Once again, Chhattisgarh’s peculiar brand of law enforcement targets free speech and fair reportage
Pavan Dahat
In the latest version of the Chhattisgarh law enforcement agencies attack on press freedom, senior IPS officer and Bastar range Inspector General (IG) of Police, Shiv Ram Prasad Kalluri has launched a virulent and targeted attack against the Hindu newspaper’s senior reporter, Pavan Dahat.
Fast on the heels of this targeted attack a ‘rally’ by the now disbanded Samajik Ekta Manch and Salwa Judum started sharing his post and have even organised a rally against the journalist. This is scheduled for September 17.
This is exactly the same pattern that was followed by the Chhattisgarh law enforcement agencies that succeeded in getting independent journalist Malini Subramaniam, lawyers and others out of south Chhattisgarh.
Sabrangindia learned that the trigger was the following story Dahat wrote on the killing of a civilian in Sukma. The story clearly presents an overall assessment of the recent killing commenting, “The way the police disowned Mr. Rathod, sparked anger among his relatives and people of Chintalnar.”
Pavan Dahat is known for his professionalism over the past two and a half years, reporting from Chhattisgarh. Many of the claims made by Kalluri loyalists suggest that they did not even bother to read the story published by The Hindi. The main aim appears to be target reporters from the national media and this follows a systemic crackdown on local journalists and human rights activists since earlier this year. IG Kalluri with a questionable record had been removed from this region and re-instated since 2014. It is learned that a journalist from the Times of India is also being subjected to same propaganda for a story she did on village heads in Kanker district.
Since late 2015, systematic attacks on journalists reporting from south Chhattisgarh beginning with Malini Subramaniam writing for Scroll.in. Thereafter lawyers of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid group were targeted especially Isha Khandelwal and Sjalini Gera and thereafter researcher Bela Bhatia. Soon after the attack on local journalists, Deepak Jaiswal Deepak Jaiswal became the fourth Bastar journalist to be arrested between October 2015 and March 2016 leading to strong protests from the South Bastar Reporters Association.
Meanwhile on the same day that IG Kalluri unleashed his own brand of attack on a journalist, SP, Sukma, Elesela, SP Sukma posted this on this facebook “Reports of bikes belonging to journalists burnt in Dubbatota last night by unidentified persons. TI Dornapal has already visited the site and is enquiring. I am trying to contact the journalists but their phone is switched off…Attack on media personnel, direct or indirect, will be dealt with severely. Perhaps this officer has not noticed – but the greatest attack on journalists is coming from his senior, and his cultivated vigilantes.
Here is what Kalluri had to say about this story in The Hindu that has followed all required journalistic procedures. Kalluri posted this comment on various WhattsAap groups of reporters, police, and politicians in Chhattisgarh.
[29/08 7:04 pm] SRP KALLURI: Mystery and fear shroud killing of civilian in Sukma:
Heartless reporting and Meaningless Support
"The death sparked anger among the villagers of Chintalnar because the police disowned Sanjeet..", writes our friend Pavan Dahat for The Hindu about the murder of a young man by Maoists in Sukma district, Chhattisgarh. His crafty use of language and manipulation of facts portrays police as the culprits for the murder. He selectively quotes the IG Bastar and SP Sukma to pin the blame on police and makes a futile attempt to pit the villagers against the police.
For a moment, keep aside the question whether Sanjeet was a police informer and he was indeed disowned. Shouldn't a young man's brutal execution by the Red Rogues evoke revulsion and anger by a responsible journalist ? The eye witnesses have recounted how the villagers of Chintalnar pleaded the Maoists to release Sanjeet and that they will ensure he leaves the village. Despite such passionate pleas for mercy, he was tortured and then shot in cold blood. These facts do not find place while writing in a national daily because the writer wants to romanticise the armed rebellion.
It is quoted that the Maoists “kept him under observation since 2003.” Pavan Dahat knows very well that no person suspected of being police informer is given such a long time. The recent instance of an aged teacher, killed without warning, for being an informer, in June 2016 in Bhopalpatnam District Bijapur is one among many examples.
Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that Chintalnar is the same place where 76 CRPF men were killed in a single incident in the year 2010. Mukaram Bridge, the place where Sanjeet is shot dead, was blown away multiple times in last two years. Yet it was rebuilt each time just to ensure that the PDS ration reaches Chintalnar and beyond. The destruction of infrastructure means that the pregnant women and children with fatal diseases cannot seek timely cure. In an already forlorn path, fear invoking killings such as these will shut the tribals deep and far away from the rest of the world. Unfortunately, none of these facts move our journalist friend who rather justifies the killing by Maoists. If Sanjeet indeed was working for police since 2003, how come the security forces suffered so heavily in that region and the sabotage by Maoists continues at will ?
Pavan quotes from the Maoists’ letter "we (Maoists) gave him five chances…..this time we have punished him". A murder in cold blood is reported as if there is a merit in the killing after giving five chances! Forget about angst for such dastardly acts, he doesn’t even express a single word of sympathy for the young soul. Instead of invoking a nation's conscience against such barbarity, he picks up the IG Bastar, the favourite punching bag for all Maoist sympathizers.
Every single person suspected of Maoist links is not arrested. The actions of police are circumscribed by rule of law unlike the Maoist mafia that can pick up anyone and kill at will. It seems that the writer is disappointed that police hasn't summarily pressed charges against Sanjeet. Does he mean that Sanjeet wouldn't have been killed if he were arrested earlier? Should the police arrest people based on suspicion, unmindful of the environment of fear and compulsion in which the villagers live ? What an irony that a journalist glosses over a murder by Maoists while castigating the police for not replying in the same coin!!
By putting his words in the mouths of villagers that they "will ask the IG for weapons to fight the Maoists", Pavan Dahat wants the readers to link it up with the disbanded Salwa Judum and thus discredit the police and the State.
It is true that the young man killed is a non tribal and belongs to trading class. But the writer quotes this fact in such a way that this murder seems like a result of the clash between the exploited and the exploiter. The Indian State is not so whimsical that it has differing parameters of law based on class.
Those who want Bastar to be on the boil continue to lend support to Maoists through fictionalised accounts, sham protests and illegal aid. Their voices grew shrill in the face of relentless efforts by the State to achieve development and security. No amount of provocation of innocent tribals against the State will yield success because they are tired of Maoists' deception. Adivasis now openly question the hollow, violence-ridden ideologies of Maoists and seek to embrace the democratic polity. They realize how the non tribal, outsider Maoist leaders and their children enjoy the safer shores of metro cities by plunging the tribals into unending violence.
"Mystery and fear shroud the killing of a civilian in Sukma" but the fact is there’s no mystery. It is indeed an unmasking of belief in meaningless violence by the Maoists. The writer is so occupied with blaming the police that he doesn’t have a word for the dead man’s family which was untimely orphaned. If there’s fear, it is among those who thus far used the tribals to fight against the State. This is an attempt to prevent the villagers who are increasingly embracing development and debunking violence. By giving a fictional report of villagers being angry and police disowning him, he not only ignored the agony of death but insulted the person who went through it – all for expressing support to armed renegades.
We celebrate and uphold freedom of press but at the same time appeal to all concerned not to allow glorification of heinous crimes and furthering of individual agenda through a highly respected national daily.
Then there is a statement of a CRPF officer Sunand Kumar posted by Mr.Kalluri on the same platform
[30/08 8:26 pm] SRP KALLURI: Mystery and fear shroud killing of civilian in Sukma:
Sunand Kumar, Commandant, Group Centre, CRPF, New Delhi.( 082260 33333)
Heartless reporting and Meaningless Support.
In the article, obviously there is ‘crafty use of words with manipulation of facts’ with premature knowledge of the reality and truth on the incident. He is not the first to quote IG Bastar or SPs with such a negative outlook. In recent times it has become a fashion to blame Police Officers committed to cut down the red terror in this core LWE region.
Naxals are never accountable to anybody to substantiate the allegations as their blames are generally based on their poor sense of imagination leading to suspicions on innocent tribal. It hardly matters even if they commit the crime wrongly; as they have to simply regret it later without taking any responsibility as observed a number of times……..”
Once Kalluri posted these statements, his supporters (mostly people from now disbanded Samajik Ekta Manch and Salwa Judum) began spreading this post. These posts are virtual copy renditions of what was stated initially by Kalluri.
This statement was posted by Subba Rao and Faruk Ali.
*हृदयविहीन लेखनी व अर्थहीन समर्थन*
नक्सलवाद को महिमामंडित करने के नाम पर विख्यात एक नागपुर बेस्ड पत्रकार पुनः नक्सलियों के समर्थन में पुलिस के खिलाफ अपनी कलम की धार तेज करने निकल पड़ा है। " द हिन्दू " अंग्रेजी दैनिक समाचार पत्र के संवाददाता श्री पवन दहत के अनुसार सुकमाजिले में माओवादियों द्वारा संजीत सिंह राठौर नामक युवा व्यापारी की हत्या के विषय में तथ्यों को तोड़- मरोड़कर इस तरह से पेश किया गया है जैसे उस युवक की हत्या के लिए माओवादी नहीं, बल्कि पुलिस दोषी है। माओवादियों द्वारा किये गए दुर्दांत हत्या कासत्य शोधन, बिना बस्तर पहुँचे ही महानगर के बंद वातानुकूलित कमरे में रहते हुए पवन दहत ने विशेष रूप से आई.जी. बस्तर और एस.पी. सुकमा को इस घटना के लिए दोषी सिद्ध करने की नापाक और शातिराना कोशिश की है जिससे वहाँ के स्थानीय लोगों औरग्रामीणों में पुलिस के प्रति विद्रोह और आक्रोश व्याप्त कराने का भी अपने कलम के माध्यम से असफल प्रयास किया। इस महानुभाव ने आई.जी. बस्तर एवं एस.पी. सुकमा के शब्दों को सुविधानुसार अपने हिसाब से चुन-चुन कर सत्य से परे उद्धृत (Quote) किया है।……”
“…..सैंकड़ो की संख्या में आदिवासियों को नक्सली मारते हैं। इसके लिए भी श्री पवन दहत द्वारा कुछ न कुछ पुलिस मुखबिरी जैसे बहाना ढूंढ़कर माओवादियो का समर्थन किया जा सकता है। हाल ही में दिनांक 30.07.2016 को माओवादियों द्वारा जिला बीजापुर में नवीनदास नामक एक अस्वस्थ इसाई समुदाय के सदस्य की नृशंस हत्या कर दी गई। श्री महेन्द्र कर्मा जी, श्री तानसेन कश्यप जी एवं श्री करतम सूर्या जैसे सैंकड़ो वीर आदिवासी योद्धाओ की माओवादियों ने हत्या की है। माओवादी हर जाति, हर वर्ग एवं हर समुदाय के लोगोंकी हत्या किये हैं।
“….अब इस तरह के उकसावेपूर्ण लेखन से स्थानीय भोले-भाले आदिवासियों को भड़काया, उकसाया नहीं जा सकता क्योंकि आदिवासी अब माओवादियों के छलावे से तंग आ चुके हैं। आदिवासी अब देशद्रोही माओवादियों की खोखली और हिंसात्मक विचारधारा पर धड़ल्लेसे प्रश्न उठाते हैं व प्रजातान्त्रिक नीतियों को अपनाना चाहते हैं। वे महसूस कर रहे हैं कि किस प्रकार बाहरी गैर – आदिवासी माओवादी लीडर्स और उनके बच्चे महानगरों में शानदार , विलासितापूर्ण तथा सुरक्षित जीवन जीते हैं, वहीं आदिवासी लोगों को अंतहीनहिंसात्मक जीवन जीने को मजबूर कर दिया गया है।
“….कैसी विडंबना है कि यह पत्रकार एक ओर तो माओवादियों द्वारा की गई नृशंस हत्या को न्यायसंगत ठहराता है , वहीं दूसरी ओर पुलिस की निन्दा और भर्त्सना करता है। हम प्रेस की स्वतंत्रता की प्रशंसा तथा समर्थन करते हैं किंतु साथ ही विनम्रतापूर्वक ये अपील भीकरते हैं कि इस तरह के घृणित व जघन्य अपराधों को महिमामंडित करने का प्रयास नहीं होना चाहिए। खुद के सोच, विचार एवं प्रयोजन को बढ़ावा देने के लिये अतिसम्मानित राष्ट्रीय अंग्रेजी दैनिक समाचार पत्र जैसे 'द हिन्दू' का इस्तेमाल करना निश्चित हीचिंताजनक है।
Here are some other posts by Kalluri loyalists to show how the social media is mis-used and passions incited against journalists in Chhatisgarh.
“ पवन दहात जैसों को मुँह तोड़ जवाब देने के लिये ही 17 सितंबर को दहाड़ेगा बस्तर “ : message by Subba Rao
“पवन दहात ने चिंतलनार निवासी युवा संजीत सिंह राठौर की हत्या को सही टहराया,जो कि निंदनीय एवं आपत्तिजनक है……… नागपुर मॆ बैठककर बस्तर के बारे मॆ उल्ठा सीधा लिख कर वाहवाही लूटते हैं,अपनी वाहवाही के लिये नक्सली करतूत को सही टहरानाकहां का इंसाफ है………. बस्तर के पत्रकार ही जान सकते हैं यहां कि परिस्तिथि,नागपुर मॆ A.C.मॆ बैठकर नक्सलियों द्वारा हत्याओं को सही होने का सर्टिफिकेट देने वालों का विरोध होना चाहिये……by फारुख अली.
There are even more inciteful posts against journalists especially Pavan Dahat below in the trail. This is a dangerous method being adopted by Chhattisgarh law enforcement agencies simply to curtail the objective eye of the journalist in the region.