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Indian Social Action Forum – INSAF

New Delhi, India

Indian Social Action Forum (henceforth referred to as INSAF) is a forum of
over 600 grassroots groups, NGOs, people’s movements, human rights
associations, etc. Active since 1993 in 15 states of India, INSAF is committed
to “resist globalisation - combat communalism - defend democracy.”

 Background

The Indian State is flexing its repressive muscles more than ever before.
Armed with so-called anti-terror laws it is threatening all those who oppose its
“neo-liberal development paradigm” and mobilise the masses to resist
displacement, mining, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), dams and the
designs of international financial institutins and corporate giants.

Neo-liberalism thrives on the principle of “might is right” in the context of
market forces and has no place for the “less successful” or “unsuccessful”.
Since the 1990s the Indian rulers were faced with the challenge of driving a
balance between conformity to serving the interests of this “special class” that
controls the market and the maintenance of the “largest democracy facade”

The neo-liberalization drive began in India in 1991, when the then Finance
Minister, Manmohan Singh had declared that India cannot enter the 21^st
century carrying everybody’s burden. It was a candid neo-liberal declaration
that this scheme has no place for the unsuccessful or the less successful. The
neo-liberal policies of privatization and the establishment of market hegemony
in one go bulldozed the established norms and values of equality and social
justice; accentuating the increasing disparities between the rich and the poor.

When the popular resistance to neo-liberalization acquired reckoning
dimensions, the Indian government imitated other governments and resorted
to use the “security” argument to silence the opposition. The Home Minister in
the previous NDA government in his campaign for a “hard state” had gone to
the extent of challenging the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen that the issues of
education and health could be postponed but not that of “security”. And to
meet this end, the budget of defence and central armed forces was heavily
enhanced. As a consequence India became the world’s third largest importer
of arms. In the six years during 2001-07, the defence budget rushed up from
Rs 789.11 billion to 1212.02 billion. In the same period the budget of Central
Police force doubled and went up from Rs. 94 billion to Rs. 189 billion. Hence
we see that the “largest democracy” of the world is well on the way of
becoming a Police State.

Thus the phobia of terrorism and the democratic facade of the government
establishments bereft of people, are proving to be complementary to each
other. On the one hand, the absolutist and repressive acts of the governments
in the name of fighting terrorism are producing appropriate conditions for the
growth of terrorism and on the other hand the terrorist acts are providing the
justification for increasingly exploitative and repressive policies of the
governments.

In the name of fighting internal and external terrorism, the governmental
machinery is being equipped with more and more repressive and tyrannical
powers. On the pattern of US Patriot Law, the Government of India introduced
the draconian Act – POTA, despite no dearth of repressive provisions in the
existing laws. The existing laws — Armed Forces Special Powers Act, National
Security Act and TADA were found to be inadequate to follow the dictates of
Washington with complete loyalty and faithfulness, and hence POTA.

Soon the real designs and intentions behind this draconian law began to
manifest themselves. It was openly used in an unprecedented manner and on
unprecedented scale to suppress the democratic voices against the antipeople
policies. In Jharkhand alone 3000 people were jailed under this law
and the list of victims included 12 year old children and the old people above
80 years, mostly adivasis. This law was openly used to harass and scandalize
the members of the minority communities. Mass protests against this law all
over the country gave a befitting reply to the “terror” of this anti-terror law.

The
popular discontent forced the UPA government to repeal it. It should not be
mistaken that the UPA government is apathetic to such draconian laws; it is
just that in a democracy, the popular sentiments cannot be fully ignored.
Therefore on the one hand government repelled POTA but at the same time
in the name of decentralization of anti-terror laws, it promoted and
encouraged such laws at state levels.

The national Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (1967) – 2004, the
Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, MACOCA of Maharashtra are
glaring examples of such national and state level acts and should be seen in
this context.

These laws are more repressive than even the POTA. Under this act the
government can arrest any person merely on the apprehension of obstruction
in the implementation of some law. Any person’s any act considered by the
government to be contemptuous to any law shall be deemed illegal. All and
any popular opposition to governmental policies to expropriate land, water
and forest under the 1894 land acquisition act by evicting people for mining,
SEZ or industrialization by big MNCs and corporate players may be termed
illegal and people might be interned under this draconian law of 2005.

Threats of use of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 is often
used to terrorize the people’s movements against the privatization of
Sheonath river in Chhattisgarh, eviction of Baiga tribals from the forests and
against the people involved in the legal and illegal mining of sponge and iron.
In Chhattisgarh the passage of this Act by the government was accompanied
by another governmental campaign known as Salwa Judum. Under this
campaign to meet the challenge of the Naxal violence, people are armed and
trained and are designated as “Special police Officers (SPOs).” Adivasi
villagers are forcibly picked up from their villages and are confined into
‘camps’. Those refusing to join this campaign are so much threatened and
pressurized that they leave their houses and flee into jungle.

The Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, and the Salwa Judum
campaign drive parity between the Chhattisgarh Government and the George
Bush Government by its implicit declaration – “if you are not with me you are
with the enemy”. Any question and questioner against the draconian act of
2005 are put under suspicion and face repression or its threat.

The arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen under this Act has vividly exposed the real
intentions and the content of the Act. The arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen is not the
only incident of its kind but is a well-planned design to target democratic,
human rights’ and anti-displacement activists in various states. Repeated
arrests of Medha Patkar in peaceful agitations, the arrest of Kashipur
movement activist Saroj Mohanty under false charges of dacoity, threats of
arrests to other activists opposing globalisation are all indicators of the
repressive clutches of the state gearing up to silence all protests.

 Grassroots Responses

The Madras Suppression Disturbances Act (1948) was the first repressive act
implemented over peasant struggle in Telangana, in post independent India,
which began in 1946 against the feudal landlords. As many as 4,000 peasants
were killed and more than 10000 innocent people were arrested.

Subsequently numerous laws were passed to dealt with resistance from
people against the state : The maintenance of Internal Security Act 1973,
Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act 1987, Prevention of
Terrorism Act (POTA) 2001, the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act 1967., the
Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Bill 2005, and the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act 1958. [1]

INSAF organized a 2-day national convention on “Peoples’ resistance and
state repression in India” during September 8-9, 2007 in New Delhi. Civil
society groups, human rights activists and reserachers from Andhra Pradesh
Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh, Pondicherry, Orissa,Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Nagaland and Delhi participated. Delegates
presented experiences of state repressions from different states. The
convention deliberated upon peoples’ struggles and the degenerating
democratic spaces of the common citizens while the state continues to be
equipped with more stringent laws. Retired Justice Rajindar Sacchar,
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, Advocate KG Kannabaran, Prof. Achin Vanaik
and trade union leader Ms. Amarjeet Kaur also spoke during the convention.

The following experiences from the regions are based on the presentations at
the convention.

 Brief highlight of recent state repressions in India – from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and North-east.

In January 2006, 13 adivasis were killed in Orissa by the police, during their
peaceful demonstration for compensation for loss of land due to construction
of a factory by TATA steel company. The Narmada Bachao Andolan leader,
Medha Patkar was repeatedly arrested for demanding rehabilitation of the
communities affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project. In Manipur, Sharmila
was detained and force-fed since 2000 for her fast unto death demanding
repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Dr Binayak Sen was arrested
in April 2007 on grounds of his alleged involvement with the Naxalites.

Orissa [2]:

Orissa is known as one of the most underdeveloped states in India. In relation
to this the government implemented mega development projects in the state.
These projects caused massive displacement of people from their land,
leading to loss of livelihood and unemployment. The POSCO steel plant is
estimated to directly displace 4,000 families.

Since July 2005, after the MOU was signed between the Government and the
POSCO company communities particularly the adivasis in the forest areas
were forcibly evicted out of their homes and land. People stay in the forest for
fear of arrest and harassment. Hundreds of cases were filed against the
people who were unwilling to leave their places. Women were neither spared
from torture. In December 2000, 3 tribal people were killed by the police in
retaliation for opposing during eviction for establishment of Utkal Alumina
Limited. In January 2006, the police fired upon the peaceful demonstrators in
Kalinganagar killing 13 people. The people were demanding compensation
for land acquired by the TATA steel plant.

It maybe further mentioned that people protesting against the projects were
allegedly linked to the Maoist naxalite movement by the police and top
government functionaries in their press briefings.

Chhatisgarh [3]:

Dr Binayak Sen, a medical doctor and secretary of the Peoples’ Union for Civil
Liberties was arrested in May 2007 under the Chhatisgarh Public Security Act
2005. Since then he was not released from jail and no bail was permitted. He
has been actively campaigning against human rights violations in
Chhatisgarh. Many other social activists working with Dr Sen too were being
threatened by the Security forces. Among others Rajendra Sail was arrested
and detained for three days by the police. In May 2007, thousand of workers
were arrested during their demonstrations demanding for release of Dr Sen.

The Salwa Judum, an operation drive against the naxalites, has displaced
around 45,958 villagers as per official figures. People fled from their homes
for fear of torture, and harassments. People were killed under suspicion.

During the operation people were not allowed to visit areas which are under
operation areas and supposedly naxalite hideouts.

Maharashtra [4]:

Since the serial bomb blasts in 2002 in Mumbai, Muslim communities were
targeted by the police and their house and residential colonies were rounded
up for interrogations as and when any incidence of violence occurred. During
these operations torture and harassment including women were rampant.

Between 1991 to 92, around 20 adivasis in Gondhia and Gadchiroli were
missing and the whereabouts of some them are unknown while some bodies
were recovered in the forest. They were picked up from their homes by the
police and allegedly linked with the naxalites. They were arrested under
TADA, National Security Act and other anti terrorist drive. Four girls from
Salekasa were raped and killed in the police custody.

North-east states [5]:

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 covers all the states in northeast
India and Jammu & Kashmir. A petition was submitted to the Supreme
Court of India by the Manipur Human Rights Forum in 1980. Amnesty
international reported human rights violation in Manipur during the Operations
Blue bird in 1990. In 2004 naked women protested in from of the Assam Rifles
over the rape and killing of a women arrested. In 2000 Sharmila began her
fast unto death for repeal of the act after 10 people were killed in retaliation of
an ambush on the Assam Rifles.

Committees and commissions were set up to look into the human violations in
the state. The 1991 and 1997 UN human rights Committee reports, Justice
Jeevan Reddy Commision, Administrative reforms commission etc were set
up. Till today the act remains the same and the paramilitary forces continues
to function with impunity and powers. And Sharmila Irom is still fasting since
2000.