Neeta Kolhatkar
Just recently the Maharashtra Special Public Security (MSPS) Bill, 2024 was passed through a voice vote in the monsoon session of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. It will now be introduced in the Council and then be sent to the Governor for his sanction, which is just a formality. This is definitely a step towards a police state, something which Maharashtra was not till now. A state that has been known for progressive thinkers, strong civil society, there have not been strong critical protests since this Bill was passed.
There is also something about the voice vote and the chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis using it. In 2014, Fadnavis won a crucial confidence motion with the help of voice vote, he was of course helped by President of Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar and the Shiv Sena, which was an ally of the BJP said, it was strangling of democracy. Well, the strangling of democracy continues. Worse still, the Opposition conveniently staged a walk-out and allowed the Bill to pass. They wrote an eight-page dissent note, as symbolic optics. Not a single elected representative from the opposition parties, Namely NCP (Sharad Pawar), Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) objected to this Bill. The only dissent vote was of the CPI (Maoist).
Initially, after the General elections in 2024 this Bill was proposed in the Parliament. Now while the civil society has decided to oppose it and many seemed shocked by the introduction of the Bill right after the polls, this bill was termed as the anti-Urban Naxal Bill. Then it was stalled as there was immense criticism and outrage. The modified Bill still uses this term Urban Naxal, and in its introductory paragraph says, “The state government has introduced this Bill to counter the urban spread of Urban Naxalism.”
Now just imagine the situation. The Offences under the new Public Security Bill will be cognisable and the accused can be arrested without a warrant. Punishment includes jail terms of two years to seven years, along with fines ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh. Also, Fadnavis assured the house, the Bill will not be misused and would be to restraint the actions of people against the government. This also includes those who stage protests, oppose ‘development’ projects and so on. There have often been central leaders who have said in the past, that there are too many civil society protests and opposition in the state of Maharashtra. However, this Bill does seem to be specifically directed against Communist groups.
We need to go back nearly a decade for finding the reasons for this political predicament against the Left and the new-age Urban Naxalism. All of these have led to intensified measures against the Maoists, Naxals and people of the Communist ideology across India.
These measures involve arrests of intellectuals, activists, lawyers, medical practitioners, professors and even journalists. The governments sent plainclothes police to University campuses and have arrested even students. India is becoming a police state and this Bill is not the end, it is going to get worse. This time it is in the name of Urban Naxal, those strong opponents who question the government, they are formidable opponents and may want to topple the government. Now none of these stated intentions are anti-national, terror-linked or against the fundamentals of a democracy. These are ingrained in the principles of democracy.
I have been following developments in this country as a journalist. Like I said a bit earlier, the measures against the Naxals, actually began in 2006. The then PM, Dr Manmohan Singh in a meeting of all Chief Ministers of this country, stated, “It would not be an exaggeration to say that the problem of Naxalism is the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country….”(Sic) . Thereafter, among the most prominent arrests made by the Congress government was that of Dr. Binayak Sen, a paediatrician, in May 2007. He was charged under Sedition. Now, there are many draconian laws that exist, this is an additional one. I have featured in my book, The Feared: Conversations with 11 political prisoners, how all these people have been arrested for opposing the government at some point or the other. Dr Sen has told me, “I never thought I would be in such a situation. Never in my remotest dreams did I think I would end up being jailed twice on sedition charges. It was not even a quality I aspired for. One of the fact-finding reports we jointly published about the Salwa Judum was entitled, ‘When the state makes war on its own people’. It is a reality that the state is waging war on its own people. And large sections of our people have to face that reality.” (Pg 143).
The investigations haven’t yielded conclusive results, as there is no supporting evidence to the claims made by the investigating agencies. The judiciary too have failed to get the trials on time and ensure conclusive closures. Cases against them continue to drag on for decades. Kobad Gandhy, a sympathiser of the Communist movement including its radical wing, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was arrested in 2009 by the Delhi police, under UAPA. He continues to attend the various court cases across the country. Another is Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj who is out on a conditional bail. She is not allowed to leave the city or travel to her work place, which is in Chhattisgarh, mainly, separated from her daughter. Meanwhile, in Mumbai, she has had to change her house thrice. “Well, I don’t feel completely free. I am in a new city, while till now work has been in Chhattisgarh. My union is there, I used to practise in the High Court over there and most importantly, my daughter was studying in a college there. This was the most painful part of being in Mumbai, being away from her.”
Each has been arrested in various draconian laws or sections and they have been incarcerated for long periods of time. Like Sedition, UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), TADA, MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act), Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and other anti-terror laws, as every government in the last two decades has attributed Maoist and Naxal activities as anti-national. That every single government has continued to fail the citizens in the remotest tribal areas by denying them basic amenities, educational and health facilities, by not integrating them with the mainland and denying them their rights to the forest, taking away their lands, the politicians helping industries and mining conglomerates. This conflict between the governments and the people which began since independence continues to date. There was certainly a huge vacuum due to the absence of an empathetic government, which was filled by the Left groups and organisations that reached out to these sections of society to empower them. However the conflict with the government and its agencies led to even violence.
There are renewed violent actions of killing activists and even their supporters in encounters with the news of high quality iron ore that has been found in Gadhchiroli. There are fears of tribals losing their lands and while the government anticipating resistance from the Maoist organisations believes once this law is enacted, it will restraint these groups as protests under the proposed law will not be allowed.
Maharashtra will all political parties seem to be aligned to the American sentiment of anti-Communist ideology.
