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The goons have allegedly asked her to leave Jagdalpur in 24 hours, according to local media reports.

Bhatia has been in the crosshairs of the Chhattisgarh administration ever since she helped tribal women register an FIR against security personnel for gang rape and grievous sexual assault last November, had reported The Hindu.

The post Chhattisgarh: Bela Bhatia attacked at her Jagdalpur residence by goons appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This article is based on Suvojit Bagchi’s reports from Chattisgarh for The Hindu and few of his recent presentations on conflict in south Chattisgarh.

 
My presentation is on the challenges faced by the journalists, especially of the Hindi language press, working in Chattisgarh State in central India. 
 
South Chattisgarh’s Dandakarnya area is about 40,000 square kilometres in size – nearly as big as Netherlands or Kerala – and very sparsely populated, mostly inhabited by Gond tribals. Since the 80s this area has witnessed a leftist armed movement. In response to which the police and paramilitary stepped-up their operations from time to time. This has been the story in south Chattisgarh since Independence. Even before the Maoist party was formed in the late 1960s, police action on the tribals was a routine affair.
 
Let us look at a paper clipping from an English language newspaper, Dandakarnya Samachar, published in 1961.
 

Slide/caption: Newspaper clipping of 1961. Photo courtesy: Suvojit Bagchi
 
The newspaper was full of such news at the time. So, in 1961, when the Indian State was not half as powerful as now, the government did not stop such reports from rolling out, reports which were directed against the police. However it is far more difficult for the local press to publish such reports today saying “police opened fire”. Such newspaper reports from the early 1960s establish that long before even Maoist or Naxalite parties were formed, such police action was commonplace in Bastar division in south Chattisgarh. I have many newspaper clippings to establish this fact.
 
 Kamal Shukla is a prominent journalist in south Chattisgarh who routinely talks about rights of the journalists in Chattisgarh. He told me last week that it is impossible for scribes to enter a village when a shootout occurs in which innocent villagers are killed, especially when it is by the police.We, in India, call them encounter killings. A journalist’s key job in a conflict area is to identify a “fake” encounter from a “real” one. Fake is one when a person is killed point blank without an exchange of fire, whereas the real one is when a genuine exchange of fire takes place between the police and the insurgents.
 
Dandakarnya is a huge area, an extremely hostile terrain with hardly any motorable road inside the forest areas, dotted with camps of joint forces. So it is an exceptionally difficult job for a journalist to (a) develop his/her contacts to get an access inside the forest (b) convince the contact to take him/her inside as its extremely risky for the person who is permanently residing in the area (c) to evade the paramilitary force to walk 20-30 kilometres to reach a village in extreme weather and (d) to convince your editor to give you a week or more to go inside the forest to investigate one story of killing or a rape.
 
It indeed is a luxury to propose one story in a week in a newspaper. However, time is a significant factor for an in-depth and nuanced story.Any serious and sincere journalist needs time and financial and professional support from his/her newspaper to venture into hostile territory. Without such institutional support it is impossible to work in – forget Bastar – in any place of conflict. It is impossible for freelancers to operate freely in Bastar and central Indian conflict areas – which also is the mining and tribal India – the poorest part of India, stretching over six states: eastern Maharashtra, southern Chattisgarh, north Telangana, west-south Odisha, western Jharkhand and west-south Bengal.
 
Kamal Shukla, while attempting to reach Sulenga village in Bijapur district (in the extreme south), was detained by the police. This was on the February 19, two weeks after the death of a villager Hedma Ram. Shukla was trying to investigate Hedma Ram’s death.He was later threatened and told that he would be arrested. After a month he tried to re-enter the village with a well-known English language television journalist and he was successful.

Without entering Sulenga village Shukla would have never known that Hedma Ram, who was killed in a fake encounter was not a Naxalite but the brother of one who was. The Hindu has reported this incident in May in the context of another story. Actually, there was no real encounter. Hedma Ram was simply picked up on February 2 and killed. The police said that there was an award of about one lakh rupees on him as he was a “dreaded Naxalite”. Hedma Ram was in jail for two years on a fake charge for not getting his brother arrested. After being acquitted by the court he was declared a Maoist – and a "dreaded one" – and shot within a week of his acquittal.  
 
Had he not been to the village Shukla would have never known that a man turned into a “dreaded Naxalite” within a week of his acquittal from all charges and was so dangerous that he had to be eliminated.
 
If one investigates the arrests or encounter killings on a case by case basis one would find that an overwhelming majority of cases against the tribals are fake. That is why it is dangerous for the police to let the local journalists enter the villages to unearth the truth.

So if one investigates the arrests or encounter killings on a case by case basis one would find that an overwhelming majority of cases against the tribals are fake. That is why it is dangerous for the police to let the local journalists enter the villages to unearth the truth.
 
Police wants the journalists to report everything – from the condition of schools or health centres in interior areas, surrenders of insurgents, alleged rapes or fake encounters – but on basis of police hand outs and press statements. They do not want journalists to visit the family of the victims.
 
If the journalists keep on challenging the administration, as they do by keeping on entering villages to investigate – after a point their houses will be ransacked and finally they will be arrested under a draconian state law.
 
Journalist and former Chattisgarh chief of ICRC Malini Subramaniam’s house was ransacked and she left south Chattisgarh while, Somaru Nag, Santosh Yadav, Prabhat Singh and Deepak Jaiswal were arrested over last one year. The last two – Singh and Jaiswal – even met chief minister Raman Singh with an appeal to create an atmosphere where fair journalism can be practised. The chief minister promised to create space for journalists. What in fact happened was that they were promptly arrested soon after meeting the CM. One of them has got bail only recently.

It is not only journalists; social activists, lawyers, legal activists, doctors and ordinary who are being monitored and pressurised. The judges are also being systematically harassed by the police – for stating that some of the tribals are wrongly implicated. In this context kindly refer to the series of reports published by Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group on the legal and illegal modes of harassment of the Bastar tribals.

It is not only journalists; social activists, lawyers, legal activists, doctors and ordinary who are being monitored and pressurised. The judges are also being systematically harassed by the police – for stating that some of the tribals are wrongly implicated. In this context kindly refer to the series of reports published by Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group on the legal and illegal modes of harassment of the Bastar tribals. 
 
It is also important to highlight that I lost a dear friend Sai Reddy, an excellent reporter and analyst, to this ongoing conflict. Reddy was hacked to death by the Maoists who later claimed that he had helped the police to put in place a vigilante force in south Chattisgarh that killed many tribals. Later, many leaders from Maoist party’s central committee or politburo told me that it was a mistake to kill Reddy and that they acknowledge their mistake. While the outlawed party has not targeted any journalist after Reddy’s killing in 2013, the security forces keep harassing the scribes. Interestingly, in 2008, Reddy was arrested by the state police and charged under the Special Public Security Act of Chhattisgarh for his alleged connection with the Naxalites.This treatment has been meted out to many other journalists and civil society activists of Chhattisgarh

Here, it may not be out of context to quote from a concept note for a seminar that I recently addressed. The note prepared by Delegation of the European Union to India reads:
 
“An issue of concern is also protection for journalists when they cover emergencies. The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols contain only two explicit references to media personnel [Article 4 A (4) of the Third Geneva Convention and Article 79 of Additional Protocol I] but, read in conjunction with other humanitarian rules, journalists have a comprehensive protection under the existing humanitarian framework. Article 79 provides journalists all rights and protections that are granted to civilians in international armed conflicts. The same holds true in non-international armed conflicts by virtue of customary international law (Rule 34 of the ICRC’s Customary Law Study). Journalists’ right to life, liberty, security and freedom of expression are all protected under the various Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
 
The routine harassment of journalists reminds me of the comment by Adele Balasingham, wife of Anton Balasingham, who worked among LTTE in north and east of Sri Lanka for many decades. When journalists were targeted by Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka before the aerial attacks commenced, Ms Balasingham wrote that the “world’s largest democracy carried out the heinous crime of striking down the very instrument of democracy, the media of the people of Jaffna, to stifle their freedom of opinion and expression.” The state perhaps has now decided to “stifle” freedom of expression inside its border, in Bastar, so such military operations can be conducted freely.
 
However, there are also journalists who obediently report as the security forces want them to.
 
And those who listen to the police and report from press briefings get many awards: road construction contracts, government building contracts and above all pay packets from the police.
 
In rural India, most of the papers and TV channels do not pay their reporters in Hindi or other local languages in the districts. They ask their reporters to raise funds from companies, from the local administration or traders.

Now, you may ask, why their respective media houses, some of which are national brands, never question such violation of media ethics. For two reasons:
 
1. Most of these papers do not pay their journalists. I repeat, in rural India, most of the papers and TV channels do not pay their reporters in Hindi or other local languages in the districts. They ask their reporters to raise funds from companies, from the local administration or traders. The terms of employment are simple: Deposit a percentage of your collection as ad-revenue, also look after the circulation. So the reporter in many parts of rural India is a reporter- cum-sales person-cum-circulation manager, thus aligning his personal and company’s interest, in violation of all media ethics.
 
This is precisely the reason why a newspaper or a television channel can always disown its journalists when they are arrested saying that the journalist is an ad-sales person or a freelancer who is not on the company’s pay roll. The fact is that hardly any of the staff in the remote areas in the districts is on the company’s pay roll. In states like West Bengal, for example, where the crisis is not as acute, this is not a major issue. But in a conflict area such a policy of the media house is traumatic for the journalists who end up in jail for several months or years for being not backed by respective media houses.
 
2. Secondly, the newspapers or media houses get leases of iron ore, bauxite or coal mines themselves, making it virtually impossible for them to criticise any of the government’s policies. Imagine a situation when the media houses, which are expected to write against the government, are acquiring mines from the same government against whom they are expected to write. So, they do not mind if their reporters incarcerate in jail as their objective is not journalism but mining. And let us not forget that some of these papers and television channels are well-known national brands deciding national policies from terrorism to fiscal deficit. There is absolutely no monitoring of these papers or channels as to what are they producing and how are they treating their reporters.
 
In a situation like this, with the trauma and helplessness of the adivasis remaining hidden from the rest of the world, as journalists are censured, the Bastar tribals have slowly started etching their stories on memorial plaques which they call Mritak Sthamv.

In this context, we journalists or at least I had some hope from the English language press – print and television – as the local administration takes it little more seriously.

Unfortunately the English language press has failed to realise the scale of this tragedy in the Maoist, mining and tribal heartland of India. According to official figures 3,000-4,000 people have died here over the last five-six years. The unofficial death toll is far higher. If a traffic signal does not work on Lodhi Road for half-an-hour, perhaps 20 reporters will assemble. However, thousands getting killed, raped or going hungry in tribal India doesn’t get reported by the English press. The reason being none of the English press has a full-scale bureau or even a correspondent in Dandakarnya.
 
In a situation like this where the trauma and helplessness of the adivasis remains hidden from the rest of the world the Bastar tribals have slowly started etching their stories on memorial plaques which they call Mritak Sthamv.
 
As we reported in The Hindu a few days ago, villagers in the heavily militarised areas of south Chhattisgarh “have embraced the traditional Gond art to document fake encounters that are not uncommon in that part of India. The last moments of Gond tribals, as they are killed by the security forces, are narrated on stone plaques. Kamal Shukla, the journalist who has documented such plaques says that he has never come across such unique storytelling earlier.

Time will tell whether this unique storytelling on memorial plaques will evolve as a form – which is unusually similar to the paintings of 19^th century artists of Bengal called Potuas, to a layman like me – or disappear with time. But it is a fact that at the moment such storytelling is evolving because the traditional 20^th century forms, to document an event using a camera or a note pad and pen are blocked. The story published in The Hindu, on Mritak Sthamv may be read here.

To end, I would quote John Pilger: “Journalism, not truth, is the first casualty of war”. So it is in south Chattisgarh.
 
(Suvojit Bagchi has covered conflict in south Chattisgarh for the BBC World Service and The Hindu).

The post Shooting the Messenger: Life and Death of Journalism in the Bastar Forest appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Shortly after we published the story below by Parijata Bharadwaj, we received the following email message:
 

Dear Colleagues,
 
We are happy to inform you that two complaints in the cases of Ms. Shalini Gera, Ms. Isha Khandelwal and Ms. Malini Subramaniam have reached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The Focal Point for Human Rights Defenders in NHRC informed me that yesterday itself there were some complaints received in this regard, and notice has already gone to Director General of Police, Chattisgarh.
 
However, because of intervention by Justice Murugesan, Member, NHRC this morning, Ms. Chhaya Sharma Deputy Inspector General of Police (Investigation Division) is personally looking into this matter and directly speaking with the police officials. The complaint is also copied to her.
These two files are being placed before the acting chairperson of NHRC right now to order investigation by NHRC, immediate police protection and urgent action at their end.
 
Yours sincerely,
Henri Tiphagne
Honorary National Working Secretary
———————————————————-

Lawyers, journalists, activists highlighting the grievances of adivasis are being terrorised into leaving the district

The developments in the national capital following the crackdown at JNU have once again brought the authoritarian, fascist nature of the current regime into sharp focus. While the intensity of the attack unleashed by state actors and Hindutva’s vigilantes has come as a surprise for some, it is important to note that this is not an aberration. It is but an extension of what is being faced by the adivasis, Dalits and other marginalised communities of this country on a daily basis.

One such target of the unrelenting repression is, and has been, the mineral rich land of Bastar. While this in itself as an old, ongoing story, taking advantage of the fact that public attention for the moment is riveted on developments in New Delhi, the police and district administration have moved swiftly and deviously to force lawyers and journalists highlighting adivasi grievances out of the district.

The aim is simple: to wipe out any resistance to the neo-liberal ‘development’ agenda.  While the earlier UPA governments were also wedded to the same agenda, it is now being pursued more aggressively under the new dispensation at the Centre.

With the prolonged conflict between the Indian State and the Maoists in adivasi regions, the former has perfected a simple you-are-either-with-us –or-them script. Anyone who blindly conforms to the diktats of the state actors is a nationalist. Anyone who fails to toe the line, dares deviate even by a millimetre from the official line is dubbed an “anti-national” and worse, a “Maoist”.

It is this very definition which is currently being applied by the local administration against the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group (JagLAG) – run by Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal to safeguard the constitutional rights of the socially and economically deprived sections of Bastar – journalist Malini Subramaniam and an independent researcher of considerable repute, Bela Bhatia.

On the night of February 17, 2016 the local police at Jagdalpur summoned the landlord who had rented his house to Shalini and Isha to the police station and detained him at the thana for two hours to pressurise him into asking his tenants to quit within a week. To add weight to their threats, the police seized the landlord’s sole means of livelihood – his taxi – on some pretext.

Taking advantage of the fact that public attention for the moment is riveted on developments in New Delhi, the police and district administration have moved swiftly and deviously to force lawyers and journalists highlighting adivasi grievances out of the district

At the same time, the police detained the female domestic worker of Malini and kept her in the police station till late in the evening, in gross violation of the law. The situation deteriorated further on February 18, 2016 when the police once again summoned the domestic worker of Malini and refused to let her leave the station. Malini’s husband who had gone to enquire the reason for the detention of their domestic help was also detained.

Finally, the police released both of them but by then Malini too had been given a written eviction notice by her landlord, forcing her to vacate the house with her family the same day.

Things did not improve for the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group which became the target of sloganeering of the police-friendly Samajik Ekta Manch during the day. In the evening (February 18) JagLAG’s landlord was once again called to the police station and detained for hours. On his return, it was apparent that the police had forced him into asking JagLAG to vacate the rented premise within 24 hours.

JagLAG and Bela approached the local authorities seeking an end to this persecution but none of the visits have resulted in any effective change in their eviction status.

Why is the local administration hell bent on getting rid of them? What is it that the Chattisgarh’s BJP government so afraid of that it is resorting to such tactics?

The answer is simple: they cannot tolerate the presence in the district of anyone who draws attention to, or works for, the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the adivasis and holds the administration accountable.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming to power at the Centre, Bastar has witnessed a sustained escalation in the violence unleashed by the State against the local adivasis under the garb of its military campaign against the Maoists.

The heavy militarisation in the region has led to increased restrictions on the basic freedoms of the people. Para-military forces with absolutely no knowledge about the local culture or landscape in the region, which have been pressed into service in the region, function on the assumption that every villager is a Maoist unless proved to the contrary. This has resulted in an increase in the number of villagers being arrested, illegally detained, even being killed in fake encounters.

JagLAG, Malini and Bela’s ‘fault’ lies in their refusal to remain mute spectators to the growing deprivation and increasing oppression of the adivasis. They have been working with local adivasi activists like Soni Sori, Linga Ram Kodopi, Sukal Prasad Nag and the people fighting for the recognition of the dignity and rights of adivasis. Thanks to their combined efforts, since end-2014 Bastar has seen several peaceful movements by the local people demanding the enforcement of their rights.

In one instance, thousands of villagers peacefully assembled outside the Kukanar thana, to demand that the police release Sukdi. She had been kidnapped by the police to coerce her husband Ayata, a local leader, to comply with the demands of the police. Then there was the large rally of people from the village of Revali who peacefully demanded that the district collector order an inquiry into the fake ‘encounter’ death of Nuppo Bhima.

In both instances, the adivasis had adopted peaceful means while placing their demands before the state officials. The presence of JagLAG, Bela and Malini during the rallies ensured legal support, detailed documentation, and media coverage of the demands.

The above were the first of many such peaceful gatherings of villagers seeking justice before the State officials. Here was opportunity for the state personnel to show they were concerned about the well-being of the people, open to listen to their grievances. Instead, the rallies were labeled as being motivated by Naxalites and villagers who had played a leading role in the rallies were threatened, or arrested by the police and implicated in false cases.

Why is the local administration hell bent on getting rid of them? What is it that the Chattisgarh’s BJP government so afraid of that it is resorting to such tactics? The answer is simple: they cannot tolerate the presence in the district of anyone who draws attention to, or works for, the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the adivasis and holds the administration accountable

The presence of JagLAG and Bela in the region had created a space for students, journalists, filmmakers, academicians and others to visit the district and witness for themselves the ground reality. Since its presence in the Bastar, JagLAG has been instrumental in facilitating several fact finding trips of activists, academicians and researchers into different areas of the region. The last few months saw visits by two fact-finding teams into Bijapur and Sukma to probe complaints of sexual violence by the security personnel. The fact-finding teams uncovered the extensive violence unleashed on the villagers, especially the large scale sexual violence against adivasi women.

In one of the fact findings, the team went to five villages in Basaguda block of Bijapur – Pegdapalli, Chinna Gellur, Pedda Gellur, Gundam and Burgicheru. In all these villages women narrated harrowing tales of sexual violence by the security forces. They complained of being stripped and assaulted. Even their nipples were pinched ostensibly to establish whether the claim of being a breast-feeding mother was true or not. Several women had bruises and injuries on their person.

The women agreed to accompany the fact-finding team to the collectorate and police station seeking action against the security forces. Despite the initial reluctance, because of the serious nature of the alleged offences and the pressure on the administration, an FIR was reluctantly registered against the security forces.

Meanwhile, separate fact-finding teams of the adivasi mahasabha and the Congress party also demanded action against the errant troops. Despite this, there were two further instances of large-scale violence against women by security forces in Bijapur which was recently highlighted by the Congress party.

In all these incidents, Bela played an instrumental role in not only working to find out the experiences of the adivasis but also continuously and tirelessly working with the various teams to ensure that the pressure on the police to take cognisance of these offences is maintained. JagLAG is representing several people implicated on charges of being Maoists, including Soni Sori, local journalists Somaru Nag and Santosh Yadav and other villagers, seeking justice in the matter of the extra-judicial killings in Sarkeguda.

The Chattisgarh government is thus faced with activists who do not shy away from taking up the issues of the people, lawyers who fearlessly fight for the rights of their clients and journalists who courageously report the disturbing facts. Here are human rights defenders (HRDs) whose presence ensures support to the local people to continue to strive for justice. Instead, of using this opportunity to establish itself as a pro-people regime, the government has taken recourse to its age-old tactics: labelling, threats and warnings.

It started with ‘friendly warnings’ about three years ago. But in the last 18 months the friendly warnings have turned to threats. From veiled threats to restrictions on the right to practice law, the objective is to remove from the scene anyone attempting to hold the State accountable.

The threats varied in nature depending on the person being targeted. Malini, Bela and Soni were subjected to sloganeering by local vigilante groups. The house and property of Soni and Malini were vandalised. On one of their visits to a village, Bela and Soni were hounded by a mob labelling them as naxalites. For JagLAG, the threat has been in the form of a local mob aggressively attempting to prevent them from appearing in Court.

Contrary to the State’s expectation the threats did not deter the HRDs from continuing their work in the area. It is because of this that the police have chosen to go after those who are more vulnerable: domestic help, landlords. The aim of the BJP government is clear: to isolate and attack.

With a flurry of MOUs being signed in the region the State has started aggressively implementing its ‘clearing’ operations to milk the mineral rich resources for profit. The last few months have seen an intense military campaign against the locals with the aim of clearing out the area, making it safe for ‘development’.

It is immaterial to the State that this process has led to a drastic escalation in the number of arbitrary arrests, staged ‘surrenders’ and fake ‘encounter’ deaths in the region. What does make it angry is the documentation and transmission of information. It is for this reason that it has become imperative to force Malini, Bela and JagLAG out of the region.

Malini has already been forced to leave and pressure on JagLAG and Bela is being built-up by the hour. Now is not the time to be silent but to unite and challenge a repressive regime which under the garb of nationalism has unleashed a reign of oppression and tyranny.

(The writer is a lawyer, who was with the Jagdalpur legal aid group from 2013 to 2015. She is presently practising at Bombay High Court)

Attacking the Defenders of Freedom, Chhatisgarh: Lawyers and Journos being Forced Out

The post NHRC intervenes as BJP govt. hounds defenders of adivasis’ rights in Bastar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Days after Scroll contributor Malini Subramaniam at Bastar in Chattisgarh came under pressure from local groups and the police following to her reportage on police atrocities, Isha Khandewal, the lawyer representing Malini and a member of legal aid group JagLAG, has said they are being forced to leave Jagdalpur. JagLAG (Jagdalpur Legal Aid group), a non-profit that has been providing free aid to tribal communities in south Chhattisgarh’s five Naxal-affected districts, chose to legally represent Malini Subramaniam following a physical assault on her property in Bastar on February 8.

Malini Subramaniam, a journalist writing for scroll.in has been served an eviction notice by her landlord while her husband Ashim is still being held inside the police station and not let out. The landlord of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid group, who’s arms have been twisted by the local police by seizing his sole vehicle that is a means of livelihood, may also have to give in to the pressure. The message is clear. Freedom of Association, Movement and Expression are being openly throttled in the Bastar region, yet again. The state government is the same that controls the reigns at the Centre. The Chhatisgarh government wants the Jagdalpur legal aid group, an intrepid group of women lawyers who have been working in the Bastar region for three years, ensuring some legal rights for the Adivasis, out.
 
Sabrangindia has been consistently carrying reports of the resistance by Adivasis and the repression in Chhatisgarh. Here we reproduce a public appeal made by the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, a few minutes before the midnight hour on February 18-19, 2016.
 
 Things are taking an ugly turn in Jagdalpur.  
 
  First there were whispered threats, 'Don't go to Bijapur, the police will arrest you if you go there again'. Then, there was a whole week of public lynching of JagLAG as defenders of "blood-thirstly Naxalites" by the Samajik Ekta Manch, a vigilante group formed by the police.  At the same time, the local Bar Association again renewed their campaign to stop our practice by harassing the local lawyers standing with us.
 
Then, late last night, police visited our landlord – who is a driver by profession, and took him away to the police station. He was kept there till wee hours of this morning, and dropped back in a police vehicle; his car having been impounded.  Our badly shaken landlord informed us at 2:00 am this morning that he has no option but to ask us to vacate our house and office within a week.
 
Things have been rocky for us in Jagdalpur for a while now.  For a year and a half now, we are being hounded out by the local police.  From giving thinly veiled threats at press conferences that the police are closely monitoring NGOs providing "legal aid to Naxalites", to informing our clients that the police are about to arrest us for our Naxalite activities, to claiming before visiting journalists and researchers that we are merely a "Naxalite front", various officials of the police have been out to get us.
 
We have had police diligently investigating "anonymous" complaints that we are "fraudulent" lawyers.  For which, we had to make multiple trips to the police station with all our impeccable certificates and sound credentials. Then the local Bar Association, clearly prompted by the police, took out a resolution prohibiting our practice in the local courts. We countered this by challenging this resolution in the State Bar Council and obtaining an interim order allowing our practice. Unable to get at us any other way, now, the police are resorting to pressuring our landlord and his family.
 
The timing of these events does not escape our notice. This is coming at a time when the whole countryside of Bastar is on fire. Under the guise of anti-Naxal operations, the security forces are indulging in rape, pillage and plunder. With teams of women activists, we have documented at least three cases of mass sexual violence in the past three months itself, where security forces have run amok in the villages, stripping women, playing with their naked bodies and indulging in gangrape, looting their precious food supplies, and destroying their homes and granaries. The number of so-called "encounters" is at an all-time high, people are simply "disappearing" from villages in large numbers, only to show up in the list of "surrendered" or "arrested" Naxalites several days or weeks later. The local police and administration are talking in one voice of "clearing" the area within one year.
 
In this scenario, all who are challenging the official narrative, are being silenced. Social mobilizations are being orchestrated by the police to provide a cover to their illegal harassment of journalists, lawyers, activists. When mass gangrapes in Bijapur were being uncovered, a group calling itself the "Naxal peedit Sangharsh samiti" under the leadership of the ex-Salwa Judum leader Madhukar Rao, took out noisy belligerent rallies against Soni Sori, Bela Bhatia and "outside NGOs", threatening all of us with physical violence if we entered Bijapur again. When Malini Subramaniam wrote about the fake surrenders of Maoists, or the fake encounters, a motley group led by the nephew of the local MLA, calling themselves the "Samajik Ekta Manch" launched a vilification campaign against her. 

When we tried to get her complaint of stones thrown into her house registered, the Manch publicly declared us as their next target, for defending "khoonkhar Naxalites" ( खूंखार नक्सली – dreaded naxalites) and going to villages inciting people against the state.(राज्य सत्ता के खिलाफ भड़काते हैं).The local Bar Association also renewed their fatwa against local lawyers working with us..
 
Unable to stop us from continuing our work here, the police have now resorted to threatening others associated with us.  Prachi, the young household help working at Malini's, was summoned to the police station twice yesterday for interrogation, and kept there for hours.  Despite the clear letter of the law that women witnesses can only be examined at their place of residence, she was taken away to the police station late at night for questioning, much to the alarm of her family. She has been taken to the police station again this morning and is still there.  Malini's landlord,who lives in Raipur, was also summoned to the thana this morning, and by now has also issued an eviction notice to her.  Malini's husband, Ashim, who was called inside the thana in the afternoon, is also now being held inside and not being allowed outside.

Our landlord, a person of very modest means, is also a member of the minority community, and vulnerable in this climate of pervasive fear.  Our landlord's family have always had the greatest love and concern for us, which we return in equal measure.  We understand that they had no choice this time but to ask us to vacate. We also understand that it would be exceedingly difficult to find another rental place in this time of inflamed passions and provoked agitations.  We are still trying. 
 
 We take solace in the despair apparent in the highest echelons of police, who have had to stoop to such crude levels of indecency to throw us out of Jagdalpur. 

  Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal have issued this statement.

The post Attacking the Defenders of Freedom, Chhatisgarh: Lawyers and Journos being Forced Out appeared first on SabrangIndia.