BY EVA CHENG
In the face of rising police violence backed by the Hindu fundamentalist-dominated state government in Jharkhand, India's newest state which came into existence only in November, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) led a peaceful demonstration on March 1 in the state capital of Ranchi.
Consistent with their notorious reputation, the police, unprovoked, brutally baton-charged the protesters, injuring more than 100 of them, and arrested 41. Among those arrested was CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya.
A usual practice in India has been to release the arrested after the protest action is over, but not in this case. For several days Bhattacharya and others were denied bail and kept at the Ranchi Central Jail.
Outraged by this gross violation of the freedom of expression and fearing further escalation of the clampdown, the CPI(ML) issued an appeal on March 4 for international support. "This act on the part of Jharkhand police and State adminstration is a blatant violation of norms in a parliamentary democracy... Beyond doubt this is a case of deliberate political vengeance to detain a general secretary of an all-India political party like CPI(ML) by framing false non-bailable Â鶹´«Ã½ on him", the appeal says.
Describing the move as a political vendetta, the appeal continues: "This may be the beginning of the new phase of undemocratic repressive methods to silence political parties expressing the discontent of the common people."
In solidarity with the Indian struggle, the Democratic Socialist Party in Australia on March 7 sent a protest letter to the president of India and the state government of Jharkhand, demanding the release of Bhattacharya and the others.
The 24-party National Democratic Alliance, led by the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party, runs the central government as well as (since November) the Jharkhand state government. It lost no time in introducing into Jharkhand the Hindu fundamentalist terror that it has been instigating in other parts of India, which has included assaults on Christian churches and schools as well as on Muslim communities.
To condemn such violence, the CPI(ML) held a 8000-strong rally on November 9 in the Giridih district of Jharkhand and on November 30 a massive rally in Ranchi, reportedly the biggest in the city's history. A call for a bandh (general strike) on December 6 met with overwhelming support.