The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Saturday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to put an end to “vicious excesses” by the police in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district in the name of fighting Maoists.
Not only were the police picking up CPI members engaged in democratic struggle, but also threatening human rights activists such as Nandini Sundar and Arundhati Roy. The police also instigated an attack on a yatra led by Jean Dreze, Aruna Roy and Annie Raja, said CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan in a letter to Dr. Singh.
Identifying a senior police officer, Mr. Bardhan said not only was he targeting CPI leaders and cadres, men under his command also arrested social activist Linga Ram and routinely intimidate and assault tribals driving them to take up arms.
The CPI leader narrated the case of party leader and district panchayat member Sudru Ram Kunjam who was picked up by the security forces. With his whereabouts not known and fearing the worst, CPI parliamentarian D. Raja finally approached Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai. Apparently after the Home Secretary inquired about the incident, Mr. Kunjam was let off. But the police threatened him for approaching New Delhi and slapped several cases on him. The police in Bastar had also taken into custody another CPI leader as well as several other members, said Mr. Bardhan.
The police officer concerned had also ordered the withdrawal of security to former CPI legislator and All India Adivasi Mahasabha president Manish Kunjam leading to serious apprehensions of threat to his life. Mr. Bardhan drew attention to the officer's statement in the press that social activists such as Ms. Sundar, Ms. Roy and others wanted to “eliminate the influence of the Congress and the BJP and [were] spreading the influence of the Communist Party in Bastar.”
“How is this police officer called upon to decide the relative influence of political parties in the region?” the CPI leader wanted to know.
Mr. Bardhan hoped that the Prime Minister would immediately intervene and enable the release of his party's cadres.
