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Liberation : What were the issue for which you held the demonstration on 4 February at Lakhimpur Kheri? How many of you were there at the demo? Ajanta Lohit: Our party has conducted a long-drawn out land struggle in Lakhimpur. We unearthed a major land scam, which put us on the warpath with the local land mafia as well as District Administration here. A large-scale statewide food-grains scam has also taken place, and in Lakhimpur itself, a PDS scam involving crores of rupees has taken place. In the past months, the local feudal forces and land mafia have also indulged in forced sterilisations in exchange for gun licenses. The local administration as well as goons did not even spare school children. All these have generated spontaneous popular protests in Lakhimpur, and our organisation and Party have been at the forefront of these. We also raised the demand for the institution of a Land Commission, issuing of Red Ration Cards and food-for-work scheme for all rural poor families, as well as other issues relating to the dignity and rights of women and poor dalits. As a result of our determined protests, our leaders and young activists have been booked under draconian laws like the Gangster Act and Goonda Act. Our Office as well as the homes of activists have been raided by SOG teams. On February 4, we were holding a peaceful dharna demanding the withdrawal of the false cases against our activists, and a CBI enquiry into the food-grains scam. There were about 500 of us at the dharna.
Lib: What was the pretext cited for your arrest? Had you not taken permission for the dharna? AL: We were told that we did not have permission for the dharna. We showed them the letter we has submitted informing about the proposed dharna. They then told us that there were orders from above not to allow us to reach the dharna spot. We had informed the Administration in writing about the dharna. If they had denied permission they would have sent us a letter to that effect. But no such denial was intimated. Without any warning, activists arriving were detained and picked up at stations and from private vehicles. Lib: Is it true that you had earlier had a conversation with the SP, NR Padmaja? What did she say to you? AL: 15 days before the arrest, I had met Padmaja along with a delegation. Even then, she had declared that if Kranti Singh and Ramdaras, both State Committee members of the CPI(ML), participate in any dharna or demonstration, or are even spotted inside Lakhimpur, she would arrest them. She also said that the CPI(ML) had links with the Maoists of Nepal.
Lib: In view of the repression unleashed by the Lakhimpur Administration and Police, does it look like it is a District-level affair, or does the State Government have any role in it? AL: Initially, the District Administration and Police Officials were targeting us. But in the past months, we have met senior officers of the Mulayam Administration, the Home Secretary and others, intimating them about the Lakhimpur situation. But the repression has only intensified. This leads us to conclude, inevitably, that all this is happening with the State Government’s approval. Actually, our movement has put the Mulayam Government in the dock, especially in the recent PDS scam cases, and therefore, this Government has an interest in silencing us.
Lib: What is the attitude of the Lakhimpur Kheri Administration towards the land mafia? AL: From Itauja in Lucknow till Sitapur and Lakhimpur, all the top leaders of political parties as well as administrative officials have huge farm houses. In Lakhimpur, there are very powerful Sikh farmers who give these parties large amounts as donation. As a result, the administration, police and these big farmers have developed a strong nexus, which works together to crush any movement relating to land or the demands of the rural poor.
Lib: You are planning a 48-hour hunger strike; what are the main demands? AL: We are demanding the withdrawal of false cases from against the party leaders as well as the Amar Ujala reporter Samaiuddin ‘Neelu’, a CBI enquiry into the food-grain scam, the removal of the local SP Padmaja, red cards for rural poor and a Land Commission.
Lib: What will be the future course of the struggle? Will the PDS scam, or the issues of land and starvation become issues for a state wide agitation? AL: Our 48-hour hunger strike is probably the first time in UP that over 1000 people will be sitting together on a hunger strike. This will be followed by a mass contact campaign and a March in Lucknow on 17 March. All these have the makings of a state wide movement.
Lib: Do you think only the Mulayam Government is involved in these scams, or are other parties also involved? AL: Well, no other major party has responded to the issue of the scams. The BJP, BSP have chosen to maintain silence on these issues. One is forced to wonder why?
Lib: Which are the forces which have extended support in your struggle? AL: Apart from the warm and whole-hearted support of the rural poor, we have received very welcome support from journalists, intellectuals, lawyers and organisations like NAPM. |
A massive food-grains scam, a major land scam, forced sterilisation – the powerful landlords and the District Administration of Lakhimpur Kheri have no dearth of crimes to their name. But it is not those who have diverted crores worth of grains from PDS shops to the open market, not those who have grabbed the land of dalits and minorities using the might of the gun, nor those who have drugged and forcibly sterilised poor youth in return for a gun license, who have been arrested or jailed in that District. Ironically, the Food Minister in the Mulayam Government is the notorious Raja Bhaiyya! Instead, in the proverbial manner of shooting the messenger, an intrepid journalist covering these stories was picked up a Special Operations Group team, threatened with a fake encounter and eventually falsely booked under the Wild Life Act; young activists spearheading the struggle against the local land mafia have been booked as ‘gangsters’ and ‘goondas’ under draconian laws; and women, children and rural poor participating in a peaceful dharna are branded as having links with the Nepal Maoists and jailed.
The local land mafia and powerful landlords of Lakhimpur Kheri are notorious for their crimes against the poor and deprived sections. The sterilisation scandal is yet another instance of their feudal muscle. The District Administration in Lakhimpur Kheri, in a bizarre move, had announced free gun licences to those who ‘motivate’ sterilisations in the area – five sterilisations would merit one gun license, 10 would get a rifle licence and 20 a revolver license! When the incentive for ‘motivation’ is a gun, what better way to ‘motivate’ people, but at gunpoint?! A rich farmer Avatar Singh conned six labourers into accompanying him to the local police station, where they were drugged, sterilised without consent, and then threatened with country-made revolvers not to complain. The police even refused to file an FIR on the victims’ complaint, and it was only when CPI(ML) activists like Comrade Kranti took the victims to senior police authorities, that the police was forced to lodge a complaint. (see box)
In Lakhimpur Kheri, the Terai Kisan Sabha has been at the forefront of the movement against food grain scam and land scam. The local administration’s nexus with the local land mafia has been thoroughly exposed (see box on Land scam and PDS scam). In retaliation the police and district administration has targeted the main leaders of the movement and has implicated them under the Gangster Act and Goonda Act. Com. Kranti Kumar and Com. Ramdaras Chauhan, both State Committee members of the CPI(ML), have been falsely implicated in these Acts and their family members are being harassed and intimidated by the police and local goondas. Comrade Kranti is a former student activist from Lucknow University who chose the path of activism rather than careerism: his reward has been to be branded by the UP Government as a ‘gangster’! All this while gangsters and goondas enjoy patronage, protection and even Ministerial posts!
On 4 February, a dharna was organised by the AIPWA and Terai Kisan Sabha, led by Com. Ajanta Lohit, National Secretary of AIPWA, and Allauddin Shastri, leader of the Kisan Sabha. On the day of the dharna, 86 persons, including women and children were arrested. These protestors, who were raising crucial issues of the PDS scam at a time of starvation deaths, and the issues of land for deprived sections, were branded as ‘terrorists’ and jailed. The next day, 74 were released but 12 persons including Ajanta Lohit and Allauddin Shastri were rearrested and several non-bailable cases were clamped on them. Interestingly, these cases relate to an incident of 6 August, in which these persons were not present. Despite the fact that Ajanta Lohit is a cancer patient, she was denied access to proper food and medication. Allauddin Shastri is 70 years old, yet he was put in solitary confinement. One woman, Anuradha, who is in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was also arrested, and fell seriously ill due to incarceration in prison.
On 9 February, a staff reporter of Amar Ujala, Samiuddin 'Neelu', (incidentally also the son of Allauddin Shastri), who had consistently covered stories exposing the scams, was picked up by the SOG, kept at gunpoint in a remote forest area and threatened that he would be killed in an encounter. He was forced to sign a dozen blank papers at gunpoint and falsely implicated in the Wild Life Act for smuggling tiger skin, alligator skin, rhino tusks, lion nails and sandalwood. He was then jailed, and after releasing him on bail, the police once again tried to hand him over to the SOG. His life continues to be in danger.
The Mulayam Government makes tall claims of being a champion of ‘social justice’ and the cause of Dalits and Muslims. But his police and administrative machinery, in cohorts with feudal goons are snatching food from the mouths of rural poor, and stealing the land of poor Dalits and Muslims! All those – whether Left activists or honest journalists – who dare to highlight and challenge these glaring injustices are branded as terrorists and hounded by the police and SOG.
In the face of this naked State terror, the CPI(ML) has launched a state-wide agitation – starting with an unprecedented mass hunger strike in the capital, Lucknow, and followed by a series of mass contact programmes.
[Dalit and Muslim peasants allotted land by the government in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur district 50 years ago are still working as daily wage labourers not far from their `own' land, writes HEMENDRA NARAYAN from The Statesman. We carry excerpts from his article.]
Hitwari Pasi, Chandrike Pasi, Khalil Khan and Yusuf Khan were thrilled when ownership documents of two acres of land for each were handed to them. It was a dream come true. In fact, these Dalit and Muslim youths were the first in generations to own land.
In all, about 104 acres of land belonging to the zamindars, Narendra Singh and Shail Kumari, in village Ghutnabujurg in Fardhan police station, Lakhimpur-Kheri district, were found to be ceiling surplus. In 1957, the same was acquired by the government and distributed among 52 beneficiaries. But today, many of the original recipients or their heirs are still struggling to acquire physical possession of the
property which the government had given them with so much fanfare. The revenue administration and police in Lakhimpur worked systematically against the beneficiaries – Dalits, minorities and the landless.
During the initial years, the beneficiaries did have the advantage of possession of the land and reaped the harvest. But in the Sixties, the influential landlords, with help from revenue officials, "sold" the land to 11 Sikhs who hailed from Punjab. Then,
with the connivance of police, the beneficiaries were evicted from the land despite the fact that their names figured in the records. The new "owners" of the land were Didar Singh, Kehar Singh and others. Following eviction, the beneficiaries moved the Court of Consolidation Officer and won. But this did not help them gain actual
possession of the land. The Court of Settlement Officer Consolidation gave a verdict against them. The case is now pending with the District Development Commissioner. There was stay from the Civil Court as well.
However, because of the court delay, Didar Singh and his relatives handed over the land to Kulwant Singh, Sewa Singh and others for bataidari cultivation. Didar Singh went back to Punjab and returned occasionally to attend the court case and also to collect his share of produce from Kulwant and Sewa Singh. The situation took a dramatic turn in April 1989. After "declaring" the beneficiaries as dead in connivance with the tehsil revenue officials, the landlords claimed themselves to be the legal heirs of the land!
Activists of the CPI (ML) Liberation launched an agitation by getting together the original Dalit and Muslim beneficiaries. The activists also learnt that Didar Singh was alive. Brought to Lakhimpur, Didar filed a case alleging fraud against Kulwant and Sewa Singh. The Liberation also moved the court of Civil judge and got the stay against the main beneficiaries vacated. Incidentally, the district administration in an affidavit admitted that the Dalits and Muslims were the real owners of the land.
However, at the ground level, the police and administration stood by Kulwant and Sewa Singh. On 28 June, a clash broke out in which half a dozen Dalits and Muslims were injured by the two Singhs and their henchmen. Though a police report had been filed, no action had been taken against the criminals. Instead, on the basis of an FIR filed by Kulwant and Sewa Singh, police raided the district party office of CPI(ML) Liberation. To top it, party district secretary Ram Darash Chawan, Kranti Kumar and Munnu Khan along with three others have been booked under the Gangster Act. (Source: http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php? The author is the Patna-based Special Representative of The Statesman.)
India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, targets population control with gun licences! With there being many more takers for gun licences than sterilisation procedures, local officials in the state float a highly-questionable scheme offering one for the other.
Less than a month ago, a first information report (FIR) was registered against Avtar Singh, a farmer in Lakhimpur -Kheri, who allegedly got five of his labourers (one of them a bachelor) forcibly sterilised when he was offered a revolver licence in exchange by district magistrate S B S Solanki. According to the FIR, Singh “abducted” the five labourers, drugged them and got them sterilised at a district primary health centre.
[Source: The Indian Express, August 23, 2004]
[News Report in Tribune on Oct 29, 2004]
It could well be the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Foodgrains costing over Rs 108 crore meant for the public distribution system have been diverted to the open market in one district alone. Following the detection of the massive fraud Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav suspended the entire staff of the Lakhimpuri Kheri Food and Civil Supplies Department besides the DM, six SDMs and 16 other officers for their connivance. These include six PCS officers.
In a drought year the district administration of Lakhimpur Kheri instead of providing succour to the poor and starving diverted foodgrains meant for them to the private rice mills and the open market. Not a single grain meant for the poor had reached them or even the ration shops for the past many months.
[Shahira Naim, Tribune News Service]
[From Chapter – III, Section ‘A’ – Reviews, CAG Report 1999 on Uttar Pradesh (Civil)]
In District Sitapur, 457.68 quintal wheat (value: Rs.14.75 lakh) was seized in January 1999 while it was being transported, from District Lakhimpur Kheri, for black marketing. The wheat was issued from FCI godown of Lakhimpur Kheri to State Food Corporation godown, under BPL Scheme. Report was lodged with the police in January 1999 and final action taken in the matter was awaited. In Gorakhpur district, report was lodged with police against thirty FPS owners in September 1998 for selling 330 quintal PDS wheat in the black market.
“…I had already expressed the apprehension (in letters to the CM, Home Secretary, DGP, Press Council, NHRC, and the Minoroties Commission) that the Police authorities of Lakhimpur Kheri might have me killed or frame me in false cases and arrest me. These fears came to a pass on February 9; I was returning home around 10.30 at night, when I was picked up by an SOG team (considered experts in encounters) and was taken by the SOG Incharge Harendra Tyagi in his jeep to a remote area outside the city. I was made to alight, and taken into the bushes with the intention of staging an encounter. I was made to sit there till 3 am, and all the while I pleaded with them to spare my life. Eventually I was jailed under various sections, which I believe can be made the basis for invoking the National Security Act (NSA).
My only crime was that, along with performing my duties as a journalist honestly and fearlessly, I have consistently written in favour of the people. I not only wrote about the massive food-grains scam and land scam in the Lakhimpur Kheri region, I also made the resistance of rural poor that rose against these scams, the subject of my writing. As a result I became a target for the Administration.
My arrest is with a view to protecting mafia and those guilty for the PDS scam. Whatever I have done has been motivated by my sense of responsibility as a journalist. I never wrote news as a passive observer of the events in our nation and society, content to rely on official press releases and statements of powerful people. Rather than viewing journalism as merely a ‘means of communication’, I took it as a creative endeavour, and consciously took on the role of an investigative journalist, seeking the truth inherent in news and conveying the facts to the public. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia called journalism the Fourth Pillar, an accessible medium for the people at large to articulate their democratic dissent and voice their aspirations. These were the principles I adopted.
What is happening to me is no personal issue, but is an assault by those in power on the media, which is the fourth pillar of democracy; an attempt to strangle freedom of expression. The irony is that all this is happening in the tenure of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh who calls himself a follower of Lohia.
(The following are excerpts from Gunning for the gonads, a story by Ajay Upreti in the Week, September 5, 2004, about the forced sterilisations in Lakhimpur Kheri).
…Rich farmer Avtar Singh from Bhira was one such motivator. He is alleged to have taken six of his labourers in his jeep to Bhira police station on the pretext of mowing the lawns in preparation of a senior officer’s visit. Instead, he took them to the CHC in Palia. “Avtar came out with some pills and told us they were anti-malarial drugs. We started feeling dizzy. When we refused to take an injection for preventing ‘cold and fever’, Avtar and his men took out kattas and threatened us. We had no option but to take the injection,” said one of the victims. One of them, Komal Singh, escaped.
“Once the operation was over we were taken to Avtar’s farmhouse and kept there for three days. We were repeatedly beaten up by Avtar and his men, warning us to say we had willingly opted for sterilisation.” Meanwhile, Avtar is said to have traced Komal and his wife Rambeti, and brought them to the farmhouse. “I was beaten up and raped repeatedly by Avtar’s men and two policemen,” said Rambeti. “It was just to teach us a lesson, so that we would not dare expose him.” Komal said he “was beaten so badly that there was blood in his urine.”
It was only after pressure by villagers, who learnt of Avtar’s excesses, that Avtar released the victims. When the victims reached the police station to lodge an FIR, the police refused to oblige. Kranti Singh, the district head of CPI(ML), then took all the victims to the then acting superintendent of police Ashok Kumar. Only then was the FIR registered against Avtar Singh and two of his goons.
Though the incident took place on July 28, the FIR was registered only on August 9. However, the victims did not get a copy of the FIR.
“Whenever we asked the police for a copy of the FIR, we were told first to send the victims to the police station,” said Kranti Singh. “But if the victims go there, they will be forced to strike a compromise with the accused, who is an influential farmer. In fact, I was offered a hefty sum by one of Avtar’s men not to take up the issue of the labourers,” he alleged. ….