WB: Mass Civil Disobedience Despite Police Atrocities
Subinoy Moulik
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RESPONDING to the call of mass mobilisation, civil disobedience and grameen bandh given by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), and the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions/Federations/Associations and various other mass organisations of the state, Bengal erupted in a wave of protests on February 13. Though the programme was slated to happen on February 17, it was held earlier in the state due to the oncoming board examinations.
Across the state, workers and farmers in huge numbers took to the streets and demonstrated against the anti-worker, anti-farmer policies of the Modi government. As usual, the Mamata Banerjee government's police force adopted a brutally belligerent attitude towards the protesters from the very beginning. Most ferocious were the attacks on protesters in Baharampur, Murshidabad. Police personnel resorted to lathi-charge, brick batting and tear gas shelling to disperse the peaceful assembly. 53-year old Anarul Islam died from tear gas inhalation before he could be moved to the district hospital.
POLICE BRUTALITY
More than 60 protesters were injured when the police unleashed a wave of violence and repression kicking demonstrators with heavy boots; beating them with fists, sticks and even throwing stones at them. 6 of them had to be admitted to Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital with serious injuries. 23 protesters, including 7 women, were picked up by the police, who later released the women but arrested 16 and detained them in Baharampur police station.
CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim took part in this civil disobedience programme in Baharampur. Strongly condemning the police attack, he said the administration had not deputed any magistrate despite the announced law-violation programme. The way the policemen performed their duties, it seemed that they were there only to beat up the protesters. The police did not follow any law. Mohammad Salim expressed deep grief over the death of Comrade Anarul Islam and expressed strong anger towards the police. He said that the same way Modi government's police lathi-charged farmers and fired tear gas shells in Delhi, same way Mamata government's police lathi-charged and fired tear gas at workers-farmers. Both governments are equally ruthless towards any mass movement. Mohammad Salim called for a state-wide sit-in programme to protest police killings.
Salim also said that the central and state governments believe that mere police action would quell all public protests. They are of the opinion that all government offices should be disabled and only the police department should be maintained. When the chief minister and prime minister come to attend meetings, carnivals, circuses, road shows, superintendents of police and district magistrates take charge of laying carpets and gathering people. Today people are violating the law only symbolically. They are being forced to do this because the central and state governments are not giving the workers-farmers their due rights as per the law. The job of the police is to catch thieves, but police across the state are guarding thieves. Who will the police catch in Sandeshkhali? Those who outrage modesty of women and beat up those who dare to intervene, those who encroach upon adivasi-owned paddy land and turn them into fishing farms or those who are rallying to protest such injustice? If the police guard the thieves with guns, the people will chase the thieves with brooms, and then the police will not be spared if they collude with thieves.
Despite the police atrocities the call for massive protest against the privatisation of electricity, railways, public sector undertakings, the smart prepaid electricity meter policy, the anti-worker labour codes, the changed hit-and-run laws under the newly rolled-out Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, and similar pro-corporate measures of the Modi government evoked deep response all over the state. At the same time, voices were also raised against the reign of TMC-backed miscreants in Sandeshkhali. The protesters demanded immediate arrest of the actual culprits there.
In district after district the march of the workers, farmers and employees broke the police barricades in different places and moved on. CITU West Bengal committee general secretary Anadi Sahu and AIKS West Bengal state committee secretary Amal Halder congratulated the protestors for making the programme a success. In a press statement, they also said that the police used lathis without any provocation in the law disobedience programme in Murshidabad district. 50 protesters were injured. In all, about 12,000 workers, farmers, agricultural workers participated in this movement. At Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, leaders of various central trade unions and farmers’ organisations including Anadi Sahu, Nepaldeb Bhattacharya, Gargi Chatterjee, Somnath Bhattacharya were present. A joint civil disobedience and 'Jail Bharo' programme was held by workers, farmers and agricultural workers at Uluberia in Howrah district. More than 2000 farmers and agricultural workers participated in it. Anadi Sahu and Amal Halder said that law violations and court arrest proceedings are underway in all 22 districts including Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, North and South Dinajpur, Birbhum, Dui Burdwan, East and West Medinipur, Hooghly, Nadia. At Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, leaders of various central trade unions and farmers' councils including Anadi Sahu, Nepaldev Bhattacharya, Gargi Chatterjee, Somnath Bhattacharya were present. A joint civil disobedience and 'Jail Bharo' (arrest in court) program was held by workers, farmers and agricultural workers at Uluberia in Howrah district. More than 2000 farmers and agricultural workers participated in it.
DISTRICT LEVEL PROTESTS
Anadi Sahu and Amal Halder said that law violations and court arrest programmes were held in all 22 districts including Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, North and South Dinajpur, Birbhum, the two Burdwans, East and West Medinipur, Hooghly and Nadia. Workers, farmers and agricultural workers in large numbers took part everywhere. Anadi Sahu said, on this day, the anger and dissatisfaction accumulated among the people was expressed in the intensity of the protest. The message is clear. If the central and state governments do not change their policies, the working people will unite in the struggle for change. He condemned the heinous inhuman misdeeds committed by the Trinamool in Sandeshkhali and demanded the unconditional release of Nirapada Sardar. He also demanded the release of the protestors who were arrested for participating in the civil disobedience programme.
In Siliguri in North Bengal, though a large contingent of police was there, barricades were broken and the law violation movement took place. In Balurghat too, the protest march went round the whole town and reached the administrative building. The police tried to stop the protesters by placing barricades in some places but failed, the barricades collapsed as the marchers pushed forward. In North Dinajpur district, law violation took place at Raiganj. The participants of the march broke two police barricades on the road to reach the office of the district magistrate, Cooch Behar at Sagardighi Complex. The protest march started from Rathbari in Malda and passed through Rabindra Avenue, Foara More, Netaji More and passed the State Bank reaching in front of the district magistrate’s office.
In the Asansol-Durgapur area in the Paschim Bardhaman district, protesters blocked the BNR intersection on GT Road. The panic-stricken police and administration lined the entire city of Burdwan with barricades. Water cannons were brought. After two barricades collapsed near Parkas Road and Badamtala junction the protestors continued the protest with a mass sit-in programme so that the common people would not be inconvenienced.
In Medinipur town, protesters blocked three roads and staged the law-violation programme resisting wanton police action, including batons, blows, punches and kicks. A commotion ensued when the police stopped the advance of the march which started from Nimtouri in East Midnapore. Similarly, in Krishnanagar, Nadia, police barricaded the procession in front of College Mor and Rabindra Bhavan.
Protesters clashed with the police in Baruipur of South 24 Parganas. There the barricade gave way under pressure from the people. CITU leader Ratan Bagchi, Tushar Ghosh, the West Bengal state president of AIAWU and other leaders were arrested by the police and put in the police van. Others continued their protest by blocking the road in front of the sub-division officer's office demanding the unconditional release of all the detainees. Due to the protest, the police were forced to release all the detainees unconditionally. The leaders of the workers, farmers and agricultural workers’ movement said that there are no vacancies, no work for the unemployed, no new factories. Farmers do not get subsidised prices for their crops; they are burdened with the cost of cultivation. The agricultural workers are in a deplorable condition. Government land is being handed over to private owners by making it free- hold property. There is no minimum wage and social security for unorganised workers. On the top of it lies the danger of the new labour code. Daily wagers, casual and contractual employees who perform the same duties as the regulars are deprived of equal pay. The central government is taking an aggressive approach towards the working people. The state government is also following the same path. The prices of goods are increasing steadily; many poor people have their backs against the wall. The government, on the other hand, is bent upon installation of smart meters.
In short, instead of government trying to reduce the problems of public life, we find those problems are becoming more aggravated every day. From tea plantation workers to fishermen – the situation is the same everywhere. There is no solution in sight. This government's policies are accentuating caste and religious divisions. There will be more intense and continuous movement against these aspects of misrule in the coming days.
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