Death of Rizwan-ur Rahaman, the police and the CPI (M)

Death of Rizwan-ur Rahaman in Calcutta
The killing shows again the abysmal depth CPI(M) has stooped down to
Proletarian Era, 15th October 2007

Inter-caste, inter-community or inter-religion marriages hardly face any hindrance in any civil, democratic society, for instance, in those of the western world. But attempts to undertake such marriages appear to be meeting insurmountable stumbling block of disapproval in our country. Even after sixty years of independence, the country is not freed of this curse of condemning such marriages. Rather, under the spell of rising spate of communal, obscurantist, superstitious ideas, gained momentum, courtesy arch-communal Hindutwavadi forces like BJP-RSS combine and similar communal forces of other religious communities, these shameful social maladies are spreading their roots further into the society, even not excluding that of states like West Bengal, which remain under the 'leftist rule' of CPI(M) for decades. The reason, we will have to seek in the historical course of modern nation-building processes, for it is there that people of different caste, religion or language etc. are united in one single whole of nation. Whereas, in western countries, modern nations emerged during the days of Renaissance and development of bourgeois civilization, fighting uncompro-misingly against these social differences and maladies based thereupon, our fight for nationhood took place at a time when the bourgeoisie had become moribund, unable to undertake any uncompromising struggle towards social and cultural revolution uniting people of different castes, languages, religions etc. The force like Congress, that represented the Indian bourgeoisie in the leadership of our independence struggle, threw aside the tasks of social and cultural revolution, in the haste of their greed to assume political power. Post-independence days, too, could see only the natural aftermaths, as the different political parties of the same capitalist class, Congress, BJP or their different alliances rose to power, but did never take up the task from their fear-complex of revolution. Only people had to pay for it, as their disunity on different terms, often bursting out into internecine strife, went on increasing, vitiating the social atmosphere. The fall-out is seen in the rise of such maladies as among others, social, and even administrative disapproval of inter-caste, inter-community or inter-religion marriages. A number of the latest of such fall-outs, come from West Bengal where the pseudo communist CPI(M) boasts of ruling for a record span of three decades. The most glaring of them is the very recent case of Rizwan-ur Rahman.

In Calcutta of West Bengal, Rizwan-ur Rahman and Priyanka Todi, both of right age, fell in love and married themselves, duly and legally on August 18. Rizwan came of an ordinary middle-class Muslim family, and Priyanka of fabulously rich and Hindu, Todis. Reportedly, Asok Todi, bride's father, once an ordinary trader, had connection with unlawful betting syndicate dealing with cricket match-fixing, but eventually built up his multi-hundred crore corporate empire, by developing and nurturing a closely-built up network of connections with the police- local or of the Calcutta Police headquarters at Lalbazar- administration-business world and high-ups of the society. On August 31, Priyanka moved out to live with her husband and his family without carrying any valuables from her paternal source, lest her father file any case of theft against Rizwan and her. Also, there had been earlier cases in the same Todi family, in which inter-caste marriages were intercepted and broken, of course not in lawful ways. So on the same date, apprehending interception and interference from Priyanka's father, the couple sent copies of their marriage certificate to the Police Commissioner and DC (Calcutta South), both in the police headquarters at Lalbazar and to different concerned officers of the local police stations, where Rizwan and Priyanka lived. Priyanka then talked with her father on mobile phone, stating her decision to stay with her husband. Same evening, Asok Todi came to Rizwan's house along with a few other members of his family, of which one was some Anil Saraogi, an uncle of Priyanka, at whom she reacted vehemently as 'criminal' and 'murderer'. In presence of a number of members of Rizwan's family, they first tried to persuade Priyanka to return to her paternal family. Finding Priyanka firm on her stand, Asok Todi, stayed for the whole night and threatened Rizwan's inmates with dire consequences, to the extent of wiping out the whole family. He then filed a case of abduction of his daughter by Rizwan, not with the local police station, but with the Lalbazar itself, with which, as mentioned, Todis were well connected. On the other hand, between September 1 and 8, deputy commissioners Gyanwant Singh (headquarters) and Ajoy Kumar (detective department), assistant commissioner of anti-rowdy section Sukanti Chakraborty and a sub-inspector of the same section Krishnendu Das, either sending instructions or working under such from their superiors as the case may be, summoned the couple and even the witnesses of the marriage-registration repeatedly to Lalbazar and threatened them in presence of Todis in their office. They forced Rizwan, under threat of imminent arrest, ultimately making the couple sign over a plain-paper, agreeing to send Priyanka back for seven days to her father's house. On September 8, Priyanka went back to be seen for the last time. Rather, in a mysterious situation, Rizwan-ur was found dead beside a railway-track on September 21 morning. Apprehensive and sensing a foul play, Rizwan and his family members and friends, had also approached the Human Rights Commission or other NGOs. Before there was any post-mortem report and before he saw the body of Rizwan, the police commissioner (CP) held a press conference on September 23, where he termed Rizwan's death a suicide framing up the possible modes and motives and arrogantly justified such naked interference by the police into the exclusively private matters of two adult citizens, terming it as a social act of relieving tension of parents whose ward might have married against the parents' wills. To add here, he has been a police commissioner enjoying unstinted favour of none other than the Chief Minister, who, apart from other favours, had referred to the CP, as "my candidate" in an election for the lucrative post of the president of Cricket Association of Bengal. The privilege, thus acquired, seems to have enthused the CP to make such haughty, uncivil, undemocratic statements. People's opinion, including that of his family members, was however otherwise; they suspected long and foul hand of forces in power. On 21st night, Rizwan's brother complained to the Kareya Police station, under which they lived, in writing about the threats from Asok Todi and suspected a hand of him behind his brother's death. The police station cared the least to take any action. The whole array of circumstantial evidences, as they came out from different sources, however, stood against the suicide mode of Rizwan's death and pointed palpably to a murder. A few minutes before he met his death, he had talked on cell-phone to fix up a vital appointment with legal personnel at 2-30 pm, showing no sign of any depression to lead him to suicide immediately afterwards. Secondly, no driver of any of the trains that must have passed by that track around the time of his death reported anybody to be hit by their vehicle. Rizwan's skull bore the whole injury; there was nothing else to be found on the body, a case unthinkable for a run-over victim of a speedy train. There were also allegations of a fat sum of money changing hands and use of hired professional killers in the process, a method with which Todis were not totally unacquainted, as was known from their past records. In this case too, some unidentified goons threatened Rizwan's family members on September 3 at their own house. However, with their blue-eyed CP under fire, the West Bengal State Secretary of the ruling party CPI(M), held brief for the Police as a part of a cover-up operation stating that they did not know the couple to be rightfully married, a blatant false statement as it was. It has already been mentioned that apprehending interception from the Todis, the couple informed the concerned local police stations and the Lalbazar of their civil marriage immediately after they had gone into it. Soon the CPI(M) top leader of the state had to eat his words to add that he did not know that the police had been aware of the marriage. The incident and the shameless act of the CPI(M) leaders and the police not only brought rude shock to people, they created deep anger and strong indignation among all sections of the masses. Under pressure of such rapidly growing adverse opinion, the government announced a CID enquiry, meaning a branch of the police force was given the charge of investigating the case, in which high officials of another branch of the same force were already involved. Under fire of criticism and opposition, the Chief Minister apparently made another backtrack and announced setting up of an one-man judicial enquiry commission under a retired judge. CBI enquiry, though also not generally fruitful, was demanded by the inmates of Rizwan's family. At first, it was summarily rejected; later as the bereaved family moved the court, it was tagged up conveniently with a long-drawn legal procedure to be dismissed ultimately.

Such being the essence of the series of relevant events, the first point to note is that, particularly, in a country like India where people are miserably divided into different castes, creeds, religions etc., and repeatedly fall victims to internecine strife, such acts of inter-caste or inter-religion marriages, as undertaken by Rizwan-ur and Priyanka, would have provided, all the more, courageous examples to the younger generation to make amends with the prevailing disunity and hostility among people, at least in their personal life. Further, even the Supreme Court ordered encouragement of these. But, as mentioned, people are shocked with horrid tales of such couples being ostracized, tortured, chased by the Police, even lynched brutally, as mark of 'honour-killing' , at the instance of some influential moneyed person or group. It is not much different in states ruled by the arch-communal BJP-RSS combine on one extreme, and in states like West Bengal ruled by a party, like CPI(M) which clamours of Marxism and its pro-people attitude; neither there is any difference between areas dominated by the Muslims or by different other religions. Hardly, if ever, the victims find any protection or support from the administration and even the much- trumpeted CPI(M) party machinery. In fact, the local party bosses and the local administration, generally either wash their hands off or even directly join the bandwagon itself.

Right from the moment the news of this Rizwan- Priyanka incident had come out in public, it stirred up strong indignation and hatred among people, irrespective of religion or other differences, against the police, which had apparently acted well beyond their legal and constitutional jurisdiction of non-interference into personal matters of adult citizens, in this case a valid civil marriage. People were in no mood to meekly accept this criminal audacity of the Police and the party. Only a few months back, the villagers of Singur and Nandigram had stood up against the pro-capitalist, anti-people move of the CPI(M). Particularly in Nandigram, the organized, sustained movement of people, united cutting across the prevailing political identities and irrespective of religion or other differences, forced the government to abandon its project of setting up chemical hub and SEZ in that area at the cost of life and livelihood of lakhs of people. In fact, Nandigram incident did not remain confined to that village. It stirred up the long-dormant conscience of people of the entire state, from workers, peasants, students, youth and common middle class section of the population, to even the fore-ranking intellectuals of all shades of opinion. They stood rock-solid in defence of the Nandigram people's right to live and against the utterly anti-people policies of the CPI(M) that reflected their total subservience to the ruling class, the moneyed people. When, on this backdrop of rising surge of democratic movement, that even sent its impact beyond the state and over the whole of the country, as well as outside it, Rizwan had to pay with his life for his love, it did not fail to create its impact also in the people at large. Suicide or homicide, there was no doubt that it was the threat and intimidation from the highest levels of the police and the Todis with their ramified connections with the administration and even government, which lay at the root of this tragic end of a young innocent life. And what was the role of the master of the police, the government itself? Did the police act on its own? No, they could not; at least, they did not have to worry about the expressed or silent approval of their master. Any civilized government would not have denied the moral responsibility of revealing the truth behind this ghastly crime with which the police was directly involved. It would have taken drastic action against the officers, immediately suspending them. But here the CPI(M) in government acted to the contrary. As immediate reaction, the CPI(M) state secretary, the honourable state secretary, flatly came up in their defence. Unfortunately, his effort was based on sheer falsehood. As stated above, when he backtracked and said that he had been unaware of the fact that the police knew about the marriage, was he again making a false statement or did it betray the sense of responsibility of a leader of his position with which he had made the earlier statement ? Everybody knows that in a class-divided society, the police is one of the ugliest organs, the hounding watchdog of the state to defend interest of the ruling class. In our capitalist state, there are ample examples of how the police stand in favour of the moneyed class to deny and deprive the poor even their minimum legitimate rights. In the present case also, the police was acting in favour of the Todis, as against Rizwan and his family-inmates, even his wife. And the CPI(M) leaders are coming up in naked defence of the police, just as they had stood for the police perpetrating carnage on innocent villagers, including women and children in Nandigram or dastardly suppressing movement of peasants at Singur. The course followed in Rizwan case reflected the same trend. The only aim of the government is to hush up the affair, the tragic death, the completely illegal behaviour of the highest officials of the Police overstepping their jurisdiction and absolutely unwarranted unlawful interference into constitutional right of individuals, all at the instance of and to the benefit of the moneyed people, who are hand-in-glove with the administration, the Police and thus the government. As it stands in this country, it is hard to believe that justice can be meted out through any CID investigation, where higher officials of the Police are themselves involved and continue to be in their posts while the investigation is on. Yet the government went for that. So there are questions raised from people of any and every stratum or section. Even there are murmurs among the ruling party or its allies, since the incident endangered the prospect of cashing upon minority vote-bank in the Panchayat or other elections in the near future. The apprehension is proved correct in the interim report of the CID, which did not mention the name of any of the involved Police officers, even if the CID had summoned at least some of them, questioned them and expressed concern over presence of contradictory statements in their answers. Neither did CID file a FIR, without which the whole investigation boiled down to an eyewash. The judicial enquiry Commission under a retired judge instead of a sitting judge, was another shady move, that too taken under pressure of criticism. When named, the judge was found to be a person who had past record of amity with the ruling party. Besides, as required formally, the setting up of such a Commission and the associated steps were not even reported to the Chief Justice, that really nullified the validity of that move. It was all the more necessary to inform the Union government, because of the involvement of IPS officers in the incident, though the Commission had no power to deal with IPS officers. In addition, people of the state are fully aware of a score of such judicial enquiries ordered on past incidents ending in fiasco without any result whatsoever for years together. There remained the point of CBI enquiry. CPI(M), at least as the past record goes, has never proved at all reluctant to demand CBI enquiries into this or that incident. However, in this case, the demand of a CBI enquiry by the inmates of Rizwan's family and others was summarily rejected; reportedly, leaders of CPI(M) even rushed from Delhi to visit Rizwan's family members and to persuade them not to demand CBI enquiry.

We may reiterate the sum and substance once more. Rizwan will never return. Whether Priyanka will be allowed by her brute family members to cherish even the tragic memory of her beloved husband, is yet to be seen. Already there are indications otherwise. Shutting Priyanka off from the world and the media, Todis allowed only members of the CPI(M)- dominated Women's Commission to interview her. Incidentally, it was this Commission, which termed the brutal rape and palpable murder of Tapasi Malik of Singur a suicide and concluded from their talks with the rape victims of Nandigram, that there had been no rape there. So it appears that Todis-Police- CPI(M) combine is monitoring a script to use the Women's Commission in their cover-up game. In the meanwhile, in face of severely adverse people's opinion, CPI(M), the party in power and thus in charge, is playing the worst kind of hypocritical role. The veteran former chief minister or the present incumbent as well as other leaders of the top echelon of that party, try to assure people that nobody found guilty will be spared, while at the same time, the government takes such measures and avoid such others, as discussed above, as to simply confuse the process of finding the truth and delay meting out of justice, thus in effect and in reality leaving the culprits safe and denying the victims the justice. The more there are criticisms and opposition from people, the more frantic and erratic attempts, the government and the CPI(M) leaders make to shield the criminal police officers and hush up the horrid incident at any cost.

Now, a bunch of questions may disturb right-thinking people who have followed the course of events. The first is: how could the police, in a state governed by a party like CPI(M), claiming to be Communist, act so highhanded to perpetrate this abominable crime of interfering into the legally performed civil marriage of two adults. And then: Why is the government so keen on shielding the implicated police officers and covering up the whole issue. To find answers, it must be noted that after assuming power, even the lip-service to democratic movement CPI(M) used to pay at one stage, although it was reformist constitutional in nature, was completely abandoned by that party in its bid to serve the ruling class to continue to remain in power; also it has done away with all shades of morality and ethics. It has simply turned out to be a watchdog to protect the interest of the ruling class and has thus become a part and parcel of the system of exploitation of people. And concomitant to all this, utter selfish attitude and opportunist bent of mind are spreading fast among people to provoke acts purported to make the most out of the situation. Cumulatively, it is vitiating the social environment and bringing CPI(M) further into bogs of corruption. On the other hand, having been isolated from people as a result of these, CPI(M) is now using the brute force more and more in suppressing the democratic movement. The police and the bureaucracy have thus turned out to be the main planks of their power. They cannot simply afford to live without their support. Naturally it is providing the police and the bureaucracy with added fillip and encouragement to go ahead with more and more highhandedness and arrogance. Unhesitatingly, they are bringing down ruthless attacks not only on democratic movements, also on minimum democratic rights of people to live. This is evident in the present case and not just here. For example, in Nandigram they pounced upon innocent villagers, women and children not spared, fighting for their life and livelihood or in Katwa an ill reputed officer killed a leader of peaceful demonstration from point-blank range and went scot-free. Under such circumstances people must come out with a massive, organized and united struggle unequivocally demanding a neutral enquiry of Rizwan's death by a commission formed of judges, law professionals, intellectuals and journalists, in whom the people have faith. They must demand for immediate suspension, and not just transfer, of police officers implicated in the murder and immediate arrest of Asok Todi and his accomplices, in the interest of neutral enquiry. Only that can make some amends for the gross injustice the society has inflicted upon the young couple, as desired by Rizwan's hapless mother. The other serious issue that evokes concern in right-thinking minds relates to the cultural aspect. It makes them wonder how in the cultural atmosphere of a state run by a party like CPI(M) boasting of leftism for long three decades, such an incident of harassing and threatening two adult individuals for undertaking a perfectly legal inter-religion marriage and finally bringing death, whether suicide or homicide, to one of them, could take place. To get the right answer, the first point that must be realized is that had there been a genuine leftist party in power in West Bengal, then from its seat of power, it would have tried to give people whatever relief it could. At the same time it would have engaged itself in developing massive movements one after another, to help people wrest their legitimate demands from the government and the ruling class, keeping those movements free from the interference of the police and the bureaucracy and building up those movements on the edifice of higher culture, morality and ethics. And in that process, realizing the need of uniting people of the country, irrespective of caste, creed, religion and language, a task that was neglected by the bourgeois leadership of our independence struggle and thus devolved upon the genuine leftists in free India, it would have also made every possible attempt to develop rock-solid unity and amity of the toiling people irrespective of caste- race-religion-language, wiping out the prevailing disunity and distrust among them. It is such an environment given birth to by the intense united mass movement of toiling people that would have created the concrete reality in which a free exchange, intermixing and interaction of toiling people would have been possible. CPI(M) has, however, never trodden that path. Rather they have chosen the path of clinging to power, shunning the path of democratic movement, playing upon people's disunity to gain premium in vote-bank politics and thus, ultimately playing a totally subservient role to the ruling class. And by these, they are simply helping in unbridled spread of bourgeois culture, thinking and attitude. In their thirty-one year rule, not to speak of developing higher culture-morality and ethics, there has been rapid cultural degeneration spreading its roots throughout the society.

And so West Bengal today finds even minimum democratic acts like inter-religion marriages being condemned; the couples, even their friends and family members, are being hounded by the police, at the instance and instigation of some influential moneyed persons, and, as in the case of Rizwan- Priyanka, the rabid communal BJP terming people's indignation against Rizwan's killing as 'excess', thus lend support to otherwise isolated CPI(M). It is found that with every passing day, rampant corruption, both material and spiritual, is devouring every walk of life, warped mindset is gaining more and more currency, all divisive and deriding traits and propensities are on a spiral, crude individualism, sickening philosophical intolerance and forcible muzzling of opposing views are becoming dominant features, sex-perversion and such other degraded mentalities are getting firmly entrenched, drug peddling and smuggling are assuming mind-boggling proportions, the state stands second in the country in woman trafficking, first in child trafficking; obscurantist thoughts and religious bigotry are found to be extremely pronounced. Instances of rape, molestation and lynching of women even in public, prostitution, dowry deaths are reported every hour. Witchcraft, sorcery are increasing in rural particularly tribal belts. Liquor shops and gambling dens mushroom throughout the state on liberal license from the government. In many of these criminal or unlawful acts, leaders, cadres and even supporters of CPI(M) are found involved in or abetting the acts, be it in running a sleaze racket in Calcutta proper, or in organizing vulgar stage shows like Hope '86. The very same CPI(M) minister linked with Hope'86 also boasted of his close ties with godmen or frequented temples to flaunt his 'Brahmin' credential. A CPI(M) zonal committee secretary has been implicated in rape and brutal murder of Tapasi Malik, a teenaged activist of Singur resistance movement of peasants. A senior CPI (M) central committee member openly asked the female cadres of the party to 'show their buttocks' to Medha Patkar, in protest of her standing by the Nandigram carnage victims. Instances galore are there. Surely all these acts and activities only smack of typical subservience to bourgeois class politics committed to pollute people from within, rob them of human essence and turn them into spineless creatures so that they are unable to stand erect against oppressions and suppressions unleashed on them. It is in this backdrop, that the latest incidents of attacks on inter-religion marriages and CPI(M)'s reactions to them are to be viewed and judged.

Naturally, such limitless cultural degeneration has only encouraged people or forces like the police or the Todis to commit the crimes they have done in Rizwan's case. So it is precisely the crop of the same seed of degenerated, corrupt cultural atmosphere that the CPI(M) has carefully sown and cultivated through all these thirty one years of its rule. And it is neither really unexpected of CPI(M), nor it came out of the blue. This party has never grown up as a real communist party; all through it has been a social democratic force. It has always borne all traits of bourgeois culture and vices leaving imprints upon the behaviour and activities of its leaders and cadres. Noticing this painful phenomenon in CPI(M) and for that matter also in CPI, Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, the founder General Secretary of our party SUCI, pointed out time and again that the banner, the name and the title of a party do not really matter. He maintained : The living soul, the kernel of any lofty ideal is ingrained in its cultural and ethical standard. If the cultural and ethical standard is not high, the frame of even an advanced political ideology becomes a lifeless body. When in a body, even if it is beautiful, there is no life, it becomes a useless corpse. Left to itself, it causes harm to society. In the same way, if anybody speaks of a lofty ideal, but does not reflect high ethics and cultural standard, it also becomes equally harmful for society and putrefied. So, it is not enough if a party engages in loud and tall talks of ideology. Whether the ideology it reflects is really high is proven by whether its leaders, cadre and supporters reflect high ethical and moral standard in their personal life, daily work and habits and political activities and behaviour. Had CPI(M) been a genuine revolutionary party, increase in its influence within the society would have brought a restraining effect on lowering of cultural standard and degeneration of morality resulting from decadence of capitalism. But it was not that; rather the contrary was true (free translation from a Bengali speech of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh made on 25th Party Foundation Day on 24 April, 1973). These notes of caution and criticism, sounded a few decades back, revealed the reality prevailing then. Thereafter, wallowing in power and pelf for years together, parties like CPI(M) have further degenerated; the stench is now coming out terribly in incidents like Nandigram carnage or Rizwan's death in West Bengal, no less from rampant corruption unveiled in Kerala. People thus face a two-fold task. In addition to their united movement demanding revelation of truth and punishment of the culprits, as mentioned above, they must rid themselves of harbouring any illusion, if they may still have, about the real character of CPI(M) or such forces, and find out and strengthen the force that continues to fight for people on genuine Marxism- Leninism with their leaders and cadres and even the masses involved in movements under their leadership reflecting a higher level of cultural-ethical standard, that is the proletarian culture and ethics. Failure in performing either of these tasks will only lead to such tragic incidents as Rizwan's killing.