Shamsuddin Ahmed
Thousands of India’s paramilitary troops and police have searched the Maoists who killed 30 Congress leaders and workers in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh in an ambush on May 25. But none of the red rebels who took part in the massacre could be rounded up, for police believed they came from other areas. Some villagers suspected to be sympathizers of the Maoists were held and, as usual, subjected to torture.
Meanwhile, veteran Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla who was among the 33 wounded by bullets in the blatant attack died in hospital last week after fighting for life for 17 days.
Former Information Minister and Home Minister, Shukla will be remembered in India for his iron-fist handling of the media during the infamous emergency imposed by Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1975 in a bid to cling to power after she was unseated from parliament by the Allahabad High Court for abusing official power during the election.
As Information & Broadcasting minister of Indira government he had acted capriciously. To cite an example, noted actor and playback singer Kishore Kumar was blacked out from All India Radio for declining to sing at a Congress rally. Once colourful and flamboyant, Shukla, 86, was too ambitious and a prospective Congress candidate for the 2014 parliamentary election.
As usual Maoists have defended the May 25 ambush of the Congress convoy. They detailed why they attacked senior Congress leaders Shukla and Nand Kumar Patel. In a four-page statement mailed to the media Maoists wrote four lines about Mr. Shukla. “… the former Central Minister V.C. Shukla who had been in various portfolios including Home Ministry, was also a people’s enemy who had acted as a loyal servant of imperialists, comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie, landlords and had played a key role in formulating and implementing exploitative government policies… His death should be seen as a result of violence committed by the exploiters on the exploited masses… All leaders like V.C. Shukla or Nand Kumar Patel are responsible for the death of tribals.”
Regretting the unnecessary death of some civilians, outlawed CPI (Maoist) state committee spokesperson Gudsa Usendi said, “While the party would learn lessons from the ambush and educate its cadres and the people … it would be unjust to raise questions about the people’s resistance altogether.”
Various civil rights organisations, including the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, questioned the Maoist action and appealed to state forces and the red rebels to shun violence. They viewed that the situation required urgent intervention of all democratic forces in the country.
Another report said Maharashtra state committee leader of the Maoist, Katakan Sudarshan said the government was upset at the model of development they have implemented and achieved success in their Dandakaranay ‘liberated zone’. The zone comprises contiguous areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh where the government rule is rather absent.
Sudarshan claimed that the lands of the farmers have been levelled, water reservoirs have been built by the ‘Janta Sarker’ (people’s government). One-third of budget of the people’s government is devoted to the development works in which lakhs of Adhivasis (aboriginals) and tribals took part and the entire people of the liberated zone were benefited.
About eight per cent of India’s total population is Adhivasis and tribals. Most of them live in mineral rich forest areas in the central and northeast India and remain utterly poor, neglected and oppressed. The government planned to uproot them from their lands and lease the lands to companies for exploitation of minerals. This is said to be the main reason why millions of villagers in forest areas turned to the Maoists who have assured them of protecting the rights over their lands.
Source: Weekly Holiday
