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The recent judgment in Bihar
makes it clear that the poor can never get justice in these courts of law. In
early June 2001, the Gaya District and Sessions Court-cum-Special TADA Court
passed the death sentence on four activists of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC)
and life imprisonment on a number of others. They were accused for the killing
of 35 Bhumihars in Bara village of Gaya district almost nine years ago, in 1992.
All those sentenced to death are Dalits.
In a travesty of justice, the
earlier Barsimha carnage, where landlords of the Sawarna Liberation Front
massacred seven dalits, is yet to come for trial. In fact the Bara killings was
a retaliation for the Barsimha carnage. Defacto the judges have shown their bias
and venom towards the poor and oppressed and leniency for the rich landlords. In
fact, for these nine years the landlords have been granted bail and allowed to
roam freely, while the MCC activists have been denied bail and have already
served nine years in jail.
While not agreeing with the
tactics of the MCC of mass massacres of the upper castes, the judgment is to be
strongly condemned. Such mass killings only consolidates caste divisions in an
already caste-polarised society. Instead of attempting to win over the poor from
amongst the upper castes and isolating the criminal landlords (and annihilating
their most notorious elements) such tactics help the landlords maintain their
social base amongst the poor of their caste. Yet, notwithstanding these
incorrect tactics, it is essential that all democrats and revolutionaries
strongly oppose this fascist judgment.
It is time to infact try these
so-called judges themselves in people’s courts. Hidden behind a cloak of black
robes, fed by money from the rich and powerful, such judges are nothing but
criminals who dispense ‘justice’ based not on evidence but on money-power.
The death sentence passed on dalits, who merely seek to assert their
self-respect against the terror of the feudal upper caste landlords, amounts to
nothing but judicial murder. Already, fear and panic has gripped the
landlords of villages around Bara. The judge and public prosecutor has been
given high security. The people will, no doubt, avenge this judgment.
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