People's Democracy

 WEST BENGAL                                                                               

Movement Against HC Ruling Gathers Momentum

B Prasant

THE ruling given by a Kolkata High Court judge, banning all rallies and processions between in the morning to in the evening on working days of the week, has met with a burgeoning protest movement across Bengal and even the legal community has been constrained to identify the ruling as out-of-line.  Most political parties, with the notable and expected exception of the BJP, have come forward to register their anger and anguish at the order. Eminent men and women of letters have remonstrated against the HC ruling.

As announced earlier, the Bengal Left Front organised a mass convention at the Mahajati Sadan against the HC ruling in Kolkata on October 8, an event that was attended by so many people that the spacious hall could not accommodate even half of those who came.  The vastness of the gathering who braved the torrential rain, the flooded streets and a rapid diminishing of public conveyance, represented the antipathy and resentment of the mass of the people at the arbitrary attempt of an “activist adjudicator” (as the corporate media would laud the HC judge) to restrict democratic rights that are explicitly enshrined in article 19 of the Indian constitution.

In his address, senior CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu declared that struggle and vigilance were the twin weapons against forays into the realm of democratic rights. The series of attacks that were coming down on the hard-earned rights of the people must be protested by the people through movements.

Describing the ruling as arbitrary and devoid of practicality, Basu, himself a bar-at-law, expressed his annoyance as well as surprise at the manner in which a judge, caught in a traffic jam for a few minutes, would choose to vent his anger on rallies and processions in a suo motu judgement. Basu pointed to the upcoming elections to the Lok Sabha and wondered whether the people would be deprived of the right of assembly and of the right to organise marches because of an arbitrary decision of a single judge. Basu recalled, “Nowhere in the world have meetings and rallies ever faced such a blanket ban as exemplified here by the ruling.”

Jyoti Basu drew attention of the massive assemblage to the recent and continuing pronouncements by the courts of law, including the apex court, to impinge in a gratuitous manner on the democratic rights of the people of the country by interfering with, and seeking to ban, the right to strike. 

“In the democratic set - up that we have today, people can register their remonstration and disapproval in two ways,” Basu pointed out. “One is the legalistic way, and the other, a much more powerful alternative, is to take to streets. Organisation of rallies, meetings, conventions and marches forms part of the popular movement.” At a time, when the courts of law seemed to be bent upon interfering with the democratic rights of the masses, would the latter have much regard and respect for the former, was Basu’s query.  Basu opined that the people of Bengal would never bow down to arbitrary judgements and said that processions would be organised against the HC ruling. He declared, “If necessary, we are ready to go to jail for the sake of upholding the democratic rights of the masses.” Basu said that the Left MP’s should take up the issue in parliament even as democratic movement would continue apace against the judgement until the courts of law retracted and annulled the ruling.

CPI(M) state secretary Anil Biswas asserted that that there was no way the Left Front was indulging in a fulmination against the judicial system as such. The judiciary, said the CPI(M) leader, formed a part of the democratic set - up as did the popular right to organise demonstrations, rallies and processions. Democracy in India, said Biswas, would flourish through the popular movements and struggles that had taken place over the years and decades.

The recent judgements of the courts of law, said Biswas, would end up in weakening the basis of the democratic set - up. “We in the Left Front and the CPI(M) are working to safeguard and strengthen democracy by protesting against the arbitrary orders of the courts of law.” He recalled the exemplary role that judiciary had played during the Emergency and had stood against the amendment of the Indian constitution at that point of time. Instead of carrying on to keep alive that tradition, the courts of law are engaged in pronouncing judgements that beg the question whether or not the judiciary is functioning to safeguard the policies and principles of the BJP-led union government. “We protest this frame of mind of the courts of law,” said Biswas.

Traffic congestion was a problem in every growing urban conurbation, said Anil Biswas, who continued to point out that the Left Front government has been engaged in the task of improved traffic management in every manner possible. The Left Front government of Bengal has declared that nobody should resort to Rasta roko and Rail roko indiscriminately. It has also specified sites in the city for the organisation of public rallies. Political parties and mass organisations must make a joint endeavour to find out ways and means of organising programmes that would not interfere with free movement in the city.  An old-style firman of the courts of law would merely complicate the problems, concluded Biswas.

Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Basu, who presided over the convention, noted that the students and youth, trade unions and women’s organisations had announced programmes to protest the HC judgement. He appealed to the artistes and litterateurs, too, to organise protest meetings and marches. Biman Basu warned that while the present ruling was limited to Kolkata, districts might be brought within its purview in future if the masses did not protest against the ruling.

Biman Basu reminded the audience that the Left students’ and youth organisations would bring out a procession in the city on October 13. The next day will see the trade unions take to the streets. The day after, the Left women’s organisations will organise a protest march.  

The speaker called upon processionists not to encroach the road wholly and not to inconvenience the common people.  “Nobody,” said Biman Basu, “brings out processions and organises rallies for the sake of mindless revelry: processions are taken out and rallies are organised to protest against attacks brought down on lives of the common men and women.”  Biman Basu also cited a Supreme Court ruling to question the manner in which the HC judge passed a suo motu ruling in the case.

In a resolution passed unanimously, it was declared that “till hunger, unemployment and injustice remained, the masses shall have the right to protest through meetings and processions.” The resolution called upon the people of Bengal to rise in protest against the High Court judgement.

Elsewhere, the Bengal Bar Council has threatened to move court with a contempt petition against the Bengal Left Front on the issue arising out of the Kolkata High Court’s judgement, quietly forgetting the fact the council itself had gone on strike a few months back for a very long period on the basis of a set of demands related to the lawyers’ profession.

By the time we go to press, the Kolkata High Court had stayed the ban imposed on rallies in the city. (INN)