|
Salwa
Judam -- Exposing India's strategy to make poor fight against the poor
 Maoist
guerrillas on one side and the State and its sponsored offensive, Salva
Judum, on the other. This is the hidden war in south Chhattisgarh. Vast
sections of Indian civil society are silent on this. The Government has
ensured that the rag-tag army of poorest of the poor, incited by
misprepresenting the people's struggle and depicting the naxalites as
monsters and the state as a saviour, the Salwa Judam works to pit the
tribals into a civil war. Over the last two years, 700 villages in
Dantewada district have been burnt, and about one lakh people displaced.
It has been apparent all this while that the Salva Judum is
government-backed and enjoys the support of security forces stationed on
the ground. Mahendra Karma, Leader of the Opposition in the Chhattisgarh
Assembly and a Salva Judum protagonist, had openly attended meetings of
this militia in the presence of senior bureaucrats and policemen.
In
essence, the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh is in the grip of a civil war
that has locked tribals in a bloody internecine conflict. The
Chhattisgarh government has put a ban on independent reporting through
the Special Security Act of 2005. So there you are: only the atrocities
by Maoists now get highlighted, while far more numerous Salva Judum
crimes go unreported and unpunished. Salva Judum cadres work under close
supervision of the police.
Some
sections of the civil society have demanded the repeal of the
Chhattisgarh Special Security Act (2005) censoring the media; a
highlevel, independent enquiry into all killings, disappearances and
rapes by the Salva Judum as well as Naxalites; the disbanding of Salva
Judum, and a commitment to end violence by both sides; and a real
dialogue between the Naxalites/Maoists and the government.
The
Chhattisgarh government has recently tried to ban NGOs in the Bastar
region, as well as Médecins Sans rontières, even though thousands of
people are dying from lack of medical aid in the villages as well as
camps.
28 November, 2007
|
Read Also
