The Indian government's war on people in central and eastern regions has entered its second phase with the deployment of the Indian army. The surreptitiously declared war on the people of this country codenamed Operation Green Hunt (OGH) which was launched in September 2009 by the Indian government is continuing unabated till today. In fact in the recent months, the ruling coalition at the Centre in connivance with political parties of all hues in power in the Central and Eastern states have intensified their brutal war on the poorest, most maginalized and oppressed people of the subcontinent. Contrary to the rhetoric of not deploying the Indian Army in direct combat, the Government of India has increased the number of troops in the region with the intent of crushing the growing people's resistance against its policies. It is well known that the first batch of 2000 Army personnel were sent by the government to the forests of Narayanpur District in the Bastar on 3 June 2011 with a plan to occupy an area of 600 square kilometres, albeit in the name of Jungle Warfare Training. Just six months later, another 2500 personnel descended on the forests of Bastar on 4 November 2011. Though the Central and Chhattisgarh governments maintain that they have set up this so-called Jungle Warfare Training Centre in Bastar merely to put pressure on the Maoists and to dominate the region militarily, the real purpose is to hand over the vast swathes of mineral-rich forested lands to the Multinational Companies and to evict the people who have stood up to defend their jal-jangal-zameen, their very existence.

CALLS IT VINDICITVE ACTION OF RAJASTHAN POLICE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF MLA RAMESH KHANDELWAL & the MINING LOBBY

*WILL GO TO NHRC HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS CELL*

*CARRY OUT A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE RELEASE OF KAILASH MEENA.*

Jaipur, 20th December, 2011

*APPEAL*

Let Us Demand that those police officials who fabricated evidence against Jiten and others be brought to book! Oppose Death Penalty as a Form of Punishment of the State!

Invitation for a Convention:  Delhi, India International Centre, Lodhi Road

20 December 2011, 10 am to 8 pm

Dear Friends, We extend our greetings from the Committee for the Release of Politicial Prisoners.

As we all know the Ranchi High Court have acquitted people's cultural artist Jiten Marandi and 3 others on the 15 December 2011. In this occasion the convention which was to be held on the 20 December 2011 demanding the acquittal of Jiten Marandi and Manoj Rajwar, Chatrapati Mandal and Anil Ram, who were framed in the notorious Chilkhari case will happen albeit with a slight change in the demands.

This convention has assumed significance at a juncture when the state is criminalising all forms of dissent with impunity. It is significant that Jiten Marandi who is from a poor peasant family, being from his own social location as well seeing the hardships of his people, through his songs of protest was trying to expose the growing trend of impunity of the state and the need for the vast sections of the masses to unite against all forms of oppression and exploitation. Jiten Marandi is also one of the secretaries of the CRPP. Jiten who became part of the Jharkand Aibhen a cultural platform of the oppressed and exploited Adivasis of Jharkhand gave vent to the anguish and sufferings of his people. In that process his voice became that of not only the oppressed and exploited in Jharkhand but of all those in the subcontinent who wanted to see an end to such dehumanising existence. He became the rallying point for all forms of resistance that gave voice to the anguish and anger of the most deprived, oppressed and exploited. For the first time a people's cultural activist was given death row for the only reason that he echoed the grave concerns of the toiling masses against the anti-people policies of the government.

Let us demand that the police and the politicians who were hand in glove in fabricating evidence against him be brought to book!

Let us continue our struggle for the abolishment of Death Penalty as a form of Punishment by the State!

COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS, 16/12/2011--We at the CRPP are proud to share the good news of the acquittal of people's cultural activist Jiten Marandi and 3 others, Manoj Rajwar, Chatrapati Mandal and Anil Ram, who were framed in the notorious Chilkhari case where on 26 October 2007 cadres of the CPI (Maoist) party allegedly killed 19 members which included the son of former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi. What the papers later reported was that the 19 members who were killed belonged to the vigilante gang-a la Salwa Judum of Chhattisgarh-Nagarik Suraksha Samiti which was propped by Babulal Marandi and was wreaking havoc in the lives of the poor people of the region. By now the grave injustice to Jiten and 3 others through political conspiracy and vendetta which took the form of acts of impunity of the police and the powers that be which was brought to the notice of the world by CRPP and other democratic and freedom loving sections has been vindicated through the acquittal of all the four by the High Court of Jharkhand.

It took exactly 3 years 8 months and 3 days for the sustained campaign from all democratic and progressive sections of the masses of the people to realise the final acquittal of Jiten Marandi and 3 others. Further the case slapped on Jiten Marandi and the consequent award of death sentence to him and 3 others is a pattern in the method of impunity that the so-called guardians of law indulge in to perpetuate an undeclared emergency in the length and breadth of the subcontinent where the poorest of the poor are fighting against a sustained policy of loot and plunder of their resources, their lives and livelihoods.

It is high time that we demand that those who are responsible for such acts of impunity be brought to book.

By Harish Dhawan & Paramjeet Singh, PUDR Press Release

8 December 2011: PUDR denounces the statement given by state home minister Jitendra Singh in Rajya Sabha on 7 December 2011 in which he asserted that the CPI (Maoist) is active in Delhi and named several groups as being the Party's front organizations.

Answering question no. 1637 raised by BJP MP Kusum Rai, Jitendra Singh stated that in Delhi, the CPI (Maoist) is operating through the Delhi City Committee. Apart from the Party itself, Singh went on to say, left-wing extremist organizations like CPML-New Democracy and CPML-Liberation have an active presence in Delhi. Besides, Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), People's Democratic Front of India (PDF), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) and Democratic Students Union (DSU) were also named as front organizations by Singh, who also admitted that no inputs have yet been received to indicate that 'sleeper cells, of Naxalites are functional in the capital.

The organizations named have not played a part in armed resistance or violent struggle but have consistently raised their voice against state suppression. It is clear that by labelling such groups as Maoist, the state is trying to curb their dissent.

Oppose Death Penalty as a Form of Punishment of the State!

Invitation for a Convention: Multi-Purpose Hall, India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi, 20 December 2011, 10 am to 8 pm

Dear Friends,  We extend our greetings from the CRPP.

With the increasing onslaught of the state on the everyday lives of the people in the form of the policies of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) the people are left with little option but to resist against these policies of Displacement, Destruction, Destitution and Death-the four dreaded Ds. As a response the state is resorting to Death Sentence as a form of punishment to see an end to such resistance from the people. The so-called war against terror is also a convenient alibi through which the state further criminalises all forms of political dissent; it further targets the minority communities in the subcontinent. The CRPP has decided to hold a day-long convention on the need to oppose Death Penalty as a form of punishment resorted to by the Indian State against the masses of the people.