Articles by Subhash Gatade

Portents of Bathe Subhash Gatade THE gory massacre of innocent landless labourers by the storm-troopers of Ranvir Sena at Laxmanpur Bathe will long be remembered as the most revolting example of brutality since independence. The facts behind the rise of these mercenaries of the landowners, their connivance with the state administration which is so eager to suppress the revolutionary communist movement and their endorsement by the communal elements are too well known to be retold. The reference to them at the convention field at Patna on March 27-28,1998 by the Laxman- pur Bathe Narsanhar Virodhi Janabhiyan (Peoples' Campaign against the Massacre at Laxmanpur Bathe) only served to underline these depressing details how the state administration and its enforcement agencies, instead of training their guns on these gangs, targeted the revolutionary movement in the process liquidating a few of its activists in take encounters and laying siege to the basties of the poor to intimidate them. So much so that even to this day none of the marauders and murderers of the Sena have been apprehended, There is no doubt that for crushing the hood of such gangs, co-ordinated action among the various revolutionary groups in the field is the need of the hour. !n addition implicit support from all the revolutionary and democratic organisations all over the country is also absolutely necessary. In fact the coming together of the various revolutionary organisations and democratic forces to form the above referred Janabhiyan is a welcome step.