La Cause du Peuple: Let us pay tribute to GN Saibaba, who died for New Democracy!

We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by La Cause du Peuple.

On October 12, we heard about about the death of GN Saibaba, an Indian professor, and this shocked us. Being less than 60 years old, he had just spent 10 long years in the prisons of the Modi regime. He died from a medical problem that had developed in the jails.

Saibaba was born into a peasant family in Andhra Pradesh. From the age of 5, after having polio, he suffered paralysis of his lower limbs which forced him to move around in a wheelchair. As an adult, his disability was estimated at 90%. He had no electricity at home. He got his wheelchair only after arriving in Delhi in 2003. Before that, he was moving around by crawling and using other means of support. His father grew rice on three acres of land, but when young Saibaba was 10 years old, he lost his land to creditors. Despite the difficulties, his excellent results in class allowed him to obtain scholarships throughout his schooling. He succeeded in becoming an English teacher in Delhi in the 2000s, thanks to his determination.

From 1992, he participated in the Forum of Popular Resistance of India in Hyderabad and began to become involved as an activist for democratic rights and the rights of people. In 1998, in Warangal, he mobilized 200,000 people for a meeting demanding statehood for Telangana (Hyderabad region). GN Saibaba became Deputy Secretary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). At its first conference in 2012, hundreds of delegates from mass organizations of peasants, workers, intellectuals, lawyers and other sections of the people elected their representatives, of which he was one. Speaker of the conference, Saibaba spoke on the national struggles in India: “Saibaba stated that Kashmir has a continuous liberation struggle of 40 years, and RDF not only supports it but is also a part of it. The RDF plays the role of bringing together and uniting all the struggling movements of the subcontinent, including the revolutionary struggle, national liberation movements of Kashmir, Nagalim, Assam, Manipur etc., separate statehood demands of Telangana, Gorkhaland and others, and mass struggles of Dalits, Adivasis, workers, peasants and women.” 1 Later that year, the RDF was banned by the State.

Saibaba during a demonstration against police violence.

We can notice the great strength of GN Saibaba who, despite his handicap, in a semi-feudal, semi-colonial society, became a truly recognized leader of the democratic movement. He was not just a prisoner, not just a disabled man, he was above all a well-known activist, a great democrat, participating in numerous demonstrations, protests and conferences. He is an example of what the class struggle produces best: great activists who overcame difficulties, even personal, even medical, to wholeheartedly serve the people.

In May 2014, the Maharashtra Police arrested him on charges of alleged links with Maoists and organizing meetings in the name of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). Besides Saibaba, five other people were also imprisoned.
Saibaba’s worsening health conditions due to his disability led to a temporary release on bail in 2015, which was revoked later that year. In 2016, the Supreme Court again granted him bail, but in 2017, the Gadchiroli district court convicted him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

This law, the UAPA, dates back to the very beginning of the People’s War, in 1967, where it aimed to crush the peasant and national revolts which were sweeping across India. In 2019, it was amended by the government to allow the prosecution and imprisonment of individuals without reason. Between 2016 and 2020, 24,134 individuals were arrested in the name of this law, and only 598 were tried, the majority was acquitted. This means that almost 98% of those arrested are not tried but imprisoned without trial. It is a truly anti-democratic law, to repress activists.
After years of imprisonment in the Nagpur Central Jail, the Bombay High Court repealed the verdict of the Gadchiroli court on October 14, 2022, acquitting Saibaba due to the insufficient evidence. However, the next day, the Supreme Court repealed the acquittal and ordered a new trial. On March 5, 2024, the Bombay High Court acquitted Saibaba and others of all charges, stating that the evidence presented was not credible. Saibaba was released from Nagpur Central Prison on March 7, 2024.
During his time in prison, Saibaba suffered severe challenges, including isolation in the “anda cell” 2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated that his health was seriously neglected and that, despite his repeated requests for medical treatment, he often only received painkillers to relieve his pain. His death during a medical operation on October 12 is therefore directly linked to this mistreatment.

Throughout the world, since 2014, international solidarity with Professor GN Saibaba has been expressed. In India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Austria, Germany… his name was chanted and freedom for him was demanded. Hundreds of various activities took place to demand his release and denounce his illegitimate arrest. In France, our comrades and those of the Internationalist Red Collective (CRI Rouge) organized activities, conferences, put up of posters, and others as part of participation in this great campaign since 2015. In 2018, the first great march by Jeunes Révolutionnaires for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in Paris held numerous placards with Saibaba’s face. His situation and his struggle were known worldwide. He was not mistaking when he wrote in his poems: “When I was at home and in the outside world, I had many friends. When I am incarcerated in this prison’s Anda cell, I have gained many more friends across the globe. 3 .

Protest in Hyderabad in 2016 for his release.

Posters for the release of Saibaba in 2017 in Paris during the demonstration for the release of Georges Abdallah.

GN Saibaba can only be described as a great democrat, even by his murderers. He always stood on the side of national minorities, oppressed peoples, the poorest and most deprived of Indian society; the vast majority of the population of the subcontinent. The persecution he suffered by the bankrupt Indian State shows the hypocrisy of the “world’s largest democracy”, as European and North American imperialists like to call India.

Indeed, who can believe that the old Indian State, with its millions of forces of repression, whether police, military or paramilitary, could have been threatened by this man in a wheelchair? If Saibaba was murdered, it was for his ideas, for his relentless defense of a full democracy in India, a democracy which goes beyond the narrow limits that the bourgeoisie and the big landlords of India impose to guarantee their power. He has always opposed the military operations of massacres and genocides which rage in the Indian countryside, which seek in vain to crush the people’s war. He was the enemy of billionaires like Tata and Ambani, of foreign monopolies like Nestle, IBM and Coca-Cola. He was, like the writer Varavara Rao who was also arrested then released on bail in 2022, a representative of these Indian intellectuals who chose the side of the people, who refused to serve a corrupt social order which drags hundreds of millions of Indians into misery.

His death was a shock and an indignation within the ranks of all those struggling for a new democracy, for revolutionaries and for communists. Since the information was made public, tributes have multiplied. During the transfer of his body, the forces of repression prohibited it from being transferred to the Hyderabad Martyrs’ Memorial for a tribute to be paid to him. The students, friends and activists who accompanied his coffin mobilized against the police to demand throughout the afternoon that his body be brought into the memorial. They chanted the slogans: “Saibaba amar rahe!” (Long live Saibaba!), “Inquilab zindabad!” (Long live the Revolution!) and “Lal salam!” (Red Greetings!). Eventually, they took his body to Gandhi Hospital, respecting his wish to have his body donated to science to aid research.

Activists and friends of Saibaba during the procession of his coffin.

The death of GN Saibaba leaves a vibrant testimony to the vitality of the Indian revolution. At the same time, it exposes all the hypocrisy of the so-called “Indian democracy”, in reality in the hands of the biggest reactionary executioners and butchers of the people. Saibaba raised his fist high all his life, carrying the right flag of emancipation, even in prison. He who had been raised by his mother, wrote a moving poem to her at the same time when she was ill and the state refused him the freedom to say goodbye:

“Mother, lose not your hope.

I realized that jail is not death,

it is my rebirth,

and I will soon return home

to your lap that nurtured me

with hope and courage.

Mother, fear not for my freedom.

Tell the world,

my freedom lost

is freedom gained for the multitudes

as everyone who comes to stand with me

takes the cause of the wretched of the earth

wherein lies my freedom.” 4

Let us pay tribute to GN Saibaba, who died for New Democracy!

1 https://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/revolutionary-democratic-front-rdf-the-first-all-indian-conference-the-first-day/

2 Cells reserved for high security prisoners, egg-shaped. Access to the rest of the prison is closed and the cell is guarded by 6 people 24 hours a day.

3 https://www.bannedthought.net/India/RDF/Saibaba/Saibaba-WhyDoYouFearMyWaySoMuch2022.pdf

4 https://www.bannedthought.net/India/RDF/Saibaba/Saibaba-WhyDoYouFearMyWaySoMuch2022.pdf

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