On 1st October, since 6 a.m. in the morning, around 11 mass movement activists, journalists, trade union activists and civil rights activists’ houses were raided in West Bengal by a joint operation conducted by the NIA, the Gestapo forces of the Brahminical Hindutva fascists RSS-BJP, and the fascist TMC government police’s Special Task Force »to contain Naxalism«. These raids were conducted on basis of the age-old excuse of »the suspicion of them being involved in the organizational work of CPI (Maoist)«.
They have confiscated books, mobile phones, pen-drive and computer hard-drive from RSF activist Comrade Suddha Satya Ray, film director and former member of RSF Abhinjan Sarkar, trade union activists Comrade Shipra Chakraborty, Comrade Sudipta Pal and Comrade Somnath Bera, journalist Prosenjit Chakraborty and all others including Bipasha Sarkar, Sushil Thakur, Jayanta Ghosh, Gour Majumdar, Siddheswar Biswas. Alongside this just to increase the harrassment, they have been summoned as witnesses to the Ranchi office of NIA instead of the NIA office that exists in Kolkata. It has turned out to be the norm of the “Viksit Bharat” that activists struggling for justice are branded as Maoists. State repression is brought down upon those who protest against the attempt to hand over the Jal Jangal Zameen of the country to the different Indian and Foreign big corporates.
All [those] who struggle against the genocide, rape, aerial bombings of the Adivasis, struggling against this ploy, and against the sustained attack on the workers, peasants, women, Dalit and minority community people of the country are branded as Maoists. National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval proudly claims that the civil society is the new »war front«. In the name of defeating Maoism, from the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case to the different raids in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and states across the country, is a manifestation of the Surajkund Action Plan taken by the Central Government to curb »Naxalite pen-wielders« along with gun-wielders. Home Minister Amit Shah has been conducting meetings across the country with administrative and security chiefs and proclaiming the death toll of Maoism.
Ironically, this goalpost constantly moves — what was initially said to be 2022 during the times of Bhima Koregaon, has now become 2026. Similarly, the state government of the fascist TMC are also enraged since these activists have been involved in protests against corruption, rape and genocide perpetrated by them from the very beginning of their regime. Most recently, the huge mass movement against the rape and murder of a PGT intern at RG Kar Medical College saw the participation of these activists. We know that various courts in the country have stated in various judgements that, it is not a crime under the law to believe in the ideology of Maoism or even to be a member of CPI (Maoist), unless the person is directly involved in acts of violence. However, various prominent social activists, lawyers, trade union activists and human rights activists are branded as »overground workers« of one specific banned Maoist organisation and are kept in jail without trial for years. Thus, the trial itself becomes punishment. We apprehend that in order to suppress the ever-expanding mass protests because of the increasing economic crisis in the country and the centre and the state’s anti-people policies, the centre’s NIA and the state’ STF are hatching a plot similar to the Bhima Koregaon case.
We, the undersigned organisations and individuals, strongly protest the raids conducted by the NIA and STF in the homes of 11 political activists in West Bengal to frame fake cases against them. We call upon all the progressive, democratic, and left forces and individuals to build mass resistance against this state repression brought down upon the political activists.
Signed by: —
Individuals:
- Prof. Saroj Giri, Delhi University
- Prof. Nandita Narain, Delhi University
- Prof. PK Vijayan, Delhi University
- Prof. Karen Gabriel, Delhi University
- K. Murali, Author
- N Venugopal, Editor, Veekshanam, Hyderabad
- Seema Azad, President, PUCL UP
- Deepak Dholakiya (Delhi), Indian Community Activists Network (ICAN)
- V. K. Singh, Trade Union activist & Author, Varanasi
- Sonmati Kumari, Advocate High Court Allahabad
- Dr Ashok Kumar Somal, Rtd IFS from Himachal Pradesh, Working with BJA and LRNA
- Himanshu Kumar, Civil Rights Activist
- Chaturanan Ojha, AIFRTE Uttar Pradesh
- Sharanya Nayak, IPLLK, Koraput
- Pradyuman Behera, Researcher, Mumbai
- Rajaraman, Student of Indigenous Movements
Organisations:
- AISA
- AIRSO
- COLLECTIVE
- CASR
- RSF, West Bengal
- CRPP, West Bengal
- DYSA, West Bengal
- PDSF, West Bengal
- Anushilan, West Bengal
- APDR, West Bengal
- ACRA, West Bengal
- SKM, West Bengal
- SSM, West Bengal
- RSA, Andhra Pradesh
- SFS, Punjab
- DSA, Kerala
- JMP, Kerala
- Porattom, Kerala
- SFPD, Karnataka
- BsCEM, Delhi
- Nazariya, Delhi
- PACHHAS, Delhi
- Mulnibasi Students & Youth front, Odisha
- Mulnibasi Literature Club, Odisha
- BSM, UP
- ICM, UP
- ILPS
- Ground Zero Network
- People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty
- RSYM, Bangladesh
- Chhatro Gonomoncho, Bangladesh
- PDSU, Bangladesh
- BSU, Bangladesh
- ABFSU, Myanmar
- ANSU, Nepal
- ANNISUR, Nepal
- FMN, Indonesia
- Tenda Merah Kolektif (Red Tent Collective), Indonesia
- Serve the People, Vietnam
- PSC, Pakistan
- YDG, Turkey
- YDK, Turkey
- Partizan, Turkey
- Federation of Socialist Assemblies (SMF), Turkey
- Socialist Youth Movement (SGH), Turkey
- Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), Turkey
- Partizan Martyrs and Prisoners Families (PŞTA) (Turkey)
- Marxist Students’ Collective, England
- Anti-Imperialist Front, Britain
- Portland Revolutionary Study Group, USA
- Oakland-Berkely Revolutionary Study Group, USA
- Material, USA
- Common Teachers Forum, Delhi
- Anti-Imperialist Action, Denmark
- Anti-imperialists – Helsinki, Finland
- People’s Dawn, Brazil
- People’s Student League, Brazil
- People’s Women’s Movement, Columbia
- Red League, Germany
- Red Mangue, Brazil
- Red Unity — Revolutionary Youth League, Brazil
- Revolutionary People’s Student Movement, Brazil
- Revolutionary Committee of Albacete, Spanish State
- Revolutionary Committee of Madrid, Spanish State
- Revolutionary Committee of Valencia, Spanish State
- Struggle Committee, Norway
- Student Movement Serve the People, Columbia
- Young Revolutionaries/League of Young Revolutionaries, France
- Anti-Imperialist Action, Ireland
- Communist Committee of the Netherlands
- Action for Democratic Rights of the People (ADRV), Austria
- Coordinating Committee of the Anti-Imperialist League
- Union of Migrant Workers in Europe (AGEB)
- Purple-Red Collective
- The Swiss Turkish Workers Federation (İTİF)
- Austrian Turkish Workers’ Youth Federation (ATIGF)
- Präriebrand, Sweden
- Material Journal
- Redspark Collective