It’s only a Charu Mazumdar poster, cops say it’s sedition

Sanjay Rao (35) and Bharatsing Saxena (25), along with ten adivasis, were picked up by the Shahada police nearly two months ago while they were pasting posters at a bus-stand and charged with sedition. The posters declared that it is “no crime to take up arms against murders, rapes and corruption that the system is committed to perpetuating.” The posters urged the adivasis to resist. Other posters stated “the rule of landlords, traders, bureaucrats, dalals, capitalists, communalists, casteists and dictators”.

Shahada police interpreted this message as a threat to the democratically elected government and slapped Rao with sedition. Following this, many adivasis were arrested.

Satish `Satya’ Pawra was picked up for questioning but released allegedly after torture. “The police said that if I say I or others have guns and other weapons I will be released,” he says. Mehersing Chavan, father of Sunil Chavan, who was also arrested, said most people didn’t even know the meaning of Naxalism. “But I’m not upset about my son being arrested. If it helps the cause and helps our people, I will not even mourn his death,” he says.

Satya’s wife, Fakribai Pawra, points out that most people of the area can’t even read or write. “How will they even read all this material?” she asks. “We just want to live without being terrorised by the police or being cheated by the traders. That’s all we have wanted for the past 20 years.”

Rao was initially charged with having ISI connections, probably because his engineering degree is from Jammu University. Later, he was charged with instigating the adivasis and undertaking Naxalite activity. Evidence: the posters. Rao through his organisation Jan Pratikar has been involved in mobilising the Bhils and Pawras to fight corruption and exploitation.

Rights organisations such as Lokshahi Hakk Sangathana, Maharashtra and People’s Union of Civil Liberties, Gujarat, found that these adivasis are harassed by the block and taluka officials. The adivasis claim that the forest department has been trying to grab their land. Collecting and sorting tendu leaves fetches them a pittance but their attempts to raise wages have been quashed by powerful traders and money lenders, they say.

Nandurbar and Dhule districts have no history of naxal activity. The adivasis have been involved in a struggle against exploitation but it has not taken a violent turn. No official of the government, the favourite target of the naxals, has been threatened or killed.

With Rao and Saxena, ten adivasis were arrested. All of them alleged that the police tortured them, coerced them into admitting that they belonged to the People’s War Group and turned their homes inside out looking for weapons and other evidence without finding anything.

R.K. Sahay, SP Dhule was apparently ill but his deputy, R K Rathod claimed that “Rao and Saxena had been provoking the tribals against the government.” The police “suspected” naxal activity in the area but “could not gather any evidence to prove it.” Asked if the Dhule or Nandurbar police had requisitioned for a separate anti-Naxalite squad, Rathod was vague.

The Dhule sessions court has since granted bail to Rao and five of his adivasi associates but they are still in jail, pending ruling from other courts where they have been charged with sedition. Dhule additional sessions judge, P.N. Launkar, said in his ruling that “the contents of the poster are not giving any challenge to the government established by law.” Advocate N.D. Suryavanshi, counsel for the 12 accused, says judging by the police reaction, possessing any Marxist or Communist literature would be akin to secessionist inclinations.