Are we living in a State that mouths peace but shoots its messengers?

OPINION: AZAD KILLING

FAKERY HAS always been a key instrument of power. But last week, as the President and Prime Minister of India made their Independence Day speeches, cocooned symbolically in towers of glass, the scale of that fakery shot skyward. Both leaders augustly urged the Maoists, yet again, to "abjure violence" and come for talks. Few among the millions of Indians who heard them would have caught the cynicism.

Preliminary Report of the All India Fact Finding Team on the Killing of Azad and H. C Pandey
Released to the media at Hyderabad on 22 August, 2010

CDRO put together a team of concerned citizens consisting of Prof. Emeritus Amit Bahaduri, J.N.U., Delhi, Senior Counsel of Supreme Court Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Kavita Srivatsava, Human Rights worker from Rajasthan, Gautam Navlakha writer & from PUDR, Delhi, Kranthi Chaitanya, Advocate and General Secretary of APCLC, D. Suresh Kumar, Advocate, APCLC, Ch. Sudhakar Rao, President of OPDR, D. Venkateswarlu, OPDR.

by Cherukuri Rajkumar (Azad)

Reading B.G. Verghese's article Daylight at the Thousand-Star Hotel in Outlook (May 3), one is stunned by the abysmal poverty of thought and colonial mindset of this renowned intellectual. How is it that the illiterate, seemingly uncivilised, backward, half-naked adivasi thinks, analyses and acts a lot better than an established, well-read, highly qualified intellectual like Verghese?

S. V. Rajadurai and V. Geetha

A photograph featured in The Hindu, dated 17-06-2010 shows security personnel in West Bengal , carrying the body of a woman killed in a purported raid on a Maoist hideout. The woman's body had been trussed up like the carcass of a dead animal. The photo speaks volumes of how the Indian state views those it considers a threat to the internal security of the nation - as people beneath its contempt and consideration.

While the Indian Government considers deploying the army and air force to quell the rebellion in the countryside, strange things are happening in the cities. By Arundhati Roy

On the 2nd of June the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) held a public meeting in Mumbai. The main speakers were Gautam Navlakha, editorial consultant of the Economic and Political Weekly and myself. The press was there in strength. The meeting lasted for more than three hours. It was widely covered by the print media and TV. On June 3rd, several newspapers, TV channels and online news portals like Rediff.com, covered the event quite accurately. The Times of India (Mumbai edition), had an article headlined "We need an idea that is neither Left nor Right", and the Hindu's article was headlined "Can we leave the bauxite in the mountain?" The recording of the meeting is up on YouTube.

In the early hours of 28 May 2010, a goods train rammed 13 derailed coaches of the 2012 UP Howrah-Kurla Gnyaneswari Express between the Khemshuli and Sardiha stations in West Bengal, killing more than 150 people and injuring many others as reports last came in. The incident occurred around 1.30 a.m. when most of the passengers were fast asleep.  Immediately after the incident, the West Bengal DGP, Bhupinder Singh lost no time in blaming the Maoists for the disaster stating that the rebels had removed pandrol clips and fish plates from both up and down tracks leading to the accident. Mamata Banerjee, the Railway Minister, initially blamed the Maoists for an explosion on the track; later, however, she retracted and held that some political conspiracy was being hatched by the CPI(M) to malign her, her party and the railways department in order gain political mileage to stem inevitable defeat in the coming municipal elections.

Large sections of the media (Print and TV) have come all out against the Maoists and started publishing reports, editorials and articles almost every day. A section of the civil rights groups have also, without making any enquiry, have accused the Maoists of indulging in such 'terrorist' acts. What is particularly disturbing is that most of these reports appear to be blatantly biased and have not taken into cognizance the statement of denial of their involvement in the incident issued by the Maoists themselves.  Something like the mediaeval Europe type of witch-hunting has started with actors calling upon the central government to engage as many forces as possible to deal with this Maoist 'virus' and rejected any proposal for dialogue with them.

By Trevor Selvam

First, the Ms. Quasimodo of Bengal and Indian politics, Mamata Banerjee announces that it was a “bomb blast” with great bombast. Then, Bhupinder Singh, the Police IG and KPSGill-wannabee (who had earlier smeared and lied about Chatradhar Mahato’s insurance, property etc and never bothered to retract anything) says that two posters were found proving that the Maoist PCAPA had taken “responsibility ”for the train disaster. The two posters, it turned out, merely stated the intent of the local PCAPA the reasons for their on-going struggles. Ms. Bomberjee also claimed that a pilot vehicle had passed by just before. She did not state how “before” it was. One hour, two hours, five hours, one day? After the entire place is “infested” with Maoists. Is it not? 

Now the tone is changing gradually. A foot and half of fish-plates were found removed. A BBC cameraman has displayed the gap in one of their broadcasts. No evidence of a blast any longer. No evidence of gelatine, dynamite, ammonium nitrate. The foreign press had already expressed some caution, in their statements and terminology. But not the Indian press. They are so free, unfettered and dynamic when it comes to spreading innuendo!

Dear Sir,

I am writing in the context of the brutal attack of the Orissa police on the peaceful protesters of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti in Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa. More than 100 people, including many women, have been injured; those seriously injured are receiving no medical care; the police have burned houses and shops as well as the protesters' tents; and the police are blocking the entry or exit of any person from the area. This kind of atrocity can never be justified. But what makes it doubly criminal is that the Orissa government claims to be doing so as they have rights over the land.

by Dr. B. D. Sharma

(Former Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes)

Dear President,

1. I, with my life-long association with tribal affairs, beginning with the troublesome days in Bastar (1968) and having the privilege of being the last Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (1986-1991), am constrained to approach you at a critical time when we are witnessing virtual collapse of the constitutional regime for the tribal people while being attacked and suppressed in a war like situation..

Ms Arundhati Roy's "Walking With The Comrades" (Outlook, March 29, 2010) is one of the finest pieces of political travelogue in the current Indo-English literature. It compares well with the classic socio-political writings about the Chinese Revolution like Red Star Over China, Fan Shen, The Scalpel and the Sword and the like. Any convulsive political event does produce such literature from the pens of sensitive and empathic writers.

That such a piece would create discomfort and unease in the minds of persons who believe and thrive in the status quo is natural. Hence, I am not surprised to read B.G. Verghese's "Daylight At The Thousand-Star Hotel" (Outlook, May 3, 2010). I would not have joined issues with the doyen among Indian journalists but for correcting some of the wrong information he tried to put forward. In polemical writings a certain degree of sarcasm, banter and derision is permitted. I have no problem with that and Ms Roy is highly competent to handle it if she so desires. I felt a bit uneasy with the word "massacre" used by Verghese in his first sentence. Massacre conveys a sense of indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people who may or may not be involved in any conflict. More often than not, it means the killing of a large number of unarmed persons unable to defend themselves against armed marauders.

by the International Campaign against War on the People of India

All over the world, people are asking questions about the nature of India's society and government, and about the war on the adivasis-the tribal peoples-that has recently been launched by that government with strategic assistance from the US and Israel.

Most commentators admit that the Indian people suffered greatly under British rule. Today, it is claimed, India is on a path of rapid technical progress and development; India has its own Silicon Valley, complete with high-tech R&D and hundreds of call centers for everything from Amazon to Victoria's Secret.  New wealth is being created at a rapid rate, a large middle class is developing that is enjoying shopping malls, multiplex cinemas and imported cars, and much of this wealth is working its way down to the villages and urban slums seen in Slumdog Millionaire.

by Geraldina Colotti for the Italian daily Il Manifesto. (Translation by the International Department of the CARC Party)

Ans: I started my social activism during my student days, starting from 1989. I was associated with a revolutionary student movement called Radical Students' Union (RSU) which originated in 1980 in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This student body mobilized hundreds of thousands of students on all social and political issues along with that pertaining to students and educational institutions. It gave the historic call of 'Go to Villages' to the students. This call actually revolutionised the urban spaces in Andhra Pradesh. This organization was banned by the government in 1991. A number of revolutionary student leaders were killed in cold blood by the police/armed forces of the state. Later on I started working in an anti-imperialist organisation formed at the all India level called All India Peoples' Resistance Forum (AIPRF). This anti-imperialist organization worked to mobilize hundreds and thousands of people all over the country in major rallies and demonstrations against Dunkel draft, WTO, suicide deaths of farmers, against imperialist wars and all other major pro-imperialist policies of Indian rulers. The AIPRF in 2005 merged with other similar organisations to form Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). It is a federation of revolutionary people's organizations like workers, peasants, youth, students, women and revolutionary cultural organizations across India in 13 states. In most states, its members and main functionaries are arrested and incarcerated. Hundreds of its functionaries either suffer in prisons or work in different forms. But it still works among the people vigorously. Its members are being branded as having links with CPI (Maoist) just because it also believes in revolutionary transformation of Indian Society. But then an overwhelming majority of the Subcontinent does so.

Presently our organization is involved in mobilizing democratic voices against a major military offensive that the Government of India (GOI) has initiated on the indigenous people of the country, called the Operation Green Hunt (OGH).

I am an assistant professor of literature at the University of Delhi. I originally come from Andhra Pradesh but for the last one decade am settled in New Delhi.

2) What are the activities of the Revolutionary Democratic Front of India?

Ans. This front, as has been mentioned above, is a federation of revolutionary mass organizations working at grassroots level. While each of the constituent organizations works among the various sections of the people on their issues, to revolutionise them as per the understanding of New Democratic Revolution (NDR), the front focuses on larger political issues pertaining to all these sections at state and country-wide level.

In 1997, Arundhati Roy's first novel The God of Small Things made her the first Indian woman to win the prestigious Booker Prize. More than six million copies of the book were sold worldwide.

Since then, she has turned her pen to politics. During the Bush years, she was a fierce critic, calling the invasion of Afghanistan "an act of terror on the people of the world".

In India, she has campaigned against mega dams projects, denounced the rise of Hindu nationalism, and has been imprisoned by the Supreme Court of India for "corrupting public morality".

Gauri Lankesh

THE Central home minister P Chidambaram has often issued veiled threats to intellectuals who offer covert or overt support to the Maoists, whom the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has identified as the ‘biggest internal security threat to the country’ today. While Singh and Chidambaram have limited themselves to issuing threats, the top brass in the Karnataka Government has opted for direct action. The police of Shimoga district has issued a ‘threatening’ notice to a young Kannada journalist.

Kabir Suman, the maverick musical genius and activist, who resigned as an MP, tells PARTHA DASGUPTA he rues the state of politics in India

Wasn't your resignation inevitable?

You could say so. I am a product of the peoples' movement. I am a self-proclaimed anarchist. I am a political man by all means but not a man of politics. The Singur-Nandigram uprising brought me to the centrestage of West Bengal's anti-government politics and I was persuaded to contest an election by some well-meaning friends and a large section of the civil society as well as Mamata Banerjee. Everyone thought I was just the right man to function as the 'people's voice' in Parliament. Little did I know then that for a first time MP, to be able to raise a point in Parliament is almost impossible. Add to it the fact that I was continually harassed, humiliated and slighted in public by a section of the Trinamul Congress leadership. I couldn't take it any more. I was losing my identity.

Rona Wilson

JNU'S BID TO CURB FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY IS AN `OPERATION GREEN HUNT' ON CAMPUS

THEY SAY every major structural shift of the State's policy options is preceded by a commensurate enactment of law. Perhaps what is unfolding in higher education in India, especially in campuses like JNU, are ominous portents of further authoritarianism in university education in India. The HRD minister set to open the huge education market for foreign capital as and when the Foreign Universities Bill is passed — yes, another SEZ is in the making.

It is understandable that human rights/civil liberties organizations should come out with statements deploring the killing of security forces (e.g. PUDR press statement on the wiping out of 75-odd CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh on April 6) on the purely humanitarian ground that any loss of life is deplorable. But civil society groups or individuals who view the issue from a larger perspective need to take a more rigorous and clear-cut stand. If they agree that the fundamental issues raised by the Maoists are right, even if they do not accept their tactics (in other words, if they are well-disposed towards the basic Maoist critique of the present exploitative system and sympathize with their efforts to build up alternative structures of egalitarian governance in their areas of control, without supporting their tactics of indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians), they have to recognize the stark reality.

Hello and welcome to CNN-IBN special in the aftermath of killing of 76 CRPF jawans in Dantewada by Maoists, there has been a nationwide debate which has been polarized one.

One argument is to about to use maximum force to crush the Maoists and the other argument is about to initiate outreach program, democracy and rehabilitation. Joining us here is the author and the activist Arundhati Roy, who has written several writings on Maoists and her open sympathy and empathy for them, has created a great degree of debate and controversy. Thanks very much indeed for joining us.

Instead of offering to quit, Mr. Chidambaram should very simply have resigned and walked away. That would have shown some genuine morality, not the play acting and drama associated with trying to salvage his bruised ego by "offering"to resign.

Real moral people make up their minds, talk to their family and friends the night before, take their special South Indian two yard coffee from stainless steel cups in the morning and then send in their resignation. Khalas! No ifs or buts, sir!--- as you had clearly stated a while ago to the Maoists. No conditions, no tentativeness-please ABJURE from drama therapy. The nation does not need it.

Gladson Dungdung

In the spring season; trees, plants and herbs turn into greenery with new lovely leaves. It looks like a resurrection of the forest after the autumn. It is one of the most beautiful seasons for birds, animals and insects, and of course, for the Adivasis, which is the beginning of their marriage with the nature. The Adivasis begin to collect flowers, fruits and other forest produces for sustaining their community, which is completely based on the natural resources with the unique features of community living, caring-sharing, equality for all, justice and the need based economic system. The most interesting thing is, it is the spring season when the Adivasis offer their thanks to their super natural God, celebrate together and begin their new journey with the nature.

Trevor Selvam

For the past few years, I have seen the hate that has been spewed out at Arundhuti Roy. There are various categories of Indian men and women who do not like her. Let us deal with the men first, as their hatred (camouflaged or obvious) for an intelligent female writer is nearly reflexive. Women on the other hand do not seem to have their hate mongering so mordant and merciless and generally do not spew out sexist hatred.

After a long preparation, a lot of debate and politics, finally the Indian government launched 'Operation Green Hunt' (OGH) in Jharkhand on March 10 with the objective of cleansing the Maoists from the state. Though P. Chidambaram, the CEO of OGH, declines calling it by that name, his officers are using the term shamelessly.

Nearly 10,000 security forces consisting of CRPF, Cobra, Jaguar, STP and other groups have been deployed in the forests, choppers are roaming in the skies, schools are converted into military camps, forests are sealed and combing operations are being carried out with the support of local Adivasi youth who are named as the Special Police Officers (SPO), duplicated from the Salwa Judum theory of Chhatisgarh.

Last month, quietly, unannounced, Arundhati Roy decided to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India's Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribespeople many of whom have taken up arms to protect their people against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail the first face-to-face journalistic "encounter" with armed guerillas, their families and comrades, for which she combed the forests for weeks at personal risk.

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B D Sharma is one of India's foremost experts on tribal issues. He has served as collector of undivided Bastar district in Chhattisgarh and commissioner for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and has campaigned extensively to protect the rights of tribals. Currently, the coordinator of Bharat Jan Andolan, a network of grass-roots organisations, Sharma tells that current notions of development are at the root of the Maoist insurgency.

What has changed since you were collector of Bastar?

That was 40 years ago! Outsiders didn't have so much influence there, except in Bailadila. The presence of the administration also wasn't much. As collector, i didn't sanction any mining lease. When sanctions started being given, discontent grew, and in the 1980s, the Maoists came.