Eva Cheng
Members and sympathisers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation, who have been leading grassroots worker and peasant struggles have been under increasing attack in the states of Bihar and Assam.
In the northern state of Assam, three CPI(ML)L activists — Vidyasing Kathar, Ramsing Hanse and Joyram Rongphar — were murdered on June 9. The June 16-22 edition of the party's newsletter reported that an armed gang entered the village of Amlong, forced the villagers to assemble and then shot those who had not voted for the candidate of the Congress party in the May national elections.
Shortly after the elections, on May 23 party activist Krishna Rai was killed, and during the month after the elections more than 100 CPI(ML)L members and supporters in Assam have been injured and a number of party offices have been burnt down.
A march demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits was held on June 15 in Dispur, capital of Assam, at the end of which a delegation led by the party's former MP Jayanta Rongpi lodged a protest with the chief secretary of Assam. Protest rallies were also held on June 18. An agitational campaign against the attacks on the party in Assam will culminate in a mass protest rally in Dispur on August 7.
In Bihar, death threats have been received by CPI(ML)L activist Kunti Devi, national secretary of the All-India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) who has been campaigning for prosecutions to be brought against police officers who fired on a crowd in the town of Telpa on May 29 killing at least six people, including school kids.
The crowd was demanding that the police arrest the killers of a dalit (lower-caste) youth, Lalan Paswan, who was beaten to death by some upper-caste teachers of a private school. Paswan, a construction worker, was accused by them of stealing a bicycle on May 28.
In a clear attempt to intimidate Devi, the police have implicated her in more than a dozen trump-up cases.
On June 21, the CPI(ML)L and the AIPWA held a protest march to the Bihar Legislative Assembly to demand the arrest of the police officers who ordered and conducted the unprovoked firing in Telpa. The protest also demanded the withdrawal of cases brought last August against 14 of its members and sympathisers under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) law.
The 14 were among those active in the campaign for prosecutions for those who carried out a 1986 massacre at a peaceful rally in the Arwal district of Bihar state in which 23 people were killed. On the pretext of catching "extremists", the Arwal police launched a raid on the village of Bhadasi in 1988. The officer in charge was killed during a clash with the villagers.
The police later charged the 14 CPI(ML)L activists with involvement in the officer's death. None of the 14 activists were present at the incident. Four of them were minors at the time. The main evidence "proving" the terrorist allegation is some Marxist literature.
All 14 were jailed for an extended period while awaiting trial, up to 15 years in the case of one of them. Charges were brought against them again last August under TADA, despite the fact that this law lapsed in 1995. All 14 were sentenced to life imprisonment. Their appeal against this sentence was rejected by the Supreme Court on April 2.
In protest, the 14 launched a hunger strike on June 18. More than 400 other prison inmates joined them on June 20 in solidarity.
In the Jehanabad district of Bihar, charges under the TADA law have also been revived against seven CPI(ML)L activists who were acquitted in a 1998 case.
In protest against these clear examples of political victimisation, three CPI(ML)L Bihar MLAs began a boycott of the assembly sessions on June 22, launching an indefinite protest outside the assembly building instead.
From Green Left Weekly, July 7, 2004.
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