Radical Notes’ Pothik Ghosh talks to the Deputy Editor of the Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) Bernard D’Mello about the current confrontation between the Indian State and the Maoists.
An Interview with Bernard D’Mello (Deputy Editor, EPW) II
December 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Radical Notes’ Pothik Ghosh talks to the Deputy Editor of the Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) Bernard D’Mello about the current confrontation between the Indian State and the Maoists.
An Interview with Bernard D’Mello (Deputy Editor, EPW) I
December 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Radical Notes’ Pothik Ghosh talks to the Deputy Editor of the Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) Bernard D’Mello about the current confrontation between the Indian State and the Maoists.
Narayanpatna: Attack on an all-women fact-finding team
December 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
From the Press Conference: Update at 9 December, 2009, 2.45 p.m.
The 9 women fact-finding team just concluded a press conference at Parvathipuram, Vijayanagaram District, Andhra Pradesh. Here’s the narrative of the day’s happenings as told by Shweta Narayan and Madhumita Dutta to Nityanand Jayaraman over phone:
At 10 a.m., the All India Women’s Fact Finding Team consisting of 9 women reached Narayanpatna Police Station and requested to meet the Station In-charge.
1. Sudha Bhardwaj, Advocate, Chhattisgarh
2. Mamata Dash, Delhi
3. Madhumita Dutta, Chennai
4. Shweta Narayan, Chennai
5. Rumita Kundu, Bhubaneswar
6. Pramila, Bhubaneswar
7. Kusum Karnik, Bhubaneswar
8. Ramani, New Democracy, Orissa
9. Durga, Chhattisgarh
We were told that the policeman was busy and were asked to come in the evening. The person questioning us asked us for names and mobile phone numbers and names of organisations. We gave all of that. We noticed quite a number of uniformed policemen and many people in plainclothes. None of the people in uniform (we assume they were policemen) had any name tags. We asked one of them who the people in plainclothes were and were told that they were all policemen. We asked the man how many police were there in this area, and he said more than 2000 police. One striking thing is that none of the many people gathered there were adivasi.
About 20 adivasi men were huddled, squatting inside the police station premises. We asked the policeman near us who they were and were told that the adivasis were former activists of the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh, who had come to surrender. This has been happening for a few days now, and many newspapers are reporting this.
By this time, the crowd of so-called plainclothes police were getting restless. We heard people commenting, saying: "Ab aa rahen hain. Jab hamarey gaon jal rahe the, tho kahaan the?" (When our farms were being burnt, where were you? Now they show up).
Madhumita felt the situation was looking troublesome and suggested we leave. As we were stepping out of the police station, our driver was cordoned off and was being questioned in a very hostile manner and being threatened. We heard someone saying that he is a regular to these parts and they enquired as to his antecedents.
We somehow managed to extricate the driver. One of the policemen in plainclothes, whom we saw inside the police station premises, was taking photographs, and he said "Maaro Inko." (Beat these people up). That is when more than 200 people surged ahead. The driver was being slapped repeatedly. Madhu and 75-year old Kusum Karnik tried to intervene and that is when one man went for Madhu’s throat. Kusum was hurt too.
Rumita Kundu was verbally abused inside the police station. One man crudely said that all these women had come to sleep with the men there. Mamta Dash was hit on her back and abused. One man attempted to strangle Madhu. When she moved to save herself, her jaw was injured. All this happened inside the police station premises.
The driver was the one that was being assaulted most, and we did all we could to extricate him and board our vehicle. By this time, the vehicle was being broken. The rear windscreen was broken. With great difficulty, we fled the area driving towards Bandhugaon. We were followed by the plainclothesmen who claimed to be police on bikes. Somewhere between Bandhugaon Police Station and the village itself, we were stopped by two men in plainclothes. They said they were police, and they demanded to see the driver’s license. As he was enquiring, about 20 people gathered there. But nothing untoward happened here. We were scared nevertheless.
From there, we proceeded to Kottulpetta. Even before we got to this village, news seemed to have reached them about our visit. A road blockade had been organised, with a bullock cart blocking the road. There were no oxen. The people there, again all non-tribals, pulled out the driver and started assaulting him. They tried to pull down another male colleague of ours, Mr. Poru Chandra Sahu, and tried to beat them up. We intervened, and that’s when Kusum didi, the 75-year old activist, was hurt on her head. We were there for more than 15 minutes. More violence. More damage to the vehicle. More slaps for the driver. Our friends outside had been notified almost as soon as problems began, and phone calls must have been pouring into the Collector and SP’s office.
By this time, two bikes carrying one of the plainclothes "policemen" who had taken our names in Narayanpatna, and another plainclothes guy who was tall and burly, reached there and asked the youth to disperse.
We reached Bondapalli, the border village within Andhra Pradesh. Almost in no time, a jeep load of Andhra Pradesh police along with plainclothes youth (young boys) armed with rifles and bullets arrived on the scene. They demanded to know who we were. We were treated more like criminals than victims, and our vehicle was searched. Only after Madhu spoke to the SP of Vijayanagar and the DGP were we allowed to go. The police who stopped us immediately changed the tune and offered to help us with medical assistance etc.
Our experience with armed youth and police has left us clearly terrified and convinced that the situation created by the police in Narayanpatna and this part of Orissa is extremely vitiated. We have the following concerns and demands which we conveyed to the media at a press conference in Parvathipuram, Vijayanagarm District, Andhra Pradesh.
Concerns:
- The scenario of terror that we witnessed and were subject to shows the kind of tense situation prevailing in the Narayanpatna area post November 20, 2009’s police firings in Narayanpatna.
- There is no access for people to get in and out of the villages in Narayanpatna, with all routes blocked by armed goons.
- There is no way to get information about what is happening inside, and no means of verifying the very disturbing accounts we are getting about abuses, molestations and violence against adivasi people.
- The number of plainclothesmen who claimed they were police, and the comfort with which people outside the Narayanpatna police station were interacting with the police, and reacting to one policeman’s instruction to beat us up, suggests that there may be some truth to reports that there is a Salwa Judum style Shanthi Samiti in this area as well. This may either be sponsored or working in close complicity with the police and state.
- If the Fact Finding team of prominent women has been treated with such violence, it is clear that there is absolutely no room for dissent inside the villages.
- All the people who attacked us were non-tribals.
Demands:
- The officers at the Police Station should be suspended to create an impartial situation and enable the carrying out of investigations into the firing of 20 November, 2009, and the subsequent reports of atrocities against tribal people.
- The SP Koraput should be suspended.
- The Government should constitute a high-level independent investigation team and not depend on the police, who are clearly biased, and are using the language of terror and violence to suppress dissent.
Please show your protest by calling the DM and SP of the district:
DM — Gadadhar Parida 0 94381 8184649
SP — Deepak Kumar Chauhan 0 94379 62200
For more information, contact:
Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj: 09926603877
Madhumita Dutta: 9444390240
Mamta Dash: 09868259836
This All India Women’s Fact-Finding Team was in Narayanpatna to enquire into the Police Firing that took place on 20 November, 2009.
Under the Pretext of Fighting the Maoists: Kavita Krishnan
December 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Central Committee Member of CPI-ML (Liberation), Kavita Krishnan on how the state and corporations are suppressing not only the ‘maoist’ struggle but movements of any kind that are challenging neoliberalism.
State Terrorism in Manipur: Malem Ningthouja
December 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Malem Ningthouja from the Campaign for Peace and Democracy (Manipur) talks about the brutality of state repression that the Manipuri people have been suffering.
“Almost non-violence”
December 8, 2009 by 1 Comment
“If a man fights with his sword single-handed against a horde of dacoits armed to the teeth, I should say he is fighting almost non-violently. Haven’t I said to our women that, if in defence of their honour they used their nails and teeth and even a dagger, I should regard their conduct nonviolent? She does know the distinction between himsa and ahimsa. She acts spontaneously.
“Supposing a mouse in fighting a cat tried to resist the cat with his sharp teeth, would you call that mouse violent? In the same way, for the Poles to stand valiantly against the German hordes vastly superior in numbers, military equipment and strength, was almost non-violence. I should not mind repeating that statement over and over again. You must give its full value to the word ‘almost’.”
Mahatma Gandhi, “Discussion with B.G. Kher and others” (August 15, 1940), Collected Works, Vol 79, p. 122.
Why does India Inc want changes in labour laws?
December 8, 2009 by 1 Comment
India Inc is still worried about labour laws in the country. Even OECD recommends a rationalisation of these laws if a 9% growth rate is to be attained. Such views usually make people think that there is some kind of favouritism going on towards labour. They are unable to understand that labour laws that exist today were also according to the needs of India Inc, but these needs themselves are dynamic, they change with the changes in the regime of accumulation – the way the capitalists accumulate and profit. Thus they often demand laws to be rationalised according to their dynamic needs.
Let’s see how they fare under the existing labour law administration.
India’s Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Harish Rawat informed on December 7, 2009 in a written reply in the parliament that in the year 2007-08, 39115 inspections took place in the “central sphere” (which does not include action taken by the State Governments) under various labour laws on receipt of complaints regarding their violation. These inspections led to prosecution in 65 per cent of the inspected cases (i.e. 25801 cases in absolute figures). In comparison to the previous two years, this definitely shows an increased efficiency of the labour administration, as in 2005-06 it was just 38 per cent, while in 2006-07 it was 42 per cent.
However, the revelation comes when we try to find out how many cases were resolved in favour of the workers. While in 2005-06, in 92 per cent of prosecutions the employers were found to be guilty of violation of labour laws, the figure was drastically reduced to just 42 per cent in 2006-07, and in 2007-08 it further came down to 36 per cent. This statistics gives us more – in 2005-06, only in 35 per cent of inspected cases, convictions took place, in 2006-07 it was 17 per cent and in 2007-08 it was 23 per cent.
So, what does all this imply? The capitalists are already getting what they want. But the point is that they want more. In fact, they are being quite rational and honest when they want labour laws to be rationalised – after all these laws are obviously meaningless, when they can easily flout them and remain unconvicted.
Narayanpatna: Nachika Linga, the Most-Wanted
December 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Satyabrata
On the 4th of December, 2009 an order was issued for the immediate arrest of Nachika Linga, leader of the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (CMAS). He is now in the “Most Wanted” list of the government of Orissa. Posters have been put up by the government throughout Koraput and other regions of southern Orissa displaying a photograph of Nachika Linga and the “crimes” he had committed written underneath. Cash awards have been announced for anyone who helps arrest him. There are about 46 cases in Nachika’s name which include murder, attempt to murder, dacoity etc. Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code among other sections has been lodged in his name.
On the 6th of December, the Superintendent of Police, Koraput publicly announced (which he has no legal authority over) that the CMAS should be banned. Here it is necessary to take a bird’s eye view of who Nachika Linga is and what the CMAS has been doing recently.
Nachika Linga is one of the many indigenous tribals who inhabit Narayanpatna. Lately he became the Nayak Sarpanch of his area. Nachika Linga joined the CMAS which was leading the movement for land redistribution. It is necessary here to mention that the movement was never illegal. Even the issues that it raised were broadly related to a proper implementation of the existing laws. To be specific, there is an act passed by the Orissa Legislative Assembly in 1952 (Act 2) which says that the non-tribals cannot keep the lands of tribals in that region, and the CMAS was simply trying to get this law implemented. The authorities of the region till recently were therefore in constant dialogue with the CMAS. In fact, a collector who facilitated this dialogue most sincerely too earned the name so many progressive people are earning now-a-days: Maoist. Due to this movement, the local tribals were able to acquire their lands and the process of collectivization of ownership of land too was started. There were social reform measures taken within the movement, like limiting the consumption of liquor by the tribals to festive occasions only.
Evidently, the landlords and liquor traders who were thriving on land-grabbing, commercialistion of local economy found their ‘businesses’ hampered. They were ‘forced’ to flee the region. In ‘fear’ they joined hands with dominant political forces, and found the police and their actions the only mechanisms to reenter Narayanpatna. Attempting to limit the movement territorially, and to create ‘a civilian’ support base for the state’s brutal measures to suppress the movement in Narayanpatna, they formed ‘salwa judum’ like groups in adjoining Laxmipur. As reported earlier, two leaders of CMAS were gunned down and today there is a warrant in the name of Nachika Linga.
The whole organization which was giving an organized and definite shape to the spontaneous resistance of the rural poor in the region stands accused of a conspiracy to wage war against the state. Does it not seem parallel to the draconian measures during the initial days of capitalism everywhere through which the states declared every association of workers and poor as conspiracies? What is happening in India today demonstrates that such measures are not simply historical, but rather constitutive of capitalism – capitalists and their states invoke them every time they find it opportune.
There are press reports that inform about the return of the landlords and traders in the region. How brutal the police force in the region has been and whom in the region it is nepotistic to is no secret. Several tribals in fear of arrest and at gun-point have reportedly ‘committed’ not to indulge in any ‘unlawful’ activities of the CMAS. The clean image of the government of Orissa is being projected by the media at a time when a fascist political economy is being nurtured with its very own hands. Under such conditions, as old Marx would have said, force alone can impregnate this old society with a new one. This force has to make its development and is making its development within and in spite of this authoritarian bourgeois rule in the form of territorially limited movements, which have already nurtured many Birsa Mundas who are daily confronting the brutalities of the state – and Nachika Linga is definitely among them. The final expression of this force shall be in bringing down the authority of this state but that is possible only by generalizing the spirit of struggle beyond localities.
Radical Notes 