JUSTICE FOR CHANDU: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES…

JNUSU President and AISA and CPI(ML) activist Comrade Chandrashekhar

Special Court in Patna Sentences Three Accused in the Murder of Former JNUSU President Comrade Chandrashekhar and CPI(ML) Activist Comrade Shyam Narain Yadav To Life Imprisonment!

AISA Demands Reopening of Case against Main Conspirator Former RJD MP Shahabuddin, Calls for Nation-wide Protests on March 31st!!

Fifteen years after the murder of former JNUSU President and AISA and CPI(ML) activist Comrade Chandrashekhar, a special court in Patna has sentenced the three accused (Dhruv Jaiswal, Sheikh Munna and Iliyas Warsi) to life imprisonment.

Chandrashekhar Prasad came to JNU as a student and left as an activist of the agrarian poor. The years in JNU were years of political activism and struggle as he first grew attracted and then deeply involved with the radical politics of AISA which was just starting out in JNU. He was elected Vice-President of JNUSU in 1993, and subsequently held the office of JNUSU President for two terms. Under Chandrashekhar’s leadership, JNUSU led a number of historic struggles to uphold the democratic and progressive character of this campus, foremost among them the struggle to restore deprivation points in JNU’s admission policy and a massive agitation against a proposal to privatize the campus and implement fee hikes. He always asserted, in word and deed, that the student movement must ally itself with democratic and progressive struggles across the country and the world.

Chandrashekhar left JNU to become a whole-time activist of the CPI(ML) in Bihar. He was martyred on 31 March 1997, along with another young CPI(ML) activist, Shyam Narain Yadav, while addressing a meeting condemning the massacre of dalits. His death saw an outpouring of grief, as students spilled out into the streets, launching a mass movement that extended from Delhi to Siwan, facing lathis, water canons and rubber bullets.

Chandu’s murder on the streets of Siwan on March 31st 1997 was clearly a reaction to the growing people’s assertion under the banner of CPI(ML) against the feudal forces in Bihar. The verdict of the special court is the result of a protracted struggle for justice. However, AISA holds that it is highly unfortunate that the CBI investigation has failed to nail the role of the main conspirator, former RJD MP Shahabuddin. In doing so, it has completely failed to acknowledge the political conspiracy behind the murder of Comrade Chandrashekhar and CPI(ML) activist Comrade Shyam Narain Yadav.

Why did CBI not even chargesheet Shahabuddin in the Chandrashekhar murder case, given the fact that the shooters were known to be Shahabuddin’s goons? AISA demands that the CBI reopen the case, in order to investigate and nail the political conspiracy behind the murder of Comrade Chandu. On March 31st this year, AISA will be holding nation-wide protests with this demand.

To remember Chandu is to do more than pay tribute. It is to say that the struggle continues, both in our campuses and beyond.

Links to articles/ related to this:

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3221853.ece


http://www.news4education.com/artdetail.php?nid=4581&cid=7

http://www.pratirodh.com/people-s-struggle-news/371/chandrashekhar-killing-strict-punishment-demanded.html

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5 thoughts on “JUSTICE FOR CHANDU: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES…

  1. Comrade Chandu’s murder was, however, no exception. Before and after his murder, a large number of CPI(ML) activists had been killed in Siwan itself by mafia goons under direct political patronage and by the feudal armies like Ranveer Sena who were hell-bent on breaking the growing assertion of the poor against feudalism and mafia raj.

  2. Why did CBI not even chargesheet Shahabuddin in the Chandrashekhar murder case, given the fact that the shooters were known to be Shahabuddin’s goons? AISA demands that the CBI reopen the case, in order to investigate and nail the political conspiracy behind the murder of Comrade Chandu.
    Yes, I totally agree with this stand of aisa. Political conspiracy behind Chandu murder is well known, Then why Shabuddin not hangged till date.

  3. चंदु को मारने के लिये एक गोली काफी नही…

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