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print versionDear friends,
According to newspaper reports, the Union Home Ministry is planning to finish the Maoists in a military action after the monsoons, a move which appears to have the support of all the state governments. This military model is now being practiced all around in South Asia at huge costs to civilian lives. We have seen this happen in the recently concluded war in Sri Lanka. The operation in Lalgarh seems to be a case of testing the waters. The Maoists for their part are also increasingly resorting to major provocative strikes, in which large numbers of police personnel have died.
While the government and the Maoists are engaged in militarism, the real issues that concern the people have been lost. Apart from the issue of land
acquisition and displacement, food security, education and health, the right of people to live in peace and dignity has been denied through this conflict. The Home Minister says that development will follow security – this is against all the principles of citizenship as well as most expert analysis of Naxalism. The police and security view of Naxalism as purely a law and order problem, which needs more security forces, more police stations and better weaponry ignores the context which gave rise to Naxalism in the first place, including corruption and harassment by the police, especially when it comes to dalits and adivasis. The militaristic approach of the Government of India and of the state governments to a situation which is an outcome of their own systematic and criminal neglect over the years of adivasi areas, cannot be allowed to take centre stage.
In the past similar militaristic approaches have boomeranged at heavy cost to people. The Salwa Judum campaign, used both armed civilians and security forces to burn villages and force people into camps. The Maoists have used the State offensive to further militarization. This massive militarization on the both sides has resulted in loss of lives and has created huge problems for adivasi people. More than 1000 people were killed and many women were raped in the Salwa Judum operations and hundreds of thousands still remain displaced five years after the start of that disastrous experiment. By appointing SPOs in Orissa and Manipur and transforming the SPOs into Koya Commandos in Chhattisgarh, the government has refused to learn from the failure of this policy. In continuing to glorify Salwa Judum and refusing to compensate and rehabilitate villagers even ten months after its admission in the Supreme Court, the Chhattisgarh government is in contempt of the Supreme Court. The BJP Government of Chhhattisgarh is not interested in health workers, teachers or grain for its population – it only wants police and more police. At the same time huge tracts of land and resources are being handed over to corporate.
As concerned citizens of this country, who wish for a peaceful, democratic and just resolution of conflicts, we invite you to discuss these issues and help to craft a non-militaristic solution.
We call upon all sides to engage in dialogue, specifically putting the interests of civilians and citizens as their top priority, as against the interests of capitalists, the bureaucracy and the party.
In addition we demand that the Government of Chhattisgarh which has been responsible for serious crimes against humanity, make good its promise to the Supreme Court to rehabilitate and compensate people who have been affected by Salwa Judum, and to move security forces out of civilian spaces. We also demand a full enquiry into all extra-judicial killings that have taken place in the former undivided district of Bastar since 2005, and prosecution of all those guilty.
Group of organizations, movements and individuals have called for a public meeting on 04th August 2009 at India Islamic Cultural Center (Conference
Hall # 1, from 3.00 pm to 7.30 pm) Lodi Road, New Delhi. You are requested to express your endorsement and be part of this as co-organizer and also to support this assembly with minimum contribution of Rs. 1000, which would be used to meet progarmme costs.
Endorsed & Co- organized by
Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chhattisgarh (CPJC)
People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Delhi Forum
The Other Media
Combat Law
Jamia Teacher’s Solidarity Group, New Delhi
Nandini Sunder
Vijay Pratap, Convenor, Socialist Front
Nivedita Menon, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Aditya Nigam, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
Anhad, Shabnam Hashmi
Manoranjan Mohanty, Retired Professor, University of Delhi
Gautam Mody, NTUI, New Delhi
Rakesh Shukla, Advocate Supreme Court
Mamta Dash, National Forum of Forest People & Forest Workers
Subrat Sahu, Independent Film Maker
Sandeep Pandey, Asha
