Let’s start the talking with an old report of ‘Indian Express’. According to this report of December 2014 : In 65 months between January 2009 and May 2014, only 139 people had surrendered, but in the 6 months between June-November 2014, of ‘Kalluri Raj’ (then DGP SRP Kalluri) 377 surrenders have happened and in this too 155 surrenders happened in November 2014! According to the document collected, there was no police record of 270 of people as Maoist. Therefore, none of them got any rehabilitation/compensation. About 100 people got help of Rs. 2000-5000 and only 10 got fourth class jobs.
Till date, the Chhattisgarh government has not officially denied this report of ‘Indian Express’ and hence this report can be considered correct. It is clear that large scale fraud was committed in the said surrenders. In this way, the civil rights of a common citizen and his right to live with dignity were crushed on a large scale to brighten the fortunes of some police officials and to garner accolades.
In March 2017, a fact-finding team of the Editors Guild of India visited Bastar. It spoke to a large number of journalists there, who admitted that they were unable to report freely because they were under pressure from both the police and the Naxalites, their phones were tapped and they were under undeclared surveillance. Editor of the reputed newspaper ‘Deshbandhu’ (now deceased) Lalit Surjan told the team that if you want to analyse the facts independently, they directly ask whether you are with the government or the Maoists? When BBC journalist Alok Putul wanted to know SRP Kalluri’s view for a news, he was not only accused of biased reporting, but was also told that the ‘patriotic’ media was with the police. After this, he was threatened to leave that area immediately. Everyone knows that this ‘patriotic media’ has today turned into ‘Godi Media’.
This was Bastar 8-10 years ago. But even today nothing has changed, nothing at all, in fact a lot has deteriorated. In the name of fighting and crushing Naxalites in the remote Bastar of Chhattisgarh, the process of crushing the human rights of the tribals and state-sponsored murders and arrests continues. According to the government’s claim, in the first eight months of BJP rule, 147 Maoists have been killed in encounters, 631 have surrendered and 723 have been arrested. How many of these figures are actually Naxalites and how many are innocent villagers, is a matter of investigation. By the time the news of the reality of an encounter, surrender or arrest filters through the jungle, penetrates the propaganda of the Godi media and reaches the district headquarters or the capital, in the meantime many more incidents take place and stand in the line of investigation.
According to the government’s claim, Maoism is now on its last breathes after the BJP came to power. As proof of this, it presents the figures of those who have been killed in encounters, or who have surrendered, or who have been arrested. BJP and Congress have been playing this game of figures for the last 25 years since the formation of Chhattisgarh state. But the reality is that Bastar has been armed on a large scale and today a paramilitary soldier’s gun is pointed at the head of every 9 citizens. There is a security force camp every 2-7 km in the Bastar range. During the Congress rule, more than 250 security forces camps were set up in the Bastar division between 2019-23, while the BJP also has a plan to set up camps to make tribal villages prosperous. Within a year of the BJP coming to power, about 50 camps have been set up in villages by making a ‘yojana’ and it has given a very beautiful name to this scheme — Niyaad Nellanar (My Prosperous Village, ie. Mera Gaon Khushhaal) Yojana! Both Congress and BJP may not have provided basic human amenities to the tribals but they have definitely provided camps for their so called well-being.
But the tribals are neither accepting the prosperity of BJP nor have they accepted the prosperity of Congress, so why? Because these camps are being built by ruining them for their oppression. There is not a single camp among these camps established in the Congress-BJP rule, which has not been built after displacing the tribals away from their land ; there is not a single camp for which the consent of the Gram Sabha of the tribals has been taken ; there is not a single road construction being done under the shadow of the security forces, for which the consent of the tribals has been taken. How much corruption is happening in these constructions, and in the encounters, surrenders and arrests being made to ensure this, through the alliance of officers, contractors and leaders, the story of the murder of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar is enough to tell all this. By the time it reaches the forests of Bastar from Delhi and Raipur, our Constitution and the powers given to the tribals by it die.
According to the government’s claim, as Maoism or Naxalism is dying down in Bastar, armament is increasing in Bastar. Now under the BJP rule, preparations are being made to build an army’s war practice range in Abujhmad. For this, 54000 hectares (1.35 lakh acres) of land is required. This land will be acquired by displacing 52 villages of 13 gram panchayats of Kohkameta tehsil of Narayanpur district. At present, the combined population of these 52 villages is about 10000. Even at the risk of being labelled ‘anti-national’, the question will definitely be asked that how much development of Bastar is included in this project of building a war practice range for the army? Will the displacement of 52 villages be done with the consent of the tribals as per the PESA Act or at gunpoint?
It is clear that Maoism is just an excuse, the real thing is to immediately silence the voices raised in protest against the campaign to hand over the natural resources of Bastar to the corporates. The recent arrest of Raghu Midiyami, who was opposing the campaign to hand over water, forest and land to the corporates and was leading the movements demanding the implementation of PESA and Forest Rights Act, has once again raised the question whether democratic rights are restricted in Bastar? Human rights organizations have strongly condemned this arrest.
24-year-old Raghu was arrested by the NIA on 27 February on charges of having links with Maoist organisations. In May 2021, in Silger village of Sukma district, bullets were fired during a protest by local tribals against the setting up of a CRPF camp by taking away tribal land, in which 5 people, including an unborn child, died. At that time, there was a Congress government in the state. The attitude of the Congress’ Bhupesh Baghel government towards the tribals was exactly the same as that of the previous BJP’s Raman Singh government. It is our common experience that whether it is Congress or BJP, both have always bowed down to the corporates and they do not even feel ashamed in crushing the rights of the tribals to serve them.
Raghu Midiyami is a face that emerged from this Silger movement, who formed an organization called Moolvasi Bachao Manch at the local level against the atrocities being committed on the tribals. Under the banner of this organization, movements started at more than 30 places against the anti-tribal and pro-corporate policies of the Congress government. It was very significant that on an average more than one lakh tribals from sparsely populated villages like Bastar gathered in these day and night protests. These tribals were protesting peacefully and democratically. These tribals were connecting themselves with the mainstream of democracy. But the then Congress government and the present BJP government did not refrain from labelling this movement and its leaders as Maoists, because they were adamant to serve the interests of the corporates at any cost. Even the delegation of tribals coming to meet the Governor with their demands was arrested mid-way.
In October last year, the BJP government had banned the Moolvasi Bachao Manch. The notification issued in this regard said : “This organization is opposing the initiatives of the state and central government in “Maoist affected areas” and is obstructing development projects in the area by opposing the establishment of security camps.” But it was not said that this organization is involved in any criminal activities. Now the question arises that if a tribal community is opposing any initiative of the state and the center, then is it not its democratic and constitutional right? Will the government decide whether a project is a development project or not or will the local tribal community decide this through their Gram Sabhas under the PESA Act? Moolvasi Bachao Manch is demanding exactly this that the tribals should be given the right to use the powers obtained under the PESA Act. Congress and BJP will have to explain how this demand is illegitimate.
Congress is not in power today, but its ties with corporate cronyism have not been broken yet. Even after a week of this illegal arrest, it is silent on this matter. Raghu Midiyami’s lawyer Shalini Gera says that Raghu has been arrested in a fake case only to crush the people’s movements of Bastar, because there is no mention of the banned 2000 rupee notes for which he has been arrested and for distributing money to banned Maoist organizations in the related FIR. It is worth mentioning that even before this, two activists of the forum named Sarajoo Tekam and Sunita Potai have been arrested, who were actively participating in the ongoing movements against the loot of resources in Bastar.
Bastar is a challenge for all those people outside Bastar who boast a lot about democracy and constitution, to come here and raise their voice against the state sponsored campaign which has been going on for the last 20-25 years to silence the voice of tribals forever in the name of Maoism.
Sanjay Parate is Vice President of Chhattisgarh Kisan Sabha, affiliated to All India Kisan Sabha.
