Students Pledge News/08.12.2021 – Expressing deep shock and resentment against the murder of innocent civilians of Mon district of Nagaland who were shot dead by the Indian army, the All India General Secretary of AIDSO, Sourav Ghosh, in a press statement said that,
The gruesome incident of the killing of fifteen coal miners in Mon district of Nagaland while they were returning home from the mine in indiscriminate firing by the Indian armed forces and again the subsequent killing of the civilians while they were protesting against this senseless and inhuman homicide proves that in the economically backward North East states of India undeclared military rule is very much in force. In the name of suppressing the insurgency movement that grew up in the post-independence period in demand of a sovereign, independent Nagaland, the Indian armed forces inflicted heinous, barbaric attacks including rape and murder of the innocent civilians of Nagaland time and again as a result of which deep annoyance has created among the people of Nagaland and even today they could not mentally identify themselves with the mainstream. None other than the central governments of the country, both present and past, are responsible for this who in fact, are the servitors of the capitalists. Black Acts like AFSPA that was enacted by the erstwhile Congress government have been clamped in the North Eastern States for years together in the name of suppressing insurgency but in reality, they’ve been used to snatch away all democratic rights of the people. Innumerable crimes have been committed by the abuse of such black acts in the North Eastern states including Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. The incident of “nude protest demonstration” in front of Assam Rifle Headquarters by the women of Manipur against the brutal gang rape of Manorama Devi by the armed forces a few years ago stirred the conscience of the world. Both the Congress government in the past and the present BJP led government in the centre, in order to prolong the capitalist exploitative rule have used the armed police in various states to suppress the democratic movements. In the similar fashion, the central government, in the North Eastern states of the country, makes use of the armed forces to organize brutal murders and rapes as a threat against developing democratic movements. We, on behalf of our organization, demand of the government to immediately withdraw this coercive AFSPA, to immediately institute a judicial enquiry into the Nagaland incident and award stringent punishment to the culprits as also giving Rs.50 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of the dead and the injured respectively. We express our solidarity with the agitating students of Nagaland who have organized democratic movements against such murders and urge upon all to build up democratic movements throughout the country to compel the central government for withdrawing this coercive AFSPA law.
