One Congress minister calls the formation of Salwa Judum “sinful strategy” while till May 25 the founder of this rogue militia was strutting about with government protection. The GOP hasn’t come far from its “when a big tree falls” days and occasionally gets a bloody nose
On Friday May 17, Central Reserve Police personnel attacked Edesmata village in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh and killed eight villagers, three of them minors. It was only the latest in a series of “encounters” in tribal heartland, and to the urbane elite such things are only to be expected — “collateral damage”, they say in deference to George W Bush.
The Chhattisgarh government could not sweep this incident under the carpet as it is an election year and the Opposition Congress had been tearing into its image of a good governance provider by highlighting the atrocities as they happened. Just five days before the ambush on the Congress convoy in Bastar, the Raman Singh regime had asked the Justice VK Agarwal to include the Edesmata killings into its ongoing inquiry into the Sarkeguda (Bijapur district) massacre of June 2012.
The Sarkeguda massacre was one of the blackest chapters of State-sponsored terrorism in recent memory. The testimonies of the eyewitnesses coming through the media, fact-finding reports of different civil and democratic rights teams and the statements of different social-political forces (including the Congress Party of Chhattisgarh) confirmed that the killing of the adivasis was a heinous massacre committed by the COBRA Battalion of the CRPF. Even the Union Tribal Minister Kishore Chandra Deo has said that ‘17 innocent citizens, who were unarmed, who were wearing just a dhoti or a baniyan and who did not even have a sickle or a knife’ had been killed by the CRPF.
But the shameless Central government and top officials of CRPF haven’t budged from their fundamental position that the adivasis had been killed in a “fierce” gunfight in the dense jungles of Dantewada on June 27-28 in a joint anti-Maoist operation by the CRPF and state police. This is really a matter of grave concern for all the justice loving progressive and democratic forces of our country.
No wonder the VK Agarwal Commission is dragging its feet in producing the report on Sarkeguda. Now, the Chhattisgarh government has instituted another judicial inquiry into the May 25 massacre of 25 people by the Maoists.
Where is all this headedIJ How many more judicial inquiries will be necessary before the cycle of revenge killings endIJ The Maoists have claimed that the targeted killing of mostly-Congress supporters was a retaliation for all the killings carried out earlier on tribals by State actors or by the now-illegitimate Salwa Judum.
Bloodshed in any manner is unfortunate and deserves censure. The severity of the latest Maoist attack in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh has led to the death of 27 people, including Congress leader Mahendra Karma, the stated architect of the controversial Salwa Judum, and maimed many others. But, as usual, the immediate aftermath of such grisly incidents, are filled with rhetoric over “terrorism” and the need to “crush” it. But since that is not happening, given the woeful state of discipline and preparedness in the security apparatus, it is time the Maoist problem is approached with a humane face.
let us bear in mind that the Maoists have openly rejected the “bourgeois democratic institutions”. These make no sense to them. The Maoists find a solution for exploitation in taking to guns. To that extent they are true to their philosophy in launching retaliatory attacks against what they call “forces of class exploitation.”
What happened at Bastar was an open and shut case of revenge and retaliation against the counter-insurgency operations launched by Government security forces. To expect them to lob sweets at the Congress convoy instead of grenades was foolish on the part of whoever planned the tour.
If the government was within its rights to wage war on the indigenous people on behalf of the corporate and multinationals, then many would say that the left extremists are only defending their turf. It is not only that the Government side is suffering casualties. The Maoists are dying as well in great many numbers. The Bijapur ambush is a case in point.
“Sinful strategy”
Tribal minister Kishore Chandra Deo has shown rare honesty by declaring the Salwa Judum as a “sinful strategy”. But there are those in government and outside who believe it was the only recourse left for the government. Only recourse indeed when the options are limited to violence.
Why did the Congress, the party which claims to be the custodian of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals, think up this sinful strategyIJ Obviously it wanted to satisfy its corporate sponsors.
The Congress Party which has ruled the Centre and many Indian States for more than half a century now has no moral right left to cry foul against left wing extremists.The Congress has not moved from its 1984 mindset. “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes” commented Rajiv Gandhi when hundreds of Sikh men, women and children were being massacred by his party’s goons on the streets of Delhi. We saw the same happen in Nellie, Assam and countless other theatres. The adivasis are the latest objects of its hatred. .
There are no short cut solutions to what is called “red terror”. To approach the issue the Government has to first acknowledge that Maoists are a political force with a social base. Their rise and expanse is a historical reality. If the Government opts to treat it as a law and order problem bringing in more men in olive green as was recently suggested by the Home Secretary of India then it would be committing a blunder. The cyclic story of mayhem will continue for the simple reason that: violence begets violence.
(As told to Saugor Sengupta)