Condemn the Baseless Raid and Attack on K. Murali

W. Muncer

We, the undersigned international organizations and individuals, call for the cessation of the attack on and harassment of the Indian intellectual and activist, K. Murali.

At 6AM on August 13, 2024, eight members of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) demanded entrance to the house in Thevakkal, Kerala where K. Murali (Comrade Ajith) is staying, as part of an ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation. K. Murali, who was alone in the house, agreed to let them enter after the arrival of his lawyers. Instead of waiting, the raiders broke down the back door and seized his computer, phone, tablet, and some USB drives, along with a few old magazines and pamphlets on the Citizenship Amendment Act. The magazines were registered and the pamphlet was published and openly distributed by Porattom. Yet they were seized and declared as “illegal publications.” Their intention in seizing his laptop and phone was to plant the “evidence” they have as yet been unable to secure, in order to try to build a legal case against him.

The raid on Comrade Murali’s house follows several decades of state harassment due to his lifelong political activism speaking out for the rights of exploited and oppressed people and his scholarly work contributing on an international level to the development of revolutionary theory. Accused and imprisoned in 1976 for two years, and then again for four years in 2015, Comrade Murali’s continued pro-democracy, pro-people, anti-Brahmanic stance has been a threatening thorn in the side of the increasingly fascist Indian State.

This is not the first time the State has unleashed the NIA on those critical of its oppressive actions and policies. It is, in fact, a common tactic for the State to target a dissident and then send its agents to fabricate a case against them. They used it against Saibaba and then against Rona Wilson and Surendra Gadling and countless others in the notorious Bhima-Koregaon case: first a raid where the NIA seizes computers and phones, then planted evidence is “found” confirming whatever charges they have concocted, and then arrest and imprisonment. As Comrade Murali said after the raid, “They get an order from above: Fix this guy. Put him behind bars. So they cook up a fake case and do it. This is what happened now. It is part of the suppression of democracy that is going on now.”

This tactic is extremely unoriginal, used by agents of despotic states since the beginning of recorded history, and in this case, is being used to target and try to silence all intellectuals, human rights activists, journalists, political, cultural and labor activists who have written or spoken up against Brahmanic Hindutva fascism. They did it in the Northern part of India with the Bima Koregaon case and now they are extending those tactics to the South with this fabricated case.

The details of the “case” are only this:

A person arrested in Hyderabad last year is said to have named Murali, along with C. P. Rasheed, K. P. Sethunath, and C. P. Ismail in Kerala and K. Venugopal, Paani and several others in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh, as people who the Western Ghats Zonal Committee entrusted with the task of doing open propaganda for the CPI (Maoist).

That is all. That is the extent of their “case.” An arrested person allegedly claimed that a committee entrusted Murali with a task. Lacking any other “evidence,” the NIA has been sent to “find” the evidence on his seized computer. This comes as part of the series of raids that have been carried out in Kerala Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.

We call for the end to the harassment and terror tactics against Comrade Murali and all others named in this false cases and charges. We support the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) in their demands for the:

1. Immediate withdrawal of cases against Murali and all Democratic Rights Defenders

2. Repeal of the National Investigating Agency (NIA)

3. Repeal of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)

Name/Organization

Daniel Berger, author, professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies (US)

Comité de soutien à la révolution aux Philippines (France)

Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (International)

Half the Sky (US)

Adam Horowitz, Executive Editor, Mondoweiss (International)

Institute for Nationalist Studies (Philippines)

Joventut Revolucionaria (Spain)

Kabataang Makabayan Europa (Europe)

Kämpfende Jugend Bremen (Germany)

Maoist Communist Union (US)

Material (International)

Joshua Moufawad-Paul, professor of philosophy, author (Canada)

OCRevolución (Spain)

Offenes Treffen gegen Krieg und Militarisierung Stuttgart (Germany)

Red Help Marseille (France)

Redspark Collective (International)

Revolutionary Student—Youth Movement (Bangladesh)

Rote Jugen Mittelfranken (Germany)

Rote Jugend Rostock (Germany)

Roter Aufbruch Dresden (Germany)

Router Ring Braunschweig (Germany)

Rozpor Collective (Czech Republic)

Samidoun (International)

D. Z. Shaw, Philosophy Instructor, author

Supernova Journal (France)

Wild Poppies Collective (US)

Zäme Stah International (Switzerland