Showing posts with label naxalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label naxalism. Show all posts
Sunday, February 17, 2008
India: Delhi threatens air-strikes after coordinated Naxalite attacks
Friday, February 8, 2008
Everybody Loves A Naxal
AXALISM, OR ITS current variant, Maoism, is back in the news with a bang. On its first coming, forty years ago, it expressed a radical utopian impulse that rapidly captured the imagination of a generation of the most brilliant students across the country. It started as a peasant revolt in 1967 in a small area of northern West Bengal but while the initial revolt was rapidly crushed by the governments of the day, the metaphor called Naxalbari and its anglicised derivative “Naxalite” took the political world by storm. Naxalism was a radical critique of the existing state of affairs — the corruption of the parliamentary democratic system, the political parties; the rot in the educational system; rampant joblessness, famines and food shortages and other contemporary issues of the late 1960s. Naxalism became what contemporary social theorists would call a “floating signifier” — a wide range of meanings could be put into that term. That Naxalbari was a trigger for a radical cultural-political critique of the stranglehold of landlordism and caste power in rural India is also evident from the wide range of films, theatre and literary products that emerged in the decade immediately following. This first round of Naxalism was therefore widely studied and written about by scholars of different persuasions and we have a fairly rich documentation of that history. The subsequent two phases of the movement have hardly been studied. The second phase, that of silent regrouping and reorganisation, was long drawn out and unspectacular, compared to its first phase. But that is where the foundations of the present movement were laid. The present phase, where the term “Naxalism” has been replaced by the more specific “Maoism” (referring to only one powerful strand of the movement) has been the least studied and understood. Sudeep Chakravarti’s book is a timely and fascinating account of Maoism in the last decade or so. Written in the form of a journalistic travelogue, it gives a fascinating picture of the various elements that go into the making of this phenomenon. Chakravarti’s specific focus is on the current flashpoint, namely Chhattisgarh, where he traveled and met a range of different people. Chhattisgarh is also important because it is currently the site of the most vicious and violent counter-insurgency operation unleashed by the state — the Salwa Judum which pits one section of tribals into a civil war with others.
RED SUN —TRAVELS INNAXALITE COUNTRYSudeep ChakravartiPenguin Viking352 pp; Rs 495
Chakravarti’s account provides readers an opportunity to form their own judgement as we are brought face to face with officials directly handling the insurgency on the one hand, and others who are involved in developmental activity (including Gandhians, now branded as crypto-Naxals by the administration) to give a glimpse of life in this embattled land. Chhattisgarh today is only a notch below (or maybe not) the directly Army-ruled states (thanks to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act) of the North-East and Kashmir, for example. With its own draconian Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, it is run today as a police state and Chakravarti’s account brings out the situation there quite vividly. However, despite its specific focus on Chhattisgarh, the author does not restrict himself to it and provides us with a fairly well-informed account of the larger picture of the movement, its current state, its different major tendencies and its general spread in different parts of the country. And he does it with interviews with a range of participants — including the legendary Kanu Sanyal — as well as with observers in the corporate sector or the media. These accounts are garnished with snippets of the Maoist movement in neighbouring Nepal, providing an excellent introduction for the lay reader.Chakravarti’s account should also serve as an eye-opener to the powers-that-be, for their myopic responses to Naxalism betray an utter lack of understanding of the challenges posed by it. It is time to recognise that Naxalism is a response, however perverse, to years of looting of public resources and dispossession of peoplefrom their lands by state and corporate elites. This is a curious omission from the Chhattisgarh story in the book. It is, after all, clear by now that the state-sponsored Salwa Judum and anti-Naxal operations are but the smokescreen behind which large-scale corporate robbery of tribal lands is carried out. This is a story that remains to be told.
RED SUN —TRAVELS INNAXALITE COUNTRYSudeep ChakravartiPenguin Viking352 pp; Rs 495
Chakravarti’s account provides readers an opportunity to form their own judgement as we are brought face to face with officials directly handling the insurgency on the one hand, and others who are involved in developmental activity (including Gandhians, now branded as crypto-Naxals by the administration) to give a glimpse of life in this embattled land. Chhattisgarh today is only a notch below (or maybe not) the directly Army-ruled states (thanks to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act) of the North-East and Kashmir, for example. With its own draconian Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, it is run today as a police state and Chakravarti’s account brings out the situation there quite vividly. However, despite its specific focus on Chhattisgarh, the author does not restrict himself to it and provides us with a fairly well-informed account of the larger picture of the movement, its current state, its different major tendencies and its general spread in different parts of the country. And he does it with interviews with a range of participants — including the legendary Kanu Sanyal — as well as with observers in the corporate sector or the media. These accounts are garnished with snippets of the Maoist movement in neighbouring Nepal, providing an excellent introduction for the lay reader.Chakravarti’s account should also serve as an eye-opener to the powers-that-be, for their myopic responses to Naxalism betray an utter lack of understanding of the challenges posed by it. It is time to recognise that Naxalism is a response, however perverse, to years of looting of public resources and dispossession of peoplefrom their lands by state and corporate elites. This is a curious omission from the Chhattisgarh story in the book. It is, after all, clear by now that the state-sponsored Salwa Judum and anti-Naxal operations are but the smokescreen behind which large-scale corporate robbery of tribal lands is carried out. This is a story that remains to be told.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
'Bihar, Chh'garh, J'khand failed to contain Naxals'
Chhatarpur (MP), Jan 23: The governments of Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have failed to contain Naxalism despite all possible support extended to them Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters.
"While Naxalism in the country has weakened, governments of Bihar, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand have failed to tackle the menace effectively," Jaiswal said.
He was addressing a press conference jointly with Union Minister of State for Personnel and Public Grievances Suresh Pachouri.
The minister also lauded Andhra Pradesh government for containing naxal activities.
Jaiswal advised the other states affected by the violence to follow the steps taken by the Congress-ruled southern state.
Pachouri rejected Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's allegations about "stepmotherly" treatment to Madhya Pradesh by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.
The Centre had extended maximum assistance to the BJP-ruled state which was "neglected" by the NDA regime.
"Before making the allegations, the state government must utilise the assistance provided by the Centre.... The state has failed to properly utilise funds given by the UPA government under various schemes," he said.
"While Naxalism in the country has weakened, governments of Bihar, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand have failed to tackle the menace effectively," Jaiswal said.
He was addressing a press conference jointly with Union Minister of State for Personnel and Public Grievances Suresh Pachouri.
The minister also lauded Andhra Pradesh government for containing naxal activities.
Jaiswal advised the other states affected by the violence to follow the steps taken by the Congress-ruled southern state.
Pachouri rejected Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's allegations about "stepmotherly" treatment to Madhya Pradesh by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.
The Centre had extended maximum assistance to the BJP-ruled state which was "neglected" by the NDA regime.
"Before making the allegations, the state government must utilise the assistance provided by the Centre.... The state has failed to properly utilise funds given by the UPA government under various schemes," he said.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Securing Indian jails against Naxal threats
As the country grapples with growing law and order problems in one form or the other, the Naxals have been systematically escalating their fight against the so-called bourgeois Indian state. They have found new ways to organize themselves and make their presence felt.
Today, they are not only better-motivated and better-organized, but also better-trained and better-equipped against an ill-motivated, and poorly trained and equipped police force. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has termed the Naxalite insurgency as the single greatest threat to the country's internal security.
The Central government is busy coordinating with the affected state governments to work out a synergized policy to deal with the Naxal menace, including the formation of a specialized anti-Naxal force. However, the Naxals seem intent on upping the ante and taking the fight to higher levels as apparent from their recent drive to freeing their comrades lodged in different jails of the country.
There have been a string of incidents recently where the Naxalites have attacked jails in different parts of the country and succeeded in freeing a good number of hardened criminals (read Maoists) booked for waging war against the Indian state.
What initially appeared to be a one-off incident/accident seems to be have become a regular feature and reflects very poorly on the prison security system. While earlier jailbreaks used to be examples of dare-devilry by individual prisoners, the Maoists seem to be making it a habit, and now executing it in a well-planned and coordinated manner, highlighting serious lapses in the policing and prison systems.
In the celebrated Jehanabad jailbreak of November, 2005, about 1,000 well-armed Naxalites not only successfully managed to set free 341 prisoners lodged in that jail, but also succeeded in killing several Ranvir Sena men and cops.
Again in March 2006, about 200 armed Naxalites raided a jail in Gajapati town in Orissa and succeeded in freeing more than 40 prisoners after an extended encounter. In March 2007, there was a jailbreak in Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh in which 72 under-trials, including Naxalites, escaped from the district jail. in December, 2007 when some 300 insurgents and their supporters were freed by Naxalites during a mass jailbreak in Chhattisgarh.
In the same month, hundreds of agitating Maoist inmates also took control of the inner wing of Patna's high-security Beur jail, protesting against alleged ill-treatment by jail authorities. Besides these jailbreaks, there have been regular reports of recovery from the inmates, of huge caches of arms, cash, mobile phones and other such items.
It only points to lax security inside the jail, and connivance and collusion by the jail staff. All these facts taken together underline the ills afflicting the Indian prison system. It also drives home the point that not only are initiatives needed for ensuring security inside jails, but there is also a need for better training and infrastructure for prison personnel to tackle such threats from any quarters including Naxalites.
The various security measures for preventing such jailbreaks include the installation of a bio-metric system of access control as recommended for installation in the nine prisons of the Tihar jail complex by the S K Cain Committee. In this system, the fingerprints of all the prisoners and jail staff is saved in a database and entry and exit from the complex will be permitted only if the fingerprints are matched.
This system should be installed in all jails across the country without exception. Besides, simple security measures like installation of closed-circuit cameras, metal detectors and automatic security lock systems should also be considered for better security of our jails and to pre-empt such daring jailbreaks as seen in recent times.
Manpower shortages have been the bane of the Indian prison system and needs to be addressed up for better prison management and security. If the state is really serious about improving the law and order and justice system, then it really needs to do some hard thinking about all these issues. India cannot hope to tackle the Naxal threat with a ramshackle prison security system.
The writer is Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly, West Bengal
Today, they are not only better-motivated and better-organized, but also better-trained and better-equipped against an ill-motivated, and poorly trained and equipped police force. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has termed the Naxalite insurgency as the single greatest threat to the country's internal security.
The Central government is busy coordinating with the affected state governments to work out a synergized policy to deal with the Naxal menace, including the formation of a specialized anti-Naxal force. However, the Naxals seem intent on upping the ante and taking the fight to higher levels as apparent from their recent drive to freeing their comrades lodged in different jails of the country.
There have been a string of incidents recently where the Naxalites have attacked jails in different parts of the country and succeeded in freeing a good number of hardened criminals (read Maoists) booked for waging war against the Indian state.
What initially appeared to be a one-off incident/accident seems to be have become a regular feature and reflects very poorly on the prison security system. While earlier jailbreaks used to be examples of dare-devilry by individual prisoners, the Maoists seem to be making it a habit, and now executing it in a well-planned and coordinated manner, highlighting serious lapses in the policing and prison systems.
In the celebrated Jehanabad jailbreak of November, 2005, about 1,000 well-armed Naxalites not only successfully managed to set free 341 prisoners lodged in that jail, but also succeeded in killing several Ranvir Sena men and cops.
Again in March 2006, about 200 armed Naxalites raided a jail in Gajapati town in Orissa and succeeded in freeing more than 40 prisoners after an extended encounter. In March 2007, there was a jailbreak in Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh in which 72 under-trials, including Naxalites, escaped from the district jail. in December, 2007 when some 300 insurgents and their supporters were freed by Naxalites during a mass jailbreak in Chhattisgarh.
In the same month, hundreds of agitating Maoist inmates also took control of the inner wing of Patna's high-security Beur jail, protesting against alleged ill-treatment by jail authorities. Besides these jailbreaks, there have been regular reports of recovery from the inmates, of huge caches of arms, cash, mobile phones and other such items.
It only points to lax security inside the jail, and connivance and collusion by the jail staff. All these facts taken together underline the ills afflicting the Indian prison system. It also drives home the point that not only are initiatives needed for ensuring security inside jails, but there is also a need for better training and infrastructure for prison personnel to tackle such threats from any quarters including Naxalites.
The various security measures for preventing such jailbreaks include the installation of a bio-metric system of access control as recommended for installation in the nine prisons of the Tihar jail complex by the S K Cain Committee. In this system, the fingerprints of all the prisoners and jail staff is saved in a database and entry and exit from the complex will be permitted only if the fingerprints are matched.
This system should be installed in all jails across the country without exception. Besides, simple security measures like installation of closed-circuit cameras, metal detectors and automatic security lock systems should also be considered for better security of our jails and to pre-empt such daring jailbreaks as seen in recent times.
Manpower shortages have been the bane of the Indian prison system and needs to be addressed up for better prison management and security. If the state is really serious about improving the law and order and justice system, then it really needs to do some hard thinking about all these issues. India cannot hope to tackle the Naxal threat with a ramshackle prison security system.
The writer is Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly, West Bengal
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand account for 68% Naxal violence
NEW DELHI: As the security establishment grapples with unbridled Naxalite violence in over a dozen states, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have earned the dubious distinction of accounting for 68.16 per cent of the total incidents and 76.42 per cent of the total casualties last year.
Latest official figures compiled till the end of November last reveal that security forces suffered heavy casualties in the fight against the Maoists as 214 personnel were killed compared to 133 during the same period in 2006.
Though the number of incidents of Naxal violence was 1,385 -- almost the same as 1,398 in 2006 -- the causalities suffered by civilians was less.
While 418 civilians were killed till November 2007, the toll was 501 during the corresponding period the year before, reflecting a shift in the Maoists' strategy, Home Ministry sources said.
Rather than targeting the people, the Naxalites have set their eyes on economic installations, with the Railways bearing the worst brunt in the badly affected states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, making senior officials in the security establishment sit up.
Realising that the menace, described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at regular internal security meetings as the "single biggest security challenge" to the country, cannot be dealt with the gun alone, the Centre is concentrating on evolving a holistic plan with focus on all-round development to wean away misguided youth
Latest official figures compiled till the end of November last reveal that security forces suffered heavy casualties in the fight against the Maoists as 214 personnel were killed compared to 133 during the same period in 2006.
Though the number of incidents of Naxal violence was 1,385 -- almost the same as 1,398 in 2006 -- the causalities suffered by civilians was less.
While 418 civilians were killed till November 2007, the toll was 501 during the corresponding period the year before, reflecting a shift in the Maoists' strategy, Home Ministry sources said.
Rather than targeting the people, the Naxalites have set their eyes on economic installations, with the Railways bearing the worst brunt in the badly affected states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, making senior officials in the security establishment sit up.
Realising that the menace, described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at regular internal security meetings as the "single biggest security challenge" to the country, cannot be dealt with the gun alone, the Centre is concentrating on evolving a holistic plan with focus on all-round development to wean away misguided youth
Naxalite prisoners’ bid to escape thwarted
Special Correspondent
PATNA: Security personnel thwarted a bid by seven Communist Party of India (Maoist) members to escape from the Gaya Central Jail on Friday night.
The police said the naxalites, led by zonal commander Kirani Yadav, escaped from their cells using duplicate keys.
When they were about to scale the prison wall using ropes, one of the wardens raised an alarm.
When he was beaten up by the naxalites, security personnel came to his rescue and pushed back the naxalites to their cells.
Enquiry ordered
An enquiry has been ordered into the incident.
Kirani Yadav was among those who masterminded the Jehanabad jailbreak on November 13, 2005 and the killing of four police personnel in 2003.
PATNA: Security personnel thwarted a bid by seven Communist Party of India (Maoist) members to escape from the Gaya Central Jail on Friday night.
The police said the naxalites, led by zonal commander Kirani Yadav, escaped from their cells using duplicate keys.
When they were about to scale the prison wall using ropes, one of the wardens raised an alarm.
When he was beaten up by the naxalites, security personnel came to his rescue and pushed back the naxalites to their cells.
Enquiry ordered
An enquiry has been ordered into the incident.
Kirani Yadav was among those who masterminded the Jehanabad jailbreak on November 13, 2005 and the killing of four police personnel in 2003.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Winged Naxals
Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi January 06, 2008
I didnt read this news fully before posting here.If anything wrong please bear me.
Salutes,
AP
The government of Chhattisgarh has a gun in hand to deal with Naxals, but it has not thought it necessary to fight the equally menacing mosquitoes..
When you are in the streets of Raipur, the capital of Naxal country Chhattisgarh, you are more likely to be concerned about the mosquitoes swarming all over you than about the Naxals breeding in the jungles of Bastar not far away.
Chhattisgarh’s good doctor, Binayak Sen, who spent his life treating cerebral malaria cases in the countryside, has been behind the bars for nearly eight months. Sen is accused of providing logistic support to the Naxals.
The doctor is currently braving much worse in the Raipur central jail than charges of Naxalism — armies of mosquitoes, the very kind he had been fighting in the rural health clinics he had set up in Chhattisgarh years ago.
Every month he used to get 1,000 cerebral malaria cases, says an associate who now works for Jan Swasthya Sahyog, a group of doctors from all over the country who, following Sen’s footsteps, have been working in villages of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
On the way to the hotel in Raipur, taxi driver Aslam curses the government for not doing anything about the mosquitoes. He rarely curses the government about not doing anything about Naxals.
As the cab moves by the central jail, he informs: “The jail is even worse than the roads. It is full of mosquitoes. The convicts would die of malaria before they ever come out.”
And then his verdict for the present government follows: “This government will be voted back to power. They will rig the elections. Last elections were also rigged. All the votes from Bastar where there was no one left to vote went to this government…”
The open drains all around Raipur reflect how the government, which is seemingly sharpening its nails to tackle Naxals, has almost laid down its arms when it comes to as serious a threat to the lives of the people: mosquitoes.
The pests are the tip of two problems. One is that of malaria. While Orissa contributes 25 per cent of all malaria cases, Chhattisgarh is second with 13 per cent. The other problem states are West Bengal with 11 per cent and Jharkhand with 7 per cent.
These are figures provided by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. The country itself reports about two million cases a year with 1,000 deaths, according to the government figures. World Health Organisation paints a more horrifying picture of 20,000 deaths a year with incidence as high as 15 million.
Malaria, especially the P Faciparum, is one of the reasons for many of India’s chronic health problems, including low birth weight babies, maternal mortality and anaemia in 80 per cent of the population.
A study conducted by the National Institute of Malaria Research, Delhi, in 2007 says that every rupee spent by the National Malaria Control Programme to fight mosquitoes pays a rich dividend of Rs 19.7. It does not mention the consequences of not fighting mosquitoes.
The other problem that the mosquitoes of Raipur point at is the neglect of the well-being of the people.
Mosquitoes and Naxals are two sides of the same coin. The government of Chhattisgarh has a gun in hand to deal with the latter, but it has not thought it necessary to deal with the former. It thinks it can afford to be casual about the fact that hundreds of villages termed as Naxal-affected can be left without any government facility for years together. That people can reside beside open sewage drains…
The mosquitoes continue to breed. And they breed germs of disease as well as discontent all along the Naxal/malaria belt of the country, which seem to coincide. The earlier the rulers paid heed to the sting of the winged creatures, the better.
I didnt read this news fully before posting here.If anything wrong please bear me.
Salutes,
AP
The government of Chhattisgarh has a gun in hand to deal with Naxals, but it has not thought it necessary to fight the equally menacing mosquitoes..
When you are in the streets of Raipur, the capital of Naxal country Chhattisgarh, you are more likely to be concerned about the mosquitoes swarming all over you than about the Naxals breeding in the jungles of Bastar not far away.
Chhattisgarh’s good doctor, Binayak Sen, who spent his life treating cerebral malaria cases in the countryside, has been behind the bars for nearly eight months. Sen is accused of providing logistic support to the Naxals.
The doctor is currently braving much worse in the Raipur central jail than charges of Naxalism — armies of mosquitoes, the very kind he had been fighting in the rural health clinics he had set up in Chhattisgarh years ago.
Every month he used to get 1,000 cerebral malaria cases, says an associate who now works for Jan Swasthya Sahyog, a group of doctors from all over the country who, following Sen’s footsteps, have been working in villages of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
On the way to the hotel in Raipur, taxi driver Aslam curses the government for not doing anything about the mosquitoes. He rarely curses the government about not doing anything about Naxals.
As the cab moves by the central jail, he informs: “The jail is even worse than the roads. It is full of mosquitoes. The convicts would die of malaria before they ever come out.”
And then his verdict for the present government follows: “This government will be voted back to power. They will rig the elections. Last elections were also rigged. All the votes from Bastar where there was no one left to vote went to this government…”
The open drains all around Raipur reflect how the government, which is seemingly sharpening its nails to tackle Naxals, has almost laid down its arms when it comes to as serious a threat to the lives of the people: mosquitoes.
The pests are the tip of two problems. One is that of malaria. While Orissa contributes 25 per cent of all malaria cases, Chhattisgarh is second with 13 per cent. The other problem states are West Bengal with 11 per cent and Jharkhand with 7 per cent.
These are figures provided by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. The country itself reports about two million cases a year with 1,000 deaths, according to the government figures. World Health Organisation paints a more horrifying picture of 20,000 deaths a year with incidence as high as 15 million.
Malaria, especially the P Faciparum, is one of the reasons for many of India’s chronic health problems, including low birth weight babies, maternal mortality and anaemia in 80 per cent of the population.
A study conducted by the National Institute of Malaria Research, Delhi, in 2007 says that every rupee spent by the National Malaria Control Programme to fight mosquitoes pays a rich dividend of Rs 19.7. It does not mention the consequences of not fighting mosquitoes.
The other problem that the mosquitoes of Raipur point at is the neglect of the well-being of the people.
Mosquitoes and Naxals are two sides of the same coin. The government of Chhattisgarh has a gun in hand to deal with the latter, but it has not thought it necessary to deal with the former. It thinks it can afford to be casual about the fact that hundreds of villages termed as Naxal-affected can be left without any government facility for years together. That people can reside beside open sewage drains…
The mosquitoes continue to breed. And they breed germs of disease as well as discontent all along the Naxal/malaria belt of the country, which seem to coincide. The earlier the rulers paid heed to the sting of the winged creatures, the better.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Policeman killed in Naxal attack
Great Move Comrades,
Same thing going to be happened in State Kerala,If some thing happened to G Kutty.
Release Kutty
AP
Nagpur (PTI): One policeman was killed and another injured, when naxals attacked them at Malewada in Gadchiroli district, police said here on Friday.
A group of around half a dozen armed extremists attacked the policemen when were taking lunch at a roadside eatery on Thursday, they said.
The naxalites tied both the policemen with ropes and then used an axe to assault them, killing Havaldar Dadaji Khapre on the spot and injuring Santosh Maraskolhe, they said.
The police, after arriving at the spot, fired at the ultras but they managed to flee.
The injured cop was admitted to a hospital on Thursday night.
Khapre was accorded a state funeral
Same thing going to be happened in State Kerala,If some thing happened to G Kutty.
Release Kutty
AP
Nagpur (PTI): One policeman was killed and another injured, when naxals attacked them at Malewada in Gadchiroli district, police said here on Friday.
A group of around half a dozen armed extremists attacked the policemen when were taking lunch at a roadside eatery on Thursday, they said.
The naxalites tied both the policemen with ropes and then used an axe to assault them, killing Havaldar Dadaji Khapre on the spot and injuring Santosh Maraskolhe, they said.
The police, after arriving at the spot, fired at the ultras but they managed to flee.
The injured cop was admitted to a hospital on Thursday night.
Khapre was accorded a state funeral
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Insiide the Liberated Zone
As the white Tata Indica, that sturdy child of modern Indian enterprise, crosses a small town called Sukma along Chhattisgarh’s state Highway 43, the terrain changes.
Perhaps, the nation too. Rows of forlorn electric poles stand without wires, like stitching needles without thread. Occasional stretches of devastated roads ripped apart by land mines in countless ambushes of police and paramilitary patrols rattle your spine and your calm. Children do not run behind the car; instead, they throw you a quick, tense glance, trying to guess which side you are on.
“Saab,” the driver, all concentration, tersely says, “We are inside the Liberated Zone.”
State of statelessness
This is the gateway to a land unseen by globalising, booming India, yet only an hour’s flight northeast of Mumbai. It is a lush land at the country’s heart, sprawling across 10 states. Here, the Indian state no longer exists.
It is from this place that the have-nots of an unevenly prospering nation wage a grim war against the government, armed with weapons mostly stolen from “the enemy”, India’s security forces, and ideology imported from the China of Mao Tse-Tung, from the 1960s.
There is no talk of modern China, the world’s fastest-growing nation. Or of the world’s second-fastest growing nation, India. Alongside the local sesame, teak and mahua trees, an extreme doctrine has been sending deep roots into the tribal psyche, especially among the warrior tribes of Madias and Kois. The tribals allege that for decades, the government and its business cronies have carried out a multibillion-rupee trade in local tobacco and firewood, without sharing the spoils with them. So, the government has been shunted out. The state is recruiting boys and girls as young as 15 as special police officers. These armed youngsters patrol the roads.
Every government-run primary school, post office and hospital here has been taken over by Naxalites — the local engines of Maoist revolutionary thought who take their name from a 1967 peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal. Chhattisgarh is now the Liberated Zone’s bloodiest battleground, with 134 policemen killed by Maoist terrorists between this January and October, more than in any other state in India.
Pay up or join up
In Maoist territory, a few rusty hand pumps are the only memories of a fugitive government. The schools, the dams, even the tax system, are run by the Naxalites. Villagers pay with money, or with food, shelter, clothes and medicines. Families who cannot even afford that in this desperately poor area where the monthly per capita income is Rs 200 (40 per cent below the national average) give their men and boys to the revolution as tax.
“The Maoists told my family we have a choice: either the men join the movement or pay up Rs 500. We were given three chances to pay, in food grains, if not cash,” says 19-year-old Pancham Dhulia (name changed) at Kurti, the second of the five relief camps on the 80-km highway from Sukma to Konta where victims of the Maoists or people disgruntled with them live in constant fear of reprisal. “My family could not pay. They handed me over to the movement as tax.”
Dhulia deserted his indoctrinators after a while. But those who have not, ensure that your journey from Jagdalpur, 300-odd km from state capital Raipur, to Pamed, where 11 police personnel were ambushed and killed on November 2, is a 20-hour detour through neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
There is a shorter road through a village called Chintalnar, where security forces have not ventured after 12 policemen, including a highly decorated and admired police officer called Hemant Kumar Singh, were killed on August 29 in an ambush by communist guerrillas on a police station.
This road is heavily littered with Claymore landmines, which first earned their stripes killing thousands in World War II. Relentless sniper fire could make the road even shorter for the casual visitor. Two days after the August 29 ambush, the state DGP’s helicopter was fired upon.
The ambushed police station in Bijapur did not particularly want to be the last representative of the Indian state in this area. All other government institutions have withdrawn. “We had asked for its closure,” says Rajendar Vij, Inspector-General of Police (Bastar Range). The police station’s only link to the outside world was a solar wireless set. There are no telephones here, no cell signal, no electricity. When the Maoists came on November 2, there were desperate requests for help. Armed reinforcements were 200 km away. They were not sent. Officers feared they too would be wiped out.
Where the police don’t dare
Policemen say there are several areas deep in Bijapur and Dantewada where they have not ventured for two decades. In Dantewada, the violence has wiped out 644 tribal villages. The Maoists are likely to re-distribute this land among themselves. With these villages gone, the security forces have lost the handful of local informers they had here. Naxalites, like the police, have Insas rifles, Kalashnikovs, light machine guns, SLRs, and .303s. They also have more numbers.
The other road into the Liberated Zone, Highway 43, is the only bleak artery that the government retains in about 1.3 lakh sq km — that’s the size of 300 Mumbais — of Naxalite territory. Along the highway are the five relief camps that stay huddled beside CRPF shelters.
From here, the Indian state issues its nervous and disturbing answer to the siege. It recruits boys and girls as young as 15 as special police officers (SPOs), arming them with World-War-vintage .303 rifles. While the security forces concentrate on their own posts, these youngsters patrol the roads and guard the camps. These counter-insurgents are called Salwa Judum, ‘the movement to purify’, in the local Chhattisgarhi language.
At Konta town on the Andhra Pradesh border, there are 180 SPOs, many of them young girls. They joined so that they could support their families, left homeless and unemployed by the Maoists, with Rs 2,000-3,000 as monthly government allowance. “If I do not hold the gun, I will be killed, now that we are on the other side,” says a 16-year-old SPO, requesting anonymity. “Also, I get to earn to feed my family.”
Barely 2 km away in the red beyond, the children of India’s own intifada play cops and Maoists, in which little boys acting as comrades vanquish the “corrupt and evil” police forces. “The Maoist strategy of catching them young is eerily similar to that of the Khmer Rogue, the Maoist-inspired revolutionary party responsible for the Cambodian genocide,” says an article in the Washington DC-based magazine Global Affairs.
A war without rules
In scores of towns on our route — Pamed, Narainpur and Koligoda — Maoists run the schools, distribute grain and construct dams to irrigate this lush, fertile land. In Bijapur, emaciated village elder Dhuma Bulla says: “They (police) are the ones who are hunted. They then blame us. How do we trust them? We haven’t seen them around here for years now. The Maoists rule here.”
“At least three police stations here are sitting ducks. They can run us down any time they want. But to pull back or relocate is seen by the government as surrender before the Maoists, so we stay put,” says an official of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force posted in Dantewada. On November 2, eleven policemen were killed in a roadside ambush in the district.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Sanjay Singh, who carried out spot investigations after the Pamed ambush, says the Naxalites, like the police, have Insas rifles, Kalashnikovs, light machine guns, SLRs and .303s. “The only thing they have more than us are the numbers,” he says.
After its long detour through Andhra, the white Indica reaches the Chhattisgarh border, near Pamed. From Deepapuram village near the checkpost, one has to walk into Maoist territory. No cars are allowed. After asking at three houses, we get water from a wary villager. Nobody talks. Nobody volunteers to be a guide into the red fortress.
Barely 2 km into the forest, a stranger in mud-stained shorts and a vest, appears. “Please return,” he says in Hindi, in a clear voice. “We have been following your movements.” He stands his ground, waiting for us to leave.
CRPF Sub-Inspector G Kumar’s warning not to cross Sukma, which houses the last petrol station and the last bottles of soft drink, comes to mind. So do these words of his: “It’s a war and, forget winning, we do not know how to fight it.”
Perhaps, the nation too. Rows of forlorn electric poles stand without wires, like stitching needles without thread. Occasional stretches of devastated roads ripped apart by land mines in countless ambushes of police and paramilitary patrols rattle your spine and your calm. Children do not run behind the car; instead, they throw you a quick, tense glance, trying to guess which side you are on.
“Saab,” the driver, all concentration, tersely says, “We are inside the Liberated Zone.”
State of statelessness
This is the gateway to a land unseen by globalising, booming India, yet only an hour’s flight northeast of Mumbai. It is a lush land at the country’s heart, sprawling across 10 states. Here, the Indian state no longer exists.
It is from this place that the have-nots of an unevenly prospering nation wage a grim war against the government, armed with weapons mostly stolen from “the enemy”, India’s security forces, and ideology imported from the China of Mao Tse-Tung, from the 1960s.
There is no talk of modern China, the world’s fastest-growing nation. Or of the world’s second-fastest growing nation, India. Alongside the local sesame, teak and mahua trees, an extreme doctrine has been sending deep roots into the tribal psyche, especially among the warrior tribes of Madias and Kois. The tribals allege that for decades, the government and its business cronies have carried out a multibillion-rupee trade in local tobacco and firewood, without sharing the spoils with them. So, the government has been shunted out. The state is recruiting boys and girls as young as 15 as special police officers. These armed youngsters patrol the roads.
Every government-run primary school, post office and hospital here has been taken over by Naxalites — the local engines of Maoist revolutionary thought who take their name from a 1967 peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal. Chhattisgarh is now the Liberated Zone’s bloodiest battleground, with 134 policemen killed by Maoist terrorists between this January and October, more than in any other state in India.
Pay up or join up
In Maoist territory, a few rusty hand pumps are the only memories of a fugitive government. The schools, the dams, even the tax system, are run by the Naxalites. Villagers pay with money, or with food, shelter, clothes and medicines. Families who cannot even afford that in this desperately poor area where the monthly per capita income is Rs 200 (40 per cent below the national average) give their men and boys to the revolution as tax.
“The Maoists told my family we have a choice: either the men join the movement or pay up Rs 500. We were given three chances to pay, in food grains, if not cash,” says 19-year-old Pancham Dhulia (name changed) at Kurti, the second of the five relief camps on the 80-km highway from Sukma to Konta where victims of the Maoists or people disgruntled with them live in constant fear of reprisal. “My family could not pay. They handed me over to the movement as tax.”
Dhulia deserted his indoctrinators after a while. But those who have not, ensure that your journey from Jagdalpur, 300-odd km from state capital Raipur, to Pamed, where 11 police personnel were ambushed and killed on November 2, is a 20-hour detour through neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
There is a shorter road through a village called Chintalnar, where security forces have not ventured after 12 policemen, including a highly decorated and admired police officer called Hemant Kumar Singh, were killed on August 29 in an ambush by communist guerrillas on a police station.
This road is heavily littered with Claymore landmines, which first earned their stripes killing thousands in World War II. Relentless sniper fire could make the road even shorter for the casual visitor. Two days after the August 29 ambush, the state DGP’s helicopter was fired upon.
The ambushed police station in Bijapur did not particularly want to be the last representative of the Indian state in this area. All other government institutions have withdrawn. “We had asked for its closure,” says Rajendar Vij, Inspector-General of Police (Bastar Range). The police station’s only link to the outside world was a solar wireless set. There are no telephones here, no cell signal, no electricity. When the Maoists came on November 2, there were desperate requests for help. Armed reinforcements were 200 km away. They were not sent. Officers feared they too would be wiped out.
Where the police don’t dare
Policemen say there are several areas deep in Bijapur and Dantewada where they have not ventured for two decades. In Dantewada, the violence has wiped out 644 tribal villages. The Maoists are likely to re-distribute this land among themselves. With these villages gone, the security forces have lost the handful of local informers they had here. Naxalites, like the police, have Insas rifles, Kalashnikovs, light machine guns, SLRs, and .303s. They also have more numbers.
The other road into the Liberated Zone, Highway 43, is the only bleak artery that the government retains in about 1.3 lakh sq km — that’s the size of 300 Mumbais — of Naxalite territory. Along the highway are the five relief camps that stay huddled beside CRPF shelters.
From here, the Indian state issues its nervous and disturbing answer to the siege. It recruits boys and girls as young as 15 as special police officers (SPOs), arming them with World-War-vintage .303 rifles. While the security forces concentrate on their own posts, these youngsters patrol the roads and guard the camps. These counter-insurgents are called Salwa Judum, ‘the movement to purify’, in the local Chhattisgarhi language.
At Konta town on the Andhra Pradesh border, there are 180 SPOs, many of them young girls. They joined so that they could support their families, left homeless and unemployed by the Maoists, with Rs 2,000-3,000 as monthly government allowance. “If I do not hold the gun, I will be killed, now that we are on the other side,” says a 16-year-old SPO, requesting anonymity. “Also, I get to earn to feed my family.”
Barely 2 km away in the red beyond, the children of India’s own intifada play cops and Maoists, in which little boys acting as comrades vanquish the “corrupt and evil” police forces. “The Maoist strategy of catching them young is eerily similar to that of the Khmer Rogue, the Maoist-inspired revolutionary party responsible for the Cambodian genocide,” says an article in the Washington DC-based magazine Global Affairs.
A war without rules
In scores of towns on our route — Pamed, Narainpur and Koligoda — Maoists run the schools, distribute grain and construct dams to irrigate this lush, fertile land. In Bijapur, emaciated village elder Dhuma Bulla says: “They (police) are the ones who are hunted. They then blame us. How do we trust them? We haven’t seen them around here for years now. The Maoists rule here.”
“At least three police stations here are sitting ducks. They can run us down any time they want. But to pull back or relocate is seen by the government as surrender before the Maoists, so we stay put,” says an official of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force posted in Dantewada. On November 2, eleven policemen were killed in a roadside ambush in the district.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Sanjay Singh, who carried out spot investigations after the Pamed ambush, says the Naxalites, like the police, have Insas rifles, Kalashnikovs, light machine guns, SLRs and .303s. “The only thing they have more than us are the numbers,” he says.
After its long detour through Andhra, the white Indica reaches the Chhattisgarh border, near Pamed. From Deepapuram village near the checkpost, one has to walk into Maoist territory. No cars are allowed. After asking at three houses, we get water from a wary villager. Nobody talks. Nobody volunteers to be a guide into the red fortress.
Barely 2 km into the forest, a stranger in mud-stained shorts and a vest, appears. “Please return,” he says in Hindi, in a clear voice. “We have been following your movements.” He stands his ground, waiting for us to leave.
CRPF Sub-Inspector G Kumar’s warning not to cross Sukma, which houses the last petrol station and the last bottles of soft drink, comes to mind. So do these words of his: “It’s a war and, forget winning, we do not know how to fight it.”
Monday, October 29, 2007
Maoists kill 4 more in Jharkhand
RANCHI: A day after Maoists massacred 19 people including MP and former CM Babulal Marandi's son in Giridih's Chilkhadih village in the wee hours of Saturday, red terror continued to haunt Jharkhand with the rebels gunning down four more people at Loda village in Latehar district on Sunday, the day of Jharkhand bandh.
Left ultras also torched eight bauxite-laden trucks near Ghaghra in Gumla district late on Saturday evening.
Latehar SP Ravi Kant Dhan told TOI that the victims appeared to have been abducted by the Maoists before being shot on Sunday evening.
The police have recovered a hand-written note near the bodies in which the Maoists have described the four victims as supporters of Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a breakaway group of the CPI (Maoist).
A war of attrition is raging between the TPC and the CPI (Maoist), especially in Palamu and Latehar, for over two years. The recent Maoist operations appear to be an indication of more such strikes by the extremists in the days to come.
For, an upsurge in Maoist activities is observed every year in October and November. The post-festive season immediately after the rainfall provides dense hideouts to Maoists. Expert in guerrila warfare, they find it more secure to take refuge in the forests after executing their operations.
Last year, two major Maoist operations were carried out around this time. On October 31 and November 24, the abandoned camps of BSF and CRPF were blown up in Balumath and Madhuban police station areas of Giridih whereas 14 policemen were killed in a land mine blast in Bokaro on December 2.
Even in 2005, two major operations were carried out by the Naxalites in the months of October and November. Thirteen security personnel were killed in a bomb blast at Baniadih village in Chatra on October 8. And on November 11, the extremists attacked Panchamba homeguard training camp and killed five jawans
Left ultras also torched eight bauxite-laden trucks near Ghaghra in Gumla district late on Saturday evening.
Latehar SP Ravi Kant Dhan told TOI that the victims appeared to have been abducted by the Maoists before being shot on Sunday evening.
The police have recovered a hand-written note near the bodies in which the Maoists have described the four victims as supporters of Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a breakaway group of the CPI (Maoist).
A war of attrition is raging between the TPC and the CPI (Maoist), especially in Palamu and Latehar, for over two years. The recent Maoist operations appear to be an indication of more such strikes by the extremists in the days to come.
For, an upsurge in Maoist activities is observed every year in October and November. The post-festive season immediately after the rainfall provides dense hideouts to Maoists. Expert in guerrila warfare, they find it more secure to take refuge in the forests after executing their operations.
Last year, two major Maoist operations were carried out around this time. On October 31 and November 24, the abandoned camps of BSF and CRPF were blown up in Balumath and Madhuban police station areas of Giridih whereas 14 policemen were killed in a land mine blast in Bokaro on December 2.
Even in 2005, two major operations were carried out by the Naxalites in the months of October and November. Thirteen security personnel were killed in a bomb blast at Baniadih village in Chatra on October 8. And on November 11, the extremists attacked Panchamba homeguard training camp and killed five jawans
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Londan Group Backs Naxals
MUMBAI: The London-based Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers has expressed concern at the two ‘senior Naxalite’ leaders being ‘illegally detained and tortured in the police custody’.
The lawyers’ body has also written to Susan Abraham, Vernon’s wife, underscoring the need for a concerted effort for facilitating the release of the two ‘ultra-left cadre’.
In its October 9 annual general meeting, the society passed a motion, dubbing the arrests as ‘targeted intimidation’ by the police. In fact, local civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have also been crying foul over the ‘illegal detention’ of the two ‘Naxalites’.
But officers of the state anti-Naxalite operations unit and Director General of Police PS Pasricha still assert that the arrests of the Naxalite ideologues were indeed significant.
The DGP maintains that the operation to nab the Naxalite leaders was meticulously planned and lasted over 22 days before the Anti-Terrorism Squad finally picked them up. Cops had all along alleged the duo had been waging a “proxy war” against the nation.
However, strongly refuting claims made by the Maharashtra ATS, Vernon’s wife Susan Abraham pointed to discrepancies in the police versions offered, so far.
She argued that the police have goofed up and the cops were wrong in specifying even the place where his husband was arrested from. “It is ridiculous that the cops showed them as arrested from Govandi when in fact they were not picked up from that place at all,” Susan said.
Susan has also moved Bombay High Court challenging the continued police remand and illegal arrest of Vernon and Sridhar.
Police records showed cases against Vernon and Sridhar, including an attempt to ambush a police patrol party and an extortion charge. “But it is untrue that the police have at least 100 cases against them,” says Susan
The lawyers’ body has also written to Susan Abraham, Vernon’s wife, underscoring the need for a concerted effort for facilitating the release of the two ‘ultra-left cadre’.
In its October 9 annual general meeting, the society passed a motion, dubbing the arrests as ‘targeted intimidation’ by the police. In fact, local civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have also been crying foul over the ‘illegal detention’ of the two ‘Naxalites’.
But officers of the state anti-Naxalite operations unit and Director General of Police PS Pasricha still assert that the arrests of the Naxalite ideologues were indeed significant.
The DGP maintains that the operation to nab the Naxalite leaders was meticulously planned and lasted over 22 days before the Anti-Terrorism Squad finally picked them up. Cops had all along alleged the duo had been waging a “proxy war” against the nation.
However, strongly refuting claims made by the Maharashtra ATS, Vernon’s wife Susan Abraham pointed to discrepancies in the police versions offered, so far.
She argued that the police have goofed up and the cops were wrong in specifying even the place where his husband was arrested from. “It is ridiculous that the cops showed them as arrested from Govandi when in fact they were not picked up from that place at all,” Susan said.
Susan has also moved Bombay High Court challenging the continued police remand and illegal arrest of Vernon and Sridhar.
Police records showed cases against Vernon and Sridhar, including an attempt to ambush a police patrol party and an extortion charge. “But it is untrue that the police have at least 100 cases against them,” says Susan
Londan Group Backs Naxals
MUMBAI: The London-based Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers has expressed concern at the two ‘senior Naxalite’ leaders being ‘illegally detained and tortured in the police custody’.
The lawyers’ body has also written to Susan Abraham, Vernon’s wife, underscoring the need for a concerted effort for facilitating the release of the two ‘ultra-left cadre’.
In its October 9 annual general meeting, the society passed a motion, dubbing the arrests as ‘targeted intimidation’ by the police. In fact, local civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have also been crying foul over the ‘illegal detention’ of the two ‘Naxalites’.
But officers of the state anti-Naxalite operations unit and Director General of Police PS Pasricha still assert that the arrests of the Naxalite ideologues were indeed significant.
The DGP maintains that the operation to nab the Naxalite leaders was meticulously planned and lasted over 22 days before the Anti-Terrorism Squad finally picked them up. Cops had all along alleged the duo had been waging a “proxy war” against the nation.
However, strongly refuting claims made by the Maharashtra ATS, Vernon’s wife Susan Abraham pointed to discrepancies in the police versions offered, so far.
She argued that the police have goofed up and the cops were wrong in specifying even the place where his husband was arrested from. “It is ridiculous that the cops showed them as arrested from Govandi when in fact they were not picked up from that place at all,” Susan said.
Susan has also moved Bombay High Court challenging the continued police remand and illegal arrest of Vernon and Sridhar.
Police records showed cases against Vernon and Sridhar, including an attempt to ambush a police patrol party and an extortion charge. “But it is untrue that the police have at least 100 cases against them,” says Susan
The lawyers’ body has also written to Susan Abraham, Vernon’s wife, underscoring the need for a concerted effort for facilitating the release of the two ‘ultra-left cadre’.
In its October 9 annual general meeting, the society passed a motion, dubbing the arrests as ‘targeted intimidation’ by the police. In fact, local civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have also been crying foul over the ‘illegal detention’ of the two ‘Naxalites’.
But officers of the state anti-Naxalite operations unit and Director General of Police PS Pasricha still assert that the arrests of the Naxalite ideologues were indeed significant.
The DGP maintains that the operation to nab the Naxalite leaders was meticulously planned and lasted over 22 days before the Anti-Terrorism Squad finally picked them up. Cops had all along alleged the duo had been waging a “proxy war” against the nation.
However, strongly refuting claims made by the Maharashtra ATS, Vernon’s wife Susan Abraham pointed to discrepancies in the police versions offered, so far.
She argued that the police have goofed up and the cops were wrong in specifying even the place where his husband was arrested from. “It is ridiculous that the cops showed them as arrested from Govandi when in fact they were not picked up from that place at all,” Susan said.
Susan has also moved Bombay High Court challenging the continued police remand and illegal arrest of Vernon and Sridhar.
Police records showed cases against Vernon and Sridhar, including an attempt to ambush a police patrol party and an extortion charge. “But it is untrue that the police have at least 100 cases against them,” says Susan
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Guard against Naxal violence
The Union Government is taking a close look to ascertain why Naxalites are penetrating the hinterland and making deep inroads in 150 of the 650 districts of India in at least 16 of the 28 states of India, especially in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, including Andhra and even West Bengal.
These states continue to be under attack from Maoists. The Centre is keeping a watch over the Maoists' stance in Nepal where they have left the government and stepped up their guerrilla actions to assess whether there are links between the Indian and Nepalese outfits, especially in the border areas.
Even though the Maoists of Nepal had at one time threatened to link up from Pashupatinath, the famous Shiva temple complex in Kathmandu, to Tirupathi in Andhra, they later denied such intentions, but such denials cannot be taken at their face value.
Intelligence and law and order authorities cannot afford to relax their vigil for eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Thus they are not being sanguine about any actions, including loot, arson and murder, taken by the Naxalites. In the light of this, the Cabinet Secretary, KM Chandrashekhar, visited Jharkhand in late September to make a first-hand assessment of the extent of Naxalites violence.
He met the officials and political leaders of the State to try to devise a foolproof strategy to curb Naxalites activity. Helicopters have flown over Naxalites hideouts and gathered some information. Satellite imagery has provided some valuable inputs on the extent of Naxalites support, their strength in certain areas and their game plan.
The Cabinet Secretary was accompanied by the Special Secretary for Security in the Home Ministry on the Jharkhand visit. This was an extension of the earlier conferences held in Delhi and State capitals so far to deal with Naxalites.
The Naxalites have for long been attacking railway stations and police stations even in Bihar and several other States. They have also been threatening the wealthy in cities and demanding ransom, although not many of these threats have been heard of lately.
What the Government at the Centre is seriously concerned is that the Naxalites now pose a threat to infrastructure. The affected States have been asked to protect power generation and distribution facilities. The Centre has also been sending paramilitary units to assist the States, besides making available elements of the rapid deployment force, a newly created outfit with national and regional security as the focus.
It has been reported that the Naxalites have fanned out to iron ore mines in the eastern region and have threatened private sector operators of some of these mines. The remote hills of Jharkhand are a region rich in minerals, an endless natural wealth of the 86,000 hectares of Saranda Forest.
This sprawling forest is the headquarters of India's Naxalites movement as it is far from easily accessible. Tens of crores of rupees are charged as levy every year from companies and traders who mine and sell iron ore, precious minerals, besides timber, according to police reports.
This forest is the home of cadres, training bases and rebels' operational command, arrested Naxalites have told the police. One of the arrested Naxalites ideologues is a 66-year-old engineer.
He is a member of the Naxalites politburo and is believed to have been associated with Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal, who founded the Naxalites movement in the summer of 1967 in Naxalbari village of West Bengal.
In the bygone years the Maoist Communist Centre and People's War Group operated in different areas. They merged with the main movement three years ago. This was a turning point.
According to Rural Development Ministry the Naxalites are active in 60 districts, but the Home Ministry reports reveal that they have influence in 160 districts of the country.
It is believed that the Naxalites commanders have been collecting Rs. 60 crores from private mines as a levy every year in return for a promise of not harassing them. Keeping in view the deep economic distress in tribal areas where vanavasis have seen forests cut down and lost their ability to live off the land, as they have done for ages, the Naxalites have tried to recruit disaffected and starving youth, trained them in weapons handling and put them in some kind of uniform and promised them a monthly wage of Rs 3,000 per head.
Whether such a wage has been paid at all or discontinued after a time once the youth is trapped is not known. But official agencies are keeping a close watch on these activities. Whether they can dissuade the youth of the area to lay down their arms and bring the tribals back to the mainstream by organizing village defence societies is not yet certain.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly impressed on the Chief Ministers of the States and their law enforcement agencies that police action or Para military forces alone cannot root out Naxalites from the Indian landscape. The real cause of youth being disaffected is economic and it is important to address that problem. The Rozgar Yojana has now been extended and launched all over the country. It promises 100 Mondays of work in a year to totally unemployed and destitute families. Some success of this scheme has been reported. Besides cheap grain supplies and midday meal schemes in schools in areas where the poorest of the poor live have been launched, but there have been reports of diversion of grain worth thousands of crores of rupees from the public distribution system to the market by unscrupulous elements. These law breakers are sought to be booked and punished. Food must reach the needy without being pilfered on the way. The Centre and States are hopefully paying attention to this aspect as part of the overall scheme for the welfare of the languishing aam adami. The ruling United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress realizes that a General Election could be round the corner and it must try to live up to the slogan it raised in the summer of 2004 if it has to be re-elected. It must also be seen to be genuinely living up to its professions.
These states continue to be under attack from Maoists. The Centre is keeping a watch over the Maoists' stance in Nepal where they have left the government and stepped up their guerrilla actions to assess whether there are links between the Indian and Nepalese outfits, especially in the border areas.
Even though the Maoists of Nepal had at one time threatened to link up from Pashupatinath, the famous Shiva temple complex in Kathmandu, to Tirupathi in Andhra, they later denied such intentions, but such denials cannot be taken at their face value.
Intelligence and law and order authorities cannot afford to relax their vigil for eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Thus they are not being sanguine about any actions, including loot, arson and murder, taken by the Naxalites. In the light of this, the Cabinet Secretary, KM Chandrashekhar, visited Jharkhand in late September to make a first-hand assessment of the extent of Naxalites violence.
He met the officials and political leaders of the State to try to devise a foolproof strategy to curb Naxalites activity. Helicopters have flown over Naxalites hideouts and gathered some information. Satellite imagery has provided some valuable inputs on the extent of Naxalites support, their strength in certain areas and their game plan.
The Cabinet Secretary was accompanied by the Special Secretary for Security in the Home Ministry on the Jharkhand visit. This was an extension of the earlier conferences held in Delhi and State capitals so far to deal with Naxalites.
The Naxalites have for long been attacking railway stations and police stations even in Bihar and several other States. They have also been threatening the wealthy in cities and demanding ransom, although not many of these threats have been heard of lately.
What the Government at the Centre is seriously concerned is that the Naxalites now pose a threat to infrastructure. The affected States have been asked to protect power generation and distribution facilities. The Centre has also been sending paramilitary units to assist the States, besides making available elements of the rapid deployment force, a newly created outfit with national and regional security as the focus.
It has been reported that the Naxalites have fanned out to iron ore mines in the eastern region and have threatened private sector operators of some of these mines. The remote hills of Jharkhand are a region rich in minerals, an endless natural wealth of the 86,000 hectares of Saranda Forest.
This sprawling forest is the headquarters of India's Naxalites movement as it is far from easily accessible. Tens of crores of rupees are charged as levy every year from companies and traders who mine and sell iron ore, precious minerals, besides timber, according to police reports.
This forest is the home of cadres, training bases and rebels' operational command, arrested Naxalites have told the police. One of the arrested Naxalites ideologues is a 66-year-old engineer.
He is a member of the Naxalites politburo and is believed to have been associated with Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal, who founded the Naxalites movement in the summer of 1967 in Naxalbari village of West Bengal.
In the bygone years the Maoist Communist Centre and People's War Group operated in different areas. They merged with the main movement three years ago. This was a turning point.
According to Rural Development Ministry the Naxalites are active in 60 districts, but the Home Ministry reports reveal that they have influence in 160 districts of the country.
It is believed that the Naxalites commanders have been collecting Rs. 60 crores from private mines as a levy every year in return for a promise of not harassing them. Keeping in view the deep economic distress in tribal areas where vanavasis have seen forests cut down and lost their ability to live off the land, as they have done for ages, the Naxalites have tried to recruit disaffected and starving youth, trained them in weapons handling and put them in some kind of uniform and promised them a monthly wage of Rs 3,000 per head.
Whether such a wage has been paid at all or discontinued after a time once the youth is trapped is not known. But official agencies are keeping a close watch on these activities. Whether they can dissuade the youth of the area to lay down their arms and bring the tribals back to the mainstream by organizing village defence societies is not yet certain.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly impressed on the Chief Ministers of the States and their law enforcement agencies that police action or Para military forces alone cannot root out Naxalites from the Indian landscape. The real cause of youth being disaffected is economic and it is important to address that problem. The Rozgar Yojana has now been extended and launched all over the country. It promises 100 Mondays of work in a year to totally unemployed and destitute families. Some success of this scheme has been reported. Besides cheap grain supplies and midday meal schemes in schools in areas where the poorest of the poor live have been launched, but there have been reports of diversion of grain worth thousands of crores of rupees from the public distribution system to the market by unscrupulous elements. These law breakers are sought to be booked and punished. Food must reach the needy without being pilfered on the way. The Centre and States are hopefully paying attention to this aspect as part of the overall scheme for the welfare of the languishing aam adami. The ruling United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress realizes that a General Election could be round the corner and it must try to live up to the slogan it raised in the summer of 2004 if it has to be re-elected. It must also be seen to be genuinely living up to its professions.
Monday, October 1, 2007
How India's war on Naxalism is being lost
BY PRAFUL BIDWAI
30 September 2007
IS India losing the fight against the violent Naxalite movement, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently described as "the greatest internal security threat"? That is indeed happening.
Since 2005, more people have been killed in Naxal-related violence than in Kashmir or the Northeast. Naxalism has spread to more than 150 of India's 600 districts. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are the worst-affected states. Since January 2006, Chhattisgarh has recorded over 500 deaths in Naxal-related violence.
Yet, Chhattisgarh demonstrates how Naxalism should not be fought-by unleashing repression against unarmed civilians and violating their liberties, and by instigating bandits who target Naxalites, even while perpetuating gruesome injustices, especially against the disadvantaged Adivasis (tribals) who form a majority in the worst-affected districts.
This conclusion was reinforced during my visit to Chhattisgarh last fortnight with Mukul Sharma, director of Amnesty International-India. We went there to express solidarity with Dr Binayak Sen, health activist, and general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties-Chhattisgarh, detained since May 14 under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004, and Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (PSA). Besides capital Raipur, we toured parts of Dhamtari district, where Sen's organisation, Rupantar, has run a clinic for 10 years. Upon talking to more than 20 people in villages, we failed to find any evidence that Sen incited the public to extremism. Sen has been doing exemplary voluntary work in the Gandhian mould in providing primary healthcare to people in an area where no medical personnel exist, often not even a chemist within a 30-kilometre distance. The public is forced to depend on quacks, and corrupt but apathetic, and usually missing, government employees. Rupantar's clinic in Bagrumnala village offers impressive services at nominal cost, including rapid testing for the deadly Falciparum strain of the malaria parasite, which has saved scores of lives. The clinic largely depends on "barefoot doctors", who advise the public on nutrition and preventive medicine too. The clinic caters to villages in a 40 square-km radius. Its work is irreplaceable.
Everyone we talked to expressed gratitude towards Sen for empowering disadvantaged people, and his efforts to make them aware of their rights-for instance, to water and housing, besides healthcare. All of them see Sen as noble and selfless. No one spoke of even the remotest sign of his instigating people to extremism.
However, it's not an aberration that Sen was detained under the nasty PSA, which criminalises even peaceful activity by declaring it "a danger or menace to public order... and tranquility", because it might interfere with or "tends to interfere with the maintenance of public order..." and encourage "disobedience to established law..."
This extremely harsh preventive detention law makes nonsense of civil disobedience, a cornerstone of India's Freedom Struggle. It should have no place in a democracy.
Yet, the state government has filed a 750-page charge sheet against Sen, including offences like sedition and "waging war against the state"!
There's a purpose behind this-to intimidate all civil rights defenders through a horrible example. This is probably the first time in India that a civil liberties defender has been explicitly and exclusively targeted, and that too, from a politically unaffiliated organisation like the PUCL, which has defended people of all persuasions against state excesses. Sen was victimised precisely because he formed a bridge between the human rights and other civil society movements, and empowered disadvantaged people. The state government, whose very existence is premised upon the rapacious exploitation of Adivasis and Chhattisgarh's staggering natural wealth-and whose primary function is to subserve Big Business, forest contractors and traders, cannot tolerate such individuals.
If this sounds like an exaggeration, consider this:
One of India's most creative trade unionists, Shankar Guha Niyogi, who ignited a mass social, cultural and economic awakening in Chhattisgarh, was assassinated at the behest of powerful, politically well-connected industrialists in 1991. Those who planned the murder roam scot-free.
Chhattisgarh has among India's worst indices of wealth and income inequality. Its cities, including Raipur, are booming with ostentatious affluence and glittering shopping-malls.
At the other extreme are tribal districts like Dantewada, marked by starvation deaths and severe scarcity of health facilities and drinking water. The tribal literacy rate here is less than one-third the national average-30 per cent for men and 13 per cent for women. Of 1,220 villages, 214 lack primary schools.
Worse, 1,161 villages have no medical facility. Primary health centres exist in only 34 villages. The worst off is Bijapur, the district's most violent tehsil, where Naxalites gunned down 55 policemen in March.
The difference in life-expectancy between Kerala and tribal Chhattisgarh is 18 years. They belong to different continents. Chhattisgarh is extraordinarily rich in mineral wealth, including iron ore, bauxite, dolomite, quartzite, precious stones, gold and tin ore, besides limestone and coal. Its iron ore is among the world's best. This wealth is voraciously extracted-without gains for local people.
The only railway line in the state's largely tribal south runs straight to Visakhapatnam, carrying ore for export to Japan. Less than one-hundredth of the mineral's value returns to the state.
Naxalism has thrived in Chhattisgarh as a response, albeit an irrational one, to this system of exploitation, dispossession and loot, along with the state's complete collapse as a provider of public services and impartial guardian of the law.
Yet, to defend the system of exploitation, the state is waging war against its own people through the sponsorship of Salwa Judum (Peace Campaign), an extraordinarily predatory militia trained to kill Naxals.
Its violence has rendered homeless almost 100,000 people, who now live in appalling conditions in camps.
Salwa Judum represents an unholy nexus between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, buttressed by powerful economic interests.
Its atrocities ensure that the Naxalite problem will never be settled. Chhattisgarh is getting polarised between "Red" (Naxals) and "Saffron" (BJP). If the Chhattisgarh government has proved bankrupt in dealing with Naxalism, the centre fares no better.
By relying solely on brute force to fight Naxalism, it's inviting disaster
30 September 2007
IS India losing the fight against the violent Naxalite movement, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently described as "the greatest internal security threat"? That is indeed happening.
Since 2005, more people have been killed in Naxal-related violence than in Kashmir or the Northeast. Naxalism has spread to more than 150 of India's 600 districts. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are the worst-affected states. Since January 2006, Chhattisgarh has recorded over 500 deaths in Naxal-related violence.
Yet, Chhattisgarh demonstrates how Naxalism should not be fought-by unleashing repression against unarmed civilians and violating their liberties, and by instigating bandits who target Naxalites, even while perpetuating gruesome injustices, especially against the disadvantaged Adivasis (tribals) who form a majority in the worst-affected districts.
This conclusion was reinforced during my visit to Chhattisgarh last fortnight with Mukul Sharma, director of Amnesty International-India. We went there to express solidarity with Dr Binayak Sen, health activist, and general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties-Chhattisgarh, detained since May 14 under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004, and Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005 (PSA). Besides capital Raipur, we toured parts of Dhamtari district, where Sen's organisation, Rupantar, has run a clinic for 10 years. Upon talking to more than 20 people in villages, we failed to find any evidence that Sen incited the public to extremism. Sen has been doing exemplary voluntary work in the Gandhian mould in providing primary healthcare to people in an area where no medical personnel exist, often not even a chemist within a 30-kilometre distance. The public is forced to depend on quacks, and corrupt but apathetic, and usually missing, government employees. Rupantar's clinic in Bagrumnala village offers impressive services at nominal cost, including rapid testing for the deadly Falciparum strain of the malaria parasite, which has saved scores of lives. The clinic largely depends on "barefoot doctors", who advise the public on nutrition and preventive medicine too. The clinic caters to villages in a 40 square-km radius. Its work is irreplaceable.
Everyone we talked to expressed gratitude towards Sen for empowering disadvantaged people, and his efforts to make them aware of their rights-for instance, to water and housing, besides healthcare. All of them see Sen as noble and selfless. No one spoke of even the remotest sign of his instigating people to extremism.
However, it's not an aberration that Sen was detained under the nasty PSA, which criminalises even peaceful activity by declaring it "a danger or menace to public order... and tranquility", because it might interfere with or "tends to interfere with the maintenance of public order..." and encourage "disobedience to established law..."
This extremely harsh preventive detention law makes nonsense of civil disobedience, a cornerstone of India's Freedom Struggle. It should have no place in a democracy.
Yet, the state government has filed a 750-page charge sheet against Sen, including offences like sedition and "waging war against the state"!
There's a purpose behind this-to intimidate all civil rights defenders through a horrible example. This is probably the first time in India that a civil liberties defender has been explicitly and exclusively targeted, and that too, from a politically unaffiliated organisation like the PUCL, which has defended people of all persuasions against state excesses. Sen was victimised precisely because he formed a bridge between the human rights and other civil society movements, and empowered disadvantaged people. The state government, whose very existence is premised upon the rapacious exploitation of Adivasis and Chhattisgarh's staggering natural wealth-and whose primary function is to subserve Big Business, forest contractors and traders, cannot tolerate such individuals.
If this sounds like an exaggeration, consider this:
One of India's most creative trade unionists, Shankar Guha Niyogi, who ignited a mass social, cultural and economic awakening in Chhattisgarh, was assassinated at the behest of powerful, politically well-connected industrialists in 1991. Those who planned the murder roam scot-free.
Chhattisgarh has among India's worst indices of wealth and income inequality. Its cities, including Raipur, are booming with ostentatious affluence and glittering shopping-malls.
At the other extreme are tribal districts like Dantewada, marked by starvation deaths and severe scarcity of health facilities and drinking water. The tribal literacy rate here is less than one-third the national average-30 per cent for men and 13 per cent for women. Of 1,220 villages, 214 lack primary schools.
Worse, 1,161 villages have no medical facility. Primary health centres exist in only 34 villages. The worst off is Bijapur, the district's most violent tehsil, where Naxalites gunned down 55 policemen in March.
The difference in life-expectancy between Kerala and tribal Chhattisgarh is 18 years. They belong to different continents. Chhattisgarh is extraordinarily rich in mineral wealth, including iron ore, bauxite, dolomite, quartzite, precious stones, gold and tin ore, besides limestone and coal. Its iron ore is among the world's best. This wealth is voraciously extracted-without gains for local people.
The only railway line in the state's largely tribal south runs straight to Visakhapatnam, carrying ore for export to Japan. Less than one-hundredth of the mineral's value returns to the state.
Naxalism has thrived in Chhattisgarh as a response, albeit an irrational one, to this system of exploitation, dispossession and loot, along with the state's complete collapse as a provider of public services and impartial guardian of the law.
Yet, to defend the system of exploitation, the state is waging war against its own people through the sponsorship of Salwa Judum (Peace Campaign), an extraordinarily predatory militia trained to kill Naxals.
Its violence has rendered homeless almost 100,000 people, who now live in appalling conditions in camps.
Salwa Judum represents an unholy nexus between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, buttressed by powerful economic interests.
Its atrocities ensure that the Naxalite problem will never be settled. Chhattisgarh is getting polarised between "Red" (Naxals) and "Saffron" (BJP). If the Chhattisgarh government has proved bankrupt in dealing with Naxalism, the centre fares no better.
By relying solely on brute force to fight Naxalism, it's inviting disaster
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