End the Spiral of Violence and Withdraw Operation Green Hunt!

The recent killing of 75 CRPF jawans in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh is unfortunate and deplorable as  the CRPF jawans haling from poor and common families were merely used as cannon-fodder in the state’s despicable game of furthering corporate interests. It must be emphasized that this incident is the result of the militaristic approach of the state to the growing opposition and resistance to displacement and corporate land grab.

AISA has always opposed Maoist tactics of mindless killings and violence, and the military offensive of the state justified in the name of ‘containing Maoism’. However, neither the state nor the corporate media has the moral right to cry foul over the recent killings. The very same media which is busy crying itself hoarse today over the killing of 75 jawans, for years remained silent while the Salwa Judum campaign was been launched in Chhattisgarh. 640 villages were razed to the ground in this campaign – 1,50,000 people displaced and either forced to move out of the state or into ‘refugee’ camps, its women molested and raped.

It is the Indian state which is primarily responsible for this spiral of violence – first through the criminal neglect of basic aspirations of the poorest of India’s citizens, and then through a single-minded, militaristic approach to peoples’ resistance. The stubborn refusal of governments to address genuine concerns of poverty, displacement, corporate land grab and privatisation of resources (even rives in Chhatisgarh have been sold out to industries), and the brutal crackdown on any opposing voice has led to this unfortunate situation not just in Chattisgarh but elsewhere in the country where the state is hell-bent on acting as a broker for industrial corporations. For the past few years, Dantewada has seen a virtual civil war as a result of the Salwa Judum campaign – which according to a report of the Ministry of Rural Development, was orchestrated merely to facilitate land acquisition of iron-ore rich lands in Dantewada by Essar and Tata. And the success of the Salwa Judum experiment has prompted the UPA to extend the scope and scale of this dangerous campaign under the name of Operation Green Hunt.

While holding the state responsible for the spiral of violence in Chhattisgarh, we have long maintained that the Maoist’s single-minded militaristic approach and their tactics of flashy attacks on public infrastructure and gruesome killing of individuals (including those hailing from the poorest sections of society) is weakening the growing people’s resistance to corporate land grab and state repression, since it gives the state an opportunity to justify as well as intensify its campaign of repression on people’s movements.

This time, the targets of Maoist attack were CRPF jawans. It has been well-documented by human rights as well as civil rights organisations that the CRPF jawans in Chhatisgarh and elsewhere have consistently killed innocent people in false ‘encounters’, raped women and burnt villages. And in this instance, the CRPF jawans who were killed were returning from a 3-day combing operation in the jungles of Chhatisgarh.

The Maoists have however shown time and again that they make no distinction between the police and civilians – we have not forgotten how they entered the Salwa Judum relief camp in Errabore and killed many tribals (including women and children). Nor have we forgotten the recent Jamui massacre, where in a perverted definition of ‘class war’, the Maoists brutally murdered 12 dalit villagers and wounded 50 others in Phulwaria-Korasi village of Jamui district of Bihar. These massacres have rightly been strongly condemned by several human rights organisations. Commenting on the Jamui massacre, PUDR for instance stated: “what causes concern to us is a party which claims to represent and fight for the emancipation of the `poorest of the poor’, shows such callous disregard for lives of the very same people, and considers them to be a fair target for acts of revenge”.

After every Maoist attack, it is the tribal population which bears the brunt of state repression. The Maoist cadres have the wherewithal to escape to the jungles, while the common people are left to face ‘combing’ and ‘searching’ operations, as well as ‘encounters’. In Lalgarh, young men from nearby villages were forced by CRPF jawans to check for landmines; villagers (including women and children) were assaulted during the ‘routine’ search operations, while the Maoists were nowhere in the picture.

AISA demands an immediate withdrawal of the Operation Green Hunt and other military offensives by the UPA. The genuine demands of the people in mineral-rich areas of the country and their opposition to the spate of MOUs being signed and the state-sponsored land grab has to be addressed urgently. We also warn the UPA that any attempts to further clampdown on democratic people’s movements against the state’s disastrous economic policies and against state repression will be resisted tooth and nail.