Any keen
observer of Chhattisgarh could have foreseen Saturday’s deadly Maoist attack at
Jeeram ghat in Bastar, though not perhaps its magnitude. Mahendra Karma’s death was long expected,
though politicians like him who flirt with the dark side usually have enough
security to keep themselves safe. With a
string of killings of Maoist leaders under their belt, the security
establishment thought the Maoists could be written off. However, like other
insurgents elsewhere have always done, the Maoists scaled back only to strike
hard.
Calls for more concerted
military action ignore what has actually been happening. In fact, in recent
months, the security forces have ratcheted up operations, densely carpeting
Maoist strongholds with CRPF camps. In the 46 km stretch between Dornapal and
Chintalnar, there are now 7 camps, with the latest two, Burkapal and Minpa,
having come up in the last fortnight.
Overnight, large stretches of forest were cleared in Burkapal, for a helipad
on one side and a CRPF camp on the other, and the question of forest clearances
for this, or any other security installation, is never even seen as an issue.
The biodiverse forests of Bastar – which are national treasures - have been one
of the biggest casualties of this war, which rages across trees, roads, transformers,
schools and the bodies of men, women and even little children.
Skeptical villagers
argue that rather than reducing hostilities, the presence of the camps will mean
constant skirmishes between the forces and the Maoists, following which the
forces will take it out on them. They report that security forces steal
chickens from their homes when they are out in the fields; and indeed, with
camps close by, even going out to defecate, cultivate or collect fuelwood
becomes a hazard, especially for women. In Chintagufa, where several buses are
parked to ferry security personnel back and forth, the forces have taken over
the primary health care centre and the school. The Supreme Court’s orders on
keeping off schools mean nothing to them.
Simplistic
morality plays may be good for the TRPs, but will not address the real issues.
The Maois ambush came barely a week after an equally terrible attack by the
security forces, again during area domination, on the villagers of Edesmetta in
Bijapur who were celebrating Beeja Pandum, the seed sowing festival. Eight villagers,
including four children, were killed, while severely injured villagers were
given medical aid only a day later after local media coverage. The Beeja Pandum is one of the most important
festivals of the adivasi calendar. The
only glimpse that non-adivasis get is when they are stopped at roadside blocks placed
by women and children, and they assume it is just for some easy money. But the ritual significance is that anyone
crossing the village during beeja pandum must be fined for taking the seed away
with them. The equivalent of what
happened would be the police opening fire on a garba dance during Navratri in
Ahmedabad, saying the presence of so many people at one place was suspicious.
Yet, there has been little national outrage around Edesmetta. For once, the government has promised
compensation, but as one CRPF jawan said about the 2010 killing of 76 CRPF
personnel, “Nothing can recompense the loss of a loved one.” Don’t adivasis
have loved ones too? Unlike the CRPF, they did not even sign up to fight. If what
happened in Edesmetta can be dismissed as “collateral damage,” then why not
apply the same logic to Saturday’s ambush, where Mahendra Karma was the main
target? This is, after all, a war. But once we dismiss any citizen, whether a
Congress Pradesh president or a Gond child, as expendable, we are on a slippery
path. In particular, a democracy that holds this stand loses its raison d’etre.
As in Tadmetla
March 2011, where security forces burnt 300 homes, raped and killed; Sarkeguda
June 2012, where they shot dead 17 villagers
during their Bijja pandum last year; and Edesmetta 2013, the Chhattisgarh government has ordered a
judicial enquiry into the Jeeram ambush. But since the Congress knows well what
this means, they have preferred to enlist the NIA. Given a list of 537 killings
by salwa judum and security forces, the state government has ordered
magisterial enquiries into 8 cases since 2008, of which 7 are still
pending!
The Chhattisgarh
police claim they need SPOs for intelligence gathering, refusing to disband
them as the Supreme Court ordered. But what kind of intelligence are they
getting if they claim Edesmetta was a Maoist gathering, and could not predict
the Jeeram ambush? Instead, the fortification of SPO’s with better guns and
more money as the renamed ‘Armed Auxiliary Forces’ only increases alienation.
Even if they
support massive human rights violations, politicians are not combatants. The
same is true for unarmed villagers who may support the Maoists
ideologically. An attack on party
leaders engaged in electoral rallies must be strongly condemned, and the
Maoist’s expanding hit list is truly reprehensible. However, it is only
partially true to say that what happened is an attack on democracy. In a democracy,
someone like Mahendra Karma would have been jailed long ago. Even when
confronted with evidence of his personal involvement in the Salwa Judum
atrocities, quite apart from the CBI FIR against him for his role in a major
tree felling scam, the Congress chose to retain Karma within the party. And despite declaring Naxalism the gravest
security threat facing the country, never once so far has the PM felt the need
to visit the area himself to find out why people support them, or console grieving
adivasis.
Under the
Constitution, Chief Minister Raman Singh, and the Union Home Ministry who are as
responsible for Salwa Judum as Mahendra Karma, should also be held accountable.
At least 644 villages were affected, over a thousand people killed, hundreds
raped, and some 150,000 displaced. Small children were cruelly bashed to death
or thrown into ponds, and old people who could not run away were burnt alive. Yet
there has been no prosecution or compensation, despite the Supreme Court’s
repeated orders. Indeed, there is a danger that, with Karma gone, the more
uncomfortable questions regarding official culpability for Salwa Judum will be
closed. The Constitution and Democracy are not terms of expediency, as the
Congress and BJP seem to think – they embody difficult moral principles which
must guide our collective behavior.
To respond with
even more force now would be a grave mistake, for insurgencies thrive on
government excesses. The combing operations underway must take great care to
see that ordinary villagers are not harassed. It is unlikely that anyone will countenance
calls for peace talks now, as the war has become a prestige issue on both
sides. But eventually, there is no alternative to negotiations. If a country
like the US with its military might could get bogged down in Vietnam and
Afghanistan, what makes us think we can succeed militarily? A far better model
would be the Latin American countries, like Peru and Guatemala, with similar
histories of guerilla war and exploitation of indigenous people which resolved
their conflicts through Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. If FARC and the
Colombian government can come to an agreement on land reforms after thirty
years, what prevents a democracy like India?
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