StatCounter

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF LALGARH STRUGGLE

The tribal of Lalgarh are fighting a glorious struggle to protect their lands, forests, natural resources, culture, lives, liberty & honor. After the land-mine blast on the caravan of West Bengal C.M. Budhdeb Bhattacharya and the then Union Steel & Mines Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, in November 2008, the West Bengal police launched a massive combing operation in the Lalgarh area, conducting mid-night raids; beating up, assaulting and dishonoring women & children, illegally detaining & torturing them in police camps. The tribal refused to take it lying down and took to the path of struggle against these repressive measures by organizing themselves in Committees for Resisting Police Repression, in numerous villages. The held massive Dharnas and protest sieges before the police-camps and decided to socially boycott those police officials who perpetuated cruelties upon them. There was absolutely nothing “Maoist” in their 11-point charter of demands, which included public apology by policemen responsible for torturing & humiliating the people; an end to mid-night police raids; release of innocent persons detained without trial since 1998 on the suspicion of being ‘Maoists’; removal of all police camps from various schools, hospitals & other public buildings in the area; & compensation to the victims of police brutalities, etc.
Although the authorities conceded these demands and promised to initiate action to implement these, but this announcement was a clever ploy to buy time. Shortly afterwards, the police raids restarted with increased vigor; police repression on the innocent people intensified & the police camps were re-established. Two leaders of the Committee for Resisting Police Repression, namely Nirmal Sardar & Hemadri Mahato were brutally murdered. CPI (M) goons are enacting a different type of ‘Salwa Judam’, openly firing upon struggling tribal, killing & maiming many people.

Now a full scale offensive with a contingent of more than 5000 armed personnel is underway. Indian state is trying to overawe & crush simple tribal folks, by massive deployment of its security forces, armed with ultra-modern & sophisticated weapons, under the garb of flushing out the ‘Maoists’.

The Santhal tribal of Lalgarh have been deprived of the basic necessities of life, since decades. There is no electricity, irrigation facilities, motorable roads etc. Facilities for education, health care, safe drinking water etc are scarce. For the last more than 5 years, the few existing school, hospital & other public buildings have been occupied by the security forces. Funds provided under various ‘development schemes’ such as NREGA, Indira Awas Yojna etc are cornered by Marxist-controlled Panchayats to benefit their own cadres. The Public Distribution System is being used for illegal enrichment of Depot Holders, who are members or sympathizers of CPI (M) & corrupt officials. Now in the name of establishing Special Economic Zones, a wave of dispossession of tribal from their lands & forests has started to facilitate their exploitation by MNCs & their Indian agents. The CPI (M) which has remained entrenched in the Writers Building for more than three days on the strength of tribal votes has done nothing to ameliorate their lot. Rather it has worsened further due to anti-people neo-liberal policies being pursued by the West Bengal & Central Govts.

With the present armed offensive & extreme violent repression, the State may lull the movement temporarily. But the democratic revolutionary aspirations of Lalgarh people can not be crushed. The movement will rebound with great vigor and increased strength, winning support & solidarity from the struggling people throughout India.

Dated: 26.6.09




Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs

1 comment:

  1. We congratulae you for your struggle in Punjab.Please send us your reports of struggles as well as the struggles against neo-liberalism in Punjab as wel as ground reports - we will try to publish them in sanhati.com

    Send to sanhatiinida@sanhati.com

    ReplyDelete