[Reader-list] on Greenhunt

[Nagraj Adve]

Am forwarding an interestingly written parcha on Greenhunt.
copied below.


Selling India by the Pound

The Hidden Story of Operation Green Hunt

Operation Green Hunt was launched in the latter half of 2009 and a
large contingent of paramilitary and military forces aided and abetted
by mercenaries were deployed in large parts of Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.  It is
a war supposedly to free the people of these areas from Maoist
influence. By repeated declarations and one-sided media statements the
Government has made Maoists “the single largest internal security
threat to the country”.

Advertisements are regularly appearing in all major newspapers which
call Maoists nothing but cold-blooded murderers. They are being
accused of terrorizing the poor, killing men and rendering women
widows, destroying school buildings, as criminals who indulge in
extortion. The Home Ministry then exhorts the common people to stop
violence and become prosperous. According to government sources 203
districts are affected by Maoists. What we should ask is: are people
prospering in the remaining 400 districts? Do people have enough
employment there? Do children go to schools? Do innocent people not
die untimely deaths there?

Let’s take the case of Delhi which is not affected by Maoists. Prices
of basic food items have skyrocketed. One day it is sugar, another day
milk, on the third the price of cooking gas or public transport – the
government keeps increasing prices under one pretext or the other, or
many a time without giving any reasons. While the common citizens pay
ever-rising prices the benefits go increasingly to big companies.
Sugar mills and traders make windfall profits by importing sugar and
selling it at uncontrolled prices; Petrol fills the coffers of the
likes of Ambanis.

We have witnessed many innocent people being killed in the last thirty
years. Gas leak in Bhopal killed thousands but no punitive action has
yet been taken against the management. In the case of the proposed
Nuclear Civil Liability Bill, instead of protecting its citizens, the
government has been trying to cap the damages to be paid by nuclear
companies of US regardless of the destruction they cause. The killing
of innocents is not acceptable to anyone, but why have the guilty of
the 1984 riots belonging to Congress not been punished as yet? By
inciting people to break down the Babri Masjid, BJP caused riots all
over the country; why use the army against one set of supposed killers
(Maoists and other “insurgents”) but set up tedious commissions for
communal riots against another?

The other charge against the Maoists is that they are luring people by
making false promises of prosperity. But one must not forget that the
Maoist party and their predecessors came into existence long after
ruling parties had made these promises to people for decades to garner
their votes. It is the false promises of development which lacked any
real will that gave opportunity to new forces and parties. At any rate
the real reason to send the army to these states is not to flush out
Maoists.

The reality is that our government is subservient to domestic and
foreign capital. Today, these masters are not satisfied with control
over the market—whether it is retail, whole sale, rural, urban, high
end or of those that cater to basic necessities. They are desperate
for the real estate, water, and minerals and other natural resources.
The regions and states where the Operation Green Hunt is being carried
out have a large proportion of tribal population who have been living
under dismal conditions for decades. The only outreach of the
government to them has comprised of the Forest Department and the
police and neither has lost any opportunity to intimidate them.
Unfortunately for the tribals, their land has vast mineral treasures
hidden under their feet. To mine these and to process them, the
concerned governments have signed unprecedented numbers of MoUs with
Indian as well as foreign companies during the last five years. In
this period another opportunity has also been created for real estate
speculation and take-over with the SEZs Act.

If the MoUs have to be honoured then the government is under
compulsion to remove the present inhabitants. Crores of people will be
affected in this exercise. While the government is eager to implement
the MoUs it has thrown to winds all the constitutional guarantees
under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution which acknowledge the
traditional rights of the tribals to the forest land. Notwithstanding
the tall claims of Rehabilitation and Resettlement there has not been
a single case so far of proper rehabilitation of the people who have
been affected. All the ‘Modern Temples’—as Nehru used to call it—of
‘Development’ like Mega dams, Steel factories, mining establishments
till date have been built on the graveyards of people who were never
part of that much abused word, ‘development’. The poorest of the poor
people of these regions are facing perhaps the worst ever murderous
campaign, called “the biggest land grab since Colombus” by none other
than the Ministry of Rural Development report of the Government of
India! In the state of Chhattisgarh 644 villages have been vacated in
the district of Dantewada alone by burning and looting. The residents
are forced to live in inhuman conditions in refugee camps which lack
basic facilities and are no more than night shelters. Lakhs are hiding
in the jungles without any support system and lakhs have migrated to
districts like Khammam in the neighbouring states. This eviction was
carried out using a private army called Salwa Judum. But when this
operation was not adequate as it met with stiff resistance from the
local people as well as the civil society and a sizeable section of
the media provoking worldwide indignation then further operations were
planned using the pretext of Maoist threat. The people of India is
time and again being informed and reassured by a suave, erudite,
Mining Company Director-turned Lawyer- turned Finance Minister-turned
Home Minister that the army will move in, clear the area of the Maoist
‘menace’, and development will follow closely on its heels.

Today it has become a crime to take the side of the tribals. Whether
it is the Gandhians who provide them with rations, or the doctors who
reach out for treating the tribals where the government has abandoned
them, or the democratic rights organizations who expose the violence
committed by the state or Salwa Judum. Such supporters have their
Ashrams demolished, doctors and civil rights activists are thrown in
jail, even fact finding teams are not allowed in the area. The tribals
themselves are in a much worse shape. Complaints of rape are not
filed, witnesses of police firing and atrocities are made to disappear
and the Salwa Judum crosses over to Andhra Pradesh to intimidate the
internally displaced tribals. Opposing the government and its excesses
has been made the synonym of support to Maoists. Now, well known civil
rights groups and leaders have been named explicitly in Kobad Ghandy’s
charge sheet. They are being called the fronts of Maoists. This act of
association has been carried to such extremes that even the Supreme
Court has warned the Chhattisgarh police to refrain from using “Maoist
supporter” as an “innuendo”. Not just in Chhattisgarh but in other
states as well people are struggling against oppression and
exploitation. To term all protest as Maoist has become the standard
response of the government.

Does it mean that sooner than later the army will be called to deal
with all resistance? Will prisons be filled up with the voices of
dissent? The government’s own reports acknowledge that Naxalism has
grown on account of neglect and miseries of the people. The response
then calls for social and economic justice and not of military attacks
under the guidance of American and Israeli specialists. Violence will
evoke counter-violence because peaceful protests are facing firing
everywhere leaving them little option. Whether we look at Tamil Nadu
or UP or Karnataka or Maharashtra we find that freedom of expression
is largely abridged and leafleting is also termed as sedition.
Draconian laws follow each other with urgency to crush dissent,
terming everything into a crime at the whim of those in power and
bringing incarceration without trials in their wake. Media is run as a
profit making venture by large corporations and it gives weightage and
coverage to those in power.

No amount of force or use of army is likely to bring lasting peace. We
should not forget that army has been used extensively in Kashmir and
the Northeast. For sixty years these areas are under siege. In
Manipur, for every citizen there are forty men in uniform – the result
is false encounters, rapes and disappearances. The Home ministry
states that at the height of insurgency there were 3000 extremists in
Kashmir. The violence unleashed to contain them led to human right
violations, rapes and disappearances – all leaving deep scars in the
psyche of Kashmiris which still breed hatred and mistrust. UN figures
suggest that the victims of army atrocities far outnumber those of the
militants. But this has not taught any lesson to the government and it
persists in repeating military offensive in large parts of the
country. The problem cannot be solved by combat and will lend itself
only to a political and economic solution.

In the light of this, we call upon all concerned citizens to come
together and join the struggle for people’s rights to life, livelihood
and resources.



We demand:

·        Immediate and complete withdrawal of military and paramilitary forces.

·        Allow independent observers to visit the affected areas.

·        Make public all MOUs concerned with natural resource
extraction and industrial production, 2005-09.



Please attend the following programmes:

·        Public Meeting against State-Military Offensive on People's
Lives & Resources: 6 April, 2009. 4.00 pm at Central Park C P.

·        Independent People's Tribunal on Land Acquisition, Resource
Grab and Operation Green Hunt: 9th to 11th April, Speakers Hall,
Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi.

Delhi University Campaign against War on People; Jawaharlal Nehru
University Forum against War on People; Forum against War on People;
Campaign against Genocide of Adivasis; Citizens Initiative for Peace;
Manipur Students’ Association, Delhi; Janmadhyam; Saheli; PUDR; PCC,
CPI (M-L); Delhi Solidarity Grouop; Campaign for Peace and Justice in
Chhatisgarh; Campaign for Peace and Democracy, Manipur; Pratidhwani;
Kashipur Solidarity Group and others.