Draconian law in the name of curbing ‘goonda raj’

The Mayavati government in UP introduced on October 31, the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill – to be known as UPCOCA once it becomes an Act. According to government sources, this Bill has been introduced to ‘prevent, tackle and control organised crime and its links with terrorism’, and is expected to function like the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act–MCOCA.

The Bill includes provisions for strict punishment such as a minimum fine of Rs. 5 lakh and imprisonment for 5 years up to life term, capital punishment for repeated crime, no ex-parte bail on first offence and no bail on second offence. A State Organised Crime Control Authority and district level Organised Crime Control Committees are proposed to be set up. Special courts will be set up by the state government for trying cases under this Act. Gun licences of armed groups of three or more will be cancelled and government security to crime syndicates will be stopped.

The working masses in UP, as in other parts of the country, are no doubt constantly harassed by all sorts of armed gangsters and criminals. As is well known, these ‘organised criminals’ (which is what the Bill refers to them as) have deep and close links with the highest levels of the political establishment and enjoy the patronage of one or another of the ruling class political parties. They enjoy full state protection and provide the muscle power for this or that political party to win in elections. They are regularly used by the ruling class political parties to settle scores with rival parties as well as to terrorise people who are fighting for democratic and civil rights. They are used by big capitalists to terrorise and subjugate the workers, by big landlords to terrorise peasants and appropriate their land and crops. They are used, in the event of state organised communal violence, to execute large-scale arson, rape and massacre.

In other words, ‘organised crime’ that the Bill claims to target, is something that is an integral part of the present political system, in our country and carried out with full knowledge and support of the state. Well known leaders of these criminal gangs regularly stand for and get elected as councilors, legislators, etc. In many areas, these criminal gangsters rule the roost and have the state administration under their thumb. Therefore, under the present political system, whether in UP or anywhere else in the country, it would be naive to expect such a Bill to actually eliminate the kind of organised crime and violence that people hate and want to get rid of.

Who it the Bill really targeted against? What does the past experience show? The Bill will be used to attack people fighting for their rights and severely clamp down on democratic freedom. Activists fighting in defence of the rights of the people and to expose the crimes of the state will be jailed and persecuted under this law. It will be used to terrorise and victimize people of specific communities in the name of ‘tackling terrorism’. This is what the bitter experience of the people shows, in the case of the MCOCA in Maharashtra as well as in the case of other similar laws.

People's Voice denounces the introduction of the UPCOC Bill as yet another fascist attack on the rights and freedom of the people, that has to be vigorously opposed.