The rampant and indiscriminate killings of 29 Adivasis including men , women and children in a combined operation in the name of counter insurgency against Maoists in India by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Chhatishgarh Police at Sarkeguda village in Bijapur district of Chhatishgarh state of India reminds at least two quotable quotes--------"thousands of criminals may be let off but not even a single innocent should be killed (in the context of judgements delivered by our judicial system in the country)" and another by E N RAM MOHAN, former Border Security Force (BSF) chief with years of counter-insurgency experience, who had conducted enquiry into the April 2010 killings of 76 CRPF troops in Chhatishgarh, had said in his report, " Give land to the tiller and forest back to the tribal people with the help of a strong-willed and honest administration. Plus bring down the vast gap between rich and poor......and the Maoists would be on the wane"
Moot point of aggravating the Naxalism upsurge, mainly in tribal belt and in poor villages in different parts of the country, which initially began with the outbreak of Naxalwari upsurge in West Bengal in 1967 with large scale agrarian disputes not only in Bengal but in many other states, are lack of land reforms and wide gap of poor and rich devide in rural India..While confirming such anamolies, the Research and Planning Division of the Union Home Ministry in the "Causes and the Nature of Current Agrarian Tensions (1969)" has said:"The basic cause of unrest, namely the defective implementation of laws enacted to protect interest of the tribals, remains:unless this is attended to, it would not be possible, it would not be possible to win the confidence of the tribals whose leadership has been taken over by the extremists.Although the peasant political organisations in most parts of India are relatively weak, the tension in the rural areas, resulting from the widening gap between the relatively few affluents farmers and the large body of small land-holders, landless and agricultural workers may increase in the coming months and years."The division had emphasised for land reforms and other various welfare measures for weaker sections of society.
Even after, all these cautious approaches, the union home ministry has stepped up anti-Maoists campaign in nine states of the country. The anti-Maoists campaign has been named as " Operation Green Hunt".Apart from severe criticism of the campaign by general people, even the Planning Commission of India expert group note on "Development Challenges in Extremists-Affected Areas" has taken serious note of the campaign and has said,"The methods chosen by the government to deal with the Maoists phenomenon (have) increased the people's distrust of the police and consequent unrest, Protest against police harassment is itself a major instance of unrest.........The response of the Maoists has been to target the police, which in effect triggers a second round of the spiral....One of the attractions of the Naxalite movements is that it does provide protection to the weak against the powerful and takes the security of and justice for, the weak and socially marginalised seriously."
Instead of brining the Naxalites in the mainstream life by approaches of law and order and development in the affected areas to redress popular grievances, the government realises in the practice of brute force to suppress militants.. Moreover, the perception of the government thinkings that the Maoists in India are greatest internal threat is misconstrued Maoists are never for ruining the unity and integrity of the country and undermining security of the country-they are for overthrowing the system by creating law and order problem to support poor people and adivasis, which the government could tactfully tackel by development orientation in neglected areas. The government must take lesson from the counter -insurgency experts like Robert Thompson, who says:" Hardly if ever has a counter-insurgency campaign been won strictly by waging war .Military action has an important role in overcoming guerillas, but the philosophy espoused by the guerillas must also be defeated and this requires a well-reasoned combination of political reforms, civic action and education of the population."
In the context of brutal killings of tribals in Chhatishgarh village para-military forces, killing of 20 civilians including ten children-girls and professional drum players-in the name of encounter with Maoists must be called a terror activities by the government forces. It must be called black spot in the name of counter -insurgency by the state power.The CRPF has advanced many strange arguements and logic to support its action in Chhatishgah village right from some of the killed have bad records with the police to the logic of the CRPF has not developed any system to segregate guerillas from civilians during a gun-fight. Strangely the chief minister of Chhatishgarh Raman Singh 's logic that civilians like Adivasis become human shield of Maoists- hence they were killed in the encounter has drawn much criticism. Raman Singh is a known baiter of Naxalites, supporting tribals in different parts of Chhatishgarh against volley of atrocities against them. Tribals of Chhatishgarh are being deprived of their habitats, land and access to forests as well as terrorised by forest contractors and timber mafia and the mining industry in conniviance with the administration,Raman Songh 's these mafia gang work in close cooperation with his (Raman Singh) sponsored the much-maligned Salwa Judum militia, who rampantly killed tribals, raped tribal women and burned tribal population houses, resulting into running away of thousands of adivasis from their homes in Chhatishgarh state.In Chhaitishgarh tribal are being isolated by the government through continuing push of distructive mining and industries. The state government has failed to trace the reasons of Adivasis' alienation of which Maoists thrive!
However, the government has agreed to constitute judicial enquiry into the killings under public pressure throughput the country.More over, following the decision of abandoning combat operation if militants use civilians as human shield and to raise reward for those who surrender their weapons at the ,the meeting of security forces in the "Left-Wing Extremism-Affected States" on July 13, 2012, a high hope has arisen that the union government must be realising its mistakes and would engage themselves with some concrete measures to take up the situation a fresh to deal with naxalites and innocent tribals in different parts of the country. While dealing with the subject eminent Columnist Praful Bidwai in his Column "Beyond the Obvious" in the Fortnightly Frontline has written , "Our internal security apparatus, from the home ministry downwards, has cultivated a deplorable larger mentality which compulsively forms a protective ring around the self-imposed paramilitary encampment, mush like appartied-era South Africsn Whites did''''''''''Politically, the incidents is a huge triumph for Maoists' argument that the Indian state is structurally and irredeemably anti-people, anti-Adivasis and brutal. Democracy is mere facade. The state must be overthrown through an armed revolution or peoples war-in keeping with the Communist party of India (Maoists) agenda."
Rightly after much hue and cry over the issue the them Union home minister P Chidambaram has voiced haly-apology in case "any excesses were committed by the state power"
SOURCES: UNION HOME MINISTRY AND OTHER WEBSITES; WEST BENGAL GOVERNMENT WEBSITE ON NAXALWARI MOVEMENT; FRONTLINE FORNIGHTLY ETC.
Moot point of aggravating the Naxalism upsurge, mainly in tribal belt and in poor villages in different parts of the country, which initially began with the outbreak of Naxalwari upsurge in West Bengal in 1967 with large scale agrarian disputes not only in Bengal but in many other states, are lack of land reforms and wide gap of poor and rich devide in rural India..While confirming such anamolies, the Research and Planning Division of the Union Home Ministry in the "Causes and the Nature of Current Agrarian Tensions (1969)" has said:"The basic cause of unrest, namely the defective implementation of laws enacted to protect interest of the tribals, remains:unless this is attended to, it would not be possible, it would not be possible to win the confidence of the tribals whose leadership has been taken over by the extremists.Although the peasant political organisations in most parts of India are relatively weak, the tension in the rural areas, resulting from the widening gap between the relatively few affluents farmers and the large body of small land-holders, landless and agricultural workers may increase in the coming months and years."The division had emphasised for land reforms and other various welfare measures for weaker sections of society.
Even after, all these cautious approaches, the union home ministry has stepped up anti-Maoists campaign in nine states of the country. The anti-Maoists campaign has been named as " Operation Green Hunt".Apart from severe criticism of the campaign by general people, even the Planning Commission of India expert group note on "Development Challenges in Extremists-Affected Areas" has taken serious note of the campaign and has said,"The methods chosen by the government to deal with the Maoists phenomenon (have) increased the people's distrust of the police and consequent unrest, Protest against police harassment is itself a major instance of unrest.........The response of the Maoists has been to target the police, which in effect triggers a second round of the spiral....One of the attractions of the Naxalite movements is that it does provide protection to the weak against the powerful and takes the security of and justice for, the weak and socially marginalised seriously."
Instead of brining the Naxalites in the mainstream life by approaches of law and order and development in the affected areas to redress popular grievances, the government realises in the practice of brute force to suppress militants.. Moreover, the perception of the government thinkings that the Maoists in India are greatest internal threat is misconstrued Maoists are never for ruining the unity and integrity of the country and undermining security of the country-they are for overthrowing the system by creating law and order problem to support poor people and adivasis, which the government could tactfully tackel by development orientation in neglected areas. The government must take lesson from the counter -insurgency experts like Robert Thompson, who says:" Hardly if ever has a counter-insurgency campaign been won strictly by waging war .Military action has an important role in overcoming guerillas, but the philosophy espoused by the guerillas must also be defeated and this requires a well-reasoned combination of political reforms, civic action and education of the population."
In the context of brutal killings of tribals in Chhatishgarh village para-military forces, killing of 20 civilians including ten children-girls and professional drum players-in the name of encounter with Maoists must be called a terror activities by the government forces. It must be called black spot in the name of counter -insurgency by the state power.The CRPF has advanced many strange arguements and logic to support its action in Chhatishgah village right from some of the killed have bad records with the police to the logic of the CRPF has not developed any system to segregate guerillas from civilians during a gun-fight. Strangely the chief minister of Chhatishgarh Raman Singh 's logic that civilians like Adivasis become human shield of Maoists- hence they were killed in the encounter has drawn much criticism. Raman Singh is a known baiter of Naxalites, supporting tribals in different parts of Chhatishgarh against volley of atrocities against them. Tribals of Chhatishgarh are being deprived of their habitats, land and access to forests as well as terrorised by forest contractors and timber mafia and the mining industry in conniviance with the administration,Raman Songh 's these mafia gang work in close cooperation with his (Raman Singh) sponsored the much-maligned Salwa Judum militia, who rampantly killed tribals, raped tribal women and burned tribal population houses, resulting into running away of thousands of adivasis from their homes in Chhatishgarh state.In Chhaitishgarh tribal are being isolated by the government through continuing push of distructive mining and industries. The state government has failed to trace the reasons of Adivasis' alienation of which Maoists thrive!
However, the government has agreed to constitute judicial enquiry into the killings under public pressure throughput the country.More over, following the decision of abandoning combat operation if militants use civilians as human shield and to raise reward for those who surrender their weapons at the ,the meeting of security forces in the "Left-Wing Extremism-Affected States" on July 13, 2012, a high hope has arisen that the union government must be realising its mistakes and would engage themselves with some concrete measures to take up the situation a fresh to deal with naxalites and innocent tribals in different parts of the country. While dealing with the subject eminent Columnist Praful Bidwai in his Column "Beyond the Obvious" in the Fortnightly Frontline has written , "Our internal security apparatus, from the home ministry downwards, has cultivated a deplorable larger mentality which compulsively forms a protective ring around the self-imposed paramilitary encampment, mush like appartied-era South Africsn Whites did''''''''''Politically, the incidents is a huge triumph for Maoists' argument that the Indian state is structurally and irredeemably anti-people, anti-Adivasis and brutal. Democracy is mere facade. The state must be overthrown through an armed revolution or peoples war-in keeping with the Communist party of India (Maoists) agenda."
Rightly after much hue and cry over the issue the them Union home minister P Chidambaram has voiced haly-apology in case "any excesses were committed by the state power"
SOURCES: UNION HOME MINISTRY AND OTHER WEBSITES; WEST BENGAL GOVERNMENT WEBSITE ON NAXALWARI MOVEMENT; FRONTLINE FORNIGHTLY ETC.
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