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The AP media is just
full of two issues: suicides and the question of talks with naxalites. The
official suicide toll has gone up to 150 (actual figures will be much higher)
and there is continuous offers of talks with Naxalites.
Ironically the two
are interlinked. Naxalites fight for the well-being of the poor and as long as
conditions continue to be so horrendous as to push hundreds to suicide Naxalism
will only grow and gain strength. The new government announced compensation for
the next of kin in a bid to stop suicides. But this Tuglakian policy only led to
more suicides with desperate farmers seeking to claim the compensation for their
families. Those committing suicides are in fact not the poorest of the poor, who
are used to carrying on at a hand-to-mouth existence. It is the middle peasants
who are the ones who are the worst affected who have got into deep debts and are
unable to pay them. The chief cause is the severe crisis in the agrarian economy
with policy (and funds) geared only to promote high-tech big business. As long
as this is not reversed a few may get some relief but hundreds more will be
pushed to the brink. It is like addressing the symptom rather than the disease.
To stop suicides and
further impoverishment of the peasantry, though a permanent solution may only be
achieved by agrarian revolution, immediately the following steps should be
taken: (i) all loans and interests thereon must be waived, (ii) seed capital
must be provided to the farmers for revival of their crops, (iii) water must be
provided for a minimum of two crops, (iv) the government must direct its
investments towards agriculture and (v) the PDS system must be revived with rice
available at Rs.2 for all the poverty stricken.
Without such steps to
only talk of giving compensation to the farmers will not really help the
situation. And then if the desperate turn to the Naxalites of the PW to protect
them from the avaricious moneylender, and for cheap grains seized from the
hoarders and the politician/trader mafia (who have swallowed up the bulk of the
free grains from the Centre) — who then is to blame?
The new government
has also offered some short-term palliatives for the Naxalites too, which as in
the case of suicides is no doubt positive, but have a long way to go to address
the main problems.
Such short term
populist measures are neither the answer to the question of suicides nor that of
Naxalites. Yet, on the Naxalite front there have been hectic activities with not
a single day passing without the government giving some statement or the other.
On May 30th the press
reported that the CM had instructed the police to ensure that a congenial
atmosphere was created for talks with naxalites. Accordingly, Superintendents of
Police (SP) of all districts had been instructed to change their strategy
towards naxalites. DGP Sukumara said that the entire police force engaged in the
combing operation was being called back. This was the first step in the peace
initiative from the Government side.
On June 4th the
newspaper reported that The Andhra Pradesh government withdrew all rewards on
People’s War leaders as part of confidence building measures aimed at finding a
solution to naxal extremism plaguing the state.
Making a statement in
the state assembly on "law and order and extremism" on Friday, Home Minister K
Jana Reddy also said the police would stop "active pursuit" of armed naxalites.
The government
proposed to consult all political parties, intellectuals and civil rights
groups, including the Committee of Concerned Citizens, on the modalities for
talks with the naxalites, he said.
"The Civil liberties
groups and some intellectuals have, on several occasions, expressed doubts on
the genuineness of certain encounters. The government, therefore, has decided to
adopt the policy of stopping rewards on naxalites who are absconding or killed
in encounters with police," he said.
There are cash
rewards against 1,135 PW activists, including 29 top leaders. These vary
from 20,000 on an ordinary activist to Rs.20 lakh on the leadership. The paper
further reported that:
Announcing the
move in the Assembly, home minister K. Jana Reddy said the Congress government
was ready to set up a committee of eminent civil rights activists and senior
citizens to further the peace process.
In an attempt to
boost public confidence in the government’s sincerity, the state has already
directed police not to harass innocent villagers and thus invite reprisals by
the extremists, Reddy said.
The minister had held
an all-party meeting of legislators from Naxalite-affected areas to seek their
cooperation in creating awareness on the urgent need to end rural violence.
Reddy also met civil rights activists K.G. Kannabiran and poet Vara Vara Rao to
determine the modalities of peace talks.
But, with its typical
forked tongue approach the government also stated that it expected the armed
extremist groups not to visit habitations or indulge in intimidation. In
other words the PW must stop all organizing activities and break their links
with the people.
To all these offers
the PW answered in a statement that appeared on May 21st: The People’s War
has asked the government to lift the ban imposed on it and three other demands
as a pre-condition for talks. PW state secretary, Ramakrishna, in a statement on
Thursday said the government should announce a ceasefire and wanted an end to
fake gun battles by the police, a ceasefire announcement, a judicial probe into
all killings of Maoists in gun battles and the lifting of the ban imposed on
it. The PW would reciprocate by observing a ceasefire only after the government
meets the demands, Ramakrishna said, alleging that the earlier TDP government
had cheated it during the peace process by killing its members in the name of
encounters even as negotiations were on.
The Times of India
further reported that "Its central committee member Jampanna demanded that
the government must lift its ban on it, withdraw the bounties on the heads of
naxalites and pull back security forces from combing duties in the forest.
"If the government is sincere, how will it explain the appointment of
Arvind Rao as chief of intelligence?" he said.
Rao, a senior police
officer, is responsible for the killing of many PW cadres during his stint as
chief of the anti-Maoist force Greyhounds. Meanwhile
on May 4th, the Vishakapatnam unit of the APCLC issued a statement demanding:
"withdrawal of
cases registered under POTA and suggested they could be tried under normal law.
On naxalism, they felt it was mainly a political movement and appreciated the
Government for taking steps for creating a congenial atmosphere to hold talks
with naxalites. Observing that "fake encounters’’ were not stopped even after
the new Chief Minister’s appeal, the APCLC leaders said that whether an
encounter is real or fake would be known only through an enquiry. That is why we
have been demanding a judicial probe into every encounter. The culprits are not
punished in a magisterial enquiry. The police have to prove in court that the
exchange of fire was real and they had opened fire for self-defence. The
National Human Rights Commission has also given similar orders. We want them to
be implemented. When we talk like this, the police are proposing a ban on APCLC.
They are also foisting false cases on our workers, detaining them and torturing
them, and said banning the APCLC would be undemocratic. They demanded that
"false cases’’ against APCLC workers should be withdrawn immediately."
Meanwhile, the
Revolutionary Writers’ Association (AP) (Virasam) condemned the police action in
Chirala in end May, demanded that the cases filed against noted poet, Varavara
Rao and others be withdrawn. In a statement, the general secretary of Virasam,
Krishnabai, noted that there was no cohesion between what the Government said
and what the police did. "Karumanchi Seshaprasad is a good poet,
story-teller, and an artiste. He was killed in a fake encounter last year in
Cuddapah district. He belongs to the Chirala area and therefore it was arranged
to observe his first death anniversary at Chirala. But the police suddenly
promulgated Section 30. They should have intimated this in advance to the people
in Chirala. And under this, they prevented the people’s organisations from
conducting the programme. They did not stop there. They arrested several leaders
and workers of people’s oranisations. Virasam condemns the police atrocity’’,
she said. Karumanchi Seshaprasad was also a senior leader of the Party.
On May 25th, at a
meeting in Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) State
secretary S Seshaiah demanded appointment of a commission, headed by a Supreme
Court judge, to inquiry into the encounters that had taken place in the last
nine years. About 1,600 people were killed in fake encounters, he alleged.
Addressing a press
conference here, the civil liberties leader asked the Centre to scrap POTA,
which was being misused by the police. In the State, nearly 60 people were
booked under POTA without any valid reason, he alleged.
While expressing hope
that the new government would take steps to protect democratic and civil rights
of the people, Seshaiah urged it to continue the Rangachari committee, which was
constituted to probe the nexus between police officials and surrendered
Naxalites in various anti-social activities.
He sought an inquiry
into the killings of APCLC leaders and immediate arrest of Naimuddin, an ex-Naxalite
and his team, who were involved in these killings.
Later the Times of
India reported : As a first step to chart the course of future dialogue with
the naxalites, the government on Friday invited civil liberties leader K G
Kannabiran for ‘informal talks’.
At the meeting, home
minister K Jana Reddy proposed that a committee of intellectuals, headed by a
retired Supreme Court judge, must negotiate with the PW, but the civil liberties
leader flatly rejected the proposal and instead submitted a letter addressed to
chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy listing out their demands.
According to the
letter, the first precondition was lifting the ban on the PW as "a faith has
been banned and can any government do that."
He also said that the
ban has not led to any reduction of violence and on the contrary it led to
extensive impunity of the state and requested the government withdraw all
prosecutions under Pota and put an end to human rights violations.
Dwelling at length on the philosophy of the PW, Kannabiran felt that no policy
initiative of the government would alter the belief of the extremists with
regard to their movement.
He was highly
critical of Chandrababu Naidu’s policies on privatisation, tourism, irrigation,
education and health, which he said deprived citizens of their basic needs.
Referring to the "encounters," Kannabiran said Chandrababu Naidu had killed 200
victims during each year of his tenure as chief minister and then declared that
they died in encounters.
"You should straight away direct your police chief to disband this private army
maintained by the department at the expense of public exchequer. You should also
put an end to the system of rewards for naxalites."
Meanwhile, the PW
called a state-wide strike on May 24 to protest killings in fake encounters.
The roots for
Naxalism in the country lie in the socio-economic conditions of the people and
the lack of real democracy for the masses. The ruling classes of all types must
recognize the PW, MCCI and other such revolutionary forces as legitimate
political forces with each of the contenders having their parties and armies The
two sides must abide by international norms in dealing with each other and
follow all norms, not resorting to the arbitrary killing of ‘prisoners of war’,
resorting torture, etc. The government must make a serious statement regarding
the murder of three top, highly respected leaders of the Party, the CC members,
comrades Shyam, Mahesh and Murali. No Party can forget the brutality resorted to
in the killing of three such prominent members of its Party. Naidu and his gang
must in effect be tried as war criminals. There is much evidence to their crimes
against humanity.
Naidu sought to turn
the elections into a vote against Naxalism. It turned into its opposite — a
referendum against the butcher Naidu and his imperialist sponsors. That though
is not enough.
As we go to the
press, the AP Home Minister declared at a press conference (flanked by the 3
police chiefs, including the notorious Arvinda Rao) that he has declared a
"three-month halt to all police operation". The Minister said the government had
also accepted the proposal made by the PW — constitution of an observers’
committee, involvement of mediators in the talks, and holding of discussions
between the Cabinet and PW representatives. But, he once again reiterated the PW
squads not to enter villages with arms.
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