India Appeal by Revolutionary Writers Association, India

Posted by admin on May 21st, 2018

Aadivasis and Maoists are Indian people

Government waging war against the citizens is condemnable

Police declared that an encounter took place between Police and Maoists on April 22nd at Indravati river bank in the region of Boriya and Kasansur in the district of Gadchiroli of Maharashtra. They announced that in that encounter 16 Maoists died. While on 24 of the month another 15 Maoists dead bodies were found floating in the Indravati River. They informed through media that on the whole 40 Maoists were dead. Even though the police have declared that it was an instance of cross firing, it is clear from the use of latest weapons by the C-60 commandos and CRPF forces that they surrounded and unleashed firing unilaterally.
This instance of police forces planned massacre killing in such a large number could be the first one in the history of modern India. In fact, we still don’t know how many have been killed in the massacre. Government killing its own people enmasse has become the cause of a great worry for the democrats across the country.
These kinds of instances have become a regular phenomenon in the Central India. Gadchiroli massacre also should be seen as part of the same larger agenda carried out in the Central India. The state and central governments are initiating these kinds of actions in a planned way with the aim of annihilating Aadivasis and Maoists as well. The civil society as well as rights organisations have stated that the instance is not an encounter as proclaimed by police but it is a unilateral firing opened by the police forces. Statement of the central home minister Rajnath Singh declared recently saying that for the annihilation of Maoists in Chattishgarh they are going to use air force (drones, helicopters and carpet bombing) reveals the impetus for the massacre in Gadchiroli. Carrying out the same agenda of curbing the to curb the Maoists movement, the central government brought all the policies implemented so far with the same aim under one roof as ‘Operation samdhan-2022′. They proclaimed that their aim is to root out the Maoist movement by 2022. From the other side of the Godavari river, Telangana government is also involved in drone and helicopter attacks on the Aadivasis living in the Godavari river belt in the name of ‘Rakshana corridor’.
This scenario of state violence and murders is spread and seen across the country. Gadchiroli SP, Avinash Deshmukh shamelessly spoke in a TV interview defending the mass killings without any fear of the democratic civil society. He told that ‘they will wipe out Maoists’ and declared that they ‘will not stop the ongoing war at any cost’. This is a depressing scenario. In essence, this is a problem related to the future of the democracy of the country. The heavily militarized governments attacking its own people is a threat to the democratic and civil rights of the people. It can also be observed that after the Gadchiroli encounter, many Aadivasis and revolutionaries are killed across the country in the name of encounters. At this juncture, we request every citizen of this country to protest the state killings and demand the governments to stop the murders. We appeal to international human rights organisations, democratic rights organisations, mass and progressive organisations and civil society at large to intervene in the scenario to stop the war on the Aadivasis of the country to safeguard the people’s right to life.
Revolutionary Writers Association
20.5.2018