On July 10th, the Maharashtra Assembly passed the Maharashtra Special Public Safety Bill which is aimed to weaponize criminal laws against any dissent and opposition.
Left and progressive forces in Maharashtra and throughout the nation have criticized this bill for being unconstitutional that codifies broad powers to declare organizations illegal, criminalize associations, evict communities, seize property, and deny judicial remedies—all under the guise of preserving public safety.
Essentially, the Bill gives the government the authority to criminalize any person or group it deems a threat, to impose restrictions on its operations, to punish some or all of its members, and to declare all of its activities, including speech, communications, and nonviolent activity, as illegal. It merges the worst features of the UAPA, NSA, and AFSPA without the national security context and applies them to civil resistance, democratic expression, and oppositional mobilisation.
It cannot be forgotten that Home Minister Amit Shah in the name of “Naxal Mukt Bharat” has launched a war on the Adivasis in Central India and an extermination campaign of Maoists under Operation Kagar with the intent ultimately to handover the Jal, Jangal , Jamin of the adivasis to the Corporates. Toeing this line, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also claimed to have put a stop to Maoism in Gadchiroli while announcing mega MoUs for mining in the region. One must remember that it is UAPA and the Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act which was invoked to quell people’s protests and wrongfully incarcerate the adivasis in the region.
This Act attempts to legitimize the bogey of “urban naxal” and thus violates the Constitution's guarantees of freedom and reintroduces colonial instruments of control and repression at the expense of democratic norms and ethos.
While the double engine government has passed this law against the so called urban naxals, it has remained passive about the various acts of violence committed by all shades of right wing forces.
We demand a repeal of this draconian, undemocratic, anti-people law and appeal to all democracy loving people, organisations and parties to stand united in opposition to this law.
-- Central Committee, CPI(ML) Liberation (July 11, 2025)
