By Neyaz Farooquee
Nine Adivasis were killed last October in Dantewada in Chhatisgarh. Police detains the witnesses under the banner of Operation Green Hunt. Recently The Hindu reported about Adi Shambho and total control over her movement by state Police. Mystery remains.
This is not an isolated case, many of them doesn’t even reaches us, as media’s freedom is also curbed. It was reported mutely in some section of media that regional newspapers’ editor get summoned if they write anything against Salva Judum, operation Green Hunt, or anything that bothers Government. In some cases, they are asked to come to Police station and file reply at a short notice of 2 hours.
While regional media can’t stand up to the might of state Government, the mainstream national media is quite wanting while reporting a balanced perspective. Sponsorship plays an important role.
The sudden uprising of Naxalism has much to do with their land being taken forcibly for tapping the mines they are walking on. And the beneficiaries are clearly multinationals, which are the source of major revenue to newspapers and channels.
Naxalism has many dimensions, intermingled with local problems. In Chhattisgarh, its being forced away from their land, in West Bengal, they sniffed a chance to regroup courtesy moral help by a political faction in land acquisition case. In Andhra they have joined the demand of a separate Telangana state.
PM is right in saying it is greatest threat to our nation, as they are estimated to have 20,000 foot soldiers, and it covers almost 40 per cent of India’s geographical area, with a large number of sympathizers including Academicians and media persons. But the solution he offers, dealing with them Iron-handedly, isn’t practical to synchronise on such a large scale.
When iron hand is applied on them, there are greater chances of its misuse, as machinery isn’t aware how hard, or for the matter soft, he has to hit. In the process, chances are also that machinery end up hitting many wrong persons, missing the disguised culprit. Recent trends have been a hard punch on state face, as and when it tried to hit them.
What is needed is sincere and swift action, phase-wise, beginning with new areas where Naxals have started infiltrating into. The moment state machinery would try to bang up to their highest level in hierarchy; it would take some other dimension, like flowing water. Starting with egdes has greater chances to be effective, as number of sympathizers here would be low, and they would be having a chance to permeate into mainstream. Better facilities like school, colleges, community centre and rehabilitation centre would go a long way.
We can’t absolve ourselves of our duty by blaming them they destroy the infrastructure we build there. Making police post in schools is bound to harm the school in a hostile environment. We left them with no choice.
