This is an important
issue that has been reported by left presses. It’s important that people in the
world know about this injustice. We also need to stand in solidarity with Professor G.N.
Saibaba of India. - សតិវ អតុ
From Kasama project:
By Harsh Thakor
The formation of revolutionary democratic Front in India in
2005 with the merger of the All India Peoples Resistance Forum and the Struggle
for Peoples Resistance has historic importance in the annals of the Indian
democratic Movement. It has waged heroic struggles for defending the democratic
rights of the people repressed by Operation Greenhunt and their struggles on
the agrarian and urban front. The R.D.F has fought against all odds to survive
against attacks of the state and defend the legitimate right of the
C.P.I.(Maoist) to be given political status as well as it's sympathizers and members.
Last year it's vice-president Ganti Prasadam was assassinated by goons it's
general secretary Raj Kishore arrested in his village in Bihar and deputy
secretary G.N.Saibaba's home raided. Revolutionary activists world over have to
defend the right of Revolutionary Democratic Front to survive and be allowed to
legally function. Unofficially it is suppressed and banned and it's activists incarcerated.
The arrest yesterday of its head G.N.Saibaba was not just an individually
attack but an attack on the democratic movement on the whole by the Indian
state which wishes to label revolutionary activists as 'C.P.I.(Maoist) members.
Although the Revolutionary Democratic Front has a legitimate right to function
within the framework of the constitution unofficially or morally it is banned
from functioning in any state openly. Inspite of repression it frequently
brought out it's Hindi journal 'Jan Pratirodh' which defended the gains of the agrarian
movement and the building of people’s democratic power. Sadly we do not have its
English translations which would have been great to have online.(36 issues have
come out)It also conducted a protest in Delhi protesting the massacre of
tribals in Bijapur village of Chattisagrh in June 2012.There was also a joint
protest rally within forum against war on the people conducted in a region in
Bihar exposing Operation Greenhunt. Against all odds its activists and units
are struggling to build a revolutionary democratic movement. be it on the agrarian,
urban or cultural front.
Earlier,a constituent of the Revolutionary Democratic Front,
the All-India Peoples Resistance Forum staged 3 conferences. These took place
first in Calcutta in 1994, a fantastic mobilization in the rally consisting of
over one lakh people)then in Hyderabad in 1997 and finally in Sangrur in
2000.They were historic steps in assembling the struggling revolutionary
organizations like the Andhra Pradesh Radical Students Union and Andhra Pradesh
Rytu Collie Sangham or the Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Parishad and Bharat
Naujavan Sabha in Bihar etc. They also gave solidarity to the nationality
struggles ,democratic rights of minorities and the anti-imperialist mass
movements .The author cannot forget the 1992 rally in Calcutta attended by 10
lakh peasants resembling a storm thundering, literally lighting a red flame .I
also have similar feelings towards the seminar on ’50 years of independence
‘held in Mumbai. Here all aspects of repression and struggle were represented
throwing light on the armed peasants struggles in Andhra Pradesh, Dandkaranya
and Bihar. Above all the best programmes were those opposing the state
repression in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Dandkaranya carried out in 1999 in
Punjab, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. It brilliantly utilized the legal channels
available and got great response from the broad masses. A repetition of that
campaign is a virtual need of the hour. They lit a torch in opposing the iron
feet of oppression by the state against the democratic revolutionary peasant movements.
The author recommends readers to read the April -June issue of Peoples
Resistance and many of its earlier issues which reports the democratic
revolutionary struggles of Andhra Pradesh, Dandkaranya and Bihar .I wish all of
those were posted online which constitute a historic part of the archives of
the Indian democratic movement.
Sadly since its formation, insurmountable repression has
been launched on the Revolutionary Democratic Front. In West Bengal 2 of their
office bearers have been arrested and in Jharkhand open rallies are virtually
prohibited. They are simply dubbed as ‘Maoist’ outfits and their revolutionary
democratic identity is virtually erased. The R.D.F. has units in Punjab, Uttarkhand,
Delhi, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar. However it has still been unable to
form effective functioning units becoming consistent victims of state
repression. In Orissa it was banned even before officially forming an
organization, while in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana or Maharashtra they have stray
contacts but no proper organization. In recent years the R.D.F carried out a
huge range of programmes covering every sphere of struggle. They fought for the
release of political prisoners, defended struggles of nationalities, opposed
repression on minorities, gave solidarity to peasant movements in Lalgarh and
Dandkaranyanya and supported anti-imperialist movements. It is a tribute
to the organization that withstanding the repression they held sammelan sin
Punjab in 2007 and 2011, in Bihar and Kharkand in 2009 and in Uttarkhand
in 2010.One of the most significant solidarity movements was that of opposing
the death sentence on the peasants in 2004 on the Bihar peasants. Thousands of
mass activists from around the struggling areas were even prevented from
participating in the conference and in Chattisgarh 35 activists were arrested
on the way to the venue.
After 2006 there were great efforts to curtail the
movements of the R.D.F. The most important struggles which the R.D.F launched
independently were for the unconditional release of political prisoners from
2-8 2006,,against Salwa Judum in Chattisgarh from 19-25 January in 2006,forming
the Campaign committee for the release of political prisoners in April 2006,a
bandh call in Orrisa, Jharkhand and Bihar on 14th October 2006 against the
arrest of leader Sheela Devi, an all-India conference on March 23rd 2007
opposing displacement on Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom day. With other organizations
R.D.F. under the banner of CATAS launched a campaign from 10August to
November 10th against Salwa Judum in 14 states with a culmination
convention in Delhi on 9th and 10th November with a public rally
organized and a memorandum given .R.D.F. endorsed several anti-war fronts
and promoted a series of joint forums condemning the killing of Azad and opposing
Operation Greenhunt. Against Nandigram and Singur RDF joined a series of
Dharnas. It also sent civil liberties activities to visit places of State
repression. Sadly we could not witness the level of open struggles like the
erstwhile organizations like the All-India Peoples Resistance Forum.
The historic first conference of the Revolutionary
Democratic Front (RDF) went underway ton 22 April 2012 in the Sundarayya
Vignana Bhavan in Hyderabad with the hoisting of the RDF flag by Goru Madhav
Rao, the veteran fighter of the Srikakulam Armed peoples’ uprising and the
founding president of All India Peoples’ Resistance Forum (AIPRF). The red
flag was hoisted with slogans hailing the ongoing revolutionary movement and
condemning the Indian state’s repressive class violence in the form of
Operation Green Hunt and now Operation Haka and Operation Vijay. The martyr’s
column was unveiled by Mallamma, the mother of the martyred revolutionary
leader G. Shankar, also known as Sheshanna and Shamsher, state committee member
of the North Telangana Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC) of the CPI(Maoist).
Resistance songs were performed by members of Jharkhand Abhen, Praja Kala
Mandali and Revolutionary Cultural Front.
It is a tribute to their tenacity that they have defended
the struggles in Dandkaranya and Jharkhand and remained a fighting force. The
need of building broader independent revolutionary democratic forum to defend
the revolutionary rights of the masses is the need of the hour and the
formation of the Revolutionary Democratic front is an answer to this.
Above all a united democratic rights movement and strong
democratic rights organization is the need of the hour to thwart the repression
of the state on activists and movements. Without it we can never build a strong
revolutionary movement.
Long Live the Revolutionary
Democratic Front of India and condemn the attacks and arrests on its activists!
For more click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment