From: Vidhya <awsdc@sify.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Subject: [OREGS Watch] Narayanpatna firings
To: kbkroundtable@googlegroups.com, oregs-watch@googlegroups.com,
jivika@yahoogroups.com
Dear Friends,
The situation in the tribal regions is really disturbign to put it
mildly, and there seems to be the least interest on the part of the
government to address the problems on the ground, as it affects the
poorest and most marginalised communities.
From the Koraput sub-collector's response to the fact finding report
of Sharanya & Team we are forced to conclude the following:
a. That the police fired 58 rounds on a crowd of tribal people;
b. They did this without the presence of a magistrate;
c. They did not give sufficient warning to the people that firing
would take place;
d. They did not use any milder forms of crowd control methods like
firing below the knees, or lathicharge, or teargas, which are
mandatory before firing is resorted to.
e. The police killing is justified as the CMAS which the crowd
represented had been carrying on a violent agitation for land grab
over the past few months. Which actually implies that the police can
take law into their own hands, and dispense their idea of justice in
regions, where people have been demanding their rights.
Is this the official response of a government, or just the outburst of
a brash young officer over eager to prove himself? I sincerely hope it
is the latter! Tribal development, tribal living conditions are at
their nadir in all districts of southern orissa. NREGS, primary
schools, mid-day meal programmes, anganwadi centres, you name it. To
brag that these are running properly in some of the Panchayats of
Narayanpatna only further underlines the poor stature of governance in
the tribal regions, and emphasises that unless people carry out a
persistent agitation, and struggle all the time, they will not get
even their basic entitlements in this state. It is a response that
should put the government to shame.
There is simmering discontents in the tribal regions because of the
subtle undercurrent of violent repression that prevails. This is not
just in tribal Orissa, but in most parts of the country. A village
community cannot complain about a teacher or an anganwadi worker,
because they will have to face the music when they come to the
Panchayat or block headquarters. Every body knows that Lalit Mehta was
not the only unhappy victim of corruption under the NREGS. Much closer
home, in fact in Narayanpatna itself, little more than a year back, in
fact a few days before Lalit Mehta's murder Narayan Hareka was
brutally murdered because he dared to question the irregularities in
the NREGS. In Mandibisi, the Gram Sabha passed unanimous resolutions
to close the liquor shop in the Panchayat. There was never a question
of violence. The administration never responded, instead, The Sarpanch
was several times threatened with arrest and false cases, if he
persisted in this 'foolish' demand.
Violence, maoists, the greatest threat to internal security - It is
the government in fact, which is the greatest threat to the security
of the tribal communities, it is the biggest terrorist for them. What
the fact finding report says of the 'combing operations': The police
went into people's homes and harrassed women and men, beat up people
has happened not only in Narayanpatna, it is but a repetetion of
events in Lalgarh, in Kashipur, in Jagatsinghpur, in Dantewada. The
variations in this pattern of terrorism practised by a state on its
people is only in the detail, and the degree or intensity, depending
perhaps on the interests that motivate state entry: Corporate designs,
land-lord lobby, liquor mafia, contractor gangs, etc.
So nauseatingly acqueisant are governments in giving in to these
lobbies, that these groups take it for granted that their interests at
the cost of the tribals, and other rural poor is their birth right.
Time and again when one raises issues of corruption in employment
works, one is confronted with the self-righteous question of the
contractors: why are you kicking us in the stomach, how will we
survive, if we are to pay wages to these labourers!? The matter
usually ends there, unless the daily wage earners, and the stupid
civil society activists taking their side are ready to face the
'music' of the contractors as did Lalit Mehta and Narayan Hareka. When
corporate interests are there, the violence is more subtle, but much
more terrifying, insiduous, incessant, a war of attrition begins, in
which elected governments are bought by corporate mafias to quell
their own people.
This is not a brief for naxalites, or for the past violent activities
of the CMAS. One cannot murder, kill or blow up public property, and
call it a war of liberation. Even a contractor or a liquor baron does
not deserve to be murdered: without trial, and on the whims of local
leaders, or armed rebels, whatever they call themselves. But, when
such a thing happens, the government cannot let loose a plundering
police force that just carries on and increases the past repressions
by the government. The government must understand that these
expressions of violence are a response of a normaly peaceful people to
the years and years of repression and inhuman exploitation they have
suffered, and it must act on this understanding. Its most senior and
sensitive officers should visit the regions, call for genuine
dialogue, and undertake sincere steps to right the wrongs. Civil
society groups must be involved, local politicians must be called on
to visit the spot, and make investigations, and give reports.
At the present the situation in Narayanpatna is highly polarised, with
all the vested interests ganging up against the tribal organisation.
The government and the police force have unthinkingly taken sides with
the vested interests, alienating the tribals further. "if you abjure
violence, give up arms liberation struggle, then we are willing to
talk to you about your grievance, structure of local administration,
of development, about money, and about corruption." We are willing to
talk on any issue which Naxals think" says the Home Minister.
It is pertinent to ask here: Is the government ready to abjure
violence, are they ready to withdraw the excessive police from all the
tribal areas atleast in the 5th Schedule states, and excise strict and
stringent controls over its law keeping mechanisms? Are they ready to
bring to book policemen behind incidents like the one in Narayanpatna,
in Raigarh, in Maikanch, in Kalinganagar..........? Will they review
and revoke the thousands of cases against the ordinary people in the
tribal and rural regions? Will they stop recruiting and training youth
as Cobras (and scorpions as the fact finding report picturesquely
describes) to fight their own kind in the tribal regions?
A government needs to act with mature sensitivity to govern, not react
and shoot as if it was fighting an enemy. Only then can any headway be
made in the tribal regions or anywhere for that matter.
Vidhya
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Ch.Santakar
Pujariput
Koraput-764020
Orissa
Mob:09437192553
e-mail:santakar@gmail.com
web:www.koraputonline.com
