India: Ongoing Hunger strike and Resistance of Evicted People at Nonadanga

April 16: Pamphlet issued by Uchhed Pratirodh Committee  —  Nonadanga, Kolkata

The incident

On 30th March, the present TMC-led West Bengal government, its administration and police have demolished our temporary shanties with their bulldozers, set fire to them and tried to evict us from the area. We tried twice to organize peaceful sit-in protests and demonstrations in the nearby Ruby Hospital crossing to publicly highlight our condition and demand our legitimate right to housing. Instead of listening to our concerns, on 4th April, police forcefully broke and dispersed the gathering by rampant lathicharge; some plain-clothes personnel also pounced on the unarmed women.

Though majority of the protesters were women, no women cops were present at the site. Police kicked Rita Patra, a twenty-one year old woman in advanced pregnancy, nor did they spare two-and-half year old Joy Paswan, whose head was hit with lathi. Many of the injured were taken to the Calcutta Medical College, where some of them were admitted. And the second demonstration on 8th April was nipped at its bud when police arrested majority of the protesters and whisked them away to Kolkata police headquarter (Lalbazar). Late in the night, the protesters were released except seven of them, who were produced in the court and charged with various false and ridiculous charges including illegal gathering, illegal possession of weapons etc. All of these seven people are from different democratic organizations and individuals who came in support for us. To make matters worse, a section of the media, especially the ones loyal to the ruling party, are continuously branding the protesters as ‘Maoists’ and cooking up entirely distorted stories, to the point of being preposterous. The arrested seven were remanded to three days of police custody till the 12th; in the next hearing, they were sent to jail custody up to 26th April. One of the seven has been charged under UAPA and sent to CID custody till 21st April. Surprisingly, about forty lawyers, allegedly having allegiance to the ruling party stood against the accused in the courtroom along with the public prosecutor. To add to the instances of virtual clampdown, unprecedented in recent times, police again arrested about seventy protesters on April 9th they were about to start their protest march from the College Street square.

Nepal: Leaders of Revolutionary Maoists Baidya, Badal condemn Kishenji killing; Prachanda and Bhattarai still silent

REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, Dec 1: The Mohan Baidya faction of the UCPN (Maoist) on Thursday issued a separate statement condemning the killing of Indian Maoist leader Mallojula Koteswara Rao a.k.a. Kishenji by the Indian security forces in the dense forest of Burishol, near West Bengal-Jharkhand border on Nov 24. “We strongly condemn the killing of Kishenji in the name of encounter, and demand the central as well as West Bengal government to form a panel to investigate the incident and bring the guilty to book,” states a press statement undersigned by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa. While expressing condolence over the death, Thapa and Baidya have “expressed solidarity with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in such a sad moment”. Party establishment leaders said they were unaware about such statement. “I have not seen any such statement,” said Maoist spokesman Dinanath Sharma from the party establishment. He added that the party has not discussed issuing any statement condemning the killing.

“Kishanji’s Death Big Loss but Movement will Continue”: Varavara Rao

Varavara Rao, revolutionary poet Kolkata, Nov 25 (IANS) Describing the death of top Maoist leader Kishanji as a “big loss” for the left wing rebels, Maoist ideologue P. Varvara Rao said the movement will not be affected as the deceased had nurtured leaders to take his place. “It’s a big loss as he was one of the leaders who built the movement, working from the grassroots level,” Rao told IANS on phone from Andhra Pradesh. “But the movement will not be affected as he had been building up his comrades to be the future leaders and after him one of them will take his place,” he added. “Kishanji was a great leader and a strategist and also had literary skills. He could connect to the masses well. Along with his brother he attracted hundreds of people to the movement,” Rao said. “He also shared good relations with the media. Though his leadership abilities will be missed, the movement will go on,” said the Maoist ideologue, who was considered by Kishanji as his idol. He credited Kishanji for building the rebel movement in West Bengal. “After working closely with his comrades in Andhra Pradesh, he moved to Bengal in 1990. Since then he had been building the movement there. After Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand he proved that Bengal too can be an important centre for the movement.”

India: Maoists declare West Bengal government’s talk of peace “misleading” and insincere

End of peace talks: Naxal letter to Bengal interlocutors

Madhuparna Das, India Express

October 29 2011

Kolkata–The peace talks between the West Bengal government and CPI (Maoist) have come to an end with the Maoists calling them “misleading and senseless”.

A letter from CPI (Maoist) state secretary Akash to Sujato Bhadra, the leader of the six- member team of interlocutors, says the “peace talks” referred to by Mamata Banerjee government frequently did not make any sense. The state government should stop spreading the misleading news of peace talk being continued, it says.