CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat consoles the mother of Junaid, who was lynched by a mob on board a train, in Haryana. Image: PTI

The delegation was part of the protest programme organised at Jantar Mantar today when hundreds of men and women holding placards demanding justice for Junaid sat on dharna. It was organised by the Haryana and Delhi committees of the CPI(M).

Addressing the dharna, Brinda Karat said that the present Government is a joint venture of the BJP- RSS bent on implementing the agenda of Hindutva. Strongly criticising the recent statements of the BJP President, Amit Shah, Karat said that instead of condemning the lynchings he has justified them with his highly objectionable comparison of earlier acts of violence forgetting that even those acts were also by none other than the sangh parivar.

Brinda Karat appealed for unity of all sections against the divisive agenda of the sangh parivar. Hannan Mollah, Polit Bureau member of CPI(M),  strongly condemned the cattle sale notification an instrument to destroy the livelihood of farmers. He expressed support for the demands of the meat sellers association who had come in large numbers to join the dharna from Ghaziabad and Noida.Other speakers included comrades K. M. Tewari, Surinder Malik, Inderjit Singh, Sehba Farooqui. The meeting was presided over by Nathu Parshad.

Memorandum Presented to the Home Minister dated July 4, 2017

Shri Rajnath Singh
Home Minister
Government of India
New Delhi

Dear Shri Rajnath Singh ji,
We write to draw your attention to the increasing cases of violence including lynching, and also false cases against  members of the Muslim, Dalit and adivasi communities in the name of cow protection. Unfortunately in many of the cases, the families of the victims are being further victimized. While it is true that such cases are to be dealt with by respective State Governments, we believe that as Union Minister for Home Affairs a strong intervention is required from your Ministry.

Today July 4,  the NCR and Haryana Committees of the CPI(M) have organised a protest dharna at Jantar Mantar on specific cases given below. Family members of the victims in these cases are also participating in the dharna hoping for justice.

1. In the case of the lynching of 15 year old Junaid on a local train, it is shocking that the main accused have not yet been arrested by the police. On the contrary those involved in this horrific lynching are inciting villages in the area to protest against even the arrests that have been made. They are emboldened by the soft attitude of the State Government which has not sent a single Minister or official to condole the death of Junaid or to enquire about the health of his elder brother Shakir who was badly injured. You will be shocked to know that the State Government has made no arrangements for proper treatment for Shakir. He has been standing in queues at the OPD in Government hospitals in Delhi in great pain. Even after this terrible incident, there are no security forces posted on these train routes. We were informed that communal gangs on these trains  pick on passengers identifiable by their appearance to be Muslim and make extremely provocative and highly objectionable statements against them.

In the case we request you to ensure arrest of all those guilty including the main accused, intervene to stop the communal campaign going on in the area to protect the guilty, ensure treatment for Shakir, adequate compensation for the family and security on the trains.

2. You are no doubt aware of the horrific case in Dingarheri, Haryana last August (August 24, 2016) when two girls of a muslim poor farmer's family were gang-raped, a couple was murdered and other family members injured by a communally charged gang. After strong protests, a CBI inquiry was ordered. Some arrests were made. However although the case has not moved forward in the court, pressure is being put on the family by the accused. Shockingly, a false case of murder has been filed against the victims family to pressure them into coming to a "compromise".  In this case too, the role of the Haryana Government has been in support of the accused.

Two  members of the  victim's family have been arrested under FIR no 49 dated 10-2-2017.  This is a travesty of justice. We request you to intervene in this case and to ensure that the false case against the victim's family is withdrawn.

3. In the case of Pehlu Khan, the dairy farmer from Mewat, who was brutally killed in Ajmer, Rajasthan all the accused have still not been arrested. No compensation has been given to his family or to those who were injured in the attack. On the contrary, an utterly fabricated case of cow smuggling has been filed against the victims.    Their milch cows were impounded and cash snatched from them have still not been returned to them.

In this case we request you to intervene with both the Rajasthan and Haryana Governments to arrest all the accused, to give compensation to Pehlu Khan's family and to those injured, to return the Milch cows and cash and to withdraw the false case against them.

4. In the case of Md. Iqlakh of Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, it is two years since a communally incited mob broke into his home and brutally beat him to death and grievously injured his son Danish. It is shocking that even after two years the court has not framed the charges against the accused. One by one all the accused are out on bail, threatening the family. A false case of cow slaughter against the deceased and his family members was filed in a private complaint by the accused in a local court. This has become the pretext to run a vile campaign against Iqlakh's family to protect the accused. His brother Jan Muhammad has faced many threats and has had to abandon the family house. In spite of repeated pleas to the administration, the house was not protected, the locks were broken and the apprehension is that the accused who have had full access to the house, could have planted evidence to help the false case against the family.

This is to request you to ensure that the murder case is expedited, the false case against the family withdrawn and Danish the son who was sitting for competitive exams but could not do so because of his serious injuries which required brain surgery, should be given Government employment.

5. The fifth case we draw your attention to happened in the heart of the Capital on April 24,  this year. A truck with buffalos was stopped by gangs in three cars near the Kalkaji Mandir. They were badly beaten. An FIR number 0166 dated 23.42017 was filed by Rizwan, the driver of the vehicle. Two of the car numbers were also identified by the victims, but shockingly the accused have not been arrested.

Since the Delhi police are directly under your Ministry, we request you to take direct action and ensure the accused are arrested.

In addition, we urge you to direct Home Ministry officials to collect information about the cases of cow related violence from States which include Haryana, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and even Delhi. There is a pattern in the violence which indicates that these are not spontaneous cases of  "mob violence"  but behind each of these cases are organised groups of so-called gau rakshaks owing allegiance to a particular brand of Hindutva ideology.  In almost all these cases, the accused if and when arrested are easily given bail; charges are not framed even after months if not years; on the contrary in most cases victims or their families are faced with false cases; compensation is not given in many of the cases; there is a soft approach in most cases from the Government towards the accused. Our request is to monitor and follow up on each of these aspects so as to bring justice to the victims and also to send a strong message to ensure prevention of such crimes.

Yours sincerely,
(Brinda Karat)                                                                                (Surinder Mallick)

Member, Polit Bureau, CPI(M)              Secretary, Haryana State Committee CPI(M)

(K. M. Tewari)

Secretary, Delhi NCR, CPI(M)
 

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Comrade Zafar himself had submitted a memorandum to the Nagar Parishad some days back protesting against the campaign of public shaming and bullying of women for defecating in the open. In the memorandum he had demanded community toilets and repairing of the non-functional public latrines constructed under the Swacch Bharat campaign. He had also unsuccessfully sought to submit the memorandum to the DM who had refused to accept it.  

We demand that the Nagar Parishad Commissioner Ashok Jain and others named in the FIR lodged in Comrade Zafar's murder case be arrested and speedily punished. We demand that the Central Government and all State Governments officially declare public shaming and lynch mob tactics in the guise of Swacch Bharat campaign to be illegal and punish officials promoting the use of such tactics.

The drive to end open defecation cannot proceed on the basis of inflicting indignities on the poor and helpless people who have no access to private or public toilets. The present strategy of ODF campaign is giving rise to corruption, fake claims and public humiliation of deprived people. Governments must reverse this draconian strategy and unleash a positive campaign popularizing toilet use, with a focus on construction of toilets, assured availability of water, and proper arrangements for toilet-cleaning.

All over the country, sanitation workers are fighting for their dignity and rights against oppressive and inhuman working conditions. It is highly unfortunate that the Rajasthan Government, which denies sanitation workers their due rights, used them as fodder in the public shaming and lynching campaign on the pretext of Swacch Bharat.

We appeal to all the forces struggling against mob lynching, for women's rights and dignity, and for sanitation workers' rights, to unite in the struggle for justice for Comrade Zafar.         

We salute Comrade Zafar's lifetime of activism as a Central Executive Member of the All India Construction Workers' Federation and a member of the CPI(ML)'s Pratapgarh district committee. Comrade Zafar gave up his life to uphold and defend the dignity of women who were at the receiving end of the draconian Swacch Bharat campaign. 

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Veteran communist leader and former World Peace Council president Romesh Chandra passed away today in Mumbai, the CPI said in a statement. Ex-member of national executive of the CPI, Chandra died at around 3 PM in the Maharashtra capital due to old age, party leaders said. He was 97.

"Chandra's was witness to the historic peace movement. He made hefty contributions towards the movement. His demise is a big loss," CPI Maharashtra secretary Bhalchandra Kango said. According to the Left party's statement, Chandra had taken part in freedom struggle as a student leader and later joined CPI and went on to become its national executive. Chandra, who joined the Council headquarters in Helsinki as its president and played a role during cold war era, had addressed United Nations' General Assembly as peace body's leader many a times, the highest number of times as an Indian, the party said.

A recipient of Lenin Peace Award, Chandra had also worked as the editor of CPI's central organ New Age. "The Central Secretariat of the CPI pays its respectful homage to one of its prominent leaders and sends party's condolences to the bereaved family," the CPI said in a statement. Chandra is survived by his son Firoze. His wife, had passed away last year, Kango said. They had been separated.

The World Peace Council (WPC) expressed grief and loss at the passing away of our veteran leader and President of Honor Romesh Chandra today in Mumbai. He has been recognised to have served decades long the peace movement in India and the world. Romesh Chandra was born on March 30, 1919, in Lyallpur, India. He received degrees from a university in Lahore and from Cambridge University. From 1934 to 1941 he was chairman of the Students’ Union in Lahore. He became a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1939, of the Central Committee of the CPI in 1952, of the National Council of the CPI in 1958, and of the Central Executive Committee in 1958; from 1963 to 1967 he was a member of the Central Secretariat of the National Council of the CPI. From 1963 to 1966, Chandra was editor of the central organ of the CPI, New Age.
He served as General Secretary of the All-India Peace Council from 1952 to 1963. In 1953 he joined the World Peace Council, and in 1966 he became the WPC’s General Secretary and a member of its presidium while in 1977 he was elected President of the WPC. During the Assembly of WPC in Athens in 2000 Romesh Chandra contributed decisively to the preservation of the anti-imperialist character of the WPC and got elected President of Honour.

He served and contributed to the struggle of the peoples and their just causes and championed in the solidarity movement with the peoples under dictatorial regimes, for the liberation and self-determination of the peoples in dozens of cases all over the world. Romesh Chandra was awarded the F. Joliot-Curie Gold Peace Medal in 1964. He received the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace among Nations in 1968, and he was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples in 1975 by the USSR.

Romesh Chandra was a genuine son and figure of the Indian working-class movement and one of the leaders of the world peace movement.

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