[Reader-list] Fwd: pudr statement on chhatisgarh incidents

[Asit Das]

PUDR Statement on the unending spiral of violence in
Chhattisgarh<http://sanhati.com/articles/7118/>

*June 1, 2013*

The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) notes with concern the sad
loss of 30 lives in the Maoist attack on the “Parivartan Rally” of Congress
Party on 25 May 2013. This is the latest in the series of killings, big and
small, in the ongoing undeclared war that the Indian government is waging
against our own people. Many of the victims of this war are poor adivasis
killed in operations by the security forces, that the government
assiduously attempts to hide from the public at large. But, as in the
present instance, ruling party functionaries, security forces personnel and
Maoist cadres have also lost their lives.

Since 2005, the PUDR and a number of civil liberties organizations have
been consistently alerting the public to this escalating war against the
poorest of our citizens. Between May 2012 and May 2013 there has been a six
to eight times increase in the number of security forces operations being
carried out in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh. In every district no
less than 10-15 operations were already being carried out each month. These
are being conducted away from the prying eye of the media and civil
liberties activists and civilian access to these areas is severely
curtailed. On 17 May, ten days before the attack on Congress leaders, nine
persons including three children were killed by the security forces in the
village of Ehadesmeta.

While PUDR sees the killing of two people who were taken into custody in
this instance as an act that cannot be justified and against the rules of
war, there is a need to speak out about the role of parties such as
Congress and BJP in launching Salwa Judum, which was designed to terrorise
the adivasis of Bastar. Congress leaders like Mahendra Karma, the BJP led
Chhattisgarh government and the UPA government patronized this murderous
enterprise until it was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of India.
While Salwa Judum may have formally ended, the elements which comprised the
SJ including its leaders and handlers in the security establishment were
either incorporated in the ongoing operations as regular forces or some of
them chose to switch from being ‘hunters’ to ‘running with the hares’ with
impending state assembly elections due in November. In any case, every
attempt to prosecute those guilty of the heinous crimes had been frustrated
by the governments in power. So the carnage that took place on 26 May was
something, unfortunately, waiting to happen.

The governments have plainly connected the continuation of the ongoing war
with the prospects of growth in national income. None other than Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared Maoists to be the single biggest
internal security threat in 2006. Speaking to IPS probationers on 24th
December 2010, he also explained the reason for the war: “Naxalism today
afflicts the Central India parts where the bulk of India’s mineral wealth
lies and if we don’t control Naxalism we have to say goodbye to our
country’s ambitions to sustain growth rate of 10-11 per cent per annum.”

All doubts were laid to rest when government actions confirmed the verbal
declarations. In Saranda forest of Jharkhand, once the Maoists were forced
to pull back, the Forest Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment
and Forests began clearing proposals of mining corporations to take over
forests for non-forest use. It led Minister for Rural Development, Jairam
Ramesh, to complain on 7 February 2013 that “I have been at great pains to
counter Maoist propaganda that the Saranda Development Project is a ploy to
benefit private mining interests. This Forest Advisory Committee decision
is a huge setback and very retrograde” (8 February 2013, Indian Express,
Delhi). The Union Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo complained to
Hindustan Times (17 May 2013) that “my permission [is] not required nor my
opinion is sought in matters relating to tribals. My voice goes unheard”.

On the other hand, legislations and constitutional provisions meant to
safeguard tribals are being thrown to the winds. The fate of the Forest
Rights Act (FRA), the showpiece legislation of UPA-I, ostensibly
promulgated for empowering forest dwellers, is a case in point. Quite apart
from its poor implementation, the core issue of Gram Sabha’s “consent” for
non-tribal use of tribal land has been diluted not just in the name of
“linear projects”, but in the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh the government
has concluded that under the FRA, Gram Sabha consent is required only to
permit mining of minor minerals whereas major minerals such as bauxite and
iron ore etc are outside their jurisdiction. Supreme Court’s latest order
on Niyamgiri Hills narrows down the jurisdiction of Gram Sabhas by reducing
and restricting the definition of impacted area to a radius of ten
kilometers, when it is a known fact that livelihood and lives are affected
across a much larger area.

It is this continued attack on lives and livelihood of people, threat of
displacement from forest areas, dilution of FRA, PESA and complete
indifference to Sixth Schedule compounded by the increasing restrictions on
public protests, arbitrary laws to prosecute those who oppose their
dispossession and bans on political opinion that is responsible for the
civil unrest that pervades our society. It is this government that places
the requirements of Foreign Direct Investment above the needs of our own
people, and which attempts to ram down this “development model” with the
barrel of a gun, that is at fault.

As the war is being scaled up it is also turning ugly. PUDR, therefore,
urges all people to bring pressure on the ruling parties at the Centre and
the nine state governments currently carrying out this war, to de-escalate
the militarisation of this region and show a commitment towards dialogue.
We hope that the deaths of 30 persons in the present instance and of
hundreds of people in the past eight years are sufficient reason for people
to recognize the absurdity of this war.

In the meantime, we ask the Government of India to shed its policy of
deniability and accept that it is engaged in an internal war. And we ask
both sides to abide by the rules that govern war by declaring its
commitment to common article 3 of Geneva Convention and Protocol II, which
applies to non-international armed conflict.