People's Democracy(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
Vol. XXXVI
No. 34 August 26, 2012 |
Extremists
Attack IWA Meeting, Police Complacent ON August 19,
2012, the Indian Workers’ Association Great Britain
(IWA-GB) made an appeal to
all the secular and democratic organisations, religious
institutions, political
parties and individuals in the On the night
of Saturday, August 18, when the IWA-GB organised an event
at the Ramgharia
Community Centre in Further, these
thugs also complained that they had a difference of
opinion with the committee constituted
for running the said community centre and allowing
bookings for social events
where alcohol and meat could be served. These
self-appointed but unrepresentative
guardians of probity, some 50 plus in number, then pulled
down the banner of
the IWA and physically manhandled ten or so of the
organisers, including three women
and three senior citizens present on the occasion. Those
manhandled by the
goons also included elected municipal representatives from
both the Labour and
Conservative parties. The attack
continued unabated for nearly two hours. The role of the
police was similar to
the apathy shown during the disturbances in When the
hundreds of people, who would have otherwise attended the
celebration, were
denied entry to the venue, gathered outside, they
expressed their outrage at
this unprovoked attack. In a direct response to the
ongoing provocative action
for incitement by the extremist Khalistani thugs, to which
the police remained
oblivious, pro-Indian slogans and against separatism were
raised by the
patriotic members of the IWA. The police reacted by
protecting the thugs while removing
the organisers and participants of the celebration from
the area. Even when the
few remaining members of the IWA were forced to move
across the road from the
venue, the police again reacted in an odd manner and
forced the organisers,
including councillors, former lord mayor of Coventry and
the councillor chair of
Police Committee, to leave the area so that the masked
thugs could vacate the
venue and go home. The IWA-GB has
categorically said that this unprovoked attack to prevent
a peaceful
celebration by patriotic Indian workers and their families
was disturbing and
reprehensible. It was the highest insult to the memories
of all the martyrs of
India’s freedom struggle, the centenary celebrations of
the Ghadar Party, the
martyrs like Kartar Singh Sarbha, Madan Lal Dhingra, Udham
Singh, Shaheed-e-Azam
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, the thousands of
unnamed freedom fighters
and the millions who lost their lives from India and
Pakistan during the
partition of 1947. According to the IWA-GB, this denial of
an Independence Day
celebration was a denial of freedom of speech by
terrorists --- in a city which
otherwise has a proud record of fight against fascism and
which indeed is birth
place of the IWA. The IWA has
informed that the gathering for the celebration was to
hear a message from the president
of The
association said communities across The IWA (GB)
has been a community based representative body of Indian
workers in The IWA
statement was issued by Harsev Bains, Dyal Bagri, Avtar
Jouhl, Balwant Herian,
Ram Lakha, Raj Malhotra, Shira Johal and other
representatives of the Indian community.