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Sanjay M wrote:
My question is - what were the locals getting from these untapped resources before, that the illegal extraction of these has suddenly made them poorer and more frustrated? Were all these villagers sitting around banking on one day getting rich from the minerals? Or are these minerals suddenly near and dear to their hearts because the arrival of illegal mining outfits has tipped them off of their worth?
What do you expect them to get from the Forest? Urban lifestyle or alien culture to which they are not accustomed. They are/were very comfortable with their way of life? Did they ask for change? Why do we want to give them our way of life. They are getting everything from the forest and they need nothing from us. We need whatever is hidden in forest and not useful to them. That destroys their culture and way of life. Many of them choose to come to urban areas and get educated and live different life, adopt different culture. But it is their choice. Not imposed upon them.
Their way of life is not built upon greed and economic development. They resent when modern ways intrude into their habitat. This was their from a very long time. Revolts by various tribal societies are manifestations of this anger. But as pointed out in previous post, it was not directed against common men. Maoists have tapped into this simmering anger and using it as a weapon in their pursuit of objects . This is going to hurt tribals in the long run.
So it is not these mines and minerals which are so dear to tribals but their way of life which is being destroyed. Planners and policy makers have to confront these questions and development imperatives of other societies before they even begin to comprehend the enormity of the task at hand.
They don't know and don't bother about economic worth of mines/minerals. It is Maoists and Businessmen in their areas who feed them with their sense of grievance and anger . If you lived amidst them for considerable length of time you would understand their frustrations. Of course modern trappings are slowly intruding in the hinterland and that is why these demands make more sense to them now than before.
My point is - how come the Maoist guns are aimed at everybody but the miners whom you said have displaced them? If these Maoists are gunning around all over the place, then how come the illegal miners/etc haven't been chased out, and yet it's railways/etc being blown up instead?
If personA hits you, then usually you're going to hit back at personA if anyone, as opposed to randomly hitting personB, while leaving personA unscathed. Mining operations would then be very vulnerable to Maoist attacks, but how come I never hear anything in the news about some attack on a mining operation with attendant casualties? Instead I only hear about attacks on police, CRPF, railways, etc - are these the only ones doing the mining, tree-chopping, etc? And if you claim there's some biased media filtering involved, I never even hear the Maoists themselves putting out announcements on having closed down some mining or tree-cutting operation.
When people in WBengal were interviewed on why they were participating in protest mobs against the Tata Nano plant, many of these morons said they hoped to get jobs for themselves at the plant, and that's why they were showing up to protest against the plant!
So likewise, given the same low-IQ distribution in most backward areas, I'm expecting some similarly convoluted "logic" from those who Quixotically wage war against trains, etc - ie. they are fighting to keep society from encroaching on them, so that they can get some development!
Therefore, this thread can also be entitled "The Low-EQ Menace"
(aka. "Hi! I need some development! I don't exactly know how to go about doing that, but if I make some kind of ruckus, then maybe someone will feel motivated to give some to me, while worrying about the finer details on arranging it, which I can't be bothered to sort out myself!")
So the science of social development in India can be condensed down to "EQ engineering"
EQ considerations dominate all processes and interactions. In a low-EQ society, then every situation, problem and remedy to be assessed with EQ in mind first and foremost.
The story on mining barons is further confirmation, if any is required, that Maoists are just keen on capturing power for global consolidated Caliphate exactly like Taliban and not interested in tribals or poor.
For them to ensure that the funds spent on villages by GOI/GOs reaches the beneficiaries is very simple - take on the local corruption, local contractors and local mafia and local govt. servants that fleece villagers for caste cert and local teachers that do not visit schools or teach at all. They have the non-violent as well as violent means - muscles, bullets and bombs to do this, but they spend it on railway tracks, poor policemen and ordinary people.
Perhaps if they do that, they may find they can win any middle class urban constituency hands down.
legal/illegal miners pay a cut of their profits to naxals to avoid attacks on their operation. naxals gets a steady input of 100s of crores per annum risk free and love it. these business interests also have the logistical and people contact in big industrial cities to hook them up with arms supply chains and illegal arms factories presumably.
govt money for development spent via state and contractual agencies in these areas is also taken a cut by the naxals. the contractors do it to protect themselves.
so the naxals get money from both directions every day.
the "tribals" who live in such forest areas presumably never managed the shift to settled river valley cultivation, or at sometime in the past
got chased out of more fertile land by "stronger" settler societies. so they either do shifting cultivation, small scale cultivation in cleared forests or just depend on forest produce to eke out a living.
instead of letting the robber barons pocket 1000s of crores, its better the state encourage formation of mineral industries locally making
finished products as this will bring in the developmental infra (roads, security, schooling, medical aid) via the townships and provide indirect
jobs also in a 1:5 ratio to run these operations. thats how former "dark territories" like gurgaon got developed...its not that every villager there is sitting inside a call center. but one must remember gurgaon villagers had land rights and sold their land for big sums. the forest dwelling tribals have no land rights because they are deemed living on "scheduled govt land".
perhaps giving them land rights on their ancestral areas with good saleable title will help. there is some bill being considerd by cabinet for this I believe wherein the local people will have 20% stake in any industrial ops.
First of all we need to differentiate between Leadership of Maoists group, Hard core cadre and mere followers or spectators.
Leaders are mostly not tribals, well versed in ideology of maoism, tectics etc. They have hard core cadre which work as militia , elite groups lead a band of hard core cadre and those who perform also get promoted to lead. The cadre may include some of the well educated and sometimes well employed tribals.But leaders are almost non-tribals, urbane. Whilst, followers/spectators are those who live within the forest or engaged in their daily survival, struggle for life, tackle corruption etc, like anybody else. They are caught in the trap , on one side maoists and on other side state's coercive arms. Even ordinary citizen fears to go to police, how do we expect them to cooperate with police etc. They are all trying to survive.
One needs to target leadership and the Hardcore cadre and isolate them from their base and financials. Rightly pointed out by Suppiah and Singha, there is a system of collection of levy etc ( just like NE states where even officers pay taxes to militants) which go into funding their operation. They pay abt 2000 pm to each unemployed youth to be part of their system, either as informer or as partime maoists. They gather for some operation and then vanish and mingle with general populace. This has twin advantage, The other being ,if police takes on such sleepers civil society would cry outrage and conditions create more such parttime maoists who may later become fulltimer.
leadership would only talk of taking on industries, but never do until they get into power. Till such time they would become main source of funding. self destructive , though, it may be.
Basically maoists are least bothered about tribals and their problems. They are mere pawn in their larger scheme of things.Tribals are actually classless society so maoisms or maxism would have no application there, theoretically .Marx predicated his theory upon industrialisation and development of classes, masses in the industrialists society. Agrarian society or tribal society never featured in his theories. Yet, paradoxically, marxism found application in USSR and China which were agrarian societies.So instead of workers peasants become vehicle of class struggle. In tribal society, it is tribals who are being used for such purpose,Ultimately to capture power through the barrel of gun, and of course masses ( peasants or tribals or any other aggrieved/deprived groupings)would have no say when maoist come to power.History is littered with corpses of such uprising against dictatorship of proletariat.
Strangely , leadership comprises of highly educated and un-deprived individuals, claiming they have attained enlightenment and want to liberate chained classes.kobad, koteswara, ramanna, and other leaders are examples. Naxal movement , many teachers from St Stephan's and Hindu College etc left their present vocation and had joined the struggle. Arndhoti might become political advisor, as and when change come.
Do not go by their current action alone, things need to be seen in broader perspective.
It is the leadership of the Maoism movement which perplexes me. How can a educated man turn into a believer in Maoism.
I must confess that during by high school days I was attracted towards the Communism/ Maoism causes. However, the more I have studied the economic system and the modern economy the more I find the Maoist logic to be un tenable and in capable of resolving the social and economic problems being faced by the people in the country.
Need less to say that I don't believe in the profits being earned by the enterprise is an exploitation of labour. Which is one of the core tenets of the communist/ maoist thought.
it is the educated that become Communist/Maoist because it is a short cut to power and glory. They have no patience to wait it out like Lallu, Siddharamiah, MK et al going thru rough and tumble of politics on daily basis. It is not unusual for mass murderers to be highly educated - Pol Pot was one, by any and certainly cambodian standards. So are some of our JNU worthies. A ordinary guy is either revolted by violence or has no intelligence to come out with attractive theories on why he did so. it takes all the intelligence of A rundi-dotty types to do that.
They also care a damn for the country and only for themselves and their own ideology..you can see this in the streets too...ordinary truck drivers are lot more helpful on street than those in a/c cars.
The Maoists have promised to bring the fight to urban areas. One can only imagine what will happen then.
Can you imagine the Maoists saying "The rationing office in Ward A will be burnt down because the workers there are corrupt"? A lot of the residents in the locality will queue to donate the kerosene for that effort...
In India, most of the Maoist areas are where illegal mining is going on, no way for all thier talk will Maoists try and come to Urban areas, there will no funding and will be wiped in no time. Besides most top Politburo members are in Indian cities with thier families somti mes located outside India.
I think Jairam Ramesh is right, the Mining mafia sends maoists into protected forest areas, gets rid of the wildlife and starts illegal mining and with settlement in foreign currency swells thier offsore Tax haven Bank accounts. From these funds certain section Indian media Foreign Media, Foreign Elite, activists like A.ROY etc are funded. The losers in this scenario are the poor tribals( terrorised day and night, schools, Hospitals blown up), the policeman who generally come lower strata of Indian society, Truck drivers who are sometimes looted killed- again from lower strata of society.
It sickens me how these JNU types feed of foreign funds (i.ethese funds are basically repatriations into India) and like a leech suck money from the poor of India while supposedly fighting for thier cause.
Thats why so much leftist stuff on forests rights and no need of wildlife reserves
In India, most of the Maoist areas are where illegal mining is going on, no way for all thier talk will Maoists try and come to Urban areas, there will no funding and will be wiped in no time. Besides most top Politburo members are in Indian cities with thier families somti mes located outside India.
The Maoists are not fools. They will surely not approach the same tactics as they have currently due to the favourable terrain and support they enjoy in Dantewada, Chattisgarh etc. You can be sure they will adopt a massive psy ops war. Legions of Arundhoti Roy clones, Purefool Bidwai and Dilip DSouza types will be fed scraps from their funding stocks from the mining barons and they will create favourable coverage. The media led by the likes of Barkha Dutt, Ghose etc will only be too happy to lead this charge.
There is always an undercurrent of discontent that exists in every urban city under belly. Just go to the slums and find out what they think of the municipality and the police (which is justified a lot of times btw). It wont be too hard for them to harness this for manpower.
Here is a simple scenario that can unfold that would cause serious disruption:
The Mumbai railway tracks are bordered by huge amounts of slums on both sides for a significant amount of its length, and by chawls for other part. These slums and chawls are on railway land for most cases, but are now quasi legal. Imagine that Maoists get some support in these areas, and get someone to throw rocks at the passing trains. Not en masse, but in a hit and run tactic, say 5-7 times a day anywhere across the entire suburban length, with a Molotov cocktail thrown in once a while. The actual damage to infrastructure will be almost nil, but some people will lose their lives or their eyes. But the media coverage accorded by Dutt types to the Maoists will give them tremendous publicity, far disproportionate to their influence, which will cause them to gain more supporters, so on and forth...
Such attacks will be difficult to police. You cant have the RPF patrol the tracks 24x7.
Maoists are NOT going after corruption in rural areas, it is foolish to assume they will do so in urban areas. Furthermore, 99% of the corruption is by petty babus who belong to the same red cabal trade unions.
Suppiah wrote:Maoists are NOT going after corruption in rural areas, it is foolish to assume they will do so in urban areas. Furthermore, 99% of the corruption is by petty babus who belong to the same red cabal trade unions.
No one said they did, just as they say they are fighting for the tribals. It is a carefully crafted myth that is extended by their media stooges as well. But there is no reason why they will NOT seek to extend that myth in order to gain more support. A movement in urban areas is impossible without local support, and for that they need to be SEEN to be addressing a grievance. Hence the corruption angle
Sanjay M wrote:
My question is - what were the locals getting from these untapped resources before, that the illegal extraction of these has suddenly made them poorer and more frustrated? Were all these villagers sitting around banking on one day getting rich from the minerals? Or are these minerals suddenly near and dear to their hearts because the arrival of illegal mining outfits has tipped them off of their worth?
What do you expect them to get from the Forest? Urban lifestyle or alien culture to which they are not accustomed. They are/were very comfortable with their way of life? Did they ask for change? Why do we want to give them our way of life. They are getting everything from the forest and they need nothing from us. We need whatever is hidden in forest and not useful to them. That destroys their culture and way of life. Many of them choose to come to urban areas and get educated and live different life, adopt different culture. But it is their choice. Not imposed upon them.
Their way of life is not built upon greed and economic development. They resent when modern ways intrude into their habitat. This was their from a very long time. Revolts by various tribal societies are manifestations of this anger. But as pointed out in previous post, it was not directed against common men. Maoists have tapped into this simmering anger and using it as a weapon in their pursuit of objects . This is going to hurt tribals in the long run.
So it is not these mines and minerals which are so dear to tribals but their way of life which is being destroyed. Planners and policy makers have to confront these questions and development imperatives of other societies before they even begin to comprehend the enormity of the task at hand.
They don't know and don't bother about economic worth of mines/minerals. It is Maoists and Businessmen in their areas who feed them with their sense of grievance and anger . If you lived amidst them for considerable length of time you would understand their frustrations. Of course modern trappings are slowly intruding in the hinterland and that is why these demands make more sense to them now than before.
I'm sorry, this is a totally messed up romantic mindset endemic to Indian thought process from Nehru's time. Treating the tribals as something special and some delicate civilization that should be left alone and insulated from the 'evil' modernity of the rest of the country is the same fcuked up leftist/socialist utopian thinking that landed us in this mess in the first place, which the Naxals are easily exploiting. This is the same attitude that prevented the Northeastern states from becoming a part of the national mainstream.
The world changes and people have to change. Nobody can demand by right or have a sense of entitlement to, a primitive way of life. If they can compete with others on fair terms and build up their resources to the extent where they can maintain that lifestyle as a matter of choice, fine. Otherwise, they are not entitled to do whatever their ancestors did millenia ago, not any more than ROP followers are entitled to 7th century barbarian practices or Scandinavians are entitled to burn and pillage the UK every summer.
The country of is full of deserving people who work their butt off to adapt, adjust and pull up their standard of living. Most communities in the country were in dire straits at the time of independence, yet they have managed to pull themselves out of the rut. Just like Kashmiris, I dont see why tribals or any ethnic group should be entitled to anything which hundreds of millions of fellow Indians do not demand.
bart wrote:
I'm sorry, this is a totally messed up romantic mindset endemic to Indian thought process from Nehru's time. Treating the tribals as something special and some delicate civilization that should be left alone and insulated from the 'evil' modernity of the rest of the country is the same fcuked up leftist/socialist utopian thinking that landed us in this mess in the first place, which the Naxals are easily exploiting. This is the same attitude that prevented the Northeastern states from becoming a part of the national mainstream.
The world changes and people have to change. Nobody can demand by right or have a sense of entitlement to, a primitive way of life. If they can compete with others on fair terms and build up their resources to the extent where they can maintain that lifestyle as a matter of choice, fine. Otherwise, they are not entitled to do whatever their ancestors did millenia ago, not any more than ROP followers are entitled to 7th century barbarian practices or Scandinavians are entitled to burn and pillage the UK every summer.
The country of is full of deserving people who work their butt off to adapt, adjust and pull up their standard of living. Most communities in the country were in dire straits at the time of independence, yet they have managed to pull themselves out of the rut. Just like Kashmiris, I dont see why tribals or any ethnic group should be entitled to anything which hundreds of millions of fellow Indians do not demand.
No need to be apologetic. Since you have made up your mind that tribals don't deserve their way of life, as it is, there can be no further argument.
This is the same thinking which fails to show empathy with others and see their point of view. And well tribals are equated with barbarian practices and pillaging by some europeans.
Democracy is not about , simply, development, but giving choice to the people and that is what you want to deny.Who are you to decide what they are entitled to , Are you playing GOD. Take a Hike man.
Besides the myopia of thinking , this thought process is self destructive.
chaanakya wrote:
Since you have made up your mind that tribals don't deserve their way of life, as it is, there can be no further argument.
Don't put words in my mouth. All I said was that nobody (tribals or MNCs or yuppies or whoever) is entitled to by right to any more than the rights and freedoms granted to them by the constitution. Nobody deserves special status, that too for perpetuity.
This is the same thinking which fails to show empathy with others and see their point of view.
Why cant the small bunch of so called 'tribals' represented so well by left wing nut jobs, assorted anti-nationals and Maoists show empathy for the vast majority of people in the country, their economic development and their desire for industrialization, not to mention empathy for the patriotic goals of developing the country.
Also your so-called empathy is really quite patronizing. Why should the state or politicians/leftists decide that tribals are some kind of anthropological specimen that must remain isolated from modernity. Who are you to decide that they don't want to modernize or compete with urban dwellers? This logic reminds me of orientalists dismissing the ability of asians to think independently or govern themselves, or in the modern time people in the west claiming that Afghans are incapable of being modern or democratic.
And don't fall for the Arundhati type logic of Tribals vs the Indian state i.e tribals are different from 'Indians'. Tribals for better or worse are Indians, the whole country belongs to everybody and we had better work together as a whole to develop it.
Democracy is not about , simply, development, but giving choice to the people and that is what you want to deny.
Umm...Most of the people are for modernization, industrialization and development. Take a 'democratic' survey in India about how many people want to give up electricity, cars, cell phones and processed foods and want to live in a Jungle as a subsistence farmer and you might be surprised.
The interests of tribals are best served by helping them to improve their standard of living rather than instigate them to oppose modernity, as you seem to be doing.
Are you playing GOD. Take a Hike man.
No, I am not a commie. Only commie folks like Stalin and Mao (ring a bell?) do enjoy playing god.
Well now you have denied choice to all and sundry. Read up on constitution which starts with "We the people..."
What Govt could not provide for 40 % of its masses despite wanting it, it would claim to provide those who want to be left alone.
And remember Patriotism is invoked when all arguments have dried up. No one has copyright to what is patriotism.
And when one talks about small bunch of tribals, how easy it is to forget that there are larger groups which are caught in the trap of violence for no fault of their own.
And again everything you say presuppose that your way of life is superior than tribals'. Tell me in what way, life of a urban, high flying well educated but highly stressed is better than a simple living.
Do make a comparison of purchase price of Rupee in 1960 and 2010. You will be surprised at your economic development. But this is not a critique of economic development , it is just about freedom of choice, one can very well say yes to what all you are telling but it has to be conscious and one has freedom to say no as well. And when it is 'no' do respect that.
Sounds good on paper. Army moves in , clears the area and declares it Naxal free, followed by rapid build up of facilities like Roads , Schools, Hospitals, Power etc, CRPF takes control soon and overlooks development, establish a solid on ground intelligence network, raise police streangth and SPO's , ensure that Naxals do not creep in again.
Not at all a strategist, but I feel that the Army should not have been roped into tackle the Maoists. It would have been better if the Army acts a mentor/trainer for the Central Police Forces. Let the police also improve on its role and starts moving away from the typical "lathi wielding Indian policeman", and be a force which can fight back.
AFSPA imposition seems like a bad idea given that the Army is susceptible to abusing it with impunity. Hopefully they will have better safegaurds to prevent occurences like the recent one in J&K.
In India it is an act of faith that only army can do things right. It seems that the police and all the Paramilitary forces under the control of Home Ministry are useless.
Now the Naxals have to be fought by the army. Have they paid attention to improving the CRPF and adding additional battalians to the CRPF and profiding them with better training. Even the police reforms are not being implemented by the states. In the absence of a proper support mechanism from the state police forces and Intel setup the Army will get sucked in a never ending police action which will sap its combat capability. Besides which the army is not trained for the use of minimal force. They will have to be retrained for the fight. Which is a time consuming process.
Also the army has finite combat capability.
In addition to this what is it the army is to acheave. Win a military battle against the Naxals. If yes then that can only be done if the states have the will to go after the Naxal leadership. Which it has singularly failed to go after.
Why do we debate so much against the Naxals, i feel they should just act without media attention. The key to get the naxal weapon suppliers and leadership who live in cities. Problem is when things get a bit touch, naxals, will board a public bus and get out of an area. we must stop that
vera_k wrote:AFSPA imposition seems like a bad idea given that the Army is susceptible to abusing it with impunity. Hopefully they will have better safegaurds to prevent occurences like the recent one in J&K.
vera_k ji,
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
I thought that PC had some little brains but I have serious doubts now.
Army against the naxals?? Foolish and stupid government and its stupid babus. Useless elected mofos.
Army without AFSPA?, people shouldn't talk like pakis or cheap motivated NGOs.
For the first time in the history of free India, the Indian Army is baulking at something the stupid politicos want.
Pause and think a little. The Army is right in not wanting to fight Indian citizens. They are not the paki army.
vera_k wrote:AFSPA imposition seems like a bad idea given that the Army is susceptible to abusing it with impunity. Hopefully they will have better safegaurds to prevent occurences like the recent one in J&K.
Good Sir, how did you manage to arrive at this brilliant conclusion? I'm sure this is based on some hard analysis and not some 'feeling'.
rohitvats wrote:Good Sir, how did you manage to arrive at this brilliant conclusion? I'm sure this is based on some hard analysis and not some 'feeling'.
rohitvats wrote:Good Sir, how did you manage to arrive at this brilliant conclusion? I'm sure this is based on some hard analysis and not some 'feeling'.
The call on not involving the Army in anti-Naxal operations was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which met on Thursday. Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that the government was more keen to utilise the experience of ex-servicemen, since they are no longer an active part of the Army, against the Naxals.
To begin with, the government plans to hire ex-servicemen on contract basis for three years for specific roles. Former Sappers, for instance, could be roped in for de-mining works, sources said.
rohitvats wrote:Good Sir, how did you manage to arrive at this brilliant conclusion? I'm sure this is based on some hard analysis and not some 'feeling'.
This one alleged incident (which is yet to be proven) and you paint the whole organization as prone to excesses using AFSPA? And the fact that this incident itself has nothing to do with AFSPA? What Lahori Logic is this, Sir?
Reform of Army, Paramilitary, RPF, State police is an entirely different topic and should not be mixed with anti-terror or anti-naxal fight. No one can deny that in varying degrees (State police being the worst and IA being the best and largely respected), there are problems such as resort to torture, violence, fake cases, foisting evidence, cooking cases, brutality, corruption, forced confiscation of private property and so on...there have been cases of soldiers pushing ordinary passengers out of running trains over minor arguments as well.
But all this should not distract us from central goal of doing away with communism, at least its overtly-violent branch office aka Naxal/Maoist. Or for that matter terrorism. As someone said we go to battle with what we have not what we wish...
vera_k wrote:AFSPA imposition seems like a bad idea given that the Army is susceptible to abusing it with impunity. Hopefully they will have better safegaurds to prevent occurences like the recent one in J&K.
Armed Forces does not have a mandate to operate within the country as such, unless there is external aggression and needed for defence of India. So if Govt wants Army to operate within the Country it needs to create a legal framework. That is Armed Forces Special Powers for various territorial jurisdiction.
Alternatively you have to declare external or internal emergency and extend military jurisdiction to disturbed areas and Collectors are empowered to call Armed Forces to aid and assist civil administration ( even during peaceful times army is called for help, not exactly fighting civilians causing troubles, for that IRB, RR CRPF PAF etc are created).
Without that, ASFPA is the only legal way for army to operate.
Now, any act, rules or piece of legislation is prone to misuse. There may be other remedies for that but to paint the whole canvas in black is not sound logic. In any case armed forces have better track record in dealing with deviant actions than most other organisation.
Like throwing baby with bathwater ( and the tub as added bonus).
So if one decides to ask army to do the job, need to give legal cover.
Dawn news the newsdesk of the ostensible defender of the human rights of the poor; Indian ofcourse and her hand maiden is back again Operation Green Hunt’s urban avatar[look forward to the guardian next] wish she could keep quiet i do not want to go off again.
By Arundhati Roy
Saturday, 12 Jun, 2010
Perhaps the Indian people should declare that this country is in a state of Emergency: Arundhati Roy. –File Photo
WORLD
Walking with the Comrades
WAR IN THE FOREST
Walking with the Comrades
While the Indian Government considers deploying the army and air force to quell the rebellion in the countryside, strange things are happening in the cities.
On the 2nd of June the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) held a public meeting in Mumbai. The main speakers were Gautam Navlakha, editorial consultant of the Economic and Political Weekly and myself. The press was there in strength. The meeting lasted for more than three hours. It was widely covered by the print media and TV. On June 3rd, several newspapers, TV channels and online news portals like Rediff.com, covered the event quite accurately. The Times of India (Mumbai edition), had an article headlined “We need an idea that is neither Left nor Right”, and the Hindu’s article was headlined “Can we leave the bauxite in the mountain?” The recording of the meeting is up on YouTube.
The day after the meeting, the Press Trust of India (PTI) put out a brazenly concocted account of what I had said. The PTI report was first posted by the Indian Express online on June 3rd 2010 at 13.35 pm. The headline said: “Arundhati backs Maoists, dares authorities to arrest her.” Here are some excerpts:
“Author Arundhati Roy has justified the armed resistance by Maoists and dared the authorities to arrest her for supporting their cause.”
“The Naxal movement could be nothing but an armed struggle. I am not supporting violence. But I am also completely against contemptuous atrocities-based political analysis.” (?)
“It ought to be an armed movement. Gandhian way of opposition needs an audience, which is absent here. People have debated long before choosing this form of struggle,” Roy, who had saluted the “people of Dantewada” after 76 CRPF and police personnel were mowed down by Maoists in the deadliest attack targeting security forces. “‘I am on this side of line. I do not care...pick me up put me in jail,’ she asserted.”
Let me begin with the end of the report. The suggestion that I saluted “the people of Dantewada” after the Maoists killed 76 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is a piece of criminal defamation. I have made it quite clear in an interview on CNN-IBN that I viewed the death of the CRPF men as tragic, and that I thought they were pawns in a war of the rich against the poor. What I said at the meeting in Mumbai was that I was contemptuous of the hollow condemnation industry the media has created and that as the war went on and the violence spiraled, it was becoming impossible to extract any kind of morality from the atrocities committed by both sides, so an atrocity-based analysis was a meaningless exercise. I said that I was not there to defend the killing of ordinary people by anybody, neither the Maoists nor the government, and that it was important to ask what the CRPF was doing with 27 AK-47s, 38 INSAS, 7 SLRs, 6 light machine guns, one stengun and a two-inch mortar in tribal villages. If they were there to wage war, then being railroaded into condemning the killing of the CRPF men by the Maoists meant being railroaded into coming down on the side of the Government in a war that many of us disagreed with.
The rest of the PTI report was a malicious, moronic mish-mash of what transpired at the meeting. My views on the Maoists are clear. I have written at length about them. At the meeting I said that the people’s resistance against the corporate land grab consisted of a bandwidth of movements with different ideologies, of which the Maoists were the most militant end. I said the government was labeling every resistance movement, every activist, ‘Maoist’ in order to justify dealing with them in repressive, military fashion. I said the government had expanded the meaning of the word ‘Maoist’ to include everybody who disagreed with it, anybody who dared to talk about justice. I drew attention to the people of Kalinganagar and Jagatsinghpur who were waging peaceful protests but were living under siege, surrounded by hundreds of armed police, were being lathi-charged and fired at. I said that local people thought long and hard before deciding what strategy of resistance to adopt. I spoke of how people who lived deep inside forest villages could not resort to Gandhian forms of protest because peaceful satyagraha was a form of political theatre that in order to be effective, needed a sympathetic audience, which they did not have. I asked how people who were already starving could go on hunger strikes. I certainly never said anything like “it ought to be an armed movement.” (I’m not sure what on earth that means.)
I went on to say that all the various resistance movements today, regardless of their differences, understood that they were fighting a common enemy, so they were all on one side of the line, and that I stood with them. But from this side of the line, instead of only asking the government questions, we should ask ourselves some questions. Here are my exact words:
“I think it is much more interesting to interrogate the resistance to which we belong, I am on this side of the line. I am very clear about that. I don't care, pick me up, put me in jail. I am on this side of the line. But on this side of the line, we must turn around and ask our comrades questions.”
I then said that while Gandhian methods of resistance were not proving to be effective, Gandhian movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan had a radical and revolutionary vision of “development” and while the Maoists methods of resistance were effective, I wondered whether they had thought through the kind of “development” they wanted. Apart from the fact that they were against the Government selling out to private corporations, was their mining policy very different from state policy? Would they leave the bauxite in the mountain — which is what the people who make up their cadre want, or would they mine it when they came to power?
I read out Pablo Neruda’s “Standard Oil Company” that tells us what an old battle this one is.
The PTI reporter who had made it a point to take permission from the organizers to record cannot claim his or her version to be a matter of ‘interpretation’. It is blatant falsification. Surprisingly the one-day-old report was published by several newspapers in several languages and broadcast by TV channels on June 4th, many of whose own reporters had covered the event accurately the previous day and obviously knew the report to be false. The Economic Times said: “Publicity seeking Arundhati Roy wants to be Aung San Su Kyi”. I’m curious — why would newspapers and TV channels want to publish the same news twice, once truthfully and then falsely?
That same evening (June 4th), at about seven O’clock, two men on a motorcycle drove up to my home in Delhi and began hurling stones at the window. One stone nearly hit a small child playing on the street. Angry people gathered and the men fled. Within minutes, a Tata Indica arrived with a man who claimed to be a reporter from Zee TV, asking if this was “Arundhati Roy’s house” and whether there had been trouble. Clearly this was a set up, a staged display of ‘popular anger’ to be fed to our barracuda-like TV channels. Fortunately for me, that evening their script went wrong. But there was more to come. On June 5th the Dainik Bhaskar in Raipur carried a news item “Himmat ho to AC kamra chhod kar jungle aaye Arundhati” (If she has the guts Arundhati should leave her airconditioned room and come to the jungle) in which Vishwaranjan, the Director General of Police of Chhattisgarh challenged me to face the police by joining the Maoists in the forest. Imagine that— the police DGP and me, Man to Man. Not to be outdone, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Chhattisgarh, Ms Poonam Chaturvedi announced to the press that I should be shot down at a public crossroad, and that other traitors like me should be given the death sentence. (Perhaps someone should tell her that this sort of direct incitement to violence is an offense under the Indian Penal Code.) Mahendra Karma, Chief of the murderous ‘peoples’ militia the Salwa Judum which is guilty of innumerable acts of rape and murder, asked for legal action to be taken against me. On Tuesday June 8th the Hindi daily Nayi Duniya reported that complaints have been filed against me in two separate police stations in Chhattisgarh, Bhata Pada and Teli Bandha, by private individuals objecting to my "open support for the Maoists.
Is this what Military Intelligence calls psyops (psychological operations)? Or is it the urban avatar of Operation Green Hunt? In which a government news agency helps the home-ministry to build up a file on those it wants to put away, inventing evidence when it can’t find any? Or is PTI trying to deliver the more well-known among us to the lynch mob so that the government does not have to risk its international reputation by arresting or eliminating us? Or is it just a way of forcing a crude polarization, a ridiculous dumbing down of the debate—if you’re not with “us” you are a Maoist? Not just a Maoist, but a stupid, arrogant, loudmouthed Maoist. Whatever it is, it’s dangerous, and shameless, but it isn’t new. Ask any Kashmiri, or any young Muslim being held as a “terrorist” without any evidence except baseless media reports. Ask Mohammed Afzal, sentenced to death to “satisfy the collective conscience of society.”
Now that Operation Green Hunt has begun to knock on the doors of people like myself, imagine what’s happening to activists and political workers who are not well known. To the hundreds that are being jailed, tortured and eliminated. June 26th is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Emergency. Perhaps the Indian people should declare (because the government certainly won’t) that this country is in a state of Emergency. (On second thoughts, did it ever go away?) This time censorship is not the only problem. The manufacture of news is an even more serious one.
WHILE the Indian Government considers deploying the army and air force to quell the rebellion in the countryside, strange things are happening in the cities. ...
Author Arundhati Roy has justified the armed resistance by Maoists and dared the authorities to arrest her for supporting their cause.”
“The Naxal movement could be nothing but an armed struggle. I am not supporting violence. But I am also completely against contemptuous atrocities-based political analysis.” (?)
“It ought to be an armed movement. Gandhian way of opposition needs an audience, which is absent here. People have debated long before choosing this form of struggle,” said Roy, who had saluted the “people of Dantewada” after 76 CRPF and police personnel were mowed down by Maoists in the deadliest attack targeting security forces. “‘I am on this side of line. I do not care...pick me up put me in jail,’ she asserted.”
Let me begin with the end of the report. The suggestion that I saluted “the people of Dantewada” after the Maoists killed 76 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is a piece of criminal defamation. I have made it quite clear in an interview on CNN-IBN that I viewed the death of the CRPF men as tragic, and that I thought they were pawns in a war of the rich against the poor. What I said at the meeting in Mumbai was that I was contemptuous of the hollow condemnation industry the media has created and that as the war went on and the violence spiralled, it was becoming impossible to extract any kind of morality from the atrocities committed by both sides, so an atrocity-based analysis was a meaningless exercise. I said that I was not there to defend the killing of ordinary people by anybody, neither the Maoists nor the government, and that it was important to ask what the CRPF was doing with 27 AK-47s, 38 INSAS, 7 SLRs, 6 light machine guns, one stengun and a two-inch mortar in tribal villages. If they were there to wage war, then being railroaded into condemning the killing of the CRPF men by the Maoists meant being railroaded into coming down on the side of the government in a war that many of us disagreed with.
Now that Operation Green Hunt has begun to knock on the doors of people like myself, imagine what’s happening to activists and political workers who are not well known. To the hundreds that are being jailed, tortured and eliminated. June 26th is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the emergency. Perhaps the Indian people should declare (because the government certainly won’t) that this country is in a state of emergency. (On second thoughts, did it ever go away?) This time censorship is not the only problem. The manufacture of news is an even more serious one.
No body in power seems to have the courage to stand up against people of the above illk and to the guardian,the times, the telegraph and the independent and Arundhati. The FT is the best of the lot. Atleast is does not go around hugging trees! It was for instance disappointing to see Netaji being portrayed in poor light and no body coming to his defence. Few people like myself, endure the isolating ordeal of having to place a conunterpoint. Hail Arundhati and the others and let meek defenceless bourgeois India[her tribals are twice born and have encompassed the encompassed and are more sacred than the slum dwellers of India] take it all; as the favorite orientalist whipping boy of the world! Where is the counterpoint in the comments to the editor there! Because if there is no comments people are coming to ill informed judgements full of fascism which have no factual value!
ajit_tr wrote:Now that Operation Green Hunt has begun to knock on the doors of people like myself, imagine what’s happening to activists and political workers who are not well known. To the hundreds that are being jailed, tortured and eliminated. June 26th is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the emergency. Perhaps the Indian people should declare (because the government certainly won’t) that this country is in a state of emergency. (On second thoughts, did it ever go away?) This time censorship is not the only problem. The manufacture of news is an even more serious one.
Who are her target audience? And is she hedging against some ill-luck?
Hope you saw the source of the piece the dawn. Look forward to her next copy in the guardian! 