ഥാന സെക്രട്ടറി ദാസ് കെ.വര്‍ക്കല, ജില്ലാ ഇന്‍ ചാര്‍ജ്ജ് സജിമോന്‍ ചേലയം എന്നിവര്‍ സംസാരിച്ചു.

സംഭവമറിഞ്ഞ് എസ്.പി. ഹര്‍ഷിത അത്തല്ലൂരി സ്ഥലത്തെത്തി ചര്‍ച്ച നടത്തിയെങ്കിലും ഫലമുണ്ടായില്ല. പുനലൂര്‍, അഞ്ചല്‍, ഏരൂര്‍, കുന്നിക്കോട് പോലീസ് ഉള്‍പ്പെടെയുള്ള സംഘം കടയ്ക്കലില്‍ ക്യാമ്പ് ചെയ്യുകയാണ്. പ്രശ്‌നം നടന്ന കണ്ണന്‍കോട് കോളനിയില്‍ കടയ്ക്കല്‍ എസ്.ഐ. രാജേഷിന്റെ നേതൃത്വത്തില്‍ പോലീസ് ക്യാമ്പ് ചെയ്യുന്നു.

ശനിയാഴ്ച ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. നേതാക്കള്‍ എത്തിയ വാഹനം അപ്പൂപ്പന്‍കുന്നിന് സമീപം താഴേക്ക് മറിഞ്ഞു. ആയുധങ്ങളുമായി വന്ന വാഹനമാണ് അപകടത്തില്‍പ്പെട്ടതെന്ന് സി.പി.എം. നേതൃത്വം ആരോപിച്ചു. ഐരക്കുഴി വാര്‍ഡിലെ സി.പി.എം. സ്ഥാനാര്‍ഥി സുജിത കൈലാസിനുനേരെയും പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ക്കുനേരെയും ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. അക്രമം നടത്തുകയായിരുന്നുവെന്ന് സി.പി.എം. ഏരിയാ സെക്രട്ടറി കരകുളം ബാബു ആരോപിച്ചു. സി.പി.എം. പ്രവര്‍ത്തക മല്ലികയുടെ വീടിന് തീവച്ചു. കണ്ണന്‍കോട് കോളനി കേന്ദ്രീകരിച്ച് ഒരുവര്‍ഷമായി ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം. പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ ആയുധ പരിശീലനം നടത്തുകയാണ്. യു.ഡി.എഫ്.-ഡി.എച്ച്.ആര്‍.എം.സംഘം തമ്മിലുണ്ടാക്കിയ ധാരണയനുസരിച്ചാണ് അക്രമപ്രവര്‍ത്തനങ്ങള്‍ നടത്തിയതെന്നും സി.പി.എം. ആരോപിച്ചു.

കൊല്ലത്ത് ദളിതര്‍ക്ക് നേരെ സി.പി.എം.അക്രമം: നടപടിയാവശ്യപ്പെട്ട് പൊലിസ് സ്റ്റേഷനുമുന്നില്‍ വന്‍ ധര്‍ണ


ISbv¡Â: kn.]n.F½nsâ t\XrXz¯n ZenXv tImf\nIfn hym]Iamb A{Ia§Äs¡Xntc സ്ത്രീകളും കുട്ടികളും ഉള്‍പ്പടെ ആയിരത്തിലേറെ വരുന്ന Un.F¨v.BÀ.Fw {]hÀ¯IÀ ISbv¡Â t]menkv kvtäj\v ap¶n A\nÝnXIme [ÀW XpS§n. [ÀWbv¡v apt¶mSnbmbn ISbv¡Â _kv kvämân\v ap¶n \n¶pw Bcw`n¨ {]IS\w ISbv¡Â kvtäj\v ap¶n t]menkv XSªp.
kw`hw Adnªv sImÃw Fkv.]n lÀjnZm A«Ãqcn Øes¯¯n Un.F¨v.BÀ.Fw P\d sk{I«dn hÀ¡e Zmkpambn NÀ¨ \S¯nsb¦nepw {]XnIfmb kn.]n.Fw {]hÀ¯Isc AdÌv sN¿msX kac¯n \n¶pw ]n³amdnsöv At±lw Adnbn¨p.
NnXd ]©mb¯v sFc¡pgn H¶mw hmÀUv Un.F¨v.BÀ.Fw Øm\mÀYn Fw aRvPphnsâ t]mfnMv GPâpamsc kn.]n.Fw {]hÀ¯IÀ aÀദ്ദിക്കുകയും രണ്ടു ഡി.എച്.ആര്‍.എം. പ്രവര്‍ത്തരുടെ vv വീടുകള്‍ ചുട്ടെരിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തിരുന്നു.
CXns\Xntc PnÃm]©mb¯v ISbv¡Â Unhnj³ kn.]n.Fw Øm\mÀYn A\´Ipkpaw, ap³ ]©mb¯v AwKw kt´mjv ssIemkv, {_m©v sk{I«dn \fn\m£³ F¶nhÀs¡XntcbmWv Un.F¨v.BÀ.Fw {]hÀ¯IÀ ISbv¡Â t]menkv kvtäj\n ]cmXn \ÂInbncp¶p.
F¶mÂ, ChÀs¡Xntc tIskSp¡phm³ t]menkv X¿mdmbnÃ. CXn {]Xntj[n¨mWv t]menkv kvtäj\v ap¶n [ÀW Bcw`n¨Xv.
[ÀW Un.F¨v.BÀ.Fw t\Xmhv keo\ DZvLmS\w sNbvXp. P\d sk{I«dn hÀ¡e Zmkv, apXnÀ¶ ZenXv t\Xmhv ]´fw cmtP{µ³ kwkmcn¨p.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

On the Arrest of Porattom Leader P.J.Manuel

കേരളത്തില്‍ നടമാടുന്നത് പോലീസ് രാജോ?
Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:09:57 +0000

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t]mcm«w, Un.F¨v.BÀ.Fw XpS§nb Nne kwLS\IÄ¡p s]mXptbmK§Ä \S¯m³ A\phmZtam ssa¡v D]tbmKn¡m³ A\paXntbm \ÂIm\mhnsöv D¶X t]menkv DtZymKس Xs¶ hyàam¡n. Cu kwLS\IÄ \ntcm[n¡s¸«hbÃ. ]ns¶´mWp ImcWsa¶p ]dªXpanÃ. am\phensâ AdÌn\p ImcWw t]menkv cPnkväÀ sNbvX Hcp tIkmWv. sF.]n.kn 353, 506 hIp¸pIÄ{]Imcw FdWmIpfw sk³{S tÌj\n cPnÌÀ sNbvX tIknsâ ImcWw t]menkns\ HutZymKnI IrXy\nÀhlW¯n XSÊs¸Sp¯pIbpw `ojWns¸Sp¯pIbpw sNbvXp F¶XmWv. F´mWv AUz. ]n sP am\ph sNbvX IpäIrXysa¶pw XSÊs¸Sp¯nb HutZymKnI IrXy\nÀhlWsa¶pw tcJs¸Sp¯nb F^v.sF.BÀ hnNn{XamWv.
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AZAADI: THE ONLY WAY AHEAD IN KASHMIR


Arundhati Roy & SAS Geelai on the dias in the historic public meeting on 'AZADI: The only way'
22nd October 2010 in LTG auditorium (Delhi)


Yesterday in a historic convention in LTG Auditorium, Mandi House, many voices representing various peoples’ movements of South Asia reverberated to collectively assert that Azaadi is the only way ahead for Kashmir. Along with the prominent speakers from Kashmir, the struggling nationalities of Manipur, Nagalim, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, as well as activists, writers, intellectuals from India hailed the heroic struggle of the people of Kashmir for their denied self-determination, the aspiration for justice and dignity. The communal-fascist lumpen brigade of RSS, ABVP and Panun Kashmir repeatedly tried to disrupt the proceedings, create a ruckus and assault the speakers on the dais, but were successfully resisted by the audience present there. The convention extended an overwhelming support to the ongoing movement against the occupation by the Indian armed forces, and the inalienable right of the Kashmiri’s right to self-determination, including secession from India. Once again, the corporate media today carried more of the news of the disruption with its general misinformation campaign, while purposefully erasing the solidarity which was reasserted in the assembly. The media neither cared to report about the deliberations at the convention, nor about the spirit of unity among the oppressed peoples of Kashmir, Indiaand other persecuted nationalities of South Asia. Far from a truthful reporting of the various views kept in the meeting, the Hindu-fundamentalist Indian corporate media demanded the booking of the organizers and speakers under charges of sedition! At the same time, having failed to stop the convention from its successful completion, the Sangh-giroh has today gone to the parliament demanding a clampdown on all democratic spaces and platforms of solidarity among the people of India and Kashmir.
Varavara Rao & SAS Geelani being flanked by the Kashmiri youth and student volunteers as some right wing miscreants attempt to disrupt the proceedings for a while..


From June this year, Kashmir has witnessed one of the largest mass mobilizations against the Indian occupation. People of Kashmir have come out on the streets in tens of thousands braving the teargas, bullets and batons of the armed forces. With nothing but courage in their hearts and stones in their hands, the youth, men, women and even children of Kashmircontinue to defy curfew and relentlessly uphold their aspiration of Azaadi.Since June this year, 111 Kashmiris including two children have been brutally shot dead by the police and CRPF. Neither the Indian ruling class nor the corporate media are ready to hear this clarion call of the people ofKashmir. The response of the Indian state to this mass upsurge has yet again been bullets and brute force first, followed by sham committees and promises of ‘dialogue’. A delegation of parliamentary parties who are directly responsible for ordering the killings in Kashmir visited the Valley in the pretext of discussions. All that the Indian state could come up with following this much-hyped visit was to appoint a committee of ‘interlocutors’ who will further ‘interact’ with people in Kashmir to recommend some measures for reconciliation. This shows the complete lack of commitment of the Indian state to the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

The people of Kashmir have proposed a five-point charter of demand to the Indian state, which asked for : 1. acceptance of the disputed nature of the territory of Jammu and Kashmir, 2. repeal of AFSPA and other black laws, 3. release of political detainees and prisoners, 4. withdrawal of the armed forces and 5. punishment of those police officers and armed men guilty of taking life in the past few months. The fascist Indian state is yet to respond to these demands. What they came up instead is an ‘8 point formula’ which basically included ‘economic packages’. The Indian state is not ready to withdraw Indian Army or even review the draconian AFSPA. And all that the Indian state is doing is to delay any dialogue with the people inKashmir and in the meantime employ more force to crush the movement of the people. It is not ready to accept Kashmir as even a dispute for that will bring out all ugly facts which are forcibly buried in the past. The unfulfillment of the promise for plebiscite in United Nations in 1952, the prolonged suppression of peaceful movement till 1980s, the imprisonment of elected representatives in 1989, the presence of 8 lakh armed forces, the draconian AFSPA and PSA, the 70,000 people killed, the thousands who have simply ‘disappeared’, the thousand of rapes, the torture centers, the fake encounters, the crackdowns, the mass graves, the massacres… do we need more evidence of the real status of Kashmir, which was never an ‘integral part of India’.

We do not need any more ‘interlocution’ to hear what the people ofKashmir are saying. The writing is loud and clear on the walls of Kashmir. Slogans like ‘Go India Go Back’ and ‘hum kya chahte? Azaadi’ are echoing in the streets of the valley every single day! The deaf Indian state might try to silence it, its corporate media lackeys might try to ignore the reality but this is what the millions of Kashmiris are saying in unison. No might of the colonizing Indian state can dominate this unflinching aspiration of the Kashmiri masses. It is the united fight of other oppressed nationalities along with the oppressed masses in India which can defeat this fascist brahminical state and its oppression.

In Solidarity with the brave Stone-pelters of the Valley..

With those braving the Indian Occupation Forces in Kashmir..


A human-chain being formed by Kashmiri youth, students and organizers to shield the speakers from thesanghi hooligans who made a failed attempt to disrupt the historic meeting..

Notwithstanding the party in power, the colour of Indian state is saffron: The Babri masjid verdict once again proves that!


This article on Babri Masjid Verdict appeared DSUJNU

The Babri Masjid Verdict most certainly stands as yet another brazen vindication of the communal, fascist, and hindu majoritarian nature of the Indian state. What is more dangerous however is the way every ruling class party in this country is justifying and trying to ‘normalize’ this rabidly communal verdict and in effect its pre-history. Duly assisted by the corporate media, these parliamentary parties are trying to hide the fascist ramifications of this judgment. The judgment not only blatantly denied justice to the muslims by vesting 2/3 land of the Babri Masjid to the hindus but also dangerously upheld faith of the dominant upper caste hindu community. The verdict after all reasserts the fact that Muslims are second class citizens in this country, who should remain contented with the “generosity” shown by the judiciary in vesting just one-third of the land, which wholly belongs to them otherwise.

The communal fascist sangh parivar is jubilant because of obvious reasons. The same forces who blatantly defied Supreme Court restrictions to demolish the mosque in 1992 have suddenly become the most ‘law-abiding citizens’. Because the judiciary in most uncertain terms upheld their agenda, vindicated their ‘astha’, and legalized their barbaric acts. Thus Advani in his reaction to the Ayodhya verdict said that “I believe that the Ayodhya judgment will mark the start of a new chapter for national unity,” It is the same Hindutvadefinition of ‘national unity’ he was talking about. It implies that if the muslims/dalits/adivasis/other minorities wish to live in India, they will have to live as per the terms of the brahmanvadi dominant Hindu forces. Empowered by the verdict the same communal murderers now are not merely celebrating their victory over two-thirds of the land, but are also in the name of ‘peace’ and ‘tolerance’ most audaciously threatening the Muslim community to forget the killings, rapes, pogroms of the past’ and give up even their remaining claim over the land thus becoming ‘active collaborators’ in the building of a ‘magnificent’ Ram mandir.

The parliamentary pseudo-left, spearheaded by CPM, keeping in mind the upcoming assembly polls in Bengal and Kerela (where they are majorly banking on the hindu ‘vote bank’) in most opportunistic fashion delayed and finally restrained from taking a clear position on the verdict. Much like the page three Bollywood stardust they merely ‘appealed’ to all parties to “accept” the judgment ‘peacefully’. Who are they appealing to? Let us remind them, the Muslims in this country had kept calm when in 1949 some miscreants installed a Ram idol right at the centre of their masjid and the Indian state subsequently locked it stopping the namaz in the historical mosque; they maintained peace when later in 1986 they opened the mosque to allow the Hindus to perform pooja; they preserved peace even when they were communally abused and targeted all over the country during Advani’s Rath Yatra in 1990; they maintained it when it was demolished by the frenzied mob and rather suffered in its aftermath in 1992. The hindu fascist sangh giroh on the other hand had been historically behind all communal frenzies, massacres, pogroms, demolitions, riots. They simply don’t care about the benign ‘appeals’ made by these pseudo-left. The communal fascists can not be reined by ‘appealing’ to their ‘moral conscience’. They have to be fought on ground which is definitely not what the pseudo-Left chooses to do. The only ‘problem’ CPM seems to have with the verdict is with its nature which was on the basis of faith. But they maintained a calculated silence on the outcome of the verdict in the shape of the unjust division of the land in favour of the hindus. Their unwillingness to take positions and demand real justice in the shape of the re-building of the mosque for the persecuted and betrayed minority; their appeal to ‘peacefully’ kowtow before this atrocious judgment; and call for reposing faith back on the same judiciary once again exposes the farce, toothless-ness, opportunism and the saffron shade of their secular credentials.

The Congress which has always postured as the ‘secular alternative’ to the communal fascist BJP has its real communal face exposed yet again. And there is nothing new to it. Every time in be it 1949, 1986, 1990, 1992 or in 2010, Congress was in center. And all the fascist agenda of thesangh giroh has been materialized and facilitated with the active support of that central government. The engineering of the riots, the demolition of the mosque had all been done with active patronage from the Congress led Indian state. The perpetrators of 1992 are still moving scot free because of the clear consent of the Congress government. For Congress the judgment is not ‘anyone’s victory or loss’! The clear denial of justice to the muslims by the rabidly communal verdict is being portrayed by Congress as the reflection of the ‘secular credentials’, ‘maturity of Indian people’ and our bid to ‘reconciliation and harmony’. They are willfully blind to the vindication in the verdict of the agenda of the communal fascists to forcefully build a temple on a land on which the Babri masjid stood. While leaders like Digvijay Singh hailed the verdict as ‘best possible verdict’ Chidambaram wants the nation to ‘move on’. He further observed that this verdict has nothing to do with the act of demolition of the Babri masjid on December 6, 1992. All these are deliberate attempts to put a garb on the increasing stronghold of the communal fascists. Because once this judgement validated the basic claim of the sangh giroh that the masjid was an illegitimate structure built after destruction of the Ram temple, the criminal case against them who demolished the mosque gets automatically weakened. Further, the award of the title of the desired land to the same forces accords moral justification to their act of demolition in retrospect. And therefore it is a clear victory of the communal fascists which the Congress will never admit. It obviously wants every body to forget this and move on, like the state always wants us to forget all unjust wars, genocides, massacres, pogroms and ‘move on’ till it strikes again!

Both Congress and CPM blindly reposed their ultimate faith onwhatever the Supreme Court decides. Shedding their responsibility (read risk) of taking a political position on the issue, they simply hope that the latter would do the needful to remedy. But the Indian judiciary that has shown its casteist communal colours time and again is nothing but a tool to support the communal-majoritarian state. There is no reason to think that the same Supreme Court which has given verdict in favour of landlords, upheld corporate agenda of land grab or ordered baseless death sentence to Afzal Guru just to satisfy the ‘collective conscience’ of the nation will give any progressive or just verdict on its own. This brahmanvadi hindu fascist state and its organs have to be confronted and defeated. And only then justice can be ensured to all oppressed and deprived masses.

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