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Members of the KRCS, PVK, PYC and CPI (ML) [PW]
were threatened with transfer to the Central Jail at Gulbarga by the jail
authorities at Raichur after they conducted a series of struggles and propaganda
activities in prison. No sooner were reports of these struggles carried in the
media, it became a cause for concern for the reactionaries, and the
administration shifted Comrade Kumar, Joint Secretary of the PVK State Committee
and Comrade Jindappa, President, PYC District Committee, Raichur, to Gulbarga
Central Jail as ‘punishment’.
Even as these two comrades were given the marching
orders, there was an outstanding response from the few hundred inmates of
Raichur jail. Some wept. Others collected money for the departing inmates in a
spontaneous show of solidarity so that they could buy medicine in case they fell
ill and some nutritious food for their convalescence.
The Struggle Spreads
to Gulbarga
If the enemy presumed it had ‘punished’ these
fighters by shifting them, it was mistaken; thoroughly mistaken.
The perverse arrest of more than a dozen comrades
of these organisations in these last two years by the Karnataka police only
helped to carry the growing class struggle in the arid plains of Raichur to a
new battlefront—the Raichur district jail.
Now, the transfer of these comrades to the Gulbarga
Central Jail has only served the advancement of fresh struggles among the
hundreds of prisoners at Gulbarga. The government has provoked a groundswell of
sympathy for Naxalites even there.
The Gulbarga jail struggle must be seen in the
background of deteriorating conditions in the jail; prolonged delays by the
courts to dispose off the cases of the accused due to callousness of the Home
Department in providing escort for prisoners to and from the courts; and the
outbreak of an agitation in the northern districts of Karnataka since June this
year demanding, among others, for the establishment of a High Court bench in the
north.
As the lawyers of Gulbarga intensified their
struggle for a HC bench in Gulbarga city, and were widely supported by the
people during the Gulbarga district bandh; under the leadership of Comrades
Kumar and Jindappa, the prisoners of Gulbarga Central Jail took up successful
struggles in early July this year.
What the Prisoners
Wanted
The Gulbarga inmates vividly remember the struggles
led by Comrade Koteshwara Rao (who was physically victimised and punished with
solitary confinement for questioning the authorities) in the early 1990s. He was
a squad member of the CPI (ML) [PW] from Andhra Pradesh who had been arrested in
Bidar district of Karnataka. They also narrated the eventful days when 43
members of the PVK, PYC and KRCS took up a three day hunger strike in 1997 when
they had been arrested for a fortnight for having battled with police and
politicians against the establishment of a police station in Yapaldinni village,
Raichur. They had fought for an improvement in jail conditions and against
neglect by the jail authorities which caused illness and the avoidable death of
an inmate.
Karnataka’s revolutionaries were no strangers at
the Gulbarga Central Jail. Over the years they had developed, by dint of their
sincerity to the cause of the people, a sympathetic section among those behind
bars in Gulbarga too.
On July 6 this year all the 670 prisoners—including
women—of the Gulbarga Central Jail went on a hunger strike that continued for 36
hours.
The District Commissioner and the Superintendent of
Police were taken aback by slogan shouting prisoners when they visited the jail
on that day. They were compelled into a discussion with the striking prisoners.
But since they were not prepared to meet any of the demands of the inmates, they
left in a huff. Yet, the struggle continued.
That evening, on the recommendation of a special
doctor, 15 striking inmates were moved to the government hospital as their
health had begun to deteriorate. So fragile have their energies been rendered
due to prolonged life in jail.
That night, not one of the 670 inmates touched
food. Their guts could burst with anger. They sipped water for supper just
before the heavy doors of their dormitories clanged shut.
On July 7, the DC and the SP returned to the jail
at 11-00 am. The struggle of the previous day had had a telling impact on them.
The DC agreed to implement demands relating to food and other amenities in the
jail after having expressed his helplessness on the very same matter the
previous day. He also agreed to forward their letter of other demands to the
State Government.
The main demands of the prisoners of the Gulbarga
Central Jail were:
*The establishment of a High Court bench at
Gulbarga.
* Appointment of a MBBS doctor for the jail on
a permanent basis.
* Arrangement of escort to attend court.
* Granting bail on minor cases even in the
absence of their lawyers.
Later, speeches were made by the prisoners. Slogans
rent the air. Comrade Kumar said that they would be compelled to resort to
struggle again if these demands were not immediately met.
‘Carrying a Stone to
Drop it on their Own Feet’
It has been rumoured that the Gulbarga jail
administration has been seeking to send Comrade Kumar and Comrade Jindappa back
to Raichur. There is a big booty, running into lakhs of rupees, for the corrupt
officials of the Gulbarga Central Jail. And they would not like to have one or
two troublesome revolutionaries from neighbouring Raichur mess up their
earnings. A contradiction is obviously brewing between the officialdom at
Gulbarga and that at Raichur.
Kumar and Jindappa are bound to get a grand
reception of clenched fists and revolutionary slogans if they walk back through
the iron gates of the Raichur jail.
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