by Vidya Bhushan Rawat
17 October, 2008
Countercurrents.org
Bharathi Sreedharan could not resist taking risk on her life through dense forest as her children suffered in hunger and starvation in the Chengara village which has been unconstitutionally and unethically blocked by the trade union gangs of all the political parties including the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala. Her agonizing face reflected the happenings inside the village as for more than two months; it is completely cut off from rest of the country. No outsider is allowed to venture into the village and no villager is allowed to come out of it. CPM's goons attack people from the buses once they recognize that they have sympathies with Chengara people. Many families are on the verge of hunger death if in the next few days no arrangement of food supply is done. 'They want us to get out of the place but we are determined, says Bharathi, we won't allow them to take over the place. We are ready to face any eventuality'. We are ready to die for the cause of our children'.
Bharathi came hiding to get some ration from her brother. When the road is blocked from all the way, it is possible only through walking around 10 kilometers in the forest to come and reach the office and wait for him to be there at Laha Gopalan's office who is the leader of ' Sadhu Jan Vimochana Samyukta Vedi', the organization fighting for the land and livelihood rights of the Dalits and Adivasis in Chengara. It is remarkable that people have united in this struggle and are determined to sacrifice their lives for the land. Interestingly, it is for the first time, that Kerala is witnessing an assertive emerging Dalit Adivasi struggle independent of the influence of dominating communities irrespective of religion.
Gopalan hails from a trade union back ground as he worked in Electricity department and now swears by the legacy of both Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Ayyankali, another Dalit revolutionary from Kerala. The semi constructed office in Pattthanamthittha is a place where all the Dalit-Advasis in the Chengara struggle come and stay. According to Laha Gopalan, they ventured into the area some fourteen months back, as it was legally a government land which should have gone to the landless Dalit-Adivasis of Kerala. The government of Kerala was never interested in the land reform and whatever happened in the name of land reform was eyewash. The tragedy is that there are villages where the Dalits do not have land for even cremating their people. The issue of Dalits and tribal has been neglected by the national and state level parties and hence we decided to make our own destiny.
About 10 kilometer away towards Tiruwala lives the big family of Sabu who are five brothers. Each brother has a big family of his own to support. They have no land. Sabu and his wife have small tea shop. The number of children in the family and the small kitchen that they have for their survival tell the story as how the successive Kerala governments failed to give land to the Dalits. ' Sabu was happy that Chengara's vast track could have provided him a source of independent living and some land for agriculture work. He went there with other families. The real assault came from the trade unions this year when people refused to leave their land. ' The union felt that they can coerce us to accept their issues but at the moment people are ready to die. They will commit mass suicide if police and other forces are sending to evict them. We are not ready to accept anything less than a decent land package for our children', say Sabu. He adds that situation is worsening as there is no food, no water and no sanitation in the entire area. Particularly, it is becoming difficult for children and elderly people to stay. Because of the blockade, we can not provide emergency treatment to any of the villagers as vehicles are not allowed and there is every chance of a bloody fight if we come in touch with the trade union people. Children are facing the malnutrition as there is nothing to eat and drink. We can not go to market to buy milk and rice. Moreover, because of no work in the past two months, there is no money to buy anything'.
How come he is here in the village. ' Sir, the union people allowed us 5 days leaves during the Onam festivities. We were allowed to move in and out and hence I came here. I have overstayed here and hence it is difficult to go there because of blockade'. I can not speak to my relatives and friends there, I am really worried as if food is not provided to people soon, they will start dying soon. I am concerned about children and elderly people. They are completely cut off from the rest of the world. It is shameful.'
The seize of Chengara went off well until one day the government which was keen to revive its lease to Harrison Plantation decided that the Dalit and Adivasis could only be evicted if they push it through other routs which is 'right to live' issue of the 70 odd plantation workers who were working there. The issue is the Chengara's tea plantation was already defunct years ago and hence to blame the current situation for the crisis is absolutely wrong. Harrison Plantation cannot use these 70 workers as a shield to deny land rights of the people. The tactics they adopted are fascistic in nature as from the August this year, the situation worsened after the plantation trade union and CPM in particular started blockade. Now the parties have not only used the local tea plantation trade unions but people have been invited from other parts of the state also against the landless people. All the ways going to Chengara were blocked by the party men and no material including medical aid was allowed to go into the village. Only allowance given to people was during ONAM festivities when the blockade was lifted for 5 days to let the people celebrate the festival. But after that the blockade has become functional and harsher and it might turn into a bloody war. Now the situation has gone out of hand. People inside the Chengara area have no source of livelihood; there is no supply of food and water. Some Muslim youth organizations of the area wanted to send rice for the families but but never allowed to do so. It is violation of their rights to food and free from hunger. The state government has shamelessly allowed the situation to go out of hand which has given strength to the trade unions.
It is unfortunate that in this war against their Dalits and tribal the organized gang of the trade union is taking action irrespective of ideology. It is a rare combination of how the upper caste communists and the Hindutva people can come together to wipe out the legitimate demands of the Dalits and tribals. The duplicity of the CPM's idea comes that the same party launch movement for restoration of land in Andhra Pradesh but want to say that all the Dalits and tribals who have now settled in Chengara are encroachers. Perhaps they have forgotten their own slogan of ' Jo jameen sarkari hai, woh jameen hamari hai ( the government land is our land. Land struggles historically invoked this slogan. Harrison Plantation Company did not have legal rights to the acquired land. The lease expired long back. The dalits and tribal who did not get benefited under any programme of the government rightfully acquired the land and asked the government to redistribute it to them. How come the communist government of Kerala kept quiet and turned hostile to Dalits who have just extended the slogan what the communist parties have been raising every where else except in the states they have been ruling. Is it because this land struggle is first of its kind being led by the Dalits and have organized both the Dalits and tribal together in the state.
Dalits have been asking the government to allot them land. In 2006 in the Patthanamthitta district after five days struggle in the government land of rubber plantation area, the land was given to the Dalits on the papers only. Many people are still trying to find where there land is which was given to them on papers by the state government. Says, Raghu, one of the members of the Solidarity Committee, 'we do not want papers, we want land'.
Patthanamthitta is a district about 60 kilometers from Kottayam, the heart of the Syrian Christian, the original brahmanical convert to Christianity. About 40 kilometer from the town is the heart of Ayappa, the Hindu God. The land relations here are different as the dominant community here is the upper caste Christians. What their role is in the entire struggle of the Dalits, I ask Raghu. ' Oh, like any other feudal, the Syrian Christians also are not interested in the battle of Dalits. Dalits here have separate churches for them.' The Solidarity Committee members like Simon John, who is also Chairman of Backward People Development Corporation, Kerala concede that the original Brahmin converts to Christianity have not left their old prejudices in the Church and therefore are not very keen in supporting the movement of the Dalits and tribal in Chengara. Like the CPM cadre, many of them too feel that the Dalits and tribal have 'encroached' the government land, though it is another matter that they all forgot that Harrison Plantation has been the biggest encroacher and was overstaying at the place. It is also shocking that Kerala did not have substantial land reform and all talks of a Kerala module in the developmental text books are big farce if one visit the rural areas of Kerala and speak to Dalits and tribals. A lot is written about Kerala model as a state. Recently a friend wrote to me from London about casteless, dowerless society in Kerala. Yes, I said, Kerala's caste prejudices are hidden underneath like West Bengal since the first thing the communist regime does is to stop the export of information to outside world. More importantly since a large number of writers and authors actually have been sympathetic to the CPM's policies with upper caste mindset, they do not really expose the Kerala myth. It was not just Bengal, Tatas have huge track of land in Kerala in the name of tea gardens and plantation. One should not forget that great Dalit revolutionary Ayyankali emerged in Kerala to fight for the rights of Dalits. It is not for nothing that both Patthanmthitta and Trivendram represent two different kind of dominations that Kerala has : the Christian domination and the Hindu domination. Both these upper elites interest are against the rights of the Dalits and other marginalized communities. They remain caged to their old prejudiced worldview.
Laha Gopalan is a determined man. He has seen the traumas of the Dalit communities in the villages where they do not even have land for funeral leave alone for education and houses. ' The political parties, both at the national and state level have betrayed the cause of the Dalits and tribal,' he says. ' We started our struggle when people failed to get land by any request. We found that there is no land to them and the government wanted to further the lease at the area which was being used by the Dalits and tribal. Our historic struggle started last year as 7000 people captured the area and started living there. One should have expected that the communist parties which have raised the slogans of ' jo jameen sarkari hai, wo jameen hamari hai, ( Government land is our land) today are strangely at the other end. There is no hope in the sight as the trade unions are determined to take law in their own hand and kill people with chief minister virtually becoming a 'Dhritrastra'.
Says Laha Gopalan, ' when we started our first struggle the government termed that they were genuine demands. In June 2006 about 5000 families were living in another plantation area when the revenue minister interfered and promised them land. Chief Minister Achutanandan promised about 1 acre land to each family of the landless but nothing happened. Since August 4, 2007, there are over 7000 families and the government has so far neglected their demand. The unions have surrounded the area and are beating people who are showing solidarity. The lives of the solidarity committee members are in deep threat in the area. They are being identified in the buses, taxis and even in the press conferences and targeted.'
' Even in the war zones people allow doctors and medical teams to visit the victims but here the goons of CPM and other trade unions have denied that too to the people,' says Simon John. They are not allowing the food supply in the village. There is a hunger and starvation situation prevailing in the 'samarbhoomi' and one person is already dead due to hunger. It is violation of people's right to life', add John. ' We are deeply disturbed at the turn of events as government and political parties led by the upper castes are not at all bothered about the growing marginalization of the communities says another activist in Patthanamthittha.
Is it not strange and ironical that CPM and other communist parties who have been in the forefront of agitation against any kind of exploitation in the organized sector do not find that the landless people in Chengara are struggling for a genuine cause? The party leaders termed the entire struggle as unwanted and felt that the local goons and land mafias have taken over the Chengara land struggle. Ofcourse, Party's anti Dalit stand is visible anywhere. One does not blame the top leadership of the party for being anti Dalit as it would be too much to blame but definitely party's local leaders are not really that radical Dalit supporters as they should have been. CPM for that matter is like any other political party ( we wanted it remained a different political party) whose cadres hail from dominant communities and serve their local interest as we have seen in West Bengal and how the party remained mute to the displacement of about 700 Valmiki families in Belilius Park in Howarah several years back. Today, party's proud MPs have made use of the entire space for private properties and shops. Ofcourse, the poor Balmikis never got support from any other Bhadralok parties in Bengal and living in Bengal in highly uncivilized and unacceptable conditions near the waste-mountains, on sewerage lines and on the railway tracks. Similar thing happen in Kerala where the Dalits and Adivasis of Chengara have not got support from any other political outfits. That gives strength to fascistic tendencies of the ruling party and their leaders. But the fact is this nationalism of the communist parties is more dangerous. Our problems with the Hindutva fascist is that we know that they are against the people but when the so called leaders of the proliterariat start behaving neo Hindutvavadis then situation need special remedial measures otherwise people's frustration would explode soon.
Chengara's land struggle is historical. It shows that people can not really depend on government dole out for land. Political parties in connivance with the defunct industrial houses are keeping people landless. New landlessness is on the rise. Courts are being used as an excuse to evict people. The marginalized have understood this and are ready to fight till end. If the government of Kerala think it is wrong, let it come out in open and say that they oppose people's movement for land right. The government cannot use trade unions and other goons to threaten people and evict them. Life in Chengara has become miserable and any further delay will turn Chengara into another Nandigram. The situation in Chengara would become more dangerous and bloody if the government does not behave responsibly. All national and international rights bodies should take care of this note that denying people free movement is denying them right to choice and livelihood. Kerala government has failed to protect Chengara's Dalits and Adivasis right to move free from one place and other. The inhuman blockade has created unprecedented situation where children and elderly people in Chengara are suffering. Any further delay would escalate the crisis and only government of Kerala would be held responsible for this. The government must act fast and negotiate with the struggling masses of Chengara. The trade union blockade is unconstitutional and illegal and must be removed immediately as it violate the fundamental rights of the people living there who are victim of the criminal silence of the government and civil society.
Showing posts with label Chengara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chengara. Show all posts
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
When Might is Right: A study of political action in J and K, Orissa and Kerala
We see today in different parts of the country the sight of rulers standing helplessly before organized forces. The Central and State government were reduced to the role of spectators when Muslim separatists ran amuck in Kashmir valley and Hindu communalists in Jammu province. Jammu and Kashmir is a State where an extraordinary situation has been prevailing since long. This limits the freedom of operation of the regime. This does not fully explain the failure of the authorities but it deserves consideration when we appraise the situation in the State.
Orissa does not resemble Jammu and Kashmir even remotely. The wave of violence set in motion by communal elements there following the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati has not subsided at the time of writing. Reports say thousands of Adivasis driven away from their villages are still hiding in the forests. The State government discouraged MPs who wanted to visit the trouble-hit areas, saying it cannot guarantee their security.
When we examine the Orissa developments, there are reasons to believe that the violence was pre-planned, as in the case of the anti-Muslim riots of Gujarat in 2002. Swami Lakshmanananda was engaged in wooing back to the Hindu fold tribesmen who had embraced Christianity. Earlier, too, there had been attempts to kill him. Although the authorities said suspected Naxalites committed the murder, the Sangh Parivar ignored it and turned against the Christians. Even after Naxalites owned up responsibility, the Parivar did not revise its position. It appears that just as the Godhra incident was used to carry out a plan prepared in advance in Gujarat, Swami Lakshmanananda’s killing was used as a pretext to put through a plot hatched against the Christians in Orissa’s tribal region.
The burning of Graham Staines, a foreign missionary, and his sons, aged seven and nine, in a vehicle by communal elements in Orissa nine years ago is an event we can only recall with a sense of shame even today. In the circumstances, the authorities must have foreseen the possibility of the situation in the tribal region getting out of hand. Yet they were not able to take effective steps to prevent violence. They could not also bring the situation quickly under control once violence broke out. It may not be quite correct to say that they are not able to keep the miscreants in check. The fact is that they are not able to work for it sincerely. The Biju Jana Dal chief minister, Navin Patnaik, is in office with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party. At the national level, the BJD is associated with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. All this renders the Patnaik regime inactive before the Sangh Parivar’s organized strength.
The Orissa violence must have aroused the most anger and anxiety in Kerala. After all, this is the home of the country’s largest Christian community. Priests and nuns deputed by different Churches in Kerala are actively engaged in social work there. There were reports that their institutions were burnt down and that many of them were hiding in the forests. This makes the Orissa events something more than a mere challenge to secularism from communal forces. It is a problem that directly affects us.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its affiliates are in the forefront in organizing protests against the Orissa events. This, no doubt, is in keeping with their proclaimed policies and traditional positions. But, then, all parties work with their political interests in view. The party, which has been publicly clashing with the leadership of some Churches, evidently sees the Orissa developments as an opportunity to improve its relationship with that religious group. The Christians being hounded in Orissa are mostly Adivasis. That the CPI (M) has never shown to the Adivasis of Kerala the kind of sympathy it is pouring out for the Adivasis of Orissa directly proves this. Here, the party has been with the hunters, not the hunted. The CPI (M) has not been behind anyone else in extending protection to migrants from the plains who encroached upon the tribal territory extensively with the cooperation of the political and bureaucratic leadership in the years since Independence.
The CPI (M) has also adopted a negative approach to the agitation by the landless, most of them Dalits and Adivasis, going on at Chengara estate for a year. The blockade, which the plantation workers’ unions, including the CITU, which is under the control of the party, began on August 3, is an attempt to bring a people to their heels by denying them food and medicine, as the Americans did in Iraq. Not only those who wanted to express solidarity with the agitating landless people but also government doctors who went to provide medical aid were denied access to the estate. There have been complaints that those who came out of the estate to buy food and other essential commodities were stopped and harassed. The police did nothing to check such acts. Instead, it provided total protection to those involved in such activities. P.V.Rajagopal, a well-known social worker and vice-chairman of a commission constituted under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister to study land reform, was also stopped when he went there to talk to the leaders of the agitation. A press photographer recorded that scene. In the picture, a police officer can be seen, standing like a scarecrow in a paddy field. That picture conveys the same message as the news reports from Kashmir, Jammu and Orissa: the regime stands paralysed before an organized force.
When leaders who remained silent as such scenes were enacted nearer home become eloquent about the Orissa violence, one must assume there are political considerations behind it, not human considerations. The organizers of the blockade had declared that they would march into the estate and drive out the agitators on Wednesday, exactly a month after the blockade began. In the light of the situation prevailing there during the past month, this declaration had aroused anxiety. Since the authorities woke up and acted promptly, the workers’ march passed off without any untoward incident. This shows Kerala society can still avoid lapsing into a situation where Might is Right. This is a development that kindles hope. The political and official leadership which foiled the ill-advised move of the labour unions through timely intervention deserves three cheers. The statement of the Leader of the Opposition, who has been silent all this while on the Chengara issue, at this stage that the police is indifferent, is, to put it mildly, strange.
The attack on the police station at Kottackal the other day and the blockading of teachers and officials by student and youth organizations at different places in the State are all activities based on use of force. The political parties that control these organizations must realize this and be ready to give them up. A consensus on such issues is needed more urgently than Special Economic Zones to ensure Kerala’s progress.
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated September 4
Orissa does not resemble Jammu and Kashmir even remotely. The wave of violence set in motion by communal elements there following the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati has not subsided at the time of writing. Reports say thousands of Adivasis driven away from their villages are still hiding in the forests. The State government discouraged MPs who wanted to visit the trouble-hit areas, saying it cannot guarantee their security.
When we examine the Orissa developments, there are reasons to believe that the violence was pre-planned, as in the case of the anti-Muslim riots of Gujarat in 2002. Swami Lakshmanananda was engaged in wooing back to the Hindu fold tribesmen who had embraced Christianity. Earlier, too, there had been attempts to kill him. Although the authorities said suspected Naxalites committed the murder, the Sangh Parivar ignored it and turned against the Christians. Even after Naxalites owned up responsibility, the Parivar did not revise its position. It appears that just as the Godhra incident was used to carry out a plan prepared in advance in Gujarat, Swami Lakshmanananda’s killing was used as a pretext to put through a plot hatched against the Christians in Orissa’s tribal region.
The burning of Graham Staines, a foreign missionary, and his sons, aged seven and nine, in a vehicle by communal elements in Orissa nine years ago is an event we can only recall with a sense of shame even today. In the circumstances, the authorities must have foreseen the possibility of the situation in the tribal region getting out of hand. Yet they were not able to take effective steps to prevent violence. They could not also bring the situation quickly under control once violence broke out. It may not be quite correct to say that they are not able to keep the miscreants in check. The fact is that they are not able to work for it sincerely. The Biju Jana Dal chief minister, Navin Patnaik, is in office with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party. At the national level, the BJD is associated with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. All this renders the Patnaik regime inactive before the Sangh Parivar’s organized strength.
The Orissa violence must have aroused the most anger and anxiety in Kerala. After all, this is the home of the country’s largest Christian community. Priests and nuns deputed by different Churches in Kerala are actively engaged in social work there. There were reports that their institutions were burnt down and that many of them were hiding in the forests. This makes the Orissa events something more than a mere challenge to secularism from communal forces. It is a problem that directly affects us.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its affiliates are in the forefront in organizing protests against the Orissa events. This, no doubt, is in keeping with their proclaimed policies and traditional positions. But, then, all parties work with their political interests in view. The party, which has been publicly clashing with the leadership of some Churches, evidently sees the Orissa developments as an opportunity to improve its relationship with that religious group. The Christians being hounded in Orissa are mostly Adivasis. That the CPI (M) has never shown to the Adivasis of Kerala the kind of sympathy it is pouring out for the Adivasis of Orissa directly proves this. Here, the party has been with the hunters, not the hunted. The CPI (M) has not been behind anyone else in extending protection to migrants from the plains who encroached upon the tribal territory extensively with the cooperation of the political and bureaucratic leadership in the years since Independence.
The CPI (M) has also adopted a negative approach to the agitation by the landless, most of them Dalits and Adivasis, going on at Chengara estate for a year. The blockade, which the plantation workers’ unions, including the CITU, which is under the control of the party, began on August 3, is an attempt to bring a people to their heels by denying them food and medicine, as the Americans did in Iraq. Not only those who wanted to express solidarity with the agitating landless people but also government doctors who went to provide medical aid were denied access to the estate. There have been complaints that those who came out of the estate to buy food and other essential commodities were stopped and harassed. The police did nothing to check such acts. Instead, it provided total protection to those involved in such activities. P.V.Rajagopal, a well-known social worker and vice-chairman of a commission constituted under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister to study land reform, was also stopped when he went there to talk to the leaders of the agitation. A press photographer recorded that scene. In the picture, a police officer can be seen, standing like a scarecrow in a paddy field. That picture conveys the same message as the news reports from Kashmir, Jammu and Orissa: the regime stands paralysed before an organized force.
When leaders who remained silent as such scenes were enacted nearer home become eloquent about the Orissa violence, one must assume there are political considerations behind it, not human considerations. The organizers of the blockade had declared that they would march into the estate and drive out the agitators on Wednesday, exactly a month after the blockade began. In the light of the situation prevailing there during the past month, this declaration had aroused anxiety. Since the authorities woke up and acted promptly, the workers’ march passed off without any untoward incident. This shows Kerala society can still avoid lapsing into a situation where Might is Right. This is a development that kindles hope. The political and official leadership which foiled the ill-advised move of the labour unions through timely intervention deserves three cheers. The statement of the Leader of the Opposition, who has been silent all this while on the Chengara issue, at this stage that the police is indifferent, is, to put it mildly, strange.
The attack on the police station at Kottackal the other day and the blockading of teachers and officials by student and youth organizations at different places in the State are all activities based on use of force. The political parties that control these organizations must realize this and be ready to give them up. A consensus on such issues is needed more urgently than Special Economic Zones to ensure Kerala’s progress.
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated September 4
Friday, August 15, 2008
Chengara: Independence Day thoughts
BLOCKED: The police blocking a group of Chengara-bound human rights activists near the Chengara junction on Thursday. Photo: The Hindu
Since August 3, some persons, said to be plantation workers, have been engaged in a blockade to force several thousand landless people, most of them Dalits and Adivasis, out of the Chengara estate in Pathanamthitta district, where they have been squatting for a year demanding farm land.
While the squatters have been peaceful, the workers involved in the blockade have been violent. They have forcibly prevented social activists from meeting the squatters and damaged their vehicles. They have also abducted women squatters who came out of the estate to fetch necessities.
The police, who are present in the area, are clearly in collusion with the workers, who are under the flags of different political parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which heads the government of Kerala. They have arrested and removed activists who wanted to assert their right to enter the estate and meet the squatters.
The blockade is inhuman. It denies the squatters, who include a large number of women and children, access to food and medicine. According to media reports, the unions are taking a tough stance and the situation is getting more complex. (See report in The Hindu.)
The government of Kerala held two rounds of talks on the issue. One meeting was called by the Chief Minister and the other by the Collector of Pathanamthitta. Clearly there can be no peaceful solution of the problem so long as the blockade, organised with the tacit approval of the CPI (M) and support of the government machinery, lasts. A small incident can lead to a repetition of Muthanga (where the Kerala police broke up a similar agitation using bullets, when the United Democratic Front was in power) or Nandigram (where the West Bengal police broke up a similar agitation in a joint operation with CPI-M cadres and goons).
Let us ask the CPI (M), which, as the ruling party, has a duty to act in a responsible manner, to call off the blockade and create conditions favourable to peaceful resolution of the problem. I have sent today a message to the Chief Minister, the Collector of Pathanamthitta, the General Secretary of the CPI (M) and the State Secretary of the CPI (M) in this regard. The text of the message and the e-mail addresses of the persons concerned are given below. I appeal to all those who are in agreement with these sentiments to write to them too.
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Mr.V.S.Achuthanandan, Chief Minister of Kerala (chiefminister@kerala.gov.in)
Mr. P.C.Sanalkumar, District Collector, Pathanamthitta (dcpta@kerala.nic.in)
Mr. Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPI-M (prakash@cpim.org)
Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, Secretary, CPI-M, Kerala (cpmkerala@asianetindia.com)
The blockade of Chengara estate by workers, with the tacit approval of the CPI (M) and connivance of officials, has created a serious situation.
I earnestly urge the CPI (M) and the State government to use their influence and put an immediate end to the inhuman blockade, which denies several thousand squatters access to food and medicine, and resume talks with them to find a peaceful solution to their problems.
B.R.P.Bhaskar
Silpam, NRA C-29,
Cheruvickal,
Sreekaryam,
Thiruvananthapuram 695017
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Thursday, August 14, 2008
Online petition on the issue of Chengara blockade
The following is a message circulated by Bobby Kunhu (http://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/)
Dear Friends
As most of you are aware, around 5000 families protesting in Chengara are facing violence and are completely cut off even from basic necessities like food and medicine by a bunch of goons with the connivance of the Government of Kerala.
There are several activities taking place on the ground to provide some relief to the protestors. In addition, we thought it is important to show solidarity in the form of a petition addressed to Constitutional authorities in this country, to put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice for the peaceful protestors.
Please do sign this petition and circulate it widely amongst your contacts.
The petition can be found at
http://www.petitiononline.com/chengara/petition.html
In solidarity
--
Bobby Kunhu
http://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/
Dear Friends
As most of you are aware, around 5000 families protesting in Chengara are facing violence and are completely cut off even from basic necessities like food and medicine by a bunch of goons with the connivance of the Government of Kerala.
There are several activities taking place on the ground to provide some relief to the protestors. In addition, we thought it is important to show solidarity in the form of a petition addressed to Constitutional authorities in this country, to put pressure on the Government of Kerala to act immediately and secure justice for the peaceful protestors.
Please do sign this petition and circulate it widely amongst your contacts.
The petition can be found at
http://www.petitiononline.com/chengara/petition.html
In solidarity
--
Bobby Kunhu
http://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/
Friday, August 8, 2008
Chengara: the problem and the solution
What happened at Chengara (in Pathanamthitta district) the other day is not something the regime and those who lead it can recall with pride. Thousands of landless people have been on an agitation there for a year demanding farm land. Three activists who went there to express solidarity with them on the first anniversary of the struggle were stopped by a group of men who claimed to be plantation workers. They also damaged their vehicles. All this happened in the presence and under the patronage of the police. At the request of the police, the organizers had to shift the venue of a public meeting, planned for the next day, at another location. Events of this kind are not new in Kerala. But the society needs to recognize factors which make the Chengara developments different.
The violence in Chengara was planned. Even the police does not say there was any provocation from the side of the agitators. What they have been carrying on for a year is a peaceful struggle of endurance. This is quite different from the agitations that the political parties organize. A parallel that one can point to is the agitation that the Adivasis staged at Muthanga under the leadership of CK Janu. After the attempt to discredit that agitation by alleging extremist presence failed, the government created provocation and used needless violence. AK Antony, who was Chief Minister at the time, sought to justify the use of brute force, saying the Centre had asked for eviction of Adivasis from the Muthanga sanctuary. At Chengara, too, the authorities alleged extremist presence. A plantation owner got an order from the High Court for the eviction of the agitators. But the court’s directive to avoid bloodshed came in the way of Muthanga-style solution.
Tapan Ganguly, who had come from Bengal, environmental activist CR Neelakantan and a priest and former college teacher Abraham Joseph were the victims of violence. From the eyewitness account given by Fr. Abraham Joseph at Thiruvananthapuram the next day, it appears the violence was perpetrated by a bunch of goons who were behind the plantation workers. The workers complain that the land agitation was adversely affecting them. But what happened there was not a mere protest demonstration. When workers who are under different party flags and the army of goons in the pay of the estate owners form a united front against landless Dalits and Adivasis, what emerges is a picture of the new class division taking place in Kerala. It is a phenomenon the genius of Marx could not comprehend.
It cannot be a coincidence that police arrangements there were at a low level and provided the assailants an opportunity to run riot. The only point on which there is room for doubt is the level at which the decision to keep the police presence at a low level was taken. According to the practice in democratic societies, it is the duty of the police to check those perpetrating violence and protect those engaged in peaceful activities. The very opposite happened at Chengara. There the police checked those who maintained peace and protected the perpetrators of violence. This indicates the direction in which police reform, of which we hear a lot these days, is moving.
The responsibility for the Chengara events cannot be laid on the shoulders of the small police force present there. The circumstances suggest that they were acting in accordance with the wishes of those who decided that limited police presence will do. Even if it was an official who took that decision, the responsibility has to be shared by Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. He is not known to have expressed displeasure over the police conduct. As such, it must be presumed that it has his approval. In the Communist Party of India (Marxist) dispensation, the party is above the individual. No minister, not even the Chief Minister, has the right to take a decision that does not have the party’s approval. In the circumstances, it will not be right to limit the responsibility to the minister. It extends to the party.
Most of those engaged in the agitation for land are Dalits and Adivasis. Some others are also at Chengara. What unites them all is landlessness. The government has a duty to solve this problem. A Left government has greater responsibility in this matter than any other regime since it was the Left that raised the slogan ‘Land for the Tiller’. It was the failure to make good this promise that led the Dalits and the Adivasis to the path of struggle.
The Dalits and Adivasis have traditionally stood with the Left. The party congress, held at Coimbatore, acknowledged that these sections were moving away from the CPI-M and decided on steps to bring them closer to the party. Following this, General Secretary Prakash Karat planned to lead a protest demonstration in a Tamil Nadu village, where a wall had been erected to segregate the Dalits. The government pulled down the wall even before he arrived. The party’s intervention thus yielded result. But the governments in Kerala and West Bengal have not taken any steps in the light of the party congress decision. The party leadership presumably believes that it can attract Dalit support nationally by projecting Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati as the Third Front’s prime ministerial candidate. But Mayawati’s elevation as Prime Minister will not solve Dalits’ problems just as Indira Gandhi’s elevation did not solve women’s problems. The party has to demonstrate its sincerity by solving the problems of Dalits and other weaker sections in Chengara and Nandigram.
Problems of this kind cannot be solved except through negotiations. The government had made some efforts to settle the Chengara agitation. At one point the Chief Minister had called the leaders of the agitation as well as elected representatives for talks but there was no progress. Later the District Collector had talks with the agitation leaders. As long as the CPI-M leadership maintains a negative approach towards the problems of the landless, talks by the government at whatever level are bound to fail. Winds of change must blow in the party.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated August 8, 2008
The violence in Chengara was planned. Even the police does not say there was any provocation from the side of the agitators. What they have been carrying on for a year is a peaceful struggle of endurance. This is quite different from the agitations that the political parties organize. A parallel that one can point to is the agitation that the Adivasis staged at Muthanga under the leadership of CK Janu. After the attempt to discredit that agitation by alleging extremist presence failed, the government created provocation and used needless violence. AK Antony, who was Chief Minister at the time, sought to justify the use of brute force, saying the Centre had asked for eviction of Adivasis from the Muthanga sanctuary. At Chengara, too, the authorities alleged extremist presence. A plantation owner got an order from the High Court for the eviction of the agitators. But the court’s directive to avoid bloodshed came in the way of Muthanga-style solution.
Tapan Ganguly, who had come from Bengal, environmental activist CR Neelakantan and a priest and former college teacher Abraham Joseph were the victims of violence. From the eyewitness account given by Fr. Abraham Joseph at Thiruvananthapuram the next day, it appears the violence was perpetrated by a bunch of goons who were behind the plantation workers. The workers complain that the land agitation was adversely affecting them. But what happened there was not a mere protest demonstration. When workers who are under different party flags and the army of goons in the pay of the estate owners form a united front against landless Dalits and Adivasis, what emerges is a picture of the new class division taking place in Kerala. It is a phenomenon the genius of Marx could not comprehend.
It cannot be a coincidence that police arrangements there were at a low level and provided the assailants an opportunity to run riot. The only point on which there is room for doubt is the level at which the decision to keep the police presence at a low level was taken. According to the practice in democratic societies, it is the duty of the police to check those perpetrating violence and protect those engaged in peaceful activities. The very opposite happened at Chengara. There the police checked those who maintained peace and protected the perpetrators of violence. This indicates the direction in which police reform, of which we hear a lot these days, is moving.
The responsibility for the Chengara events cannot be laid on the shoulders of the small police force present there. The circumstances suggest that they were acting in accordance with the wishes of those who decided that limited police presence will do. Even if it was an official who took that decision, the responsibility has to be shared by Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. He is not known to have expressed displeasure over the police conduct. As such, it must be presumed that it has his approval. In the Communist Party of India (Marxist) dispensation, the party is above the individual. No minister, not even the Chief Minister, has the right to take a decision that does not have the party’s approval. In the circumstances, it will not be right to limit the responsibility to the minister. It extends to the party.
Most of those engaged in the agitation for land are Dalits and Adivasis. Some others are also at Chengara. What unites them all is landlessness. The government has a duty to solve this problem. A Left government has greater responsibility in this matter than any other regime since it was the Left that raised the slogan ‘Land for the Tiller’. It was the failure to make good this promise that led the Dalits and the Adivasis to the path of struggle.
The Dalits and Adivasis have traditionally stood with the Left. The party congress, held at Coimbatore, acknowledged that these sections were moving away from the CPI-M and decided on steps to bring them closer to the party. Following this, General Secretary Prakash Karat planned to lead a protest demonstration in a Tamil Nadu village, where a wall had been erected to segregate the Dalits. The government pulled down the wall even before he arrived. The party’s intervention thus yielded result. But the governments in Kerala and West Bengal have not taken any steps in the light of the party congress decision. The party leadership presumably believes that it can attract Dalit support nationally by projecting Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati as the Third Front’s prime ministerial candidate. But Mayawati’s elevation as Prime Minister will not solve Dalits’ problems just as Indira Gandhi’s elevation did not solve women’s problems. The party has to demonstrate its sincerity by solving the problems of Dalits and other weaker sections in Chengara and Nandigram.
Problems of this kind cannot be solved except through negotiations. The government had made some efforts to settle the Chengara agitation. At one point the Chief Minister had called the leaders of the agitation as well as elected representatives for talks but there was no progress. Later the District Collector had talks with the agitation leaders. As long as the CPI-M leadership maintains a negative approach towards the problems of the landless, talks by the government at whatever level are bound to fail. Winds of change must blow in the party.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated August 8, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Where do we go from Chengara?
The Left Democratic Front government took seven months to realize that landless Adivasis and Dalits agitating for land deserve to be called for talks. After a date was set for talks, the Front erected a hurdle in the way of peaceful resolution by denouncing the agitation. This is quite enough to determine how Left and how democratic the Left Democratic Front is.
When the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktavedi (the name translates as united front for liberation of poor people) started the agitation there were a few thousand Adivasis and Dalits, including women and children, at the Harrison Malayalam estate at Chengara. Their fighting spirit attracted more landless to the place. Some 20,000 people are said to be in the arena now. What started as a Dalit-Adivasi agitation has now become a wider struggle of the landless.
Some have quit the battlefront. Among them is Thattayil Saraswati who resigned as general secretary following differences with Samyuktavedi president Laha Gopalan. It is not known whether outside forces played any part in the split. After all, the ‘divide and rule’ principle was used by the ruling elite here long before the whites arrived. They still use it. Without realizing it, the ruled get enslaved.
Kerala has witnessed many land agitations in the past 50 years. There were some led by the Communists. There were some led by forest encroachers to escape eviction. The CPI (M)’s support to one such made it a permanent protector of encroachers. The Adivasi agitations led by C. K. Janu were a different experience. They were waged without the support of any political party or caste of religious group.
Following Janu’s squatting stir in Thiruvananthapuram, Chief Minister A.K. Antony promised to grant land to all landless Adivasis. That promise was not kept. Antony sent the police to suppress the agitation at Muthanga to secure the land they were promised. The Chengara agitation also is for fulfilment of that promise. To that extent, it is a continuation of Muthanga. But it claims a longer lineage: that of the struggles B. R. Ambedkar and Ayyankali.
The state of the landless camping at Chengara exposes the superficial nature of the romantic revolution spread through popular drama songs. At the time of Janu’s agitation, Dalit writer Chandrabhan Prasad, quoting 1991 Census figures, pointed out that landlessness among farm workers in Kerala, where there had been land reform, was more than in Uttar Pradesh. These are the figures:
Landlessless farm workers (percentage)
Kerala UP India
Scheduled Castes 53.79 38.76 49.06
Scheduled Tribes 55.47 .. .. 32.99
Others 20.78 13.03 19.66
(UP’s ST population is only 0.1% of the total. Hence its omission)
Despite the pathetic state of the depressed classes, the fronts that have been alternating in power have never evinced as much interest in distributing land among them as they have shown in trying to legitimize forest encroachments.
In the beginning the Chengara agitators had to contend only with local hostility from the owners and workers of the estate. The owners approached the High Court complaining that the agitators have trespassed on the estate. The court orders that the trespassers be evicted. At the same time it said bloodshed must be avoided.
Recently the attitude of the CPI (M) underwent a major change. The party’s State leadership came forward to assume leadership of the campaign against the agitation. They alleged that the agitators have encroached upon private property, that there are landowners among them etc. Even if there is truth in these allegations, it does not take away the legitimacy of the landless people’s agitation for land.
The court’s order to avoid bloodshed precludes the possibility of the government re-enacting Muthanga or the party re-enacting Nandigram. But the door for discussions remains open before the government. Only it must approach the problems with sincerity. If there are landowners among the agitators the government can identify and exclude them.
Instead of choosing the path of prudence, the leadership deployed the media to vilify the agitators and those supporting them. Deshabhimani started playing the old tune about CIA funding. Kairali TV tried a new number with a hidden camera. The dirty tricks department at AKG Centre is working overtime to break the agitation.
It is difficult to believe that this is an idea that originated in Pinarayi Vijayan’s mind. Such ideas can germinate only in minds laden with remnants of feudalism. Borrowing words which Pinarayi Vijayan recently used, one may say someone whispered the idea into his ears. Such devious tactics can only help widen the distance between the party and the depressed sections.
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated March 20, 2008
When the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktavedi (the name translates as united front for liberation of poor people) started the agitation there were a few thousand Adivasis and Dalits, including women and children, at the Harrison Malayalam estate at Chengara. Their fighting spirit attracted more landless to the place. Some 20,000 people are said to be in the arena now. What started as a Dalit-Adivasi agitation has now become a wider struggle of the landless.
Some have quit the battlefront. Among them is Thattayil Saraswati who resigned as general secretary following differences with Samyuktavedi president Laha Gopalan. It is not known whether outside forces played any part in the split. After all, the ‘divide and rule’ principle was used by the ruling elite here long before the whites arrived. They still use it. Without realizing it, the ruled get enslaved.
Kerala has witnessed many land agitations in the past 50 years. There were some led by the Communists. There were some led by forest encroachers to escape eviction. The CPI (M)’s support to one such made it a permanent protector of encroachers. The Adivasi agitations led by C. K. Janu were a different experience. They were waged without the support of any political party or caste of religious group.
Following Janu’s squatting stir in Thiruvananthapuram, Chief Minister A.K. Antony promised to grant land to all landless Adivasis. That promise was not kept. Antony sent the police to suppress the agitation at Muthanga to secure the land they were promised. The Chengara agitation also is for fulfilment of that promise. To that extent, it is a continuation of Muthanga. But it claims a longer lineage: that of the struggles B. R. Ambedkar and Ayyankali.
The state of the landless camping at Chengara exposes the superficial nature of the romantic revolution spread through popular drama songs. At the time of Janu’s agitation, Dalit writer Chandrabhan Prasad, quoting 1991 Census figures, pointed out that landlessness among farm workers in Kerala, where there had been land reform, was more than in Uttar Pradesh. These are the figures:
Landlessless farm workers (percentage)
Kerala UP India
Scheduled Castes 53.79 38.76 49.06
Scheduled Tribes 55.47 .. .. 32.99
Others 20.78 13.03 19.66
(UP’s ST population is only 0.1% of the total. Hence its omission)
Despite the pathetic state of the depressed classes, the fronts that have been alternating in power have never evinced as much interest in distributing land among them as they have shown in trying to legitimize forest encroachments.
In the beginning the Chengara agitators had to contend only with local hostility from the owners and workers of the estate. The owners approached the High Court complaining that the agitators have trespassed on the estate. The court orders that the trespassers be evicted. At the same time it said bloodshed must be avoided.
Recently the attitude of the CPI (M) underwent a major change. The party’s State leadership came forward to assume leadership of the campaign against the agitation. They alleged that the agitators have encroached upon private property, that there are landowners among them etc. Even if there is truth in these allegations, it does not take away the legitimacy of the landless people’s agitation for land.
The court’s order to avoid bloodshed precludes the possibility of the government re-enacting Muthanga or the party re-enacting Nandigram. But the door for discussions remains open before the government. Only it must approach the problems with sincerity. If there are landowners among the agitators the government can identify and exclude them.
Instead of choosing the path of prudence, the leadership deployed the media to vilify the agitators and those supporting them. Deshabhimani started playing the old tune about CIA funding. Kairali TV tried a new number with a hidden camera. The dirty tricks department at AKG Centre is working overtime to break the agitation.
It is difficult to believe that this is an idea that originated in Pinarayi Vijayan’s mind. Such ideas can germinate only in minds laden with remnants of feudalism. Borrowing words which Pinarayi Vijayan recently used, one may say someone whispered the idea into his ears. Such devious tactics can only help widen the distance between the party and the depressed sections.
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated March 20, 2008
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