Atrocities Against UP Dalits in the Wake of Mayawati's Victory:

While Mayawati is being hailed for her party's  unique
metamorphosis
from Bahujan to 'Sarvajan',  Mayawati's victory has no doubt sharpened
the
aspirations of dalits in UP for democracy and empowerment. However, the
few
weeks that have followed Mayawati's ascension to power have witnessed a
disturbing trend: a spate of assaults and atrocities against dalits.



Take the example of Mohanlalganj, barely an hour's journey away from
the
seat of power in Lucknow. Here, a poor and aged dalit peasant was shot
dead,
and his son as well as daughter-in-law seriously injured .Their only
fault
was that they resisted the forcible grabbing of their land in the name
of
road by a rich Brahmin who also happened to be a government officer.
Despite
being pre-warned about the possibility of such an assault, police and
administration turned a blind eye.



In Raebareilly, again in the vicinity of the state capital, an old
dalit
agrarian labour was brutally beaten to death. He had refused to work
for a
Rajput landlord, since the landlord had not paid his long-due wages and
instead got him arrested on a false pretext of theft during the Mulayam
regime. Possibly emboldened by the formation of Mayawati Government he
asserted his minimum democratic right to accept or refuse an employer,
and
paid for it with his life. Significantly, the killers - upper caste
feudal
men, are also 'associated' with the BSP. So when the local Rajput BSP
leader
came to the spot apparently to assert the rights of dalits, he was
actually
maneuvering to save the main culprits, his caste-class kinsmen!



The Bundelkhand region, hit by famine and drought, is a site of
tremendous
agrarian distress. In Mahoba, a village in Bundelkhand, a dalit village
Pradhan was recently tied up and brutally beaten by a moneylender
landlord
of Brahmin origin. This humiliation and violence was inflicted on him
as
punishment when he failed to repay the usurious interest on the loan
lent by
the landlord. Recall that such moneylenders are responsible in a large
part
for turning Bundelkhand into another Vidarbha, with soaring suicide
rates of
poor peasants.



In western UP too, a dalit boy was killed - ironically when hen joined
others of his community who were celebrating the victory of Mayawati .
Here
too the 'Sarvajan' killers are yet to face any punishment.



The emerging pattern of these incidents indicates that despite the
'historic'
victory of Mayawati ji`s Sarvajan politics and the miraculous 'social
engineering', the assaults on dalits continue unabated. In fact perhaps
the
assault has intensified because there is assertion on the part of
dalits in
the wake of their heightened expectations, while the oppressors, too,
do see
a new hope in the Sarvajan Sarkar and assert their feudal 'right' to
oppress!



Liberating the state from the clutches of mafia-criminals was the USP
of
Mayawati in the recently held elections. Needless to say, this goal
requires
an uncompromising battle against criminalization of politics, not just
some
selective gimmicks based on political convenience. The use of criminals
to
grab power is the basic source of break-down of law and order in the
society. And obviously the vulnerable sections of the society, the poor
and
the dalits, are its worst victims.



Dalit emancipation and establishing a casteless society are the
proclaimed
strategic goals of Mayawati . The continuing atrocities on dalits even
in
the wake of victory is a warning that these goals are impossible
without
thoroughgoing democratization of the state and society. Doing away with
all
forms of feudal oppression, strict implementation of SC/ST Act without
dilution, resolving land disputes through proper land reforms by
constituting a Land Commission, ensuring proper and timely wages and
holding
the state machinery responsible for any lapse regarding atrocities on
the
poor are some of the minimum steps required.



Will the Mayawati  govt., in its new avatar as government of the
Sarvajan,
dare to address these urgent issues of democratic reform that are the
only
possible bases of dalit dignity?

People’s 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

Signatories included Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy for the JNU Teachers’ Association, Prof. Rizwan Qaiser for the Jamia Teachers’ Association, Prof. Anuradha Chenoy of JNU, Profs. Tripta Wahi and Vijay SIngh of DU, educationist Anil Sadgopal, eminent journalist Sukumar Muralidharan, Prof. Mohan Rao of JNU, Jean Dreze, visiting Professor, Allahabad University, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, Pranay Krishna, general Secretary of JSM, Satyadev Ram, ex-MLA, Mairwa, and Amarnath Yadav, MLA, Darauli, among others.

Shahabuddin’s Conviction: People’s Victory Against Criminalisation of Politics

Lal Bahadur Singh
Fourteen years ago, the Vohra Committee submitted its recommendations to curb criminalisation of politics – but these never saw the light of day. R.K. Narayanan, as President on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Republic in 2001, spoke out against criminalization of politics. But Parliament is yet to take any action against the most notorious of its members - Md. Shahabuddin, recently sentenced to life imprisonment in a case of abduction and suspected killing of CPI(ML) activist Comrade Chhote Lal Gupta. he has also been sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for attacking the CPI(ML) office, while around 40 more cases of murder, kidnapping, having illegal arms like AK-47 etc., as well as the CBI inquiry into Comrade Chandrashekhar murder case, are still pending against him.
However, even after he has been sentenced with life imprisonment, though extremely belatedly, not a single political party, barring CPI(ML), has come out categorically, demanding his dismissal from parliament! Whatever the People’s Representation Act may say in this regard, if MPs can be summarily dismissed for cash in query episode, why can’t such an exceptional criminal be at least suspended from the highest institution of democracy in the land, even after he has been proven guilty by court for abducting a citizen to kill?
The reasons for this criminal apathy on the part of ruling parties of all hues are not far to seek. Can one expect it from the Congress or other UPA partners and supporters, who stand to lose one MP and antagonise an ally like Laloo Prasad? Should one expect it from BJP or NDA, whose leader and now the Dy. CM of ruling JD(U)-BJP combine, Sushil Modi and leaders of the then Samata Party, the predecessor of today‘s Nitish Kumar‘s JD(U), had complained of police bias and excesses against Shahabuddin, during the Pratappur shoot-out episode, expecting Shahabuddin to rebel against Laloo and help them topple Rabri govt. and form their own! It is not surprising that even CPI(M)-CPI have not come out with any demand for action against him. Somnath Chatterjee, so pro-active on corruption issues, is not ready to take any initiative to ‘uphold the dignity of the Parliament’ by ousting this criminal. All recall that as CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjit had even campaigned for Shahabuddin during the last parliamentary elections.
Actually criminalization of politics no more hits the headlines of media, nor does it worry the ruling political parties, thanks to the grand consensus among them regarding their great use-value in winning elections and grabbing power! In fact one often finds jealous competition among political parties to win mafias to their fold, and often governmental power is used to do so. In the much hyped ‘clean’ elections of UP, almost all mafia-criminal turned politicians have won the elections, most of them as respected candidates of national political parties!
In this scenario, the indictment and life imprisonment for Shahabuddin is certainly a great people’s victory, thanks to the consistent and vigorous movement, launched by CPI(ML) all these years, against all odds. It has shown how the criminalization of politics can actually be fought and defeated.
When all political parties surrendered before the reign of terror unleashed by the Shahabuddin gang and practically withdrew from the political scene, it was CPI(ML) alone which fearlessly conducted a resistance struggle against him, of course, paying a heavy price with the martyrdom of many of its leaders and supporters. After the assassination of Comrade Chandrashekhar, the ex-president of JNUSU, a powerful and popular student movement erupted, forcing the then Gujral Govt. to order CBI inquiry into the case. Kaushalya Devi, Chandrashekhar’s mother, was at the forefront of the struggle for justice for the entire decade. It is really a matter of shame for the apex investigating agency of the country and reflects the political patronage enjoyed by Shahabuddin that even after a decade, the CBI is yet to chargesheet Shahabuddin in the case!

People of Siwan Hold Dharna at Parliament Demanding Shahabuddin’s Dismissal
On May 16, thousands of people from Siwan held a Dharna at Parliament Street demanding dismissal of Shahabuddin and completion of the CBI probe into Chandrashekhar’s murder. The Dharna was presided over by CPI(ML) MLA from Darauli Comrade Amarnath Yadav. Partiicpants from Siwan included former MLA from Mairwa Satyadev Ram, AIALA District Secretary from Siwan Jugal Thakur, Jaynath Yadav, member of the party District Committee, Naimuddin Ansari, former mukhia and District Committee member, RYA leader Ravindra Bharti, and several others. Participants from Delhi included Swami Agnivesh of the Bandhua Mukto Morcha, Mujtaba Farooque of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Rakesh Rafiq of Yuva Bharat, Tanweer Fazal, lecturer at Jamia Millia Islamia and representative of Forum for Democratic Initiatives, Sandeep SIngh, General Secretary JNUSU, KK Pande, editor, Janmat, Pranay Krishna, former JNUSU President and General Secretary, Jan Sanskriti Manch, and Kavita Krishnan, editorial board, Liberation.
The highlight of the dharna was when Comrade Shital Paswan, main eyewitness in the Chhote Lal Gupta abduction case, spoke of his experience. Eight years ago, he said, Comrade Chhote Lal was summoned by Shahabuddin into his vehicle and whisked away. The next morning, a struggle began that still goes on. The police wouldn’t file an FIR – until the CPI(ML) gheraoed the thana for hours. Since then, Shital Paswan has hardly been able to stay with his family. His family has been approached several times with threats and bribes alike (the proffered bribe has been upto a crore rupees). Even his cousin in Delhi was approached and told to warn him to shut up. Yet, he gave evidence in Court – and it was his evidence that nailed Shahabuddin.
Shital Paswan recalled how Shahabuddin has been acquitted in several other cases involving the murder of BJP or JD(U) supporters, because the witnesses turned hostile, and in some cases, these parties did not even lodge an FIR. By contrast, Shital Paswan is proud of standing firm, not fearing for his life, and caring to sell his conscience. Shital Paswan displays the kind of stubborn courage characteristic of the ML movement itself in Siwan.

नारद जी , हमे भी जेल भेज दीजिए