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Banned Maoist mouthpiece back in print
Proscribed in February last year, People’s March, the mouthpiece of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), is back in print this month. Debdutta Ghosh writes.
Proscribed in February last year, People’s March, the mouthpiece of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), is back in print this month.
“The Press Registrar Appellate Board has allowed me to come out with the magazine once again,” said P. Govinda Kutty (63), editor, People’s March, from his residence in Ernakulam, Kerala. “The first issue has been published in November.”
After Kutty appealed against the ban, the board allowed the magazine’s publication from August 7.
“But none was ready to print the magazine,” Kutty said. “It took me more than two months to find an alternative printer. I could bring out the magazine only in November.”
Asked if he apprehended another clampdown after the Centre banned the CPI (Maoist) in June, Kutty said, “I’m at the mercy of the government. I’ve been wrongly jailed for 12 years and was even booked under the Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act. I was on a hunger strike for 68 days after I was arrested in 2007. But I’m not afraid.”
Kutty had earlier tried to work around the ban on People’s March by publishing People’s Voice.
Kutty was arrested on December 19, 2007, two months before his magazine was banned. The police raided his residence and seized computers, mobile phones and copies of People’s March.
He was released after a few months.
