EDITORIAL 

SHOCKING OUTRAGES

THIS week was marked by shocking outrages by the police and the security forces against innocent people.  First came the report of three children being shot dead by security forces in Bangargud village in the Kupwara  district of Jammu & Kashmir.  All of them in the age group of 11 to 15 were shot dead by the security forces who had apparently laid an ambush for the militants. It was only natural that thousands of people spontaneously came out to the streets in the valley to protest against such a brazen murderous attack.    The people are justifiably demanding that action be taken against the concerned officers and an inquiry be ordered into the incident. Subsequently, seeing the widespread protests, three separate inquiries have been ordered.   The Defence spokesman Lt Col V K Batra saying that the incident was “regrettable”, admitted that “there is no denying the fact that all of them were innocent”.

The very next day saw the brutal attack on the workers of the Honda Motor Cycle and Scooter factory in Gurgaon, Haryana.  The police surrounded the workers and beat them mercilessly leaving many workers bleeding with broken limbs. In this attack, it is reported that more than 700 workers had been injured, some of them carried in critical condition to the hospitals.  This incident clearly shows how the police intervenes, not on behalf of the harassed and victimised workers but on behalf of the owners of the factories and in this instance, on behalf of a foreign company.

The workers of the Honda factory were agitating for over six months against the dismissal of four workers who came in support of their colleague who had been ill-treated by the management. Another 50 workers were suspended. The demand to reinstate these employees was the major issue agitating the workers.    The insensitive management even refused to conduct any negotiations with the  workers.  It is, indeed, unfortunate that neither the state government nor any concerned authority chose to intervene during these six months to resolve the crisis.   It was allowed to fester leading to this brutal climax. 

This incident glaringly exposes the contrast between a government led by the Party of the working class like in West Bengal and Tripura and other governments led by the ruling class parties. One of the open statements made when the CPI(M) led government assumed office was the assurance that the police and the law enforcing forces will never  intercede  in any situation against the working people. Often we have seen that the bourgeois-landlord State intervenes in support of the ruling classes and the exploiters denying justice to those sections who need it the most.

The perpetrators of such  an attack against the workers  in Haryana cannot go unpunished. The judicial enquiry ordered into the incident must be expedited and, in the meanwhile, the guilty officers must be suspended.  The authorities must immediately provide adequate medical care to the  injured, and, the Honda factory must reinstate all the workers against whom  action has been taken, according to reports, unjustifiably.  The people will not tolerate the government-police-corporate nexus which concentrates in intensifying exploitation of the workers while denying them their basic rights and  freedom.