Guilt, An Associative Leap

In stark contrast, there are other kinds of associations that our criminal justice system and the powers that control it keep looking to punish, often unjustly. An association with the causes of the poor and the marginalised, for instance. Avinash Kulkarni, of the Dangi Mazdoor Union, Dangi Lok Adhikar Samiti and Adivasi Mahasabha, is a respected activist working for tribals  in Gujarat. He actively campaigned for forest rights for the tribals and has been involved in monitoring the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. The Gujarat police arrested him on March 22 under an omnibus and general FIR against the underground leaders and members of the CPI (Maoist), the banned Naxalite organisation, lodged nearly a month before his arrest. And when it was lodged, the FIR did not name anyone. Kulkarni himself hasn’t been accused of violence, even by the Gujarat police in their remand application. He has been accused of being a member of the CPI(ML) Janshakti, a legitimate political party that has been fighting elections for 15 years. Since the police want to play on the ‘ML’ association to mislead a gullible middle class—‘ML’ being the old epithet carried by two of the three groups which merged to form CPI(Maoist)—it’s alleged that Kulkarni played “behind the scenes” to be in touch with the CPI (Maoist) through CPI(ML) Janshakti. Kulkarni’s associate Bharat Pawar, an adivasi, was also later arrested under the same omnibus FIR.

To date, 14 persons have been arrested under this FIR, one of whom, Kishore, who rose from being a labourer, is a typist with Darshan, an NGO run by Hiren Gandhi, a respected cultural personality. This NGO ran theatre campaigns for communal harmony with like-minded organisations after the 2002 riots. An Andhraite, Kishore’s regional association is enough to paint him as a dreaded Maoist. The ruthless logic of association can then lead to Hiren Gandhi himself.

The latest to be arrested under the same FIR is Abdul Shakeel Basha, on June 17. Basha has worked with the homeless and with some NGOs, including Harsh Mander’s Aman Biradari, in Gujarat. The Gujarat police has given out stories in the media accusing Basha of being the Maoist area commander (or the area committee secretary) for Surat. An armed Maoist action from Surat is unheard of and those familiar with underground communist structures know that an area commander’s (or a secretary’s) is a full-time job that doesn’t leave room for other nearly full-time activities far away from the base. The police later said Basha was with the Maoists till 2004—as if a person has no right to change his politics later and will be punished even if there is no allegation of violence against him. Then what about the Union home minister’s exhortation to the Maoists to abjure violence and join the mainstream? The cold-blooded logic of association can also lead the Gujarat government to tar the NGOs that employed Basha. No wonder the omnibus FIR of Gujarat accuses unnamed Maoists of “carrying out false propaganda among tribal/forest people as well as Christians and Muslims to separate them from the mainstream of the nation, to create civil war”. The message is clear: “Don’t associate with the victims of the system.”