Chhattisgarh Assembly’s answer to Naxals: let’s discuss, in secret

RAIPUR, JULY 17: In an unprecedented move, the Chhattisgarh Assembly has decided to hold an in-camera session on July 25 to discuss rising Naxal violence and related issues. The state government claims it’s a matter of “national security” and, therefore, cannot be discussed in an open house.

This will be the first time that the Assembly meets behind closed doors. All galleries, including the Press gallery, will remain vacant. Only a few senior officials, directly dealing with the issue, will be allowed. Defending this, state Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam said issues related to national security can’t be discussed in an open house. He said the in-camera session will also try to come up with a policy on combating Naxals.

Leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma agreed with the Home Minister that it was “not proper to have an open discussion” on the Naxal problem. “We can’t discuss strategies regarding anti-Naxal operations in an open house. We hope the government listens to our suggestions,” Karma said.

The meeting was convened after Chief Minister Raman Singh agreed to the Opposition demand for talks.

http://www.indianexpress.com

Maoists gaining strength, attacks becoming brutal

By Murali Krishnan. Delhi, India, 10:01 AM IST

The attacks by Maoists have become deadlier, ferocious and uglier. The brutal killing of 24 policemen in the jungles of Chhattisgarh by the rebels last week, with bodies mutilated, heads disfigured and corpses stripped of their shoes and socks, is testimony to this.

Details of the repugnant gunbattle in Dantewada district, 480 km south of state capital Raipur, emerged from policemen who had survived and what they described was a perfectly orchestrated ambush by rebels armed with automatic rifles and mortars inside the dense jungle.

‘There have been earlier encounters but this seems to be the first time that they (rebels) even chopped of genitals. It was horrid,’ said an intelligence official.

Barely had police recovered from this gruesome attack when Maoist rebels wreaked havoc in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh two days later. Around 300 rebels bombed the guesthouse of a government department, destroyed a television relay centre and an electricity substation in Visakhapatnam district.

The rise of the Maoists, numbering not more than 11,000 cadres, has not been due to a brilliant strategy of theirs but because of the sheer vacuum of governance in many parts of India.

Maoist attacks that killed 749 people, including 520 civilians, in India last year have increased this year, signalling that the left extremists have the ability and the resources to attack at will.

Evidence of this was seen in last month’s two-day ‘economic blockade’ which was called by Maoists in six states to protest the setting up of special economic zones (SEZs) and which ended on a violent note, causing losses of well over Rs.1.5 billion to the country’s economy.

Although there were only sporadic incidents of violence, the protest crippled normal life in parts of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and West Bengal, in what was proof of the rebels’ clout in impoverished rural areas. In fact, the blockade was an economic disaster, especially in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh that suffered the worst economically. A railway station was torched in West Bengal.

Having seized upon the grievances of peasant farmers and tribal groups directly affected by the Indian government’s push to develop SEZs, the rebels have clashed violently with police to hold on to land being acquired for these projects.

A growing dissatisfaction among India’s rural community over the move to establish private enclaves conforms to the Maoist agenda of combating exploitation and promoting the creation of a classless society.

The government’s response to this spiralling violence has been unfortunately inadequate and, to a great extent, reactive. Though several Maoist insurgency-hit states have promised to combine improved policing with socio-economic measures to defuse grievances that fuel the Maoist cause, it has simply not had its desired objective.

On the development side, the central government claims to have provided Rs.24.75 billion under the Backward Districts Initiative (BDI) to fill in critical gaps in physical and social development in affected areas.

But despite the best intentions of the government to be sensitive to the tribal populations and help develop these regions, it has only ended having the opposite effect. Instead of helping improve their livelihoods, actions have only intruded the tribal way of life that has affected the environment negatively.

The government must find ways to accommodate this marginalized lot and give them a political voice before the Maoists usurp that space.

http://www.indiaenews.com

Commandos not effective in Naxal war

Commandos trained for warfare are used to protect VIPs which has made the fight against Naxal rebels ineffective, an NDTV exclusive report has found.

Commandos of the Central Reserve Police Force are also used for protecting police stations, and rebel sympathisers are said to have infiltrated the forces.

The commandos at Kanker in Chattisgarh are taught to kill and eat deadly snakes during operations in dense forests.

In the past two years, 2,600 commandoes have passed out of but only three hundred have been inducted in operations against the rebels. The rest are involved in providing protection to state VIPs.

Security expert KPS Gill who advised the Chattisgarh Chief Minister for a year says such an arrangement is very unusual.

”Even a constable cannot be transferred by the DGP, leave aside DSPs , inspectors and others,” Gill said.

”This is the first time I have seen, and I have worked in six different states and three and four different police organisations. This is the first time in my experience, I have seen this sort of situation.”

Gill says terror cannot be fought successfully if there is corrruption.

The BJP has also called a meeting on the ineffectiveness of the CRPF in Chattisgarh.

The local police seem to have lost the will to fight the naxals and in any case more than half of the eleven CRPF battlions posted in the region are used just protect the police stations in the area.

On the other hand the state says the CRPF is ineffective.

The state’s Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam said ”as far as the CRPF is concerned, they have not proved very effective till now, they have not any extra-ordinary results. You need to mix them up with the local police for effective policing.”

The Centre too is aware of the ineffectiveness of its forces, but they suspect it is because some in the local administration are naxal sympathisers.

The Indian airforce had started special reconnaisance flights by unmaned aerial vehicles over the jungles of Chattisgarh.

But just a month after the flights began the airforce complained to the Home Ministry that the rebels get advance information about its flight schedules and take cover.

NDTV

24 cops killed in Maoist fighting in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR, India (Reuters) – Twenty-four policemen who had gone missing after a fierce gunbattle with Maoist insurgents in the jungles of Chhattisgarh were found dead on Tuesday, a top officer said.

The missing men were part of a group of 90 troopers who engaged the rebels for two hours in a hilly forest on Monday in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh, close to the epicentre of the insurgency.

“Search parties have recovered all the 24 bodies from very close to the encounter site,” state Inspector-General of Police Girdhari Nayak told Reuters.

Earlier, authorities in the poor and underdeveloped state had said they had lost contact with the policemen for almost 24 hours and had sent reinforcements to look for them.

Maoist rebels operate in a large swathe of India stretching from the east to some southern states, mostly in the countryside, and attack government officials and property.

They say they are fighting for the rights of millions of poor peasants and landless labourers. Thousands of people have been killed in the insurgency which began in the late 1960s.

Elsewhere, in Karnataka, police said they had killed five Maoist rebels in a gun battle in the hilly district of Chikmagalur, about 250 km west of Bangalore.

“A massive combing operation is on to hunt for accomplices,” said state police chief K.R. Sreenivasan.

Karnataka is among the most recent of states to be hit by the Maoist insurgency. The police action came a week after a group of suspected Maoists set a government bus alight in the region.

Naxal masterminds arrested in Chhattisgarh

Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, July 9 (UNI) A naxal couple, who were involved in several incidents and had links with some of those participating in the anti-rebel Salwa Judum (Peace Mission) campaign, has been arrested here.

”Jaipal Reddy, who hails from Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, and his wife G B Lakshmi alias Nirmala Ekka were apprehended yesterday and brought to Bijapur. They were remanded to police custody until July 13. Lakshmi, who joined the ultras in 1988-89, has presided over the Dandakaranya Mahila Sangathan,” Bijapur’s Superintendent of Police Ratanlal Dangi told mediapersons today.

She was later made Commander of the National Park Dalam Toinar.

For the recent past, she was directing extremist activities in Gangalur area and has about 100 crimes registered against her in Bijapur district. The couple were involved in looting at Bijapur district’s NMDC area, the Rani Bodli massacre and other major incidents. They confessed that some Salwa Judum participants were linked with Maoists.

These participants tipped off insurgents from time to time but the officer refused to disclose their names while adding that such participants were being watched. Reddy hatched conspiracies, planned major attacks and was spokesman of the naxals’ Regional Committee.

OneIndia

Maoists Using Weapons seized From Cops: Chhattisgarh Police Chief

Saturday 07th of July 2007 Chhattisgarh’

s newly appointed Director General of Police Vishwaranjan Saturday said Maoist militants in the state mostly use weapons such as AK-47 rifles that are looted from policemen.

In his first interaction with the media two days after taking over as the state’s police chief, Vishwaranjan said the rebels had set up a research and development (R&D) wing sometime back to become ’self-sufficient’ in weapons.

They had also started setting up units at Rourkela in Orissa and at Bhopal to manufacture a missile rocket launcher, but their plan was exposed.

Commenting on weapons and arms strength of the Maoists as compared to police forces, Vishwaranjan said only in explosives did the Maoists have an advantage. ‘We (police) get trapped in their landmines, but it can be tackled by training policemen.’

Vishwaranjan, a 1973 batch IPS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, quit the post of additional director in Intelligence Bureau (IB) early this month before taking over as the police chief of the insurgency-hit state.

Responding to a question regarding the poor intelligence networking system in the state, he said: ‘Tactics and morale matter a lot more than intelligence networking.’

He said he would visit the state’s Maoist-hit southern Bastar region to boost the morale of police forces who are fighting the Leftist radicals.

Newspostindia.com

Industry trapped in Maoist minefield

NEW DELHI: India’s multi-billion mining industry has become the latest victim of the naxalite terror machine. The remote location of mines provides a soft target to the naxalites to launch their attack without any fear of retaliatory action from the security forces. Inadequate security measures and poor corporate social responsibility initiatives in the violence-prone areas compound the problem.

In the past, there have been numerous instances where these elements have not only looted arms and ammunition used by security personnel guarding the facilities but also taken away huge quantities of explosives used for mining operations.

The threat perception has not only resulted in destruction of property worth several hundred crores of existing units but also created an atmosphere in which getting foreign investment in the sector is becoming difficult. The mines ministry has targeted a $2-billion foreign investment in the sector in the next couple of years.

The worst to be hit in this terror attack has been public sector mining major National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC). Its iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh have come under frequent attack from naxalites. There have also been reports that huge quantities of explosives are used by the mining companies for operational use. These are later used against the establishment for furthering the cause of the naxal movement.

“The naxalite movement has badly affected NMDC’s operations in Chhattisgarh. Attacks and damage to property have not only resulted in losses to the tune of several hundred crore rupees, but what is dangerous is that the mining fields have become arms and ammunition centres for naxalites who have now started repeated attack in such installations,” a NMDC official told ET.

In one instance, NMDC’s explosive magazine at Hiroli in Dantewala district of Chhattisgarh was looted. The naxalites ran way with not only huge cache of arms including SLR, rifels, walkie talkie sets but also took four magazines of explosives containing 64 metric tonnes of explosives.

The latest attack took place on May 31, 2007, when naxals damaged three high tension electric towers in Ambujmad region near Narayanpur, which resulted in total power failure in entire Bastar region. The production and dispatch activities of NMDC’s project came to a standstill as a result of this. Daily production loss estimated by NMDC on account of this is 60,000 tonnes of ore with a Rs 9 crore per day revenue loss. Last year, the conveyor of Bailadila mines of NMDC was also burnt affecting production for several days.

“We have sought assistance from Centre as well as the state to increase the deployment of security personnel at NMDC mines in Chhattisgarh but the requests have fallen on deaf ears. The state informs us that it has limited number of police force to man the mines. The Centre has suggested several measures to make our explosive magazine storage more secure. An action plan has also been made by CISF to improve security of NMDC mines but everything has remained on paper. The gravity of the situation should be understood at the earliest or else country’s largest mining operations would die under naxal pressure,” the official added.

The poor security situation has already started showing its impact on NMDC’s physical performance parameters. Less than targeted levels of production from company’s mines, Bailadila mines in Dantewala district, has often been reported as personnel required for the job were not available. “There is fear among employees working in NMDC mines in Chhattisgarh. The fear is getting aggravated with each passing day as government machinery has failed to move forward despite more than 20 attacks on NMDC facilities in less than one-and-a-half years,” said a source.
NMDC’s plight is not an isolated case of mining operations getting threatened from the naxal movement, especially those launched by CPI (Maoist) activists. Several other companies in public and private sector functioning in remote areas of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have also reported similar attacks.

Not that nothing is being done to contain the problem but often the Centre-state relations has taken its toll on the formulation of a national policy for protecting industrial installations located in the naxalite belt. In case of NMDC, the steel ministry has written several letters to the home ministry and Chhattisgarh government apprising them of the ground situation and an urgent need for remedial action.

However, the progress has been slow. And in the process the discomfort level of employees is rising. The fear is that country’s richness in iron ore and other minerals may fall prey to a violent movement that professedly aims to economically empower the downtrodden. How this would be possible if the economic installations themselves are destroyed needs to be watched.

Economic Times

Baster: Strangers in their own land

Book Review

JYOTIRMAYA SHARMA

A complex and nuanced story of the ‘adivasis’ of Bastar being displaced in the name of development

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SUBALTERNS AND SOVEREIGNS — An Anthropological History of Bastar (1854-2006): Nandini Sundar; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 650.

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This is not merely an anthropological history of Bastar, as the subtitle of this very important book suggests, but also an exploration on the part of the author of the normative universe that will eventually determine the increasingly fragile idea of Indian democracy and its institutions. It tells a very complex and nuanced story of the ‘adivasis’ of Bastar being displaced by centralised models of “development”, losing, in turn, their rights over la nd, water and forests.

While the conclusion in the book ends on a cautiously optimistic note, hoping for a better future for the ‘adivasis’ of Bastar, a people who have become strangers in their own land, the afterword is a testimony to the cruel shattering of this optimism. It tells the story of the anti-Naxalite counterinsurgency operation in Bastar called Salwa Judum. Termed by the Chhattisgarh Government variously as a “spontaneous”, “self-initiated”, “people’s movement” and a “peace campaign”, it literally means a “purification hunt”. It has taken the form of a state-sponsored drive against Naxals, but in truth, it has emptied villages, left houses burnt and displaced nearly a million people. It is also a story of indiscriminate arson, looting and rape by young vigilantes with the active involvement of security forces and politicians.

Complex picture

What is significant is that the complex picture involving an increasingly centralised state and resistance to its arbitrary power in the guise of democracy does not escape the attention of Nandini Sundar’s narrative. She says: “Young men armed by the government wield their guns with new-found machismo, excited when they find and kill some ‘dreaded Maoist’ who is often a former neighbour or even a relative, but are deeply nervous at the demons they have unleashed within. And in the jungles, the Maoists carry out military exercises, defending some imagined ‘guerilla zone’. In an ironic twist orchestrated by the Indian state, young Naga and Mizo reservists, whose collective historical memories include the burning and regrouping of their own villages a few decades earlier, burn adivasi villages and rape women with impunity.” The press too reports Naxal violence enthusiastically, while exhibiting an uncharacteristic coyness towards writing about state-sponsored violence. In the end, the ‘adivasis’ are caught between the Naxalites and the Salwa Judum, both imitating the criminality of the other.

Story of Bastar

The book is a very skilful coming together of anthropology and history. It exhaustively chronicles the story of Bastar from the time colonial administrative structures sought to impose “order” and “civilisation” on the ‘adivasis’ by imposing colonial prejudices and stereotypes to the present time when state-sponsored private vigilantism in the name of countering the Maoist movement threatens to wreck an entire way of life. It also details the way in which the ‘adivasis’ have resisted the colonial state in the past and a repressive state now.

But Sundar’s study is not an attempt to romanticise either the ‘adivasis’ or their history as one of “undiluted innocence or even heroism.” She is clear that “resistance cannot be produced on demand to be participated in or written about, but that it is always there as actuality and potential in the everyday structures of life…” Therefore, even for the ‘adivasis’, “everyday life is thus conducted through a mixture of active collusion, compromise or call it innovative fusion, resignation or call it avoidance…”

Erosion of a way of life

The centrality of her thesis is that despite the steady erosion of the ‘adivasi’ way of life, despite the increasing insouciance of the modern Indian state towards the needs of the ‘adivasis’ of Bastar, and despite the predatory inroads of the modern market economy into the forests of Bastar in the name of “development”, there is no singular model by which we can comprehend the complexity of choices and the modes of resistance that the ‘adivasis’ employ, much less impose a monochromatic paradigm on their choices. This is how the author articulates this very significant point: “[T]here is no unitary insurgent consciousness that we can capture, rooted in ‘culture’. In the process of individuals making collective choices of whom to support, what culture to adopt, when to rebel and when not to rebel — whether to organise under a ‘traditional’ system, whether to support a king or the communists, whether to represent themselves as indigenous people or both, culture is redefined, sometimes in old and sometimes in new terms. These are not entirely free or conscious choices, but they are choices nonetheless.”

Sundar’s book on Bastar, therefore, is a masterly narrative of the increasing failure of the Indian state to sustain democracy and provide governance. It ought to be read as a note of caution by all democrats, but also can be read for the restrained fluidity of the writing and the subterranean black humour that often is seen in its pages. An instance of the latter is K.P.S. Gill describing Salwa Judum as a real Gandhian movement.

www.hindu.com

Home Ministry cautions Chhattisgarh government over attacks on police

New Delhi, June 21: Anguished over frequent naxal attacks on security personnel in Chhattisgarh, the Union Home Ministry has cautioned the state government that it should take steps to ensure that the police did not get exposed to unnecessary risks.

The MHA has advised the State to take all possible precautions to ensure that the police did not get exposed to unnecessary risks, particularly day-time operations, sources in the Ministry on Wednesday said.

The Centre’s advise was conveyed to the State Government during the recent visit of the Additional Secretary (Naxal Management) in the Union Home Ministry Vinay Kumar.

In the latest incident on May 28, Maoists laid booby traps in Kudur village, 435 km from Raipur, killing an Assistant Sub Inspector, a Head Constable and seven constables of Mardapal police station in Bastar district.

In March, 50 security personnel were killed and over a dozen others injured when naxalites opened indiscriminate fire and hurled grenades and petrol bombs at a police base camp in Bijapur district of the state.

Taking serious note of the sudden spurt in naxal attacks, the State Government has set up anti-naxal cells in six more districts. Thus, out of 20 districts, such cells are in operation in 16 districts now.

With the militants using landmines, the MHA has given permission to the State Government to construct concrete roads so that laying of mines became difficult.

Besides discussing the response of the state police in dealing with the naxal problem, the central team reviewed the pace of development and employment generating activities to wean away misguided youth, they added.

Notes on Binayak Sen case

Since there appears to be some confusion about the exact status of the case against Binayak Sen, this note is being circulated to fill in the gaps in information.

1. Binayak has been in custody since 14.5.2007 in case FIR No. 44 of 2007 at Police Station Ganj, Raipur alleging offences under Sections 10(a)(1), 20, 21, 38, 39.2(b) & (d) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Section 2(b) (d), 8(1)(2)(5) of Chhattisgarh Vishesh Jan Suraksha Adhiniyam 2005.

2. The above FIR, in fact, was lodged on 6.5.2007 against Pijush Guha who was searched on suspicion at the Raipur Railway Station and found carrying three letters written by “some senior Commander of Naxalite Organization from jail to two other leaders of Naxalite Organization”, and Rs.49, 000/- in cash.

3. But Pijush Guha, at the first production before the Magistrate on 7.5.2007, recorded the fact that he had been illegally detained since 1.5.2007. It is upon a protest having been made regarding his illegal custody and a fax sent to the media in that connection, that this FIR was hurriedly recorded and the custody acknowledged in this illegal fashion six days later.

4. The FIR does not give any details of the dates of the letters, their contents, the names of the writers or the recipients, nor the name of any (banned) organisation that the writers or the recipients belong to. There is no recovery or search memo, or independent witnesses. The FIR, if filed correctly, should have contained these details. Even as per the prosecution, arguing before the Session’s Court, the letters speak of nothing more than mere boycott of the Lok Sabha elections.

5. The conjecture on which Binayak has been arrested is that he had carried the letters, which were allegedly recovered from Pijush Guha, from jail to Pijush Guha. This seems to be based on the fact that Binayak had made visits to the jail as part of his PUCL-based jail reforms and legal aid work. But all these visits were made with the express permission of the Deputy Superintendent of Police and Jail Superintendent and conducted in the presence of the jail officials.

6. Although not mentioned in the FIR, it was argued by the state during the hearing of Binayak’s bail application at the Session’s Court on 25.05.2007, that he had been helpful in getting a house on rent for Anita Srivastava, an academic from Allahabad University, who is now branded by the state as a Naxal. However, while Binayak denies being instrumental in procuring the house, this cannot be construed to be an “illegal” activity.

7. The Sessions Court, while rejecting bail, said that there was reason to believe that Binayak was acquainted with Narayan Sanyal, Anita Srivastava, and Pijush Guha. Pijush Guha had also given a custodial statement, but that cannot be used as evidence in a court. In this respect, the Sessions Court does not seem to have applied the well settled principles of law to determine whether mere acquaintanceship can lead to an inference of guilt.

8. As far as Narayan Sanyal goes, he is an undertrial prisoner held for offences under Sections 302 and 147 of the IPC, and not either under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act or the Chattisgarh Vishesh Jan Suraksha Adhiniyam – although Sanyal seems to be the pivot around which a spate of arrests has taken place recently under these two Acts. In fact, in January 2006 the State of Chattisgarh had stated before the High Court that he was not held by it. He was held in the State of AP and released on bail by the AP High Court but the State of Chattisgarh arrested him in connection with FIR 9/2005 in a pre-existing case.

9. The Sections under which Binayak is sought to be prosecuted are:? Being a member of an unlawful association, but the name and details of the organisation are not specified.? Being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation; again no details are given. ? Holding the proceeds of a terrorist act, which is not even alleged? Giving support to a terrorist organisation; again without substantiation. ? Soliciting contributions, and aiding an unlawful organisation, which is equally unsubstantiated.

10. In the search that was conducted of Binayak’s home on 19.5.2007, the police seized articles on jail reforms, the Naxal movements, and on American Imperialism, written in respectable journals. The police have made insinuating statements, carried widely by the media, that PUCL is an organisation supporting Naxals, and that Binayak was a virtual absconder. The truth is that PUCL is a perfectly legitimate organisation, and Binayak voluntarily went to the police station on his return from Kolkata, when he was arrested in spite of previous assurances by the police.

11. Binayak was produced before the court on 05.06.2007 and remanded to another 15 days in judicial custody. This was the first occasion on which the lawyer from Delhi (Nitya Ramakrishnan) could argue before the court and thus get an opportunity to inspect the entire case file. A petition for bail, prepared on the basis of the case file and the details given above, is now going to be filed before the High Court on 11.06.2007, at which time a date shall be fixed for the hearing.Some more updateThe bail petition for Binayak could not be filed before the High Court on Monday 11th even. It is now going to be filed tomorrow, 13th and the date for hearing will not be before 25th. This, apparently, is because there is a consensus amongst the laweyrs in Chhattisgarh that “that is the way the Courts function in Chhattisgarh and the High Court is not willing to give early hearings”.Ilina was also being threatened with arrest according to newspaper reports, but she now has got anticipatory bail yesterday because, when faced with the newspaper reports, the police made a statement in Court that they had no plans to arrest Ilina and the newspapers had printed their own version of the news.

By Dunu Roy