India: Attack on Umar Khalid Is A Consequence of Incitement By The Modi Government

The attack on Umar Khalid is a consequence of the relentless campaign of fake news, hate speech and incitement to murderous violence, directed by the Modi Government and the Godi Media against students, academics, activists, dissenters and journalists.
Umar Khalid, who has just submitted his PhD in JNU, is an activist who along with other JNU students was cast in the role of the ‘anti-national’ by Godi Media channels after 9 February 2016. Zee News ran videos which have subsequently been proven as fake, claiming he and other JNU students raised ‘anti-India’ slogans. While other students too faced such targeting, Umar was especially viciously singled out for Islamophobic slander by the hate-mongers as a Muslim. News X ran a story claiming Umar was a “Jaish-e-Mohammed sympathizer” – videos with anchors of this channel spreading this poisonous slander can still be found online. None less than the Home Minister of India, Rajnath Singh, declared on the strength of a parody account that JNU students like Umar were backed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. A prominent anchor of the India Today channel also cited the same parody account as proof of LeT “backing” for JNU students.
In the two years since February 2016, channels like Times Now and Republic have targeted JNU students as well as Left and democratic activists countless times as “Tukde Tukde Gang” (based on the fake video claiming to show JNU students raising slogans calling for the dismemberment of India). The Republic channel has even referred to a Politburo member of the CPI(ML) and AIPWA leader as a ‘lawyer for the Lashkar-e-Taiba’.
The JNU Administration recently sought to punish JNU students including Umar Khalid for “anti-national” activities on 9 February 2016 in JNU– sparking another round of vicious and gleeful gloating by the Godi Media channels. The Delhi High Court reprimanded the JNU Administration and prevented any JNU student from being punished. In Court, it was shown that even a Magisterial Enquiry into the incident failed to show any evidence of guilt of any JNU student, and that the Delhi Police, for want of any evidence, has failed to file a chargesheet against any of the JNU students in the past two years.
Khalid has earlier too complained of threats to his life. It is this climate of relentless hate-speech and fake news that has resulted in the shocking incident where a gunman could attack Umar Khalid in broad daylight in front of Delhi’s Constitution Club, and make his escape unhindered in spite of the “tight security cover” and “terror alert” in Delhi just days before Independence Day!
Expectedly, the BJP’s New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, while paying lip service to the cause of justice and saying the perpetrators would be identified and punished, has indulged in victim blaming, claiming the attack on Umar is “sensationalism” and “drama”. Meanwhile, the BJP IT Cell army on social media are claiming the incident was ‘staged’ while also celebrating the attack and calling for Umar and others like him to be killed. In the same way, the BJP IT Cell Twitter handles backed by the PM and Cabinet Ministers celebrated the assassination of Gauri Lankesh.
It must be remembered that just days ago, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) busted a terror cell of the Sanatan Sanstha – a shadowy terrorist organization implicated in bomb blasts and several assassinations – of rationalist Dabholkar, communist writer Pansare, Professor Kalburgi, and journalist Gauri Lankesh. The ATS discovered bombs and explosives and arrested three Sanatan Sanstha men on charges of planning a series of terror attacks all over Maharashtra. One of these men is also linked to the Shri Shivpratisthan Hindustan, an outfit led by Sambhaji Bhide, one of the key architects of anti-Dalit violence following the Bhima Koregaon events.
Narendra Modi, in June 2013, sent a message to the All India Hindu Convention hosted by the Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti in Goa, in which he described these terrorist organisations as inspired by “nationalism, patriotism and the tradition of loyalty.” He did so because in the eyes of his organisation the RSS and his party BJP, Sanghi terrorists are ‘nationalists’ because the only nation they recognize is the Hindu Rashtra. The RSS and BJP support terrorists who seek to finish the incomplete task of Partition and turn India into a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ in which Muslims will no longer be equal citizens. Modi has also publicly greeted Sambhaji Bhide as his guru and mentor during the 2014 campaign for the Parliamentary elections.
Media in India failed to demand that the Modi Government comment on such terrorism by ideological allies and friends of the Prime Minister himself. The TV channels which brand JNU students and Left activists as ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ fail to utter a word on the Sanghi terror outfits that are actually out to partition and divide India once again. The same media and the Modi Government are also silent when anti-reservation outfits openly burn the Constitution of India in the national capital as well as Pune. No doubt, their silence is on account of the fact that the RSS and BJP would like to replace the Constitution drafted by Ambedkar, with the Manusmriti that Ambedkar burnt. This is why those Manuvadis who burn the Constitution and raise slogans abusing Dalits and Ambedkar in casteist terms, are not accused of seeking to dismember India!
Acts like the burning of the Constitution at Parliament Street and the attempt to murder Umar Khalid outside Constitution Club days before Independence Day are not the work of ‘fringe groups’ – they are clear messages by India’s fascists that democracy and the Constitution are in their firing line. For India’s people, there can be no greater or more urgent task, no better way of paying tribute to the great legacy of the anti-colonial freedom struggle, than defeating these fascist forces who betrayed the freedom struggle and seek to divide and rule India today.
Jail Varo 9 August, Bihar
Lakhs of farmers came out on the streets to make a resounding success of the Jail Bharo Andolan on 9 August 2018 against the imperialist and pro-corporate Modi government, a fitting way to remember the anti-imperialist Quit India movement against British rule. The All India Kisan Mahasabha had called for the Jail Bharo Movement against anti-farmer policies of the Modi Government.

AIKM ORISSA

Farmers expressed their willingness to get rid of the current regime which continues to exploit the farmers in order to fill coffers of the rich and wealthy, under the call of the Kisan Mahasabha and organized organized effective programmes in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Odisha, Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and other States.

AIKM Maharastra

Farmers affiliated to other peasants’ organisations which are part of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee also came out and in more than 450 Districts across the country they voiced their long pending unfulfilled demands again.
In Bihar thousands of farmers, majority of them sharecroppers, courted arrest and sent memorandums to the President and Prime Minister through District and Zonal Officers with the following demands: complete loan waivers for all farmers including sharecroppers; profitable price for crops as per the Swaminathan Commission; stop evicting the poor without first making alternative arrangements; repair defunct tube wells; adequate irrigation arrangements; end farmers’ suicides; guarantee crop protection against stray cattle and animals; release of dalits and poor thrown into jail under the liquor ban; ending eviction of the poor and guaranteeing land for the landless. Lakhs of farmers at various places including Masaurhi and Paliganj in Patna Rural, Bhojpur, Rohtas, Bhabhua, Darbhanga, Daudnagar, Hajipur, Purnea, Beguserai, Bhagalpur, Jehanabad, Arwal, Siwan, Motihari, Betiya, Samastipur, Jamui, Nalanda, Hilsa came out in Jail Bharo Movement and courted arrest. AIKM General Secretary Rajaram Singh said that the Modi government has betrayed the farmers by ignoring their demands for loan waiver and 1.5 times crop price. He warned that if the government continues to disregard the farmers’ demand an even bigger agitation would be organized.

AIKM Haryana

Farmers courted arrest at Karnal in Haryana. Addressing the protest, National Vice President Com. Prem Singh Gehawat said that the government is bent on handing over agriculture to multinational companies and is ignoring the farmers’ demands for loan waivers and minimum support price. He said that farming would always remain a loss-making venture unless cost of land, rent and domestic labour are not included in the calculation of crop price outlay. Kisan Mahasabha activists held a rally and a meeting and burnt the effigy of the government making a 9-point charter of demands: complete loan waivers; minimum support price; increase in MNREGA budget; lift ban on cattle trade; land for the landless, unemployment allowance and old age pension; stop oppression of dalits, women and Christians. Farmers in large numbers attended the protest from Karnal, Sonepat, Yamunanagar, Agaund and other places.

AIKM Punab

Hundreds of Kisan Mahasabha activists courted arrest in Mansa, Sangrur, Barnala, Bhatinda, Faridkot, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana in Punjab. They were arrested by the police and released after a while. The programmes were jointly organized by AIKM and its constituent member Punjab Kisan Union Ekta. A farmers’ convention was also organized in Ludhiana.
Protests were organized across Jharkhand. At Bagodar CPI(ML) and Kisan Mahasabha activists held a march from Kisan Bhawan through the entire Bazaar and JT Road crossing for hours. Speakers addressing the protest also raised demands of proper compensation to farmers by the GAIL Gas Pipe Line Company, and strict action against the guilty in the Muzaffarpur and Deoria Shelter Homes sexual violence. All the activists were arrested and taken to Bagodar Thana from where they were released after due process.

AIKM JHARKHAND

At Garhwa hundreds held a march from Indira Gandhi Park to the Collectorate, raising slogans on the issues of loan waivers, arrears payment to farmers, free seeds for alternative farming, withdrawal of Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, and implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations. District Secretary Com. Kalicharan Mehta said that the farmer who feeds the country is forced to commit suicide but the government is peddling a blatant lie that farmers’ income has doubled. He said that the people of Jharkhand would strongly oppose the BJP government’s move to snatch land from farmers in Godda and hand it over to the Adani group. Com. Virendra Chaudhury said that the government had targeted sowing of paddy crops in 54,000 hectares of land but not even 20% has been achieved. A 10 point memorandum was sent to the Prime Minister. They also raised the issue of construction of check dams on Sukhda canal in Vishnupura and Bandarchuan canal at Sigsiga in Chiniya Block; construction of canal from Annaraj dam to Dumro in Narayanpur via Obra and Veerbandha; enquiry into the faulty repair works at the Panghatwa dam canal; guarantee of 20 hours electricity at affordable rates; lift ban on cattle trade; end mob lynching; stop slapping false cases in the name of smuggling and guarantee of crop purchase at the price as per the Swaminathan Commission recommendations. Thousands responded to the call in Koderma, Ramgarh, Giridih, Sariya, Birli, Rajdhanwar, Guma, Teesri, Jamua, Garhwa, Barkatta, Dhuri, Jhumri, and Palamu.

AIKM WB

In Andhra Pradesh, the call was observed in Guntur, East Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Kadapa, Anantapur and other districts. Thousands were arrested in Kakinada, Tenali, Mangalageri and several other places. In West Bengal, farmers courted arrest in Siliguri, Bankura, Kalna-Bardhaman, Chuchura in Hooghly, Krishnanagar-Nadiya, Barasaat in North 24 Pargana, Howrah, South 24 Pargana, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur. In Siliguri joint programmes were organized by AIKM and the tea estate workers.

Andhra

In Tripura, protests were held in Koyala town, Dahram Nagar, Agartala, Gomti and other places.
In Rajasthan, AIKM and CPI(ML) organized protests and courted arrest in Jhunjhunu, Buhana, Khetri, Salumbar, and Pratapgarh. In Udaipur the demonstration organized by the CPI(ML) was attacked by the lumpens associated to the ruling BJP. Several protestors were physically injured.

AIKM UP

In Uttar Pradesh, thousands of farmers participated in the Jail Bharo programme in Chandauli, Mirzapur, Lakhimpur Kheeri, Devariya, Baliya, Sitapur, Mau, Rai Bareilly, Mathura, Sonbhadra, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, Gazipur and other places.
In Assam, Uttarakhand and Odisha too, the call saw a huge participation by farmers at several places. In Maharashtra, hundreds of farmers marching under the banner of AIKM came out on streets in Ahmed Nagar and Sakuri.
The role of the left forces in organizing and providing direction to the farmers’ movement in the country was demonstrated through the massive response to the programme. The programme further showed that there was a tremendous need to join hands with fighting farmer organizations and launch joint initiatives for strengthening the farmers’ movements.

AIKM ASSAM
Banaras
With the exposure of the Deoria Girls’ Shelter Home sexual violence story on similar lines to that in the Muzaffarpur Shelter home in Bihar, the CPI(ML) demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and called for statewide protests on 8 August 2018. Earlier, on the day following the breaking of the story in newspapers, the AIPWA District unit at Deoria held protests and burnt the CM’s effigy on 7 August. On 8 August a march was held in Lucknow from Lalkuan to the Hussainganj Chowk where the CM’s effigy was burnt. On the same day a protest march was again held at Deoria starting from the AIPWA office and culminating at the District HQ where a memorandum addressed to the Governer was submitted.
Through these protests demands were made for the resignation of the Yogi government, a CBI enquiry into the matter monitored by the High Court, the missing girls to be produced, and strict action against and punishment for the guilty.
Protest marches, meetings and effigy burnings were also organized at Varanasi and Mau where effigies were burnt and resignations of CM Adityanath and women welfare minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi were demanded. In Ghazipur District protests were organized at Jamania, Bhadora and Khanpur and memorandums were submitted to the District Magistrate. A protest was held at Mirzapur. The CPI(ML), AIPWA and RYA protested jointly at Sakaldiha and Chahaniya in Chandauli District. Protests were also organized at Raebareli, Lakhimpur Kheeri, Urai in Jalaun, Mathura, Kanpur and Allahabad.
Meanwhile, a CPI(ML) comprised of State Committee members Om Prakash Singh and Shriram Chaudhary along with local comrades visited that shelter home in Deoria which has been sealed now. Local people told them that persons in luxury vehicles (maybe officials or political leaders) used to frequent the place in the evenings. The girls have been sent to the Shelter Home in Varanasi by the administration.
The martyrdom day of CPI(ML) Founder General Secretary Comrade Charu Mazumdar was observed on 28 July 2018.
In Bihar party activists paid tribute to Charu Mazumdar at the State Party office in capital Patna as well as other places. Com. Ramjatan Sharma said that Charu Mazumdar was a visionary who brought together farmers, workers, students and youth for the cause of revolution, breaking the indifference towards social change and laying the foundations of political and social change. Comrade Kunal said that the ruling classes including the Congress thought to crush revolutionary Communist ideology with the killing of Charu Mazumdar but they did not succeed. Today the Communist and Left ideology is the strongest weapon against the dark fascist forces who are ruling the country.
In Darbhanga a District level activists’ convention was organized during which preparations for the huge rally on 27 September under the ‘Oust BJP Save Democracy’ campaign were discussed. Responsibilities were also fixed for the success of the Jail Bharo Movement to be held on 9 August during which the following issues would be raised: complete loan waivers for farmers. Speaking on the occasion Dhirendra Jha strongly condemned the sexual violence and rapes perpetrated in the Shelter Homes at Muzaffarpur and other places and said even after the resignation of minister Manju Verma under the pressure of the movement, the state government is explicitly involved in protecting the culprits. He demanded that another minister Suresh Sharma, close to the accused Brajesh Thakur, must also resign if the CBI enquiry is to be free and fair. The convention was attended by hundreds of activists.
The CPI(ML) and Jan Sanskriti Manch observed the 46th anniversary of Charu Mazumdar’s martyrdom as Sankalp Diwas at the Lenin Book Centre in Lucknow. Speaking on the occasion Arun Kumar, Ramesh Singh
Senger, poet Kaushal Kishore and JSM State convener Com. Shyam Ankuram discussed his political, ideological and organizational contribution. The speakers pointed out that Charu Mazumdar recognized that the landless and poor farmers are the pivot of revolution and therefore called on students and youth to go to the villages and integrate themselves with the peasants. Despite extreme repression, Naxalbari is still alive and is at the forefront in the fight against corporate fascism today. Kaushal Kishore presented two poems composed by him, ‘Gaate Hue’ and ‘Swapn Abhi Adhura Hai’.
Charu Mazumdar’s martyrdom day was observed in Allahabad and tributes paid to the great revolutionary. Ramji Rai said that the Party started by Charu Mazumdar has made a mark for itself today as a national Party and we must strengthen the organization in order to fight the fascist forces of BJP-RSS effectively.
Tea workers
Workers in tea gardens of both West Bengal and Assam are a famished lot. After Indian Railways, Tea is among the biggest industries in terms of providing employment in the land where millions of workers are regularly deprived even of subsistence wages and suffer from starvation deaths, not restricted only to abandoned or locked out tea gardens.
To counter the myth of non-realization of profits by the employers and their perpetual backlash against workers’ demand even for the realization of a Minimum Wage, 29 trade unions operating in tea sector of West Bengal joined hands to create a ‘Joint Forum’ way back in 2014 through a workers’ convention at Chalsa in Dooars region of the tea belt in North Bengal. In the wake of a vibrant workers’ solidarity movement, the Mamata Banerjee led TMC govt. assured the unions to implement minimum wages for the first time in the history of more than 150 years tea industry in Bengal and a tripartite agreement was signed to that end on 20 February 2015. Similar demand for wages has also been raised continuously in Assam’s tea gardens.
All through the last three and half years, Joint Forum could achieve a degree of acceptance among 4.5 lakh tea workers of Bengal as it treaded the path of united mass movements. But the demands for Minimum Wages, realization of the monetized value of their legitimate rations as provided earlier as part of wage, a tract of homestead land for permanent workers, opening of closed estates and enhancing the retirement age of permanent workers from the present 58 years to 60 years etc. remained a chimera due to behind the curtain deals between the state govt. and the employers.

Cha Shramik

The labour directorate of the state ultimately placed an amount of Rs. 172 as being the proposed Minimum Wage, notwithstanding the very basics of Minimum Wage calculations. They completely fumbled and ignored to consider the base index of Industrial workers, the considered quantity of balanced food basket, the monetized value of fuel and electricity as 20% weightage and 25% more to add as cost price of education, health, old age provisions etc. to keep afloat the employers’ excessive profit ratio. The constituent unions of Joint Forum placed before the labour secretary their considered calculation to continue the negotiations. But he unilaterally called it quits, leaving aside the tripartite parley in scramble. To fight back the sabotage by the employers and to compel the labour directorate to announce an acceptable structure of Minimum Wage, the Joint Forum (Tarai Sangrami Cha Shramik Union, affiliated to AICCTU being one of the constituents) gave a call for 3-days strike in the tea sectors of Bengal on 7-8-9 August 2018 and asked the workers of every tea gardens both from the hills and the plains to take to the streets to start a long march to reach chief minister Mamata’s  Mini-Secretariat ‘Uttorkanya’ at Siliguri.
Such massive and unprecedented workers’ march was barricaded and stopped with much trouble by the police administration at 48 different points and intimidations ensued to stall the strike mid-way. Undaunted the strikers went ahead with the scheduled timeframe of the movemental activities. Dispatch of finished tea consignments was blocked by workers in the gardens. The labour minister of the state convened an emergency meeting, but only with the employers and few leaders from ruling party unions on 16 August which was, as expected, proved useless. The Joint Forum now planning to escalate the movement in the last week of August if the state govt. fails to finalise a revised Minimum Wage structure for the struggling tea workers of Bengal.

Tea Workers Rally
AICCTU Led
On 13 August 2018, workers’ union of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), held an angry sit in protest outside the Labour Department Office demanding equal pay for equal work, legally mandated minimum wage and that their jobs are regularized. The protesting workers shared that in absence of regularization, job security, benefits like ESI, PF etc. remain denied to them. The contract system is extremely exploitative and encourages disproportionate and unequal payments. Com. Clifton Rozario, CC member of CPI(ML) said that “They are getting salaries of 6000 and 7000 which is much below the notified minimum wage. It is very difficult to survive on that.” He added that the workers who had been outsourced by the BWSSB were not getting minimum wages. There is a huge discrepancy between the salaries given to regular and contract employees even as the law mandates equal pay for equal work. Protestors met the Labour Commissioner and seeing the strength and resolve of the protest he issued notice to the BWSSB, which he ought to have done much earlier as this is his job to look after welfare and implementation of the legal rights of workers. A meeting on the issue has been called by the Labour Commission on August 17 to discuss the matters further. Hundreds of workers participated in the protest and threatened to launch an indefinite strike if their demands were not fulfilled.
AISA Char Saal

In order to have a critical assessment of government’s policy towards the students and youth of the country, AISA has taken up a survey campaign which will be taken among the students of Delhi University. The campaign will simultaneously be taken to students and youths nationally. The ‘Report Card’ will find out to what extent did the Modi government fulfil the promises it made to the students and youths of this country. The Report Card will test the reality of Delhi University based on the following criteria:

AISA

1) Jobs and Placements: While PM Modi promised to create 2 crore new jobs per year, the rate of unemployment has grown in the year 2017-18 from 4.7 to 6 % (source – CMIE). Despite being the best UG University in India, most colleges in DU have non-functioning placement cells with no job guarantee.
2) Scarcity of Hostels for Students: Out of more than 1.5 lakh DU students, only 4000 students get hostels. Despite more than approx 100 acres lands available, government has not constructed any hostel. It’s unwillingness to implement Rent Regulation Act has led to almost two fold increase in the last four years.
3) Transportation Facility for Students: In the last four years Metro fares have been hiked by over 100 percent and students are forced to pay more than 100 per day on transportation.
4) Fee Hike: In the last four years college fee has been approximately doubled yet most colleges have acutely inadequate permanent teaching faculties, classrooms, libraries, labs, sports grounds and facilities, activity and common rooms. Despite the farce of NAAC inspection and high rankings, DU colleges face acute shortage of permanent teaching faculty and almost 4,500 teachers are working on ad hoc basis (approx. 50 %).
5) Women Safety: As cases of sexual harassment has increasingly grown, no concrete step has been taken in the last four to ensure the freedom and safety college going girls. Even the college committees against sexual harassment remain non-functional. Despite promises of Beti Bachao – Beti Padhao, No concrete step has been taken to ensure women safety and freedom.BJP legislators have stood in defence of rapists and harassers from Chandigarh to Kathua and the most recent, Muzaffarpur mass rape case.
6) Campus Violence: The biggest development in the last four year has been the reign of terror unleashed by ABVP and the protection provided to its hooligans by DU administration and Delhi Police.

AISA DU

DU AISA President Kawalpreet Kaur shared, “More than four years have passed since this government came to power but the situation of the students community has worsened. It has only made empty promises to the youth of this country and has failed to guarantee dignified employment for them. We have planned to reach out to every student of DU and ask them if they are satisfied with the present conditions or not. All the data collected from the students ‘Report Card’ will be made public on 17th August where it will be presented to all concerned authorities.”

A fact-finding team comprised Medha Patkar (leader of the National Alliance of People’s Movements – NAPM), Rajaram Singh, ex-MLA (General Secretary of the All India Kisan Mahasabha –AIKM), Dr Ashok Dhawale (President of the All India Kisan Sabha – AIKS), KK Ragesh, MP (Joint Secretary of the AIKS), all the three MPs from Tripura – Jitendra Chaudhury, Shankar Prasad Datta and Jharna Das Baidya – and ex-MP Narayan Kar visited Tripura from August 3-5, 2018 to study the situation there after the BJP-IPFT government came to power in March 2018.
The team travelled hundreds of kilometers and visited several places in six out of eight districts of Tripura – Tripura South, Tripura West, Dhalai, Gomti, Sepahijala, and Khowai- and met hundreds of people from all walks of life and collected detailed and factual account of the different kinds of attacks that have been made in the last five months. The team found that ever since the BJP-IPFT combine won the last state assembly elections the Fundamental Rights under the Constitution are being violated and trampled upon and the law and order has gone in the hands of hoodlums and miscreants. Murder, dacoity, looting, arson, and atrocities on women, minorities, dalits, adivasis and the poor from all communities are rampant. The administration deliberately does not take any action in spite of hundreds of FIRs having been filed by the victims of these crimes. An atmosphere of fear and terror prevails in large parts of the state. The entire opposition in the state is being savagely attacked, with the Left parties’ activists being the main targets. Incidents of physical attacks, cases of mob lynching, cases of extortions are rampant.

 

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