Fight
For Rights, Face State Fury
First, Binayak
Sen. Now, filmmaker-activist Ajay TG is
arrested under draconian laws for opposing the Salva Judum
SHOBHITA NAITHANI
New Delhi
IT’S APRIL 2004. Human rights activist and
general secretary of the People’s Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL) Chhattisgarh unit Dr
Binayak Sen, sociology professor Nandini
Sundar, freelance journalist and filmmaker
Ajay Thachhappully Gangadharan (TG)
and a local man are in Bastar, Chhattisgarh’s
tribal district. They are observing
how the Lok Sabha elections are
being conducted, the impact of the
Maoist ban and the overall situation.
There is a visible military presence; helicopters
are doing the rounds and personnel of
the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are patrolling.
As the group of four stop to film an
empty polling booth, young Maoists surround
them. The group is asked to wait till the headman
gives them the go-ahead to film. The headman
doesn’t turn up; the Maoists ask them to
leave the camera behind. In a 2006 article in the
newspaper, DNA, Sundar writes: “A month or so
later, the filmmaker got his camera back with an
offer of money in case it was spoilt and a letter of
apology from a Maoist spokesperson.”
Four years later. On May 6, 2008, Ajay TG’s
wife Shobha puts a set of clothes, soap, toothpaste,
comb and a packet of biscuits into her bag
with her 20-month-old son Aman by her side.
At about 10.30am, the 32-year-old speeds off
with her brother-in-law on his bike to meet her
husband lodged in Kendriya Jail six km away
from her house in Durg, on the outskirts of
Raipur. In the three years since it came into
force, Ajay is the 43rd person to be arrested
under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special
Public Security Act (CSPSA), 2005.
The Chhattisgarh Police picked up the 42-
year-old state convener of the Campaign Against
Child Labour (CACL) on May 5 on charges of
“being part of an urban network of Naxals”.
Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan says the police
recovered a letter written by Ajay addressed to
the spokesperson of the Maoists saying — either
return the camera I gave you or pay me in place
of that. “The incriminating element is ‘I gave
you’,” he asserts. For a split second, the top cop
admits there is nothing that directly implicates
Ajay, but promptly adds, “Under the law, one
cannot have any contact or commerce with
members of a banned organisation.”
The letter, written by Ajay, was recovered
from the house of Malti Rao, the wife of Gudsa
Husendi, the Maoists’ spokesperson, after the
police claimed they “busted the Naxalite
racket” on January 21 this year. He was under
the police scanner since then. Shobha recalls
on January 22 three policemen came to their
Ayyappa Nagar house at eight in the morning.
They searched the house and took away
Ajay’s computer and other belongings.
The police also showed him the letter
recovered from Malti Rao. Ajay admitted
he had written the letter but
told them the circumstances that
had forced it. The police, however,
are convinced Ajay’s arrest is not
linked to the 2004 incident. While
emphasising this is a “totally different
case”, they have overlooked a vital detail. The
letter is undated. So while the police may want
to believe Ajay wrote the letter much after the
2004 incident, they cannot negate the possibility
that it was written in reference to the incident,
a year before the CSPSA came into force.
But none of this counts as a slip-up in the
police’s book. Running contrary to the fundamental
rights, the CSPSA authorises the police
to arrest anyone with political leanings or associations
that question State policies. Ajay, a
state executive member, is the second member
of the PUCL to be arrested in the last year.
The first — famously — was Dr Binayak Sen,
who was arrested on May 14, 2007.
LIKE SEN, Ajay TG has a long and credible
career behind him — none of
which has anything to do with violence
or sedition. Over the last 15 years, Ajay has
not only been a director, cameraman, editor
and graphic artist, but also a prominent
human rights activist. He came to Bhilai from
Kerala as a child of four in 1969. Forsaking his
formal education after Class X, he worked in
the industrial belt around Bhilai till 1993. It
was then that he met Jonathan Parry, a social
anthropologist and professor at the London
School of Economics. Ajay assisted Parry in his
research on industrialisation in Bhilai, which led
to a subsequent job as research assistant for Balmurli
Natrajan, assistant professor, Anthropology
in the William Paterson University of New
Jersey. Natrajan, who has known Ajay since
1996, says: “Ajay has the ability to see humanity
in the most difficult of life situations, to retain
hope for a better future for all and to work tirelessly
and unselfishly in this regard.”
In 1999, Ajay directed his first film, Hathaurewala,
a portrait of an 80-year-old ironsmith
who works in the shadow of the Bhilai Steel
Plant. Till 2006, he worked on 15 films some
of which were even screened at international
film festivals. In September 2005, Ajay established
Drksakshi, an NGO, to educate young girls
from the slums in Bhilai. Today the organisation,
being run with the support of friends and wellwishers,
is a haven for girls who have either
dropped out of school or have never been to
one. Friends say Ajay and his volunteers have
changed the face of this community and brought
back health to these children. He also started
Drksakshi Janani, an effort to teach photography
and videography to older students. Recently, two
girls trained by Ajay, made a two-minute film on
gender inequality titled Aisa Kyon.
Human rights activists say Ajay’s arrest illustrates
police vindictiveness against the PUCL —
which has been critical of the government’s controversial
Salva Judum programme — and the
human rights movement in general. PUCL national
general secretary Kavita Srivastava says
the arrest is an ongoing attempt by the police to
whip up public opinion after its loss of face in
the Binayak Sen case. She recalls that on April
30, 2008, the first day of Sen’s trial in Raipur, the
police found a Swiss knife in Ajay’s bag. “He was
unaware that he was carrying it and had innocently
brought it into the court room.” The incident
was blown out of proportion. A section of
the media carried reports and photographs of
Ajay and the Swiss knife stating that
the PUCL member had come to court
with a ‘modern, deadly and dangerous
weapon’. Ajay had come to Raipur
to file an application in court to get his computer
back. It was filed on May 2 and the hearing had
been reserved for May 9. But he was picked up
before that. In hindsight, Shobha realises that the
reports criminalising her husband were actually
a run-up to his arrest.
Activists state that the State’s spite runs
deeper than the obvious anomalies in Sen’s trial.
This arrest is meant to terrorise people into silence
because the government is afraid of being
exposed on the Salva Judum, the anti-Naxalite
militia guilty of gross human rights violations.
Sources say the Judum has killed at least 1,000
people and burnt 3,000 to 4,000 houses over the
last three years. The irony is that the CSPSA, purportedly
meant for public security, has scared
the very people it is trying to protect.
On May 14, the first anniversary of Binayak
Sen’s detention, Ajay completed his ninth day in
jail. As protests were organised across the world
to release the two held under illegal detention,
32-year-old Shobha strove to crack the ludicrousness
of life. “In 2004, we suffered
at the hands of Maoists and
now we are suffering at the hands of
the State. Where do we belong?” •
WRITER’S E-MAIL
shobhita@tehelka.com |
