Protest in Sangrur Against the Massacre of Maoists and for withdrawing Operation Kagar in Sangrur on May 22-

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Mass Convention and Protest in Sangrur Against the Massacre of Maoists and for withdrawing Operation Kagar in Sangrur on May 22-Harsh Thakor

At a time when the Prime Minister, Home Minister, and top officials are celebrating Comrade Keshav Rao’s killing as a 'historic achievement', congratulating security forces and celebratory dances are being conducted on the corpses, it is most timely and commendable that the struggling people of Punjab rose to the hour and plunged the streets to vociferously condemn the brutality and fascist nature of the massacre.

The massacre of 27 people including Comrade Keshav Rao, General Secretary of CPI (Maoist), in Bastar manifests the boing point of a brutal war being waged for corporate control over minerals. It exposes the shameless face of the decades-long war that the Indian state has been waging against its own people. It is imperative that the public must not be fooled the official narrative and comprehend the real motives of the government.

The state-level convention organized by the Democratic Front Against Operation Green Hunt opposed the genocidal war being waged in the name of eliminating Naxalism in Bastar and other Adivasi areas. More than 40 farmer, labor, rural mazdoor, student, youth, employee organizations, cultural and literary and democratic forums from Punjab participated enthusiastically. The event was presided over by noted defenders of democratic rights, including Dr. Navsharan, Dr. Parminder Singh, Professor A.K. Maleri, Boota Singh Mehmoodpur, and Yashpal Chandigarh. The event got underway with revolutionary songs and a tribute to Comrade Keshav Rao alias Baswa Raj and other martyrs who sacrificed their lives in people’s struggles, amid slogans of resistance.

Addressing the large gathering of workers, farmers, intellectuals, writers, artists, theatre activists, people’s lawyers, rationalists, democratic rights defenders, journalists, youth, students, women, and other justice-loving people, Dr. Navsharan stated: "The fascist government has been waging a genocidal war against its own Adivasi people since 2009. Massacres, gang rapes, btural killing of children, large scale

displacement, and the destruction of hundreds of villages have become the new normal. Entire regions like Bastar have been turned into militarized zones, with paramilitary camps established to protect mining operations that serve the global corporate capital’s greed for profit. These corporations have their eyes on resource-rich areas around the world, and for their benefit, governments are launching ruthless wars and committing genocide against the original inhabitants of forests and mountains." She substantiated that in order to terrorize and displace Adivasis from the forests, paramilitary forces are launching explosive aerial bombardments using helicopters and drones, while branding ordinary people as Maoists and killing them in staged encounters. Thousands of Adivasis and Maoists are languishing behind bars simply for opposing the destructive projects displacing them through military force. The BJP government’s goal of eliminating Naxalism by March 2026 represents a fascist policy designed to patronise corporate projects in the camouflage of so-called development—projects that jeopardise the public interest or the welfare of the people. It is a anti-people conspiracy to extinguish the democratic rights of Adivasis over natural resources—water, forests, and land—and to forcibly plant corporate projects on resource-rich forested and mountainous areas. This ‘development’ model is unacceptable to both the Adivasis and the broader Indian masses.

Dr. Navsharan portrayed how Maoist and other armed movements are the product of deep-rooted social unrest arising from the anti-people policies and practice of an oppressive political system based on merciless injustice and inequality. Instead of resolving he root causes of these issues politically, the Indian rulers are further militarizing tribal areas and unleashing operations like 'Operation Kagaar', Karregutta encirlement that shed rivers of Adivasi blood. The offer for dialogue by the Maoist party are being flung into the dustbin, and instead, massacres are being undertaken to crush any opposition to corporate projects. Front convenor Dr. Parminder Singh said in his address that the brutal massacre of Adivasis and Maoists in the forests and the ruthless crackdown on dissent in other parts of the country are two sides of the same coin of same state terrorism and cannot be gauged in isolation. Hence, it is imperative for the democratic forces in Punjab to raise a strong voice against the massacre of revolutionaries. He added that the Punjab government is following a similar policy of ignoring the legitimate demands of struggling sections and suppressing them through brutal force. Whether in village Jeond, Chandbhan, or Sangrur, the Bhagwant Mann government is unleashing btural police attacks to crush farmers’, labourers’, and Dalits’ struggles. Police forces in large numbers are being deployed against farmers’ and labourers’ organizations. The government’s policies supress any legitimate struggle by workers, just like the central BJP government is crushing people’s struggles across India using brutal police and military force. In the background ongoing massacres in tribal areas, the Punjab government has converted the state into a police state by toeing the center’s footsteps, in order to crush he just struggles of farmers and laboureres’ organizations and other resisting forces. Parminder felt it was a dictatorial assault on the democratic rights to organization and movement, and must be resisted. To the very core.l

In the resolutions presented by Boota Singh Mehmoodpur, the following demands were made: Stop fake encounters, drone attacks, and other forms of massacres in tribal areas. Remove security camps and withdraw special security forces from these regions. Reject the corporate-friendly economic model used as a tool of displacement and corporate land grab. Recognize Adivasis' natural rights over water, forests, and land. Stop branding public movements as illegal/banned and suppressing them. End the practice of jailing critical thinkers and democratic activists through false cases for questioning the government’s anti-people policies. Abolish the NIA which is tool of state repression. Stop arrests and raids based on false cases. Release political prisoners, under-trials and common people jailed for opposing anti-people policies of Indian government.

The convention in a special resolution strongly condemned the alleged encounter killings of CPI (Maoist) General Secretary Comrade Keshav Rao and 27 other Maoist leaders. It stated that by escalating military operations and conducting more merciless massacres, it is clear that the sole aim of the BJP government is the physical extinguishing of revolutionary forces, to establish the myth that the regime of injustice and exploitation is invincible, and to impose that the oppressed and working people the dream of collective struggle for liberation is. futile. The fascist government must learn from history: that physical massacres cannot extinguish the human aspirations for a better life and social transformation. As long as exploitative and oppressive systems prevail , people will continue to wage resistance in some form

The convention demanded that the Modi government immediately end military operations and extra-judicial killings and initiate dialogue with the Maoist party and other armed movements to address the fundamental problems of the Indian people. A special resolution also condemned the repression by the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab against farmers' and workers' struggles. It appealed to all democratic and justice-loving forces in Punjab to take this historic responsibility seriously and redress the question of defending the fundamental right to struggle with greater urgency. All democratic and people forces must unite to confront this authoritarian regime, and wherever farmers, labourers, or other organizations are being attacked \ by the police state, democratic-loving people forces must show solidarity and unity with them.

In the resolution passed in support of the freedom of Palestine, it was demanded that the genocide of the Palestinian people—being carried out through bombings of residential neighbourhoods, schools, hospitals, and religious places in Gaza, and through the imposition of famine—must be immediately brough to a halt. This genocide is being perpetrated with the patronage of US and the other imperialist powers, and Palestine must be liberated from Israel’s racist expansionist occupation.

The convention also strongly condemned the filing of false cases and arrests of those who questioned the BJP government's communal and war-mongering policy following the Pulwama attack, and demanded that all such cases be immediately withdrawn.

After the convention, a mass protest march was held in the city comprising around 550 persons, with resounding slogans demanding an end to the massacre of Adivasi people and Maoist revolutionaries, and a halt to the repression being unleashed on people’s struggles in Punjab.