http://udayindia.in/2012/05/05/maoists-tribal%e2%80%88base/
Maoists’ Tribal Base
Even though Government of Odisha
has entered into an agreement with Maoist mediators to release the
Italian National Paolo Bosusco and has ensured the release on 12th of
this month from the Sabyasachi Panda faction of CPI (Maoist) through a
joint statement; the fate of ruling BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka still hangs in
balance as the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is on tenterhooks with new
demands of Maoists owning allegiance to the Andhra-Odisha Boarder
Special Zonal Committee (AOBSPZC). Finally, a deadline has been set,
provided Government to consider their additional demands in releasing
their five more comrades, even though government has already announced
and conceded the names of 25 persons to be released whereas Naxals are
demanding to release 29 of their comrades.
It is almost a month (14th March)
since the Maoists have abducted two Italian Nationals from the remote
tribal area of Kandhamal district in Odisha. Though one of the Italian
Tourists Claudio Colangelo was released a week after for goodwill
gesture as both Maoists and State engaged in dialogue through mediators,
other still held captive with Maoists for28 days.
Leave aside the ordeals, food they
eat, their mental status, many sleepless nights they have gone through,
frequent change of places, away from family and friends and walking with
armed militias deep in dense forests and hilly tracks of Odisha remote
Kandhamal and Koraput districts; the entire state machinery is busy with
examining one audio tape of another with fresh new demands and
statements’ on the one hand and engaging a dialogue with interlocutors
on the other, but still there is no breakthrough.
Never in the political history of
the Odisha had an elected government danced to the tune of diktat of the
armed revolutionaries in almost daily. With confusion over names of
Maoist cadres and sympathizers and shadow over legal but judicial
compulsions still unclear, the stalemate is likely to continue for
another couple of days or weeks.
Besides their regular demands like
stop Green hunt Operation, withdrawal of armed forces, release of their
comrades and sympathizers, unconditional release of tribals engaged in
land struggle, withdrawal of cases against villagers implicated by the
police as Maoist supporters etc; this time they have raised some
longstanding but genuine demands of Adivasi communities as conditions to
release the abducted hostages.
The demands like implementation of
OSSATIP Act 1956, scrapping bonded labour system and rehabilitating the
released bonded labourers, recognizing tribal statues to few tribal
groups, ensuring drinking water, irrigation facilities and minimum
health care facilities for tribal villages and hamlets and above all
stop repression on people protesting against industrializations and
possible displacements etc. Apart from these, tribal tourism and visit
of foreign nationals to tribal areas has been the bone of contention
between government and Maoists.
DANGEROUS PRECEDENTS
The Naveen Pattnaik Government is
now paying the price for its half-hearted drive against the Maoists when
the objective should have been to wipe them out by carrying on a
relentless offensive on their jungle hideouts. Since such a desultory
approach to the menace of these outlaws enabled them to survive, they
have been emboldened to hold the state government to ransom by
kidnapping two foreign tourists as well as BJD Laxmipur MLA Jhina Hikaka
in Koraput district of Odisha at gunpoint. Unfortunately, the state
machinery couldn’t learn any lesson after the abduction of the then
Malkangiri Collector R Vineel Krishna last year.
Once these hostages had been taken,
the state government should have gone against the band of outlaws with
all the strength under its command. But instead of taking the fight to
the Maoists, the government has been selected the easy way out by not
only negotiating with them through a group of intermediaries, but also
conceding the Maoist demands, which included the release of their
comrades who have been put behind bars. This is exactly what has
happened with the insurgents belonging to Telugu cadres dominated Andhra
Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee(AOBSZC) demanding that a total of
27 detunes including a hardcore leader like Cheda Bhusanam alias Ghasi,
responsible for killing more than 55 security personnel, be released.
On the other, CPI (Maoist) state committee secretary Sabyasachi Panda
alias Sunil wanted the release of seven persons in exchange of two
Italian tourists, Bosusco Paolo and Claudio Colangelo.
But, the government was in a bind
because the cops in the state threatened not to undertake any more
anti-Maoist offensives if the government succumbs to Maoist pressure.
The argument of the policemen has a great deal of justification because
they are in the frontline although they are not always well-equipped and
do not have the support of either helicopters or of adequate
intelligence inputs. The lesson is clear. The police cannot be expected
to fight the Maoists with one hand tied behind their backs. It has to be
an all-out offensive. Otherwise, more states will fall prey to the red
menace in the times to come. While the Maoists are now claiming that the
government had gone back on most of the promises, the fact is that
anti-Maoist operations were halted for quite some time after Krishna’s
release and were only now picking up. The new release of 29 prisoners
would put the clock back in the campaign against the Maoists. For this
the Naveen Pattnaik government would have only itself to blame.
It has long been a basic feature of
dealing with terrorists and blackmailers that yielding to pressure only
encourages them to ratchet up their demands. There is no reason to
understand why the Naveen Pattnaik government going soft on the Left
Wing Extremists who have posed serious challenge to the internal
security of the Nation. To quote Swaranjit Sen, former DGP, Andhra
Pradesh, “It’s like history repeating itself without any lessons being
learnt. Talks have only benefited the Maoists. This is a mess. Naveen
Patnaik has set a very bad precedent. This is no way of dealing with a
problem that has been termed as the biggest threat to internal
security.”
This is the second time that the
Odisha government has succumbed to Maoist pressure. Experts say while
this is definitely affecting the morale of the security forces, it is
also emboldening Maoists, thus setting a bad precedent in the state.
By Kishore Dash from Bhubaneswar
The crux of demands lies elsewhere as
even after 64 years after independence, our tribal region is still
backward, lives far from the so-called 9 per cent growth story,
Industrial paradigm, lopsided development approach and administrative
jargons’ etc. Not only this, empowerment of Adivasis in socio-economic
and political sphere has been a far cry, so in terms of education,
health, livelihood security, leadership in society.
For years together we have either
ignored or turned a blind eye to tribal developments. Successive
governments have concentrated on infrastructural or Industrial
developments by constructing roads, buildings, dams, railway lines,
power projects and mineral explorations as means of development for
tribal region for which lakhs of tribal people were displaced and
uprooted from their home, land and livelihood. Even Forest department
had branded them as encroachers and had restricted, evicted them and
their movements inside forests in the name of protected areas, reserve
forests etc. They were subjected to inhuman torturers by the Police,
Security Personnels, Company goons and middlemen for no fault of their
own when they protested against industrial projects and illegal mining.
Quit similarly The constitutional
provisions related to tribals (incorporated, even though half heartedly,
both by the British and the Independent India due to wide spread revolt
and resistance raised by tribals)- Art 19(5); 5th and 6th schedule;
Art.275(1) of the Constitution of India ; PESA, FRA and various
Government policy proclamations ( rescheduling of Schedule Areas, Excise
policy, 74th Amendment (extension to Schedule Areas, yet to be enacted
), MFP, etc are so powerful as to be antithetical to the very basic
tenets of neo-liberal policies.
As the disparity and dispossession
grows, the people protest and resist spontaneously, very often with no
well defined objectives, no formal membership and no organic leadership,
but they express deep resentment over the outcome of the uneven
development policy practices. Such has been the situation in our tribal
areas.
Similar sentiments have been echoed
by the interlocutors during the ongoing talk with the government. While
summarizing the 13 point demands put forth by Maoists Dr BD Sharma one
of the mediators from the Naxal side said, “The tribal areas were
excluded and partially excluded until the adoption of the Constitution
on November 26, 1949. Tribal people enjoyed full control over the
resources-Land, Water and Forests-in these areas. It is the biggest
irony that the tribal custom and tradition of ‘excluded area’ days have
been forgotten except the Sixth Scheduled Areas. All laws of the land
got extended to these areas in routine that ‘criminalized’ the entire
tribal territories in the Fifth Scheduled areas. The concerned Governors
did not use their powers under Para 5(1) of the Fifth Schedule. This is
considered Constitution within the Constitution”.
Dr Sharma further added, “This
anomaly was sought to be reserved under provisions of Panchayati Raj
(Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (PESA) but appropriate action
has not been taken by the concerned states. The result is that the
tribal people are asserting their rights over the natural resources. The
states are unconcerned about the right with tribal people who had been
enjoying before the adoption of the constitution. The states are
asserting the principle of Eminent Domain as in vogue thereby ignoring
the rights of tribal communities over the resources now conceded
implicitly under PESA”.
On the other hand, the state has
refused to recognise the Eminent Domain of the Community in the
Scheduled Areas and the so called government lands are assigned to
outsiders for a variety of purposes including establishment of
industries and mining etc. The land under the command of the people are
acquired from unwilling simple tribal people using the aura of authority
and a variety of manipulations. The provisions of PESA envisaging
‘Consultation’ that must be considered as ‘Consent’ is not honoured in
their true spirit.
The spurt in Maoist activities in
the state is not only attributed to lack of development and policy
failures; there are other such reasons like exploitation of tribals by
middlemen, rampant corruption and malpractices in government offices,
apathetic attitude of local government employees, atrocities and
indiscriminate attack by the police and forest officials, illegal land
transfer by revenue officials, lack of sensitiveness of politicians from
the panchayat level to parliament etc.
By Sudarshan Chhotoray From Bhubaneswar
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