The home of leading Yogendra Singh Yadav, a leading member of the National Democratic People’s Front (NDPF), a working-class organisation in Uttar Pradesh, India, was raided by police yesterday (16 March). At the time, comrade Yadav was not actually at home, and so his wife and daughter had to face the police alone. The raiding police did not even include any female officers. This put them in a regrettable position and caused some worry to the family: it is itself a form of harassment in the context of India.

It appears that the motive for the raid was to harass comrade Yadav for his activities in helping local farmers to resist privatisation activities by the very right-wing BJP administration in Uttar Pradesh, which is aligned with Modi on a national level. We in the Liaison Committee for the Fourth International, based in Brazil, Argentina and the United Kingdom, and Class Conscious, based in Australia and the United States, condemn this police action. We demand the police keep their hands off working class and farmer activists and not harass and supress the activities of activists for the poor and oppressed struggling for improved conditions. We send our full solidarity to comrade Yadav, and his family, and the NDPF comrades.