Over to the Police

Vol IX No 20
Skylark 284 Frere Road Bombay 400 001
Grams Econweekly Editor Krishna Raj Assistant Editors Rajani X Dasai, Jawid Laiq Editorial Staff Colin de Souza, Ashok Rao, A A Dalvi THE nation-wide strike of railway workers will rank as a landmark in the government's backward march from the pseudo-socialist slogans of 1969. The Defence of India Rules and the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, indefinite detention without trial, police violence and even arranged murders have become stock weapons against political elements inconvenient to the government The railway strike has seen the use of some of these weapons against organised labour on a scale hitherto unknown. What leaves one aghast is the calculated cold-bloodedness with which the operation has been conducted. There can be no pretence that the intensity of the repression has increased in response to provocations from the other side. In this case, the provocation and the repression have both come from the same side