The BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh have enacted laws to recover for the damaged government or private property during protests, strikes, rallies, riots, etc from those who had organised the protests and strikes. In addition to the compensation (up to twice the damages), the police’s expenses are also included.
Tribunals headed by former judges appointed on behalf of the government and consisting of government and police officers will impose penalties. If failed to pay, the property of the convict will be confiscated & sold and will be converted into compensation.
UP’s Yogi Adityanath government has illegally put up banners with photographs of protestors and also tried to confiscate their properties to suppress protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. It was heavily condemned. But in March 2020, an ordinance was promulgated and legal repression continued.
While the case against this was sleeping in the Allahabad High Court, it was enacted into a law in the Assembly in March 2021. A similar law was enacted by the BJP governments in Haryana in March 2021 and in Madhya Pradesh in January 2022.
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Those who think what is wrong with punishing those who have damaged public property, should understand that the character of the government will be expressed in the provisions of the law it enacts. The saffron fascist clique is in power. They are implementing the political system of the RSS–Sangh Parivar, which is working with a plan to create a Hindu Rashtra.
They will use the state apparatus to suppress and won’t spare not only those who oppose their saffron terrorist activity, but also the struggles of working people against the exploitation of the corporate bourgeoisie, even other bourgeois political parties that are competing with them for power.
This is the time when judges, IAS and IPS officers are resigning from their posts and joining the BJP to take over the party and governance responsibilities. This is a period of hindutva dominance. It is not necessary to say with whom the damages recovery tribunals will be set up by the BJP governments and how it will function.
The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the farm laws were going on peacefully. It was only after the police attack that the protests had turned into riots. The police themselves set fire to vehicles and opened fire on the people who went quietly to the Collectorate during the anti-Sterlite protests.
These laws are aimed at suppressing the rationale of the protests and covering up state terrorism by portraying the organisers of the protests as rioters and paralysing them.
Given the objectives of these laws, the main aim is to intimidate the organisers of the protest rather than the collection of compensation. The BJP is functioning with a plan to extend these laws to each and every state.
Yogi Adityanath had been charged with criminal cases for murder and rioting before becoming the Chief Minister. As soon as he assumed office, the cases were either withdrawn or closed by the government. It is the Sangh Parivar outfits that is continuing to carry out riots in order to capture and retain power.
They openly challenged Muslims at a conference to ethnically exterminate them and create a Hindutva state. We had to fight even to get a criminal case registered against this.
In such a scenario, if we fight against the saffron fascist schemes or fight against corporate exploitation or even if we speak or write against it, then we will be legally portrayed as ‘rioters’, ‘instigators of riots’ and our assets will be frozen by the government.
The protest of the Muslims to wear hijab is spreading all over the country. The saffron fascism is getting ready to legally attack them through State power.
Suresh Sakthi Murugan
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