http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/old-old-war/2/
Mr. Vij tells us that a thousand jawans
have died since Chhattisgarh was formed, and that many more must be prepared to
die before victory shall surely be won. This sounds exactly like the Maoists
telling their cadre to be prepared for sacrifice. Both sides describe their
warriors as martyrs. The Maoists have more claim to this term since their
cadres are fighting only for a cause and not for pay. Few jawans would be
willing to fight if they did not need the job. This is not, of course, to
minimize the tragedy of the jawan’s deaths, but simply to point out that the
media does itself and its audience no favours when it unthinkingly adopts the
government’s terminology. Calling the jawans martyrs and the Maoists terrorists
simply advances the cause of war from the perspective of the state, rather than
helping the cause of peace, which requires that the full cost of this war be
brought before the readers. If the jawans come from dirt-poor families, so too
do the Maoists they are killing and so too do the villagers, who never signed
up for any war at all.
It is easy to understand RK Vij’s
article (December 6) as a defensive
attempt to keep high the morale of the CRPF. After all, while Maoist cadre are
surrendering in larger numbers, there are also high attrition rates among the
CRPF. In 2013 India Today
reported that 13,658 CRPF personnel left their jobs between 2009 and 2012 tired
of their jungle postings, the malaria and the working conditions among other
things. While this may not be a large percentage of the force as a whole, and
there are plenty more waiting to be recruited in these jobless times, it does
indicate a weariness with this endless pointless war. Spectacles of the corpses
of jawans being loaded onto garbage trucks or blood spattered boots and
uniforms lying in rubbish dumps can hardly induce much enthusiasm. If anyone is
violating the ‘human rights’ of the jawans, it is the government.
This war is destroying an entire
society. While a thousand jawans is a thousand too many, there have been even
more casualties on the civilian side. During the heyday of the Judum between
2005-7, at least a 1000 ordinary villagers were killed by the security forces,
the SPOs and Salwa Judum leaders, and countless more have been killed since. Mr.
Vij notes that in 2005 the Maoists had only one military company; by 2010 they
had ten. Where did all the recruits for these companies come from, if not from
people whose homes had been burnt, and relatives killed or raped? This is a
fact that both the Intelligence Bureau and the Maoists themselves have
acknowledged in the past. And yet Mr. Vij coyly refers to the Judum as a revolt
by the population of West Bastar against the Maoists.
The Chhattisgarh government had a
golden opportunity to address the conflict through non-military means by simply
following the Supreme Court’s orders on disbanding the SPOs, prosecuting those
responsible for heinous crimes and giving compensation to all those affected by
Salwa Judum. But they chose not to do any of this. Instead they regularized the
same criminal SPOs, brought in more CRPF camps, and continued to beat up,
torture and arrest villagers. They have converted the whole area into a
garrison state. The outgoing CRPF Director General, Dilip Trivedi, was
absolutely right when he said that Naxal affected states have a vested interest
in letting the war continue because of the massive funds they get from the
Centre.
Each side claims that history is on
their side, and while the government may have more reason to back its claim,
the Maoists can also point to the fact that guerilla struggles can last for a
long time as in Colombia or Kashmir. While the government has more or less
succeeded in hemming the Maoists into Chhattisgarh, a struggle whose basic
causes are not addressed is never finished. If the Modi government succeeds in
its decimation of environmental regulation and its mining cum industrialization
policy, Bastar as we know it, will be finished. But there will also be a mass
of displaced villagers angry at the acquisition of their land. And who knows
where their anger will turn?
The government is unwilling to talk
peace, because they feel they are winning overall. In the past, the police have
refused talks on the grounds that it would give the Maoists time to regroup.
The Maoists may be more ready for talks now, but to lay down their weapons
unconditionally will be seen as unthinkable surrender. A sensible government
would chose this moment to offer a ceasefire, since it is clearly the stronger
partner. While the police may claim the Maoists’ ultimate aim is to take over Delhi,
they know and the Maoists know this will never happen. The real issues are
adivasi rights, and they both know it. And it is these which must form the
basis of dialogue.
In the absence of talks, this senseless
civil war will continue indefinitely. After all, it will soon be fifty years
since the spring thunder of Naxalbari. As Bob Dylan sang: How many deaths will
it take till (we) know that too many people have died?
