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In November, 2002 at
Oothangarai of Dharmapuri district in Tamilnadu, Com. Siva was killed in a fake
encounter and more than 20 comrades including two juvenile and 6 women were
arrested and treated in an inhuman manner. The fascist Jaya foisted POTA against
them. The juveniles were released after much legal battle. In Tamilnadu except
the revolutionaries all who were arrested under POTA were released on bail. But
the bail petition of revolutionaries is pending before the High Court for the
past seven months without any progress. The prosecution is not ready for the
argument and the Judges are not ready to even take up the case. The Fascist
Jayalalitha government uses all dirty tricks to delay the bail.
In the last
parliamentary general election the UPA alliance under the DMK used the POTA
issue to effectively drub Jayalalitha in the elections. Both in the All India
context and also in Tamilnadu context POTA issue was used as a vote catcher by
the UPA alliance. After winning the election the UPA government was singing
different tunes at different times on the POTA issue. In this situation the UPA
government at the Center, after much pressure from democratic forces and civil
right organisations and the general masses, has withdrawn POTA. But, it has
announced that it will not withdrawn the cases of thousands who have been
imprisoned under POTA.
Under these
circumstances the revolutionaries in prison decided to undergo an indefinite
fast to withdraw all POTA cases and scrapping the Act with retrospective
effect. As part of the struggle they underwent a one day token hunger fast
on 24.8.2004 and they continued their indefinite fasting from 26.08.2004,
which continued for twenty days. Comrades. Thanga Pandian, Muthu, Suresh,
Sathishkumar, Sakthivel, Manivasagam, Vinayagam, Reeta Mary, Reena Mary and
Anandhi started their fast on Aug. 26. On Sept. 2, Comrades. Duraisingavel,
Palani-samy, Madhian and Ravi joined with them.
After two days, the
‘Q’ branch officers came for negotiations. Comrades refused to talk with these
mercenaries. After which the DIG of prison tried his best to break the struggle
by pleading with them. But his attempts failed. The state administration tried
to confuse the comrades talking about the contridiction between the state and
centre and threatened that forged case of attempt to suicide will be foisted
against them. But these threats were thrown into the dustbin. All the efforts of
state mercenaries were futile. The comrades continued their fast steadfastly,
with determination inspite of their bad health
The health condition
of comrades worsened day by day. On the third day, the health condition of women
comrades deteriorated much. On the seventh day two male comrades got bleeding in
their motions. On the nineteenth day one male comrade got high fever and could
not speak. And many comrades could not even walk. Nearly each lost six to twelve
kg.. Comrades who were under fast were kept in solitary confinement in cramped
cells without ventilation. Even after seeing all these, the Jaya government
refused to admit male comrades to the General hospital. The Human Right
Organisation filed a Writ before the High Court, in Chennai to save the life of
prisoners, but the fascist Jaya government refused to give them proper medical
treatment.
There was solidarity
from all walks of the people throughout the country for this just struggle. The
prisoners in Bihar underwent a hunger fast in support of the demands raised by
the revolutionaries in Chennai and Vellore prison. In Salem and Ponammallee
prisons of Tamilnadu, there was a hunger fast for the same. In Tamilnadu, Civil
Rights organisations and democrats held demonstrations at Salem, Thirupoor,
Madhurai in support of this demand. Throughout Tamilnadu many revolutionary and
democratic organisations took up propoganda in support of this struggle. Except
the ruling class parties and other parliamentary parties, all other
organisations openly supported the struggle. After the initial blocking out of
this struggle news, the bourgeis media had to cover this news daily. Even the
electronic media had to give coverage to the struggle. Throughout Tamilnadu the
general masses were eagerly following the struggle and had shown immense
sympathy for the revolutionaries who were waging a brave struggle in
confinement. Especially the bold denial of forced drips by women comrades was
appereciated by the masses. The human right activists here received solidarity
messages from all over India almost daily. The civil rights organisations in
Chattisgarh, Bombay, calcutta, Delhi, AP issued press statements in their
respective states in support of the struggle. In Delhi, AIFTU, AIPRF, DSU, FDI,
FDS, ICTU, IFTU, LOKRAJ SANGATHAN, NECOHR, PSU, PUDR, SAMAJI AYAYA MORCHA, AFPR,
VIKALAP, YUVA BHARAT organised a dharna infornt of Tamilnadu Bhawan on
September,8 between 2pm and 4pm. The struggle voices of comrades echoed even in
BBC. There was solidarity messages from USA, Turkey, Anti Imperialist camp,
Austria. The eminent democrats, Justice Rajinder Sachar, Ex-member of
Parliament, Surender Mohan, Democratic right Activist Goutam Navlakha, Dr.
Tripta Wahi met the Home Minister of India on 10th Sept., 2004 subm-itted a
memorandum demanding immediate intervention in this struggle by the centre.
Since there was no positive response from him, the team met Chair-person of the
POTA Review Committee. He also told the same old story. The hunger fast ended
after the civil rights team led by Justice Rajinder Sachar assured them to
continue the struggle outside the prison walls.
This struggle has
exposed the hypocrisy of the UPA government and it became clear to the masses
that the promise of withdrawing POTA by the UPA before its expiry is nothing but
the fraud. The struggle by revolutionaries has exposed the democratic mask of
the UPA government.
At the same time the
struggle has exposed the fascist regime of Jaya. The struggle had much political
impact among the people of Tamilnadu
Though the struggle
started initially within the walls of prison, it ignited the furies of democrats
and civil rights organi-sations and common people. It proved that though the
revolutionaries are behind bars, their revolutionary spirit will make many to
march along with them. The struggle of revolutionaries in Tamilnadu prison
rent the air. It has become a public issue and it became a part of agenda in
almost all civil rights organisation in India.
All UPA partners in
Tamilnadu who kept quiet cunningly during the struggle were forced to talk about
this later. The cunning old fox Karunanidhi was compelled to issue statements to
withdraw all POTA cases including the cases on revolutionaries. Even the
so-called martyr of POTA Vaiko had to ask for the repeal of POTA with
retrospective effect. The revisionist crocodiles are also now shedding tears for
those languishing in prison. It is a political victory of determined
revolutionaries who were ready to take the bull by the horns.
The Fascist
Jayalalitha government tried to break the struggle and also the support of
democrats and human right organisations by threats and force. But the
steadfastness and determination of the revolutionaries and the commitment of
those supporting the struggle prevailed. Jayalalitha faced yet another defeat
and isolation at the hands of the revolutionaries. She had banned the erstwhile
CPI (ML) (PW) and revolutionary mass organisations fearing the lapse of POTA
would give it a chance to reach out to the masses. She is continuing the crude
repression to wipe out the CPI (ML) (PW) [now CPI(Maoist)] since the last two
years. But she failed in all her attempts. History has showed that the
revolution and revolutionaries cannot be wiped out by repression. It is sure
that the dreams of Jaya will be smashed by the people of Tamilnadu.
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