20 September is close. Birthday of Chandrashekhar. The young left leader who was murdered in Siwan in 1997. Before he went there he was in the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Known to generations of the university as the President of its students’union. We organise an annual memorial lecture in his name at Patna . This year we had decided to invite a Professor from his university to deliver the lecture. She said a cautious yes as she was not sure if she would be given leave for it. For the last three years the teachers of the JNU have seen their leave application rejected, not only for popular lectures like the one above but also for seminars organised by their professional bodies or peers. But we insisted that she should try. So, we wrote a formal invitation letter to her, without mentioning the significance of the lecture. I apologised to Chandrashekhar for my cowardice. He would have smiled and called it an act of Brechtian cunning, defeating the vicious enemy non-violently.
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Sad at Killing of My Ambedkarite Elder Sister Gauri Lankesh, says Chandrashekhar of Bhim Army, as Govt Moves to Slap NSA on BA Activists
This is an amazing moment. From what we at the Committee for the Defense of Bhim Army have gathered, and from Chandrashekhar’s own letter from Saharanpur District Jail (see below), the administration is moving to slap charges under the National Security Act on Chandrashekhar and other activists. However, while expressing his resolve to fight on, Chandrashekhar also makes it clear in this letter (the facsimile and the text below) that he is equally concerned and saddened at the killing of Gauri Lankesh. He refers to her as his ‘Ambedkarite elder sister’ and pledges to carry forward the struggle to get her justice as well. This is how different dots in the struggle get connected. This is how new nodes of thinking and doing politics emerge. Right now, for us however, the struggle, for the legal defense of Chandrashekhar and other Bhim Army activists is paramount. They want to crush the movement in its infancy and we must ensure it can grow and carry on its struggle for liberation from the yoke of Hinduism and Hindutva.
It is worth placing on record here that when the formation of the Committtee for the Defense of Bhim Army was announced, Gauri had got it touch and expressed her wish to be on the Committee. Unfortunately, that was not to be. But we are sure that this is perhaps the best tribute we can offer to Gauri – carry on the fight for the defense of Bhim Army!
सभी साथियों व माताओं बहनों को जय भीम जय भारत, जय भीम आर्मी,
एक आवश्यक बात आप सब से शेयर करनी है उत्तर प्रदेश के सहारनपुर जिले की जेल इस समय मेरा घर है. एक सूचना आई थी की काले अंग्रेजों की तानाशाह सरकार और उनके हाथ की कठपुतली बना जिला प्रशासन यह चाहता है कि मैं अपनी जमानत अर्जी ना डालू अगर मैं जमानत की अर्जी डलवाता हूं तो वो मेरे ऊपर रासुका लगा देंगे.
पहली बात तो मैं यह स्पष्ट कर दूं कि यह देश हमारा है इस देश के 85 % दलित पिछड़े मुस्लिम वह अल्पसंख्या लोग अपने ही देश में गुलाम अब नहीं रहेंगे हम इस देश के Rakshak भी है और शासक भी है 85 % लोग यहां के मूल निवासी है और दलितों का रक्षक दल चमार जाति की चमार रेजिमेंट इनका उदाहरण है हमने इस देश के लिए बलिदान दिया है काले अंग्रेज जो दलित विदेशी होने का दावा करते हैं वह भीम आर्मी के प्रभाव से डरकर मुझ पर रासुका लगाकर मुझे डराना चाहते हैं तो मैं उन्हें यह कहना चाहता हूं कि रासुका ही नहीं वह चाहे तो मुझे फांसी लगा दे तो भी वह मुझे झुका नहीं सकते.
मैं एक बार नहीं एक हजार बार भी अपनी कौम के लिए हंसते हंसते फांसी चढ़ना पसन्द करुगा और मान-सम्मान वे इस देश में अधिकारों की जो लड़ाई है उसे पीछे नहीं हटूंगा. आजाद न तो कभी झुका है और ना कभी झुक कर कोई समझौता करेगा मुझे गर्व है कि मैं चमार जाति में पैदा हुआ जब तक लहू का आखरी करता रहेगा अपने लोगों की सुरक्षा अधिकार वह मान सम्मान के लिए संघर्ष जारी रहेगा ।।
अंबेडकरवादी बड़ी बहन गौरी लंकेश की हत्या से दुखी हूं पर इनके जज्बे को सलाम उनकी शहादत बेकार नहीं जाएगी हम सब उनको न्याय दिलाकर रहेंगे वो कभी झुकी नहीं इसलिए बड़ी खुशी से आपको यह कहना चाहता हूं कि अगर कल मैं ना भी रहूं तो पीछे न हटना संघर्ष करना आपके संघर्ष से हमारे आने वाली पीढ़ियां इस देश की शासक होगी बाबा साहब ने कहा जीवन लंबा नहीं महान होना चाहिए गुलामी और सम्मान का एक दिन बड़ा होता है उन हजारों साल से ना झुका हु ना झुका गा ना रुका हु ना रुकू गा और ना बिका हु ना बिकुगा आजाद जिया था आजाद मरूँगा जय भीम नीला सलाम जय साहब कांशीराम ।
आपका भाई बेटा दोस्त
*(एडवोकेट चंद्रशेखर आजाद रावण संस्थापक भीम आर्मी भारत मिशन)*
Committee for the Defense of Bhim Army Formed Amidst Continuing Repression
Even as the state government’s repression on Bhim Army continues, most of its leaders still in jail and some forced to leave Saharanpur, a committee has been formed for the defense of Bhim Army. (For background information, please see the ‘Note on Bhim Army’, appended at the end of this post, which carries links to informative videos as well). A group of activists and committed lawyers have been following up the legal struggle practically at their own expense – which at the moment involves getting the arrested activists, including the founder-President Chandrashekhar out of bail as the topmost priority. Some of the activists have started getting bail many still remain, including just ordinary people simply picked up by the people and framed by the police as Bhim Army activists.
However, getting the jailed activists out on bail is simply the first step in a long battle. The deliberate campaign of vilification that has been going on about Bhim Army has tried to paint the organization as ‘antinational’ and ‘instigators of violence’ who apparently have ‘Naxalite’ connections. Even though none of this could be substantiated and thus brought by the police into their charges against the jailed activists, the campaign of demonization has nevertheless continued through some sections of the media. Needless to say, such misleading campaign is meant to incite popular feelings against such groups who have been working mainly for education and self respect among the Dalit population in their area. Such a campaign of vilification cannot but affect the chances of wining the legal battle as well. It also ends up driving people who may have initially been sympathetic to their cause by sowing doubts about them in the popular mind.
It is with this concern in mind that a large number of citizens from different walks of life have come together to form the Committee for the Defense of Bhim Army, in order to mobilize all possible support for the embattled activists.
The Committee for the Defense of Bhim Army has been constituted comprising the following members from different walks of life:
Coordinators: Pradeep Narwal and Sanjeev Mathur
Treasurers: Presenjit Gautam and Nakul Singh Sawhney
- Anand Teltumbde, Civil rights thinker and activist, Mumbai
- Jignesh Mewani, Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch
- Kancha Ilaiah, Political scientist, thinker and writer, Hyderabad
- Chandrabhan Prasad, Dalit thinker
- Radhika Ramaseshan, Senior journalist with Business Standard
- Harsh Mander, Human rights activist and Director, Centre for Equity Studies, Delhi
- Syeda Hamid, Former member, Planning Commission
- Om Thanvi, Senior journalist, former editor, Jansatta
- Sambhaji Bhagat, Cultural activist, Maharashtra
- Meera Velayudhan, Academic, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum
- Martin Macwan, Social activist, Gujarat
- Ratan Lal, Academic, Hindu College, Delhi University
- Sachin Mali, Cultural activist
- Sheetal Sathe, Cultural activist
- S.R Darapuri , Former IPS officer, social activist
- Colin Gonzalves, Lawyer
- Anand Patwardhan, Film maker
- Anil Chamadia, Journalist
- Subhash Gatade, Writer and social activist
- Akram Hassan, Social activist, Shamli
- Surender, Dalit youth activist, Delhi University
- N. Sukumar, Academic, Delhi University
- Rehana Adib, Social activist, Saharanpur
- Banojyotsna Lahiri, Academic and independent researcher
- Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, Actor
- Amar Singh, SC/ST Trade Union, Delhi University
- Dr. Mahesh Chandra, Bhim Army
- Sanjay Tegwal, Bhim Army
- Zakia Soman, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
- Presenjit Gautam, Jati Todo Manch, Ghaziabad
- Pradeep Narwal, Dalit youth activist, Jawaharlal Nehru University
- Saroj Giri, Academic, Delhi University
- Tushar Parmar, IRS
- Sanjeev Mathur, Journalist
- Nakul Singh Sawhney, Film maker
- Praveen Verma, Research scholar, Delhi University
- Aditya Nigam, Academic, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
- Amar Paswan, Ambedkarvadi Chhatra Sabha, Gorakhpur
- Dhirendra, Poorvanchal Sena
- Anil Yadav, Rihai Manch
- Sagar Raghunath, Chhatra Bharati activist
- Dr J.K. Gautam, Doctor
- Dr. Sushil Kumar Gautam, Dalit Youth Activist, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut
- Subhashini Ali, Social Activist
- Mohinder Singh, Professor, JNU
- Prashant Nihal, Social Activist (Bihar)
- Atul Meena, Research Scholar JNU
Continue reading Committee for the Defense of Bhim Army Formed Amidst Continuing Repression
Remembering Chandu, Friend and Comrade: Kavita Krishnan
Guest Post by Kavita Krishnan
It’s been twenty years since the assassin’s bullets took Chandu away from us, at 4 pm on 31 March 1997.
I still recall my sheer disbelief when a phone call from my party office at my hostel that evening informed me ‘Chandu has been killed.’ Chandrashekhar as well as youth leader Shyam Narayan Yadav had been shot dead while addressing a street corner meeting in Siwan – ironically at a Chowk named after JP – Jaiprakash Narayan, icon of the movement for democracy against the Emergency. A rickshaw puller Bhuteli Mian also fell to a stray bullet fired by the assassins – all known to be henchmen of the RJD MP and mafia don Mohd. Shahabuddin.
In the spring of 1997, as JNU began to burst into the riotous colours of amaltas and bougainvillea, Chandu bid us goodbye. He had served two terms as JNUSU President (I was Joint Secretary during his second stint) and had decided to return to his hometown Siwan, as a whole-time activist of the CPI(ML) Liberation. He had made the decision to be a whole-time activist a long time ago. Chandu’s friends know that for him, the decision to be an activist rather than pursue a salaried career was no ‘sacrifice.’ It was a decision to do what he loved doing and felt he owed to society.
Continue reading Remembering Chandu, Friend and Comrade: Kavita Krishnan
