Homage to immortal martyr Com. Anil Barua
CPIML leader comrade Anil Kr. Baruah was remembered in different places of Assam on 11th February, his martyr day. Comrade Anil Kr Baruah erstwhile secretary of Assam State Committee of the party and member of the CC. He was the founder General Secretary of Sadou Asom Janasanskritik Parishad.
On that day Sadou Asom Gramin Sramik Santha (All Assam Rural Workers’ Union) held its state-level cadres’ conference at Pathsala in Barpeta district of Assam. AIPWA state unit observed this day a part of its ‘Nari Jagaran Abhiyan’ and took out processions, staged dharna, held mass meetings, seminar etc. in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Raha (Nagaon), Behali etc. and in Dibrugarh more than 500 women staged road blockade in Betani Chari Ali, Khowang. The protesters blocked NH 37 for one and a half hour from 10-30 am to 12 noon. In Guwahati a meeting was organized by Sadou Guwahati Janasanskritik Parishad to remember Comrade Anil Kr. Baruah.
The degenerated ULFA assassins who pumped those seven bullets into Anilda’s frail body perhaps thought by killing this one man they would be able to terrorise the oppressed working people and revolutionary intelligentsia of Assam into silence and submission. Perhaps they thought one more assassination would hardly be remembered in a state which has witnessed so much bloodshed and so many massacres. They could not be more mistaken. Comrade Anil Baruah’s martyrdom has not only unleashed widespread resentment in all corners of Assam, it has led to serious disenchantment and questioning about the ULFA’s terrorist line of action among large sections of its own ranks and sympathisers. In his life as well as in his martyrdom, Anilda personified the commitment and courage of conviction of a communist leader with a rare glow. A glow no bullets can ever extinguish. Strengthening the fighting unity of the oppressed people cutting across the dividing lines of nationalities and communities. Resisting the growing attacks on civil liberties and democratic rights of the people. Unbounded faith in the working people as the ultimate makers of history. Anilda’s loyalty to these guiding principles throughout his political life was total, uncompromising and passionate. From the dark days of Emergency through the turbulent phase of the Assam movement right up to the present period of secessionist insurgency and state-sponsored counter-insurgency, he was always firm in sticking to his cherished values.
As one of the founder general secretaries of Indian People’s Front, Comrade Anil Baruah raised the banner of revolutionary democracy against all odds in the complex political arena of Assam. Because of his consistent opposition to state repression — no matter whether the government of the day was headed by the Congress or AGP — Anilda had incurred the permanent wrath of the repressive Assam establishment. Again and again he had to suffer harassment and torture in the hands of the police. But nothing could deter him from raising his voice of protest and concern against the armed forces riding roughshod over the basic rights and human dignity of the common people of Assam. Whether it was Operation Bajrang or Operation Rhino during the Saikia regime or the army excesses under the present dispensation of "unified area command" with Prafulla Mahanta in power, Anil Baruah was always in the forefront of the campaign for democracy in turbulent Assam.
In many ways he was the pioneer of the civil liberty and democratic rights movement in the state. In February 1991 when Assam was virtually under undeclared military rule, the IPF was the only organisation which dared to organise an anti-repression meeting in Guwahati and Anil Baruah led it from the front. Comrade Rameshwar Prasad, who was then a member of the Lok Sabha, was also invited to the rally. The kind of barbarity with which the police attacked the rallyists, singling out Comrade Anil Baruah in particular, was unprecedented even by Assam standards. What a cruel irony of history that seven years later the self-styled crusaders for "sovereign, socialist Assam" would display the stupid audacity to defend the assassination of a leader like Anilda as "a case of well-deserved punishment for a counter-revolutionary."
Anilda was also a frontline leader of the progressive cultural movement in Assam. In the early 1980s when chauvinism was raising its ugly head in the Assam movement, weakening and vitiating the movement from within, Comrade Anil Baruah rallied progressive cultural activists from different parts and communities of Assam in a campaign to preserve and strengthen the underlying cultural unity of Assam. The campaign gave rise to the Sadou Asom Jana Sanskritik Parishad with Anil Baruah as the founder general secretary. But Anilda was not only a leading cultural organiser, he was also a cultural producer and performer — a playwright, a lyricist, an actor, all rolled into one. He was greatly influenced by the legacy of the great Bishnu Rabha, the cultural legend of Assam who also headed an armed revolutionary peasant movement. Indeed, Anil Baruah would be remembered as a true heir to Bishnu Rabha. Above all Anilda would be remembered as a selfless leader who always cared and fought for others and demanded nothing in return. It was characteristic of Anilda that he rejected the offer of state security as a candidate in the recent Lok Sabha elections. In an election in which the armed forces were widely reported to be asking people to vote for BJP and the candidates of the Congress and AGP were moving with heavy security with virtually no election campaign worth the name, Anilda was going about holding group meetings of tea-garden workers, women and rural masses to inspire confidence in them.
I will never forget my last meeting with Anilda when I had gone to campaign in his constituency. On 9 February we addressed a tea workers’ meeting at Makum. Anilda was in a hurry. He gave a brief speech and left for Maran to attend another meeting. The next day we met again at Dibrugarh at a youth convention. A meeting with local presspersons followed and then it was time for me to say goodbye. When I told Anilda that on our way to Dibrugarh our car had been stopped in a couple of places by the army, he promptly wrote out a letter to the Chief Election Officer of Assam to make sure that we did not have to face any problem on our way back to Guwahati via Tezpur. Yet he did not tell me that he had turned down the security offered to him. Little did we realise that we would never be meeting again. By the time I could rush back to Tinsukia Anilda’s cremation had just been over.
Adieu, Anilda! We will never forget the gentle manners and defiant smile with which you braved all odds. The fire of revolutionary commitment that always glowed inside you and radiated your personality will continue to inspire us in the ongoing battle against the forces of barbarity.
Dipankar Bhattacharya
[Reproduced from April 1988 issue of Liberation]
[On 25 February 1980, the Tripura State Police assassinated 7 CPI(ML) comrades at Hurua, in Tripura. An Inquiry Commission submitted its report in 1982, finding that the killings were completely unjustified. Despite this, far from taking action, the Tripura State Government continued to promote the guilty police officials.
The martyrs were young comrades from poor families, and were very popular among poor peasants. They had organized several significant struggles against oppressive landlords. Comrade Gobinda Teli, while he was a school student in 1967-68, had been a leading activist of the Tripura Students Federation, which was the state unit of CPI(M)’s student wing before the formation of SFI.
Despite this, the CPI(M) justified their killing by branding them as anti-social elements. However, the truth was inadvertently revealed by Shribhanu Ghosh, state secretariat member of CPI(M), who blurted out: “They were our political opponents. So police has done a correct thing.”
We carry here a tribute to the martyrs of Hurua, by Dipankar Bhattacharya ]
Just a few words, uttered innumerable times in a million voices during last journeys of martyrs and in countless memorial meetings! And yet not just another slogan this, not like every other. It is a courageous conviction tested in fire, a truth confirmed by history. Martyr’s blood is indeed a great motive force in the people’s march to liberation.
In our country thousands upon thousands of communist revolutionaries have embraced martyrdom in course of advancing the revolutionary democratic movement and arousing the landless, poor and toiling peasant masses. In that great roll of honour, the names of the seven martyrs of Hurua village in Left-ruled Tripura will remain inscribed forever in golden letters. The great saga is never to be forgotten.
The Hurua murders will be remembered also as an incontestable evidence of the continued degeneration of the official Left. And it is not the killings alone that will be remembered. Those who cherish democratic values will never forget the subsequent story of barbarity and betrayal – the way the Left Front government staged a farcical drama of trial and trampled underfoot the rule of law and all democratic norms to reward the police official responsible for the gruesome homicide. Over the past 25 years, every truth-loving and conscientious man and woman in Tripura has been suffering the agony of this sordid treachery.
To look back on the incident, it was year 1980. The first-ever Leftist government was in place in Tripura. Movements on long-neglected demands of the peasantry were just being built up in different parts of the State including the area under Dharmanagar police station. From recovery of mortgaged land and resistance against eviction of sharecroppers, to corruption in panchayats, social oppression and police atrocities, there was no dearth of issues and the toilers on the soil were getting organised to stake their claims.
Such was the political situation when on February 25 Comrades Govinda Teli, Akkel Mian, Ranjan Nath, Chandrakant, Kalijoy Singh, Chandan Namashudra and Khsitipati Das were brutally murdered in a police raid during a closed-door meeting in the afternoon. The SDPO, one TK Sanyal, led the killer gang comprising the State police and the CRPF that killed the seven communist peasant organisers in cold blood.
Why these dastardly killings? The first Left Front government in Tripura, with Nripen Chakraborty at its head, was scared because it saw the spectre of Naxalbari in the peasant movement of Dharmanagar. The gruesome massacre gave rise to a wave of indignation and protest throughout the State and Chakraborty was compelled to appoint an enquiry commission. At the end of the enquiry, Justice (Retired) AK Dey of Calcutta High Court came to the conclusion that each of the killings was uncalled for and unjustified. But in the State assembly Nripenbabu rejected the report of the commission and praised the killer cops for showing a great sense of duty and responsibility.
Today Nripenbabu is no more, and on his chair sits Manik Sarkar. But the same tradition continues. Thanks to a series of promotions, T K Sanyal is now a top boss in the Tripura police force. The present Left Front government in the state has conferred special honours on this murderous officer on the occasion of Republic Day this year, as if to celebrate the silver jubilee of the Hurua Killings.
In the 25 years following the Hurua incident, the CPI(M) leadership has consolidated its position in state power in Tripura and West Bengal. The power politics, the legacy of butchering Naxalites and glorifying Runu Guha Niyogis and T K Sanyals, which were initiated under the leadership of Jyotibabu and Nripenbabu are now being carried forward by the present generation represented by Buddhababu and Manikbabu.
But the successors of Comrades Govinda Teli, Akkel Mian, Khsitipati Das and the others have not laid down their arms either. They are expanding the horizon of mass struggle across Tripura-Assam-Karbi Anglong to Bihar-UP-Jharkhand and beyond. New chapters are continuing to be added to the glorious annals of great martyrs: Comrade Chandrashekhar, Comrade Anil Barua, Comrade Manju, Comrade Mahendra Singh….
Comrade Govinda was a resolute communist organiser coming from the tea tribe. Comrade Khsitipati had left his safe and secure job at a bank to opt for the risky life of a professional revolutionary. Their co-workers and successors are still carrying on the same painstaking revolutionary work under the leadership of communist party among the broad toiling masses cutting across the bounds of caste, tribe, nationality and community. Silently and tirelessly, they are building up the communist party among the proletariat and rousing the broad masses to a higher consciousness of class struggle.
People like Manikbabu and Budhhababu are sticking to their tradition. Come, let us further enrich our own revolutionary heritage. Let us intensify the struggle of the revolutionary Left against degraded and degenerated Left on questions of principles as well as tactics. As the heritage of martyrs confront the legacy of murderers, let one and all know who stands where.
Come, overcome all difficulties to take a plunge into revolution, to carry forward the work left unfinished by the heroic martyrs of Hurua, to realise their dreams in Tripura and in the whole of our motherland. We have a pledge to make, a solemn pledge: we will see to it that the blood of martyrs spells death and destruction for all those cowards, betrayers, enemies of the people.
[Translated from Bengali original by A.Sen]