Injustice is LAAL

The peaceful struggle of the poor people of Lalgarh retells a history of abysmal poverty and pain, total absence of good governance, and the corrupt regime of armed CPM goons
Aritra Bhattacharya Lalgarh

Sixty-five-year old Netai Hansda had to raise his voice above that of the others at the tea stall at Boropelia Chowk in Lalgarh to make himself audible on the tense evening of June 14. "If a child does not cry, will the mother ever give him milk?" he had asked, justifying the eight-month-long police boycott in Lalgarh. The locals, mostly tribals, thereby hoped that the police boycott would bring the administration to their doorstep, and that would help solve problems.

However, events since June 16 - the Maoists' playing out their control of the Lalgarh movement in front of the media and the state government's decision to send in paramilitary forces to "flush them out" - have left little chance of an amicable solution. The police action goes against the very basis of the hitherto peaceful, democratic people's movement in Lalgarh; it reflects yet again complete lack of faith in the police machinery.

This is because of the origin of this mass movement. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's convoy was attacked by a landmine on November 2, 2002, reportedly by the Maoists. He was returning after inaugurating the Bengal steel project of Jindal Steel Works at Salboni. Subsequently, the police went berserk, as if the people of Lalgarh were responsible for the attack.

In continuous raids during night and day, they brutalised the people, arresting people at random, dragging out women and girls and beating the hell out of them, not sparing children or old people, hounding young men, smashing houses and their meagre belongings. This relentless assault by the police, actively backed and sustained by local CPM men and the party leadership in Kolkata, went on, completely destroying the social fabric of the area. This was State terror at its peak. Until the people said they will not take it anymore. "The administration never came here to check the abysmal state of deprivation and lack of basic facilities in Lalgarh and the adjoining villages. And when they come, they only bring terror, tragedy and grave injustice," said a young Santhali woman. "We are not Maoists. But for how long are we supposed to tolerate this?"

They organised themselves with the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) spearheading the movement, and decided to oppose police atrocities at any cost. They dug up roads; women came out with bows and arrows; they made barricades; and they said they will not allow the police the advance of the forces in every possible way. That is the legacy of the police boycott, and that is how all opposition political parties including the Congress and Trinamool Congress joined the struggle.

That is why branding the entire peaceful movement in Lalgarh as Maoist is a misnomer. The Maoists are a factor, as they move in to and fro from the forests of Jharkhand close by, but the movement has larger connotations and support base. Sending in paramilitary forces will not take away the mass support. It will only consolidate the deep-rooted hatred against the authoritarian and corrupt rule of the local CPM bosses, and its government in Kolkata.

Predictably, in 'Operation Lalgarh' currently on, the police did what it does best. It has not killed men or raped women as yet (at the time of going to press) as it did during the Nandigram massacre along with CPM cadre, but it has reportedly stripped women and girls, pointed lathis at their private parts, used the most vile of language, beaten and brutalised innocent men, and smashed shopkeepers and their shops who refused to entertain them. Is civil, peaceful boycott of the police a crime? Is it not yet another form of satyagraha?