Maha: Withdraw Anti-Democratic Jana Suraksha Bill Forthwith
THE NDA state government of Maharashtra led by BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis has introduced legislation in the state assembly called “Special Jana Suraksha Bill” (Special Public Safety Bill) aimed at brutally suppressing dissent and organised resistance to any of the state government policies and decisions. The purported objective of the Bill, in the words of CM Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, is to curtail “Urban Naxals”. The real objective of the Bill is to suppress the voice and acts of organised democratic resistance. If passed, which is a surety given the massive majority the ruling alliance commands in the state legislature, it will give draconian powers even to the lowest level police officers.
The Maharashtra state committee of the CPI(M), in a statement issued on March 25, strongly condemned this proposed repressive legislation and demanded that the state government withdraw it forthwith.
The people of Maharashtra are facing extreme hardships due to the anti-people policies of the BJP-led state and central governments, leading to deep anxiety and dissatisfaction among them. Farmers, workers, agricultural workers, women, youth and students are coming out on the streets demanding solutions to their problems. Various social groups are also agitated over the issues of reservation in education and employment. Sections of the toiling masses are raising their voice through constitutionally mandated democratic means on these grave problems, viz. prices of farm produce, crop insurance, work under MGNREGA, land rights, issues related to land acquisition and rehabilitation, minimum wage, price rise, education, employment, health, caste and religion-based oppression and injustice. The governments, state as well as centre, instead of solving these problems, are bent upon suppressing people’s just demands. The governments are dynamiting people’s democratic rights in order to further their agenda favouring the corporate communal forces. The Jana Suraksha Bill is aimed at strengthening this crony corporate communal combination against the people’s interests.
The government's claim that the aim of this proposed legislation is to rein in the illegal acts of individuals or organisations sounds hollow in the light of the intentional ambiguity contained in the provisions of the Bill.
The state government has arrogated to itself the sole right of declaring any act or organisation “illegal”. This Bill proposes imprisonment for three years and a fine of Rs 3 lakhs to a member of an organisation so declared illegal, including those supporting that organisation, those collecting funds for that organisation or those attending its meetings. Non-members but anyone who helps, encourages the activities of such an organisation and even anyone who helps the management of its affairs will face imprisonment for seven years and a fine of Rs 5 lakhs. All this is aimed at breaking the organisations of labouring classes as well as those active in civil society.
The CPI(M), while condemning this neo-fascist attack by the Maharashtra government, vows to fight it back tooth and nail by mobilising its mass base, as well as all sections of broad Left and democratic opinion.
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