Bharat Rakshak

varunkumar wrote:What is this supposed to mean? Is there any threshold of physical disability after which a man stops planning dastardly attacks?

Taking on Red Terror: If you have to talk, talk. Don't shoot

Jairam Ramesh has had a change of heart. He says the murderous Maoists of the Red Corridor are terrorists, not the misguided ideologues he thought they were. "They are terrorists. What else are they? You can't romanticise them. They are spreading fear. They are spreading terror."

Ramesh used to be one of the many key leaders in the Congress party who wanted a softer approach in tackling these terrorists, by asserting that the extreme Left insurgency in parts of India was not a law-and-order issue but a socio-economic issue. They had managed to convince the UPA chairperson that use of force might be counter-productive. It sounds quite logical and those influenced cannot be blamed either.

The Prime Minister, however, has always held that red terror remains one of the biggest challenges before India. He, however, hasn't done much since the bleeding hearts put their weight against him. The left-leaning liberals within the UPA confused the strategy and only compounded the problem.

P. Chidambaram, as home minister, was quite determined to use force to crush the Maoists. The coordinated, armed action against the insurgents was paused since Chidambaram left the home ministry. Since Sushil Kumar Shinde took over, the home ministry's focus shifted to saffron terror. And Operation Green Hunt against the reds was yellow-flagged. Go slow.

Jairam Ramesh, however, did some work. He selected some districts for targeted programme delivery and evidence suggests that he succeeded in his endeavour. It seemed as if development and democracy were the only way to counter Naxalism. The Chhattisgarh massacre of Congress leaders jolted him enough to doubt his own solution. And that's how the governments and activists on both sides often get it wrong.

There are one or more of these four approaches people suggest to end the insurgency.

Use brute force, bring in the Army, crush them
Negotiate with them, bring them into the mainstream
Continue both negotiations and encounters
Development and more democracy, the only answer


All of them seem right, depending on where you are placed in this whole debate. The danger is when we confuse the ideology with its ideologues. That mix-up is the deadly cocktail that has incapacitated our fight against the Maoists.

Brute force can kill insurgents, not insurgency. The idea lives, new ideologues replace the old ones, new fighters replace the dead ones.

Maoists themselves target everything that may look like democracy's dividend. They blow up roads, demolish schools and destroy communication links. If they allow building new ones, they charge what is known as levy on all government and private work. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Development projects make them stronger and richer while they retain the firepower to undo all that at will.

Negotiate with whom? There are as many splinter groups as there are sub-zonal committees. There are also plain criminal outfits taking advantage of the situation by branding themselves as a Maoist enterprise. There is not one leader, not one outfit to negotiate with. And they do not believe in the constitution of India, neither do they have any faith in our democracy. They begin with the idea of overthrowing the system. Where do you begin with?

More development and more democracy. This does sound sane and peaceful. But then Maoists wouldn't allow any of this and they control the area. They know development and democracy can take them out of business.

So what do we do? We need to see Maoism and Maoists as separate enemies. Maoism/Naxalism thrives because democracy and development hasn't reached the last man. People do not have faith in state, because state has been largely absent in those areas. So the state has to assert its benevolent power and make its presence felt by ensuring delivery of programmes meant for the tribal areas. Roads, education, employment, justice and real-time interaction with the mainstream India. They need to see a better future in standing with the state than that in backing the rebels.

That's the antidote to Maoism, not Maoists.

The latter need to feel the full might of the state. No negotiations as long as you wield the gun. If you have to talk, talk. Don't shoot. If you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.

--The Logger

Mahendra Karma and his cynical form of vigilantism
For long, Karma often resembled a wolf that preyed on the tribals of southern Chhattisgarh, many from his own tribe

shaardula wrote:thanks anand for the heads up.
here is an interview of rahul pandita about hello bastar
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/prime- ... tar/209805
interview starts after ~ 9 minutes.

Andhra high court order may hit fight against Maoists

As the Centre renews its resolve to act tough against Maoists, a pending case in the Supreme Court could be a hurdle. In 2009, the Andhra Pradesh high court had ruled that a criminal case could be registered against policemen involved in any exchange of fire leading to the death of a person.

The AP Police Officers Association is a petitioner and AP Civil Liberties Committee is a respondent in the case. The Supreme Court had stayed the Andhra HC judgment.

In an affidavit filed in SC in March, the Centre underlined how it would tie the hands of security forces in combating the Maoists armed with lethal weapons.

"If the principle laid down in the judgment of the AP HC is accepted, then Ajmal Kasab would have had the statutory right to get a criminal case registered against police and NSG officials, who would have to defend their cases in their private capacities," the Centre said in the affidavit. The Centre has urged the SC to set aside the "impugned judgment" or pass an order it deems fit.

The Centre pointed out that the armed forces and the police do not act in their private capacity, but as agencies of the state. So, it is presumed that all their acts in bona fide discharge of duty in defending the state and its citizens are acts of the state. However, when a member of a security force is involved in a mala fide action, there is transfer of his responsibility to his private capacity, the Centre said.

In case of Maoist insurgency, which is an armed insurrection against the state, most exchanges of fire with security forces are genuine, the affidavit said.

TARGET MAOISM

The CPM favours strong administrative action to curb Maoist activities in the aftermath of the attack on Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh. The party, however, believes left-wing extremism (LWE) should not be treated as a mere law-and-order problem. Sitaram Yechury argues in the party's People's Democracy: "Given the Maoist line of reliance on the gun and violence, there is no other way but to take firm administrative action to curb such activities. At the same time, it is imperative that the ordinary people do not become victims of state repression. The administration has to ensure that basic services and facilities are provided to the people. The violence of these self-styled Maoists cannot be tackled only as a law-and-order problem. Above all, the democratic forces must mobilise the people and counter the Maoists politically and ideologically..."

He says the attack in Chhattisgarh is the latest example of the "politics of violence and the murderous tactics adopted by the CPI (Maoist)." He also targets the BJP government in Chhattisgarh for not providing enough security to the Congress convoy. Yechury alleges that both the Central and state governments, under the cover of providing development to these backward tribal areas, have been allowing in private companies for "mining and the loot of other resources in these areas which has led to displacement and loss of livelihood for the tribal people." The Maoists, in turn, have been targeting government personnel and disrupting whatever welfare measures could be undertaken.

OVERHAUL BCCI

Focusing on the spot-fixing and betting saga, the CPI(ML) has advocated a "thorough overhaul" of the BCCI to make it function like a transparent, accountable and democratic body. Such a move should set the tone for a larger streamlining and democratisation of other sporting associations. "Sports bodies should be run exclusively by retired sportspeople, professional sports administrators and persons of impeccable integrity and politicians and corporate bosses should be barred from having anything to do with the business of running sports organisations and deciding the future of Indian sports," the editorial in ML Update says.

It alleges that the way in which the BCCI is managing the IPL spot-fixing scam is similar to the UPA government's management of the string of scams that have recently surfaced. It also says that the "cancer of corruption" afflicting Indian cricket is attributable to the same corporate-politics nexus responsible for the scams that have become the hallmark of neoliberal governance.

DOUBLING PRICES

The editorial in the CPI's New Age uses the monthly increase in the price of diesel and a reported proposal of the petroleum ministry to raise the price of natural gas to attack the UPA: "It seems that the UPA 2 government has finally realised that this is the last year of its mis-governance as people burdened with all sorts of difficulties and miseries are not going to elect it back. Hence it is taking all steps that enhance the burden of the people..." It says that after having "liberalised" the pricing of petrol and diesel, the government, in the name of reducing the subsidy burden, has limited the supply of gas cylinders to nine per annum.

"For more cylinders one has to pay almost double the price... This has already upset the budget of middle-class families that are already under huge burden due to phenomenal price rise and growing dependence on credit based family budgets," it says. Now, the petroleum ministry has proposed a mechanism under which prices of all types of gases will be raised quarterly.

"This rise will affect every aspect of our economy. Manufacturing cost will go up. Travel and transport charges will shoot up. Cost of fertilisers will also increase leading to rise in the prices of all agricultural products. There will be very a serious cascading impact on general prices. It will also create difficulties for small and middle industries that depend on gas as fuel," it adds.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.

varunkumar wrote:Here is one more example of bird-brained jholawala Indian judges -- what do they snort when they come up with such judgements which become the laughing stock of the world.

kmkraoind wrote:Melting Pot, Fingers point at Ajit Jogi ~ arati r jerath

Posting in full. It seems Indics are angry at Congress' EJ camp.

The political war in Chhattisgarh after the recent Naxal attack has taken a strange turn. A Congress-versus-BJP battle has become a Congress-versus-Congress internecine feud. The party has turned on itself following reports that the National Investigation Agency’s preliminary inquiries point to a Congress hand in the Naxal ambush that led to the death of 27 persons, including top state leaders.

The NIA’s needle of suspicion seems to be pointing at the faction led by former chief minister Ajit Jogi who, along with son Amit, was mysteriously absent when the convoy was ambushed by Naxals on 25 May.

The revelations have sent tempers soaring and Congress workers are now venting their wrath on Jogi loyalists in different parts of the state. They’ve hunted them down, locked them into rooms, beaten them mercilessly with shoes and iron rods, leaving several badly injured.

The fight followed Jogi loyalist and one of the two survivors of the attack, Congress MLA Kawasi Lakhma, to the corridors of the swanky Gurgaon hospital in which V C Shukla is being treated for the four gunshot wounds he sustained. Lakhma turned up to inquire about his condition and there, right outside the ICU where Shukla was lying, a Congress group led by union minister Charan Das Mahant, now the new state chief, waylaid him and beat him with shoes. There was complete pandemonium in what is supposed to be a silent zone, but the hospital staff did not dare intervene as the two Congress factions tried to settle scores. Later, a bleeding Lakhma was handed over to the police, who were instructed to dump him somewhere near Karnal.

Furious Sonia

Those who accompanied Congress president Sonia Gandhi to Chhattisgarh after the Naxal attack on a Congress convoy were stunned by the depth of her fury. Sonia is known as a composed, polite person. But in Raipur, she lost her cool with everyone, from chief minister Raman Singh to the chief secretary Sunil Kumar and other senior officials to her own party workers. “You are lying,” she is believed to have shouted at Sunil Kumar at one point. And as Raman Singh fumbled with weak explanations for the security lapse that led to the killings, she told him angrily that the Centre had the power to dismiss him “in one minute”, according to someone familiar with the discussions.

She didn’t calm down even at the Congress headquarters in Raipur, where she met surviving state leaders in small groups. Those waiting outside could hear her raised voice through the closed door as she gave vent to her agitation and distress. Perhaps, the killings were a sharp reminder of past tragedies in her life and cut too close to the bone for her to handle with equanimity.

‘Thankless’ media

There were many red faces in the official delegation that went with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Japan when a Hyderabad-based television channel telecast footage of senior babus having a night-out in Tokyo with the media contingent. As is tradition, the external publicity division of the ministry of external affairs arranged a dinner cruise for the media, to which officials accompanying the PM were also invited.

It would have gone down as just another XP dinner, except that the hosts had also arranged for live entertainment in the form of a Bollywood dance performance. The dancer, an Indian girl born and brought up in Japan, was full of oomph and her dance was provocative. At one point, she almost had a wardrobe malfunction too, after which the entertainment programme was called off.

When the delegation returned to the hotel, panicky aides informed them that footage of the evening had been telecast in Hyderabad, with the TV camera focusing closely on the dancer and the officials watching her. There was a huge furore that night. PMO officials breathed fire at the ministry of external affairs, which in turn came down heavily on the media group. The representative of the TV channel was taken to task and XP officials vowed to stop all hospitality for accompanying media persons on future trips.

The threat was put into action almost immediately. When the delegation landed at Bangkok on the way back from Tokyo, media persons were left to fend for themselves, without the cocktails and dinner usually showered on them.

Pranav wrote:This is big -

Four Congress leaders conspired with the Naxals on May 26; Mastermind in the convoy: NIA

Raipur: Confirming allegations of an insider being involved in the deadly attack on Congress convoy by Communist Party of India (Maoist) cadres on May 25, National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials on Sunday told Dainik Bhaskar that four party leaders were in 'constant touch' with Naxalites on the fateful day.

While two of the leaders are confirmed to have been were present in the convoy itself, other two at the venue of departure reportedly gave ‘running commentary’ as soon as the convoy left for Keslur town from Darbha block.

“We are investigation the call records which were made through the Jagdalpur cellphone tower. Four Congress have been identified who we believe provided minute-by-minute information to the Naxalites. Two of them were present in the convoy,” a NIA officer said.

“At present, we think that one of those in the convoy was the mastermind who planned the strike,” he added.

The suspicion over insiders being involved in the attack was first raised by Mahendra Karma’s son Deepak, who claims that such a ‘precision strike couldn’t have been possible without ‘insider inputs’.

“They cannot carry out such a big operation successfully without inputs on Congress leaders' movement. This information was provided by someone who was privy to the movement plan," Deepak had alleged in a chat with Times of India. He had even asked as to who had ‘forced’ his slain father to take the same route from which he went to Darbha, revealing that Karma ‘did not use to take the same route twice’.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, on the other hand, were more direct in their accusations as they targeted former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi for ‘conspiring’ the entire attack’.

Jogi had left by a chopper after the rally that day.

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MP-OTC ... .html?HT2=

---------------------------------

Looks like these are leaks by NIA insiders. The question is whether the NIA will officially get to the bottom of the matter?

Cleaning cricket

Arguing that the spot-fixing scam has once again shown what money and greed can do to the "gentleman's game", the CPI has called for scrapping the Indian Premier League. It maintains it is the only way to overcome the crisis that has hit Indian cricket. An editorial in the CPI's New Age says such a move will restore the spirit in which the game should be played. "Once money-spinning trade is halted the politicians will go out on their own. Otherwise, their holding office may be banned [sic]." It further says, "Most of the top positions in these organisations are hogged by politicians. Chief ministers who never bother to promote games like hockey and football use all their manipulating skill to capture the cricket-related organisations." While there have been cases of match-fixing and betting in the past, it has acquired menacing proportions after the initiation of the T20 format. The probe so far has confirmed that the IPL conceals several improprieties, involving a variety of people. The editorial concludes by saying, "It can only be compared with the illegal chit funds and mutual funds that loot millions and millions by alluring them with the promise of doubling and tripling the investment in a short period."

Broken promises

The CPM has again indicated that it is not too enthused with the idea of a special session of Parliament to discuss and pass the food security bill. An editorial in People's Democracy argues that the UPA government is trying to derive political capital by encouraging the media to make an issue around the convening of a special session of Parliament. It recalls that the first presidential address to the joint session of Parliament after the UPA 2 assumed office in 2009 had outlined the government's plan to bring in the food bill in 100 days. The editorial claims that the government has itself to blame for not fulfilling its promise. The editorial also contested the wisdom of the bill in covering 67 per cent of the population. "This is simply inadequate to eliminate hunger and malnutrition from our country. Any meaningful food security is only possible when all families in the country — at least 90 per cent — are provided 35 kg of food grains at prices not exceeding Rs 2 per kg", it adds. It further says, "In the final analysis, therefore, what is required is not a special session of Parliament; what is required is a special resolve by the government to provide genuine food security to the people."

Modi's elevation

An editorial in the CPI(ML)'s ML Update focuses on the upheaval in the BJP after its decision to appoint Narendra Modi the chairperson of its election campaign committee. The editorial notes that while Modi has emerged as the most aggressive face of right-wing politics in India, he is still untested outside of Gujarat. The editorial refers to L.K. Advani's resignation letter as an "unmitigated exercise in hypocritical nostalgia". It specifically refers to his contention that the BJP has lost the direction and character the party, which was built by leaders who apparently only thought about the country and the people, once had. "Well, Advani knows it very well that these leaders may have laid the foundation of the BJP and its predecessor Bhartiya Jan Sangh, but it was Advani and Modi who raised the party to its current level of electoral success — Advani on the national level and Modi in Gujarat. And this success has come not by thinking about the country and the people, but by aggressively pursuing the divisive politics of communalism..." it says. The editorial notes that the BJP may believe that Modi is the party's best bet to revive its fortunes, but in terms of electoral politics beyond Gujarat, he is still untested. "We only know that despite his presence, the BJP could not avert defeat earlier in Himachal Pradesh and most recently the ignominious rout in Karnataka", it concludes.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.

If we believe that oppression justifies violence by the victims and those who fight in their name, then logically we must also justify all those who resort to terrorist violence in the name of religion or ethnicity on exactly the same ethical grounds. Many Sikh terrorists in the second half of the 1980s traced their radicalisation to the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage. Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka and Islamist terrorists also trace their motivation to similar real stories of unbearable cruelty and oppression. If we oppose terrorist violence because it targets civilians, fosters mindless cruelty and obstructs democratic institutions, exactly the same grounds require us to oppose Maoist violence as well.

The recent killing of political leaders campaigning for the forthcoming elections, eliminating almost the entire senior leadership of one political party, was ultimately an assault on electoral democracy. With all its limitations, democracy alone carries within itself the seeds of a peaceful and enduring social and political transformation. Social movements for the poor must strive to deepen democracy, remedy its flaws, extend its frontiers, rather than collaborate in its demolition.

The blood spilt in Darbha valley should serve as a sober reminder of the wages of runaway competitive violence: the violence of poverty, of armed militants and civilian militia, and of the security forces. In this battle, for India’s most impoverished people, the greatest casualty is hope.

BIHAR OPPORTUNITY

In the JD(U)-BJP split, the CPI(ML) sees an opportunity for the Left in Bihar. It feels the Left should take full advantage of the new situation, collaborate with other democratic forces and intensify the ongoing struggles on "people's issues", forcefully intervening in the political churn in the state, the editorial in ML Update says.

The Left lost its support base in the state's caste-based politics and retains only pockets of influence. Still, the editorial argues that the political situation in the state has opened up after Nitish Kumar's decision to end the alliance with the BJP in Bihar. It rubbishes Kumar's "matter of principle" argument and points out that he was not just silent after the 2002 Gujarat riots and continued in the NDA government as railway minister, but had, a year later, even foreseen a greater role for "Narendrabhai".

It makes the case that there was a pressing need for Kumar to seek a new context for himself in Bihar. "He is aware that the social and political coalition that catapulted him to power was born under extraordinary circumstances and cannot be sustained for any indefinite length of time... In November 2005, he got a mandate to usher in 'regime change' in a chaotic and stagnant Bihar. In 2010, he played on the danger of a possible return of Lalu Prasad, but what fetched him a bigger mandate was Bihar's aspiration for development. But now, in 2013, when the dream of development has visibly begun to turn sour, and social oppression, police repression and the highhandedness of a corrupt bureaucracy have become the hallmarks of his government, Nitish Kumar evidently needs to shift the goal post."

MODI AND BJP

An editorial in the latest issue of CPM journal People's Democracy discusses opposing the Congress's policies and defeating the BJP. "For the Left and democratic forces, the task is clear-cut — apart from fighting the Congress, all efforts must be concentrated to defeat the Modi-led BJP in the coming days," the editorial says.

The editorial says Modi epitomises the aggressive Hindutva ideology of the BJP/RSS combine. "Gujarat was the laboratory where the Hindutva experiment was first conducted by the Sangh combine from the mid-1980s. The success of this experiment saw the steady communalisation of society and systematic attacks on the Muslim and Christian minorities, which culminated in 2002... It was out of this communal project that Narendra Modi rose. Thus the elevation of Modi is also a result of the full backing accorded by the RSS leadership," it states.

It argues that the rise of Modi also symbolises what the BJP stands for today — "an unalloyed communal agenda combined with [the] advocacy of corporate and big business interests."

PAKISTAN ELECTIONS

The CPI weekly, New Age, examines recent elections in Pakistan, saying a majority of the electorate voted for the "right reactionary parties who have failed to take any concrete position on the growing menace of religious fundamentalism and terrorism based on it."

According to the editorial, the increasing sway of fundamentalist forces in Pakistan's society is reflected by the fact that overall, "the presumed secular parties could not poll even one-fourth of the total votes polled... One explanation that Pakistani commentators are advancing for this dismal situation is that the religious fundamentalist forces had targeted the secular parties, particularly the PPP, MQM and ANP, and over 150 cadres and workers of these parties were killed during the two weeks of campaigning. This reign of terror forced the supporters of these parties to keep themselves away on the polling day," the editorial says. It claims the "real" worry is that political parties failed to "publicly condemn these attacks".

Drawing parallels with India, the editorial says here, too, "religious fundamentalism is being promoted though an overwhleming majority of people have repeatedly asserted their commitment to secularism. The recent example is the rejection of the BJP in Karnataka, particularly in the coastal region that the Sangh Parivar had attempted to make a laboratory of Hindutva," it says.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.