We are remembering comrade Jatin Das on his 95th martyrdom day, whose martyrdom inspires the flame of revolutionary spirit burning, and immensely it needed at a time when the Brahmanic Hindutva fascists reign not only in power but they are upholding his sacrifices crocodile tears to ruin it. Jatin Das was an exemplary revolutionary who taught us that without revolution and revolutionary practice, man is no different from animal. His struggle against British imperialism continues to inspire the revolutionaries not only in this part of the world. His name still bring shiver in the spine of the imperialists. His firm believe in the principal of never to bow one’s head in front of oppressors, irrespective of the consequences is as valid as it was in his period. Brahmanic Hindutva Fascism is ruling the country with its agenda of making India as Hindu Rashtra. The civil liberties of the people are on the edge of the sword. As I write this article, one cannot deny of the possibility of an adivasi people being picked up from the revolutionary areas by the security forces, whose existence is perceived by the Indian state as a threat to its authority. One cannot deny the possibility of a Muslim people being arrested by the Indian police on the pretext of being “dreaded terrorist”. dalit, writers, students, lawyers, journalists, or anyone, who questions the fascist, pro-imperialist and pro- bureaucratic capitalist policies of the Indian state are becoming targets of it. Coporatization-militarization that runs deep in the veins of the Indian political system is strengthen by the exceptional fascist repressive acts and laws.
The Indian state has a history of draconian laws. All the stringent laws carry the legacy of the British colonial power. After the transfer of power in 1947, India became a semi-colony country. Imperialism began its new form of exploitation of the natural resources, cheap labour and huge market of India. The feudal landlords and comprador bureaucratic classes in alliance with imperialism constitute the three parasitic ruling classes of India. To sustain its class exploitation and oppression on the oppressed classes and sections of India, they needed, apart from brutal military force, series of repressive-fascist laws. These laws were designed (are designed in its new avatar) to suppress the Communist, anti-Imperialist, anti-feudal and anti-bureaucratic capitalist movements. The Preventive Detention Act (PDA), 1950, was the first draconian law after the country adopted its Constitution. It was designed to crush the Telangana Armed Struggle under the leadership of the erstwhile United Communist party of India. After coming to power in 1971, Indira Gandhi MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) which was modelled on several provisions of PDA which lapsed in 1969, Armed Forces Special Power Act, and several other stringent laws were passed during her tenure. Though MISA was repelled by the Janta party government in 1977, which was not out of its good-will but due to massive opposition to it from the masses. Like any other ruling classes party, the Janta party did not made any effort to repeal laws like AFSPA. However, the Janta party tried to bring miniature form of MISA but it not saw the light of the day. In 1985 TADA and in 2002, POTA was enacted. In all these notorious criminal laws victims are only down trodden people. No one big shark was punished. Even our Home Minister Amitsha who was arrested on the allegations of murder and was in jail for 4 years as an undertrial is also escaped from capital punishment with misusing power.
Under the dictates of imperialist forces, the UPA government brought first amendment to UAPA. The amendment carried several provisions of the repealed POTA, which made the repealing of the latter merely symbolic. The imperialist propaganda of “war on terror” was massively infected in society in order to justify the legislation of UAPA. Under this act, the accused is denied of the right to fairness and all his/her constitutional rights becomes oblivious. UAPA has become an instrumental tool for suppressing the dissenting voices and the revolutionary forces, and those opposing the pro-imperialist and pro-corporate policies of the Indian state.
The amendment to UAPA by the Congress government in the center in 2008 was in parallel with the commencement of first all-India counter-insurgency program in the name of ‘Green-Hunt’ operation. The amendment in 2008, broaden the definition of terrorism and made the bail provision in the act stricter in nature. After brahmanic hindutva fascists RSS-BJP came to power in 2014 with the support of imperialist and Bureaucratic capitalist forces, the loot and plunder of the country in the interest of the ruling classes intensified. The mass movements against those policies of the BJP government erupted in every nook and cranny of the country. To wipe out the revolutionary movement under the leadership of CPI (Maoist) it began Samadhan-Prahar, phase-1 and 2 and the 2019 amendment to UAPA was designed to curb the mass movements arising against hindutva rule and policies in the interest of Monopoly capital.
Several leaders and cadres of CPI (Maoist) are put behind the jails of the Indian state. They continue their struggle for the liberation of the oppressed classes and sections even from the dark dungeons, where the only right that exist is the right to being tortured. Despite unimaginable tortures inflicted upon the leaders and cadres of CPI (Maoist), their revolutionary spirit remains undeterred. Among them many are women Comrades. Indian jails happen to be a most dangerous place for a woman to be. The government data itself speaks about the unspeakable harassments, tortures and sexual assault being faced by the women prisoners in the Indian jails. The plight of the women prisoners in India has been rightfully pointed out by activist Sudha Bhardwaj in her recent book. The Supreme Court of India in its 1382 order dated 5th February 2016 stated that “there could be several factors that lead a prisoner to commit a crime but nevertheless a prisoner is required to be treated as a human being entitled to all the basic human rights, human dignity and human sympathy.” The treatments inflicted on the prisoners goes against the spirit of the Indian constitution, to which the Indian state offers its adherence.
The revolutionary movement is becoming a serious hurdle for the monopoly capital, which is in deep crisis. As an agent of imperialism, Indian state under RSS-BJP rule has begun new fascist onslaught on revolutionary movement in the name of “operation Kaagar”. According to the Indian Central Home Minister, Amit Shah in the first six months of the operation kagaar, 125 maoists have killed, 175 surrendered and 362 arrested. The number has increased at lightning speed. Most of them are revolutionary masses, fighting against the loot and plunder of the natural resources of the country, fighting for real sovereignty, democracy and liberty. At total of “11 thousands 18 hundred and 16 cases have been registered under the draconian law UAPA, since 2010. Out of these, 65 percent have been registered in Modi’s regime”. From 2018 to 2020, the Indian police has arrested 4690 persons under UAPA from all over the country. In Modi’s regime, UAPA has been slapped over 10 thousand persons and there has been rise in the use of UAPA by more than 33 percent, since March 2019.
In a semi-feudal country, crime is not perceived by the rule of law. It is determined by caste and class of person. The Indian prison mirrors the fundamental features of moribund Indian society. After his release on bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, civil rights activist and scholar, Anand Teltumbde acknowledge that Indian jails are free from the vicious grip of the caste system. He pointed out that most of the under-trial prisoners in India, almost above 50 percent, happen to be from dalit or from poor Muslim community, which make up around 40 percent of the India’s population. Most of them are victims of the unequal and oppressive system but are being made as a culprit, criminals by the Indian state and punished for being from oppressed classes and sections. The system that keeps them hungry and in destitute conditions wants them to be abide by rule of law. The callousness with which the Indian state stuff them in jails reflects the lack of deference for fundamental rights. Being poverty-stricken, they are unable to get the services of private lawyers. The saying that no one should not go undefended is nothing more than a cosmetic phrase. In 1980, Supreme Court in the case of Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar, ruled that right to free legal service as an “essential ingredient of ‘reasonable, fair, and just’ procedure for a person accused of an offence“. It further reasoned that the right to free legal aid is implicit in the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian constitution. In India, legal aid services to poor have become “poor legal aid services”. The under-trials are perishing in jail like animals in the zoo, as they are unable to afford legal services. Despite the Supreme Court observations on many instances regarding the pathetic conditions of the under-trial and its demand for their speedy bail, under-trial in India continues to make up 76.1 percent of the total jail population. The judicial dictum, “bail is the provision and jail are an exception“, famously pronounced by the Justice Krishna Iyer has today taken a U-turn. In the fascist regime of Modi, jail is the provision and bail are the exception stands as a new judicial dictum.
The Bhima Koregaon case is a classic example of how the Indian state and its machinery works day and night to suffocate the democratic voices of the country. After long period of incarceration in jails, some of the activists, writers and scholars have been released on several severe conditions. One the activists, father Stan Swamy died during his incarceration due to state imprudence behavior towards him and unconcerned about his deteriorating health. This amount to a state murder of a democratic right activists. Till now, no case has been filed against the officials responsible for Stan Swamy death. Political prisoners’ lives are either caught up in procedural limbo or in the state’s attempt to thwart their release. Mahesh Raut, Hany Babu, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap are still languishing behind bars in Bhima Koregaon case. They continue to await liberty. The case itself is bogus and manufactured. The Elgar Parishad case has garnered international infamy as a bellwether for the collapse of constitutional rights in India. Alpa Shah has clearly states about how the malware and all other evidences were implanted to jail 16 democratic rights activists of India.
In his book Colors of Cage, Arun Ferreria gives us a straightforward, but horrifying descriptions of the treatment meted out to the political prisoner and general prisoners in Indian jails. He writes, “In dark dungeons of India, prisoners are beaten, even to death, for groaning in their sleep, prisoners are being made to crawl in the afternoon sun, petrol are injected in their rectums. This are just tip of the iceberg”. Between 2001 and 2020, as per the National Crime Bureau Record’s data, there were 1,88i8 custodial deaths reported across the country. According to a report, “893 cases were registered against the police personnel and 358 personnel Charge Sheeted. But only 26 policemen were there in this period”. All those policemen are constables (lower ranks personnel) but the higher officials who presided and authorized to tortures leading to deaths in police custody, continue to a free man. Prof. GN Saibaba who was recently acquitted after spending 10 years of imprisonment, speaks about the brutalities of the Indian prison system. He states that all epithets are used by the Indian jail personnel to crush the spirit of the political prisoners. Their right to life is under serious threat can be simply reasoned by the fact how Pandu Narote and Stan Swamy were silently killed behind the high walls of Indian jails.
Indian ruling classes continue to pursue solitary confinement, which is a dreaded colonial Policy, designed to crush the spirit of the freedom fighters. However, no democratic principal guarantees the prevalence of such practice in a society. The Supreme Court of India in the 1978 judgement in Sunil Batra vs Delhi Administration case, declared solitary confinement illegal. More than 50 years have elapsed of the Supreme Court judgement, but the solitary confinement is the norm in the Indian prison system. India is signatories to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1997. But it tops the list in meting out tortures and ill-treatments to prison inmates. The Indian police, the killer-machine of the Indian state, has been breaking the law with impunity, mostly in the name of democracy. This is how the Indian state save democracy by torturing People, killing them in a cold-blooded manner and denying them justice.
The people of Kashmir and North-East Nationality people are waging a protracted nationality liberation movement for more than five decades. To crush the Nationality movements, the Indian state has given immense power to the armed forces by enacting Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA). Thousands of people from Kashmir and North-East have been killed in brutal manner by the Indian armed forces under the cover of AFSPA. Women are raped, children and youths are detained by the armed forces to maintain normalcy and peace in these regions. But there can be no peace when there is Injustice. People of Kashmir and of the North-East are stubborn in their national liberation, which is a just and democratic struggle. All democratic organizations and civil rights organizations must stand firm with the people of Kashmir and north east and fight against all the violations of the democratic and fundamental rights of kashmiri people and of the North-East Nationality people.
In BJP ruled states, there is “bulldozer justice” as a principal of justice. In the name of decolonizing the criminal laws, the BJP government has made those laws more stringent and suitable to a fascist regime. The police custody has been extended from 15 days to 90 days in the present Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita. The colonial time sedition law has been inserted in a new form in chapter 7 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita. The three criminal laws are antithesis to the fundamental rights of the people as recognized by the constitution. The intent of these laws is to silence the dissenting voices and crush the revolutionary movement at the behest of imperialism and domestic corporate class. The three new criminal laws are outrightly colonial in nature argues Shahruk Alam ( a lawyer from Delhi) in his article The New Criminal Bills Allow the Govt to Decide Who Gets Booked and Who Doesn’t for the Same Act, published in The Wire, because it has given “enhanced power to the state to assign meanings to words and actions, and also mechanical for having reproduced large parts of what they had set out to ‘decolonize’”. In Maharashtra, which is going to polls for state election has tabled a bill to crush lawyers, civil rights activists, writers, students, tribal, dalits and farmers organizations in the highly contestable name of urban naxal. Through laws, state carries out its violence and gives them legitimacy. To reproduce the oppressive social relations is the greatest role of the state. In spite of all these draconian laws now in some states like Maharashtra the government is very eager to bring a new law i.e. PSA. So, it is needless to say that in coming days the country will become as a huge prison, it we do not fight against it.
95 years ago, Jatin Das fought against British imperialism in order to free the country. To each patriotic, democrats, writers, students and all oppressed classes and sections of this country need to fight and defeat brahmanic hindutva fascism. This is not an easy task but we have no other option. We have nothing to lose but our chains of slavery.
