Volume 7, No. 6, July-August, 2006

A decade back the Indian Army South Command conducted a preliminary survey for sending the army to the Nallamala forest region of Andhra Pradesh. At that time the HQ of the South Command said "we can swing into action to help the state government at any moment." But the moment did not come at all. What was the reason that the ‘said moment’ did not come? Here lies the answer. Our class struggle did not develop to that extent nor did the guerrilla war gain that kind of momentum in that region to demand the need of the army. With the aim to totally wiping out the class struggle and our forces the government utilized the STF, the APSP, the CRPF and the most vicious Greyhounds through the directives of Andhra Pradesh SIB officers. So the enemy forces controlled the movement utilising only state-level forces. And so the army was not deployed.

From the year 2005 Dandakarnaya has grown to be an important centre of the revolutionary movement in the country. The Indian army chief thought of sending the army to control that region. From 2003 to 2005 people’s war grew extensively in Baster and now it is getting more intensified. From the middle of 2005 a state onslaught started by the name of ‘Salwa Judum’ (SJ). Along with the Special Forces under the leadership of Mahendra Karma, a Congress leader built up a Salwa Judum force with a section of non tribals as leaders and a tiny section of land lord and bad gentry of local tribal. With the help of this ‘Salwa Judum’ force the state BJP government is attacking us and wants to trigger a civil war. And the party is completely successful in resisting this civil war from all quarters. Now It is being planned to deploy army in that region. Four-five days ago 20 retired army offices who are experts in explosion have been recruited.

Besides this the administration has clearly chalked out its various plans. A jungle war fare school has been set up in the Kanker town to impart anti-insurgency training. In a recent press meet head of the school a Brigadier from Indian Army Commented ‘Salwa Judum’ is an effort and will be utilized as a springboard for the Army operations because depending on SJ Maoists can never be coped with. So it is crystal clear that Central government is planning to deploy army as solution to counter the revolutionary movement particularly the upcoming revolutionary peoples committees and the peoples army the Indian army will be deployed. And the Maoists bases should be targeted.

The state is working out different plans to repress the movement extensively in Dandakaranya along with all other states. Meanwhile putting the army jawans as the police force is a brain child of Nitish Kumar, the new chief minister of Bihar.

There is lack of enough police to combat the Naxalite problem. So, within a short period the chief minister planned to build a greater number of new forces. Hence, the birth of the SAP (State Auxiliary Police) was shaped. All of them being retired army men they need not have to undergo basic training course one year. Within only 20-30 days 2200 army soldiers were recruited, put into some essential basic training and were sent to several districts of Bihar. There is a plan to take 6000 more army men. In exchange for Rs. 6000 a month this force has been recruited on the basis of a 1 year contract. The time limit would be reviewed later on. Compared to the common police and special state police this force is more experienced and has more expertise in matters of war tactics and war strategies as well as it is psychologically more militant. Within the last 2 to 2½ decades no force has been formed and sent to the guerrilla area by recruiting from the common police force. Special selected forces have been deployed, who have a training mentality and who are skilled in handling different weapons. That is, forces with military skills and a mentality of leaving their homes and native places for years have been deployed against the revolutionaries. And such type of forces are as suitable as the SAP.

On 5th April in a celebration for this force Asish Ranjan Sinha the home secretary of Bihar said "This is first time this type of force has been formed after independence. Formation of this special force is highly a matter of pride. I hope it is only the beginning of a positive trend, which will be implemented in the other states afterwards."

On the aforesaid occasion the Bihar-Orissa-Jharkhand sub-area commander S.K.Bisweswar said "This force is formed for anti-terrorism campaigns and is a completely trained and effective force. Other than getting used to the incoming situation this force does not need any special training."

Many say Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a liberalist. But that was never right and now too it is not correct. The recruitment of the army in the role of the police is the brain child of Nitish Kumar which, as new war tactic, is being applied against us. Officials of other states have been given the advice to implement the same process. Very shortly this plan will be enforced in other states too. It is the back door policy of the ruling classes.

In Dandakaranya and Jharkhand new forces are being formed in new names. It we try to find out the class character of those who are working as the special police officer (SPO) in Dandakaranya, it is seen they are all the elite and jamindars and reactionaries. Their role is anti-revolution. They are all state leaders and workers of ‘Salwa Judum’. In the name of police camps and refugee camps, the people who are living in the state camps are considering SPOs as their adversary. The work of the SPO is to vacate all the villages and force the people of the villages to stay in the refugee camps. This force is a very ruthless and brutal force in plain clothes that seeks to ruthlessly crush the revolutionary movement. Already 3000 armed forces have been pressed into service and the home department has passed orders to recruit 12,000 more.

Such forces are also being set up in Jharkhand. Like the Salwa Judum, governmental terror is also going on in Jharkhand, under the name of "Sendrara". Sendrara leaders and workers are originally the members of the Association for Citizens Protection Organisation created by the police. Now they will trigger civil war legally with weapons in the village areas of Jharkhand. A directive has been passed for the SPO to orgainse the force in the name of the village protection force.

One more similar type of organised force is being built with the extremely backward Paharia tribe of Jhakhand. In 1779, that is two hundred twenty-six years ago, the British Colonial India’s Collector of Bhagalpur, Augustus Claveland, sent a letter to the then Indian governor Warren Hastings, with a proposal to set up a Pharia battalion. But that proposal was never implemented as the East India Company was not prepared to spend Rs. 30,000 for the said battalion. But today according to the plan of Arjun Munda, the home department of this so-called independent country, is going to put the dream of Claveland into a reality. Arjun Mundra said, "we had approached the Centre with a concrete proposal to raise a Paharia battalion, which would not only boost the economy of the tribe, residing largely in Santhal Parganas, but would also go a long way to counter the menace of extremism in the remote corners of Jharkhand where even trained police personnel do not have easy access due to a lack of knowledge about the difficult terrain".

This comment of Arjun Mundra itself makes it evident, what he really wants. Development of the paharias or civil war amongst the tribals? America had set up more or less a similar type of new contractual army in Iraq war. The people of Iraq put up a mighty resistance which resulted in the death of many American army men and this led to the building up of grievances among the Americans. This is the reason for setting up the contractual army so that in Iraq, the American army could be kept behind and this contractual army could be put in the forefront. The NDA government also decided to send the army from our country in the Iraq war. But the NDA government was forced to retreat from its decision keeping in mind the forthcoming parliamentary elections and the objections raised by the other parties. But a contractual army was sent. Many retired army offices and jawans were sent. Many contract soldiers died in the Iraq war and their bodies remained strewn openly on the roads. Seeing this the American people raised their voices against it and only after that the governments of the respective country started announcing which soldier was dying from which country. Then only it became known that such an army was also sent from India. The ruling classes can set up any type of army according to their plan and also resort to which ever process they wish for self protection.

It can never be denied that this plan and the brain child of a contract army of Nitish Kumar will have a very drastic impact. There are many lakhs of such retired armymen and there is much possibility of a section amongst them to be with the ruling class in order to earn money. We have to stand forth as the new mighty force by extemsively propagating our revolutionary politics against imperialist culture and values.

Hope, the revolutionaries will be successful in exposing the plans of Nitish Kumar in front of the people and intensify the resistance movement. Along with this we have to make an appeal to the retired jawans and their families so that they may not stand against the revolutionary war.

As I was trying to send this letter some two-three matters more have caught my attention:

To supervise all these matters the PMO (Prime Minister Office) has constructed a special cell.

We have also to prepare the masses keeping in view the preparations made by the central and state governments in the past 5-6 months to intensity war against us.

May 2006

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