Operation Samadhan-Prahar has to be seen in the context of the Changing Nature of the Indian State, a new feature of the Second Republic that is in the offing, now called ‘New India.’

It is estimated that the Adivasi (indigenous peoples’) population is about 10 crores, 40 lakhs in India.  They live primarily concentrated in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, etc[1]. These states are richly endowed with natural resources that have underground mineral wealth that needs to be mined. These regions also have dense forests that have to be shorn and cut for this exploitation of mineral wealth.

Even though the areas where Operation Samadhan-Prahar is deployed are protected under the Provisions of the PESA or Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, of 1996 and Schedules V and VI of the Indian Constitution, the government has auctioned the mines located there to several corporates houses like Adani, Birla, and Vedanta, TATA and Jindal groups of industries without requisite consent of the gram sabhas of communities authorised under statute for prior sanction.

Adani is exploiting Hasdeo Aranya and Dantewada for Coal and Iron Ore. Aditya Birla, L&T, and Utkal Alumina are exploiting Rayagada/Kashipur in Odisha for Bauxite, Vedanta for Bauxite in Lanjigarh, Niyamgiri, Odisha, TATA steel for Iron ore in Jajpur, Kalinganagar, Odisha and JSW Utkal Steel in Dhinkia village, Jagatsinghpur for Iron. All this assault on India’s forests where Adivasis and indigenous peoples live has and will have a severe impact on climate change but then, who cares?

These corporates are allegedly paying the bureaucrat of the state and union governments to freely exploit minerals resources. However, this institutionalised plunder is also being met with stiff resistance by the indigenous population. The tribal gram sabhas empowered under the PESA Act have been organising rallies, dharnas, and other forms of peaceful protests to resist the exploitation of their natural habitat and natural resources. Cynically, the government (Indian State) has erringly dubbed them as “Maoist insurgency.’

It is in this context that Operation Samadhan-Prahar needs to be assessed, especially in terms of methods employed to eliminate the indigenous population of India. In January 2023, Home Minister Amit Shah said that the government’s effort is to make the country “free of Maoism” and this narrative is likely to be central to the upcoming 2024 parliamentary polls. Later in March 2023 he again reiterated that the fight against “the Maoist is in its final phase”. In saying this, he has vowed to “eliminate the tribal resistance” in the country.

Violence under operation Samadhan-Prahar 

On April 7, 2023, bombs were dropped aerially with the help of drones on the tribal of Bhattum, Kavurugatta, Meenagatta, and Jabbagatta villages of Bastar district, Chhattisgarh. This was the fourth bombing since 2021, the first happened on April 19, 2021, the second on April 15, 2022, third on January 11, 2023. After the bombing, three helicopters were used by the Air Force for firing at the local tribal population.

Integral to Operation Samadhan-Prahar, are the government-established military camps in the tribal areas. The armed forces have turned the rich, forested local habitat of Adivasis including their land, forest, and water bodies into jails or concentration camps!

On May 17, 2021, four Adivasis were killed by CRPF for protesting against the setting up of a CRPF camp on a 10-acre agricultural field in Silger, Bastar. On May 22, 2021, an Adivasi youth was shot dead by CRPF for collecting mangoes near the CRPF camp in Silger. On January 14, 2022, the villagers were physically attacked ruthlessly by 500-member paramilitary and state police after they protested against the encroachment of their land.

It is not only government forces but also the private militia of corporates that are deployed against the indigenous tribal and forest dweller population in the region. The infamous Salwa Judum militia which widely burned houses and murdered and was even accused of raping Adivasis was allegedly funded by TATA and trained by government forces. In fact, close to a dozen years back, in 2011, the Supreme Court had declared as illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youths as Special Police Officers. [2]Though the primary source for funding the government forces is public money, in reality and practice, large sections of the Indian armed forces (in these regions at least) have become the private armies of the corporates.

In 2016, the government introduced the Road Connectivity Project in the Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (RCPLWEA) for “development purposes of the region”.  Though proclaiming development, in reality, these roads were used by corporate companies to move their vehicles, transport their mining machinery, and for patrolling local populations and movement. The security forces reportedly used military vehicles manufactured by TATA to protect the corporates.

Defaming the Resistance

The union government has therefore left no stone unturned to defame the local, indigenous and tribal resistance to the state and corporate encroachment of their habitat. The state has actually unleashed a barrage of fake news and propaganda, a sinister campaign to defame this resistance through the mass media. When Adivasis have resisted the security forces’ occupation of their schools, the news flashed carried headlines like, “Maoist’s attack schools.” The extra-judicial targeted killings of protesters were presented “as genuine, in the public interest” by the media and the dead were described as “Maoist insurgents”. In later days when public memory faded, judicial investigations have found many of them to be fake encounters.

Often, in the changed and polarised public atmosphere with an increasingly aggressive Indian state, even the courts are now being used to defame this tribal resistance blaming Maoist insurgency. Chhatisgarh-based Gandhian, Himanshu Kumar has been penalised five lakhs by Supreme Court along while dismissing a petition filed by him and 12 Adivasi villagers in 2009 that demanded an independent probe into the extra-judicial killings of Adivasis in Gompad, Chattisgarh. The judgement that has attracted widespread criticism was passed on July 13, 2022.[3]

The infamous Gompad Massacre led to 16 Adivasis belonging to the villages of Belpocha, Nulkatong, Gompad, and Gachanpalli being murdered by armed forces and Salwa Judum militia between 17 September 2009 and October 1, 2009. During the same onslaught, a two-year-old baby’s finger was chopped off by those wielding guns for the Indian state after allegedly raping and killing his mother.

However the Supreme Court, based on the version put forward by the state, concluded that it was Maoists who had killed the Adivasis despite relatives of victims, villagers, human rights organisations, and social activists saying that the massacre was committed by the forces representing the government.

Arrests of activists and human rights defenders under UAPA are also strategies employed by Operation Samadhan Prahar. The murder of Fr. Stan Swamy who fought for Adivasis and against their displacement, the jailing of Prof GN Saibaba for protesting against corporatisation and militarization, and the incarceration of Adivasi woman Hidma Marke for leading the protest against Adani’s Bailadila iron-ore mine in Chhattisgarh are all directly or indirectly connected with  operation Samadhan Prahar.

Under Operation Samadhan Prahar such fake encounters, torture, sexual violence, rape, and enforced disappearances are reportedly deployed as “tactics of counter-insurgency”. The government justifies combing operations against left-wing extremism as a counter-insurgency method, but in reality, it is indirectly facilitating corporates to plunder the natural wealth of the region and displace the local, indigenous tribal population inhabiting those places.

Conclusion

“Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas- Report of an Expert Group to India’s Planning Commission”, has concluded with the finding that military suppression cannot finish the resistance of Adivasis and Maoists. It also analyses the phenomenon of locals support for the Maoists in terms of the one-sided exploitation by the Indian state that includes violent and enforced displacement and capture of resources by corporates. This is the primary factor responsible for compelling people to engage in this “war to protect themselves” against the government which is under Oath to the Constitution to protect lives, liberty and resources of all its citizens.

The unilateral war declared under Operation Samadhan Prahar by the Indian state is aimed at more than the ten crore forty lacks Adivasis and their natural habitats. It is in fact a war against all the Indian people, the entire country, motivated by a desire to align with and help a handful of corporates. This is the unique feature of New India. This will be proclaimed as as the Second Republic, in all likelihood, in 2024.

(The author is a journalist based in Chennai)

[1] Though Assam and other states of the North-East, Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand also have indigenous populations some not recognized officially as Scheduled Tribes (STs) by state governments.

[2]
In a blow to both the Chhattisgarh government—then ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the union government led by the Congress dominated United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Supreme Court had declared as illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youths as Special Police Officers – either as ‘Koya Commandos’, Salwa Judum or any other force – in the fight against the Maoist insurgency and ordered their immediate disarming. The ruling, delivered by Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar on a writ petition filed by social anthropologist Prof. Nandini Sundar and others – strongly indicted the Indian State for violating Constitutional principles in arming youth who had passed only fifth standard and conferring on them the powers of police.

[3]  A Division Bench consisting of Justices AM Khanwilkar and JB Pardiwala y dismissed a writ petition filed in 2009 seeking independent investigation into alleged extra-judicial killings of tribals in Chhattisgarh by security forces filed by activist Himanshu Kumar and 12 others.

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Manish Shrivastava and his wife Amita were arrested by the UP ATS from their rental home in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. The Intelligence Bureau is in possession of a video that allegedly shows them meeting members of a naxal group. The couple has also been accused of using fake identities and fake documents to live at a rental home in Bhopal. The Shrivastavas were charged under sections 121(a), 120B, 415, 420, 467 and 468 of the IPC. They were produced before court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class Bharat Kumar Vyas who granted them transit remand till July 12.

Madhya Pradesh DGP VK Singh said, “This is not the first time something like this has happened. People suspected of having Maoist ideologies have earlier also been found to stay in urban areas across India. The matter is under investigation and we will be able to tell you more when the investigation is completed.” According to a statement by Asim Arjun, ADG of UP ATS, they had received information that some people with ‘Naxal ideology’ were engaging in ‘anti-national activities’. Following this eight people were questioned in four places including Bhopal. Six others were questioned in three places in UP, but subsequently allowed to leave after extracting data from their electronic gadgets like laptops and cell phones. Electronic gadgets of the Shrivastavas have also been seized and the data on them is being analysed.

However, the couple and their family vehemently deny the charges against them. In a statement, Manish’s sister Seema Azad says, “Police has told in its story that they have a video of Manish and Amita talking with guerillas in jungle. As always, this is a fabricated story by police. Manish and Amita are political social activists. Amita used to teach in a school in Bhopal, and both are professional translators.” Shedding further light on their backgrounds Azad says, “Both had studied from Allahabad University and both were bright students. Manish did his B.A. from Allahabad University and M.A. in Hindi from Gorakhpur University. Amita has done Ph.D. in oral history from Allahabad University. Both were active in social political work since their student life and they are well known in both Allahabad and Gorakhpur. Amita is also a story writer, a poet and a singer.”
 

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Image courtesy The Hindu

Rao was produced before a judicial magistrate in Pavagada court in Karnataka’s Tumkur district on July 4, 2019.

This will be the third case in which the veteran poet has been booked by the state.  Rao was lodged in Yerwada jail in connection with the 2018 Bhima Koregaon riots, where he been struggling to obtain copies of the evidence against him.

“Just four days before the Venkatammanahalli (Karnataka) attack, on February 6 (2005), Saket Rajan, a Maoist leader in Karnataka and writer of the classic two volume history of Karnataka was killed in an ‘encounter’ in Chikkamagalur district in Western Ghats.

“Varavara Rao and Gaddar promptly went to Bangalore and denounced the encounter as fake and participated in Saket Rajan’s funeral. As police believed and propagated that the Venkatammanahalli attack was a revenge to the encounter, they thought it fit to include the names of Varavara Rao and Gaddar in the list of the accused,” N Venugopal, a close aide and associate of Rao told The Leaflet.

Nineteen people have already been tried and acquitted in the 2005 case. Rao has to date not been issued summons, nor has his statement been recorded by the police. Yet in the appeal filed against the acquittal by the state, the high court directed the police to arrest the “absconding” accused.  It is in this connection that Rao has been taken by the Karnataka police to stand trial.

Rao has faced over 25 cases that have been foisted on him by the state; he has been an undertrial for seven years.  Each time he has emerged unbowed and victorious.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

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Raipur: People in Gudelguda village in Jharkhand are filled with anger and resentment. Two women were shot at by CRPF officers on February 2 in in the forest of Rengaiguda village, around 450 kms from Raipur, under Polampalli police station limits, when a joint team of security forces was returning after an area domination operation.
 
While a woman named Podiyam Sukki died of the gunshot wounds, another woman Kalmi Dewe was wounded and is currently being treated at a hospital. The police have been calling them Maoists but villagers have rejected these claims and said that they were not involved in any skirmish.
 
Gudelguda villagers claimed that the CRPF jawans deliberately shot at the women. They even said that they forcefully made one of the wounded women wear a Naxal uniform while she was screaming in pain and that the police were trying to pass this incident off as an encounter when the firing was one-sided.

 
What the police says
 
Sukma SP Jitendra Shukla said that two women had sustained bullet injuries on Saturday in Polampalli region of Sukma district, one of whom died during treatment. they came under crossfire during an encounter between Maoists and CRPF men. The women were rushed to CRPF field hospital.
 
SP Jitendra Shukla in his press conference on Sunday said that in the forest, the encounter between the soldiers and the Naxalites lasted for about 10 minutes. “A firearm, Rs 9058 cash, cortex wire, detonator, gelatine sticks and other materials were recovered from the site of the encounter. During the encounter, both women were gathering woods in the forest nearby. After hearing the firing, both of them ran in the direction of the shootout and Podiyam Sukki was shot in the stomach while Kalmi Dewe was hit in the thigh,” he said.
 
He also said that a case has been registered against unknown people in connection with the death and a magisterial inquiry is going on.
 
Though police admitted that the women were common villagers from Gudelguda, villagers came forward with a different narrative that there wasn’t any encounter that took place as there’s also no forest close to Gudelguda village.
 
Police have paid Rs 25000 compensation to Sukki’s family and Rs 20,000 to Dewe.

 
What the eyewitness says 
Following the incident, Dainik Bhaskar’s journalist Neeraj Bhadauria published the statement of Podiyam Hungi, the eyewitness in the incident. She recounted the details of the day.
 
“I, Podiyam Sukki and Kalmi Dewe had gathered at 7 am to collect timber from the forest near the village. We had an axe in our hands. We had just reached 500-600 meters away from the village when we saw jawans in the area. We immediately returned to the village. The moment we turned back, we heard a gunshot. We started shouting that we have come here to gather wood. I was at the back and Podiyam and Kalmi were ahead. Podiyam was shot from behind and so was Kalmi. I supported Kalmi and took her back to the village. I heard Podiyam screaming for water,” she said.
 
“When we returned with water, we saw that the jawans were trying to dress Podiyam in a Naxal uniform. When the villagers protested, they said that they would take her to the hospital. Podiyam was incessantly requesting for water and shivering. The jawans said that they will wrap her in a plastic bag and we protested saying that she will become breathless in it. Only three shots were fired during the whole incident. There was no skirmish or encounter,” she said.
 
When we went back with water for Podiyam Suqi, some young men were trying to wear her uniform. The villagers protested against this, the soldiers told him to take him to the hospital. During this time, dry water was demanding and shaking hands. Then the soldiers started to build them in the membrane (plastic bag), then we said that his breath would stop in the membrane. During this entire incident, only three bullets had gone, there was no such thing as an encounter. “
 
Soni Sori reaches the village 
Soni Sori, a social activist working for tribal rights, reached Gudelaguda on Sunday with a 15-member investigating team on the second day of the incident.
 
Talking to Times Of India, tribal leader Soni Sori, who visited the village narrated first hand information collected from locals and said, “There were three women who went to collect fire woods on Saturday morning, about 500 metres from village and on spotting the CRPF men on a distance, they immediately turned back to return village in fear. But there came three rounds of firing from security forces despite that the women waved and showed them the woods and axe from far to claim they were common villagers and not Maoists. By then two women had sustained bullet injuries already.”
 
As per the statement of villagers, Sori said that the jawans came to the women and on realizing they were village women, they carried the severely injured Podiyam Sukka saying that she was being taken to the hospital. The third woman somehow took the injured one Kalmi Dewe to village and group of other women rushed towards CRPF team to check on Podiyam.
 
Sori added that the group of women were shocked to see that CRPF men were trying to dress Podiyam in Maoist uniform while she was wailing in pain and was very much alive. When the women objected, the jawans tried packing her in plastic sheet excusing to rush hospital. The women were told that they could also bring injured Kalmi to the field hospital.

 
Sori said that Podiyam was dead by the time villagers reached the hospital. Calling it a fake encounter, tribal leader Soni Sori demanded judicial inquiry in the case.
 
Sukma police then have lodged an FIR against unknown persons over the killing and officials said that there would be magisterial probe ordered in the case while compensation was also given to families of both women.
 
But villagers and Soni Sori said that they were not demanding magisterial probe in the case but action against the offenders who fired at women.
 
Sori said that when the police have admitted that the women came under crossfire, they should act against those who fired at them.
 
Sukma Bandh called to protest this incident 
Sarv Adivasi Samaj president, Prakash Thakur, stated that there was no encounter in the area and that the police’s claim of women being shot during a crossfire was categorically false. “Sukki died due to gunshot wounds and a gun was deliberately fired at her. All tribal communities demand strict action against the guilty policemen and call for a Sukma Bandh,” he said.
 
Questions arise after the encounter 
The story being peddled by police officers has so many holes that it is proving itself wrong. A newspaper reported that “Our team inspected the site of the incident. The place where women were shot, there is no thick forest. On one side there is a field and on the other side, there is a pond. It can be understood that there is no place to hide or practise hidden firing during the encounter. After looking at the site of the incident, many questions raise themselves.”
 
Two days after the shootout in Gudelguda, women’s axe and other tools were lying on the spot. But the marks of blood stains were missing from the site of the incident. Social workers, tribal communities and villagers believe that evidence was being tampered with to disturb the investigation.
 
In the last 15 years that BJP formed a government in the state, many such cases were reported. In many of them, police officers were found guilty but were never investigated or punished. This is the first such case in the newly formed Congress government. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had talked about investigating the atrocities against villagers on suspicion of being Naxals. All eyes will be on how the new government will deal with this Gudelguda incident with sensitivity.
 
 

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CM Raman Singh
 

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