On 1st October, from 6 a.m., around 11 mass movement activists, journalists, trade union activists, and civil rights activists’ houses were raided in West Bengal by a joint operation conducted by the NIA, the Gestapo forces of the Brahminical Hindutva fascists RSS-BJP, and the fascist TMC government police’s Special Task Force to contain Naxalism. These raids were conducted based on the age-old excuse of “the suspicion of them being involved in the organizational work of CPI(Maoist)”. They have confiscated books, mobile phones, pen-drive and computer hard-drive from RSF activist Comrade Suddha Satya Ray, film director and former member of RSF Abhinjan Sarkar, trade union activists Comrade Shipra Chakraborty, Comrade Sudipta Pal and Comrade Somnath Bera, journalist Prosenjit Chakraborty and all others. Alongside this just to increase the harassment, they have been summoned as witnesses to the Ranchi office of NIA instead of the NIA office that exists in Kolkata.
It has turned out to be the norm of “Viksit Bharat” where activists struggling for justice are branded as Maoists. State repression is brought down upon those who protest against the attempt to hand over the Jal Jangal Zameen of the country to the different big Indian corporates like Ambani, Adani, Tata, Jindal etc, and their foreign masters of imperialism. All those are branded as Maoists who struggle against the genocide, rape, and aerial bombings on the Adivasis struggling against this ploy, and against the sustained attack on the workers, peasants, women, Dalit, and minority community people of the country. National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval proudly claims that civil society is the new “war front”. In the name of defeating Maoism, from the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case to the different raids in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and states across the country, is a manifestation of the Surajkund Action Plan taken by the Central Government to curb “Naxalite pen-wielders” along with gun-wielders. Home Minister Amit Shah has been conducting meetings across the country with administrative and security chiefs and proclaiming the death toll of Maoism. Ironically, this goalpost constantly keeps moving – what was initially said to be 2022 during the times of Bhima Koregaon, has now become 2026.
Similarly, the state government of the fascist TMC is also enraged since these activists have been involved in protests against corruption, rape, and genocide perpetrated by them from the very beginning of their regime. Most recently, the huge mass movement against the rape and murder of a PGT intern at RG Kar Medical College saw the participation of these activists.
We know that various courts in the country have stated in various judgments that, it is not a crime under the law to believe in the ideology of Maoism or even be a member of CPI(Maoist), unless the person is
directly involved in acts of violence. However, various prominent social activists, lawyers, trade union activists, and human rights activists are branded as “overground workers” of one specific banned Maoist organization and are kept in jail without trial for years. Thus, the trial itself becomes punishment. We apprehend that to suppress the increasing mass protests because of the increasing economic crisis in the country and the center and state’s anti-people policies, the center’s NIA and the state’ STF are hatching a plot similar to the Bhima Koregaon case.
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, strongly protest the raids conducted by the NIA and STF in the homes of 11 political activists in West Bengal to frame fake cases against them. We call upon all the progressive, democratic, and left forces and individuals to build militant mass resistance against this state repression brought down upon the political activists.
Be it Surajkund or Kagar, we will never put down our pens – they are our weapons in this struggle against injustice!
Condemn the NIA-STF raids in the houses of political activists in West Bengal!
Abolish the NIA – the Gestapo agents of Hindutva fascists and corporate capital!
Release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally!
Sign on the statement by sending a message on Ground Zero facebook page or via secretariat@pcfs.global.