democratic individuals. Gursharan Singh, the playwrigth and editor of Samta, is its Convenor. The RUC holds the Congress, the Akali Dal and BJP responsible for the situation because they have exploited religious feelings for narrow communal ends. Therefore, it feels it wrong to hold joint rallies with such parties. Gursharan Singh told the team that imperialists also want slogans such as “Khalistan” in India so as to have their say’ in Indian affairs. However, this slogan had no footing in Punjab at all; it acquired some following after Operation Bluestar, but even now it finds very little support among the Sikhs. The RUC feels that, since the situation has emerged from the, present corrupt system, “it is not enough to propagate communal , harmony; people must be called upon to change the system.” In their rallies, they condemn all types of communal and State violence, and demand immediate release of the Jodhpur detenues, rehabilitation of the Army deserters, harsh punishment for the criminals responsible for the Delhi riots, and an early democratic solution to the Punjab problem. Gursharan Singh maintained: “There must be pressure on the State saying: Deal with the problem in a genuine way. Deal with the problem, but also see to and guarantee the democratic rights of the people.” The RUC undertook a 14-day long “Red March” in March through the terrorist affected areas of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Kapurthala, and Jalandhar, eventually covering 203 villages. The object was to propagate the message of Bhagat Singh and its relevance today. Cultural programmes, rallies and conferences were held The attendance at villages such as Ferozepur Kalan, Chaunta, Sarai Amanat Khan, and Behram Pur, touched 5,000. Large gatherings were also held at Begga Kalan, the home villages of Baldev Singh Mann, and at Chogwan, home of Sumeet Singh, editor of Free! Lari. The marchers raised the slogans; “Solve the Punjab problem”; “We won’t allow another 1947—we won’t allow Hindus and Sikhs to be pitted against each other”; “Down with communal and State terror”; “Na Hindu Raj, na Khalistan, Raj kare mazdoor kisan”. The march was composed of around 100 volunteers, some armed with licensed guns. As the marchers moved through Amritsar villages such as Tanghai and Astar Cheena, communal terrorists threatened them from a distance, and fired shorts in the air. At Mailanwala, there was even an exchange of fire. Three communal terrorists who were preparing to attack the march were arrested at Jagdev Kalan. Communal terrorists also announced at Tarn Taran names of comrades who would be killed. A group of 10 terrorists came to the house of com. Jagtar Singh of C. P. Reddy group in May, and issued threats.
In the villages where they work, the CPI (ML) cadre stay together in an organised way, with one member always on duty with a rifle. Since Operation Bluestar, CPI (ML) cadre also sleep in the houses of theatened Hindu families to give them protection. Whatever arms there are in the village are collected, and the CPI (ML) members help the people to resist the terrorists. Thus very few families have migrated. At some places, such as Mailanwala and Bhittewad, no one has migrated. When the communal terrorists attacked and killed a villager at Rajian, the CPI (ML) members fired back at them. However, the terrorists escaped. – The CPI (ML) CP Reddy group has an active student front, the Dhaliwal faction of the Punjab Students’ Union. It has contnued to mobilise students on various issues desipte stiff challenges from the AISSF hoodlums. The PSU, Dhaliwal group, has successfully challenged AISSF in open confrontations at Khalsa College and Hindu College (Amritsar), A. B. College (Pathankot), Guru Nanak College (Bir Baba Budha), and ITIs at Gurdaspnr, Sirhali, and Hoshiarpur. Gurmeet Singh, joint secretary of Punjab state committee, CPI (ML) S. N. Singh group, described how the majority of Sikhs opposed the Khalistan slogan. He also described the strike in Dbariwal woollen mills during December 1985 to June 1986, where there was not a single instance of communal tension among the Hindu, Sikh, and Christian workers. Even in the adjoining villages, communal harmony was evident during this extended strike. During the RUC march, 90 percent of the villagers, both Hindu and Sikh, attended the RUC daytime programmes. Even at night, in the very badly terrorist affected areas, attendance was between 500 and 1,000. The experiences of the march, and the positive response of the people, greatly enthused its organises. People were fed up with repressive government policies and senseless killing of innocents by terrorists. They wanted to maintain the communal amity that had always existed among them earlier. The RUC is now taking its programmes to other areas of Punjab.
Resistance :
In September 1986, the Front Against Repression and Communalism was formed. It is backed by various Marxist-Leninist formations, including the UCCRI (ML) (called Nagi Reddy group), the C. T. , CPI (ML) (“Surkh Rekha” group) and the RCPI (“Takra” group). In its declaration, the Front states that it will op those “responsible for plunging Punjab into the coixununalpose fire–the Congress and Akali leaders, Khalistani and Shiv Senaite fanatic gangs and their imperialist overlords.” It will oppose all repressive State measures curtailing democratic movement or terrorising the people in the name of controlling the extremists. It will encourage the people “to oppose this fratricidal war and get organised and advance, by cementing their class-solidarity, along the path of people’s struggle for realisation of their basic demands.” It will counter the attempts of ruling class factions “to project the issue of river waters, language and territorial disputes from an utterly undemocratic and communal plank, thus diverting their attention from their real problems. Instead, the ‘Front’ will build and highlight the democratic viewpoint on these issues.” Further, “Nurturing and disseminating no illusion of protection of the innocent people from the State apparatus, it seeks to inculcate an awareness of selfdefence among the masses and calls upon them to come forward to resist and defeat these anti-people forces.” On the basis of this understanding, the Front has been organising activities such as rallies, conferences, cultural programmes, etc. The areas in which the Front operates are in the southern districts of Punjab, the Malwa region, which covers Faridkot, Bhatinda, Ludhiana, Sangrur, and Patiala. Demonstrations have been held at virtually all important centres in this stretch. The belt in which the Front is particularly active includes Jaitu, Moga, Nihalsinghwala, Rampura Phul, and Kokrikalan. In Faridkot, their activities stretch up to Kalike village, near Bhindrawale’s village of Rode. The Front has openly challenged Khalistani leaders in posters and public meetings. For this reason, Front leaders in Rampura Phul and in Jaitu have been issued threats by the Khalistanis that they will be “finished off”. The Jaitu convenor of the Front, Megh Raj, a popular youth leader hailing from nearby Bhagtuana village, has been under threat and attack for almost three years. However, mass resistance ‘has consistently repulsed attacks on the Front leadership.
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For example, the UAD and AISSF held a conference at Chaina village, near Bhagtuana, and announced that Khalistani commandos would finish off Megh Raj within a fortnight. In response, on April 10, nine units of the Front—Goniana, Rampura, Malout, Larnbi, Lehra, Kotkapura, Nihalsinghwala, Moga and Jaitu—joined by the Technical Services Union (of electricity workers) organised a conference of several thousand people at Jaitu. A wide cross-section of people came armed with their traditional weapons. Some activists with unlicensed rifles guarded the march at strategic places. The people raised the slogans : “Na Hindu Raj na Khalistan —Raj kare mazdoor Kisan”; “As Khalistanis have threatened Megh Raj we also have sharpened our swords”; “The communal gangs and the Government, both will be hauled up in people’s courts”. At Kokrikalan, the programme of the Front was challenged by armed communal terrorists. But when they saw that the Front assembly was also armed, the terrorists withdrew. In Bargari, the communal terrorists enforcing the 13-point “social reform” programme of the Khalistan Commando Force entered a tailor’s shop and argued with the tailor’s son. The ripped a photograph that they found, and in the process accidentally tore a photo of Guru Nanak. Later the tailor was sent a message by communal terrorists that he must apologise. With the Front’s support, the tailor refused. The terrorists propagated that the Front was against religion, and said they would kill Front activists. The Front responded by organising a militant rally. They made it clear that the Front has nothing against religion. They exposed the truth about the torn photo, warned the Khalistanis that it is they who will be finished off by the people. In Bishnadi, Bazakhana, Jaitu, Kotti, Chaina, Matta and Sedh Singh Wala villages, people spontaneously thrashed communal terrorists who tried to enforce the fascistic 13-point social ,reform programme, At the Moga bus-stand an unarmed youth associated with the Front caught an armed terrorist who had terrorised his whole family earlier. The terrorist, it later turned out, had a Rs. 50,000 reward on his head. Then on April 14, UAD and AISSF tried to hold a conference at Bhagtuana itself. A truckload of communal terrorists, armed with swords and firearms, came to the village; but a shower of stones and bricks were thrown by the villagers, and armed Front workers challenged the terrorists. The Khalistanis fled. As they were running people caught and beat five of them.
In contrast to the State machinery, which harasses and arbitrarily arrests the family members of hunted suspected terrorists, these democratic forces actively oppose all such harrassment of innocents, even while fighting the terrorists. In Moga, the father of a known communal terrorist not only supports the anti-communal activities of the Front Against Respression and Communalism, but has become a mohalla committee member. In Rampura Phul, Bhatinda district, threats were issued to the lives of Front workers. In response, the Front organised a 2,000 strong armed march, and countered the Khalistani terror. Yet, interestingly, on May 16, 5 days after the imposition of Governor’s Rule, the Front office in Rampura Phule was raided by the police, who stated that they had recovered some “records and sharp-edged weapons”. The police have been angered by the fact that the Front has also propagated against State repression. Recently, the Jaitu police arrested, beat, and foisted false cases on three Front activists, after a Front campaign against killings in fake encounters. Moga is the fastest growing city in Punjab. It was also famous as the birth-place of the revolutionary student movement in the early 1970s. Students then protesting the misdeeds of a locally powerful cinema owner were fired upon and killed by the police. A statewide student movement ensued, and today the cinema hall has been converted into a memorial library to the martyred students. As we mentioned earlier, Bhindranwalc’s earlier attempts to make Moga another centre of his activities, “another Amritsar”, were foiled by an action committee of 35 organisations in the city. Recently, the Front conducted a rally of about 4,000 persons at Moga, armed with traditional weapons, raising militant slogans. The team learnt that many unions had been in the forefront of mass resistance. The largest employer in Punjab is the Punjab State Electricity Board. The electricity workers organisation, Technical Services Union, has carried out militant rallies of Hindus and Sikhs against communal killings, and has also carried out strikes in protest against killings of electricity workers. The team also met an activist of the Moulders and Steel Workers Union, Ludhiana, which has taken the initiative to rally unions in Ludhiana against all acts of Khalistani or State terror. Unions of school teachers and college teachers, as well as the Government doctor’ PCMS Association, have also been active in the fight.
The team did not have time to gather enough information about the activities of various democratic organisations of Indian people abroad. However, what we understood was that in fact, there had been successful militant rallies in cities such as Birmingham (England) and San Francisco (USA) by Hindus and Sikhs in protest against both khalistani and State terror. In the USA, the Indian People’s Association of North America (IPANA) has propagated against these twin evils. In addition, a new organisation has come up called “Anti-47 Front”. Specifically in the context of the present situation in Punjab, it has mobilised Indians abroad against both communal and State violence with the vow to fight against another 1947 (ie, communal holocaust accompanying partition). In Birmingham, the Indian Workers’ Association opposed the machination of the local units of both Congress and Khalistanis. In sum, while the Central Government, the Congress-I, Ribeiro, and even the Akali Dal claim to be fighting the communal terrorists and communalism, the real fight has been put up by organised activity of common people under the leadership of democratic forces. These forces have not been cowed down or become helpless with the increase of Khalistani terror and State terror. On the contrary, they have seized the initiative, and despite their limitations of strength and reach, have boldly confronted the terrorizing forces.
