This post was captioned “LOL Salam, Comrade” – a take on communists’ use of ‘lal selam’ or ‘red salute’. It was posted as a response to a press statement by the CPI(ML) condemning ‘Operation Kagar’ – a joint operation by the paramilitary, state police, and various security forces in the dense and hilly forests of Telangana and Chhattisgarh, in which officials said 27 ‘Maoists’ were killed.

The CPI (ML) had condemned the “cold-blooded extra-judicial killing of Maoist activists and Adivasis in Narayanpur-Bijapur.”

The party statement also said that Shah’s celebratory post reflected that the “state is spearheading Operation Kagar as an extra-judicial extermination campaign and taking credit for killing citizens and suppressing Adivasi protests against corporate plunder and militarisation in the name of combating Maoism.”

The connotations of a cauliflower 

While the Union government’s response has indeed been celebratory, it was, in fact, the presence of a cauliflower in BJP Karnataka’s X post that stunned online commentators.

The use of the cauliflower has become a de-facto stand-in for a call to Muslim genocide.

Capable of circumventing hate speech laws online, it was most recently widely shared by pro-BJP political commentators following the communal clashes in Nagpur.

The imagery is understood to refer to the 1989 Bhagalpur anti-Muslim riots in which over 900 people were killed. In the village of Logain, 110 Muslims were killed and buried in a farm. It is well known that cauliflower saplings were planted over their dead bodies.

In recent years, this reference has been revived by alt-right groups, particularly the trads. Some of its less disguised versions in the past have portrayed hijabi women as cauliflowers.

In their social media bios, many Hindutva ‘trads’ refer to themselves as “cauliflower farmers.”

Trads constitute the extreme end of the Hindutva universe, and comprise youth who want to serve as self-styled civilisational warriors online. Trads view other right-wingers as too liberal and call them ‘raitas’. They also consider PM Narendra Modi too weak to further the real Hindutva agenda due to his alleged appeasement of Dalits and inability to deal with the Muslims with an iron hand.

In 2022, The Wire had reported on these trads following the ‘Sulli Deals’ case in which a hundred Muslim women were ‘auctioned’ on an app.

The Wire had reported how trad iconography is usually designed to ‘trigger’ minority communities with shockingly violent ‘humour’. They include memes depicting the beheading of Muslims, caricatures of Muslims being mowed under their cars, Dalits depicted as “cockroaches” being gassed, or rape victims (who are either Muslims or Dalits) being urinated upon by a saffronised ‘Pepe the Frog.’

The report had said how this dependence on iconography draws directly from Western neo-Nazi creators and in some cases imitates the content of alt-right 4chan activists. References like the cauliflower meme or the invocation of the Ranveer Sena, a banned anti-Dalit militia accused of massacres in Bihar, are local additions.

While the BJP had so far steered away from this extreme discourse and gory trad imagery, the recent caricature is testament to its growing tolerance.

In the past year, trad iconography has become more acceptable in mainstream Hindutva lexicon, especially while addressing Muslims. In the many caricatures the BJP have posted since January 2024, especially during their 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, they adopted some of this imagery and symbols – like Pepe the Frog, a depiction of PM Modi dressed in saffron and taking on the Muslims in green, and an animation of Muslims taking away property and the belongings of the Dalits.

In 2022, in a post on X captioned Satyamev Jayate (truth alone prevails) a caricature was shared by the official handle of the Gujarat BJP featuring a dozen skull-capped and bearded men in white kurtas being hanged. Social media users and commentators drew comparison with Nazi caricatures and the tweet was taken down by Twitter. But the party said that they were not targeting any particular religion and that the cartoon was based on real incidents – a Gujarat court convicting terrorists for the 2006 Ahmedabad blasts.

Courtesy: The Wire

The post What the ‘Cauliflower’ in BJP Karnataka’s X Post Means appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In any case, the film is certainly a cinematic version of Vivek Agnihotri’s “Urban Naxal” theory. It is a tale of how the comfortably situated urban intelligentsia (aka Urban Naxals) conveniently influences (read brainwashes) the urban public discourse and supports the Naxal movement through all possible means; cultural, legal, financial, entertainment and (even) paid news! The film operates through depictions of the parallel war happening in the forests of Bastar and in the courtroom over the legality of Salwa Judum [1], which the film not only justifies but even valorises. The other parallel (until it is resolved) remains between the mother and son duo, the former fighting against the Naxals while her son is fascinated by the Naxals and even joins them before “realising his mistake”. The graphic tale of terror committed against the ordinary villagers by the Maoists becomes a point of revolt for them, especially for the mother (who also happens to be the wife before turning widow as her husband is hacked to death by the Maoists in the film). It remains a monologic tale, primarily told through a woman CRPF officer (played by Adah Sharma as Neerja Madhavan) and the mother-wife character starred by Indira Tiwari, both of whom are are determined to fight the Naxals.

Bastar: The Naxal Story remains a sensationalist and graphic tale of horror without any systematic engagement with the topic, jumping from one thing to the next, stereotyping the Adivasis, intelligentsia and women.

The Plot and the Story

The film begins with a series of newspaper cuttings depicting the brutality and violence conducted in Bastar by Naxals and the broader Naxalite movement, including the killing of ordinary citizens, defence forces, and destruction of roads. The opening scene is the court room drama where the lawyers (played by Shilpa Shukla as Neelam Nagpal and Yashpal Sharma as Utpal Trivedi respectively) are arguing over the legality of Salwa Judum and the recruitment of Special Police Officers. The case (under discussion) also involves the charge against a professor (Starring Raima Sen as Vanya Roy) who is accused of helping Maoists. She is accused of doing this by passing the list of villagers to Maoists suspected of being informers for the police. These persons (informers) are eventually were killed by the Maoists. The opening scene is intertwined between the scene of a hospital and courtroom. In the first shot of the hospital is the CRFP officer undergoing medical tests for the health of her unborn child even as she is getting ready to take on Naxals; in the courtroom, the lawyer (Neelam) is narrating the cases of extra-judicial killings committed by security forces and Salwa Judum.

The drama begins as the villagers saluting the national flag and singing national anthem are caught by the Maoists, and taken to their camp in Abujmarh forest, accused of defying the authority of Naxal rule and engaging in the “blasphemous” act of aligning with the Indian State. The apparent leader of the group (starring Subrata Dutta as Milind Kashyap)  who led the villagers to such an “unholy act”, and spoke about “shanti”, “shiksha”, and “vikaas” was hacked to death, quite graphically, by the Maoist leader Lanka Reddy (played by Vijay Krishna)– first the limbs and finally the head. The execution was only after the Jan Adalat pronounced Milind guilty, which was depicted as a kangaroo court even as Milind’s wife (Ratna) and children pleaded for his innocence before witnessing his bloody execution.

Here onwards, the Che Guevara styled Maoist leader Lanka Reddy remains the primary villain till the end of the film, when he would come to meet the very same fate; committed by the wife of the hacked villager (played by Indira Tiwari as Ratna). Lanka Reddy’s personality is depicted as a brave and violent Maoist leader. He delivers a fiery speech in the camp during which he talks about how bloody stained rivers will flow out of the blood of enemies. He resolves to raise the red flag on the Red Fort. For the director such depiction was clearly necessary to highlight the violent nature of the Maoist movement, and depict their brutal tactics due to which, in the film, ordinary villagers of Bastar were shown to be suffering.

The film at no point feels like a historical narrative, it takes a convenient position of depicting the villagers as “affected with the problem of Maoism” but does not trace the history of the issue at all. It seems like just, out of blue, one day the Naxals, overpowered the villagers without any logical chain of events, and then the brave CRPF officer Neerja Madhavan comes to fight them out. The good ordinary villagers vs bad Maoists, depicted in stark black and white, remains the motif throughout, without investigating the origin of the movement or the conflict that has affected the region for so long. There is no discussion around the failure of the independent Indian state and its welfare or development arms to reach the Adivasis of Bastar; the abysmal failure on health, education, inclusion. We find, through the film, statements loosely thrown at the audience in order to attract the attention of viewers. At one point the filmmakers claim that the Indian Maoist movement is third deadliest after the ISIS and Boko Haram, without adding much value to the assertion.

In the next movement of high drama in the film, the focus has now briefly shifted to show how the unholy nexus between intelligentsia and Maoists operates. Professor Vanya Roy (for director the villain professor continues to remain either Roy or Menon for some reason) and the senior intellectual Maoist leader (Narayan Baghchi) is seen meeting with the foreign delegation comprising of the member from Lashkar-e-Toiba and LTTE. Roy is praised by the LeT representative for expressing the view that Kashmir is not an integral part of India. There is also one ‘Gandhian’ in the meeting, comrade Irshad, who has a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in local villages and handles arms and money for the Maoist. The irony is deliberate and intended by Sen, as everything that is non-Gandhian is associated with this ‘Gandhian’ Maoist. Clearly such collaging was perhaps the only means for the director to take forward the otherwise struggling film.

The anti-intellectual and even vulgar stance of the film is revealed when it depicts university students dancing and singing to the killings of CRPF jawans by Maoists. Even without naming the university, the reference is apparent to any thoughtful eye that it is a premier central government university known for its active involvement in politics. A/the student leader is shown addressing the frenzied crowd and celebrating over (in the words of that student leader) the killing of “76 dogs”. Professor Roy is of course there and enjoying the whole show. The film interchangeably and, in parallel, shows the celebration of the students and that of the Maoists in the jungle after the latter had ambushed and killed the CRPF personnel while they were asleep by kindling their camp.

The CRPF officer Neerja Madhavan is all this while fighting and strategising the defeat of the Naxals. She is shown as an upright and intelligent officer who can take on the degenerate political class. Prior to the ambush that cost the lives of 76 CRPF jawans, she had got the hint that the Maoists had planned to attack the specific camps and requested additional reinforcement from the higher ups in the police ranks and even politicians, but was refused citing lack of credible intelligence. After the incident, the minister asked her why this attack happened and who should be held responsible for the costly lives of our jawans? She retaliates back, saying that you (the minister) are responsible for it. The film shows that deep political connections, corruption and nexus is involved in the sustenance of the conflict, which ultimately benefit the politicians. Thus, the politicians are often hand in glove with the troublemakers, caring naught about the lives of either civilians or jawans. But such mindful recognitions are few and in-between, and overshadowed by the film’s single-minded pursuit to achieve a narrow political end.

Following the killings of CRPF personnel, the focus has now turned on eliminating the dreaded Lanka Reddy, and the film takes on Mission Mode to achieve that end. Lanka Reddy has got the intimation that he is now on the active target of the security forces, and he accordingly starts preparing his escape plan to cross the state border to avoid getting caught. In one of the encounters before the final showdown, the mother son duo faces each other, unable to shoot at each other. Ratna discourses with her son about his decision to join Maoist movement, arguing that it was futile and wrong, especially given the fact that his father (and her husband) was brutally killed when he (the son) was taken away to be trained with the Maoists. While the encounter is ongoing between Maoist and security forces, CRPF officer Neerja is injured in the battle and rushed to hospitalised, where she learns about losing her unborn child.

After the resolution of the conflict between mother and son there remains only one thing to be done, catching hold of Lanka Reddy before he crosses the borders and manages to escape the forces. In the final anti-climax Lanka Reddy is initially tricked, believing that he has successfully managed to slip away from clutches of the security forces before seeing a helicopter hovering over his head. The game ends as he finds himself surrounded by security forces from all sides. Though he could have been arrested by the force the filmmakers have retained the conventional end: Ratna takes up the sickle and strikes him hard. Lanka Reddy lies dead on the ground, killed by the same weapon that was apparently the symbol of the revolution.

In the meantime, the court has pronounced its judgment and Salwa Judum is banned, which is depicted in the movie –not as a rapacious counter-insurgency militia—but as a self-defence measure necessary for the safety of villagers who are threatened by Naxals, again drawing imaginary foes without representing the inconvenient facts. There seems to be a pensive sadness about the fact that the court has banned Salwa Judum (It was the Supreme Court that banned this militia in a historic judgement in 2008). While Neerja Madhavan is at the hospital, still recuperating, members of judicial committee have reached the hospital to question her for her role in extra judicial killings. The film has no hesitation in suggesting that you may sacrifice rule of law for achieving the greater end, but one does not even know what actually the intended end is!

The film is not yet over. Almost in a seriocomic manner, the film ends with the fictionalised factoids. Statements pours in, “Neerja Madhavan is now exonerated from all court cases” and “Tourism in Bastar has increased by more than 80% in last 5 years.”

Does the film succeed? Work? One has to be a particularly gullible viewer without any historical knowledge to actually digest this piece of fiction as a film based on reality or fact; the cherry picking of a few facts do not make composite fiction.

Unfortunately, also, the film becomes simply a rather crass tale of personal battles and the social is lost somewhere behind the violent strikes. By the end of the film, one realises that Bastar becomes mere plot, the story is something else, and the else remains elusive for the viewer. Ultimately, in the final analysis, this film adds itself to the growing list of propaganda led factoid cinema, devoid of any value that is extremely painful to watch.

Best Bets: Recommended by Our Team

Of writing and films that give a more nuanced picture of the conflict in Bastar and the Naxal Movement:

1. The Burning Forest: India’s War in Bastar by Nandini Sundar
2. Maoist and Other Armed Conflicts by Anuradha M. Chenoy and Kamal Mitra Chenoy
3. Hello Bastar: The Untold Story of India’s Maoist Movement by Rahul Pandita
4. Red Ant Dream by Sanjay Kak
5. I Pravir the Adivasi GOD by Vivek Kumar
6. The Hunt by Biju Toppo

[1] A counter-insurgency militia that the Supreme Court, in 2008, had effectively ordered the disbanding of

Related:

Article 370: Calculated timing, one-sided narrative, unfounded justification of human rights violations

Film as Propaganda: the months between June 2023 & May 2024

The Kashmir Files: Calls for Muslim genocide ring out in cinema halls, hate brews outside | SabrangIndia

The post Bastar: The Naxal Story is poorly written, incoherent, and grotesque appeared first on SabrangIndia.

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.

The post Operation Samadhan-Prahar & the Changing Nature of Indian State appeared first on SabrangIndia.

(This piece authored by Fr Stan Swamy was originally published on Sept 01, 2016. It is being re-published today in his memory.)

The Supreme Court of India, in a landmark judgment , declared  “…A blinkered vision of development, complete apathy towards those who are highly adversely affected by the development process and a cynical unconcern for the enforcement of the laws lead to a situation where the rights and benefits promised and guaranteed under the constitution hardly ever reach the most marginalized citizens.” “…to millions of Indians, development is a dreadful and hateful word that is aimed at denying them even the source of their sustenance…  on the path of ‘maldevelopment’ almost every step that we take seems to give rise to insurgency and political extremism”
[SC Special Leave Petition (C) NO.6933 OF 2007, sections 9,7]
 
Tragically the Cabinet Committee for Security (CCS) has given its nod to recruit 12 tribal battalions for so called ‘Maoist-hit states’ as reported by the media on July 25, 2016

It must be made loud and clear the government’s decision to set up
 
‘Anti-Maoist Tribal Battalions’ all over the country
‘Anti-Maoist Paharia Battalions’  in Jharkhand
‘Anti-Maoist Bastar Battalions’ in Chattisgarh
 
is unjust and unwarranted.
 
The Government is creating a ‘police state’ rather than meeting people’s needs: Instead of doing some re-thinking about  of its developmental model and work towards bringing greater equity among its citizens, it is determined to add more guns against the poorest of the poor.

This is in addition to the already deployed 5,00,000 police and para-military forces in the 88 ‘naxal affected’ districts with the financial investment of Rs.30 crores per district per year under the ‘Integrated Action Plan’ for infrastructure development. Now this addition of 12 battalions is to be composed of mostly (75%) ‘local youths’. This raises the following questions:

• Question No 1: Who are the “local youths” to be recruited for the Reserve Battalions?

Answer: the ‘local youths’ are Adivasi youths

• Question No 2: who are the Maoists they should fight under the label of ‘Left Wing Extremism’?

Answer: they are also Adivasis labelled as ‘maoists’

• Question No 3: why should Adivasis be made to fight/kill Adivasis?

Answer: so Adivasi communities can be weakened and their unity can be replaced by distrust.
 
This is a plot to divide Adivasi Community and force Adivasis to fight/kill fellow Adivasis
 
Traditionally, the Adivasi Community, as we well know, is characterised by a sense of equality, mutual cooperation, communitarianness, consensus decision making, and closeness to nature. The so-called ‘modern’ society, on the other hand, stands for values which are just the opposite. Renowned scholars affirm that if nature and earth are going to be saved (from the rapacious greed of the developmental model that destroys land, water and natural resources) it will be only by the indigenous Adivasi peoples.
 
Currently,  the dominant capitalist society, supported by mighty state power, is waging a war against the  economically weakened Adivasi community.  Once it is weakened, its social and cultural values will disappear automatically. This process of weakening their economic base is being furthered by foisting one Adivasi against another.   
 
The Government is spreading a false picture: The Indian Government is spreading a serious misconception that Adivasis have come under the sway of Maoists, that they shelter and feed Maoists, they have become by and large supporters of Maoists and many of them have become Maoists themselves.  This is far from the truth. The reality is that Most Maoists are Adivasis but most Adivasis are not Maoists.
 
True, some of them have joined the militant forces mostly because of their rights over jal, jangal, jamin are being snatched away by the government in collusion with big business with hardly any rehabilitation or any alternate means of livelihood. But that does not entitle a government to blame the whole Adivasi community as being extremist.
 
Wherein lies the solution?  Certainly not through amassing more and more troops, supported by helicopters. Central Indian states have already become ‘police states’ with more than half a million para-military and police personnel stationed there.  Practically every village has a police post and people cannot even move around on a day to day basis, without being stopped, questioned, searched because all the people have become ‘suspects’.  This cannot go on indefinitely.
 
If the government wants to end its self-created extremism, the only way is to honestly acknowledge the traditional rights that Adivasi Communities have enjoyed over their natural resources. There are clear constitutional provisions, parliament enactments, Supreme Court verdicts meant to protect their rights.
 
To spell out just the most significant of these:

• Abide by the Vth Schedule of the Constitution which empowers the Tribes Advisory Council  (TAC) to approve or disapprove any project meant for the tribal people. It directs the Governors of the ‘Scheduled Areas’ states to seek the advice of the TAC and instruct the government of the respective states to act as per the advice of TAC. Unfortunately no governor has ever  acted as per the provisions of the Vth Schedule. It is time they do so.
• Implement the Scheduled Tribes/Scheduled Caste [ST/SC] (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 by which any non-tribal person/officer infringes on the economic, social rights of tribals must be punished. With recent amendments, late this law has been more stringent. It only needs rigorous implementation.
• Empower the Gram Sabhas through the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 2006 which authorizes  Gram Sabhas as the custodians of their tradition, culture and as consultants when displacement , rehabilitation  measures are to be worked out and whose consent is necessary when their land and natural resources are to be alienated from them for specific projects. Tragically these legal provisions are neatly ignored by the governments, state and central.
• The Supreme Court’s Samata Judgment 2007 should be carried out in letter and spirit because it clearly mandates that coal mining in Scheduled Areas cannot be undertaken by any private company  nor even by the government, but it can only be handled by tribal cooperatives and it is the government’s responsibility to functionalize this process. Sadly nobody even thinks of this significant judgment of the SC, let alone apply its fundamentals.
• The Forest Rights Act 2006 is an important legislation passed by the Indian parliament in the history of tribal empowerment especially relating to tenure security on forests and forest land. It is a legislation created with the intent to recognize, vest and record forest rights of the forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests  for generations and whose rights could not be recorded, due to which they underwent a serious historical injustice.  But sadly the injustice continues to be done. At an all India level, only about half of applications under the Act have been granted rights. Even those who get their patta, receive only a small portion of what they have actually claimed.  To make matters worse, a recent amendment to the Act does away with the power of Gram Sabhas insofar as their consent is not required to give forest land to companies.  Through an executive decision this power has now been given to the District Collector. So where will poor forest-dwelling Adivasis go?
• ‘Owner of the land is also the owner of sub-soil minerals’ The 2013 SC judgment makes it clear that the State/government is not the owner of sub-soil minerals. If the government wants that particular mineral, it must buy it from the land owner. That means that a Gram Sabha can say yes or no to selling its minerals. It also means that it is the Gram Sabhas have the power to excavate and market the minerals to companies whether public or private. This way rural communities can acquire legitimate wealth and become economically independent and well to do. This will lead them to social and political development and enable them to assume their due place within society.                                                                                       Very understandably, the government, the industrial and business class has chosen to neatly ignore this order of the judiciary. For obvious reasons. Gram Sabhas have to take the initiative and assert their natural right over natural resources.

 
Given the above considerations. . .
 
The Government’s decision to create Tribal Battalions is unjust and unwarranted. They are meant to weaken tribal communities by making Adivasis fight/kill one another. The ultimate aim is to make them leave their land with all its mineral resources so that this rich resource can be handed over to corporate houses.  This trickery of the government must be resisted at all costs.
 

The post Who is responsible for Extremism or Naxalism? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Journalists continue to face violence and risk of death in India where media professionals are regularly censored through violence. A Doordarshan cameraman and two policemen were killed in an alleged Maoist ambush in Dantewada, Chattisgarh on Tuesday. A Ranchi based Hindi journalist was beaten to death in Jharkhand on the same day.
 
Video journalist Achyutanand Sahu,34, was part of a three-member team of Doordarshan travelling for election-related coverage. He hailed from Odisha. They were caught in the cross-fire between security personnel and suspected Maoists. Two police officers, Sub-Inspector Rudra Pratap and Assistant Constable Mangalu, were also killed. Two police personnel were injured, while the other journalists with Sahu are safe, PTI reported.
 
Deputy Inspector General of Police P. Sundarraj said that the police personnel and the media crew were moving from Aranpur police station to Nilaway village in vehicles when they were attacked.
 
The injured police personnel are Vishnu Netam and Rakesh Kaushal.
 
Mormukut Sharma, the assistant cameraperson who survived the attack, had recorded a message for his mother when he was caught in the crossfire.

 
The Editors Guild of India condemned the attack and demanded security for media professionals covering elections in the state.

 
On Saturday, the Maoists had allegedly fired on a contingent of Central Reserve Police Force in Bijapur district, killing four troopers on a day when Chief Minister Raman Singh kicked off the ruling BJP’s election campaign for Assembly elections.
 
In a statement, the Chhattisgarh police said the incident was not related to elections and the Maoists ambushed a squad of local police which was carrying out patrol on motor-cycles from Sameli CRPF camp (about 6-7 km away). “The attack was on the security forces and it was unfortunate that the cameraman of DD News was caught in the crossfire. The media persons were not the target and this has nothing to do with elections,” DIG Sundarraj P. told The Hindu.
 
He said that the attack was aimed at discouraging men and contractors working on a road construction project. “I would like to clarify once again that these two incidents – one which took place this morning and another which took place three days back – do not have any direct or indirect connection with the ensuing elections in the State.”

D.M.Awasthi, Special Director General, Chhattisgarh police, added that road construction work was on at several places across the Naxal-affected areas over the last three years.
 
Jharkhand journalist beaten to death
A journalist of a Ranchi-based Hindi daily who had been facing threats was beaten to death in Jharkhand’s Chatra district. The police said that Chandan Tiwary, who worked for the Aaj, was abducted on Monday night from Pathhalgada, police said. He was found in the Balthar forest on Tuesday in a badly wounded condition. He succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
 
“Our correspondent has been brutally killed,” the newspaper’s Resident Editor Amit Kumar Agarwal told IANS.
 
“Tiwary had filed a complaint in April regarding threats to his life. But he was not provided with any security,” Agarwal said.
  
“Our reporters have handed over a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Chatra seeking a CBI probe. It is the duty of the government to provide security to journalists. We also demand compensation to the family,” Agarwal added.
 
“Police have registered an FIR on the basis of a complaint lodged by the victim’s father against Prashant, the leader of Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a Maoist splinter group, besides another person with whom the journalist is alleged to have been involved in a fight. Investigations have revealed that Tiwari had filed at least two police complaints in the last six-and-a-half-months,” a report by The Indian Express said.
 
“The first one was filed more than six months ago against a mukhiya and another person, alleging threat over a report. About two months ago, he had filed another application alleging that TPC operatives were threatening him, apparently for taking a stand against them. The victim’s father… has also named a person with whom Tiwari apparently got into an altercation last night,” said DIG (Hazaribagh) Pankaj Kamboj.
  
In 2016, another journalist of a Hindi daily was shot dead in Chatra.
 
Reporter attacked with pellet guns in Kashmir
Aijaz Dar, a resident of Shopian, who working with Zee News, was injured in a cordon and search operation (CASO) in Meemandar a village South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
 
CASO was launched soon after the militants attacked the patrolling party in the area. Clashes erupted in the area soon after forces launched CASO.
 
Speaking to NewsClick Aijaz said, “Me and my friend, who is also a journalist, went to cover the incident. When we reached the spot, a cop at a distance pointed the pellet gun towards us. We raised our hands and shouted ‘we are from the press’ but they targeted us with pellets.”
 
Aijaz was shifted to the hospital for the treatment where the doctor found four pellets in his head and a few in his shoulder.
 
For the past two years, India has ranked among the countries with the highest number of journalist deaths. In 2016, the International Federation of Journalists listed India as the eighth most dangerous country for journalists.

The post DD Cameraman killed in poll-bound Chattisgarh, another beaten to death in Jharkhand appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In this interview with Sanjay Kak, Souradeep Roy discusses the making of Kak’s documentary Red Ant Dream. The 2013 documentary was shot in Niyamgiri (in Odisha), Bastar (in Chattisgarh), and Punjab. This interview follows our article on Naxalite poetry by Moinak Biswas, as part of a series that looks at the Naxalbari uprising, which took place fifty years ago. Apart from discussing specific details of the film, such as his collaboration with Tarun Bhartiya and Ranjan Palit, Kak also says what he thinks of the legacy of the Naxalbari uprising.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

The post #50YearsOfNaxalbari: Sanjay Kak on the Making of His Documentary Red Ant Dream appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image credit: Countercurrents.org

Following is the translated transcript of her speech delivered on October 1 in Mumbai:
 
My warm regards to everyone gathered here. I am extremely happy to be present before you all for such an important event commemorating Justice Suresh's 25 years in activism. His contribution is commendable, both as a judge and as an activist. Justice Suresh had recently travelled to Chhattisgarh. I was informed by one of the fellow activists about his visit. I did not know about Justice Suresh then.

Even when I was told he is a senior person, I thought of him as one of the several other activists and human rights lawyers who come from cities to support our cause. But when I saw him in Bastar, I was completely astounded that a man at such a ripe age wants to still travel to remote corners of the country to defend their rights. Although, he had managed to reach Bastar, I was not sure if he could take the travel ahead to those inaccessible villages in the region. When I suggested he should take it easy and not venture to far off villages, he promptly replied, "I have travelled all the way to examine the condition of Adivasi communities in this region, I will travel ahead." I, in fact, even tried to warn him of the possibility of long walks that he would have to undertake to reach some villages. He was very willing and asked me to not sweat over his travel. We went to one of the remotest villages which involved both travelling in a vehicle on the rickety road and then covering a long stretch on foot. But, nowhere did he appear tired. He was zealous and wanted to meet as many villagers as he could. When people got to know a retired judge had travelled from Mumbai to hear them out, they got hopeful. Villagers gathered in large numbers to talk to him and put forth their grievances. Justice Suresh patiently listened to each and every person gathered. He took note of every complaint made and patiently tried to address them one by one. His visit not only inspired people in general, but also helped some of them to take immediate steps.

Justice Suresh Hosbet. Image credit: The Indian Express

At the gathering, a pregnant Adivasi woman called Hurre had also come. She was heavily pregnant. Her husband Hunga was arrested a few days ago for his alleged involvement in a blast case. Hurre had pleaded for her husband's innocence before the police, but they did not relent. They took Hunga away, leaving Hurre distraught. The police had hit her on her stomach with the rifle butt when she tried to prevent Hunga's arrest. She had suffered a deep injury. Hurre knocked one very door in search of justice. When she reached the police station inquiring about her husband's arrest, the police claimed Hunga was taken to the court. When she reached the court, she was told her husband was locked up in the jail. So, she rushed to the jail. She aimlessly kept shuttling between the police station, court and jail for several days. Fed up, she contacted me and sought my help in finding her husband. Amidst this, she delivered a premature child. After the delivery, Hurre who was still frail and fatigued, insisted on meeting her husband. Hurre and I went to meet him at the Dantewada jail. After a lot of persuasion, we could finally meet Hunga in the jail. Hunga had not seen his newborn boy before. It was an emotional moment to see Hunga meet his son in the the jail. Hunga advised Hurre to not visit him in the jail and focus on making their thatched hut sturdy. He wanted the money they had painstakingly saved to be spent on the house as planned and not on travelling to visit him. Hurre returned to her village and a few days later she succumbed to the complications that developed due to the harassment by the police. After Hurre's death, our focus now is on her infant child.

Since Hunga is in jail and Hurre is no more, we had to find ways to keep their child alive and healthy. On Justice Suresh's suggestion, we decided to move to the High Court for arrangements to be made for the child's food. The court passed a favourable order and asked the collector to make necessary arrangements for the child. That one visit by Justice Suresh helped us find a way to help Hurre's family.

When I saw him there, helping our movement, I was reminded of my father. It is very courageous of someone his age to travel into the remote area and help people.

Seeing him, I was reminded of an incident from the time I was in the prison. My old father, who was shot in his leg, which rendered him handicapped would come to the court for every hearing, and stand at a corner. I would insist he didn't come to the court and keep standing like this. He would reply that he stood there since he cannot help me in any other way. He would say he had no money, no power to save me, but still the courage to stand by me. He once told me, "I want you to remember that your crippled father is standing here for you every day. I do not want you to lose hope. If I can stand under the scorching sun, you can't lose hope. You have to fight back." So when I saw Justice Suresh in my village, I was reminded of my father's efforts. There is a lot to learn from Justice Suresh and his undying spirit.

In Bastar, law has its own way of functioning. When a woman is raped anywhere in the country, the Supreme Court intervenes, asks for an immediate action, an immediate FIR and investigation. But this is not the case in Bastar. There is no law, no system, and no sensitivity in handling women in this region. Let the Supreme Court say anything, let the high court give any directions, the police here will do as they like. They do not care for law or for its people. If you take cases of sexual assault by the police in Bastar, you will find even after an FIR, the police do nothing. On the contrary, the victims live under constant terror here. And the police continue to unleash its terror on people here. If the state machinery continues to work like this and the government neglects lives here (Bastar), people will continue to die here. It appears that the system is built to harass people here and the police continue to operate with complete impunity.

Take the recent case of killing of two young school-going boys. One of them was sleeping in the house. When the armed force entered his house, he kept saying I am a school-going child. Look at my Aadhar card, look at my school I-card. I am not a Naxal. Even as he continued to beg, the policemen dragged him out of the house, thrashed him badly and took him far away from the house and gunned him down.
Even in case of such a brutal, cold blooded murder, there is no FIR against the police, no investigations. What law is this, which allows the state to kill without any accountability, with such impunity? If there is a justice system in place, if there are courts to deliver justice, then they should have to function too. Then why doesn't it work in Bastar? His family is running from pillar to post seeking justice.
 
Another villager called Karma was killed by the police and declared to be a Naxalite. His family produced his citizenry documents to establish he was a law-abiding citizen and had no link with the arms movement. If a person has lived all his life in the village, and has been publicly present, how can police then declare him a Naxalite and that too after his death? We ask when did he go underground, when did he pick up arms, when did he become a Naxalite, when did the government declare reward on his name? Even when they brutally murder our people, we still hold on to bleak hopes that someday, we will get justice. Instead, the same police officers unabashedly come and threaten us. They threaten women of dire consequences. They threaten to kill young boys of the family. What type of state is this which hates its own people?

Image credit: India.com

It has become so easy for Chhattisgarh government to declare anyone and everyone a Naxal. Those assigned with the task of upholding democratic principles in this country are busy killing it. Murderers are secure in this democracy, but the victims are not.

Women particularly are easy targets here. Young mothers in Bastar mostly step out to nearby areas to work as agricultural labourers. They time their work in such a way that they are able to take periodic breaks to breast feed their infants who are left back home. As these women take these breaks and head home, they invariably are apprehended by the police. The police interrogate them as if they were Naxals.

Even when these young mothers tell the police they are headed home to breastfeed their children, the police do not relent. To prove their innocence, the women are forced to bare their chests on gun point and squeeze out milk. Even after all the abuses she is made to wait, she cannot go and feed her hungry child. Can her frail body regenerate the milk once again in such a short time span? These daily abuses leave her humiliated and her child hungry. These abuses are not even accounted for. As if Adivasi lives are so dispensable that anyone can come and do whatever they like. There is no accountability of any kind.

We are not asking for some special protection for our people. We are only saying if there is an established legal system in this country, then the state should function within the limits. If the government wants our land and our wealth, doesn't it have the responsibility of protecting our interests too? Should development be an inevitable agenda, then the government should first have a system in place ensuring that every Adivasi life is protected and their interests secured. If government wants to procure our land, there is a law in place. Whether good or bad, the law exists and the government should at least try to stick to its own laws. How can this government kill Adivasis and speak of development? How can this be even termed as development? You cannot vacate villages, displace every one and claim that you worked towards development. If the government is really serious about development, it must focus on making lives of villagers better. There is no electricity, potable water, schools in most villages. Shouldn't the State focus on providing these things to the villagers instead of killing them?

The State is killing Adivasis in the name of development. Madkam Hidme of Gompad village is one of the recent victims of the State brutality. She was picked up from her house while she was sleeping, brutalised, gang-raped by policemen and then shot dead. We still decided to opt for a legal battle. On August 15, I along with her mother and sister went to her village and addressed the villagers and urged them to understand the values of democracy, their legal rights and the need to assert our constitutional rights. As planned, we looked for a place to hoist a flag in the village. We looked around entire village but could not find a single school or aanganwaadi there. We finally went to one open space and hoisted the flag there. This is state's development! They can send policemen to Adivasi houses, brand them as Naxals and brutalise them, but cannot set up a single school in the village.
 
When Adivasis speak of development, there is no one to hear their voice. If they approach a collector for setting up of a school, they are sent away. The collector doesn't even give Tribals an opportunity to make an appeal. They want forest-dwellers to remain in the forest forever. They are not interested in our development. But when they want our lands and forests, they unleash terror on us and kill us.

After the gang-rape incident of Delhi, entire nation joined hands seeking justice for her. I am not saying that the incident was not brutal and we should not have come together for her, but such incidents happen every day in Bastar. Adivasi girls are assaulted every day in Bastar. But there is no one to fight with us. They rape us and then brand us as Naxals. But no one comes ahead in support of us and speaks against the State atrocities. What happened in JNU with Kanhaiya and Umar Khalid was terrible. But when it happened to those two young boys of Bastar, there was no uproar. The boys were simply killed and not one protested was organised anywhere outside Chhattisgarh. They were school-going kids. Imagine if this were to happen to some students in your college, how the entire nation would have joined hands against the state and demanded immediate justice. Why doesn't the youth of this country assert itself when children are killed in Bastar? Will the government not kneel, if a concerted effort is made? Our children don't deserve justice?

Just when I was leaving for Bombay, five Adivasi youth (from the same village where two school kids were killed) came to me seeking help. They are afraid, the police will kill them. We have moved a petition before the High Court. I asked them why are they so afraid. They said, the thanedaar has threatened them that on the first opportunity, he will get rid of them. Of them, three men have already been to jail. Other two have even surrendered under police pressure. Still they are not spared. The police now want to have them killed. Engulfed in fear, those men spend every night in the forest. Since police mostly strike at night, these men stay away during the night time. They go deep in the forest, wait for rains to subside, find some dry space and sleep. Such is the terror of police here. One can't sleep in their house, can't visit the market, and can't lead a normal fearless life.
 
Worst affected are young girls of 12-13 years of age. They are forced to tie mangalsutra around their necks. Hoping to be let off by the police, almost all girls are forced to move around with those black beads around their necks. Even then girls are not spared. The police continue to attack them. They are publicly humiliated, spoken to inappropriately in highly sexual tone, and many are even sexually assaulted.

This state claims to be protecting its Adivasi population. Is this the way to protect its people? In the name of Naxalism, they are openly brutalising us and will eventually wipe out our existence.
 
There is a dire need to have more and more participation of civil society from rest of the country. While people are actively working in other parts, it is essential that they pay more attention to what is happening in Bastar. Media has an important role to play here. You have seen how attempts were made to completely crush the media here. But that should not discourage us. If some journalist travels from Delhi or Bombay or Kolkata, our stories will defintely travel outside.

Representational picture. Image credit: NDTV

 An entire drama has been staged in the name of surrender. Young boys and girls are randomly picked up from villages and are shown as surrendered Naxals. These youths are given only two ultimatums, either to die or sign those papers. What do these terrorised youths know? They think signing those papers is a wise decision to make. Only to realise later that those papers declare them as surrendered Naxals.

As news spreads, the Maoists punish them. If the police let them go, the Maoists kill them. Adivasis are stuck between the police and Maoists. Either ways they get killed.
 
Another case of a boy named Arjun recently came to light. He was sent to jail in 2015. He was released on bail after spending few days in jail. On every court hearing, he would diligently be present before the court. Not once did he miss the court hearing. Suddenly one day, the police went to his house and arrested him. They declared a Naxal who carried three lakh rupees reward on his head has been arrested.

This boy Arjun, who was arrested in another petty case and was released on bail, was not even in hiding. If the police wanted, they could have arrested him much earlier. He was lawfully released on bail by the court. There was no mention of the reward amount until he was re-arrested. His sister, who tried to speak up against the police, is now taken into the custody. It has been over 15 days since her illegal arrest.
 
This is the condition of Bastar, of Chhattisgarh. No voice of dissent can be raised; no Adivasi can raise her voice for justice. This State is lawless. No law, no rule applies here. The law that applies and governs the middle class, the ruling class and the upper caste in the rest of the country, does not protect the Adivasis of Chhattisgarh.
 
I have personally suffered a lot in past few years. It is not possible to fight the might of this State. But I will continue. This is no more my individual fight. It is the fight of every Adivasi here. We are threatened every day, our voices crushed; but we will continue to fight.
 
The speech was transcribed by Sukanya Shantha.
 
(This article was first published on Round Table India.)

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Due process of law, for registration of FIRs for the offences, medical examinations, inquests and post mortems have not been followed by the authorities: fact finding report

Release of Fact Finding Report by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) and Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) entitled, “State of Siege: Report on Encounters and Cases of Sexual Violence in Bijapur and Sukma Districts of Chhattisgarh”

Between the January 16 to 22, 2016, members of Coordination of Democratic Rights Organization (CDRO) and Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) conducted a fact finding in villages of Bijapur and Sukma districts of Chhattisgarh.
 
The team investigated the deaths of four unarmed villagers of Peddajojer (Bijapur) on January 15, 2016 by security forces and conducted enquiries into the large scale violence, particularly sexual violence, that the security forces unleased in Nendra (Bijapur) and Kunna (Sukma) villages, between January 11—14, 2016.
 
Besides meeting officials, the team met villagers and relatives of those killed in the fake encounter at Peddajojer village and the families affected by the brutality committed by men in uniform including acts of loot, plunder, rape, sexual assault and physical violence in Kunna, Chotegadam and Nendra villages. The team also visited Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur and met two injured women who were lodged there. The report has been released by Asish Gupta (Coordinator, CDRO) and Shivani (Coordinator, WSS).
 
Following are the findings of the team:
 
Peddajojer village
1. On the morning of January 15, 2016, six villagers of Peddajojer village were on their way to the nearby market for buying daily provisions. These included three men and three little girls (See pp 8-9 and Annexure 1 of the report).
 
2. On the way to the market they were ambushed by security forces lying in wait at a dense forest track en-route to the market. Of the six people, two girls managed to escape while the three men and one girl were killed.
 
3. The villagers upon hearing gunshots and being informed of the incident by the girls who had escaped, rushed to the site only to find that the bodies were missing.
 
4. The security forces took the bodies without informing the family members of the deceased.  They did not conduct any inquest at the site of the encounter. The security forces took the bodies to Bijapur General Hospital. In violation of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) guidelines, the post mortems were done at the hospital without proper identification of the bodies. No video recording of the post mortem was conducted.
 
5. Upon learning where the bodies were kept, the villagers assembled outside the hospital and demanded that the bodies be handed back to them. The police initially refused and even asked Rs. 4000 per body as transport charges. Only after the villagers protested, were the bodies returned on January 17, 2016.
 
6. The four killed were ordinary villagers of Peddajojer engaged in agricultural work and not Maoists as claimed by the security forces. The little girl killed was only 13 years old. The villagers also told us of how harassment by the security forces has become the norm in the village.
 
Kunna village
1. Between January 11 to 14, security force occupied Kunna and Chotegadam villages of Sukma district.  A combing operation by the DRG, CRPF, COBRA (around 500 to 600 troops) was being conducted in the area.
 
2. The forces initially occupied a school but later occupied homes of people.
 
3. During the first two days the forces sexually assaulted many women. At least two women were raped by the forces. Women were stripped, beaten and verbally assaulted. Young girls were also stripped by the forces.
 
4. On January 12  several men and women from Kunna were taken into custody (see annexure 2 for details). On the way to one police camp, five men and five women were continuously beaten and the 5 women were also stripped and sexually assaulted. Apart from these, three boys were kept in illegal custody and forced to sign on a blank pieces of paper.
 
5. Twenty-one-year-old Lalu Sodi was severely beaten by the security forces on January 12, 2016. He died two days after, and the villages did not report the death as they feared further intimidation from the security forces.
 
6. Livestock was consumed by the forces, houses were broken into and implements were stolen by the men in uniform (See Annexure 2).
 
7. The team found the people of Kunna in a state of shock and their everyday life had become difficult because of the violence by the forces.
 
8. Finally, an FIR was filed on January 27, 2016 after a harrowing process by activists and the women of Kunna village (See page 15 for details)
 
9. Chotegadam village witnessed a similar pattern of plunder and violence (See pp 11-12 and Annexure 2 for further details)

 
Nendra Village
1. Between January 11-14, 2016, security forces occupied Nendra village(Bijapur). Four to five batches of police and security forces (CRPF, DRG, Koya) conducted search and combing operations while being stationed there.
 
2. The men of the village fled immediately as staying back would have meant either getting beaten up or being implicated in false cases. The security forces occupied houses of villagers.
 
3. Over thirteen instances of gang rape were reported by the women. Many other women were disrobed, molested, subjected to verbal abuse. Women’s faces were covered with a towel or even a mosquito net when rapes took place.
 
4. The forces not only threatened to burn down the houses with children inside but also threatened the women with the kind of violence they experienced during the time of Salwa Judum.
 
5. The security forces also looted rations, consumed poultry causing huge economic loss to the already impoverished villagers. (See annexure 3 for more details)
 
6. When women asked the security forces for money for the rations they had consumed the women were beaten up with lathi and rifles.  Older people were also beaten (See Annexure 3 for details)
 
7. On January 18, 2016, members from the fact finding team along with 12 women of Nendra went to the Collectorate to bring to his attention the incidents in Nendra. However, the women had to wait till the January 21, 2016 to get their FIR registered, that too after a prolonged struggle with the administration. (see page 16 of the report for details) 
 
State Response
A significant part of the team’s energies went into meeting officials in a bid to register FIRs against the accused. In all three cases the response of the administration was one of insensitivity and hostility. In the case of the fake encounter at Peddajejor, the official response was of “we will look into the matter”. The efforts involved in filing the FIR in the Kunna case took almost 13 days of constant pressure by the survivors and team members. In the Nendra incident, even when the Collector ordered the recording of statements, the police refused. Only after the fact-finding team was able to meet members of the NCW (National Commission of Women) who were collecting information regarding the infamous Peddagellur incident of October 2015, that the FIR was finally lodged on January 21, 2016.
  
These incidents, along with the climate of fear that has been created for ordinary villagers, activists, lawyers and journalists, needs to be seen in the light of Mission 16, which forms the governments objective in eliminating Maoists and handing over these lands to mining companies.
 
A copy of the report can be accessed here: 

A copy of the Press Statement in Hindi can be accessed here:

 See also
1.Brute Violence by Men in Uniform: Chhatisgarh
2. Jangal Do Ya Phaansi: Chhatisgarh in the Midst of a Do or Die Battle
3. न नक्सल, न पुलिस, हम जनता के साथ हैं: सोनी सोरी
4. SOS from Adivasis of Chhattisgarh: Delhi and India need to step in to prevent Atrocities

The post Of Encounter Killings and Sexual Violence in Chhatisgarh: A Fact-finding appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
UPDATE:

While granting bail, the Supreme Court has commented that the Maharashtra police, the prosecution were extremely unfair

In granting bail, the Supreme Court has commented that the contentions of the Maharashtra government and its police ‘are extremely unfair.’ Further, ‘since the petitioner has never been accused of having misused the concession of bail’, the SC further said that ‘Since all the material witnesses have been examined and cross-examined, the release of the petitioner on bail ought not to have been opposed, especially keeping in mind the medical condition of the petitioner.’  The entire order of the Supreme Court of India granting bail to professor GN Saibaba can be read below.
 
The operative part states that:
‘Having given our thoughtful consideration to the submissions advanced at the hands of the learned counsel for the rival parties, specially the undisputed position that the petitioner has never been accused of having misused the concession of bail, we are of the view, that the submission made by the learned counsel for the respondent is extremely unfair. Since all the material witnesses have been examined and cross-examined, the release of the petitioner on bail ought not to have been opposed, especially keeping in mind the medical condition of the petitioner.
In view of the above, we hereby direct the release of the petitioner on bail forthwith. Bail to the satisfaction of the trial Court.
 
Needless to mention, that the petitioner shall enter appearance before the trial Court, as and when the petitioner is directed to appear before the trial Court, failing which, it shall be open to the trial Court to cancel the concession of bail granted to him.’
 
 
Earlier Story:

The Supreme Court of India has today, Monday, April 4, 2016, granted bail to former Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba, who was arrested for alleged links with the Maoists.  Close to 23 months after his arrest in May 2015 he was granted bail, Between July and December 2015 he had been granted interim bail by a division bench of the Bombay High Court that was subsequently cancelled by a Nagpur Bench of the same court.

Professor GN Saibaba, who was arrested in May 2014 for alleged links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) outfit,  He has been in jail since a single-judge bench of the Bombay High Court in Nagpur canceled his bail in December last year. He was initially granted bail in July 2015. The wheelchair-bound professor is more than 90% disabled. He has been paralysed from waist-downwards since contracting polio in childhood.

Saibaba had told sections of the media that his muscles had been damaged while he was being taken to Nagpur from Delhi by the Maharashtra police. While in jail, the inadequate toilet and sleeping facilities caused damage to his left arm ligaments, nerves and his spinal cord. Since obtaining bail in July, the English professor has been undergoing treatment every week at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in New Delhi. He had an angioplasty in August.
 
Sabrangindia has been consistently tracking the story. Flawed Verdict: The Bombay High Court judgement refusing bail to GN Saibaba

A copy of his petition before the Supreme Court of India can be read here.

Supreme Court Order on GN Saibaba Case (04.04.2016)

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In the course of the hearing of the matter in the High Court, the Spinal Injuries Centre had prescribed that the petitioner (G.N. Saibaba) can be treated on an OPD basis. This was the sole factor relied upon by the Nagpur Bench of the High Court in denying him bail and cancelling his interim bail. As stated in the petition, in fact Saibaba suffers from several complications including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and recurrent syncope requiring continuous follow-up and medical interventions.
 
In the 14 months that professor Saibaba remained in judicial custody, the petition states, his health has substantially deteriorated since the prison authorities could not provide him with bedding appropriate to his medical needs. These included low floor transportation to and from hospitals for his treatment; attendants who were trained or equipped to attend to him given his many complications including brittle bones; access to comprehensive, highly specialised, medical care to deal with his many complications and ailments.
 
He was granted medical bail by a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court on account of his deteriorating health while in judicial custody. (This was especially noted by the Division Bench in its order of June 17, 2015, relying on the report of the Chief Medical Officer, Nagpur Central Prison, dated June 16, 2015).
 
Following the December 23, 2015 order of the Nagpur Bench of the same High Court that had earlier granted him interim bail, professor Saibaba returned to judicial custody. There are grave chances that his health would have suffered since.
 
The SLP also states that there is absolutely no likelihood of the petitioner fleeing justice since he has strong roots in society – a mother, wife and child, and a permanent job as assistant professor of English literature at Ram Lal Anand college, University of Delhi
 
 

The post Cry Freedom: GN Saibaba’s petition before the Supreme Court of India appeared first on SabrangIndia.