India: Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) – On the NIA raids in Bengal
We hereby publish an unofficial translation of a statement published by the RSF.
On suspicion of being associated with the organizational activities of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), at 6 am on October 1st, 2024, raids were conducted at the homes of about 11 mass movement activists, journalists, trade union activists and human rights activists. This is a Gestapo force, a joint force between the NIA and the STF, the Special Naxalite Suppression, wing of the fascist Trinamool government’s police force. Books on Marxist politics were supposedly taken from the homes of Comrade Shuddha Satya Roy (Ribhu), member of Revolutionary Students’ Front, from an ex-member of Revolutionary Students’ Front and documentary maker Comrade Abhishyan Sarkar, trade union activist Comrade Shipra Chakraborty, Comrade Sudipta Pal, Comrade Somnath Bera. The mobile phone, pen drive and computer hard drive of the journalist Prasenjit Chakraborty, were confiscated. They were also called to attend to the NIA office in Ranchi, Jharkhand, despite NIA having its office in Kolkata.
The State terror on the workers, peasants, women, Dalits and minorities by calling them Maoists is done by carrying out rapes, murders, aerial bombings on indigenous people struggling against the handing over of the country’s water and forest land to the hands of domestic and foreign big corporations. “New India” has become a daily occurrence. India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, proudly declares that civil society is today’s new “war front”. Starting from the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case in the name of eliminating Maoism, the crackdown on the workers of the mass movement in every state of the country including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bengal is actually the implementation of the above statement of Ajit Doval.
We know that various courts in the country have already ruled that simply believing in the Maoist philosophy or even being a member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) is not a legally punishable offense as long as the person is not directly involved in any violent act. Yet, we see the Brahmanic Hindutva fascist BJP as part of the Surajkund strategic project brought by the RSS, arresting and imprisoning prominent social workers, lawyers, trade unionists, human rights activists, supposed “overground workers” of a banned Maoist party and jailing them without trial for years. Our apprehension is that new conspiracies like the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case have been hatched by the Center’s NIA and the State’s STF to quell the growing public protests as a result of the country’s growing financial crisis and anti-people policies of the central and state governments.
We, on behalf of Revolutionary Students’ Front, strongly oppose the search operation intending to blame 11 mass movement activists including our member Comrade Shuddha Satya Roy (Rivhu), ex-member Comrade Abhishyan Sarkar, trade union activist Comrade Shipra Chakraborty, Comrade Somnath Bera, Journalist Prasenjit Chakraborty in their house by NIA-STF. We are clearly of the view that this State attack on the workers of the mass movement is actually a well-planned conspiracy to suppress the ongoing democratic struggles in the State as well as the country. We call on all progressive, democratic and left-wing forces and individuals to mount a militant mass resistance against this State terror unleashed on mass movement workers.
