INTERVIEWER: One group of people who have been persecuted by the old Indian state are the queer community, such as lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders. What is the stance of the CPI (Maoist) on the movement for LGBT rights in India, and on the persecution of LGBT people by the Indian fascist state?
COMRADE BASAVARAJ: our party understands and analyses the LGBT issue also with Marxist (MLM) understanding. True liberation of the LGBT community from gender oppression and discrimination is obtained only through eradicating class oppression and constant theoretical, political, social, economic, cultural and medical efforts to bring about a change in the perspective of the people. only then they can have a condition to live equal to others and gain respect.
Our party recognises the special problems and rights of the LGBT just as it does of the human, civil rights and all the rights of the oppressed classes, special social sections and all the oppressed nationalities, like it supports their struggles for rights and like it supports the struggles of those being exploited and oppressed by the old (reactionary) Indian state. They are born with certain physical characteristics and physically and mentally special (genetic) characteristics. But they ae part of the humankind. We oppose the oppression and discrimination of the Indian state that represents the capitalists and landlords and acts as comprador to the imperialists. it respects their right to life as Indian citizens, their primary rights equal to all the citizens and the right to have all rights including particular/ special rights concerning concrete problem.
The party provides them partnership in education, medicine, residence, employment, administration and political sectors in the future Indian New Democratic state. It will provide economic and social security, and a healthy social and cultural atmosphere. It guarantees free medicine and introduces pro-people medical system that can provide good health. Thus they can live with the recognition they need or wish, confirm their gender and have the opportunity to have physical and mental treatments, free medicine and a healthy, respectful, scientific life. It also trains the society so that they have an equal and respectful attitude towards them. It supports the movements going on for their rights in the present stage. It opposes the sexual violence, exploitation, oppression, discrimination and sexual opportunism towards the LGBT community.
The LGBT community must not lose any opportunities. They must be provided all the opportunities so as they can utilise all their strength and efficiencies for the society.
In the present stage, the movement going on for the rights of LGBT in India segregated from the social reality of class struggle and is under the influence of individual centered, bourgeois, post-modernist ideology. The movement must overcome it. This movement must become part of all the movements that are working to destroy the Indian state that represents the semi-colonial, semi-feudal socio-economic system and is unleashing fascist repression and cruel exploitation on all the oppressed classes of the country, apart from the LGBT community. The LGBT community also must unite with all the oppressed classes against the three enemy classes namely imperialists, Indian comprador bureaucratic capitalist and feudal classes that are unleashing exploitation, oppression, suppression and discrimination.
Imperialism, ruling classes and their Indian state are indiscriminately utilising the LGBT communityto make the society inactive. They are encouraging the porn industry as a part of cashing on the discrimination towards the LGBT community, their poverty and unemployment. It is encouraging sexual anarchy among the people, especially the youth. Our party opposes it severely. Indian New Democratic state bans porn industry. In one aspect regarding LGBT—the Party opposes and discourages the attitude if a person living a normal life with the recognition of a woman or a manor of anything else (third gender) and on the other continues an unnatural relation and enters into physical relations with many persons in an anarchic manner.
When the concerned individuals lack scientific understanding towards the genetic related extremities by nature and the causative physical particularities related to gender, the attitude towards such issues and individuals will become unnatural doubtful, disrespectful and shameful. In such conditions the concerned persons face discrimination not only from the society but also from the families and relatives.
Then they will be pushed to the situation of living as a separate community. Socialist state provides scientific understanding to all the people of the society. It develops an ordinary understanding so as to accept it as a natural thing.
One section is being attracted towards unnatural physical relations under the influence of distorted culture, sexual anarchy, porn literature and cinema and other such things that imperialism is supporting.
The Socialist state works to establish healthy, mutual respectful human relations in the society through destroying capitalist imperialism, outdated rotten culture and through spreading democratic, socialist culture.
INTERVIEWER: Lastly, I would like to ask you about the situation of revolutionary political prisoners in India. Can you tell our readers more about this situation?
COMRADE BASAVARAJ: The methods and ways that the state adopts to suppress the people’s movements, the ongoing revolutionary movement, anti-displacement movements, workers’ and farmers’ movement, those of the students and youth, government employees, oppressed social sections, fisherfolk, unemployed, tribal and religious minority peoples, struggles for human rights, women, handicapped, pensioners and prisoners are multipronged. Two of them are important. One is to eliminate the people’s leadership and activists fighting in brutal and fascist methods utilising armed forces. The second is to illegally arrest and imprison them. Armed forces, courts, jails and the Constitution that provides the base for these are the important and vital ones in stabilising and protecting the authority of outdated exploitive ruling classes, unleashing persistent exploitation, oppression and anti-people policies. It is an ordinary feature of class society in class society to eliminate those who counter the state through armed forces, arrest and im- prison them, punish them through courts, isolate them from people’s life and destroy their strength and efficiency.
The condition of revolutionary political prisoners in India is becoming miserable day by day. The Indian state had been very inhuman and brutal since a long time, especially since the beginning of the rule of Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist BJP towards all the democratic movements, struggling organisations and also towards the revolutionary political prisoners.
Apart from them it is antagonistic towards the religious minorities, activists of Dalit movements, human rights activists, revolutionary, progressive, democratic, secular student/youth, teachers, patriots, intellectuals, poets, artists, writers, lawyers, journalists, scientists, various social activists, activists of worker and farmer’s organisations, activists of anti-displacement movements and the activists of movements of nationalities such as Kashmir, Naga, Manipur, Asom and Bodo. State follows several illegal methods to suppress anyone who question the anti-people, anticountry, traitorous policies of the governments that represent the reactionary exploitive ruling classes and when not possible to do so, put them behind the bars. It is grossly violating, fascising and saffronizing its own Constitution. It is foisting cases, conspiracy cases indiscriminately and is making arrests. Maoist prisoners in West Bengal and Kerala prisons fought for the right to be recognised as political prisoners and achieved it. But, the Indian comprador ruling class did not recognise the political prisoners languishing in jail all over the country. it is because of its repressive policies.
It is nothing new for the old Indian state to imprison the questioning voices and those who oppose behind bars. It inherited this legacy from the British. Indian state is not only discriminate socially, economically and poli- tically but also constitutionally also towards caste, class and gender. This is continuing in the central and all the state governments. It is implemented towards the poli- tical prisoners also.
The world is aware that the Modi government in the centre stuffed the leaders and activists of political parties of the main stream and the local parties in Kashmir in jail and then annulled the special autonomy to Kashmir. Modi had been unleashing fascism and emergency for the past 9 years more than that during the rule of Indira Gandhi. Thousands of Muslims and Dalit people are behind the bars.
It had become a normal feature to make constant check-ups utilising cruel intelligence agencies such as the NIA with fascist UAPA in its hands; placing illegal equipment in the houses and creating fake documents that they seized them; inducing convenient software such as Pegasus into computers from outside to foist conspiracy cases; and amending UAPA with further cruel regulations. You are aware that a team of IT experts of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) revealed this in the foisted case of Bhima Koregaon.
This is the state that pushed 85 year old Father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist in the Bhima Koregaon case by denying him a straw in a condition where he cannot drink water and disallowing the minimum medical facilities. Except for revolutionary poet Varvara Rao who is severely ill and in old age and social activist Sudha Bharadwaj given conditional bail or almost house arrest kind of stringent conditions, the rest are languishing in the prison for more than four years. 90 percent disabled Comrade Saibaba who was a lecturer in English in the Ramlal Anand College of Delhi University is denied minimum facilities such as wheel chair. 61 year old Comrade Narmada, member of the Secretariat of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of our Party and leader of Dandakaranya women’s movement was arrested in 2019 when she was under-going treatment for higher stages of cancer.
She was put in Bombay prison and denied treatment. Finally she had to wait for her death in a hospice. Her partner Comrade Kiran was also in prison in the city but was not allowed to meet her in her last minutes. Although the court permitted, the jail authorities deliberately let him see only after her death.
Senior members of the CC Comrade Barun, Comrade Tapas, Comrade Vijay, Comrade Chintan became martyrs within a short time of their release since they were denied of proper conveniences during their pro-longed imprisonment. Comrades Sumit (Amitab Ba-gchi) and Asutosh, members of CC are in the jail for the past more than a decade. Polit Bureau member, 76 year old Comrade Kishanda of Naxalbari generation is suffering from 5 kinds of chronic diseases. He is being denied proper treatment and they want to murder him inside the jail. Comrade Sheela arrested along with him as she was going for treatment for four kinds of chronic diseases was also foisted with wrong cases and imprisoned. Comrade Vijay (BG Krishnamurty), the Secretary of Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee, senior citizen, CCM Comrade Kanchan (Arun Kumar Bhattacharya), CCM Comrade Jaspal (Vijay Kumar Arya) are facing imprisonments and tortures. 71 year old Comrade Kanchanda is suffering from several chronic diseases but denied of treatment. All the comrades are holding aloft the Red Flag in prisons.
Thousands of party leaders, cadres and comrades of local organisations of various levels are in jail under trial for a long time. Fake evidences were created on them are they are imposed prolonged punishments, life and hanging. 10 comrades were imposed hanging and three with life imprisonment by the Jehanabad district court in Sinari case in Bihar. Mercy petition in hanging for four comrades in the Bara case is pending in the President’s office for the past 2 years.
Finally the President issued orders that they have to stay in jail as long as they live. Munger district court imposed death sentence to five tribal farmer activists.
In Jharkhand, a member of the East Bihar-North East Jharkhand Special Area Committee Comrade Praveer was imposed death sentence by the Dumka district court. All this is the continuation of the illegal and conspiratorial hanging of revolutionary peasant guerrilla activists Bhoo-mayya and Kishtagoud during the criminal period of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. This is the continuation of hanging warriors like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev by the British colonialists a few decades after this.
The police are indiscriminately arresting children, old, women, pregnants and patients of our areas of struggle and show to have surrendered. Those who do not surrender are being murdered in fake encounters.
Many are foisted with false cases and imprisoned. They are in jail for years together without trial and are living in a pathetic condition. They are deprived of any kind of medical help in jails. The conditions are inhuman.
The inhuman conditions create trauma. All these are leading to the death of a few. Such incidents are not being informed to their families. The courts are forced to release many persons because they could not obtain fake evidences after investigation of years together. The families of those languishing in jail for a long time are suffering from economic problems. Family members are mentally depressed and some are suffering from mental ill health. Children’s lives are disturbed. Some families are scattered.
This is a fresh example. Police and Paramilitary forces went on combing to Burkapal village of South Bastar division of Dandakaranya when PLGA ambushed them. 25 CRPF personnel lost their lives and 31 were injured. PLGA seized 24 automatic weapons from them. Later police and Paramilitary forces made attacks on the villages surrounding Burkapal and arrested 122 tribal farmers. They were foisted with false cases and sent to jail. One of them fell severely ill and breathed his last in prison. After 5 years and 3 months 121 people including a woman were recently found not guilty and released by the local court. The extent of foisting wrong cases indiscriminately is clear from the fact that even wrong evidences were not available. TV channels showed the pathetic condition of the 122 families. The Central and the state governments arrested hundreds of farmers during the year long historic peasant struggle. Although the governments agreed to release them with the agreement with Samyukta Kisan Morcha, many of them are still in jail.
The condition of Indian jails is very pathetic. Prisoners and under trial prisoners are suffering from many difficulties. The jail manual is very old. This is a duplicate of the jail manual prepared by the British in 1894. The Hindutva fascist Modi government is involved in transforming it much bureaucratically in legal forms. Meanwhile the prisoners and under trail prisoners are not provided the facilities even as per the jail manual. The jails are stuffed with prisoners more in numbers than during the British period. For example, while the capacity of Chhattisgarh jails is 6070, there are more than 16,000. They are given low quality of rice, oil, pulses and vegetables and that too not as per the quota. The eatables are normally rotten. Soaps, pastes, clothes and under clothes are inadequate. Many prisoners do not have a chance to obtain them from their families. The lives of poor prisoners are much more miserable. They are made to work hard with nominal daily wages. The women prisoners are in a much more miserable condition. There is patriarchal suppression. CC TV cameras have become a normal feature in all the jails in the name of protection. Women prisoners lack privacy. Since the rule of BJP and Sangh Parivar, non-vegetarian food, eggs and other nutritious food is not being given. Jail authorities indulge in limitless cor- ruption and atrocities. Coupon system is going on in the jails in Bihar, Jharkhand and others.
In tribal areas, prisoners are given soup without tea of breakfast. Body trade is also going on in jail with the help of the officers. The rich, political leaders and mafias obtain all kinds of facilities and luxury in jails.
Trials are prolonged for years and at times even for decades without taking them to courts in the name of lack of escort. The police machinery arrests people, activists of the movement, leaders and activists of people’s movement and leaders and activists of our party and foist scores of fake cases.
The trial is prolonged. Although there are few cases on a few persons, those who are released not guilty are re-arrested near the jail gate, foisted with some more new cases and imprisoned. Comrade Madkam Gopanna, a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee had been in jail for the past 15 years.
He was arrested two times near the jail gate and sent to jail once again. Bails are normally not granted in the courts of many states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bung and Asom. They need to complete the trial and be released not guilty. There is no other way. When there are many cases under many sections, all the punishments are not carried at a time (in concurrency). The punishments are taken up one by one. This situation is beyond that of the British colonialists. A strong movement is needed so as to achieve the right to register all the cases on the accused within four months of arrest and to implement concurrence.
At present the judiciary is being fascised day by day under the rule of Brahmanic Hindutva BJP government. Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Modi and Amit Shah passing judgment on the Zakia Jafri petition related to the massacre of Muslims by Hindutva forces in Gujarat. Social activists Teesta Seetalvad was arrested the same day. Gandhian social activist Himanshu Kumar petitioned for justice to the family members of 16 tribal people massacred in Gompad-Singaram by the armed police forces in 2009 in Dandakaranya. He was found fault for wasting the time of the court and was imposed Rs. 5 lakhs or rigorous punishment for two years. The whole world was shocked and raised voice against this attitude.
The supreme court indirectly told not to approach the courts and that if approached they will be sued. Deputy jailor of Central Jail in Raipur (the capital of Chhattisgarh) Varsha Dongre was suspended from duty for a facebook post exposing the inhuman behaviour of the police toward tribal prisoners. Sukma district additional magistrate Prabhakar Gwal was suspended in 2016 and later removed from job when he did not agree to send hundreds of tribal people to jail. He said that it is not possible unless identity papers such as Aadhar card are presented.
One important thing needs to be brought to your notice in this regard. Jail comrades have been constantly making struggles against the inhuman conditions and for their just demands. They are obtaining better results to an extent temporarily. Leaders and activists of our party are organising the ordinary prisoners in the prison and taking up struggles for their rights. They are observing revolutionary days and protest days in the prison. They are moulding prisons into centers of class struggle, study and education. They are facing intense repression, tortures, atrocities firmly and with dare and continuing their political efforts.
Women political prisoners are in the forefront in the struggles of the jail comrades. We bring a small example to your notice. The struggle of women prisoners in the leadership of women activists of our party in Jagadalpur Central jail in Chhattisgarh in 2013 gained magnificent victory. The struggle achieved rights such as taking the undertrials to each and every adjournment to the court, providing immediate medical treatment to the ill, joining them in hospital, issuing separate independent kitchen to women prisoners and giving daily wage to women prisoners on kitchen duty.
On the other hand, it is organising different democratic forces in support of the struggles of jail comrades, so that they take up solidarity struggles outside the jail and arranging legal aid (judicial help) for their release. They are working to the best of their strength for this purpose. Anyway, we need to organise advocates, democrats and rights activists in the necessary extent to work in this direction.
Party is mobilising revolutionary people in support to the struggles of the jail comrades on 13th September on the occasion of martyrdom of Comrade Jatin Das, the revolutionary hero who made indefinite hunger strike for 64 days for the rights of prisoners against British imperialism. Intellectuals and democrats are observing the day. They are organising interviews in large numbers, to meet families of jail comrades, extending support to the possible extent and holding rallies, meetings and seminars. They are making efforts to provide legal aid through advocates. They are forming committees for the release of political prisoners, organisations and legal aid committees and to extend them.
On the other hand jail comrades are making attempts to the best of their strength to break from jail. The Jehanabad jail break, Dantewada jail break, guerrilla action on Lakhisarai court, Chaibasa jail break-1, 2, the escape of 6 revolutionary children from the Rourkela juvenile home, guerrilla action on the escort vehicle of Giridih prisoners, the escape of 9 members of revolutionary children’s organisation from Dantewada juvenile home are few examples. Jehanabad jail break and attack on Giridih escort vehicle stand as examples to incidents that took place with the support of the party from outside. Another example is to get a PBM released from the escort police when he was brought to the Lakhisarai court.
However, the various kinds of attempts going on for the release of the comrades and their rights are going on to a little extent due to the intense enemy offensive, the limitations and weaknesses of urban movement and democratic movements. Our party, the movement and the people have the heroic revolutionary tradition of escaping from jail. There were jail breaks during Naxalbari in the process of which comrades were martyred. When the secretary of AP SC Kondapalli was brought to hospital when in Visakha jail, he and another SCM were released from the police. Four comrades including the AP SC secretary Shyam broke fromAdilabad jail in 1987 along with three Rifles.
However, in the present condition of severe repression and bureaucratic rule in the country and jails, we need to intensify attempts from the inside and also outside.
This year due to the initiative and special effort of ICSPWI, action week is going to be observed for the release of Indian political prisoners from 13th to 19th September 2022, in support of them and to stop the heavy drone attacks made jointly by the BJP government in the leadership of Modi and the Bhupesh Baghel led Congress government in Chhattisgarh on our areas of movement. The CC of our party appreciated the call of the ICSPWI and appealed to make it a success.
There is a strong need to build, strengthen worldwide militant, organised solidarity movement for the political prisoners with the demands Political prisoners of all the countries such as Philippines, Turkey, Peru, Galicia, Afghanistan and all the countries of revolutionary movement including India must be unconditionally released; all those arrested as a part of social, political struggles and are in jail must be provided the status of political prisoners; there must be a stop to the violating of rights of prisoners, especially political prisoners and women prisoners and the atrocities and suppression on them; jail manuals must be reformed; conditions in jail must be improved according to them. Our Party hopes that the efforts of ICSPWI goes in this direction. It declares that it would make the efforts in India in this regard and firmly believes that the movement shall gradually develop.
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