RALLIES and demonstrations were held in many areas across the country to protest against the Trinamool Congress government’s highhandedness and police brutality on a peaceful march of peasants and agricultural workers to Nabanna, the West Bengal state secretariat, on August 27 demanding remunerative prices for farm produces, work for the rural poor, payment of wages for work under MNREGA and relief for the flood-affected people.
Protest rallies were held in many areas in Delhi, Tripura, Jharkhand and Assam among others. The All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement, condemned the brutal police action on the farmers’ march and called upon all its units to rise in protest and intensify campaign against this deplorable act.
Nearly 500 Left workers and leaders were injured as police resorted to indiscriminate lathi-charge, stone-pelting, and tear-gas shelling on peaceful demonstrators. Among those injured were CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Biman Basu and many other senior Party leaders including Biplab Majumdar, Sujan Chakraborty, Manoj Bhattacharya, Gargi Chatterji, Tamser Ali and Ritabrata Banerjee.
To protest against this police brutality, hundreds of CPI(M) activists staged a demonstration outside Banga Bhawan in New Delhi on August 31. The demonstration was led by Delhi State Secretariat members Nathu Prasad, Asha Sharma, Sehba Farooqui, P I Raveendranathan. The gathering was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member A K Padmanabhan, parliamentarian Tapan Sen, Party Central Secretariat member Joginder Sharma among others. The speakers denounced the authoritarian rule of the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal. The brutal police attack and the authoritarian attitude of the state government reflect the Mamata Banerjee-led party’s attitude towards peasants, agricultural workers and the rural poor. She is dreaming of finishing off the CPI(M) through repression but it will remain only a pipe dream. If this state of affairs continues in West Bengal, the entire country will rise and revolt, the speakers warned.
In Jharkhand capital Ranchi, a procession started from the Party State Centre and, after covering major thoroughfares of the city, culminated at Albert Ekka Chowk where an effigy of Mamata Banerjee was set ablaze on August 28. CPI(M) state secretary G K Baksi, secretariat member Prakash Viplav, state committee members Sufal Mahato, Subhas Munda, Rangowati Devi, P Lall and Birendra Kumar, Ranchi district secretary Suknath Lohra, and Manju Munda, Renu Prakash and Bina Linda of AIDWA led the procession. Condemning the police attack in West Bengal, mass meetings and street-corner meetings were also organised at different district headquarters and industrial centres including Bokaro, Sahibganj, Pakur, East Singhbhum, Jharia, Maithon and Sindri.
Similarly, the CPI(M) Assam state committee took out a procession in Guwahati on August 28 in protest against the police brutality on peaceful demonstrators in Kolkata. The procession strongly condemned the Mamata Banerjee government for resorting to unprovoked and brutal action against the massive march of peasants and agricultural workers, held on the call 17 Left parties and mass organisations.
In Tripura, spontaneous protest programmes were held in various places condemning this attack on democracy and barbarism on Left leaders and kisan masses. The Tripura State Secretariat of CPI(M) severely condemned the heinous attack on protesters. “It was a pre-announced programme. There is no reason to obstruct the procession before it reaches its scheduled destination… This is a glaring instance of rampant attack of the TMC-led government of West Bengal on the democratic rights of the people of the state. The people of Tripura express full solidarity with the fighting people of West Bengal in their heroic struggle for restoration of democracy,” CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar said in a statement.
The All India Kisan Sabha, in its statement, deplored the brutal police action against peasants and agricultural workers in which hundreds have been injured severely. “Police went berserk and acted as paid goons of the Trinamul Congress charging at the peaceful protesters. The massive protest action in which around two lakh peasants and agricultural workers from across the state participated was called by the Paschim Banga Krishak Sabha and supported by all Left peasant organisations. Thousands of Workers, Students and Youth also took part in the protest action.”
The Kisan Sabha had rallied together the Left peasants’ and agricultural workers’ organisations and built issue-based unity on the demands like remunerative prices, assured procurement, payment of wages to MGNREGA workers, effective flood relief for people and so on. It was in effect a protest against the neo-liberal policies pursued vigorously by the TMC regime in West Bengal and the BJP government at the Centre.
AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah, CPI(M) state secretary and Polit Bureau member Surjya Kanta Misra were among those present in this unprecedented show of protest against the state and central governments’ policies against peasants and agricultural workers. “Despite the unprovoked attacks in which hundreds have been injured, the peasants and agricultural workers who have been facing untold misery under the TMC regime broke barricades and marched ahead towards Nabanna. Over two thousand volunteers reached the doors of the state secretariat. Police clearly acting on the orders from the highest quarters used teargas and brutal violence was unleashed to disperse the activists. At all roads leading to Nabanna, the police resorted to unprovoked lathi-charge even as the demand that the peasants and agricultural workers wanted to submit a memorandum and the Charter of Demands at Nabanna was denied.”
AIDWA MEETS NHRC
ON POLICE BRUTALITIES
A joint delegation of the women's organisations comprising of Jagmati Sangwan, AIDWA general secretary, Sehba Farooqui, general secretary of JMS Delhi and Annie Raja, NFIW general secretary met the chairperson/ incharge of the NHRC on September 2 regarding the brutal attack on the protest march to Nabanna convened by the All India Kisan Sabha and supported by 17 Left organisations in West Bengal on August 27, 2015. The delegation submitted a memorandum that said that women were lathicharged and women police force was not present when women were attacked. This was violating Supreme Court guidelines that there can be no police action against women by male police force.
The chairperson assured the delegation that he will look into the matter, and shared the concerns that were raised by them. He assured them that he would expedite action on an urgent basis.
