CLICK TO ENLARGEFriday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
LURKING THREAT TO SECULARISM - R Arun Kumar
TWENTY years back, on these same days, the BJP with its topmost leader, L K Advani took out a rath yatra that spilt blood along its trails. Recently, Advani along with Uma Bharati was back in Somnath, the place from where the yatra was started, to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Incidentally, Ayodhya Ram temple, the issue that the BJP used for undertaking the rath yatra then, is in the news again, with the court deciding on the ownership title deed. Once again, the religious fundamentalists are back to do what they do best, rattling communal rabble. The defeat of BJP in the last two successive general elections in our country, thus, should not deceive us. In spite of their defeat, they continue to occupy substantial socio-political space in our country and vouch for the interests of the ruling classes.
Religious fundamentalism is once again on the ascendancy, threatening the secular, cultural and moral fabric of many countries in the world. Terrorism, exploiting religious sentiments, is also on the rise. The socio-economic conditions of the current period are contributing to the growth of religious fundamentalism and conservatism across the world. Religious fundamentalism, tries to exploit the existing religious feelings among the people to further its sectarian ends.
Karl Marx states, “Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress”. In these times of global economic crisis and increasing burdens on the common people, it is natural for them to search for means to 'de-stress'. In this quest, they find religion as “the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation”. It is in this conjuncture that Marx had stated that “it (religion) is the opium of the people”, as it provides them a temporary 'escape' from life's real, mundane existence.
Some of the research studies published in the Science magazine examine the link between economic status, psychological conditions and religion. A research paper published in February tries to link socio-economic factors to the psychological state of a person and observes, “Women with medium to high levels of financial hardship reported an increase in their feelings of anxiety and depression during the study period, while women with no financial hardship reported a decrease in their feelings of anxiety and depression over time”. Though this study is done on women, the findings might be equally true for men too. Another research published in July concludes, “Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs”.
This in fact, is the experience of contemporary Russia. As the Soviet Union crumbled two decades ago, mysticism and pseudo-science began to thrive. The Russian Orthodox Church too gained in prominence and popularity. All these were linked to the dismay and confusion of the population. In Soviet Union, everyone was looked after and the state had given them a place to live for free, but after its collapse, there were a huge number of people who were abandoned and left completely helpless. They had no work, no means for existence. There exists a mood of total abandonment among many people and in such a situation, fraudsters who promise to bring the dead back to life, offer spiritual healing lessons are looked as 'soothing balm for the soul'. There are clear indications that the State has connections with these pseudo-scientists and is promoting them.
RISING RELIGIOSITY
Even in our country, we witness a growth of religiosity among the people in the past few years. According to the State of the Nation Survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in 2007, the amount of religiosity among Indians has gone up in the last five years. Religiosity, it seems, has increased among people belonging to all the religious communities and to a larger extent, particularly, among the rich, upper caste and well educated citizens. To cater to the busy urban souls, innovative religious sites exist in the virtual world that offer e-darshan and e-pujas, apart from providing religious/spiritual guidance.
Another study, based on the 2001 census states that India has 2.5 million (25 lakhs) places of worship, many of which are built on public land. (Incidentally, we have only 1.5 million (15 lakhs) schools and 75,000 hospitals!) The Supreme Court recently castigated the state governments for failing to act against thousands of these illegally built places of worship. The governments usually turn a blind eye in many instances, where small structures are slowly converted into full scale complexes by further encroachment of public land.
Apart from these, the number of babas, gurus or god men professing various supernatural, healing powers also is on the rise. Many state functionaries and 'celebrities' often visit them to pay obeisance, further increasing their popularity. There are also separate television channels and programmes to exclusively telecast religious discourses. The print media too runs advisory columns on religious and spiritual matters. So, what we have today in India, as some commentators have stated, is a giant supermarket of religions, religious personalities and discourses where one can shop for custom made products.
The market research division of the tourism ministry in a recent report states that Andhra Pradesh emerged as the top tourist destination in the country, thanks to the temple town, Tirumala. A comparative study of the patterns of tourism in our country shows that half of the package tours are religious tours. The State which fails to contain construction of places of worship on public places, plays a pro-active role in promoting religious tourism. It even undertakes the development of religious shrines, providing and upgrading infrastructural facilities – better connectivity, resorts and other facilities – to those places. Kanipakam temple in Andhra Pradesh and the Golden Temple in Vellore – both of them within 100 kilometre radius from Tirumala are a good example.
The involvement of the State in religious affairs, which is a violation of our stated secular position, is justified in the name of promoting culture. Religion is made synonymous with culture and in our country this assumes majoritarian contours. This can be best understood when we look at the recent films – safeguarding 'our culture, traditions' observing 'our festivals' always mean Hindu culture and festivals. It is this increasing interest in religion and failure to differentiate Indian culture from Hindu religious culture that the fundamentalists are trying to exploit.
EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC CRISIS
The current global economic crisis is a severe jolt on the aspirations and lives of millions of people. The ruling classes want to come out of the economic crisis, an off-shoot of the neo-liberal policies, by further intensifying the attacks on the livelihoods of common people. The absence of job-security is as much true for a contract worker in factory, as it is for an IT professional. Middle-classes are encouraged to invest in speculative activities. In this situation, it is natural for the people to become more and more concerned about their future and worry about what happens to them and their children. This anxiety is driving them towards religion, which is being exploited by both the so-called god men and religious fundamentalists.
People are also seething with discontent against the growing income inequalities. Culture and religion, which were used to mobilise people against economic exploitation of the colonialists, are used today to divide people and deflate their anger. The limited strength and reach of Left and progressive forces in many countries, is being exploited by the right-wing conservatives and fundamentalists. The victory of right-wing political parties in many European countries, the growth of the Tea party groups in the US, moves to ban wearing veils and the expulsion of Romas in France, show us how these conservative, fundamentalist forces are using the economic crisis.
In our country, it is an established fact that fundamentalist forces use religion and religious symbols to promote their political cause. Ayodhya is only one such expression, while even as recent as during the 2009 general elections, Hindu fundamentalists used yagnas for mobilisation. Meera Nanda in her recent book, The God Market: How Globalisation is Making India More Hindu gives many more examples of the growing religiosity in our country and how religion is used for reaping political benefits.
FREE MARKETS AND FUNDAMENTALISM
Along with the usual players – the RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Jammat-e-Ulema, etc – we see the emergence of some new fundamentalist groups during this period. One among them is the group that brings out regular publications in the name of Voice of India. Calling themselves as bhaudik kshatriyas, they are spreading rabid anti-Islam and anti-Christian feelings through their writings. They are further right to the RSS, and criticise RSS for not openly renouncing the sarva dharma samabhava philosophy (for them Islam and Christianity are not dharmic but asuric creeds). They maintain good relations with the neo-conservatives of the US, share the same anti-Islam, free market philosophy and regularly publish their writings.
Meera Nanda also writes in her book about attempts to revive the Swatantra Party and pursue its ideology. Two famous IT tycoons, Infosys Narayana Murthy and Jaithirath Rao, founder CEO of Mphasis are the chief moving force behind this idea. They are basically wedded to the neo-liberal ideology of 'minimum interference of the State for maximum freedom to the individuals' and were ready to pump enormous sums of money to start a political party. Realising that getting elected on this platform is a difficult proposition now, they have instead started various NGO's and think-tanks, to propagate their ideas and influence policy decisions in favour of free markets. In this quest, they have allied with the BJP too, until the riots in Gujarat distanced them. Despite their opposition to communalism, they are not openly taking a position against the illiberal world view. Just as the erstwhile Swatantra Party allied itself with the then Jan Sangh, they too are displaying similar indications.
These two groups, along with the Sangh Parivar, share a common view – supremacy of free markets and Hindu religion. They are different only in their intensity of pursuing right-wing politics. They commonly feed on the discontent of the people, a result of the economic policies dear to them and exploit peoples' religiosity.
Globalisation does not only mean economic exploitation, but also includes cultural homogenisation. Right-wing fanatics who do not have any problem with the economic agenda of globalisation, try to whip up peoples' opposition against its cultural attacks, using religion. This serves the purposes of ruling classes as their core – economic policy – is not attacked. Ruling classes, facing a severe challenge to their hegemony because of the economic crisis, are willing to allow the growth of right-wing fundamentalist forces rather than lose their hegemony. Fascism and Hitler are examples too hard to forget. In order to retain their hegemony, they openly promote religiosity among the people, thus feeding the right-wing fundamentalists, even though they publicly express their concern at the growth of right-wing.
Some Western sociologists have suggested that religiosity and religion would end with the growth of modern industries and true secularism would prevail – 'religion ends at the factory gate'. India is a classic example where, temples exist even 'within factory gates'. We even have the phenomenon where big industrialists either build huge temple complexes or donate liberally to renowned temples (most of them would be unwilling to increase the wages of their workers!) Some other sociologists have suggested that the increasing number of religions and their contrasting claims would make people realise their fallaciousness and disenchant them. This too proved wrong. Moreover, many eminent intellectuals and scientists openly profess their belief not only on god but also on babas!
LACUNA IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM
This dichotomy depicts the lacuna in our education system. The presence of fundamentalist forces in our education system and their using it as a means to promote their ideology is one-half of the story. The other half, once again, is the complacency of the State in providing scientific, democratic and secular education to all. The stress in our education system is to produce human resources to further develop the forces of production and reap super profits. All other aspects are subsumed to educate people to confirm them to the ruling class ideas. Critical enquiry is discouraged as far as possible because that leads to an understanding of the productive relations, which may ultimately pose a challenge to the existing relations and ruling class hegemony. But as Marxism teaches, after a certain extent, for any further growth of productive forces, the productive relations have to change. Culture, which includes education and religion becomes an important arena of struggle to hasten this process.
Lenin had stated, “It would be stupid to think that, in a society based on the endless oppression and coarsening of the worker masses, religious prejudices could be dispelled by purely propaganda methods. It would be bourgeois narrow-mindedness to forget that the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society”.
Posing the question why religion is able to retain its hold on people, he answers, “Because of the ignorance of the people, replies the bourgeois progressist, the radical or the bourgeois materialist. And so: 'Down with religion and long live atheism; the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task!' The Marxist says that this is not true, that it is a superficial view, the view of narrow bourgeois uplifters. It does not explain the roots of religion profoundly enough; it explains them, not in a materialist but in an idealist way. In modern capitalist countries, these roots are mainly social. The deepest root of religion today is the socially downtrodden condition of the working masses and their apparently complete helplessness in face of the blind forces of capitalism, which every day and every hour inflicts upon ordinary working people the most horrible suffering and the most savage torment, a thousand times more severe than those inflicted by extra-ordinary events, such as wars, earthquakes, etc. 'Fear made the gods'. Fear of the blind force of capital – blind because it cannot be foreseen by the masses of the people – a force which at every step in the life of the proletarian and small proprietor threatens to inflict, and does inflict 'sudden', 'unexpected', 'accidental' ruin, destruction, pauperism, prostitution, death from starvation – such is the root of modern religion which the materialist must bear in mind first and foremost, if he does not want to remain an infant-school materialist. No educational book can eradicate religion from the minds of masses who are crushed by capitalist hard labour, and who are at the mercy of the blind destructive forces of capitalism, until those masses themselves learn to fight this root of religion, fight the rule of capital in all its forms, in a united, organised, planned and conscious way”.
Our fight against the growth of right-wing fundamentalism should thus be a fight against that blind force of the capital, its economic policies, culture and ideology and to change the existing relations of production.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
MAMATA'S DANGEROUS GAME
In her eagerness to mobilise every dissenting section and use every available weapon against the Left Front government in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is playing a dangerous game fraught with major, long-term implications for the internal security of the country. First, Monday's rally in Lalgarh was a joint Trinamool-Maoist enterprise, with the latter dominant in the mobilisation. Ms Banerjee not only called for the resumption of negotiations with the Maoists, but also pressed for withdrawal of security operations in the Jangalmahal region (though this time she set a condition: the extremists should declare a ceasefire). This is in direct opposition to the stance of the central government, which is struggling to meet the Maoist armed threat in West Bengal and other parts of the country. Although the Railways under her charge have been repeatedly targeted by the Maoists, the Trinamool chief spoke up for the Maoist front, the ‘People's Committee Against Police Atrocities,' whose members are known to take the law into their own hands. Ms Banerjee also managed to enlist the support of ‘social activists' Swami Agnivesh and Medha Patkar in this politically loaded endeavour. Both extended vocal support to the Trinamool Congress and the Maoists in the name of protecting the rights of Adivasis — speciously asking the ultra-left outfit to abjure violence and take to the democratic path. In such a situation, arms-wielding Maoists have seamlessly merged with Trinamool cadre in West Bengal, posing a serious threat to public order in the region.
Political India knows Ms Banerjee to be a law unto herself, and her politics to be irresponsible. But this cannot be a rationalisation for the United Progressive Alliance government to allow one of its important constituents and a senior Minister to publicly support, and collaborate on the ground with, armed extremism that does not have any compunction in unleashing terror against political opponents as well as civilians. The Congress, which heads the UPA, is itself mired in contradictions on this vital issue. Although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Naxalites as the “greatest internal security threat to our country,” his party extended moral support to the rally. Not surprisingly, the issue has rocked Parliament with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties questioning the commitment of the government in tackling the Maoist violence when one of its constituents is deeply enmeshed with Naxalite groups. With Assembly elections in West Bengal due in less than a year, political opportunism has given short shrift to internal security considerations. There will be a huge price to pay if the central government continues to look the other way as Ms Banerjee pursues her akratic course for power at any cost.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
ON THE CIVIL NUCLEAR LIABILITY BILL - Prakash Karat
On behalf of the CPI (M), Prakash Karat, general secretary has given his comments for the consideration of the standing committee of science and technology and environment and forest, which is going into the civil nuclear liability bill. The following is the full text of the comments he gave on July 12.
THE UPA government has introduced the civil liability for nuclear damages bill in parliament, which seeks to cap the liability of nuclear plant operators and the equipment suppliers in case there is an accident involving a nuclear installation.
This legislation is being pushed by the government because of pressure from the US equipment suppliers and investors put through the US administration at the highest levels. The US has made a precondition that India must put a cap on liability of the nuclear operators and virtually remove all liabilities of the equipment suppliers before it delivers on its promises in the India US nuclear deal. This is the genesis of the current bill and not the interest of the victims of a nuclear incident.
We give below the major concerns that we have with the bill in its current form.
CONVENTION ON SUPPLEMENTARY COMPENSATION
The government has made it clear that it is interested in joining the convention on supplementary compensation (CSC) and the proposed civil liability for nuclear damage bill, 2010 has been drafted to make it compatible with CSC. It is important to note that making it compatible with CSC follows directly from the commitment made by the UPA government when it entered into the Indo-US nuclear deal. This commitment was made in writing by the then foreign secretary, Shiv Sankar Menon in a letter to the US under secretary, William Burns, (September 10, 2008), which stated, “It is the intention of the government of India and its entities to commence discussions with nuclear energy firms and conclude agreements after entry into force of the agreement for cooperation in the construction of nuclear power units at two sites approved by the government of India which would be capable of generating a minimum of 10,000 MW…India also recognises the importance of establishing an adequate nuclear liability regime and it is the intention of the Indian government to take all steps to adhere to the convention on supplementary compensation (CSC) for nuclear damage...”
US nuclear industry and the US administration want all countries which receive US manufactured nuclear equipment to sign the CSC and indemnify the US suppliers. The key difference between the CSC and other similar international conventions is the degree of protection offered to the suppliers – CSC provides the maximum protection to the US suppliers. The reason that the US government is pressing India to draw up a nuclear liability bill that is consistent with CSC is simply because it protects the suppliers completely from litigation from damages from the victims and the operator.
Omer F Brown, the key spokesperson for the US nuclear industry articulated the US position on the need for nuclear liability law in India while speaking at a business summit in Mumbai in December 2006:
Currently, India does not have a nuclear liability law covering its facilities. Therefore, concerns over nuclear liability would be a major impediment to any nuclear trade with India. Most US nuclear suppliers would not be willing to work in India without nuclear liability protection.
US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Robert Blake informed house foreign affairs committee last year, “We are hoping to see action on nuclear liability legislation that would reduce liability for American companies and allow them to invest in India…” Recently, he said in an interview (March 10, 2010): “We also are very much hoping that the Indian government will proceed with very important legislation on nuclear liability, that will be a very important protection for American companies who are seeking to do more business in the civil nuclear area, in India. And, we were very gratified to learn that the president of India has announced India’s intention to introduce this bill in the current session of the Indian parliament.”
The statement of aims and objects of the bill makes it clear that the bill has been drawn up to be consistent with CSC. It further goes on to state that a nuclear liability bill is required as there is no provision currently to handle compensation and damage in the event of a nuclear accident. This is incorrect as the current law as clarified by the Supreme Court in its judgement on the Oleum leak case from Sri Ram Food and Fertilisers in 1987 had made clear that the industry operating hazardous plants had absolute liability including that for environmental damage. The only issue is how this liability is to be translated into practice – the modalities of handling liability claims. Under the guise of drawing up the modalities of handling claims, the bill seeks to change the fundamental character of the liability regime itself in the case of a nuclear accident.
The government has argued that by joining the CSC, it can access international funds to compensate victims of nuclear accidents including trans-boundary victims. Only 13 countries have joined the CSC out of which only four have ratified it, the only major country being the US, which was the country steering this convention. In the case of a nuclear accident, the amount from this convention would be a small amount (computed by some experts to only about $ 50 million). Therefore indemnifying supplier from all liability in order to get a mere $ 50 million from CSC does not appear credible.
SUPPLIERS’LIABILITY
In line with the CSC, nuclear liability bill exempts the suppliers from virtually any liability to pay compensation for the damages caused. What Westinghouse and General Electric want is that even the limited liability which accrued to Union Carbide in the case of Bhopal gas leak ($470 million as per the settlement approved by the Supreme Court) should not fall on them.
The government has argued that as per clause 17 (a), a foreign supplier can be liable if such a clause is included in the contract between the operator and the supplier. What it does not say is that neither the public sector Nuclear Power Corporation of India, which is the Indian operator, nor the American company, which will be the supplier, will include such a liability clause in the contract. If this law is passed and if there is a faulty design or a manufacturing defect in a reactor supplied by a US company, the operator or the victim of an accident has no right to claim damages from the supplier. The other clause, 17 (b), cited by the government is the one by which the operator has the right to recourse against the supplier only if the nuclear accident has resulted due to a “wilful act or gross negligence” on the part of the supplier. This makes it extremely difficult to hold the supplier liable as proving that faulty design or other defects are due to wilful action or gross negligence will be well nigh impossible.
The government has also provided a cap for liability of Rs 500 crore for the operator. Since the right to recourse belongs only to the operator in this bill, this automatically caps whatever residual liability remains with the supplier to a sum of Rs 500 crore. The clauses 35 and the clause 46 as currently drafted do not allow any role of the courts in any liability claims against the suppliers.
CAP ON THE OPERATOR
The cap put on the liability of the operator is Rs 500 crore while the overall financial liability for a nuclear accident is capped at around Rs 2140 crore. The reason why the liability of the operator is limited to Rs 500 crore is because the government wants to bring in private operators in the nuclear sector. The law will, therefore, limit the liability of Indian or foreign private companies who operate reactors to Rs 500 crore. Any amount to be paid above this cap will be footed by the government. In this manner, the government will subsidise private operators, including foreign companies, in the future.
Thus, the people will have to pay with their lives or health in the case of a nuclear accident, but the profits of US companies and the corporate sector in India will be protected by limiting their liability. In the case of Bhopal, the compensation paid by the Union Carbide amounted to Rs 713 crore ($470 million) at the exchange rate prevailing in 1989. A nuclear accident may involve casualties on a much larger scale than Bhopal. Given that a serious nuclear accident can cause damage in billions, the small cap of 300 million SDRs (Rs 2140 crore) proposed shows the scant regard the central government holds for the Indian people.
Any damage beyond this will not be compensated either by the government or by the nuclear operator, which in the present case is a state operator. Given that accidents like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the two most well known nuclear accidents in history, have caused billions of worth of damages, this effectively means abandoning the victims in case of a nuclear accident. Such low caps on the operator will provide a perverse incentive on the operator to cut costs and play with plant safety. Many more Bhopals and Warren Andersons could recur if such a liability regime is put in place.
SCRAP THE BILL
If there are lessons to be learnt from the tragic episode of Bhopal, it is that there should be strict laws which will assign civil liability and ensure that criminal liability is also pinned down. There can be no compromise with the lives and safety of the Indian people.
The civil nuclear liability bill bears the handiwork of the US nuclear industry lobby. This is not the path India should tread. The bill in its current form should be scrapped as it has been drawn up keeping the interests of the nuclear suppliers and operators. A new bill which starts with the interests of the victims of such an accident as its core concern needs to be drafted instead.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Sunday, September 26, 2010
FORMER ASSISTANT OF KISHENJI REVEALS “TRINAMOOL PROVIDES LIST, MAOISTS CARRY OUT EXECUTION” - N S Arjun from West Medinipur
THAT the Trinamool Congress is hand in glove with the 'Maoists' in Bengal is common knowledge. It has been proved repeatedly through their actions – the close coordination of activity by the TMC with the 'Maoist' frontal organisation PCPA, the coming to defence of PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato, the demands for withdrawal of central forces, the 'Maoists' endorsement of Mamata Banarjee as chief minister etc.
But now proof comes from two persons who joined the 'Maoists' with the sole aim of escaping death and have now escaped from their clutches. One of them, Mongol Mahato belonging to Nutandehi village in Salboni, in fact worked for the top 'Maoist' leader, Kishenji, as an assistant for around two months. They stayed in the jungle along with the 'Maoists' and had witnessed many of their barbaric actions.
Presently, taking shelter outside their village, these two persons spoke to People's Democracy recently on their experience with the 'Maoists'. When the 'Maoists' entered their village last year, they had threatened to kill Mongol Mahato, along with many others they suspected of being CPI (M) supporters. After being underground for few days, Mahato approached the TMC-'Maoists' and professed to work for them. They made him participate in meetings and rallies in the village. Later he was taken into the jungle where he got an opportunity to work for the notorious Kishenji for around two months. He used to make tea for them and also worked as a barber for Kishenji.
Asked to describe what he saw during this period, Mahato told us that the Trinamool leaders would regularly drop by and hold talks with Kishenji for hours together. There would also be leaders from the PCPA participating in such meetings. They used to provide list of CPI (M) workers to be killed in such meetings. He says PCPA, its armed outfit, the Gana Militia, and 'Maoists' are all one and the same with different nomenclature. Asked why he chose to desert them, Mahato said that he could not bear to see ordinary village folk – the tribals, agricultural labourers, petty vendors etc – being tortured brutally and shot after being tied to the trees in the jungle. They were usually suspected of being police informers or being supporters of CPI (M).
The other such person, Sapan Chalok, also from the same village, recounted his story. He was also threatened with death by TMC-'Maoists' goons when they took over the village. By then all CPI (M) leaders had left the village and sensing danger to himself and his family, he approached a known TMC contact and professed to work for them. He not only participated in meetings in his village but was also taken to nearby villages to take part in activity, including to Kolsibhanga where many CPI (M) supporters and workers were killed by TMC-'Maoists'. He worked as an informer to them on the developments in the villages.
“TMC leaders used to conduct secret meetings with the 'Maoists' in the jungles. They used to torture innocent villagers until their demands were met”, said Sapan Chalok. He also cited the same reason as Mahato for leaving the 'Maoists', adding that he never went with them willingly but only to save his and his family's lives.
BRUTAL TORTURE
As part of creating terror among the villagers and ensure their frightened support, the TMC-'Maoist' goons indulged in brutal torture of CPI (M) supporters and others whom they doubted. They organised a so-called people's court in Dakhinsole village near Pirakata. This was a place with a small rocky surface on the outskirts of the village and nearby the jungle. They used to order that at least ten people from nearby twenty villages must attend the “sessions” of this court. Jaba Singh, whose father Nalin Singh was severely beaten in one such session, told us that the “accused” in these court were usually those they suspected of being police informers or those who had defied their diktats to participate in the meetings. “The kind of torture they inflicted is hard to describe in any language. One day an old man of around 70 years was beaten up by two persons in front of everyone. Some were also brutally executed in front of us while those beaten up severely had to be admitted into hospitals”, he said.
No wonder that Jaba Singh is now active with fellow villagers who are constantly on the vigil to safeguard the peace that has returned to the village through mass resistance.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Friday, July 16, 2010
FEMALE FOLK SINGER NILMANI TUDU BUTCHERED BY MAOIST KILLERS ON 15-07-2010 AT GOPIBALLAVPUR, WEST MIDNAPUR, WEST BENGAL. MEDHA PATKAR SILENT.
PHOTO COURTESY: ANANDABAZAR PATRIKA DATED 16-07-2010
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