Thin Red line

A few years ago, when I was visiting Ranchi, my hometown, an IPS officer approached me with a strange request. The young officer, whom I knew as a friendly acquaintance, was then posted in the Jharkhand capital but wanted to return to one of the districts as a superintendent of police. But there was a hitch: the Maoists had ‘blacklisted’ him for alleged corruption in his earlier posting. The officer wanted me to take him along to meet Shashi Bhushan Pathak, former general secretary of the state unit of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He wanted Pathak ji to put him in touch with the Maoists, so he could persuade them to remove him from their ‘blacklist’.

On my request, Pathak met him at the school he taught in, but I was not privy to their discussion. Soon after, the officer was posted to the same district he had served in previously. Was it through Pathak’s efforts? Quite possibly, though there is no way of verifying it, especially now that Pathak is no more. He died in the last week of February, at Vellore’s Christian Medical College, following renal failure. He was 56 and is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Well-known in human rights circles, boasting high-profile activist friends, and accessible to the media, Pathak commanded respect as a champion of the oppressed and underprivileged. Much of his activism was directed against State oppression in the fight against Maoists, as part of the nationwide Operation Greenhunt. In 2012, he mediated between the Maoists and the State government for the release of a policeman the former had abducted after setting off a bomb blast that had killed 13 other policemen.

However, the legacy Pathak has left behind is a contested one, with former comrades questioning his motivation and methods.

His former colleagues at PUCL, the organisation he left in 2011 to float his own outfit, the Jharkhand Council for Democratic Rights, say he harboured several ‘contradictions’. One of them even considered Pathak a Naxal ideologue, just like the police did. They also pointed to his close connections with police authorities. “He did not believe in India’s Constitution, but used every method available in the system to get what he wanted,” said a bitter-sounding former comrade from PUCL. Clarifying PUCL’s stand, its Jamshedpur-based national secretary Nishant Akhilesh said the police acts as an adversary of human rights defenders and it was neither advisable nor possible to have smooth relations with them.

Pathak’s younger son, Bittu, who has just finished a course in film editing, conceded that his deceased father had good relations with police officers as well as Maoists. However, the elder son, Chandan, spoke of the harassment he regularly faced from the police. “The police used to tap his phone and was always in the know about his moves, sometimes scuttling meetings with other activists before they could take place,” he said.

Another colleague, Shalini Samvedna, an independent social activist who has accompanied Pathak on several fact-finding missions, said he was always available whenever she needed someone to accompany her to the police or other authorities regarding any injustice done to women or children.

A close associate, who wished to remain anonymous, declared that Pathak was indeed a Naxal ideologue. “We are proud of it,” he added. “Pathak ji ’s nature of work was essentially political. He was a link between the Maoists and other mass organisations that operate publicly. His joining the PUCL around 2001 was also motivated by the same principle.” During his stint with PUCL, Pathak took up issues ranging from oppression and injustice to crowding of jails and hunger deaths, the associate said. He described him as having struggled against great odds in life to reach where he had. The struggles continued later as well, as Chandan described the financial difficulties the family faced, leading to domestic strife. “But the goodwill he had earned often came to our aid in our career and work,” he added. Chandan recently cleared the preliminary test for the State civil services. “Papa was in Vellore for his treatment when I told him. He was very happy,” he said.

The recent demise of several stalwarts of the human rights movement in Jharkhand, including Subodh Bhattacharya of PUCL and KN Pandit of CPI, has added to the challenges, said the close associate of Pathak.

He also admitted that the Maoist party had been weakened in Jharkhand. In fact, media reports suggest that the State government believes it is a matter of six months before the Maoists are wiped out from Jharkhand.

Asked how the party was gearing up for fresh challenges, including the growing opposition, especially from tribal groups, to the State’s proposed amendments to land-use laws, the associate, who calls Pathak his political guru, said the party would see the adversity as an opportunity. “As long as there is exploitation, there will be resistance,” he asserted.

Pathak would have agreed.

Abhimanyu Kumaris a Delhi-based freelance journalist

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