Friday, May 21, 2010
Is 'Chattisgarh' a banned word in Tamil Nadu
SALEM: Noted environmental activist Piyush Sethia, founder of Speak Out Salem, was arrested on Tuesday when he tried to mobilise awareness against Operation Green Hunt at the Republic Day function venue.Detailing the negative fallouts of Operation Green Hunt launched by the Central government against the Maoists, a handbill pointed out that lakhs of tribals were being displaced in the name of flushing out Maoists. It also made angry references to Union Minister P Chidambaram and questioned the spirit behind the Republic Day celebrations.According to Inspector Kennedy, Sethia entered the Gandhi stadium, where the Republic Day celebrations were being held. There, he started to distribute handbills to visitors, which the police said were inflammatory in nature and were against the conduct during a Republic Day celebration.Sethia maintained that he did not enter the stadium and denies distributing any handbill to visitors. He said he was giving a handbill to a police inspector, who was also a friend, when another inspector, Annadurai (City Intelligence Service), snatched it away. Sethia said he was then assaulted and taken to the Hasthampatti police station.The Hasthampatti police have booked cases under non-bailable charges of sedition and the Tamil Nadu Public Area Disfigurement Act. Taking exception to the arrest, activists and lawyers are mobilising legal support to ensure his release.After the handbill distribution, Sethia had planned to go on a cycle campaign up to Sivagangai (P Chidambaram’s constituency) to create awareness against Operation Green Hunt.
Confronting 'Guns of Peace"
http://www.sacw.net/article1253.html
India: Confronting ’Guns of Peace’ - Bastar faces its worst crisis
Saturday 10 October 2009, by Himanshu Kumar
8 October 2009
As I write this critical note on the worst ever crisis undivided Bastar is facing, ambushes and gun battles between para-military, Salwa Judum and State Police forces and Naxal cadres are being played out in jungles of Dantewada and Bijapur districts of undivided Bastar in South Chhattisgarh. To understand this crisis one needs to have a brief knowledge of the previous crises that have confronted Bastar. It must be stated upfront that since historically this region has been a forested, tribal dominated and physically difficult terrain, it has also been a malgoverned region ! And this malgovernance manifested itself in injustice and denial of rights for the tribals inhabiting this region with the State eyeing it only for its mineral deposits and forest resources. This somewhere laid the ground for the crisis that is unfolding here since June 2005.
In June 2005, as part of a larger plan to tighten control over the rich mineral and forest resources of Bastar, the State, backed by private capital, launched a major offensive on tribals of this region and called it ironically Salwa Judum or peace movement. On the face of it Salwa Judum was a people’s uprising for peace against Naxal violence but the hidden agenda, as is gradually unfolding, was the corporate grabbing of resources. The sum total of four years of Salwa Judum has been the internal and forced displacement of more than 3.5 lakh people from their villages, a 30 fold escalation of violence and a 22 time swell in support base and area under control by the very Naxals whom the Judum aimed at decimating ! But the State never learns from failures – even after unleashing the loosing battle of horrifying violence on tribals of Bastar in name of Salwa Judum, it has launched a phase two in the name of Operation Green Hunt and Operation Godavari in Bastar and adjacent districts of Malkangiri (Orissa). This confrontation of Bastar’s tribals with the ‘guns of peace’ will unleash the worst crisis this region has ever seen or will ever see …. but that is only if remaining tribals ever survive these ‘guns of peace’.
So through this note I am attempting to simply analyse each strategy and act of the State and map its impact on tribals of Bastar and how counterproductively it has benefited the CPI (Maoist) party !
The State launched Salwa Judum in 2005 to counter insurgency by cadres of CPI (Maoist) or Naxalites through civil defense by recruiting and training civilians in ‘armed resistance’
But soon Salwa Judum cadres went beyond the control of para-military and police forces under whom they were supposed to function and began looting, burning, raping, murdering and kidnapping of tribals and remained beyond any accountability due to political support
The State forcefully evicted tribals from 700 villages and dumped them in 30 odd camps built for them and cordorned by security forces – it was protecting people from Naxal violence ! It was following the American counter insurgency strategy of ‘draining the water and killing the fish’ …. State forgot that tribals are not fish and villages are not fish bowls !
But freedom loving and nature-dependent tribals refused to move into camps and fled for fear of being captured, tortured and then deported to camps – reminds one of the Jewish Holocaust. While a meager 50,000 population shifted to camps, about 50,000 fled to the adjacent district in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa where they had relatives and clan families and remaining 2.5 lakh people hid deeper in jungles living a life of fear, hunger and death
Human rights and civil society groups watching over the State’s warfare, challenged its American copy of counter insurgency. And when they were tried to be silenced, they went up to State High Courts and Indian Supreme Court challenging the notions and strategies of mitigating Naxal violence and restoring peace
The State retaliated by creating an imaginary divider, obviously through corporate media houses, in the minds of the middle class. If you are in its camps, you are with the State and if you are in the jungles, then you are Naxalite …. thus declaring the 2.5 lakh tribals hiding in the jungles as Naxalites and thereby justifying training its guns of peace on them ! And another divider declared anyone supporting the ‘Naxal tribals’ as Maoist sympathizers or informers and liable to imprisonment and torture under the draconian Public Securities Act. It unjustly put activists who questioned it behind bars or bulldozed their premises, not even soaring sources of drinking water or simply diverted them by bribing them with funds, contracts and opportunities for sharing the great wealth created through Salwa Judum !
Indian Supreme Court, hearing out petitioners against Salwa Judum ordered the State to reconsider its civil defense strategy and stop evicting tribals from villages. Instead it asked the State to launch a rehabilitation drive to resettle tribals, provide them with basic services and entitlements and asses damages to life and property. This damage assessment was to be followed by compensation and registering of criminal cases against the offenders, in particular Salwa Judum and para-military forces. This was aimed at cleaning up the mess of Salwa Judum and starting afresh all attempts at just and democratic governance
The State responded by blatantly violating the Supreme Court orders,speaking white lies before Court when questioned about its inaction.
It neither attempted rehabilitation efforts nor set up district and State committees to look into damage assessment or filing of cases against offenders and also it did not make any attempts at rethinking its strategies. Rather it continued its forced evictions, its looting, burning, rape, kidnap and murder and printed in bold letters its justification of continuing Salwa Judum. In fact it even went a step further by sabotaging and blocking any civil society attempts at rehabilitation, damage assessment and filing of cases against offenders. It used the Public Securities Act against volunteers working for the rehabilitation of internally displaced tribals !
Tribals who fled their villages and hid in jungles are still living nomadic and terrorized lives. In the face of an inhuman onslaught on them, they clung to the only support they got in the forests …. that of the Maoists who appeared more human to them than persecuting State forces ?! Their attempts at seeking justice and dignity as citizens of this country were met with arrests and abuses. Their faith in the State dwindled and converted into anger and despair. It was therefore natural for them to pick up their traditional weapons in their self-defence because the State had left no option before them
How did the State respond ? Whenever tribals came seeking justice through democratic and legal means, their FIRs were not registered, their court cases were dismissed without a hearing and they were arrested for being Naxalites. And any sympathetic judge or officer to the tribal cause was either sent on forced leave or transferred out. No one was ready to listen …. not even local mediapersons who benefited from State dole outs of contracts, advertisements and general patronage. National media too ignored the Bastar question or made half-hearted attempts at covering truth because they were bankrolled by corporates eyeing the mineral and forest resources of Bastar ! How could they let the cat out of the bag and lock out opportunities of profiteering ? Tribals were isolated and rendered helpless
In such a complex situation of denial and injustice, the State has been expecting tribals to show loyalty to it, abide by its laws and support it in restoring peace. These expectations could be justified and binding on tribals had the State shown respect for the same virtues !
The State talks of loyalty when it has itself distrusted its own tribal citizens and branded them Naxals when they have come seeking justice at its doors … State talks of abiding by its laws when it has itself made a mockery of its own laws – holding Gram Sabhas at gun point to coerce tribals into giving away their lands to mining corporations, subverting laws protecting the tribals’ rights to land and forests as stated in PESA, disrespecting Supreme Court’s orders to rehabilitate villages, deliver entitlements and services, co-opting judiciary, executive and legislature to ratify and justify violence and terror by its forces and so on. In fact the State has been attacking its poor to secure the interests of the rich and still it expects the poor to abide by, put faith in it and support it ? There are thousands of cases where the law of the land has been bent backwards to accommodate corporate interests but when it comes to tribals State puts on false pretence of legal systems and democracy !
The State wants tribals to help it in restoring peace – but when did the State believe that peace was possible without justice or that tribals could make peace with guns firing around them – does the State believe that tribals will confront its guns of peace without first arming themselves in their self-defence ? And what peace is the State talking of restoring – had it wanted peace it would have allowed rehabilitation, it would have allowed the nation to know the truth of Bastar, it would have respected its laws and would have adhered to the democratic governance systems it has put in place ??
Despite all that I have stated above (not that people in the State do not know what I have stated ?), the State has launched its second Salwa Judum through its strategic military operations called Green Hunt (hunting whom ?) and Godavari. But what will be the net impact of this Salwa Judum II ? The same, if not worse. The crisis will just deepen, the tribals will get further terrorized, Naxals will further consolidate their support base and area under control and voices of sanity among civil society and human rights groups will further get silenced and decimated. This military offensive will only isolate the tribals more and they will begin to look upon every non-tribal as an aggressor. And do we believe that in such a situation peace and democracy can prevail ? Thus military operation will simply push democracy further away and endanger the Indian socio-political system.
Thus, as tribals continue resisting corporate grab of land and resources in the garb of Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt, State repression will just rise manifold. One must remember that it is not as if repression never happened but it has got heightened with dash of corporates to set up mining and industrial units while the great global market goes booming. Corporates are just making hay while the sun is shining and all this at expenses of the State ! And Governments have also readily complied by disposing off their socialist agenda to follow routes tread by private capital. And to make this a reality, these proxy wars are being fought on tribal territory. But who really will be targeted ? Not Naxals who are deft at guerilla warfare and will escape bullets of Salwa Judum and para military forces. It will be the tribals who will be caught in the crossfire.
Salwa Judum (Phase I) resulted in a near civil war that destroyed over 644 villages and displaced 3.5 lakh tribals in one way or the other and filled the lives of tribals with fake encounters, gangrape of tribal women, looting and burning of livestock and belongings of poor tribals, brutal suppression of any resistance or protest has become the order of the day in the name of combating Naxals. This makes us wonder whether they are still bonafide denizens of this country or have they been obliterated as people of India !?
We have gone to villages to understand the truth behind encounters, have interviewed dozens of tribal women gangraped or enslaved for months by Salwa Judum and para military forces and witnessed the total demolition of my house and office premises because we dared to expose these acts of violence through several cases filed in Chhattisgarh High Court. Is this the democracy and tribal development our Governments want us to espouse? I shudder to think what will be the outcome of Salwa Judum (Phase II) …….. yet another fake encounters, yet more gangrapes and yet more souls gone down fighting injustice and repression in the name of peace and democracy ?
But for how long are tribals going to bear the brunt of a brutal and inhuman police force? For how long will tribals stand in the crossfire between Naxals, a militarized State and a demonized police? For how long will middle class ‘bhadralok’ remain silent spectators to State’s colonization of tribal territory to subsidize urban growth in the name of ‘tribal development‘ ? And for how long will we look on helplessly as tribals get butchered, raped and exterminated? We believe that some day the tribal specter will rise and fall heavily on those who repress loot and pauperize them. But who will get sacrificed and who will survive? The fittest … as Darwin eulogized evolution? The question is who is fitter – you and me who enjoy privileges of a subsidized consumer culture or tribals whom we have hanged giving them the name of savage, backward and poor ? I guess we all know the answers …. but don’t want to articulate it, preferring to ignore it exists. But we cannot so this and so we strive to call the State’s bluff and turn every stone in our path in the attempt to bring justice, peace, dignity and democracy into Bastar so that we never have to confront the guns of peace !
Himanshu Kumar -Vanvasi Chetna Ashram -Dantewada
India: Confronting ’Guns of Peace’ - Bastar faces its worst crisis
Saturday 10 October 2009, by Himanshu Kumar
8 October 2009
As I write this critical note on the worst ever crisis undivided Bastar is facing, ambushes and gun battles between para-military, Salwa Judum and State Police forces and Naxal cadres are being played out in jungles of Dantewada and Bijapur districts of undivided Bastar in South Chhattisgarh. To understand this crisis one needs to have a brief knowledge of the previous crises that have confronted Bastar. It must be stated upfront that since historically this region has been a forested, tribal dominated and physically difficult terrain, it has also been a malgoverned region ! And this malgovernance manifested itself in injustice and denial of rights for the tribals inhabiting this region with the State eyeing it only for its mineral deposits and forest resources. This somewhere laid the ground for the crisis that is unfolding here since June 2005.
In June 2005, as part of a larger plan to tighten control over the rich mineral and forest resources of Bastar, the State, backed by private capital, launched a major offensive on tribals of this region and called it ironically Salwa Judum or peace movement. On the face of it Salwa Judum was a people’s uprising for peace against Naxal violence but the hidden agenda, as is gradually unfolding, was the corporate grabbing of resources. The sum total of four years of Salwa Judum has been the internal and forced displacement of more than 3.5 lakh people from their villages, a 30 fold escalation of violence and a 22 time swell in support base and area under control by the very Naxals whom the Judum aimed at decimating ! But the State never learns from failures – even after unleashing the loosing battle of horrifying violence on tribals of Bastar in name of Salwa Judum, it has launched a phase two in the name of Operation Green Hunt and Operation Godavari in Bastar and adjacent districts of Malkangiri (Orissa). This confrontation of Bastar’s tribals with the ‘guns of peace’ will unleash the worst crisis this region has ever seen or will ever see …. but that is only if remaining tribals ever survive these ‘guns of peace’.
So through this note I am attempting to simply analyse each strategy and act of the State and map its impact on tribals of Bastar and how counterproductively it has benefited the CPI (Maoist) party !
The State launched Salwa Judum in 2005 to counter insurgency by cadres of CPI (Maoist) or Naxalites through civil defense by recruiting and training civilians in ‘armed resistance’
But soon Salwa Judum cadres went beyond the control of para-military and police forces under whom they were supposed to function and began looting, burning, raping, murdering and kidnapping of tribals and remained beyond any accountability due to political support
The State forcefully evicted tribals from 700 villages and dumped them in 30 odd camps built for them and cordorned by security forces – it was protecting people from Naxal violence ! It was following the American counter insurgency strategy of ‘draining the water and killing the fish’ …. State forgot that tribals are not fish and villages are not fish bowls !
But freedom loving and nature-dependent tribals refused to move into camps and fled for fear of being captured, tortured and then deported to camps – reminds one of the Jewish Holocaust. While a meager 50,000 population shifted to camps, about 50,000 fled to the adjacent district in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa where they had relatives and clan families and remaining 2.5 lakh people hid deeper in jungles living a life of fear, hunger and death
Human rights and civil society groups watching over the State’s warfare, challenged its American copy of counter insurgency. And when they were tried to be silenced, they went up to State High Courts and Indian Supreme Court challenging the notions and strategies of mitigating Naxal violence and restoring peace
The State retaliated by creating an imaginary divider, obviously through corporate media houses, in the minds of the middle class. If you are in its camps, you are with the State and if you are in the jungles, then you are Naxalite …. thus declaring the 2.5 lakh tribals hiding in the jungles as Naxalites and thereby justifying training its guns of peace on them ! And another divider declared anyone supporting the ‘Naxal tribals’ as Maoist sympathizers or informers and liable to imprisonment and torture under the draconian Public Securities Act. It unjustly put activists who questioned it behind bars or bulldozed their premises, not even soaring sources of drinking water or simply diverted them by bribing them with funds, contracts and opportunities for sharing the great wealth created through Salwa Judum !
Indian Supreme Court, hearing out petitioners against Salwa Judum ordered the State to reconsider its civil defense strategy and stop evicting tribals from villages. Instead it asked the State to launch a rehabilitation drive to resettle tribals, provide them with basic services and entitlements and asses damages to life and property. This damage assessment was to be followed by compensation and registering of criminal cases against the offenders, in particular Salwa Judum and para-military forces. This was aimed at cleaning up the mess of Salwa Judum and starting afresh all attempts at just and democratic governance
The State responded by blatantly violating the Supreme Court orders,speaking white lies before Court when questioned about its inaction.
It neither attempted rehabilitation efforts nor set up district and State committees to look into damage assessment or filing of cases against offenders and also it did not make any attempts at rethinking its strategies. Rather it continued its forced evictions, its looting, burning, rape, kidnap and murder and printed in bold letters its justification of continuing Salwa Judum. In fact it even went a step further by sabotaging and blocking any civil society attempts at rehabilitation, damage assessment and filing of cases against offenders. It used the Public Securities Act against volunteers working for the rehabilitation of internally displaced tribals !
Tribals who fled their villages and hid in jungles are still living nomadic and terrorized lives. In the face of an inhuman onslaught on them, they clung to the only support they got in the forests …. that of the Maoists who appeared more human to them than persecuting State forces ?! Their attempts at seeking justice and dignity as citizens of this country were met with arrests and abuses. Their faith in the State dwindled and converted into anger and despair. It was therefore natural for them to pick up their traditional weapons in their self-defence because the State had left no option before them
How did the State respond ? Whenever tribals came seeking justice through democratic and legal means, their FIRs were not registered, their court cases were dismissed without a hearing and they were arrested for being Naxalites. And any sympathetic judge or officer to the tribal cause was either sent on forced leave or transferred out. No one was ready to listen …. not even local mediapersons who benefited from State dole outs of contracts, advertisements and general patronage. National media too ignored the Bastar question or made half-hearted attempts at covering truth because they were bankrolled by corporates eyeing the mineral and forest resources of Bastar ! How could they let the cat out of the bag and lock out opportunities of profiteering ? Tribals were isolated and rendered helpless
In such a complex situation of denial and injustice, the State has been expecting tribals to show loyalty to it, abide by its laws and support it in restoring peace. These expectations could be justified and binding on tribals had the State shown respect for the same virtues !
The State talks of loyalty when it has itself distrusted its own tribal citizens and branded them Naxals when they have come seeking justice at its doors … State talks of abiding by its laws when it has itself made a mockery of its own laws – holding Gram Sabhas at gun point to coerce tribals into giving away their lands to mining corporations, subverting laws protecting the tribals’ rights to land and forests as stated in PESA, disrespecting Supreme Court’s orders to rehabilitate villages, deliver entitlements and services, co-opting judiciary, executive and legislature to ratify and justify violence and terror by its forces and so on. In fact the State has been attacking its poor to secure the interests of the rich and still it expects the poor to abide by, put faith in it and support it ? There are thousands of cases where the law of the land has been bent backwards to accommodate corporate interests but when it comes to tribals State puts on false pretence of legal systems and democracy !
The State wants tribals to help it in restoring peace – but when did the State believe that peace was possible without justice or that tribals could make peace with guns firing around them – does the State believe that tribals will confront its guns of peace without first arming themselves in their self-defence ? And what peace is the State talking of restoring – had it wanted peace it would have allowed rehabilitation, it would have allowed the nation to know the truth of Bastar, it would have respected its laws and would have adhered to the democratic governance systems it has put in place ??
Despite all that I have stated above (not that people in the State do not know what I have stated ?), the State has launched its second Salwa Judum through its strategic military operations called Green Hunt (hunting whom ?) and Godavari. But what will be the net impact of this Salwa Judum II ? The same, if not worse. The crisis will just deepen, the tribals will get further terrorized, Naxals will further consolidate their support base and area under control and voices of sanity among civil society and human rights groups will further get silenced and decimated. This military offensive will only isolate the tribals more and they will begin to look upon every non-tribal as an aggressor. And do we believe that in such a situation peace and democracy can prevail ? Thus military operation will simply push democracy further away and endanger the Indian socio-political system.
Thus, as tribals continue resisting corporate grab of land and resources in the garb of Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt, State repression will just rise manifold. One must remember that it is not as if repression never happened but it has got heightened with dash of corporates to set up mining and industrial units while the great global market goes booming. Corporates are just making hay while the sun is shining and all this at expenses of the State ! And Governments have also readily complied by disposing off their socialist agenda to follow routes tread by private capital. And to make this a reality, these proxy wars are being fought on tribal territory. But who really will be targeted ? Not Naxals who are deft at guerilla warfare and will escape bullets of Salwa Judum and para military forces. It will be the tribals who will be caught in the crossfire.
Salwa Judum (Phase I) resulted in a near civil war that destroyed over 644 villages and displaced 3.5 lakh tribals in one way or the other and filled the lives of tribals with fake encounters, gangrape of tribal women, looting and burning of livestock and belongings of poor tribals, brutal suppression of any resistance or protest has become the order of the day in the name of combating Naxals. This makes us wonder whether they are still bonafide denizens of this country or have they been obliterated as people of India !?
We have gone to villages to understand the truth behind encounters, have interviewed dozens of tribal women gangraped or enslaved for months by Salwa Judum and para military forces and witnessed the total demolition of my house and office premises because we dared to expose these acts of violence through several cases filed in Chhattisgarh High Court. Is this the democracy and tribal development our Governments want us to espouse? I shudder to think what will be the outcome of Salwa Judum (Phase II) …….. yet another fake encounters, yet more gangrapes and yet more souls gone down fighting injustice and repression in the name of peace and democracy ?
But for how long are tribals going to bear the brunt of a brutal and inhuman police force? For how long will tribals stand in the crossfire between Naxals, a militarized State and a demonized police? For how long will middle class ‘bhadralok’ remain silent spectators to State’s colonization of tribal territory to subsidize urban growth in the name of ‘tribal development‘ ? And for how long will we look on helplessly as tribals get butchered, raped and exterminated? We believe that some day the tribal specter will rise and fall heavily on those who repress loot and pauperize them. But who will get sacrificed and who will survive? The fittest … as Darwin eulogized evolution? The question is who is fitter – you and me who enjoy privileges of a subsidized consumer culture or tribals whom we have hanged giving them the name of savage, backward and poor ? I guess we all know the answers …. but don’t want to articulate it, preferring to ignore it exists. But we cannot so this and so we strive to call the State’s bluff and turn every stone in our path in the attempt to bring justice, peace, dignity and democracy into Bastar so that we never have to confront the guns of peace !
Himanshu Kumar -Vanvasi Chetna Ashram -Dantewada
Tehelka article about Himanshu Kumar's story of resisting the Chattisgarh state
Life Behind The Iron Curtain
The hounding of activist Himanshu Kumar is a parable about the war and panic in Chhattisgarh and the complete blackout of information, reports TUSHA MITTAL
Time out, Gandhi Himanshu fasting; December 2009. His ashram was rubbled by the State in May
PHOTOS: TARUN SEHRAWAT
HIMANSHU KUMAR is shaving his moustache to become more unrecognisable. Instead of the usual white kurta, he’s wearing a red shirt and jeans. The lights in his two-room rented house have been turned off. If you chanced upon him on a winter night in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, speaking in hushed whispers about jumping off the back wall and disappearing into the darkness, you might have mistaken this Gandhian activist for a fugitive.
For the last 18 years, Himanshu has been trudging through the jungles of rural Chhattisgarh, empowering tribals, teaching them how to vote and bringing them access to food and healthcare through his Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA). When his wife first joined him, he told her to replace her make-up kit with medicines. Despite living in this Maoist-dominated conflict zone for nearly two decades, despite its many intimidations, Kumar has never felt the urge to flee. Until now that is – when the might of the State is upon him.
Trouble first began to escalate in 2005 when the infamous Salwa Judum was launched. The VCA filed at least 600 complaints against human rights violations by the State and fake encounters by the police. Himanshu Kumar was transformed in the State’s eyes from trusted aide to adversary. In May 2009, his ashram was brutally demolished by the police. Now suddenly, the Gandhian activist has lost his liberty. He lives in a free country, but does not have the freedom to walk out through the front door of his own house.
“Should I get arrested and become a martyr or should I leave before they catch me?” Himanshu Kumar wonders out loud on the morning of January 4. He knows what happened to Binayak Sen. He knows he could be next. “I’m worried the police will implicate me in a false case. They could arrest me anytime now,” he says.
If the injured Shambo reached Delhi, she could be a big embarrassment
This is not misplaced paranoia. Himanshu’s makeshift ashram is under constant police surveillance. On January 3, his car was stopped by the police as it sped from Dantewada to Raipur carrying Sodi Shambo, 28, a tribal woman with a fractured leg held together by a metal rod. Shambo’s husband was tilling the fields on the morning of October 1, 2009, when Salwa Judum SPOs barged into Goompad village. One bullet from their guns split open her leg. Her children leapt towards her, covering her body. That could be why she is still alive. Nine others were killed during combing operations. Most were those who could not run away — Madvi Yankaiya, 50; Madvi Bajaar 50 and his wife Madvi Subhi, 45; their daughters Madvi Kanama, 20 and eight-year-old Madvi Mooti; and a newly married couple Soyam Subaiya, 20 and Soyam Subhi, 18. Another 2-year-old boy was found with his fingers missing. The Dantewada SP announced that nine Naxalites had been killed in an encounter in Goompad village. This is the tale the outside world would have believed, had Himanshu not met Shambo during a regular public hearing in the forest. She told him about the massacre she had witnessed; he ensured she filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court. The court accepted her petition and directed the state to file a response.
Had Shambo reached Delhi, where she was headed for medical treatment, she could have become a major embarrassment for the Chhattisgarh government. This is why Himanshu and Shambo were suddenly surrounded by police on the highway and detained at Kanker police station. There was an order from the Dantewada SP that Shambo be produced in the police station to record her statement on the Goompad killings. Shambo had been living openly in Himanshu’s ashram in Dantewada for the last two months but the police had not approached her for a statement. “We did not know where she was. We were trying to find her,” says SP Amaresh Mishra ingenuously. “I found out through an Internet forum that Himanshu was taking her to Raipur. I also got a letter from Shambo’s masi two days ago accusing Himanshu of vanishing Shambo all this while.” This was a patently concocted assertion given that Himanshu had presented Shambo to the media at a big press conference in Delhi in October. Clearly, a false case of abduction against Kumar was in the works. According to Colin Gonsalves, a senior advocate who has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on the Shambo case, it’s actually the other way around. “This amounts to illegal abduction by the police. Shambo is not an accused. She cannot be forced to go anywhere,” said he.
On January 4, Shambo was sent to Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur for further treatment under police “security.” Sudhir Thakhur, the doctor responsible, admitted the hospital did not have the required medical facility to perform Shambo’s surgery. TEHELKAwas not allowed to speak to Shambo at the hospital, despite a guarantee from the Dantewada SP that she was not being kept in confinement. Even after the director of the hospital gave permission, police personnel guarding Shambo’s bed refused to let us near her. When we tried to talk to the ward nurse, the police ensured they overheard the conversation.
As Himanshu shaves off his moustache in the darkness, it is almost as if he is at a tipping point. Caught in a pool of quicksand, he must leap out immediately or sink. “My faith is not shaken. I’m just feeling trapped inside a web. To break this perhaps it is necessary for me to go fight from a new place. I am not running away. I just need to change my location.”
THE BATTLE between the State and Maoists is well known. But in Chhattisgarh, another battle has been fast gathering steam — between the State and civil society, between a policed existence and the idea of democracy, between a coerced media and free speech. Himanshu Kumar is now at the centre of that battle. Over the years, he had become one of the few bridges that link the rest of India to the remote jungles of Chhattisgarh. Given the national media’s neglect, and the absence of a robust local press, he was perhaps the only disseminator of an alternate reality. Without him and a few other activists working in the area, there would be only one version — that of the State. This is what the Chhattisgarh government is now trying to create. Every few days there is news of an encounter — six killed in Jagargunda, another six killed in Gumyipal. No one knows if these are Naxals or ordinary tribals. The State doesn’t seem to want anyone to find out.
At a recent press conference in Raipur, Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan told journalists on record that there could be police action against them if they wrote in favour of Naxalites. Two weeks ago in Dantewada, DIG SR Kalluri called journalists into his office for one-on-one sessions. “He told us not to write in favour of the Naxals (euphemism for not writing anything against the State) and said the police have their eyes on us,” says NRK Pillai, vice-president of the Chhattisgarh Working Journalists Union. “The atmosphere isn’t conducive. There’s no one really to back us. Press owners will not stand by us. There’s always the fear of what will happen to our families.”
The State has declared war not just on Maoists but also on civil society
In the last two months, as Operation Green Hunt has got underway, the Chhattisgarh government has upped the ante in its efforts to squash any space for dissent and democratic protest. Stories from the jungles are not being allowed out; neutral outsiders are not being allowed in.
In a free state Shambo and Himanshu Kumar detained at Kanker police station on January 3
On December 29, 2009, Delhi University professor of sociology Nandini Sundar and political science professor Ujjwal Kumar Singh arrived in Bastar to undertake an independent survey of the situation. They found all the hotel rooms in the small towns of Dantewada and Sukma mysteriously full, out of bounds for them. The professors had to spend the night in a jeep, before they got accommodation at a boys’ hostel. There too, seven armed SPOs barged into Sundar’s room, then spent the night patrolling the grounds outside. The next day two jeeps of armed SPOs followed the professors around until they left Chhattisgarh, ensuring they could make no neutral enquiries from villagers about what was happening on the ground.
TEHELKA was meted the same treatment. On January 4, we were denied the right to stay at Madhuban Lodge, the only hotel in Dantewada. The receptionist opened rooms for us at first, but suddenly changed his mind when he got a call from his manager. The manager said the hotel had orders from the police not to give rooms to journalists without a “proper enquiry.” Dantewada ASP Rajendra Jaiswal denied that any such order exists but refused to call the hotel to clarify this. “Why should I help a stranger?” he told TEHELKA. Later, the hotel owner said all the rooms were needed for a family function.
On January 6, a band of activists, including Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, were assaulted with stones and eggs as they marched to the SP’s office in Dantewada for some answers. The police looked on.
Though there is little clarity on whether the offensive against the Naxals – Operation Green Hunt – has officially begun, another kind of assault certainly has. So far, Himanshu Kumar has certainly borne the brunt of it.
On December 14, 2009, a mob several hundred-strong surrounded Himanshu’s ashram, shouting slogans like “Himanshu Bhagao, Bastar Bachao”. They were protesting a padyatrahe was about to undertake to engage with the tribals. Such an expedition would boost the morale of the Maoists and dampen that of the security forces, they alleged. According to Himanshu, the mob consisted of SPOs and tribals lifted from Salwa Judum camps to stage a demonstration. The padyatra was to be followed by a satyagraha to protest police excesses and a jan sunvai(public hearing) to take stock of ground realities post the declaration of Operation Green Hunt. In what was being perceived as a sign of positive intent, Home Minister P Chidam baram had agreed to attend the public hearing. Human rights groups from across the country were scheduled to participate. But that came crashing down when the State decided it would not allow anyone to explore its territory.
Hotels have orders from the police not to give rooms to any journalist
HIMANSHU RECEIVED a notice from Reena Kangale, the Dantewada collector, prohibiting him from initiating any public assembly. “Section 144 was imposed because of municipal elections,” says Kangale. “I denied permission for a padyatra and issued a prohibitory order stating the police can take action if any public meetings happen without my consent.” On December 13, an all-women fact-finding team was stopped at several points enroute to Dantewada and not allowed access inside. The Chhattisgarh Governor advised Chidambaram not to attend the jan sunvayi for safety reasons. The Home Minister stayed put.
The mob attack from “tribals” was also used as a pretext to send a jeep of armed SPOs as security for Himanshu. “There is a threat to his life. The tribals are unhappy with him. We are giving him police protection,” Dantewada SP Amaresh Mishra told TEHELKA. That Himanshu himself has written to the SP stating he does not want this protection is irrelevant.
The police “protection” has successfully hampered Himanshu’s work. He is unable to visit villages on fact-finding missions. Any complaints from tribals against the State bring instant reprisals. There have been other intimidations. Under pressure, Himanshu’s current landlord, an employee of the local district council, asked him to vacate the house in a few weeks.
To disable Himanshu further, his key aide Kopa Kunjam was arrested on December 10 on charges of murdering a former sarpanch, Punem Honga. Honga was abducted by Maoists along with another sarpanch who had been traveling with Kopa on his bike on July 2, 2009. According to VCA, the night before he was arrested, Kopa was offered Rs 25,000 to quit working with Himanshu and warned of dire consequences if he continues. Kopa refused the money. Sukhdev, another backbone of the VCA, was threatened with a similar fate after Kopa’s arrest. He quit. Lingu, another aide who also quit, confirmed to TEHELKA that he was with Kopa at the Dantewada police station the day before Kopa’s arrest, and was present when the police tried to convince Kopa to take up “other more meaningful work”.
The Maoists are not willing to talk, and the State is clearly not allowing any other dialogue. Himanshu’s struggle becomes more poignant in the backdrop of the violence being unleashed all around it. The Maoists continue to fell trees, block trains, abduct and kill. The Salwa Judum continues to rape women, burn houses, loot and kill. Amid all the chaos, as the year ended, one man sat in a white kurta, under a sprawling tree, spooling a loom of thread. He had not been allowed a padyatra or a satyagraha or a jan sunvai, so he was fasting to protest State atrocities. But events over the last two days have forced the man in the white kurta to shave his moustache and turn into a man in red shirt and jeans — a reminder of an original freedom struggle, being scuttled all over again.
WRITER’S EMAIL
tusha@tehelka.com
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Tusha Mittal
Senior Correspondent, Tehelka
( 011) 40575757: Extn 228
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http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne160110life_behind.asp
The hounding of activist Himanshu Kumar is a parable about the war and panic in Chhattisgarh and the complete blackout of information, reports TUSHA MITTAL
Time out, Gandhi Himanshu fasting; December 2009. His ashram was rubbled by the State in May
PHOTOS: TARUN SEHRAWAT
HIMANSHU KUMAR is shaving his moustache to become more unrecognisable. Instead of the usual white kurta, he’s wearing a red shirt and jeans. The lights in his two-room rented house have been turned off. If you chanced upon him on a winter night in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, speaking in hushed whispers about jumping off the back wall and disappearing into the darkness, you might have mistaken this Gandhian activist for a fugitive.
For the last 18 years, Himanshu has been trudging through the jungles of rural Chhattisgarh, empowering tribals, teaching them how to vote and bringing them access to food and healthcare through his Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA). When his wife first joined him, he told her to replace her make-up kit with medicines. Despite living in this Maoist-dominated conflict zone for nearly two decades, despite its many intimidations, Kumar has never felt the urge to flee. Until now that is – when the might of the State is upon him.
Trouble first began to escalate in 2005 when the infamous Salwa Judum was launched. The VCA filed at least 600 complaints against human rights violations by the State and fake encounters by the police. Himanshu Kumar was transformed in the State’s eyes from trusted aide to adversary. In May 2009, his ashram was brutally demolished by the police. Now suddenly, the Gandhian activist has lost his liberty. He lives in a free country, but does not have the freedom to walk out through the front door of his own house.
“Should I get arrested and become a martyr or should I leave before they catch me?” Himanshu Kumar wonders out loud on the morning of January 4. He knows what happened to Binayak Sen. He knows he could be next. “I’m worried the police will implicate me in a false case. They could arrest me anytime now,” he says.
If the injured Shambo reached Delhi, she could be a big embarrassment
This is not misplaced paranoia. Himanshu’s makeshift ashram is under constant police surveillance. On January 3, his car was stopped by the police as it sped from Dantewada to Raipur carrying Sodi Shambo, 28, a tribal woman with a fractured leg held together by a metal rod. Shambo’s husband was tilling the fields on the morning of October 1, 2009, when Salwa Judum SPOs barged into Goompad village. One bullet from their guns split open her leg. Her children leapt towards her, covering her body. That could be why she is still alive. Nine others were killed during combing operations. Most were those who could not run away — Madvi Yankaiya, 50; Madvi Bajaar 50 and his wife Madvi Subhi, 45; their daughters Madvi Kanama, 20 and eight-year-old Madvi Mooti; and a newly married couple Soyam Subaiya, 20 and Soyam Subhi, 18. Another 2-year-old boy was found with his fingers missing. The Dantewada SP announced that nine Naxalites had been killed in an encounter in Goompad village. This is the tale the outside world would have believed, had Himanshu not met Shambo during a regular public hearing in the forest. She told him about the massacre she had witnessed; he ensured she filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court. The court accepted her petition and directed the state to file a response.
Had Shambo reached Delhi, where she was headed for medical treatment, she could have become a major embarrassment for the Chhattisgarh government. This is why Himanshu and Shambo were suddenly surrounded by police on the highway and detained at Kanker police station. There was an order from the Dantewada SP that Shambo be produced in the police station to record her statement on the Goompad killings. Shambo had been living openly in Himanshu’s ashram in Dantewada for the last two months but the police had not approached her for a statement. “We did not know where she was. We were trying to find her,” says SP Amaresh Mishra ingenuously. “I found out through an Internet forum that Himanshu was taking her to Raipur. I also got a letter from Shambo’s masi two days ago accusing Himanshu of vanishing Shambo all this while.” This was a patently concocted assertion given that Himanshu had presented Shambo to the media at a big press conference in Delhi in October. Clearly, a false case of abduction against Kumar was in the works. According to Colin Gonsalves, a senior advocate who has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on the Shambo case, it’s actually the other way around. “This amounts to illegal abduction by the police. Shambo is not an accused. She cannot be forced to go anywhere,” said he.
On January 4, Shambo was sent to Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur for further treatment under police “security.” Sudhir Thakhur, the doctor responsible, admitted the hospital did not have the required medical facility to perform Shambo’s surgery. TEHELKAwas not allowed to speak to Shambo at the hospital, despite a guarantee from the Dantewada SP that she was not being kept in confinement. Even after the director of the hospital gave permission, police personnel guarding Shambo’s bed refused to let us near her. When we tried to talk to the ward nurse, the police ensured they overheard the conversation.
As Himanshu shaves off his moustache in the darkness, it is almost as if he is at a tipping point. Caught in a pool of quicksand, he must leap out immediately or sink. “My faith is not shaken. I’m just feeling trapped inside a web. To break this perhaps it is necessary for me to go fight from a new place. I am not running away. I just need to change my location.”
THE BATTLE between the State and Maoists is well known. But in Chhattisgarh, another battle has been fast gathering steam — between the State and civil society, between a policed existence and the idea of democracy, between a coerced media and free speech. Himanshu Kumar is now at the centre of that battle. Over the years, he had become one of the few bridges that link the rest of India to the remote jungles of Chhattisgarh. Given the national media’s neglect, and the absence of a robust local press, he was perhaps the only disseminator of an alternate reality. Without him and a few other activists working in the area, there would be only one version — that of the State. This is what the Chhattisgarh government is now trying to create. Every few days there is news of an encounter — six killed in Jagargunda, another six killed in Gumyipal. No one knows if these are Naxals or ordinary tribals. The State doesn’t seem to want anyone to find out.
At a recent press conference in Raipur, Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan told journalists on record that there could be police action against them if they wrote in favour of Naxalites. Two weeks ago in Dantewada, DIG SR Kalluri called journalists into his office for one-on-one sessions. “He told us not to write in favour of the Naxals (euphemism for not writing anything against the State) and said the police have their eyes on us,” says NRK Pillai, vice-president of the Chhattisgarh Working Journalists Union. “The atmosphere isn’t conducive. There’s no one really to back us. Press owners will not stand by us. There’s always the fear of what will happen to our families.”
The State has declared war not just on Maoists but also on civil society
In the last two months, as Operation Green Hunt has got underway, the Chhattisgarh government has upped the ante in its efforts to squash any space for dissent and democratic protest. Stories from the jungles are not being allowed out; neutral outsiders are not being allowed in.
In a free state Shambo and Himanshu Kumar detained at Kanker police station on January 3
On December 29, 2009, Delhi University professor of sociology Nandini Sundar and political science professor Ujjwal Kumar Singh arrived in Bastar to undertake an independent survey of the situation. They found all the hotel rooms in the small towns of Dantewada and Sukma mysteriously full, out of bounds for them. The professors had to spend the night in a jeep, before they got accommodation at a boys’ hostel. There too, seven armed SPOs barged into Sundar’s room, then spent the night patrolling the grounds outside. The next day two jeeps of armed SPOs followed the professors around until they left Chhattisgarh, ensuring they could make no neutral enquiries from villagers about what was happening on the ground.
TEHELKA was meted the same treatment. On January 4, we were denied the right to stay at Madhuban Lodge, the only hotel in Dantewada. The receptionist opened rooms for us at first, but suddenly changed his mind when he got a call from his manager. The manager said the hotel had orders from the police not to give rooms to journalists without a “proper enquiry.” Dantewada ASP Rajendra Jaiswal denied that any such order exists but refused to call the hotel to clarify this. “Why should I help a stranger?” he told TEHELKA. Later, the hotel owner said all the rooms were needed for a family function.
On January 6, a band of activists, including Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, were assaulted with stones and eggs as they marched to the SP’s office in Dantewada for some answers. The police looked on.
Though there is little clarity on whether the offensive against the Naxals – Operation Green Hunt – has officially begun, another kind of assault certainly has. So far, Himanshu Kumar has certainly borne the brunt of it.
On December 14, 2009, a mob several hundred-strong surrounded Himanshu’s ashram, shouting slogans like “Himanshu Bhagao, Bastar Bachao”. They were protesting a padyatrahe was about to undertake to engage with the tribals. Such an expedition would boost the morale of the Maoists and dampen that of the security forces, they alleged. According to Himanshu, the mob consisted of SPOs and tribals lifted from Salwa Judum camps to stage a demonstration. The padyatra was to be followed by a satyagraha to protest police excesses and a jan sunvai(public hearing) to take stock of ground realities post the declaration of Operation Green Hunt. In what was being perceived as a sign of positive intent, Home Minister P Chidam baram had agreed to attend the public hearing. Human rights groups from across the country were scheduled to participate. But that came crashing down when the State decided it would not allow anyone to explore its territory.
Hotels have orders from the police not to give rooms to any journalist
HIMANSHU RECEIVED a notice from Reena Kangale, the Dantewada collector, prohibiting him from initiating any public assembly. “Section 144 was imposed because of municipal elections,” says Kangale. “I denied permission for a padyatra and issued a prohibitory order stating the police can take action if any public meetings happen without my consent.” On December 13, an all-women fact-finding team was stopped at several points enroute to Dantewada and not allowed access inside. The Chhattisgarh Governor advised Chidambaram not to attend the jan sunvayi for safety reasons. The Home Minister stayed put.
The mob attack from “tribals” was also used as a pretext to send a jeep of armed SPOs as security for Himanshu. “There is a threat to his life. The tribals are unhappy with him. We are giving him police protection,” Dantewada SP Amaresh Mishra told TEHELKA. That Himanshu himself has written to the SP stating he does not want this protection is irrelevant.
The police “protection” has successfully hampered Himanshu’s work. He is unable to visit villages on fact-finding missions. Any complaints from tribals against the State bring instant reprisals. There have been other intimidations. Under pressure, Himanshu’s current landlord, an employee of the local district council, asked him to vacate the house in a few weeks.
To disable Himanshu further, his key aide Kopa Kunjam was arrested on December 10 on charges of murdering a former sarpanch, Punem Honga. Honga was abducted by Maoists along with another sarpanch who had been traveling with Kopa on his bike on July 2, 2009. According to VCA, the night before he was arrested, Kopa was offered Rs 25,000 to quit working with Himanshu and warned of dire consequences if he continues. Kopa refused the money. Sukhdev, another backbone of the VCA, was threatened with a similar fate after Kopa’s arrest. He quit. Lingu, another aide who also quit, confirmed to TEHELKA that he was with Kopa at the Dantewada police station the day before Kopa’s arrest, and was present when the police tried to convince Kopa to take up “other more meaningful work”.
The Maoists are not willing to talk, and the State is clearly not allowing any other dialogue. Himanshu’s struggle becomes more poignant in the backdrop of the violence being unleashed all around it. The Maoists continue to fell trees, block trains, abduct and kill. The Salwa Judum continues to rape women, burn houses, loot and kill. Amid all the chaos, as the year ended, one man sat in a white kurta, under a sprawling tree, spooling a loom of thread. He had not been allowed a padyatra or a satyagraha or a jan sunvai, so he was fasting to protest State atrocities. But events over the last two days have forced the man in the white kurta to shave his moustache and turn into a man in red shirt and jeans — a reminder of an original freedom struggle, being scuttled all over again.
WRITER’S EMAIL
tusha@tehelka.com
--
Tusha Mittal
Senior Correspondent, Tehelka
( 011) 40575757: Extn 228
www.tehelka.com
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne160110life_behind.asp
Demanding action against greyhound police responsible for raping adivasi women in Vizag district
Press Release 25-01-2010
We, the functionaries of several rights, women and dalit organisations demand immediate filing of a criminal case under relevant sections of the law into the January 22 rape by policemen of four Khond adivasi women of Baaluguda village in Babusala panchayat of Munchingput mandal in Visakhapatnam district. We strongly condemn the attempts of the local police to hush up this heinous crime.
Members of these organisations visited Baaluguda on Sunday (Jan. 24) and spoke with the resident adivasis. The adivasi women confirmed to us what they had told the Paderu ex-MLA Mr Lake Raja Rao the day before, on January 23. According to them, around 50 greyhounds police personnel along with the Munchingput SI of police Keshav Rao descended on the village at about 5 am on Friday (Jan 22). They rounded up all the men and boys they could find near a school located on the edge of the village. Several policemen then entered the houses of the four adivasi women, Vanthala Domini (who is also the community health worker in the village), Vanthala Rami, Vanthala Muktha and Killo Butto and raped them.
The policemen took into their custody nine men of the village and left at about 8 am. The following day, 6 of them were let off after “bind over” cases were booked against them. Criminal cases were booked against three others and they have since been remanded to judicial custody.
Shockingly, even three days after the heinous crime of rape was committed by the policemen, no case has been registered and no investigation taken up. The SP has appointed the Chintapalli ASP Mr Sundar Rao to look into the allegations made by the women but the ASP has not even bothered to visit the village and speak with the Khond women. On the other hand, the local police are threatening Baaluguda residents that they would have to face dire consequences if they persisted with speaking the truth. We found most of the adivasis in the village, including the women who were raped, a frightened lot.
We wish to point out here that it is not necessary that the police receive a written complaint in order to begin investigation. The police are empowered to investigate even in the absence of a written complaint. In this case, the police possess full knowledge of the allegation of rape made by the women. The matter was reported widely in both the print and audio-visual media also. Yet, no FIR has been registered and therefore there has not been any witness examination, collection of circumstantial evidence, medical examination etc. In cases of rape, medical corroboration is extremely important and already precious time has been lost.
We demand that a criminal case must be registered under relevant sections of the law including IPC 376 (2) (g) relating to gang-rape as well as section 3 (2) (v) of the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The government must ensure that the local police desist from their attempts to protect perpetrators of this crime and see that investigative procedures are initiated without further delay so that the police personnel responsible for this terrible crime are punished.
Importantly, the investigation into the case must not be handed over to the local police. Since the accused are the police themselves, it would not be proper or prudent to get the criminal investigation done by either their local counterparts or the CID of AP. The case must be handed over to the CBI if justice is to be done.
It may be recalled that in the Vakapally rape case, where 11 Khond women were raped by Greyhounds personnel on August 20, 2007, the then ASP Mr Ananda Rao who was appointed the investigative officer did not even bother to visit the village for nearly two weeks. This fact was also stated in the enquiry proceedings of Mr Nagi Reddy, the then Secretary, Tribal Welfare, Govt of AP. In fact, the National ST Commission had recommended on December 12, 2007 to the AP government that the Vakapally case be handed over to the CBI but the State government sat on this. If police personnel responsible for sexual inhumanity on women are allowed to go scot-free, they will continue to commit crimes with impunity.
VS Krishna
(State general secretary (general secretary (Dist. EC member
Human Rights Forum) Mahila Chetna) APCLC)
K Venkata Ramana
(Gen. Secretary
Jai Bheem Cultural and Welfare Association)
Friday, December 18, 2009
Dantewada Padayatra by Himanshu and others disrupted with violence
Press Release issued at Press Conference held at Press Club, New Delhi
15th December 2009
Chhattisgarh Government thwarts peace building measures
Police and Salwa Judum join hands to disrupt the Padayatra and harass activists
Satayagraha to begin from 25th December:
Struggle for peace to continue
New Delhi: Chattisgarh State Government and the Salwa Judum prevented Himanshu Kumar, Sandeep Pandey and others from taking out padyatra in Dantewada with the objective of restoring peace and normalcy in an area suffering from state repression, militarization and violence. Even though the DGP, Mr. Vishwaranjan has claimed in a newspaper report that the padyatra started under the police protection, it was evident from police and SPOs action that all efforts were made by the state Government to stop the Padyatra from taking place. Earlier yesterday, 39 women activists from all over the country who tried unsuccessfully to reach Dantewada from Raipur, on the way back were mobbed by Salwa Judum in Kanker who forced them to come out of the bus. The women activists were harassed before being allowed to return to Raipur.
All of this has been happening even when Home Minister P Chidambaram, has expressed his intentions of travelling to Dantewada on 7th January, 2010 to attend a public hearing to be organised by Vanvasi Chetna Ashram and other groups where tribal residents of this region will share their experiences of the Salwa Judum, Operation Green Hunt and their struggle for justice. It is obvious that the Government of Chattisgarh is all out to sabotage this democratic process through intimidation as well as direct attack and stop the large number of adivasis from ventilating their grievances.
In the changed circumstances, Himanshu Kumar and others from Dantewada have declared that there would begin a Satyagraha against the unjustifiable State violence, asserting their right to support the adivasis in their struggle for peace and justice. They also have requested the Home Minister to immediately make an official announcement of his visit and not to withdraw in any situation of deliberate sabotage by the state government of Chattisgarh.
Speaking at a press conference Retd. Justice Rajinder Sachar, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties said, “It is shameful that citizens of this country are being prevented from travelling to Dantewada by the Chattisgarh administration and a peaceful padyatra is stopped in close collaboration with Salwa Judum, which has been condemned from various quarters for the atrocities it has committed on the tribals of the regions. The denial of civil liberties to citizens in the Dantewada today is a cause of grave concern to everybody.” Uppermost in our mind today is, however, protecting the rights of the adivasis who are facing all kinds of deprivation because, the State, notwithstanding its public profession, is not fulfilling its duty to ensure that development is planned within the framework of justice and equity.
Medha Patkar, National Alliance of People’s Movements, condemned the attempts of the State government to stifle any resistance and labelling of false charges (including of murder) against Kopa Kunjam, the adivasi activist with Vanvasi Chetna Ashram and Alban Topo, an adivasi and human rights lawyer who were beaten up at the police station ironically on December 10, Human Rights Day. “This cant, however, act as a deterrent to the committed and peaceful movements”, she affirmed. In a letter to Home Minister P Chidambaram she urged to take urgent note of the potential threat from the Salwa Judum and the SPOs who took out a rally on December 10th condemning Himanshu Kumar and openly raising life-threatening slogans such as, “Himanshu Bhagao Bastar Bachao” and “Himanshu ko Maro”. “The Centre can’t deny its responsibility to ensure and guarantee not just legal rights, but human justice,” she reiterated.
Prashant Bhushan, senior lawyer further added, “the happenings in Chattisgarh is a well thought out and planned strategy of the State to enforce a complete blackout of tribal areas when government is planning an unprecedented attack on the tribals in the name of war against Naxals. Not only the legislature and the Executive, but the Judiciary also should have intervened with much more sensitivity and clarity by now, but unfortunately, all action towards establishing justice and democracy is only left to the people’s movements. He appealed to the sensitive intellectuals to support the movements, in every possible way”.
Mamata Kujur, Adivasi Mahila Mahasangh, Chattisgarh narrated the atmosphere of distrust and fear prevailing in the State, since many young tribals are being branded today as naxals by the state. She added, “it is an attempt at finishing off the democratic voices in the region since they are posing the biggest opposition to the state’s and private corporations unlawful attempt at exploiting the mineral resources of the region.
Ashish Gupta, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, added that, “it’s an irony that the democratic processes in the country are under pressure from the state forces itself who are supposed to protect them. The demolition of the Ashram first and then continued harassment of anybody associated with the Vanvashi Chetna Ashram is shameful and unjustifiable. What we are witnessing today in Chattisgarh or Naraynpatna, Orissa where an all women fact finding team was harassed and threatened by the local goons in collusion with the police is completely savage behaviour of the state and unexpected in a democracy.”
Abhay Sahu, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, while condemning the incidents urged the left secular forces and progressive people’s movement to put together a joint platform and resist any onslaught on civil and political liberties of the citizens of this country.
It’s indeed a grave and grievous situation that is faced by the adivasis, especially in Chattisgarh i.e. one of violence and the other of deprivation, both the vices trampling upon their right to life, livelihood and peace. Their existence itself being threatened the State either failing to intervene with a dialogue with the people’s movements, even in an unarmed struggle, or as in Chattisgarh, evicting and killing them in the garb of ‘combating Maoism’. All this is apparently an offshoot of the political-economic agenda of grabbing their rich resource base.
The citizens team re-appealed and re-asserted that those who are struggling within the secular democratic and non-violent framework must not be targeted by the State in such trumped up criminal charges or in any other manner as this would only shrink the space for those who are attempting peaceful resolution of conflicts and are for establishment of democracy and justice. It is the duty of the Central and State government to pro-actively protect such individuals and organizations from any physical attack or otherwise and immediately release Kopa Kunjam and punish the guilty police officials involved in harassment of the activists.
Contact: Madhuresh
For NAPM and Delhi Solidarity Group (Mobile 9818905316)
-- Regards,Vijayan MJDelhi Forum
Emails: vijayan@delhiforum.net, delhiforum@delhiforum.netWeb: http://updatecollective.wordpress.com/http://delhisolidaritygroup.wordpress.com/
15th December 2009
Chhattisgarh Government thwarts peace building measures
Police and Salwa Judum join hands to disrupt the Padayatra and harass activists
Satayagraha to begin from 25th December:
Struggle for peace to continue
New Delhi: Chattisgarh State Government and the Salwa Judum prevented Himanshu Kumar, Sandeep Pandey and others from taking out padyatra in Dantewada with the objective of restoring peace and normalcy in an area suffering from state repression, militarization and violence. Even though the DGP, Mr. Vishwaranjan has claimed in a newspaper report that the padyatra started under the police protection, it was evident from police and SPOs action that all efforts were made by the state Government to stop the Padyatra from taking place. Earlier yesterday, 39 women activists from all over the country who tried unsuccessfully to reach Dantewada from Raipur, on the way back were mobbed by Salwa Judum in Kanker who forced them to come out of the bus. The women activists were harassed before being allowed to return to Raipur.
All of this has been happening even when Home Minister P Chidambaram, has expressed his intentions of travelling to Dantewada on 7th January, 2010 to attend a public hearing to be organised by Vanvasi Chetna Ashram and other groups where tribal residents of this region will share their experiences of the Salwa Judum, Operation Green Hunt and their struggle for justice. It is obvious that the Government of Chattisgarh is all out to sabotage this democratic process through intimidation as well as direct attack and stop the large number of adivasis from ventilating their grievances.
In the changed circumstances, Himanshu Kumar and others from Dantewada have declared that there would begin a Satyagraha against the unjustifiable State violence, asserting their right to support the adivasis in their struggle for peace and justice. They also have requested the Home Minister to immediately make an official announcement of his visit and not to withdraw in any situation of deliberate sabotage by the state government of Chattisgarh.
Speaking at a press conference Retd. Justice Rajinder Sachar, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties said, “It is shameful that citizens of this country are being prevented from travelling to Dantewada by the Chattisgarh administration and a peaceful padyatra is stopped in close collaboration with Salwa Judum, which has been condemned from various quarters for the atrocities it has committed on the tribals of the regions. The denial of civil liberties to citizens in the Dantewada today is a cause of grave concern to everybody.” Uppermost in our mind today is, however, protecting the rights of the adivasis who are facing all kinds of deprivation because, the State, notwithstanding its public profession, is not fulfilling its duty to ensure that development is planned within the framework of justice and equity.
Medha Patkar, National Alliance of People’s Movements, condemned the attempts of the State government to stifle any resistance and labelling of false charges (including of murder) against Kopa Kunjam, the adivasi activist with Vanvasi Chetna Ashram and Alban Topo, an adivasi and human rights lawyer who were beaten up at the police station ironically on December 10, Human Rights Day. “This cant, however, act as a deterrent to the committed and peaceful movements”, she affirmed. In a letter to Home Minister P Chidambaram she urged to take urgent note of the potential threat from the Salwa Judum and the SPOs who took out a rally on December 10th condemning Himanshu Kumar and openly raising life-threatening slogans such as, “Himanshu Bhagao Bastar Bachao” and “Himanshu ko Maro”. “The Centre can’t deny its responsibility to ensure and guarantee not just legal rights, but human justice,” she reiterated.
Prashant Bhushan, senior lawyer further added, “the happenings in Chattisgarh is a well thought out and planned strategy of the State to enforce a complete blackout of tribal areas when government is planning an unprecedented attack on the tribals in the name of war against Naxals. Not only the legislature and the Executive, but the Judiciary also should have intervened with much more sensitivity and clarity by now, but unfortunately, all action towards establishing justice and democracy is only left to the people’s movements. He appealed to the sensitive intellectuals to support the movements, in every possible way”.
Mamata Kujur, Adivasi Mahila Mahasangh, Chattisgarh narrated the atmosphere of distrust and fear prevailing in the State, since many young tribals are being branded today as naxals by the state. She added, “it is an attempt at finishing off the democratic voices in the region since they are posing the biggest opposition to the state’s and private corporations unlawful attempt at exploiting the mineral resources of the region.
Ashish Gupta, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, added that, “it’s an irony that the democratic processes in the country are under pressure from the state forces itself who are supposed to protect them. The demolition of the Ashram first and then continued harassment of anybody associated with the Vanvashi Chetna Ashram is shameful and unjustifiable. What we are witnessing today in Chattisgarh or Naraynpatna, Orissa where an all women fact finding team was harassed and threatened by the local goons in collusion with the police is completely savage behaviour of the state and unexpected in a democracy.”
Abhay Sahu, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, while condemning the incidents urged the left secular forces and progressive people’s movement to put together a joint platform and resist any onslaught on civil and political liberties of the citizens of this country.
It’s indeed a grave and grievous situation that is faced by the adivasis, especially in Chattisgarh i.e. one of violence and the other of deprivation, both the vices trampling upon their right to life, livelihood and peace. Their existence itself being threatened the State either failing to intervene with a dialogue with the people’s movements, even in an unarmed struggle, or as in Chattisgarh, evicting and killing them in the garb of ‘combating Maoism’. All this is apparently an offshoot of the political-economic agenda of grabbing their rich resource base.
The citizens team re-appealed and re-asserted that those who are struggling within the secular democratic and non-violent framework must not be targeted by the State in such trumped up criminal charges or in any other manner as this would only shrink the space for those who are attempting peaceful resolution of conflicts and are for establishment of democracy and justice. It is the duty of the Central and State government to pro-actively protect such individuals and organizations from any physical attack or otherwise and immediately release Kopa Kunjam and punish the guilty police officials involved in harassment of the activists.
Contact: Madhuresh
For NAPM and Delhi Solidarity Group (Mobile 9818905316)
-- Regards,Vijayan MJDelhi Forum
Emails: vijayan@delhiforum.net, delhiforum@delhiforum.netWeb: http://updatecollective.wordpress.com/http://delhisolidaritygroup.wordpress.com/
Women's solidarity team stopped from visiting Dantewada!
Press statement of MP Mahila Manch
Chhatisgarh Police stops women from proceeding to Dantewada to show solidarity to women fighting against sexual violence by state actors.
As a part of the Campaign against Sexual Violence and State Repression – independent women, women's organisations and groups from across the country met in Raipur on the 12th and 13th December to discuss the increasing and rampant use of sexual violence against women as a method of state repression, to share and understand the experiences of struggle in different areas and develop deeper solidarity with one another. The vulnerability of women in the adivasi-dominated areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra has increased manifold with the state’s armed offensive in these areas in the name of Operation Greenhunt.
Women from different states shared the struggles of their respective areas. Later a group of 25 women of the campaign set out for the Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh on 13th evening in order to show solidarity with the women who have stood up against sexual violence and sought justice through democratic means.
The women enroute to Dantewada were repeatedly stopped and harassed by the police and police supported goons. Their jeeps were stopped on the pretext of licenses at Charama Thana, Kanker at the border of the Bastar division. Here they were detained for over an hour and their identities checked and papers of the vehicles and drivers scrutinized and refused to go further. The women were then forced to return the private vehicles and use public transport buses from Makditola to proceed towards Dantewara. The buses which they boarded were stopped again and they were again questioned and the driver and conductor threatened. After another stretch, the bus was stopped once more and the bus driver was threatened not to carry forward with the women’s team members, and they were forced to get down. They were finally not able to reach Dantewada. Even on their return journey to Raipur, the bus was stopped and the tyres punctured by sponsored protestors shouting slogans against the team. The DGP Chhatisgarh knew of the incidents as and when they were taking place, and no efforts were made to disperse the mob. Later, when the team held a press conference in Raipur, the police continuously interfered the proceedings.
We are very perturbed with the situations in Chhattisgarh. There is a complete break-down of democracy with the state is not allowing representatives of citizen’s and women’s groups to go to the area, gather information, understand the situations and meet the women who are strongly resisting the state’s high-handedness and their sexual exploitation. It is clear that the state is trying to hide facts with the way it has tried to curb people’s efforts to reach there and it is disturbing to imagine what would be the situation inside the zone for women. The recent situation in bordering Orissa has also been similar where a fact-finding team of 10 women from across the country were bullied, their vehicle’s glass was broken and the driver was rounded up by the police at the behest of local liquor mafia, landlords and mining companies.
Experiences across the country show a similar trend that driven by excessive corporatization, there has been an increased onslaught by the state on the lives and livelihoods of large sections of the our population in the name of “development” projects such as mining and special economic zones, It has become apparent that sustained state violence in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and other states is being continuously used to evict people from their land and livelihood. While this is being done in the name of “development” or “maintaining law and order” and “liberate” these areas from the influence of Maoist rebels, the real design is to appropriate resources and dispossess people in the area.. In the state of Chhattisagarh (as in other tribal dominant areas), the ruling government is trying to pass off tribal lands to big corporate houses and foreign companies without proper public hearings and deliberations and forcefully evicting people from their paternal lands.
Patriarchal oppression aligns itself with, intensifies and is in turn intensified by, every other kind of systemic oppression and injustice. And that is what is taking place in Chhattisgarh today where a heavily militarized State has enterered areas as an occupying force.Sexual violence and rape have become the most brutal weapon of repression here. Women are being specifically targeted and their political participation is being repressed by use of rape and other kinds of violence. Historically women have been the worst sufferers of the lack of livelihood, food, shelter and security, of draconian laws and of state-abetted violence, specially the increasing use of sexual violence to intimidate communities, and we see history repeating itself in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and other states today.
Tribal women in Bastar in Chhattisgarh have been subjected to the most extreme forms of violence since 2005, by Salwa Judum, a civil militia created and funded by the state to ‘counter’ the ‘Maoists’. Villagers here have reported incidents of gang rapes, custodial rape, mutilation of private parts, murder and continuous sexual abuse in villages, police stations and the relief camps set up by the state government in the area. The murder in 2006 of a tribal for being a ‘Maoist’ and the subsequent gang-rape of his wife in front of their child for several days inside a police station in Sarguja by police personnel (including the SP) is one such documented case.
The reports of different fact-finding committees (CAVOW, NHRC) have shown that there are numerous incidents of sexual violations taking place within the region. In the case filed by Nandini Sundar and others, there are more than 90 sworn rape affidavits pending before the Supreme Court. Even with six women daring to file private complaints (after the police refused to register the cases of rape) and make their statements before a Magistrate in Konta, there was inexplicable and inordinate delay of months in registering the cases. The arrest warrants have also been shelved for now in the absence of names of the fathers of the accused being included although the persons are clearly identified by their own names and where they are currently posted. In the meanwhile these women and their entire villages are being threatened and intimidated by the accused.
It is in this bleak scenario, that the group of 25 women of the campaign set out for the Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh on 13th evening in solidarity with the women who have stood up against sexual violence and sought justice through democratic means.We are deeply disturbed and anguished by the state’s attempts to use force against these representatives of women’s groups from across the country. It is against democratic principles to suppress dissent and people’s attempts to associate. The campaign is not deterred by the state’s efforts to subsume and threaten democratic rights groups and activists reporting state atrocities against women with the label of “naxalite” and “naxalite-supporters”, and “undertaking anti-government activities”. Unquestioned, the sexual exploitation would continue to grow, remain uncovered and justice denied.
We resolve to respond to such challenges and continue with our efforts to unearth such anti-people and anti-women activities of the state and extend our solidarity to the brave women of conflict areas fighting for justice.
Madhya Pradesh mahila manch on behalf of
Campaign against Sexual Violence and State Repression
Chhatisgarh Police stops women from proceeding to Dantewada to show solidarity to women fighting against sexual violence by state actors.
As a part of the Campaign against Sexual Violence and State Repression – independent women, women's organisations and groups from across the country met in Raipur on the 12th and 13th December to discuss the increasing and rampant use of sexual violence against women as a method of state repression, to share and understand the experiences of struggle in different areas and develop deeper solidarity with one another. The vulnerability of women in the adivasi-dominated areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra has increased manifold with the state’s armed offensive in these areas in the name of Operation Greenhunt.
Women from different states shared the struggles of their respective areas. Later a group of 25 women of the campaign set out for the Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh on 13th evening in order to show solidarity with the women who have stood up against sexual violence and sought justice through democratic means.
The women enroute to Dantewada were repeatedly stopped and harassed by the police and police supported goons. Their jeeps were stopped on the pretext of licenses at Charama Thana, Kanker at the border of the Bastar division. Here they were detained for over an hour and their identities checked and papers of the vehicles and drivers scrutinized and refused to go further. The women were then forced to return the private vehicles and use public transport buses from Makditola to proceed towards Dantewara. The buses which they boarded were stopped again and they were again questioned and the driver and conductor threatened. After another stretch, the bus was stopped once more and the bus driver was threatened not to carry forward with the women’s team members, and they were forced to get down. They were finally not able to reach Dantewada. Even on their return journey to Raipur, the bus was stopped and the tyres punctured by sponsored protestors shouting slogans against the team. The DGP Chhatisgarh knew of the incidents as and when they were taking place, and no efforts were made to disperse the mob. Later, when the team held a press conference in Raipur, the police continuously interfered the proceedings.
We are very perturbed with the situations in Chhattisgarh. There is a complete break-down of democracy with the state is not allowing representatives of citizen’s and women’s groups to go to the area, gather information, understand the situations and meet the women who are strongly resisting the state’s high-handedness and their sexual exploitation. It is clear that the state is trying to hide facts with the way it has tried to curb people’s efforts to reach there and it is disturbing to imagine what would be the situation inside the zone for women. The recent situation in bordering Orissa has also been similar where a fact-finding team of 10 women from across the country were bullied, their vehicle’s glass was broken and the driver was rounded up by the police at the behest of local liquor mafia, landlords and mining companies.
Experiences across the country show a similar trend that driven by excessive corporatization, there has been an increased onslaught by the state on the lives and livelihoods of large sections of the our population in the name of “development” projects such as mining and special economic zones, It has become apparent that sustained state violence in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and other states is being continuously used to evict people from their land and livelihood. While this is being done in the name of “development” or “maintaining law and order” and “liberate” these areas from the influence of Maoist rebels, the real design is to appropriate resources and dispossess people in the area.. In the state of Chhattisagarh (as in other tribal dominant areas), the ruling government is trying to pass off tribal lands to big corporate houses and foreign companies without proper public hearings and deliberations and forcefully evicting people from their paternal lands.
Patriarchal oppression aligns itself with, intensifies and is in turn intensified by, every other kind of systemic oppression and injustice. And that is what is taking place in Chhattisgarh today where a heavily militarized State has enterered areas as an occupying force.Sexual violence and rape have become the most brutal weapon of repression here. Women are being specifically targeted and their political participation is being repressed by use of rape and other kinds of violence. Historically women have been the worst sufferers of the lack of livelihood, food, shelter and security, of draconian laws and of state-abetted violence, specially the increasing use of sexual violence to intimidate communities, and we see history repeating itself in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and other states today.
Tribal women in Bastar in Chhattisgarh have been subjected to the most extreme forms of violence since 2005, by Salwa Judum, a civil militia created and funded by the state to ‘counter’ the ‘Maoists’. Villagers here have reported incidents of gang rapes, custodial rape, mutilation of private parts, murder and continuous sexual abuse in villages, police stations and the relief camps set up by the state government in the area. The murder in 2006 of a tribal for being a ‘Maoist’ and the subsequent gang-rape of his wife in front of their child for several days inside a police station in Sarguja by police personnel (including the SP) is one such documented case.
The reports of different fact-finding committees (CAVOW, NHRC) have shown that there are numerous incidents of sexual violations taking place within the region. In the case filed by Nandini Sundar and others, there are more than 90 sworn rape affidavits pending before the Supreme Court. Even with six women daring to file private complaints (after the police refused to register the cases of rape) and make their statements before a Magistrate in Konta, there was inexplicable and inordinate delay of months in registering the cases. The arrest warrants have also been shelved for now in the absence of names of the fathers of the accused being included although the persons are clearly identified by their own names and where they are currently posted. In the meanwhile these women and their entire villages are being threatened and intimidated by the accused.
It is in this bleak scenario, that the group of 25 women of the campaign set out for the Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh on 13th evening in solidarity with the women who have stood up against sexual violence and sought justice through democratic means.We are deeply disturbed and anguished by the state’s attempts to use force against these representatives of women’s groups from across the country. It is against democratic principles to suppress dissent and people’s attempts to associate. The campaign is not deterred by the state’s efforts to subsume and threaten democratic rights groups and activists reporting state atrocities against women with the label of “naxalite” and “naxalite-supporters”, and “undertaking anti-government activities”. Unquestioned, the sexual exploitation would continue to grow, remain uncovered and justice denied.
We resolve to respond to such challenges and continue with our efforts to unearth such anti-people and anti-women activities of the state and extend our solidarity to the brave women of conflict areas fighting for justice.
Madhya Pradesh mahila manch on behalf of
Campaign against Sexual Violence and State Repression
Alban Toppo's open letter
Alban Toppo is a lawyer in Chattisgarh. He is an adivasi and was working for HRLN. He helped to fight cases of the displaced tribals in the Bilaspur High Court, cases where the truth about the beatings, intimidation, abduction, killings, rape and sexual violence on tribal women by the Salwa Judum and its new incarnation "Danteshwari Adivasi Swabhiman Manch" which has full sponsorship of the State, would come out. Alban Toppo was picked up from Vanvasi Chetna Ashram office, badly beaten and threatened on 10th December 2009. This open letter shows the ordeal faced by him and by anyone else who is on the side of the tribals.
AN OPEN LETTER & APPEAL
I am a fresh lawyer coming from a tribal family of Jashpur, Chhattishgarh. I finished my law graduation in year 2008, got enrolled with Chhattisgarh Bar Council and started working for poor and underprivileged. For which I had a commitment since my college days. I started learning basics of human rights litigation at Delhi office of Human Rights Law Network and very recently had come to Chhattisgarh to do research for right to food case which is going on in Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and for this. I went to Dantewada, and met Mr. Himanshu Kumar, Director of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, who has done some study on this issue and taking information, his advice and guidance. I was also providing some legal assistance to him during my stay in Dantewada.
On 10 December, 2009 at about 2:30 P.M. the Thana Incharge (TI) of Bhairamgarh Police Station Mr. K.S. Nand in civil uniform came to the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA) situated at Katiyarraas accompanied by approximately more than 25 SPO’s in 5 cars. Director of VCA, Shri Himanshu Kumar and few other volunteers of VCA were present. I was also present there. TI spoke to Himanshu Kumar about taking Kopa Kunjam, s/o Lacchu Kunjam, resident of village Alnaar, Block – Geedam, P.S. Dantewada, who is a volunteer of VCA stating that they need him for some interrogation by the Superintendent of Police. He said, “SP Sahab ne bulaya hai, kuch puch tach karni hai”. No notice was served for this. However on being asked by Himanshu Kumar to give some written notice about it, the TI Bhairamgarh immediately wrote on a piece of paper that, “Prati, Kopa Kunjam ! Apse thana Dantewada me kuch poonch thanch karna chahta hoon. Kripya ap mere sath sadar P.S. kotwali chalein.” (I want to do some investigation with you at Dantewada Police Station. Please come with me to P.S. Kotwali). Being an Advocate present at the spot, I thought it to be my duty to accompany VCA Volunteer Kopa Kunjam to Dantewada police station. With the consent of Himanshu Kumar, Director-VCA I went alongwith Kopa Kunjam. At Dantewada police station we were asked to sit down. After making both of us wait for about half an hour, we were asked to come and sit in a vehicle . Thinking that we were being taken to the S.P. Office, we sat in the vehicle. As vehicle proceeded, I introduced myself to the IT Bhairamgadh saying that I am an advocate, having done my law course from Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur and am associated with Human Rights Law Network. When the vehicle crossed Dantewada, we became suspicious and asked as to where we were being taken now, to which TI, Bhairamgarh, replied, “Kopa Kunjam is now being taken to Beejapur District”. Kopa Kunjam refused to go further as he was not informed about being taken to Beejapur earlier. I also objected to it, stating that the police should follow necessary procedures under the law and should act as per guidelines of the Supreme Court and that they cannot take Mr.Kopa to Beejapur without giving any notice in this regard. By this time Kopa Kunjam came out from the Bolero vehicle and I also got out of the vehicle. The TI along with 2 others got hold of Mr.Kopa and with the help of around 15 S.P.O’s bundled Mr. Kopa into another vehicle which was also coming along with them. When I again resisted to such behavior saying that it was illegal to behave in this manner, two S.P.O.’s started abusing and slapping me and bundled me also inside the car. Before being bundled into car, I somehow managed inform my senior Lawyer, colleagues and friends in Delhi about this incident. Noticing this two SPOs, started slapping and beating me and tried to snatch my mobile and, but I didn’t give my mobile, but after this they force me inside the car and did not allow me use the mobile phone.
At about 5 P.M., we reached Bhairamgarh police station. The IT, Bhairamgadh asked me to give my mobile phone and also asked to switch it off and we were asked to sit there inside the police station. We were kept at a place inside police station with two S.P.O. keeping an eye on us. At about 8 p.m. we were taken for dinner in a nearby Hotel, from where we came in 15-20 minutes. At about 8:45 P.M. the officials of Bhairamgarh police station called me inside a room and tried to ask about the reason of me deciding to accompany Mr.Kopa. About three minutes later TI of Bhairamgarh started addressing me in an extremely rude and disrespectful manner and soon became violent and abusive. He started abusing me with slur and offensive language, which was followed by beatings with a thick bamboo stick and with a hard rubber cane, continuously slapping me while pulling my hair and kicking severely. After sometime he went out and started beating Kopa Kunjam. Kopa Kunjum was brought into the same room and both of us were beaten severely for 30 minutes by the TI Mr. Nand and an assistant constable Banjara, while some 15 other police staff & S.P.Os surrounded both of us. TI Mr. Nand also said that “ No Advocate in Bastar dares to speak in my presence and you talk a lot. Now show me how much you can talk! Show me how much law you know?” Later I was taken to a separate room and was questioned about the purpose of my stay in Dantewada and association with VCA. At around 10 PM, I listened someone saying that , “Sala Bada Admi hai , Delhi se Sahab ka phone aya hai.” Soon after this I was asked to write in a paper that I was brought to Bhairamgadh and as it has become late evening and there is no mode of transport and since the area is a very sensitive and unsafe, I decided to spend the night at Bhairamgarh station, where I am safe. In Bhairamgadh Police Station, they said that that Himanshu is a Naxalite and whoever is working with Himanshu is a naxalite and who stays with Himanshu it a Naxal supporter.
Mr. Kopa was very badly beaten and had received serious injuries on his chest, back and leg, due to which he was even unable to walk and sleep properly. I have got injuries on front portion of elbow of right hand, biceps and back causing severe pain and swelling. I was even not able to move my hands and back due to severe pain. I spend whole of night shivering and in pain, speculating what next is to happen.
On 11 December, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. I was send to Dantewada police station accompanied by 4 S.P.O.’s in a vehicle and one head constable of Bhairamgarh police station, while Mr. Kopa was kept detained. When they reached Dantewada Police Station, two volunteers of VCA were called and I was handed over to them.
After being released, next date day, I went to Ambedkar Hospital, Raipur to get a medical examination done, however I was asked make a compliant before the police and I was informed that the police will come after I make the complaint and then MLC will be conducted in the presence of police. I thought of going back to Dantewada to lodge the F.I.R. but because I was scared of being implicated in any false case this time, I did not go there.
However, being very much concerned about the trend of even lawyers not being allowed to function freely and being beaten up like this, I have no other option except to write this open letter-cum-appeal addressed to every body so that the issue could be taken up by the society itself. I have been subjected this kind of brutality for working for poor and powerless. It is against law, against democracy and even against morality to do this to an advocate. If such kind of treatment is given to young lawyers who want to work towards a better society, young generation will loose hope.
Kindly take appropriate step against those who have abused power vested in them to beat and insult me in this gruesome manner and help restoring the faith of young people in the democracy and rule of law.
Yours Sincerely
Alban Toppo
Advocate
AN OPEN LETTER & APPEAL
I am a fresh lawyer coming from a tribal family of Jashpur, Chhattishgarh. I finished my law graduation in year 2008, got enrolled with Chhattisgarh Bar Council and started working for poor and underprivileged. For which I had a commitment since my college days. I started learning basics of human rights litigation at Delhi office of Human Rights Law Network and very recently had come to Chhattisgarh to do research for right to food case which is going on in Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and for this. I went to Dantewada, and met Mr. Himanshu Kumar, Director of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, who has done some study on this issue and taking information, his advice and guidance. I was also providing some legal assistance to him during my stay in Dantewada.
On 10 December, 2009 at about 2:30 P.M. the Thana Incharge (TI) of Bhairamgarh Police Station Mr. K.S. Nand in civil uniform came to the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA) situated at Katiyarraas accompanied by approximately more than 25 SPO’s in 5 cars. Director of VCA, Shri Himanshu Kumar and few other volunteers of VCA were present. I was also present there. TI spoke to Himanshu Kumar about taking Kopa Kunjam, s/o Lacchu Kunjam, resident of village Alnaar, Block – Geedam, P.S. Dantewada, who is a volunteer of VCA stating that they need him for some interrogation by the Superintendent of Police. He said, “SP Sahab ne bulaya hai, kuch puch tach karni hai”. No notice was served for this. However on being asked by Himanshu Kumar to give some written notice about it, the TI Bhairamgarh immediately wrote on a piece of paper that, “Prati, Kopa Kunjam ! Apse thana Dantewada me kuch poonch thanch karna chahta hoon. Kripya ap mere sath sadar P.S. kotwali chalein.” (I want to do some investigation with you at Dantewada Police Station. Please come with me to P.S. Kotwali). Being an Advocate present at the spot, I thought it to be my duty to accompany VCA Volunteer Kopa Kunjam to Dantewada police station. With the consent of Himanshu Kumar, Director-VCA I went alongwith Kopa Kunjam. At Dantewada police station we were asked to sit down. After making both of us wait for about half an hour, we were asked to come and sit in a vehicle . Thinking that we were being taken to the S.P. Office, we sat in the vehicle. As vehicle proceeded, I introduced myself to the IT Bhairamgadh saying that I am an advocate, having done my law course from Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur and am associated with Human Rights Law Network. When the vehicle crossed Dantewada, we became suspicious and asked as to where we were being taken now, to which TI, Bhairamgarh, replied, “Kopa Kunjam is now being taken to Beejapur District”. Kopa Kunjam refused to go further as he was not informed about being taken to Beejapur earlier. I also objected to it, stating that the police should follow necessary procedures under the law and should act as per guidelines of the Supreme Court and that they cannot take Mr.Kopa to Beejapur without giving any notice in this regard. By this time Kopa Kunjam came out from the Bolero vehicle and I also got out of the vehicle. The TI along with 2 others got hold of Mr.Kopa and with the help of around 15 S.P.O’s bundled Mr. Kopa into another vehicle which was also coming along with them. When I again resisted to such behavior saying that it was illegal to behave in this manner, two S.P.O.’s started abusing and slapping me and bundled me also inside the car. Before being bundled into car, I somehow managed inform my senior Lawyer, colleagues and friends in Delhi about this incident. Noticing this two SPOs, started slapping and beating me and tried to snatch my mobile and, but I didn’t give my mobile, but after this they force me inside the car and did not allow me use the mobile phone.
At about 5 P.M., we reached Bhairamgarh police station. The IT, Bhairamgadh asked me to give my mobile phone and also asked to switch it off and we were asked to sit there inside the police station. We were kept at a place inside police station with two S.P.O. keeping an eye on us. At about 8 p.m. we were taken for dinner in a nearby Hotel, from where we came in 15-20 minutes. At about 8:45 P.M. the officials of Bhairamgarh police station called me inside a room and tried to ask about the reason of me deciding to accompany Mr.Kopa. About three minutes later TI of Bhairamgarh started addressing me in an extremely rude and disrespectful manner and soon became violent and abusive. He started abusing me with slur and offensive language, which was followed by beatings with a thick bamboo stick and with a hard rubber cane, continuously slapping me while pulling my hair and kicking severely. After sometime he went out and started beating Kopa Kunjam. Kopa Kunjum was brought into the same room and both of us were beaten severely for 30 minutes by the TI Mr. Nand and an assistant constable Banjara, while some 15 other police staff & S.P.Os surrounded both of us. TI Mr. Nand also said that “ No Advocate in Bastar dares to speak in my presence and you talk a lot. Now show me how much you can talk! Show me how much law you know?” Later I was taken to a separate room and was questioned about the purpose of my stay in Dantewada and association with VCA. At around 10 PM, I listened someone saying that , “Sala Bada Admi hai , Delhi se Sahab ka phone aya hai.” Soon after this I was asked to write in a paper that I was brought to Bhairamgadh and as it has become late evening and there is no mode of transport and since the area is a very sensitive and unsafe, I decided to spend the night at Bhairamgarh station, where I am safe. In Bhairamgadh Police Station, they said that that Himanshu is a Naxalite and whoever is working with Himanshu is a naxalite and who stays with Himanshu it a Naxal supporter.
Mr. Kopa was very badly beaten and had received serious injuries on his chest, back and leg, due to which he was even unable to walk and sleep properly. I have got injuries on front portion of elbow of right hand, biceps and back causing severe pain and swelling. I was even not able to move my hands and back due to severe pain. I spend whole of night shivering and in pain, speculating what next is to happen.
On 11 December, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. I was send to Dantewada police station accompanied by 4 S.P.O.’s in a vehicle and one head constable of Bhairamgarh police station, while Mr. Kopa was kept detained. When they reached Dantewada Police Station, two volunteers of VCA were called and I was handed over to them.
After being released, next date day, I went to Ambedkar Hospital, Raipur to get a medical examination done, however I was asked make a compliant before the police and I was informed that the police will come after I make the complaint and then MLC will be conducted in the presence of police. I thought of going back to Dantewada to lodge the F.I.R. but because I was scared of being implicated in any false case this time, I did not go there.
However, being very much concerned about the trend of even lawyers not being allowed to function freely and being beaten up like this, I have no other option except to write this open letter-cum-appeal addressed to every body so that the issue could be taken up by the society itself. I have been subjected this kind of brutality for working for poor and powerless. It is against law, against democracy and even against morality to do this to an advocate. If such kind of treatment is given to young lawyers who want to work towards a better society, young generation will loose hope.
Kindly take appropriate step against those who have abused power vested in them to beat and insult me in this gruesome manner and help restoring the faith of young people in the democracy and rule of law.
Yours Sincerely
Alban Toppo
Advocate
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