|
|
From 'Combat
Law' Magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 2, March -
April, 2008
A fact
finding team that visited Haldwani to meet a
jailed journalist was turned away by muscle
flexing state administration that swears to
stamp out Maoist threat from Uttarakhand despite
no evidence of its existence. Radhika Menon from
Forum for Democratic Initiatives, who was part
of the team, points to a sinister move by the
state government to rob the people of the little
freedom they may have while wooing the likes of
Tatas. She writes:
In Uttarakhand
today, what does it require for you to be locked
up in jail, in solitary confinement with an
armed constabulary guarding your every move and
watching and tracking those who visit you? You
don't need to be a liquor mafia leader, a real
estate dodger or a major bungler of
infrastructure funds. In fact, if you are any of
these you may even find a pride of place in the
ruling dispensation's services. But if you are
like Prashant Rahi, a journalist, a social
activist and a person who has voiced and stood
by the struggles of a neglected region and its
even further neglected people, the government
may dump you in jail with charges so serious and
in provisions so unfair that you would have to
prove your innocence to those who are determined
to prove you otherwise.
As for what has Rahi done, even the police may
not be very clear, nevertheless they were eager
to declare him a 'big catch' and booked him
under various sections of IPC including 121,
121A, 124A, 153B, 120B. Since 21st December, the
supposed date of his arrest from the Hasanpur
Khata forest, it was leaked to the state's
leading newspapers that he was an area commander
of Maoist Communist Centre and that he was also
the zonal secretary of CPI-Maoists and that he
was conspiring to blow up Haridwar jail and the
Haldwani sub jail. Laptops with addresses of
police stations and some CDs, a pen drive and
Maoist literature were supposed to be
accumulating as evidence of his crime. In the
meantime, with the media turning away from the
incompetence of the administration, the bungling
of funds, the crackdown on trade unions and
giving double page spread to the "seditious"
activities of a journalist, the government
heaved relief.
The self-styled security experts of Chief
Minister BC Khanduri bloated into a big
I-told-you-so. They declared after all
Uttrakhand does share porous border with Nepal
and there is easy movement of people between the
two countries and thus presumably also that of
Maoists of both countries. Here an incident from
Champawat district is tom-tommed, wherein
Nepalese Maoists were reported to have planted
red flags inside Indian territory. Local
persons, harassed by the combing operations in
the area have however publicly stated that the
red flags in Nanakmata forests were actually the
handiwork of a contractor to make logging easier
for his workers! But the police aided by a
similarly oriented government peddled the view
of increasing impact of Maoists in the area.
After all with a Prime Minister declaring that
left wing extremism is the biggest internal
security threat, state after state has been
declaring and demonstrating the presence of a
threat aided by sensational reporting and why
would Uttarakhand remain behind in this game of
me-more-threatened-than-you-are. Chief Minister
Khanduri took it as an opportunity to re-emphasise
the demand for Rs 208 crores from the central
government for bolstering the law and order
situation and the Maoist presence was presented
as the big reason. It was also leaked to the
newspapers that Rahi's interrogation revealed a
strong network of 25-30 intellectuals who
planned to disturb peace and law and order
situation in the State!
Khanduri has gained credence from the activities
of the earlier Congress government which had
allocated Rs 10 crore for this "threat" and
which had also constituted a special task force
with 30% more salaries than the regular police.
Yet till date the government has had little to
show in terms of Maoist activities apart from
the arrests of four persons including a young
journalist under Unlawful Activities Prevention
Act (ULAPA). No evidence could be garnered to
prove them as Maoists apart from the fact that
one of the persons was an illiterate worker
supposedly carrying a Maoist booklet, another
was accused of trying to burn a roof down and
yet another one was a young journalist.
As for Prashant Rahi, aaccording to Rahi's
daughter who works in the Hindi film industry as
an Assistant director, he was arrested on 17
December 2007 from the Dehardun- Rishikesh road,
tortured and then posed as a conspirator. Far
from a threat, Rahi's credential includes
working in close association with the local
people's struggles in Uttarakhand for the last
17 years. By birth a Maharashtrian, he had
pursued an MTech. from Banaras Hindu University
before switching to journalism and starting his
career with the Himachal Times, later moving on
to The Statesman.
Talking about people's issues as a journalist
does not indicate the dangerous criminal, that
the administration has been eager to prove him
as per the repeated declarations of the Sub
Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Haldwani, Pankaj
Pandey — even before the trial had started —
while preventing Forum for Democratic
Initiatives (FDI) Team from meeting Rahi in the
Haldwani jail. While in Haldwani Jail, Rahi was
not allowed to meet any human rights activists,
representatives of lawyers organisations or the
media.
The jail superintendent rejected requests to
meet Rahi after verifying the identity proof of
the FDI members, which included a Delhi
University teacher, a Nainital Bar Council
member and a well known High Court lawyer, a
journalist from Delhi and the general secretary
of the Srinagar Researchers association. The SDM,
who had the authority to grant permission to
meet prisoners held under ULAPA, first remained
elusive and when finally confronted declared
that the team could meet any prisoner they
liked, be it a murderer or a rapist but meeting
Rahi was impossible as per strict orders from
the police and "above". He suggested we should
get files opened in our names with the police so
that they could verify our activities before we
met Rahi!
Rahi's family subsequently got a court order
requesting that he be allowed to meet human
rights activist as his daughter, the only family
member, stays in Bombay. The administration now
has to oblige but he has been shifted to the
Dehradun jail for 'security reasons'. In the
meantime, those who were trying to visit him
were harassed in other ways. There are search
operations on and it was reported to the team
that the police were also going and harassing
the landlords of the local student sympathisers
of Rahi so that they would turn the boys out on
the streets.
The Chief Minister who has been confronted on
the Rahi matter by the media in press
conferences has gone on to say that he had
nothing to say on Maoism in the state but on
Rahi he adds, "It's a coincidence that he was a
journalist, but Rahi has been involved in
activities detrimental to the nation's
security." Now what is the basis for such
statements and why is the government so
desperate to prove dangerous Maoist presence in
the state? A share from the central budget for
combating Naxalism is one part. The other lies
in the developments within the state.
The condition of the Taru and Bauxa people of
the terai region has been distressing for
decades before statehood and also in the years
after statehood. In the Bindukhata region of the
1970s, the condition of the peasants was given a
voice and the form of a struggle by an ex-army
man, Bahadur Singh Jungi. The struggle to free
land beyond the ceiling act assumed massive
proportion and spread across the terai region.
The industrial development in the state has
confined itself to the packing industry and
large tracts of land have been captured by the
land mafia, in the name of industry, tourism and
real estate. Recently there has also been a
massive crackdown on trade unions. In the SIDCUL
area there is a witch hunting of union leaders,
AICCTU leader KK Bora was manhandled on the
streets and threatened with an encounter,
several workers have also been terminated from
services.
When the Tatas faced trouble in Singur in West
Bengal , Chief Minister Khanduri had offered
trouble free areas within Uttrakhand. His recipe
for easy areas for Tatas and other companies
includes restricting the labour rights of the
workers in these special zones, arresting union
leaders, and if required shooting the messenger
as in the case of Rahi. The consternation that
it has generated amongst the people and the
anxiety of the government to drum up Maoist
fears indicates that this is not the last we
have heard from the state.
-----------------------------------------------
Radhika Menon, the writer, is a social activist
-----------------------------------------------
click here for Shikha's
appeal in
'Combat Law'
click here for a story in
'The Sunday Indian' 6th April '08
issue
click here for a story in
'Tehelka' dtd. 22nd March'08
click here
for a story in DNA India, 27th May '08
|
