June 5, 2013
June 4, 2013
On ‘Indian Democracy’ and its Champions!
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| A village in Bastar razed to ashes by the Salwa Judum |
The killing of Congress mafia Mahendra Karma along with other
Congress party members and some arrmed personnel on 25th May at Darbha
Valley, near Jagdalpur in Chattisgarh, has suddenly turned all the
parliamentary parties into crusaders of democracy in India.
Shedding their differences and colours, from Congress to BJP to Shiv
Sena to CPI to CPM to Liberation, all have lurched in together with
great urgency to denounce the incident as an attack on Indian Democracy.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi termed the incident as “a dastardly
attack..not just on Congress or its leaders, but an attack on democratic
values”. Not to be left behind in this crusade for saving democracy are
the parliamentary left parties. CPM Polit Bureau issued a press
statement terming it as an “..attack on legitimate democratic
activities”. The promptness with which a section of the ‘civil society’
too jumped into to condemn the killing was all to missing just a week
back when the state forces had butchered 8 adivasis in other part of
Bastar. In their race for condemning this “attack on democracy”, they
have chosen to forget that Mahendra Karma was a mass murderer whom this
very “democracy” had awarded with the most elaborate possible security
arrangements instead of bringing him to justice. This is because this
“democracy” is for the feudal lords and imperialist lapdogs like
Mahendra Karma and his ilk and not for those thousands of people who
lost their lives, nor for those 1700 women who were sexually assaulted
and raped, nor for the more than 600 villages that were razed down to
ashes, and neither for those 3.5 million who were displaced by the Salwa
Judum under the command of Karma with complete backing of the state.
The Indian state’s hands are rinsed with blood that it tries to hide behind the facade of “democracy”.
It is most unwittingly explicated by Rajiv Mathur, Former Addl DG Int
& Naxal Ops Chatisgarh, who in the context of the killing of
Mahendra Karma writes, “In a mature democracy the media too needs to
show restraint in publishing any news that they somehow obtain regarding
anti-Naxal drives. The battle is already lost and the force becomes
totally vulnerable when all its secrets are out in public domain. We
need to learn to keep some secrets.” And what were Karma's (not so well guarded) secrets?
The First Jan Jagaran Abhiyan was started as far back as 1982 by the
notorious Vishwaranjan (then SP of Bastar) who in 2006 as the DGP of
Chattisgarh would be one of the architects of the latest avatar of the
Jagaran – Salwa Judum. The first Jagaran ended with police brutalities
and further intimidation and alienation of the people, and it soon
pittered away. Alongside, the people's movement had already by then
posed a determined challenge not only to the feudal land-owning
sections, but also to the oppression of the Forest Dept. and the Tendu
traders. As the BJP came to power in 1990, a Second Jan Jagaran Abhiyan
was launched under Karma's leadership. He had the support of his own
party – Congress, the ruling BJP and the local traders and businessmen
as they were eager to fortify their position with some local muscle. It
was this collaboration of the ruling classes that was eager to unleash
its wrath upon the revolutionary masses which marked the beginning of
the bloody career of the 'Bastar Tiger' and our ruling classes’
‘crusader of democracy’. The mayhem and bloodshed that followed had the
complete backing of our “mature democracy” that was trying its best
through its media to hide its secrets.
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| Adivasi villagers killed by Salwa Judum |
Though the second Jagaran too pittered away in the face of the
resilience of the people, but with the strengthening of the
revolutionary movement, the repression too intensified manifold paving
way for the third wave of white terror – the Salwa Judum (literally
Peace March). Karma noted: “In 1991, I started the Jan Jagran
Abhiyan against the Maoists, but without any support. But, now everyone
is serious, because the TATAs could not acquire the land in Lohandiguda
[for their project.” Even a Govt. Appointed committee under the head
‘The biggest land grab since Columbus’, was forced to acknowledged that
it was TATA Steel & Essar Steel (along with local businessmen) who
in a bid to forcibly evacuate scores of villages for mining were the
first and the most ardent financiers of the Karma’s Salwa Judum. TATA
however managed to get these portions removed from the final report. But
despite its best efforts, the blatant collusion and sponsoring by the
state administration; and the bloodbath did not remain secrets for too
long behind the euphemism of “Peace March”. Like on the last two
occasions, it was once again the resurgent people’s struggle that halted
the bloody trails of Salwa Judum on ground. Under huge public outrage
across the country, the Supreme Court recently was forced to denounce
“the horror” of this state-promoted predatory ‘development’ and finally
ban this death squad. In reality however, the Salwa Judum has been
smoothly institutionalized by converting them into Auxiliary Police
Force – hail this ‘democracy’, and its custodians!
As three successive waves of state terror were resisted and
defeated, the Indian state in its desperation to crush the revolutionary
movement has subsequently declared a fascist war, under the name of
Operation Green Hunt, since 2009. In order to facilitate the
loot of the minerals by the big corporate and mining mafias and also in
order to crush the resistance of the fighting masses it has unleashed
upon the people its entire arsenal – SPOs, Koya Commandos, TPC, harmads,
Bhairav Sena, Shanti Vahini, Sunrise Sena, police, CRPF, ITBP, Grey
Hounds, CoBRA, BSF, Jungle Warfare Commandos, army, air force and
drones. For instance in the Bijapur district itself there has been two
successive massacres in June 2012 and May 2013 of unarmed adivasi
villagers who were surrounded and indiscriminately fired upon killing 25
villagers including 8 children. For these massacres there was of course
no such uproar from these champions of democracy.
The people of central and eastern India, from Jangal Mahal to
Gadchirolli and from Bihar to Telengana, under the leadership of the
revolutionary movement are giving a fitting rebuff to the spiralling
state repression under Green Hunt. The revolutionary upsurge of
the people today is not just fighting the exploitative semi-feudal and
semi-colonial order, but it is also simultaneously building new organs
of peoples' power for a pro-people development model. They have become
the beacon of light and source of inspiration for oppressed masses
throughout the country and have forged solidarities with the people of
oppressed nationalities in Kashmir, Nagalim, Assam and Manipur. As the
class struggle sharpens, either one is with Essar, Tata, Karma,
Manmohan, Modi, Obama OR they stand with the fighting people. The lesson
of dialectics teaches us that there is no third ground. So when
the champions of this ‘democracy’ cry foul today, we must remind them
that however strong you may be, and whatever weapons you may have,
history has shown that the final victory is always of the oppressed
masses. And with every day-break, this victory is coming nearer.
DSU
appeals to all progressive and democratic sections to stand in
solidarity with the fighting masses of central and eastern India, and
force the Indian state to end this fascist war launched at the behest of
its imperialist masters.
May 23, 2013
Condemn the crackdown on the thousands of villagers in Kaithal in support of the Maruti workers!
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