Changing priorities

HUMANITIES 4 – FINAL ASSIGNMENT | CHANGING PRIORITIES

UA1012 Chandra

OF THE People, BY THE Government, and FOR THE Capitalist Sector The whole idea of globalization and the LPG model of economy have turned out into a race for development.

But is it the development of the country or development of the people?

FROM SOCIALISM TO CAPITALISM Soon after independence, the main agenda was to un-structure colonial government and not to be independent on other countries, the ability to stay non-aligned. Accordingly Indian government under Nehru‟s took many notable steps like adopting a mixed economy where a large public sector would exist in partnership with the private sector. They would be complimentary to each other and not in contradiction. In many attempts of not being dependent on foreign countries for food and other resources, India ended adapting the LPG model and soon became a part of the race for Development to be among the developed countries. And how is Development of a country determined? – Majorly by GDP per capita. This makes the whole model of economy lean towards capitalism.

These changes have caused a major shift in the basic imperatives of the government. Let us look at how this shift in priorities of the government has caused different problems.

CONTEMPT FOR THE LAW -Malkangiri encounter On 24th October, 2011, there was a pre-planned, extra-judicial killing of 39 cadre, leaders, and ordinary Adivasi supporters of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), by a joint force of the greyhounds of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Police and the paramilitary Special Operation Group of the Odisha Police near Balimela reservoir district of Odisha.

Malkanagiri is a cut-off, water –locked region, which has been used a safe-sanctuary by the Maoist leaders since the 2000s. Over the years the Maoists tried hard to establish their hold over the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) zone. But over the years their command has been suppressed by the police force. And by 2011 the encounter took place.

Many witnesses and supporters have all been killed. Even fact-finding by teams of Civil Liberties and Democratic rights organizations (CDRO) and independent investigate journalists has become a hazardous undertaking in the face of threats and obstructions by security personnel and civil vigilantes. Such attacks and encounters on the Maoist/Naxalite movement is not new and it has been going since the 1960s. Local leaderships have been suppressed by cold – blooded murders in the name of encounters.

Why is there killing such huge number of people without even proper investigation and accountancy? What is the over-all imperative for these encounters? Is it for the high amount of A-grade bauxite found in the regions?

In this context the Malkanagiri encounter is seen as part a counter – insurgency to annihilate the Maoist leadership of the Adivasi resistance to the acquisition of land for bauxite mining. This means that the Maoistled Adivasi movement and guerilla army are the principle hindrance to the process of neo-robber baron capitalist development. And thereby, the state has ended up killing these people in the name of encounter.

How bauxite mining has become more important than the lives of people for whose benefits the bauxite is being mined ultimately? Therefore, the greed for resources has made the state itself to break the rules and take laws and regulations under their control and perform encounters and extra-judicial killing in an illegal manner. In order to sell off land owned by the people, to individuals and private companies, government institutions and the Police themselves to contempt for the law.

HUMANITIES 4 – FINAL ASSIGNMENT | CHANGING PRIORITIES

UA1012 Chandra

FALSE CASES AND FALSE GOVERNMENTAL GROUPS – Bastariya battalions Another feat by the government to place hold on resource rich forest area of Bastar was to recruit the adivasi people in the form of a false military stunt called bastariya battallions.The major intention of the government being the displacement of people. These battalions are engaged in patrolling the district and the state with the paramilitary forces in the forefront. In a way these battalions are being utilized as scapegoats for the ruling class. On the contrary another force was created by the ruling class itself, called the District Reserve Guard, whose main operations is of killing the local village leadership of the revolutionary people‟s government. The youth arrested by these forces are made to join into these battalions called the Bastariya battalion.

These forces were being formed by the government since the past 20 – 25 years. One of them was the Salwa Judum‟s movement, which was initiated in 2005. During this movement people were dragged into the courts and accused of false cases and were forced to become a part of Salwa Judum‟s goonda force or reform themselves. The repressive military went to such an extent that it started disturbing the people‟s lives and their age-old traditions. But finally this campaign was defeated by the people.

But the government continued this campaign by retaining the Special Police Officers (SPOs). These SPOs were given salary and weapons and were made to harass people in the weekly markets and other such places.

The SPOs started beating up journalists, employees and activists of various other parties. There have been many petitions filed and lots of discussion held in resistance to the SPOs by many intellectuals like Nandini Sundar and Ramchandra Guha. It started extending to both national and international media. And therefore, the state government was forced to withdraw the posts, which it did not wish for. Soon after the withdrawal of the posts, the government started a new post called “Chhattisgarh Sashastra Sahayak Bal”. The SPOs were brought under this post with even better salaries and better weapons!

What this has caused is the strong incentive to place hold on the resource-rich land, has made the ruling class to kill people with their own hands!

Not only false battalions, but the government has started accusing people with false cases who tried to investigate or raise their voice against the government. This can be seen in a recent case of Advocate Shalini Gera in Jagdalpur in December 2016. The Chhattisgarh High Court, ordered Shalini Gera and her colleagues to exhumation of a false encounter case of a young Adivasi boy. On the night of December 26, 2016, a police team entered the Dharamshala where they were staying and accused them of being there in an „unauthorized‟ manner. They were ordered to come to the police station. After a personal call from the divisional commissioner to the sub inspector was forced to back off. A day later in her office in Bilaspur, she received a call from Bastar Superintendent of Police R N Dash. He called from a private number which belonged to Farukh Ali, a member of AGNI (Action Group for National Integrity), a vigilante group that enjoys the patronage of the Bastar Police. She accused of many false cases like being a maoist, inciting villagers against getting adhaar cards etc. After the call within few hours, copies of complaints and allegations against her were circulated on social media by Farukh Ali. Not only this there have been many such false accusations and killing at a large scale. Most of them were against Human rights defender, journalists, lawyers and local activists. Out of 185 deaths by police firing during anti – maoist operation, 134 have been in Bastar. These were cold-blooded killings of unarmed people, and the police lies that they fired in self-defense or that villagers were caught in crossfire.

The case of Bastar is a crucial and critical case as it is an extreme case where the lives of many individuals were at stake just for the profit from the resource-rich lands of Bastar. The government had taken so many false measures and turning people against people. Slapping people with false cases and then killing all the

HUMANITIES 4 – FINAL ASSIGNMENT | CHANGING PRIORITIES

UA1012 Chandra

people who protest against them. This has crossed the limit way too far. What is the main imperative behind such wrong-doings? Is this all just for land? Land that would bring few individuals capitalist profits.

CONCLUSION Can these events be blamed on Globalization? Has globalization made the priorities of the government shift from an individualistic level to a capitalist level? There is always a counter- argument in such cases that, the whole nation profits by killing few individuals. How the profits to some individuals have become more important than the basic rights of an individual? In all these cases it is the ruling class who have major role to play. The greed has made the ruling class to break rules, to find loopholes in the governance system and to use their powers in an “unauthorized” way. There are other cases like, repression of NGOs from FCRAs etc. The whole point is that globalization in some manner has shifted the whole scenario to a global level to an individual. The whole focus is shifted only at the global level. The individual level is taken for granted.