New Delhi: Marxist ideology, books of quotes from the works of Mao Tse-Tung, protests for Gaza—these are among the Uttar Pradesh Police’s grounds for detention of 65-year-old journalist Satyam Verma, booked under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980 for allegedly “inciting violence during the workers’ protests in Noida” last month.
“Because of industrial unrest and violent atmosphere, adverse impact has happened in the atmosphere of industrial progress which is the reason for the generation of fear, terror and panic among the industry planners and investors. It is because of the disgusting ideology of the illogical and stubborn violent andolanjeevi persons like you who with their extreme activeness are the decisive planners of such circumstances creating public unrest and actively create industrial unrest in Haryana’s Manesar industrial area and Noida [sic],” the police report, as quoted in the detention order issued by the District Magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar, says.
On Tuesday, Verma’s wife Shakambhari filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking to declare the preventive detention under the NSA as illegal. The court has issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh and Central governments.
The Noida workers’ protest spread from Manesar after the Haryana government increased minimum wages by 35 percent for workers across all categories after protests and clashes in March and April.
Representing Verma in the Supreme Court, lawyer Shahrukh Alam told ThePrint on Tuesday, “This is not about bail, or to oppose the NSA. We are here to explain a broader point to the court—when the process becomes punishment. The way the criminal law has been used and First Information Reports (FIRs) filed; there has always been a presumption that violence comes from one side.”
“We have to acknowledge that the workers were being paid less than their living wages. It is important to note that the way the FIR was framed: it is against the workers. The reading, writing that somebody does, which is dissent, is [presented as] a precursor to violence,” she said.
Khaki view
Verma, a resident of Lucknow, has been under preventive detention under the NSA since mid-April. The police report, attached with the detention order by the Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate, says Verma “instigated the workers working in the industrial enterprises” in the industrial areas of Noida’s Phase 1, 2, 3, and Sector 58, 63 and others to collective violence, armed disturbance, and large-scale arson of public and private properties.
The report speaks of an “adverse impact” on the “atmosphere of industrial progress which is the reason for the generation of fear, terror and panic among the industry planners and investors [sic]”.
Because “you are the founding member of RWPI (Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India) and do the Leftist and, in other words, violent writing covered with the cover of pseudo-writing that incites the new generation to enter into rebel organisations through the books and literature of Janchetna Pustak Pratisthan acting as an ideological catalyst and are the publisher and writer of Mazdoor Bigul newspaper [sic],” the report explains further.
The police investigation has found Janchetna Pustak Pratisthan and Mazdoor Bigul to be the masterminds of the Noida unrest. It says that all the core group members of fraternal organisations of RWPI and Verma were members of the “hyperactive WhatsApp group Mazdoor Bigul”.
Aditya Anand and Rupesh Roy—arrested earlier—were administrators of this group, the report said. “Through them, 883 workers were added to this group… the violence was instigated through 10 groups including this group through bulk messaging… it led to arson and more than 50 vehicles were burnt and broken.”
“From your office, the copies of the Mazdoor Bigul newspaper, books of quotations from Mao Tse-Tung’s works and other objectionable anti-democratic system articles were found. From the evidence, it is directly revealed that these made an active contribution in inciting violence which led to such a large-scale violence and arson causing large-scale disturbance and obstruction in the even tempo of public life [sic],” the report says.
Also Read: Low wages, no overtime pay—why workers in Noida are protesting
Links with Gaza, pollution protests
And, there’s more. A representation made by the SHO of Noida’s Phase 2 Police Station to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Noida, that has been attached as an annexure to the petition, says that Verma, a founder member of the RWPI, with headquarters in Karawal Nagar, Delhi, “is an ideologue of active Marxist ideology with his core group members who were active in the movements against labour codes in several parts of the country, activated the core group members of his organisations with which he is actively associated with, in order to accelerate the workers’ movement in Noida industrial area.”
The representation says that Mazdoor Bigul and “the publication institution Janchetna in Lucknow that publishes the articles of his Marxist ideology and literature, started sending the print material spreading the Marxist ideology to Rupesh Roy, who is a very active activist associated with fraternal organisations Ekta Sangharsh Samiti, Kulesara Noida, Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Mazdoor Bigul Dasta since 2015 so as to make hold in the working class of Noida [sic].”
“From the compilation of evidences and facts, it is revealed that RWPI has been very active in the NCR’s industrial area. Satyam Verma has been found to be associated with the Bigul Media Group whose admin and core coordinator is Aditya Anand. At the same time, he is also associated with the Facebook page of this newspaper, and a Telegram channel has also been started with the name of the same newspaper… Verma was associated with this group. This is the same social media group that laid the ground for the violent movement in the hotspot of Phase 2,” it says.
“He was not just associated with the group… it has been found that this person, who has links with career of media and news agencies from his background, contributed ideologically to the core group members to provide the explosive situation from his ideological extremism [sic].”
The detention order says that the activists are connected with a network of agitation groups, all associated with organisations like Mazdoor Bigul, Bigul Mazdoor Dasta, Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra that organise workers’ movement and protest demonstrations throughout India.
“In the Delhi pollution demonstration, they raised slogans in support of Maoist commander Madwi Hidma who was killed in a police encounter in Andhra Pradesh. Baba Thoke and Dhananjay, who are associated with RWPI, were found active in Gaza protests and demonstrations against cooking gas supply at Samvidhan Chowk in Mankhurd. The active members of RWPI were found present during the Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens protests as well,” it says. The police says this organisation “is running a campaign against labour codes in more than 10 states”.
It says that the RWPI had called for an all-India general strike with the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) on 12 February. “Not just that, they have sympathy with Palestine as well,” it mentions, adding that the organisation had made a separate branch called IPSP (Indian People in Solidarity With Palestine).
The police report mentions Himanshu Thakur, associated with RWPI, and with Satyam Verma, as he writes for Mazdoor Bigul. “From this room of Himanshu, Dialectical Materialism and second article capitalism and the crisis of Gen Z was found which has been published by RWPI’s creative artist league. The concluding summary of this article is that mind of India’s adolescents and youth who are below 25 have become alienated and the social sensitivity is at superficial level and they don’t have any sensitivity with social concern and neither do they have national consciousness and this can be taken advantage of by terming the system as fascist and prepare them for any movement [sic],” it says.
“There are facts showing that Satyam Verma is the ideological pioneer and guide to the violent incidents that took place in Noida,” the police report says.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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