Thousands from Siwan hold Dharna Outside Parliament
Demand Dismissal of Shahabuddin from Parliament and Completion of CBI probe into Chandrashekhar’s Murder
Thousands of people of Siwan held a Dharna at Parliament Street on May 16 in their quest for justice against the mafia MP Shahabuddin, recently convicted in a case of abduction and suspected murder of CPI(ML) activist Chhotelal Gupta. The Dharna included Chandrashekhar’s mother Kaushalya Devi, Siwan MLA Amarnath Yadav, JNU Students’ Union General Secretary Sandeep Singh, CPI(ML) Central Committee member Prabhat Kumar, Swami Agnivesh, and several professors of JNU and Delhi University as well as eminent citizens, Ex-AISA President Kavita Krishnan, and AISA activists from JNU, Jamia and DU. They demanded dismissal of Shahabuddin as well as other MPs like Babubhai Katara involved in human trafficking from Parliament, and expediting the CBI probe into Chandrashekhar’s murder. They submitted a memorandum to the Lok Sabha Speaker as well as President of India with these demands.
Chandrashekhar’s mother Kaushalya Devi declared that the conviction of Shahabuddin was only the first victory. The people of Siwan would not rest until Shahabuddin was punished for Chandrashekhar’s murder. She said it was a shame that Parliament continued to shield a convicted criminal.
Campaign Against Criminalisation of Politics
Petition Submitted on May 16 to
Lok Sabha Speaker and President of India
Sir,
The subject of criminalisation of politics is one that concerns the entire nation closely. It is deeply disturbing that on the one hand, our polity is tolerant of ‘fake encounters’ (summary executions) of alleged criminals and terrorists, while our highest representative body – Indian Parliament – harbours people caught red-handed in acts of human trafficking, and convicted on charges of abduction and suspected murder. There is a tendency to tacitly justify the police killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh by suggesting that he was, after all, a ‘criminal’ or even a ‘terrorist’. At the same time, Mohammad Shahabuddin, a convicted criminal whose reign of terror is notorious, enjoys the privilege of being a Member of Parliament. ‘Crime’ is used as a cover to justify State terror, while the State itself patronises and protects criminals – even those convicted by a court of law. The implications of this trend for Indian democracy are dangerous.
The conviction and life sentence of the sitting MP from Siwan, Mohammad Shahabuddin, by a Siwan sessions Court is a remarkable victory of a determined people’s struggle against a notorious criminal politician. Shahabuddin has been sentenced to life on charges of abduction and suspected murder of a CPI(ML) activist Chhote Lal Gupta eight years ago. The steadfastness and tenacity of the witnesses in the face of a terror campaign by the MP has resulted in this conviction.
Now the question faces us: will Parliament honour this people’s victory and this court judgement, and expel a convicted criminal from the precincts of Parliament? Will Parliament respect the norms of democracy and expel those involved in human trafficking from its ranks?
We would like to remind you that ten years ago, Chandrashekhar, a young activist who had left the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in order to work among the poor and dispossessed in his hometown Siwan, was gunned down in broad daylight by Shahabuddin’s henchmen. Following a movement led by students and teachers of JNU, a CBI probe was eventually ordered into the killing. Is it not indeed strange that a local Court in Siwan should be able to deliver justice within eight years while the CBI should be unable even to frame a chargesheet after an entire decade?
We the undersigned – concerned citizens of this country as well as the people of Siwan – appeal to you to intervene to ensure:
– Immediate dismissal from parliament of convicted MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, as well as MPs accused of human trafficking Babubhai Katara and others;
– Speedy completion of CBI probe into Chandrashekhar’s murder
Signed by JNU and DU teachers Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Tripta Wahi, Vijay Singh, Anil Sadgopal, Sukumar Muralidharan, Mohan Rao, Chandrashekhar’s mother Kaushalya Devi and several others, and submitted following a massive Dharna at Parliament Street by thousands of people of Siwan on May 16.
CPI(ML) Condemns Arrest of PUCL Vice President
The CPI(ML) condemns that arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen, Vice President, PUCL on 14 May 2007 from a police station outside Bilaspur by the Chhattisgarh Police under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA), and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (amended in 2004).
Dr, Binayak was active in exposing the extra-judicial executions of innocent tribal villagers in the name of fake ‘encounters’ with Maoists, and was also a leading activist in exposing the shameful role of the state-sponsored Salwa Judum that was coercing tribals to join a private army against the Maoists. His arrest on trumped up charges under various draconian laws is clearly an act of ‘punishment’ for this role in asserting civil liberties and fighting state terror.
Recently the news of chilling mass execution of seven tribal villagers by the police has come to light. the police casually dismissed this execution as justified since the villagers were ‘Naxal sympathisers’. This targeting of ‘sympathisers’ and human rights activists is in the same shameful tradition that has been seen in Andhra Pradesh, Eastern UP and elsewhere too, and the fake encounters and murders by the police seems to have become routine practice for the Indian State, and is especially valorized in BJP-ruled states. W demand the immediate withdrawal of the cases under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA), and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. We also demand that all such draconian Acts be revoked and that the investigation of fake encounters in Chhattisgarh be handed over to the CBI.
7th Tripura State Party Conference
The CPI(ML) in Tripura held its 7th state party conference on 11-12 May, 2007, at Karbook, a tribal area under Amarpur Sub-Division. The venue was named ’Sapta Shaheed Nagar’ after the seven martyrs of Tripura who laid their lives during the initial days of the movement. The conference was attended by 93 delegates and 15 observers from all the four districts comprising of a good number of new cadres from among tribals, women and youth, recently joined forces from CPM and other left parties and tribal organisations as well as a number of those who became active into the movement again after remaining inactive or passive for quite some time. Rubul Sharma, Polit Bureau member and In-charge of NE Zone was the chief guest and Swadesh Bhattacharya, Polit Bureau member, was the central observer.
Followed by the flag hoisting and homage to the great martyrs, the open session began with a rally drawing attention of a huge gathering in the Karbook market. Some of the villagers were heard whispering “Here is the party committed to uphold the cause of the common masses, holding the red flag high, no matter the CPM has betrayed and tarnished the red flag.” The speakers emphasised on the unity-struggle-resistance of the masses, as the sole answer and remedy to the current crisis. The delegate session examined the all-pervading crisis engulfing Tripura under CPM-led left front, its consensus with the Congress, the role of opposition in the state, and reviewed the state of initiatives, interventions and ongoing struggles as well as the state of our organisation and outlined the future course of actions to cope up with the demands of the new situations.
In all, 38 delegates participated in the discussions. The Conference undertook the task of doubling the party membership with 20 percent women, organising all members into branches, doubling the AIALA membership and organising panchayat level committees of AIALA, and to further develop all other mass organisations and to increase circulation of the state party organ ’Navsphullinga’. It undertook the task of developing some selected pockets as areas of model practice directly guided and led by state leadership.
The conference elected a 17-member state committee including two women. Mrinmoy Chakraborty was reelected as State Secretary. The Conference ended with a loud chanting of slogans amidst the hopes that Tripura will emerge as a strong centre of the communist movement under the leadership of the CPI(ML).
The CPI(ML) Condemns the ‘Advice’ by the President of India for a ‘Stable Two-Party System’
The CPI(ML) condemns the ‘advice’ by the President of India Abdul Kalam that India must ‘evolve’ into a ‘stable two-party system’. Such suggestions have been aired from time to time by the ruling establishment - and the main ruling parties would certainly yearn for undisputed hegemony to be divided among themselves. But such a system goes against the very spirit of multi-party democracy, where a wide variety of interests and classes have full right to seek to represent themselves and express their aspirations politically. If the electorate were forced to choose between two ruling class options, this would rob the poor and marginalised of the right to create a political option for themselves. The room for a true politics of resistance would be eliminated and the people would be left with no option but to support the ‘governance’ of ruling class parties that for them spells nothing but repression and domination. The President has overstepped his brief by offering such ‘advice’ that goes against the spirit of democracy. It is all the more ironical that the suggestion was made at an official ‘celebration’ of 1857. At a time when the main ruling parties are united in their capitulation to imperialism, the great anti-imperialist war of 1857 is sought to be made a platform to suggest that the very space for articulation of a true anti-imperialist people’s voice be eliminated from Indian democracy.