WEST BENGAL

Statewide Protest Against HC

Judgement On Rallies

B Prasant

THE suo motu judgement of a Kolkata High Court judge banning holding of all rallies and processions between 8 AM and 8 PM in the state has come in for all-out opposition from the people of Bengal. 

The HC judge in his order of September 30 has condescended to allow rallies and processions to be held only during the hours of night and on holidays.  For the metropolis, the HC judge has thought fit to needlessly repeat what the Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee by specifying certain locations for the organisation of rallies and meetings.

In his order, the HC judge has called upon the Police to ensure that the organisers of rallies and processions deposit a hefty amount with them, and any person who considers himself/herself to be affected by the rally/procession shall have the right to extract compensation which would be paid out of the funds deposited.

The order came in the wake of an incident that exposed the frame of mind in which the judgement was put up and passed.  The concerned judge was held up for a brief period on September 29 in Kolkata when his car was caught up in a large rally organised by a tribal organisation.  The police was not willing to oblige and forcibly clear the way for the judge since that would have caused a confrontation with the rallyists who were several thousands in number and had police permission to hold their programme.

In a huff, the judge went to the Kolkata High Court and framed an order on his own, i e, without there being any appeal lodged from anybody, against all rallies and processions from being held except on holidays and between 8 PM and 8 AM.

A widening wave of protests has started to sweep across Bengal as soon as the news of the order was run with great aplomb and open appreciation by the corporate media.  In particular, the Telegraph of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika house, has taken it upon itself to try to ‘justify’ the order by organising ‘opinion polls’ to bolster the verdict and by carrying articles that violently attack the right to hold protest programmes in the streets. 

Other scions of the corporate media including the Statesman, and a few of the Bengali language dailies, especially the Bartaman, and a whole host of TV channels are not found far behind in their expression of hatred scorn against the democratic sentiments of the mass of the people.

The groundswell of protest has been wide and deep with the common people coming forward to flay the HC judge’s order.  The central and the state committees of the CPI(M) have condemned the order.  The state unit of the CPI(M) has announced that it will organise statewide movements to go to the people to make them aware of the implications of the HC order and why all-out protests must be organised against it. 

Speaking at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, state secretary of the CPI(M),  Anil Biswas said: “The Indian Constitution provides the citizens of the country to organise meetings and to assemble for that purpose; the administration can, at most, impose some restrictions without infringing the basic constitutional right.” He made it clear that both the judicial system and the rallies furnished and strengthened the basis of democracy.

Anil Biswas added to say that the state government has already come up with a government order that rallies and demonstrations could be held in the city’s three designated areas: Brigade Parade grounds, Shahid Minar maidan, and Rani Rashmoni Road.

Biswas went on to say that only by enhancing the popular consciousness could a spontaneous movement be formed and that this was achieved in a way all-over the country with regard to the Supreme Court order against the right to strike work. 

A powerful and statewide campaign-movement would be built up, assured the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, against the order of the High Court judge.  The issue, said Biswas, was discussed at the recently concluded meeting of the central committee of the CPI(M).

He said there is no scope for a confrontation with the judiciary.  At the same time, he added, no system could be above the political process.  Biswas reminded those who were wont to use the Kolkata High Court judge’s view as a weapon to berate the Left Front and the CPI (M) with, that progressive legislations, and indeed the concept of legality itself, were the direct fruits of popular movements.

“It is through democratic movements,” Biswas pointed out, “that the rights of the people have been established and enshrined throughout the ages.  Such movements shall continue unabated in times to come.”  Biswas noted that without a progressive judicial system in operation, a democratic and civilised society could not be sustained just as without the presence of a strong democratic movement, progressive legislations could not be framed and implemented.

Anil Biswas said that there is a dangerous crystallisation of an authoritarian frame of mind in the judiciary in India and that this is exemplified by the recent spate of judgements of the apex court and, more recently, of the Kolkata high court, against democratic movements including the right to resort to strike actions.  As it is, holds the CPI (M) leader, the judiciary functions at the behest of the ruling classes most of the time.

In the meanwhile, meeting at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on October 4, the Bengal Left Front has resolved to organise wide-ranging protest movements all-over the state against the HC order. 

Left Front chairman, Biman Basu made it quite clear that the judgement banning rallies and demonstrations in the daylight hours and on working days was a non grata and that the order was out of tune with the rich historic heritage of democratic movements of the city of Kolkata.  The order, declared Biman Basu, must be protested against for the sake of upholding democratic rights and that the matter brooked no delay.

“We in the Bengal Left Front shall never accept this order,” said Biman Basu.  He pointed out that there was no question of complying with the order since it was not in keeping with the rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Biman Basu was also sharply critical of the manner in which the judge had fulminated against the rally of the tribals and indigenous people.

Biman Basu said that the HC order, following as it did in the wake of the Supreme Court orders banning strikes, were fall-outs of the policy of neo-liberalism that the BJP-led NDA government in Delhi had gleefully embraced.

The Bengal Left Front has announced that it will hold a convention in Kolkata in the evening of October 8 to protest against the HC order. Processions will congregate onto the venue from different parts of the city. 

The Left Front has appealed to the TU’s, the Kisan organisations, the students-youth, the teachers, the women, and the artistes and intellectuals to convene protest meetings against the HC order and present deputations before the Bengal chief minister, calling upon him to ensure from the side of the administration that the democratic rights of the people were not interfered with.

On October 8, the Bengal Unit of the AIDWA will organise a protest meeting in Kolkata.  On October 14, the left TU’s will demonstrate their protestation against the HC judgement.

On October 13, nine Left students’-youth organisations would organise a march across the city in the early afternoon from the College street campus of the Kolkata University to the Rani Rashmoni Road.  They would submit a memorandum with the Bengal chief minister.  The student-youth leaders said that they would protest against the HC order concerning the ban on rallies and processions by organising the march.

The Bengal Left Front government has already gone to court to oppose the HC judge’s order.  The appeal came up for hearing before a special bench of the Kolkata High Court during the vacation due to the autumn festival. 

Arguing strongly against the HC order, the state Advocate-General raised the issue whether all anti-war rallies and demonstrations, too, would come under the purview of the order?  The division bench had to refrain from passing judgement because the court had not officially received the HC order banning rallies and processions.