Student Youth Barricade at Parliament and Nationwide Jail Bharo

On 9 August, the very day that students and youth from all over the country were pouring into Delhi to be at the Barricades at Parliament against corruption, the papers quoted Delhi Police officials saying that the protest would be allowed only till 6 pm, and no group could be allowed to hold a continuous sit-in for 100 hours.

The Barricade site at Jantar Mantar showed that this was an anti-corruption protest with a difference. Along with the demand for scrapping the sarkari Lokpal and passing a strong Janlokpal, there were a variety of creative banners and placards saying “Privatisation is the root of corruption”, “Stop corporations from scripting our laws,” and supporting the people’s movements at Jaitapur, Jagatsinghpur and so on.

Students and youth from 20 states participated - Punjab, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Karbi Anglong, Tripura, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. In addition, nearly 500 students from the JNU, DU and Jamia Millia Islamia joined the Barricade. In JNU, entire classrooms emptied as students joined the AISA activists in busloads. Hundreds of Jamia students came in spite of the fact that campus security tried to browbeat them and stopped their buses. Eventually the students from Jamia had to come by public transport buses rather than the buses booked for the protest.

Hundreds of workers from Delhi – including DTC workers, street vendors, construction workers, security guards and women domestic workers – joined the Student-Youth Barricade in solidarity, under the banner of the AICCTU and the CPI(ML). They continued to be volunteers throughout the sit-in.

The mood at the Barricade was full of spirit and determination. As evening approached, the police demanded that they vacate Jantar Mantar but students and youth refused to abandon the protest. Cultural team Yuvaneeti’s rousing songs set the mood and the entire gathering stood up and shouted slogans spontaneously. As the police tried to break the gathering, the students formed a huge human chain and not a single protestor left the spot.

The police arrested the entire gathering, including a large number of women students, en masse and held them in Parliament Street police station. The students and youth refused to budge and continued their Barricade inside the police station.

The huge number and the firm determination to continue the barricade even inside the jail, eventually forced the police to release the protestors but warned them that they must not return to Jantar Mantar to continue the barricade. Protestors rejected these completely unacceptable and draconian attempts by police to break the Barricade, and marched back in full strength to reclaim the Jantar Mantar site.

In the days and nights that followed, the young people braved severe rains but without any dampening of their enthusiasm. Cultural teams – Yuvaneeti, Hirawal, Dasta, Sangwari, the Karbi students’ cultural team, and several individual students sang songs in many languages.

Among the many activists, filmmakers, writers and intellectuals who attended or addressed the Barricade were Swami Agnivesh, Prashant Bhushan, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Arundhati Roy, Manglesh Dabral, Anand Swaroop Verma, Chittaranjan Singh of PUCL, Sanjay Kak, Shankar Gopalakrishnan of the Forest Rights Campaign for Survival and Dignity, representatives of AISF and AIDSO, Comrade Arun Ghatai of Communist Party Revolutionary Marxist of Darjeeling, Pravin Gawankar of the Jaitapur anti-nuclear-plant struggle and Ashutosh Kumar of Jan Sanskriti Manch, Delhi.

Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of CPI(ML) addressed the Barricade on 10 August as well as again on the concluding day, 12 August, where he called for a countrywide protest campaign to Combat Corruption, Protect Land, Defend Democracy.

The national leadership of AISA and RYA - Sandeep Singh, President, AISA, Mohammad Salim, National President of the RYA Kamlesh Sharma, General Secretary of RYA and Ravi Rai, General Secretary of the AISA – spoke of the months-long campaign undertaken by their organisations to deepen the debate on corruption and stress the need to combat the pro-corporate policies that are breeding corruption.

Among the leading student youth activists from various states were Harmeet and Harman of AISA and Hashmeet of RYA from Punjab; Malati Haldar and Lalit Matiyali (AISA, Uttarakhand); Ramayan, Sarita Patel, Sunil, Dinesh of AISA, and Balmukund Dhuriya and Comrade Rana from RYA from UP; Abhuday, Manoj Manzil, Markandey, Rahul of AISA and Amarjeet Kushwaha and Naveen of RYA from Bihar; Hemlal Mahato and Jagmohan of AISA and Amal of RYA from Jharkhand; Malay Tiwari and Jul of AISA and Souvik Ghoshal and Apoorva Ghosh of RYA from W Bengal; Litulal of AISA from Odisha; Balindra Saikia of AISA and Chhotan Mazumdar of RYA from Assam; Laichan Engleng of KSA; Kaushik of AISA Tripura; Jeevan and Abhilasha from AISA Maharashtra; Bharati, Venkatachalam, and Rajshankar of AISA Tamilnadu; D Prasad of AISA Karnataka; Shajil from LCC Kerala; Farida Zakariya of AISA and Yunus Zakaria of RYA from Gujarat; Uday Kiran of AISA from Andhra Pradesh; and Dharmendra from Chhattisgarh.

The Student-Youth Barricade ended on 12 August with a rousing resolve and collective pledge to return to their campuses and states and continue the campaign against corruption and corporate grab of land and resources. AISA has given a call for a nationwide Student Strike and Human Chain on campuses on August 24 to protest against corruption, corporate grab of land and resources and assaults on democracy.

KSA Students at the Barricades

Particularly impressive was the contingent of nearly 200 students from Karbi Anglong, which included a large number of women students. Their journey to Delhi was longest but they remained at the Barricade till the end.

On August 11, the KSA, AISA, Karbi Students’ Union Delhi (KSUD) and RYA held a protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar against corruption in Karbi Anglong, demanding autonomous state and scrapping Clause 8 of the BLT Accord. CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya also joined the march and addressed the gathering.

KSA leaders Laichan Engleng, President, KSA Central Committee, Ranjit Kramsa, Organising Secretary, Executive members of KSA CC Sandar Teron, Longbir Timmung, and Hemphu Ingti led the protest. Apart from AISA and RYA national leaders, KSUD General Secretary Dr. Mongve Rongpi, and Comrade Arun Ghatai of the CPRM addressed the protest. A memorandum to the Home Minister was submitted.

Countrywide Jail Bharo on Quit India Day

On 9 August, tens of thousands of CPI(ML) activists all over the country courted arrest, barricades streets and rail lines in the ‘Fill the Jails’ (Jail Bharo) call given by the party against corruption, price rise and repression. Demanding that Manmohan Singh quit for the multiple scams and price rise, they also targeted the corruption and repression by various state governments.

At Patna, more than thousand participated in a spirited procession braving rains held from Gandhi Maidan to Kotwali police station. The jail bharo agitation here was led by Party’s General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, CC members KD Yadav, Ram Jatan Sharma, Meena Tiwari and Saroj Chaubey, and they raised the BIADA land scam by the Nitish Government as well as central government scams. Protest processions were held at Ara, Madhubani, Darbhanga and all over Bihar in the rains.

In Jharkhand, Jail Bharo was held in six districts of the State with the largest participation at Giridih with 3000 people courting arrest in front of the DC, led by CC member Manoj Bhakt and CCPI(ML) MLA Vinod Singh. In Ranchi, hundreds from Ramgarh, Hazaribagh and Bokaro as well as Ranchi district marched from Ranchi Railway Station to Albert Ekka Roundabout in a heavy downpour. Marchers were arrested here and detained at Jaipal Singh Stadium where they held a protest meeting. At Palamu, 2000 people courted arrest. Court arrest programmes were held at Dhanbad, Koderma, Santhal Pargana and Dumka too.

In UP the Jail Bharo targeted the CMO scam and murders and the repressive Mayawati regime as well as central government’s scams. Agitations were held at Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Chandauli, Gazipur, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Devaria, Balia, Pilibhit, Jalaun, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muradabad and Varanasi, while thousands courted arrest in the state capital, Lucknow, led by State Secretary Sudhakar Yadav and CC member Krishna Adhikari.

At Uttarakhand, Jail Bharo was held at Nainital, Almora, Pithorgarh, Chamoli, and Garhwal. In Haldwani hundreds of people held a spirited march and completely blocked the Nainital national highway in front of the SDM court. A large number of women participated in the blockade.

1500 were arrested in Kolkata, and Jail Bharo was also held at Siliguri, Bankura, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur and other districts in West Bengal. Four hundred courted arrest in Siliguri with gusto. 14 people were injured in police crackdown and 2 people received serious injuries.

In Tamilnadu, the Jail Bharo preceded by an intensive campaign among workers at various centres, including cadre meetings, padayatras and leafleting in workers’ areas and factory gates. As a result, thousands of workers were among those who courted arrested all over TN on August 9 at 14 centres including Chennai, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Villupuram, Kumbakonam, Virudhachalam, Pudukottai, Kanyakumari, Colachal, Salem, Madurai, Karur and Sirkazhi. About 200 courted arrest in Puducherry at two centres.

Com. S. Kumarasamy, PBM and all India President of AICCTU, who had camped at Coimbatore for a month and stayed at the Pricol Union office for 15 days, led the workers at Coimbatore in courting arrest at a place where even a public meeting is not allowed. In Kumbakonam of Tanjore district, hundreds including a large number of rural poor women were arrested, led by Comrade Balasundaram, State Secretary of the party and other leaders.

Hundreds courted arrest all over Andhra Pradesh. In East Godavari, people heading for the district HQ were stopped at their village police stations, but militant protest forced the police to let them join the district HQ protest where they courted arrest. A majority of the protestors were women.

More than 300 people staged a ‘rasta roko’ at Gangavati of Koppal district of Karnataka on 9 August brought traffic to a standstill for more than an hour. Rice mill workers and a large number of women took part in large numbers in the agitation. An impressive demonstration was held in front of Mysore District Commissioner’s office in which construction workers of HDKote participated in good number.

The Mumbai Thane committee of CPI(ML) held a dharna at the historic Azad Maidan in Mumbai. More than two hundred fifty including BMC’s sanitation workers, unorganized sanitation workers and the tribal people of Thane participated. Tribal people from Boisar, Dahisar and Kurgaon, which is about 100kms from Mumbai started for Mumbai at 7am to participate. Comrade Uday Bhat of Lal Nishan Party (Leninist) also participated and spoke at the Dharna.

People courted arrest at Bhubaneswar, Rayagada, Kendrapara and Gajapati districts of Odisha. A dharna was held at Raipur in Chhattisgarh. In Rajasthan, tribals at Pratapgarh held an impressive protest in pouring rain. 150 were arrested at a big rally at Jhunjhunu, and a protest was held at Ajmer too. Hundreds courted arrest at Guhawati and various districts in Assam.

Campaign Launched on 16 August

On 16 August the party launched its ongoing campaign to combat corruption, protect land, defend democracy, demanding scrapping of the sarkari Lokpal Bill and Land Acquisition Bill, and protesting assaults on democratic protests.

When Anna Hazare was arrested on 16 August, the party burned effigies of Manmohan Singh all over the country – not just at state capitals but at district HQs and various other centres, in spirited and militant, well-attended demonstrations at W Bengal, UP, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha, Puducherry, TN, AP, Tripura, Rajasthan, and other states.

An effigy was burnt at Jantar Mantar in the national capital too. In Delhi, students of Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia, led by the AISA National President and General Secretary showed black flags to Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal at a public meeting on the sarkari Lokpal Bill at Mavalankar Hall, where they were assaulted by Congress supporters.

A Convention at Ara on ‘Combat Corruption, Protect Land and Defend Democracy’ was followed by a protest procession in the town. At Gujarat, 90 people courted arrest at Bhavnagar. In Assam, between 19-20 August, a torch light procession at Nagaon, cycle rally at Jorhat, and a protest procession at Guwahati. At Guwahati a hunger strike was organised under the banner of ‘Save democracy Save India’, a joint forum comprising of AIALA, Sangrami Chah Sramik Sangha, AIPWA, bank trade unions, anti-eviction and development committees etc. Many organizations extended their support to this programme.

An impressive torch-light procession to Lalkuan, Uttarakhand was held on 17th August. In Tamilnadu, again, workers of Pricol held demonstrations at factory gates and Coimbatore city centre between 16 and 18 August. In Chennai on 16 August, TIDC workers immediately held a demonstration in the factory gate, following which workers of another 4 factories held factory gate meetings immediately. Workers held a demonstration in the busy Ambattur Market in the evening. In High Court, Chennai around 40 advocates participated in a 80-strong demonstration on 18 August. In the effigy-burning at Villupuram on 17 August, State secretary Comrade Balasundaram and District Secretary Com. Venkatesan, AIPWA State Secretary Com.Shenbagavalli and other activists were detained by police and later released. On August 17, at Namakkal district power loom workers held demonstrations. Demonstrations were also held at Kumbakonam and Tirunelveli and poster campaigns at Kanyakumari and Salem.