In yet another incident of caste Hindus attacking Dalits, especially women political workers in Yogi's Uttar Bradesh, Comrade Jeera Bharti, who organises agricultural labourers was abused, thrashed and disrobed by Kurmis of the Mirzapur Block, allegedly Chatru Patel and his men as she was returning to her village on the evening of July 3 with her 14 year old son. The CPI (ML) and AIPWA (All india Progressive Women's Association of Uttar Pradesh will hold a National Protest Against Attack by BJP-Supported Goons on AIPWA and CPI(ML) Leader Comrade Jeera Bharti   

 
 Jeera Bharti is a leader of the CPI(ML) and All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) in Mirzapur, district, Uttar Pradesh. Hailing from the Dalit community, she organizes agricultural labourers – most of whom are women and men from oppressed castes – for their wages, dignity and rights. According to information put out by the CPIML on the night of 3 July, she was returning from the CPIML's Mirzapur Block Office to her village (Riksha Khurd) on her bicycle, with her 14 year-old son. When she reached her village, her way was blocked by Chatru Patel, a local landlord from the dominant Kurmi community, and his family members. He allegedly abused her, grabbed her hair and threw her on the ground. When her son rushed up to his mother’s rescue he too was beaten up. Chatru Patel and his family members including some female members of his family together thrashed Jeera and disrobed her – in the presence of several other people from the local dominant castes. When Jeera dialed the police helpline, but the police took an hour and a half to arrive on the scene.  

The next day, July 4,  Jeera Bharti recorded her FIR at the police station. At this time, it is alleged, that BJP MLA from Marihan, Rama Shankar Patel, himself from the dominant Kurmi community, also came to the police station accompanied by a large number of his supporters. Under this political pressure, the police refused to invoke the relevant sections from the law against violence on women and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act pertaining to disrobing and assaulting a Dalit woman. The organisation has said that " it is shameful but not surprising that a MLA from India’s ruling party should himself demonstrate at a police station to defend people who committed gender and anti-Dalit violence.  "

The BJP MLA Rama Shankar Patel himself has reportedly pending criminal complaints against him of violence against a woman, and his nephew and supporters have pending complaints against them of violence against women and minorities    Significantly, Jeera Bharti was the CPI(ML) candidate in the 2014 Parliamentary elections and enjoys great respect in the area as a strong defender of the rights of workers, women, Dalits and the poor. She led a recent movement for wages of agricultural labourers due to which daily wages were increased to Rs 100. This movement has reportedly enraged the feudal landlords in the area.     

This attack on Jeera Bharti is symptomatic of the manner in which dominant caste and feudal elements feel emboldened by the Yogi regime to launch violent attacks on activists and people from the Dalit community. The attack on Dalits at Saharanpur followed by arrest of the Bhim Army leader; the manner in which people from the Musahar community of Kushinagar were demeaned by giving them soap to ‘clean themselves’ in preparation for Yogi’s visit; preventing Dalit activists from Gujarat from entering Uttar Pradesh because they were preparing to present Yogi with a 125 kg soap cake in response to his act of demeaning the Musahars; and arrest of well-known Dalit activists for holding a press conference has now been followed by the assault on Comrade Jeera Bharti.

All dissenting voices are being gagged and attacked. The CPI(ML) office in Varanasi was raided recently and student and youth activists of AISA and RYA have been arrested and jailed in UP.    
AIPWA will hold demonstrations all over the country on July 6 and 7, demanding that the assailants of Comrade Jeera Bharti be booked under the relevant sections of the SC/ST (PoA) Act and Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013.          

(The information has been put out by Rati Rao, President, AIPWA, Meena Tiwary, General Secretary, AIPWA and Kavita Krishnan, National Secretary, AIPWA )
 

 

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Veteran CPIML leader Comrade Srilata Swaminathan passed away in Udaipur (Rajasthan) in the early morning of February 5. She was 74. Comrade Srilata had suffered a brain stroke on  the night of January 28 and was rushed to a hospital in Udaipur where she breathed her last following a cardiac arrest.

Comrade Srilata was born in Chennai on April 29, 1944. After finishing college she came to Delhi and joined the National School of Drama and subsequently went to London to pursue her interests in theatre. But back in Delhi in 1972, her life took a decisive turn. She joined the CPIML and began organizing farm workers in Mehrauli region of Delhi. She also worked among hotel workers in Delhi. During the Emergency she was imprisoned in Tihar jail for a period of ten months following which she was interned in Chennai. For Comrade Srilata this only meant an opportunity to plunge back into trade union work among Port and Dock workers.

After the Emergency was lifted in 1977, Srilata returned to Delhi and shifted base to Rajasthan in 1978 to start working among Adivasis, women and various sections of working people from rural bonded labour and displaced people to trade unions in the mining sector and various industries. For a woman with an elite background and upbringing to adopt rural Rajasthan as her area of Marxist activism was a bold decision that typically reflected Srilata's revolutionary zeal and political courage. Till her last breath she worked to strengthen the revolutionary Left movement and spread and defend progressive ideas and values against the deeply entrenched feudal-patriarchal forces and communal-mafia nexus in Rajasthan.

Following the early 1970s setback to the CPIML, Comrade Srilata worked for some time with Comrade Kanu Sanyal, but the rise of the IPF in Bihar attracted her attention and following the highly inspiring Delhi rally of the IPF in October 1990, Comrade Srilata joined the CPIML along with Comrade Mahendra Chaudhary, her husband and comrade-in-arms, and hundreds of other comrades. She was elected President of the All India Progressive Women's Association in the mid 1990s. At the Varanasi Congress of the CPIML in October 1997, she was elected a member of the Central Committee, a responsibility she continued to discharge till she had to be relieved on health grounds at the Ranchi Congress in April 2013. She was also a Vice-President of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions.

Comrade Srilata was a remarkably versatile activist with great creative energy, infinite enthusiasm and strong political will. She withstood every adversity in life with characteristic resilience and powerful sense of humour. When her deteriorating health stopped her from attending the AIPWA National Conference in Patna in November 2016, she composed and sang a song for the delegates and sent the audio clip to the conference. With her wide-ranging concerns and activism, Comrade Srilata was a natural bridge between the CPIML and various streams of progressive democratic ideas and action. She had high respect for all struggles of the people for a progressive cause and had great hopes from the CPIML-led struggles in Bihar and Jharkhand. She had deep empathy for the people and felt deeply for all her fellow comrades working on various fronts.

Comrade Srilata's illustrious legacy will continue to inspire us to carry forward the struggles of the oppressed people for dignity, democracy and social emancipation.

Red Salute to Comrade Srilata Swaminathan!

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