The Nuns Are Burning Wheels Again
The Margis were pulled out of taxis in the heart of Kolkata and assail burn down. (Source: Archive photograph)
Large names, including Somnath Chatterjee, could face summons over the Kolkata massacre of 17 Ananda Margis.
Why is the 33-twelvemonth-old massacre of 17 Ananda Margis back in focus?
Some contempo depositions before the Justice Amitava Lala Judicial Commission — set up by the Mamata Banerjee regime in October 2013 — and the collection of new prove, have created the possibility of some of import CPM leaders being summoned. On April 30, 1982, when the CPM-led Left Front was in power in Due west Bengal, 16 monks and one sanyasin of the Ananda Marga were massacred in broad daylight in the heart of Kolkata.
Who might be summoned?
According to Commission sources, some documents allegedly prove that of import CPM leaders of the Kasba-Jadavpur area met at Colony Bazar in Picnic Garden on Feb 6, 1982, to discuss the Margis, whose headquarters was then coming up at what was at the time a hard-to-access location in Tiljala. Reportedly present at the meeting were Kanti Ganguly, minister in the last Left Front cabinet; Sachin Sen, former CPM MLA, now dead; Nirmal Haldar, local CPM leader; Amal Majumdar, former councillor of ward no 108 (Tiljala-Kasba); and Somnath Chatterjee, then MP from Jadavpur and subsequently Speaker of Lok Sabha.
What did CPM have against the Marga?
Ananda Margis were ideologically opposed to the communists, and the CPM of the early on 80s was securely suspicious of their activities. The first assail on the Marga was at its Purulia global headquarters in 1967, in which 5 Margis were murdered, allegedly past CPM cadres.
2 years later, the Marga's Coochbehar congregation was attacked. The CPM always believed political ambitions and calendar lay underneath the spiritual-religious cover of the Marga. Even afterwards the 1982 attack, in April 1990, five Ananda Margis were murdered in Purulia, allegedly past CPM cadres.
Then, who are the Ananda Marg, and what is their ideology?
It is a spiritual-religious sect whose late founder Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar propounded, in 1959, 'PROUT' — or the Progressive Utilization Theory — which was said to exist opposed to both communism and commercialism, and to aim, instead, at a grassroots "socio-economical democracy". Sarkar chosen his philosophy "neo-humanism". Its spiritual practices were a synthesis of Vedic and Tantrik rituals, including, in the early days, dancing holding human being skulls.
What happened on Apr 30, 1982?
Ananda Margis from all over the country were headed to an "educational conference" at the Tiljala centre. The mode was through what is at present known as Bijon Setu in the Ballygunge expanse of s Kolkata. Taxis carrying monks and sanyasins were intercepted at at least three separate locations, doused in petrol and kerosene, and assault fire. At least 17 Margis were charred to decease, several others were severely injured. Local people had reportedly begun a whisper campaign earlier saying the Margis were kidnapping and trafficking children. The CPM claimed the killings were masterminded by the Margis themselves to malign the government.
How did the country government respond?
It set a commission of inquiry that did not proceed across its notification, and did not have a single hearing. No report of activeness taken, as is mandatory for Judicial Commissions, was placed before the land assembly. Then Primary Minister Jyoti Basu infamously said, "What tin can be washed? Such things do happen", and appeared to issue a veiled threat, wanting to know what consequences might have followed had Sachin Sen, the and so CPM MLA of Kasba, chosen to raid the Margis' centre with 10,000 of his cadres. A state CID research produced no results. No justice was always done.
Why did Mamata's authorities choose to reopen the instance?
Since coming to power in May 2011, Mamata has ready at to the lowest degree 10 Judicial Commissions to investigate heinous crimes committed under the Left regime: the Anand Margi killings, the killings of 13 Youth Congress workers in July 1993, the Cossipore massacre, the Sain Bari massacre in Burdwan, the alleged forcible state take hold of in Rajarhat, etc. The intention is obviously to remind people of those horrors, the black spots of Left dominion. Key Left leaders have been summoned to these Commissions. While this may bring petty solace to the Margis whose leaders accept spent a lifetime chasing justice, for Mamata, it is an attempt to reaffirm that she was not the but i at the receiving end of the brutality of the Left authorities.
Justice delayed
APR 30, 1982: 16 monks and a nun are burnt alive in Kolkata, allegedly by the CPM. Primary Minister Jyoti Basu subsequently sets up stillborn Justice Samarendra Chandra Deb Commission of Enquiry. A CID inquiry is wound up, and the state government stonewalls efforts past the NHRC to investigate.
Oct 17, 2011: Ananda Margis appeal to the Mamata Banerjee government for a Judicial Committee of Inquiry. The Justice Amitava Lala Inquiry begins proceedings in Oct 2013.
WHAT Now: 16 witnesses have been examined; the nearly crucial degradation has been by the then additional district magistrate of South 24-Parganas, retired IAS officer Sher Singh. The next hearing is on June x. Trial may commence in a sessions court if the Commission so recommends.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-corpses-of-a-1982-killing-are-stirring-again/
0 Response to "The Nuns Are Burning Wheels Again"
Postar um comentário