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posted by Resistance 28.3.07, ,




Statement on Ranibodli counteroffensive operation

Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Central Committee

March 16, 2007

PLGA's heroic tactical counteroffensive in Chattisgarh is a fitting answer to the brutal state-sponsored terrorist salwa judum campaign!

Revolutionary violence by the oppressed is the only means to defeat the counter-revolutionary violence of the ruling classes!!

The daring tactical counteroffensive operation carried out by the PLGA led by our Party, the CPI(Maoist), on March 16 on a police base camp in Ranibodli in Bijapur district in Chattisgarh in which 55 policemen including 39 Special Police Officers (SPOs) were wiped out is an inevitable consequence of the brutal reign of terror unleashed by the state and central governments in the name of salwa judum. For almost two years since June 2005, the BJP government in Chattisgarh and the Congress-led UPA government in the Centre had sponsored a counterrevolutionary terrorist campaign of mass murder, torture, and arrests of thousands of the adivasi peasantry, gangrapes and murder of hundreds of women, destruction of thousands of houses, foodgrains, and all property of the adivasis, killing or taking away thousands of cattle, forceful evacuation of tens of thousands of people from almost eight hundred villages and issuing threats and intimidation to anyone suspected of being a member of revolutionary mass organization or sympathetic to the Maoists in Dandakaranya, particularly in Dantewara, Bastar, Kanker, Bijapur and Narayanpur districts. Over 5000 youth were inducted into a state mercenary armed force, paid monthly salaries, and pitted against the native adivasis who are fighting for land, livelihood and liberation under the leadership of the CPI(Maoist).


The police, who are scared to fight the Maoists by themselves, use this local mercenary armed force as cannon fodder in the fight against the Maoist movement. The Naga and Mizo Battalions were specially brought in along with a huge CRPF and other special police forces to Chattisgarh who had been committing the most barbaric and inhuman acts against the adivasi population. Over 800 villages were razed to the ground; more than 50,000 people were uprooted from their homes; at least 500 people were murdered in the past two years; hundreds of adivasi women were raped; property worth hundreds of crores of rupees was looted or destroyed by the armed thugs. All these cruel attacks against an entire population are meant to establish peace of the graveyard and clear the way for the unhindered loot by rapacious hawks like Tatas, Ruias, Essars, Mittals, Jindals and imperialist MNCs. Over one lakh rupees worth of MOUs were signed by the Chattisgarh government with these corporate comprador big business houses to drain the rich mineral and forest wealth of the state. At the behest of these day-light robberers, adivasi dalals like opposition leader of the Congress, Mahendra Karma, Home Monister Ramvichar Netham of the BJP and others have been leading this counter-revolutionary war against the adivasi population.

The heroic resistance by the adivasi masses led by CPI(Maoist) had pushed the reactionary rulers to utter desperation. Their much-trumpeted objective of wiping out the revolutionary movement led by Maoists by June 2006 had not only miserably failed but, on the contrary, they themselves are being wiped out by the PLGA and Bhumkal miltia led by the CPI(Maoist). Hence, they had deployed an even larger central force which is now more than 13 battalions, recruited 10 additional battalions of state forces, and inducted even minors of 14 years of age into their mercenary police force. KPS Gill, notorious for the mass murders of youth in Punjab, was specially appointed as advisor to the Chief Minister. A carpet security system is initiated with police camps in close proximity in order to strike terror among the people. In the past five months alone over a hundred adivasi men and women were murdered by these police-mercenary armed gangs. Plans are afoot to deploy the Indian army and to resort to aerial bombardment of the villages and PLGA locations.

We, on behalf of the CC, CPI(Maoist), once again warn the state and central governments that our Bhumkal Sena and PLGA and people will carry out attacks on a much bigger scale if the murder campaign in the name of salwa judum is not disbanded immediately. We declare that the sole responsibility for such needless loss of lives of hundreds of policemen and SPOs lies squarely on the shoulders of the state and central governments. Large-scale armed retaliation by the adivasis led by our Party is inevitable if the atrocities on the adivasi people continue in the name of salwa judum. Like George Bush who can only think in terms of using more brute force to control the fire of national liberation in Iraq, the Indian ruling classes too can only think of sucking in more and more repressive forces in order to suppress the people's war and grab the mineral wealth of Dandakaranya. However, they will only end up in further escalating the civil war in Dandakaranya. The people of Dandakaranya and our PLGA will certainly fight back the Indian army too if the ruling classes deploy it in Dandakaranya.

We do share the grief of the families of the dead policemen and SPOs but we are being compelled to wipe out the police and mercenary gangs who are obeying the orders of the ruling classes and their imperialist mentors to suppress the revolutionary movement for looting the wealth in the state. We appeal to the jawans of the central forces, particularly the Naga and Mizo battalions, to disobey the orders of the rulers and to withdraw from Chattisgarh. Already over 500 are suffering from falciparum malaria and almost 30 had died of this disease while several were forced to commit suicide under mental distress. We appeal to the SPOs who are being pitted against the adivasi people to quit the mercenary force as they are fighting an unjust war against their own brothers and sisters in the interests of the reactionary rulers. We call upon the democratic organizations and individuals and the vast masses of the country to condemn state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism on the adivasi people of Dandakaranya, to demand immediate disbandment of salwa judum and the mercenary SPO force, to fight for the withdrawal of the notorious central forces from the region, set up a judicial enquiry into the killing of over 500 adivasis by the police-salwa judum mercenary combine, to pre-empt the government's plans to deploy the Army, and to restore basic human rights of the people. The brutal repression by the state will only beget greater armed resistance of the people. Those who preach non-violence to the Maoists should first fight for the above-mentioned demands to put an end to state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism.

Azad,

Spokesperson,

Central Committee,

CPI(Maoist)

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posted by Bimal 27.3.07, ,





Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Central Committee

March 15, 2007


Let us wage a united militant struggle to throw out the Social-Fascist Government in West Bengal led by Bengal Dyer Buddhadeb!


Let us turn every SEZ into a Battle Zone like

Nandigram!!


The massacre of at least 16 peasants (which could actually be higher than 50) and causing injuries to over a hundred people in Nandigram by Buddhadeb's Hitlerite police force-CPI(M)'s social-fascist armed goons on March 14 brings into one's mind the ghastly massacre in Jallianwalabagh by the bloodthirsty general Dyer during the British colonial rule. Social-Fascist Buddhadeb has taken the mantle of butcher Dyer by sending over 5000-strong police force and hundreds of armed goons of his Party to pounce upon the peaceful protestors in the proposed SEZ of Nandigram in East Midnapore in order to pave the way for transforming West Bengal into a safe haven for the imperialist MNCs, big Corporate houses, and unscrupulous land mafia. The fleeing people, including women, were chased and killed by these neo-fascist armed gangsters in a way similar to the acts carried out by Hindu chauvinist gangs in Gujarat.


'Operation Bloodbath' at Nandigram is a meticulously planned conspiracy hatched by Buddhadeb's CPI(M) and Sonia's UPA government at the Centre in consultation with the big industrial sharks and their imperialist mentors. The worst part of this heart-chilling episode is that Buddhadeb and Prakash Karat had repeatedly assured the people that the proposed SEZ in Nandigram would be shelved and shifted elsewhere if the people did not want it. They had assured that notification for the acquisition of 14,000 acres of land was being withdrawn. Now it has become clear that these double-dealers, like Goebbels, had only used this as a ruse to buy time, and had never any intention to shift the SEZ. Nine peasants were killed in the past few weeks prior to the March 14 massacre In order to serve the MNCs and the industrial houses the so-called Left Front government had decided to seize the multi-crop land of the peasants and build SEZs over the grave-yards of the protesting people. The blood of women and children that flowed in the fields of Nandigram thoroughly exposes the "Left" rhetoric and round-the-clock demagogy by political brokers like Sitaram Yechuri, Brinda Karat, Raghavulu and so on. They organize protests for building their vote bank where they are in opposition but kill the protesting people where they are in power.


Nandigram has proved even to a layman that the rhetoric of these social-fascists is no different from that of National Socialism of Adolf Hitler. Yechuri's shameless defence of the gory massacre by placing the blame for the violence on the Trinamool and the Maoists is an eye-opener to all those who still believe in the socialist rhetoric of these traitors and goons in the guise of so-called Left. This social-fascist and the most trusted political broker for the imperialists and the Indian Big Business claimed that his "Left" Front government in West Bengal is trying to resolve the issue politically but "outsiders" such as Maoists were trying to incite the people of Nandigram and that the helpless policemen had to fire in self-defence. This hypocrite cannot fool the people by trying to hush up the stark fact that his Party goons and thousands of policemen were sent deliberately to massacre the peaceful protesters, that all those murdered through this state-sponsored terrorism were local peasants including several women, and that this most despicable and bizarre act was carried out to resolve a political movement through the most brutal means. This Indian offspring of Goebbels cannot fool the people through such lies and falsehood to justify the unprovoked firing on the people. The bloodbath of March 14 reveals in naked colours the cruelty and inhumanity of the so-called reforms with a human face peddled by Yechuris, Karats and the like and their fake opposition to the neoliberal policies of privatization-liberalisation-globalisation. No wonder, Ambanis, Tatas, Mittals, Essar Ruias and the imperialist MNCs and the World Bank are itching to bring these social-fascists to power at the Centre as they have proved themselves to be the most loyal servants and their social base can serve to enact social-fascism to suppress people's struggles.


Today the reactionary ruling classes of the country are bent upon transforming vast tracts of fertile agricultural land into neo-colonial enclaves even if it means enacting blood-baths all over the country. Thousands of crores of rupees have already flown from the big business and imperialist MNCs into the coffers of the Congress, CPI(M) and other political parties. It is clear that the battle-lines are drawn for an uncompromising war between the haves and have-nots, between those who want to turn our mother-land into a haven for the international capital, the Indian big business and the handful of filthy rich on the one hand and the vast majority of the destitute, poverty-stricken masses, particularly the peasantry, on the other. There is no middle ground: either one is with the vast masses or with the filthy rich. 237 SEZs have already been approved and lakhs of acres of fertile agricultural land are being forcibly acquired by the various state and central governments. In Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgrah, AP, Maharashtra, Haryana, and several other states, lakhs of people are rendered homeless due to anti-people projects.


The CPI(Maoist) calls upon the oppressed masses, particularly the peasantry, to transform every SEZ into a battle-zone, to create Kalinga Nagars and Nandigrams everywhere, and to kick out the real outsiders—the rapacious MNCs, comprador big business houses, their dalals and the land mafia—who are snatching away their lands and all means of livelihood and colonizing the country. The CC, CPI(Maoist), vows to extend all support to the struggling masses, to intensify the struggle against all SEZs, and to avenge the massacre in Nandigram. The masses have the right to rebel against injustice, and how ever much Yechuris and Buddhadebs yelp about Maoist incitement, we openly declare to the world that we shall unite the vast masses and lead, participate and extend all support to the people and organizations of our country to unite and fight the imperialist onslaught through the SEZs that is being carried out through their Indian dalals in the Congress, BJP, CPI(M), Samajwadi Party, TDP, DMK, AIDMK and other political parties who are selling away our motherland. CPI(Maoist) calls upon the people of West Bengal to make the state bandh on March 16 a big success and continue the heroic struggle until the SEZs are withdrawn.

Azad,

Spokesperson,

Central Committee,

CPI(Maoist)

posted by Bimal 27.3.07, ,




CPI(Maoist) Resolution Regarding the Party Programme

There was quite an intense and detailed debate on the draft Party Programme at the Congress. Delegates participated in this debate in a free and frank atmosphere. Discussion took place in detail on the whole lot of amendments that were sent by the State Conferences and other parts.

There was much debate on the presence of the brahminical casteist ideology and system in Indian society, and its role. The Congress resolved this issue. By consensus, this specific particularity of Indian society was identified and determined. In accordance with this, the necessary additions and changes in the draft Party Programme were also accepted.


Moreover, after detailed discussions on issues like the character of the Indian society and state, various aspects of the communist revolutionary movement and national liberation struggles in India, the role of the CPI leadership, the class analysis and contradictions of Indian society, our attitude towards the different classes and sections of the society and the tasks of the new democratic state, concrete and definite conclusions were drawn, and these conclusions were incorporated into the draft documents. Thus, the Congress succeeded in centralizing the ideas and opinions through a meaningful debate on the draft of the Party Programme.

Finally, the Congress adopted by consensus this important basic document in an atmosphere of great zeal and enthusiasm.

posted by Bimal 27.3.07, ,




Interview with Mahendrakarma

No qualms: Karma says the governments should act coherently against Naxals
 
'If we can wipe out Naxalism from Bastar, the red corridor is finished'
You are an Adivasi MLA from Dantewada. Has Naxalism affected you personally?

I have lost two brothers to it and have escaped attacks several times. Whenever I go to Dantewada, especially on padyatras to spread the message of the Salva Judum, there is the risk. My family and sons still live in my native village. Recently, on March 2, I was going on a motorcycle yatra with 150 others to Jagargunda, a village on the border with Andhra Pradesh. One of the motorcycles ahead of me triggered a pressure bomb. It could have been me.

Aren't you afraid?

This is not the sort of bogus fight that politicians are used to. In this fight, we will have to be prepared for anything. I am not new to this. I have been fighting the Naxals since 1989 when we started a jan jagran abhiyan among villagers and the Naxalites left, but soon they returned. I worked again on it when I was an independent member of the Eleventh Lok Sabha.

So what has this experience of working on the issue of Naxalism taught you?

The single greatest lesson I have learnt is never to compromise with the Naxals.

Does that mean you are against peace talks with them?

The Naxals aren't even offering to talk.

But if they do?

They just can't give up the gun. If they do, then perhaps we can talk.

Shouldn't the government initiate peace talks with them?

These are the people who are against the Constitution and the democratic system as a whole. We, on the other hand, are part of this democratic system and it is our responsibility to save it from the Naxalites. You must understand that they are terrorists.

What do you think of the way Maoists have joined democracy in Nepal?

That's what they will have to ultimately do in India.

But Naxalites say that Indian democracy has been a farce because developmental benefits haven't reached the people.

Okay, so let us throw the ball in their court: what have the Naxals done for the people? Have they empowered common people in any way? Has the standard of living in villages controlled by them improved? Why don't you understand that the Naxals want 'revolution', they want to change the system, and the tribals are the best fodder. But we who are fighting against the Naxals are also tribals. We have the same blood in us.

There are several kinds of terrorism. There is communal terrorism and local terrorism, but Naxalism is political terrorism of an international nature. Whatever be the form of terrorism, it isolates people geographically or communally. What the Naxals want amounts to secessionism. Democracy, on the other hand, is nobody's property, certainly, not mine. I haven't picked it up from Plato.

So what is the status of Naxalism in Chhattisgarh now according to you?

There is a big dent in it after a people's movement against it in the most-affected district of Dantewada. But Dantewada is still the centre of Naxal activity, not just in Chhattisgarh but in the entire country. This is where the root is. This is where I suspect the central leadership of he Communist Party of India (Maoist) resides. If we can wipe out Naxalism from Dantewada, we will have wiped it out from the rest of the country. And there is only one thing that can defeat Naxalism. It is called Salva Judum. For the first time has such a people's movement taking place. The Naxalites earlier called themselves 'People's War Group'. But what they are doing now is war against the people! Their very astitva (being) is being challenged.

Is it true that you are the initiator of Salva Judum?

I only gave it this name after I saw it come up on its own. Seeing a village rebel against Naxalites gave me the inspiration to lead them. They needed a political voice, which is what I gave them. I gave them leadership.

But some say that the Salva Judum was your creation with police help.

That is mere propaganda. After a month-and-a-half of the movement, the state government made the wise decision to support it.Given how alarming the problem of Naxalism is, why should the state not support it?

But if it is really a spontaneous movement against Naxalite oppression, why has it appeared only in Dantewada and not the rest of south Chhattisgarh and indeed the red corridor?

Just because others haven't risen up doesn't mean Dantewada's tribals are fools. It is not Dantewada's fault if others don't have the courage to stand up against Naxalism.

So why don't you take the Salva Judum movement to other areas?

Wherever we go, people stand up and join us. We have made a beginning with Dantewada. Until we don't become a Naxalism-free state, we will not stop. If there are places where there is local leadership willing to stand up against the Naxals, we are ready to support it.

But isn't it unfair for the state to arm tribals and pit them against Naxalites? It is widely alleged that many are forced to join the Salva Judum and relocate to camps.

The people of Dantewada want to fight. Hundreds have died at the hands of the Naxalites, but they still want to fight. They want to kill Naxalites. The state cannot fool lakhs of people. You go to Salva Judum camps and ask them. The people of Dantewada are not like the Kashmiri Pandits who left their homes when forced by the gun. We are fighters.

The Naxalites are known for violence against individuals and institutions that represent the state. Don't you think that the creation of Salva Judum camps has turned thousands of villagers into ready targets for the Naxals?

On the contrary, wherever there are Salva Judum camps, Naxal violence and oppression of villagers has come to an end.

Many allege that the budget for these camps has provided officials an unprecedented opportunity to bungle the funds. There are even allegations against you for corruption.

As you know the Naxals can succeed in killing me any day. Do you think a man who has given his life would care for money? As for officials, we are talking of a machinery where corruption is widespread, so I would not be surprised if there has been corruption. There should indeed be an enquiry.

What do you think have been the three biggest successes of the Salva Judum?

Firstly, the Naxalite network has been undermined. They used to work with tribal villagers, and the same villagers are now on our side. Secondly, 5,000 Naxalites have surrendered and become special police officers (SPO) with the Salva Judum.

Who decides who will be given SPO status and arms?

The government decides the terms, it's not my responsibility. But it is true that many who are associated with our peace movement have been made SPOs. Anyway, you didn't let me tell you the third and the most interesting achievement of Salva Judum, which is that politicians have started speaking against Naxalism. Earlier they were so afraid of Naxals that they didn't want to openly speak out against them. Only when the locals have dared that the political class has risen to the occasion.

In May 2006, you told Tehelka that Salva Judum would be able to finish the Naxals by June 2006. This is March 2007 and we have just witnessed the massacre of 68 Salva Judum and Chhattisgarh police officials in Dantewada.

We give such slogans to inspire our masses. But you will appreciate that the Salva Judum has spread to all of Dantewada by now.

Rights groups and fact-finding committees have found large-scale human rights violations and violence in the name of Salva Judum. You cannot write them off as Naxal sympathisers.

I don't care for so-called intellectuals who can't understand what a jan andolan is.

Has there been a single mistake committed by the Salva Judum? If you were to do it all again, is there anything you would you do it differently?

When such a jan andolan takes place there is always some upvad , some wrongs, but exceptions should not be presented as the rule.

KPS Gill said at the Tehelka summit last year that the Salva Judum was a Gandhian movement…

No doubt about that! It is a public movement for freedom just like the one Gandhi led.

But Gandhi's was a non-violent movement, and Salva Judum is about an eye for an eye…

Do you know how many people Gandhi's non-violence killed?

How many?

Twenty two thousand. They were killed by the British for following Gandhi's path.

The massacre in Ranibodli on March 15, isn't it proof that the Salva Judum campaign failed?

Not at all. This massacre was going to happen. It was decided in the ninth Congress of the CPI (Maoist). That's when I think they also decided to killed Sunil Mahatoji of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. The state and Central governments should take the Naxalite decisions and plans more seriously than they do. The Naxals do what they say.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said in Parliament the other day that Naxal-related incidents in the country had dipped by 6.5 percent in 2006, but in Chattisgarh they increased by 57 percent. And 676 have died in 22 months and most of these were in Dantewada. You still think Salva Judum has not backfired?

Do the other states have a public movement against Naxalism? Obviously, Naxals are killing more in Dantewada because they are frustrated at tribals being wooed away from them.

So the escalating deaths are merely collateral damage?

Well when there is a problem in front of you will you bravely face it or turn away? If we have to fight Naxalism, we will have to pay a price. Kisi samasya ka samadhan haath par haath dharey rehne se thodi na hota hain. Usko root se nikalna padega, sangharsh karna padega. We Indians typically accept things as destiny, leaving it bhagwan bharosay. That's not how you fight a war. The Naxals want this war to prolong for another 20-25 years and that's why they are killing more people.

Controversial as it is, is Salva Judum the only way of fighting Naxalism?

Well, I had Salva Judum to offer. If any learned person in the country has other solutions to offer, he is most welcome to try them.

Isn't providing more security a simple solution?

Yes, as the Salva Judum spreads, there will be more need for security.

So at the moment the number of security forces is just fine?

It is less than adequate.

Can you please pose below the Gandhi portrait for the photographer?

(Stands up and poses.) You are making me stand in the line of Gandhi. (Chuckles.)

It is you who has Gandhi in his office.

You know there is a saying, maha-purushon ke pad-chinh dikhaeen nahi dete, kyon ki un par aaj tak koi chala hi nahin. (You can't see the footsteps of great men because nobody has walked on them.)

posted by Bimal 26.3.07, ,




Anti-Posco men warn of suicide squads

JAGATSINGHPUR, March 25: A week after the "lathi rally," anti-displacement activists, who are opposed to the Posco steel plant, today held a Jan Garjan Samabesh and warned the government of violent resistance if the plant was forced upon them. "We will also form suicide squads," they declared at the meeting.

The meeting was styled on lines of the pro-Naxalite Jan Ganjan Samabesh held a couple of years ago in Bhubaneswar which had been addressed by Mr Ververa Rao and others from Andhra Pradesh.
Prior to today's meeting at Patana of Dhinikia panchayat, those the factions which are for and against the project clashed, injuring 10 persons. Leaders of the anti-project faction like Mr Abhaya Sahu said the need to reaffirm and a show of strength were due to certain recent developments, including the district administration's notice to lift the check gates erected

He also said recent reports that the project authorities may give up Dhinikia and redraw their layout were highly misleading.

Today's meeting was attended by people from the villages of Dhinikia, Nugaon and Gadakujnag panchyats. Anti-Posco activists declared that they would not hesitate to become radicals on lines of Maoists, if the government tried to force the issue.

They dared the police administration to use force against peaceful people's movement and resistance. "We know how to respond to police force," they charged. The district magistrate, Mr Promoda Kumar Mehreda, issued notice against 12 persons for lifting the entry gates within seven days and warned them of stern action.

The Posco Jana Sampark Bikash Parishad, a pro-plant outfit, however, claimed today that the Jana Garjan Samabesh had flopped and it did not evoke much of a response amongst the villagers.    The Statesman

posted by Bimal 26.3.07, ,




'If the State is violent, there will be counter-violence' : Varava Rao

Revolutionary poet and ideologue Varavara Rao

How do you react when Maoists enact a brutal massacre such as this?

It is only the symptom of what is happening on the ground. The issue is simple. Multinationals are making huge inroads with the help of corrupt governments and contractors. The Maoists' movement had stopped the mnc drain on the region's resources, but of late they have begun to exploit the area again. In addition, the government is repressing people in the name of Salva Judum, which is nothing but a State-sponsored war upon the people. The media has reported more than 50 policemen killed in the incident, but do you know 39 of them were Salva Judum activists whom the government has armed and given uniforms?

'The government is repressing people in the name of Salva Judum, which is a State-sponsored war'
Do you justify violence as a political tactic, though?

What is the option? You must ask this question to the State which is the main instrument of violence today. Those who stand up for the rights of the masses often have no recourse but to resist State violence; Maoists are indulging in counter-violence, that's all, they have to defend themselves.

Is there a possibility they could give up arms and begin talks?

Again, ask the State. If it ends Salva Judum and the people of the area are allowed to return home safe, there will be a reduction in violence. But if the State continues to oppress people, there will be retaliation.

How do you respond to a ceasefire proposal?

Let the government declare it, the revolutionary movement will take a decision. More than 60 people were killed in Nandigram by the State and nobody calls that violence. These were people trying to protect their land and the police just butchered them. There is no outcry about that kind of violence. Why? When the State is so violent, there will be violence in society.

Where do you see the movement heading? Is there a goal in sight?

This is a time for all revolutionary, democratic and nationality movements, like the ones in Kashmir and the Northeast to unite, and something will come out of this unity. We have very little expectations of the State and the comprador class that it represents.                                 Tehelka

posted by Bimal 24.3.07, ,



EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

'It's outright war and both sides are choosing their weapons'

Chhattisgarh. Jharkhand. Bihar. Andhra Pradesh. Signposts of fractures gone too far with too little remedy. Arundhati Roy in conversation with Shoma Chaudhury on the violence rending our heartland


 
Singur and Nandigram make you wonder — is the last stop of every revolution advanced capitalism?
There is an atmosphere of growing violence across the country. How do you read the signs? In what context should it be read?


You don't have to be a genius to read the signs. We have a growing middle class, reared on a diet of radical consumerism and aggressive greed. Unlike industrialising Western countries, which had colonies from which to plunder resources and generate slave labour to feed this process, we have to colonise ourselves, our own nether parts. We've begun to eat our own limbs. The greed that is being generated (and marketed as a value interchangeable with nationalism) can only be sated by grabbing land, water and resources from the vulnerable. What we're witnessing is the most successful secessionist struggle ever waged in independent India — the secession of the middle and upper classes from the rest of the country. It's a vertical secession, not a lateral one. They're fighting for the right to merge with the world's elite somewhere up there in the stratosphere. They've managed to commandeer the resources, the coal, the minerals, the bauxite, the water and electricity. Now they want the land to make more cars, more bombs, more mines — supertoys for the new supercitizens of the new superpower. So it's outright war, and people on both sides are choosing their weapons. The government and the corporations reach for structural adjustment, the World Bank, the ADB, FDI, friendly court orders, friendly policy makers, help from the 'friendly' corporate media and a police force that will ram all this down people's throats. Those who want to resist this process have, until now, reached for dharnas, hunger strikes, satyagraha, the courts and what they thought was friendly media. But now more and more are reaching for guns. Will the violence grow? If the 'growth rate' and the Sensex are going to be the only barometers the government uses to measure progress and the well-being of people, then of course it will. How do I read the signs? It isn't hard to read sky-writing. What it says up there, in big letters, is this: the shit has hit the fan, folks.


You once remarked that though you may not resort to violence yourself, you think it has become immoral to condemn it, given the circumstances in the country. Can you elaborate on this view?


I'd be a liability as a guerrilla! I doubt I used the word 'immoral' — morality is an elusive business, as changeable as the weather. What I feel is this: non-violent movements have knocked at the door of every democratic institution in this country for decades, and have been spurned and humiliated. Look at the Bhopal gas victims, the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The nba had a lot going for it — high-profile leadership, media coverage, more resources than any other mass movement. What went wrong? People are bound to want to rethink strategy. When Sonia Gandhi begins to promote satyagraha at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it's time for us to sit up and think. For example, is mass civil disobedience possible within the structure of a democratic nation state? Is it possible in the age of disinformation and corporate-controlled mass media? Are hunger strikes umbilically linked to celebrity politics? Would anybody care if the people of Nangla Machhi or Bhatti mines went on a hunger strike? Irom Sharmila has been on a hunger strike for six years. That should be a lesson to many of us. I've always felt that it's ironic that hunger strikes are used as a political weapon in a land where most people go hungry anyway. We are in a different time and place now. Up against a different, more complex adversary. We've entered the era of NGOs — or should I say the era of paltu shers — in which mass action can be a treacherous business. We have demonstrations which are funded, we have sponsored dharnas and social forums which make militant postures but never follow up on what they preach. We have all kinds of 'virtual' resistance. Meetings against SEZs sponsored by the biggest promoters of SEZs. Awards and grants for environmental activism and community action given by corporations responsible for devastating whole ecosystems. Vedanta, a company mining bauxite in the forests of Orissa, wants to start a university. The Tatas have two charitable trusts that directly and indirectly fund activists and mass movements across the country. Could that be why Singur has drawn so much less flak than Nandigram? Of course the Tatas and Birlas funded Gandhi too — maybe he was our first NGO. But now we have NGOs who make a lot of noise, write a lot of reports, but whom the sarkar is more than comfortable with. How do we make sense of all this? The place is crawling with professional diffusers of real political action. 'Virtual' resistance has become something of a liability.


Anyone listening? nobody
Abhinandita D. Mathur
 
We are in the era of sponsored dharnas and NGOs the sarkar is comfortable with. The place is crawling with professional diffusers of real political action
There was a time when mass movements looked to the courts for justice. The courts have rained down a series of judgements that are so unjust, so insulting to the poor in the language they use, they take your breath away. A recent Supreme Court judgement, allowing the Vasant Kunj Mall to resume construction though it didn't have the requisite clearances, said in so many words that the questions of corporations indulging in malpractice does not arise! In the ERA of corporate globalisation, corporate land-grab, in the ERA of Enron and Monsanto, Halliburton and Bechtel, that's a loaded thing to say. It exposes the ideological heart of the most powerful institution in this country. The judiciary, along with the corporate press, is now seen as the lynchpin of the neo-liberal project.


In a climate like this, when people feel that they are being worn down, exhausted by these interminable 'democratic' processes, only to be eventually humiliated, what are they supposed to do? Of course it isn't as though the only options are binary — violence versus non-violence. There are political parties that believe in armed struggle but only as one part of their overall political strategy. Political workers in these struggles have been dealt with brutally, killed, beaten, imprisoned under false charges. People are fully aware that to take to arms is to call down upon yourself the myriad forms of the violence of the Indian State. The minute armed struggle becomes a strategy, your whole world shrinks and the colours fade to black and white. But when people decide to take that step because every other option has ended in despair, should we condemn them? Does anyone believe that if the people of Nandigram had held a dharna and sung songs, the West Bengal government would have backed down? We are living in times when to be ineffective is to support the status quo (which no doubt suits some of us). And being effective comes at a terrible price. I find it hard to condemn people who are prepared to pay that price.


You have been travelling a lot on the ground — can you give us a sense of the trouble spots you have been to? Can you outline a few of the combat lines in these places?


Huge question — what can I say? The military occupation of Kashmir, neo-fascism in Gujarat, civil war in Chhattisgarh, mncs raping Orissa, the submergence of hundreds of villages in the Narmada Valley, people living on the edge of absolute starvation, the devastation of forest land, the Bhopal victims living to see the West Bengal government re-wooing Union Carbide — now calling itself Dow Chemicals — in Nandigram. I haven't been recently to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, but we know about the almost hundred thousand farmers who have killed themselves. We know about the fake encounters and the terrible repression in Andhra Pradesh. Each of these places has its own particular history, economy, ecology. None is amenable to easy analysis. And yet there is connecting tissue, there are huge international cultural and economic pressures being brought to bear on them. How can I not mention the Hindutva project, spreading its poison sub-cutaneously, waiting to erupt once again? I'd say the biggest indictment of all is that we are still a country, a culture, a society which continues to nurture and practice the notion of untouchability. While our economists number-crunch and boast about the growth rate, a million people — human scavengers — earn their living carrying several kilos of other people's shit on their heads every day. And if they didn't carry shit on their heads they would starve to death. Some f***ing superpower this.


How does one view the recent State and police violence in Bengal?


No different from police and State violence anywhere else — including the issue of hypocrisy and doublespeak so perfected by all political parties including the mainstream Left. Are Communist bullets different from capitalist ones? Odd things are happening. It snowed in Saudi Arabia. Owls are out in broad daylight. The Chinese government tabled a bill sanctioning the right to private property. I don't know if all of this has to do with climate change. The Chinese Communists are turning out to be the biggest capitalists of the 21st century. Why should we expect our own parliamentary Left to be any different? Nandigram and Singur are clear signals. It makes you wonder — is the last stop of every revolution advanced capitalism? Think about it — the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the Vietnam War, the anti-apartheid struggle, the supposedly Gandhian freedom struggle in India… what's the last station they all pull in at? Is this the end of imagination?


The might of the gun: The Maoists march during their Ninth Convention in Chhattisgarh
AP Photo
 
These are times when to be ineffective is to support the status quo. And being effective comes at a terrible price
The Maoist attack in Bijapur — the death of 55 policemen. Are the rebels only the flip side of the State?


How can the rebels be the flip side of the State? Would anybody say that those who fought against apartheid — however brutal their methods — were the flip side of the State? What about those who fought the French in Algeria? Or those who fought the Nazis? Or those who fought colonial regimes? Or those who are fighting the US occupation of Iraq? Are they the flip side of the State? This facile new report-driven 'human rights' discourse, this meaningless condemnation game that we are all forced to play, makes politicians of us all and leaches the real politics out of everything. However pristine we would like to be, however hard we polish our halos, the tragedy is that we have run out of pristine choices. There is a civil war in Chhattisgarh sponsored, created by the Chhattisgarh government, which is publicly pursing the Bush doctrine: if you're not with us, you are with the terrorists. The lynchpin of this war, apart from the formal security forces, is the Salva Judum — a government-backed militia of ordinary people forced to take up arms, forced to become spos (special police officers). The Indian State has tried this in Kashmir, in Manipur, in Nagaland. Tens of thousands have been killed, hundreds of thousands tortured, thousands have disappeared. Any banana republic would be proud of this record. Now the government wants to import these failed strategies into the heartland. Thousands of adivasis have been forcibly moved off their mineral-rich lands into police camps. Hundreds of villages have been forcibly evacuated. Those lands, rich in iron-ore, are being eyed by corporations like the Tatas and Essar. mous have been signed, but no one knows what they say. Land acquisition has begun. This kind of thing happened in countries like Colombia — one of the most devastated countries in the world. While everybody's eyes are fixed on the spiralling violence between government-backed militias and guerrilla squads, multinational corporations quietly make off with the mineral wealth. That's the little piece of theatre being scripted for us in Chhattisgarh.


Of course it's horrible that 55 policemen were killed. But they're as much the victims of government policy as anybody else. For the government and the corporations they're just cannon fodder — there's plenty more where they came from. Crocodile tears will be shed, prim TV anchors will hector us for a while and then more supplies of fodder will be arranged. For the Maoist guerrillas, the police and spos they killed were the armed personnel of the Indian State, the main, hands-on perpetrators of repression, torture, custodial killings, false encounters. They're not innocent civilians — if such a thing exists — by any stretch of imagination.


We were here: After the Jehanabad jailbreak
AP Photo
I have no doubt that the Maoists can be agents of terror and coercion too. I have no doubt they have committed unspeakable atrocities. I have no doubt they cannot lay claim to undisputed support from local people — but who can? Still, no guerrilla army can survive without local support. That's a logistical impossibility. And the support for Maoists is growing, not diminshing. That says something. People have no choice but to align themselves on the side of whoever they think is less worse.


But to equate a resistance movement fighting against enormous injustice with the government which enforces that injustice is absurd. The government has slammed the door in the face of every attempt at non-violent resistance. When people take to arms, there is going to be all kinds of violence — revolutionary, lumpen and outright criminal. The government is responsible for the monstrous situations it creates.


'Naxals', 'Maoists', 'outsiders': these are terms being very loosely used these days.


'Outsiders' is a generic accusation used in the early stages of repression by governments who have begun to believe their own publicity and can't imagine that their own people have risen up against them. That's the stage the CPM is at now in Bengal, though some would say repression in Bengal is not new, it has only moved into higher gear. In any case, what's an outsider? Who decides the borders? Are they village boundaries? Tehsil? Block? District? State? Is narrow regional and ethnic politics the new Communist mantra? About Naxals and Maoists — well… India is about to become a police state in which everybody who disagrees with what's going on risks being called a terrorist. Islamic terrorists have to be Islamic — so that's not good enough to cover most of us. They need a bigger catchment area. So leaving the definition loose, undefined, is effective strategy, because the time is not far off when we'll all be called Maoists or Naxalites, terrorists or terrorist sympathisers, and shut down by people who don't really know or care who Maoists or Naxalites are. In villages, of course, that has begun — thousands of people are being held in jails across the country, loosely charged with being terrorists trying to overthrow the state. Who are the real Naxalites and Maoists? I'm not an authority on the subject, but here's a very rudimentary potted history.


We are coming: A demonstration against the acquisition of land in Singur
AP Photo
 
The government has slammed the door in the face of every attempt at non-violent resistance. The government is responsible for the situations it creates
The Communist Party of India, the CPI, was formed in 1925. The CPI (M), or what we now call the CPM — the Communist Party Marxist — split from the CPI in 1964 and formed a separate party. Both, of course, were parliamentary political parties. In 1967, the CPM, along with a splinter group of the Congress, came to power in West Bengal. At the time there was massive unrest among the peasantry starving in the countryside. Local CPM leaders — Kanu Sanyal and Charu Mazumdar — led a peasant uprising in the district of Naxalbari which is where the term Naxalites comes from. In 1969, the government fell and the Congress came back to power under Siddhartha Shankar Ray. The Naxalite uprising was mercilessly crushed — Mahasweta Devi has written powerfully about this time. In 1969, the CPI (ML) — Marxist Leninist — split from the CPM. A few years later, around 1971, the CPI (ML) devolved into several parties: the CPM-ML (Liberation), largely centred in Bihar; the CPM-ML (New Democracy), functioning for the most part out of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar; the CPM-ML (Class Struggle) mainly in Bengal. These parties have been generically baptised 'Naxalites'. They see themselves as Marxist Leninist, not strictly speaking Maoist. They believe in elections, mass action and — when absolutely pushed to the wall or attacked — armed struggle. The MCC — the Maoist Communist Centre, at the time mostly operating in Bihar — was formed in 1968. The PW, People's War, operational for the most part in Andhra Pradesh, was formed in 1980. Recently, in 2004, the MCC and the pw merged to form the CPI (Maoist) They believe in outright armed struggle and the overthrowing of the State. They don't participate in elections. This is the party that is fighting the guerrilla war in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.


The Indian State and media largely view the Maoists as an "internal security" threat. Is this the way to look at them?


I'm sure the Maoists would be flattered to be viewed in this way.


The Maoists want to bring down the State. Given the autocratic ideology they take their inspiration from, what alternative would they set up? Wouldn't their regime be an exploitative, autocratic, violent one as well? Isn't their action already exploitative of ordinary people? Do they really have the support of ordinary people?


I think it's important for us to acknowledge that both Mao and Stalin are dubious heroes with murderous pasts. Tens of millions of people were killed under their regimes. Apart from what happened in China and the Soviet Union, Pol Pot, with the support of the Chinese Communist Party (while the West looked discreetly away), wiped out two million people in Cambodia and brought millions of people to the brink of extinction from disease and starvation. Can we pretend that China's cultural revolution didn't happen? Or that millions of people in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were not victims of labour camps, torture chambers, the network of spies and informers, the secret police. The history of these regimes is just as dark as the history of Western imperialism, except for the fact that they had a shorter life-span. We cannot condemn the occupation of Iraq, Palestine and Kashmir while we remain silent about Tibet and Chechnya. I would imagine that for the Maoists, the Naxalites, as well as the mainstream Left, being honest about the past is important to strengthen people's faith in the future. One hopes the past will not be repeated, but denying that it ever happened doesn't help inspire confidence… Nevertheless, the Maoists in Nepal have waged a brave and successful struggle against the monarchy. Right now, in India, the Maoists and the various Marxist-Leninist groups are leading the fight against immense injustice here. They are fighting not just the State, but feudal landlords and their armed militias. They are the only people who are making a dent. And I admire that. It may well be that when they come to power, they will, as you say, be brutal, unjust and autocratic, or even worse than the present government. Maybe, but I'm not prepared to assume that in advance. If they are, we'll have to fight them too. And most likely someone like myself will be the first person they'll string up from the nearest tree — but right now, it is important to acknowledge that they are bearing the brunt of being at the forefront of resistance. Many of us are in a position where we are beginning to align ourselves on the side of those who we know have no place for us in their religious or ideological imagination. It's true that everybody changes radically when they come to power — look at Mandela's anc. Corrupt, capitalist, bowing to the imf, driving the poor out of their homes — honouring Suharto, the killer of hundreds of thousands of Indonesian Communists, with South Africa's highest civilian award. Who would have thought it could happen? But does this mean South Africans should have backed away from the struggle against apartheid? Or that they should regret it now? Does it mean Algeria should have remained a French colony, that Kashmiris, Iraqis and Palestinians should accept military occupation? That people whose dignity is being assaulted should give up the fight because they can't find saints to lead them into battle?


Is there a communication breakdown in our society?

Yes.

Tehelka

posted by Bimal 24.3.07, ,




First Conference of Anti-Displacement Front concluded successfully

Ranchi, March 23: A new national forum has been formed today to fight the development model that leads to large-scale displacement of workers for the benefit of the multinationals and domestic business houses.

The decision to form Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (Peoples' Development Movement against Displacement) was taken after a two-day marathon brainstorming at Patel Bhavan, in the city today.

Nearly 500 representatives from 100-odd organisations across the country took part in the deliberations.

A rally was also organised today to highlight the need for the people to join hands to oppose displacement.

The new outfit has a nine-member steering committee headed by president of Bharat Jan Andolan B.D. Sharma. The other eight members are drawn from outfits active in Bengal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. There is also a central council with 50 members.

Some of the immediate protest programmes include a Bharat Bandh some time in October, two-day demonstration near Parliament and three public rallies at Orissa, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

Intellectuals, artists and writers in large numbers would take part in the demonstration programme at New Delhi.

In the four-page Ranchi declaration, the forum has resolved to oppose the present model of development.

"We demand to reject the MoUs that different governments have signed. We also demand scrapping of special economic zones as it would lead to displacement of rural population," said the senior member of the preparatory committee that drafted Ranchi Declaration, G.N. Saibaba.

The forum suggested an alternative model for the development that would be people- oriented and for the masses. All development projects should have the consent of the local people and there should be no loot of natural wealth. Resources, they added, should be extracted to the extent that it serves the needs of the people.

"The new organisation will give more teeth to the various ongoing movements against displacements. We don't want capitalists to decide the manner of development in the country. It would increase the disparities between haves and have-nots," Sharma added        The Telegraph 

posted by Bimal 24.3.07, ,




Introducing Mahendra Karma - The Tribal Killer from the Mystical Place called "Bastar"...


Backstabbing Mahendra Karma(right)







Mahendra Karma the political leader from Bastar has many facets to his life.Started
of his political carreer as a Communist leader then joined BJP and now is the leader
of opposition party Congress in Chhattisgarh.As you can see from above the only reason
he is in politics is to make money that is why he is been in so many parties.





If people of Chattisgarh are to be believed he is an agent of BJP Government and the
business community of the State.This is the only reason that being the leader of the
opposition party Congress not even once he has spoken strongly against any of the
anti-tribal State policies of the present State Government.Even though the whole of the
Congress party of chattisgarh is against "Salwa Judum" he is the only one leading the
"Salwa Judum" campaing against the innocent tribal population of Chattisgarh.





The "Phirang" Sonia Gandhi and other Congress Leaders sitting at Delhi knowing very well
that "Salwa Judum" is a crime against humanity are not able to do anything against him since
he openly threatens them that he will quit congress and join BJP.So to please Karma the Congress
party at Delhi doesn't mind if thousands of naive tribals are being killed and displaced by an agent of
BJP,Tata Steel,Essar Steel and Land Mafias.





Mahendra Karma and his men have been on a land purchasing spree since the day State Government
signed MOU's with Tata Steel and Essar Steel both at Lohndiguda(Tata's Site) and Dantewada(Essar's Site)
at throw away prices from the innocent tribals as low as two thousand rupees per acre only to be given to
Tata steel and Essar Steel since he has already been paid more than 100 crores by these MNC's to start
"Salwa Judum" and to work as their Land Broker.
But Karma now realises that the Tribals of Bastar have come to know of his devilish intention.After "Ranibodli"
incident even the SPO's have started speaking against him and "Salwa Judum".As a desperate measure he came
up with a plan which is as follows:-





On 18th March 2007 the leaders of different tribal community from all over Chattisgarh were called at "Guru Tej Bahadur
Community Hall" near "Raj Bhavan" on the pretext that there is a meeting to discuss "Salwa Judum",SEZ,tribals right over
forest etc.


Once all the leaders arrived at Raipur all were in for a shock of their lives.The gathering of almost two thousand tribals
were hurt when they came to know that the whole meeting was organised by Mahendra Karma and his men to con the Tribal Community
again in the name of "Chattisgarh Adivasis Mahapanchayat".In his speech not once did Karma talk about Salwa Judum or the tribals
killed but was presenting himself as some who cares for the tribals by bringing them under one banner under "Chattisgarh Adivasi
Mahapanchayat".

Isn't it quite obvious that Karma feels left out in the Tribal Community since the start of Salwa Judum and that
he is fearing that "Sunil Mahto" will happen to him sooner than later??How can the Tribal Community ever forgive a back Stabber
like Mahendra Karma ever??


This is the same Mahendra Karma who cheated the Tribal Community in 1997 when Chattisgarh State was not formed.
In 1997 the State Assembly of Madhya Pradesh had passed a resolution to bring the Bastar Region under Schedule 6
of the Constitution Of India .But Karma and Arvind Netama after recieving money from the Business Community of Bastar
objected to this resolution.How can two tribal leaders object to Schedule 6 of the Constitution of India which is meant to
safegaurd the interest of the Tribals????


Since then the Tribal Community of Bastar feels cheated by Karma and there is a popular belief amongst the Tribals that
like Ajith Jogi he is also not a real tribal and that he has promised the Business Community that he will convert Bastar
( A Schedule 5 Area) into a Non-Tribal Area soon.No wonder "Salwa Judum",Tata Steel,Essar Steel and BJP are so
important to Mr.Mahendra Karma...


posted by Bimal 24.3.07, ,




More Horror Stories From Nandigram, CPI(ML) Team

CPI(ML) Team In Nandigram: Summary Of Findings


(A 20-member CPI(ML) team comprising Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, West Bengal State Secretary Kartick Pal, senior state leaders Dr. Partha Ghosh, Shankar Mitra, Meena Pal and Chaitali Sen, AISA leader Malay Tewari and editor of the Party's Bengali weekly organ Deshabrati Animesh Chakraborty visited the carnage-ravaged areas and people of Nandigram on 17 March. They also talked to injured victims undergoing medical treatment at the district hospital at Tamluk and the extremely under-equipped and over-crowded health centre at Nandigram. They heard reports of most horrendous killings of unarmed people, gangrapes and brutal assaults on women and children, met several people who were desperately looking for missing family members and were shocked to see very few young girls and children among the survivors in the carnage-ravaged villages of Bhangabeda, Sonachura and Gokulnagar. What follows is a brief report of the team's findings).


What really happened at Nandigram on March 14


From the accounts of the injured at the hospital as well as injured residents of the three affected villages – Sonachura, Bhangabera and Gokulnagar, the following facts emerge about the events of March 14.


The villagers were apprehensive of a police crackdown. They wished to be sure not to give the police any pretext to attack. Therefore, feeling that the police would surely not attack defenceless women and children, the latter assembled in the form of separate and adjacent prayer meetings of Hindus and Muslims in the maidan between Gokulnagar and Bhangabera. A huge 5000-strong police force stormed into the area, and began by kicking at the worshippers and destroying their idols and prayer area.


The police then lobbed teargas shells and fired rubber bullets – not to disperse a violent or unruly mob, but rather to literally create a smokescreen and confuse the crowd of people. Having done so, the firing began. The bullet wounds on the bodies of the people at hospitals are mostly in the waist, chest, back – bullets were cold-bloodedly aimed to kill. Local CPI(M) leaders oversaw the entire operation, and many villagers recounted how several of those in police uniform and helmets wore chappals on their feet, indicating that they were actually CPI(M) goons in uniform.


A particularly brutal feature of the attack is the aspect of sexual assault on women and massacre of children. Women have recounted having seen little children being torn apart. They said many children were still in school uniform, having just returned from morning schools, and were brutally assaulted. A large number of children are still missing; it is not clear whether they have run away, been abducted, or been killed and the bodies disposed off. The local people suspect that the missing children have been killed.


The people informed us that the horror did not end on March 14. Our team visited on March 17, and we were told that on 15th, 16th, and right up to the morning of the 17th, the assaults by CPI(M) goons continued.


Evidence from the Hospitals


The team felt the accounts gathered from the injured in hospitals were the most authentic, since those people had beyond doubt been at the spot and had directly witnessed the episode. We saw a broken ambulance lying in a pond. TV footage showed police beating up a woman who was trying to pick up a severely injured and unconscious person. It appears that systematic efforts were made to prevent the injured from getting help.


Members of the team visited Nandigram Health Centre (the nearest health centre), Tamluk Hospital, and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.


Tamluk


At Tamluk Hospital, we spoke to Sankha Gole (47), Laxmikanta Gayen (26), Niranjan Das (38), Subhransu Partra (30), Gopal Das (32), Anjali Das, Nirmal Mondal (28) and others. Some of the patients had been shifted from here to Kolkata, but there were still others who had been referred to Kolkata and were yet to be taken there for treatment.



We spoke to the CMO at Tamluk hospital, who along with the other doctors and nurses seemed to be doing their utmost, but the sheer lack of medical facilities for the severely injured made their task difficult.


Nandigram


At Nandigram Health Centre, we spoke to Gobinda Paik (37) from Sonachura, Sreehari Samanta (26) from Kalicharanpur, Pranati Maity (50) from Keshabpur, and Ranadhir Galu (40) from Soudkhali. This Health Centre has paltry facilities, and just 30 beds, while even on the 17th, there were at least double the number of patients, with most lying on the ground.


SSKM Hospital Here we spoke to Swarnai Das (40) from Gokulnagar, Avijit Giri (22) from Kalicharanpur, Swapan Giri (21) from Sonachura No. 10, Parijit Maity (51) from Kalicharanpur, Haimanti Halder (50), Tapasi Das, Salil Das, Andhirani, Prithish Das, Banasri Acharya, and others.


We learnt that at Tamluk, 14 dead bodies were brought in on 16th March (12 male, 2 female). Another person died in hospital. Among the injured brought to hospital, 31 were male, and 14 female. 7 dead bodies are yet to be identified. At the Nandigran hospital, 65 injured were brought in, (32 male and 33 female). Both these hospitals are understaffed, there is no sweeper, only two ambulances. Life saving drugs not available and are locally purchased on an ad-hoc basis. The injuries of those in hospital and the reports of the state of the dead bodies tell their own tale. Many had bullet injuries – above the waist, in the chest, abdomen, frontal side of shoulder. In Tamluk hospital there were 2 rape victims – Gouri Pradhan (25), of Adhikary Para of Gokulnagar and Kajal Majhi (35), mother of 4 children, of Kalicharanpur. One of the latter's breasts had been lacerated by a chopper/sword. Swarnamai, in Woodburn ward in SSKM, had severe bullet injuries, while Haimanti had a buttock chopped off and was in the ITU. Such injuries were not merely the result of having been unluckily in the line of police firing – they were deliberate and savage assaults of a sexual nature.


The women we spoke to alleged that 6 other rape victims were not thoroughly examined due to pressure from above. Also that the uterus of one woman was ruptured by introducing a hard metallic rod.


The injured people we met did not speak of themselves – their injuries or chances of survival or lack of proper treatment; they all spoke of how they looked forward to continuing their struggle against eviction from the land.


Calculated Savagery


The sheer savagery of the violence at Nandigram indicate that it was not just another case of unprovoked police firing, or of a police force gone berserk. The injuries inflicted on people (indicated by the state of the dead bodies as well as the survivors) are not mere bullet injuries. We have described above some of the chopper injuries on those in hospitals. A television cameraperson who had seen the mutilated and brutalised dead bodies in the morgue, said he had seen bodies of victims in bad rail accidents and fires – but had never seen bodies in such a disfigured, disemboweled condition as in Nandigram.


CPI(M)'s Complicity


The people at the hospitals as well as in the three affected villages told us they recognised CPI(M) leaders who directed the entire operation –Lakshman Seth, MP and chairman of the Haldia Development Corporation, CPI(M) district leaders and panchayat functionaries like Ashok Guria, Ashok Bera, Debal Das, and Sureshwar Khatua. These leaders also ensured that almost no media reached Nandigram – several newspapers reported how their reporters and camera persons were roughed up by the CPI(M) goons.


CBI's findings as reported in several newspapers, also seem to corroborate the allegations of the villagers and eyewitnesses. The CBI team followed a trail of blood, which suggested that a bleeding body had been dragged some distance to the Ma Janani brick kiln in Khejuri, a CPI(M) stronghold. There the CBI sleuths came across CPI(M) and DYFI literature, party flags and clothes including women's underclothes.


The CPI(M) goons arrested by CBI in this brick kiln include Naru Maity, Rajkumar Jana, Manoranjan Maity, Ratikanta Maity, Sachin Pramanik, Abhishek Ghorui, Kanai Das, Panchanan Sasmal. Villagers allege that they were hired by Laxman Seth and others, for two lakh rupees each for Operation Nandigram. A huge cache of arms and ammunitions were recovered from them, and also CPI(M) leaflets and flags, mobile sets with phone numbers of local CPI(M) leaders were also recovered from them by the CBI.


The myth of extremist 'outsiders'


The CPI(M)'s official response has been to blame 'outsiders', 'naxals' and the like for indulging in 'lawlessness', and even attacking the police with bombs and pipe guns – thus justifying the need for the police action. What truth is there in these accusations and claims? A simple question which needs to be posed against these claims is: how come no police personnel is seriously injured, if they were actually subjected to an extremist assault by a huge mob? CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury has said that SEZs and land acquisition had nothing to do with the occurrence at Nandigram; 'outsiders' and 'extremists', frustrated by their inability to mobilise local support, indulged in violence against the police. Our observation was quite the contrary. Nandigram is a traditional CPI-CPI(M) stronghold, an old area of Tebhaga peasant struggle. The local MP is from CPI(M), MLA from CPI, and most panchayat members are from CPI(M). The only reason why this very mass base suddenly turnedagainst CPI(M) was the proposed land acquisition for the proposed SEZ to built up by Indonesian MNC Salem International.


It was precisely because Nandigram was emerging as a model for anti-SEZ, anti-corporate- land grab resistance that it invited such horrible repression. It had become a sore spot and a source of concern and anxiety, not just for local CPI(M) leaders or the LF Government, but for all Governments all over the country.


The Build-up to March 14


March 14 has not happened all of a sudden – it is not a mistake that the LF Government or the CPI(M) has committed on the spur of the moment. The events of January in Nandigram were a dress rehearsal for March – in which the patterns for the March assault can be discerned. In January, the police withdrew in the name of allowing 'peace' to be restored; while actually they were clearing the way for a planned assault by CPI(M) cadres from Khejuri. Then, there were systematic attempts to stop facts from reaching the public: the CPI(ML) fact-finding team was arrested before they could enter Nandigram, jailed and had charges of murder and illegal possession of arms slapped on them.


Then, the CM appeared to backtrack in the face of the determined resistance, and claimed the HDA notification of land acquisition was a 'mistake' that caused 'confusion'. He made reassurances that no land would be acquired without farmers' consent. But it seems that these statements were only meant to deliberately mislead the movement and people at large, even as 'Operation Nandigram' was being planned all the while.


Since January, the statements of senior CPI(M) leaders all clearly indicate the ominous threats to the people of Nandigram, and reading them after March 14, they sound like chilling prophecy. CPI(M) CC Member Benoy Konar said "We'll surround them and make life hell for them". Health Minister Suryakant Mishra who is from East Midnapore, had declared "Snakes come out in the summer, you must use the flag like a stick and smash their heads" (see Ananda Bazaar Patrika, 31 January). And in the Kisan Rally of 11 March at Brigade Parade Ground, Buddhadeb also issued a veiled threat that no region would be allowed to hold the development of the State to ransom. These statements are as clear an incitement to and indication of violence as one can get.


Post-Carnage Justifications


After March 14, Buddhadeb has made three types of statements. Immediately after the incident, he declared to the CPI State Secretary that he was "under pressure from the party to act". On the 14th he arrived too late in the Assembly to make a statement. On the 15th, in the Assembly, he justified the police action as "self-defence". And eventually, he accepted moral responsibility as head of the Government, and said he had not expected so much resistance and not known the police excesses would be quite so much.


What to make of the behaviour of the LF Government and CPI(M) in the aftermath of March 14?



The LF partners have reduced the whole issue to a matter of internal democracy of the Left Front – and have ignored the fact that what took place at Nandigram is a massacre, genocide, murder of democracy. Let us repeat that March 14 was no blunder that happened on the spur of the moment. In January itself, intellectuals and well-wishers of the LF Government and of the CPI(M) had expressed concern about the escalating violence in Nandigram and warned the Government to desist from the policy of forced land acquisition and SEZs. The CPI(M) arrogantly dismissed these voices and did not bother to listen to even the pro-Left intelligentsia, preferring instead to mock at them.


If Buddhadeb says he acted "under pressure from the party", the statements of the topmost CPI(M) leadership indicate that all levels of the CPI(M) hierarchy have been equally complicit in chalking out the blueprint of Operation Nandigram.

posted by Bimal 24.3.07, ,


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