India – bsCEM: Statement Against Recent Arrests
We hereby share a statement published by the Bhagat Singh Student Union Platform (bsCEM) on October 21.
On 16th October, Randall Sequeirra and Laxman Naik were arrested in a case related to the demonstrations by Adivasi villagers against an access road to the Sijimali hilltop for Vedanta’s bauxite mining project on 6th and 7th April, earlier this year. Police arrived at Sequeirra’s residence at around 11pm, seized the phones of both activists and took them to the town police station. Throughout their detention they were not allowed to talk to lawyers or family members. These arrests of activists who have been a part of resistance against illegal land grabs are an attempt by the state to quell and crush the struggle of Adivasis for their land, and enable corporate loot for their masters.
Randall Sequeirra is a doctor who has worked with Adivasi communities in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts, and also participated in the struggles for their land against illegal land acquisitions in service of big corporations and their representatives in the state. Laxman Naik is a Dalit activist working in the Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Manch, an organization that has been at the forefront of the struggle against Vedanta’s bauxite mining project.
The Odisha government auctioned the bauxite mining lease for Sijimali in 2023, and Vedanta won it. Since the Sijimali region falls under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and requires approval of the gram sabha for any project to take place, a manipulated and farcical gram sabha approval was declared by the state in December 2023 despite consistent opposition by the villagers of Kalahandi and Rayagada.
The state has time and again showed that it represents the interests of the ruling classes and will subject the toiling masses to constant surveillance and brutal repression to crush their movements against capital. The law exists to preserve this semi-feudal and semi-colonial social formation, and keep India as an underdeveloped appendage of imperialist powers. The arrests of Randal Sequeirra and Laxman Naik are a part of this attack of capital to repress the struggle of locals for their Jal, Jangal and Zameen, and clear the way for Vedanta’s mining operations in the bauxite rich hills of Sijimali. All of this, is carried out in the name of “development” and “economic growth”!, which, instead of uplifting the economic conditions of the lives of the masses, subjects them to greater exploitation.
We strongly condemn these arrests by the cowardly state of the comprador bourgeoisie, and urge on all progressive, democratic and revolutionary minded individuals and organizations to stand in solidarity with the struggling Adivasi masses of South Odisha, and to resist this Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist state militantly, to create a truly democratic society. We urge the people to build struggles towards building a new democratic society, with power in the hands of the working masses, which is the only solution to the present exploitative society. All our efforts need to be directed towards that, in unity.
RELEASE RANDALL SEQUIERRA AND LAXMAN NAIK !
OPPOSE IMPERIALIST LOOTING OF RESOURCES !
JAL JANGAL JAMEEN KI LADHAI ZINDABAD !
BHAGAT SINGH CHHATRA EKTA MANCH (bsCEM)
