KRISHN KAUSHIK AND ATUL DEV - “This kind of terror, we have not seen before”: An interview with the lawyers evicted from Bastar in Chhattisgarh
Over the past few
months, news coming out of Chattisgarh has been grim. Amid long-standing
allegations of violence perpetrated by the state police, which include
sexual assaults and extrajudicial encounters of locals, many
journalists, lawyers, and activists have been forcefully evicted out of Bastar.
The police crackdown on locals has escalated. In February, the home of Malini
Subramaniam, a contributor to the web publication Scroll.in, was attacked by
members of a vigilante organisation suspected of being backed by the police.
Later in the month, the tribal activist Soni Sori was attacked; unidentified
men threw grease on her face, causing chemical burns.
On 7 March, Krishn
Kaushik, a staff writer at The
Caravan, and Atul Dev, a reporter at Vantage, The Caravan, met
with Isha Khandelwal and Shalini Gera who were also forced to leave Bastar.
Gera and Khandelwal moved to the state in 2013 to set up the Jagdalpur Legal
Aid Group, a non-profit that provided free legal services to the adivasis in
the area. The lawyers spoke to The Caravan about the
administrative decisions that may have led to the current situation, and how
the forced evictions are diminishing the meagre support available to the
marginalised locals.
The Caravan: What
is happening in Bastar right now?
Shalini Gera: In the last three or four months, we have witnessed wanton, large scale violence by the security forces in the villages—something of the scale that we haven’t witnessed in over two years that we have spent there. Violent incidents were still not unheard of then, but this is something entirely different. In two different districts, there have been three cases since October 2015 of mass sexual violence. To someone who has seen things on the ground, it now seems to be their strategy. Sexual violence is being used as a weapon for war, and victimised women are being seen as an enemy of the state. What we are hearing now from the villagers is that people are being picked up in buses and taken. This scale of terror is completely new. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that villages, at this point, are on fire.
Shalini Gera: In the last three or four months, we have witnessed wanton, large scale violence by the security forces in the villages—something of the scale that we haven’t witnessed in over two years that we have spent there. Violent incidents were still not unheard of then, but this is something entirely different. In two different districts, there have been three cases since October 2015 of mass sexual violence. To someone who has seen things on the ground, it now seems to be their strategy. Sexual violence is being used as a weapon for war, and victimised women are being seen as an enemy of the state. What we are hearing now from the villagers is that people are being picked up in buses and taken. This scale of terror is completely new. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that villages, at this point, are on fire.
Isha Khandelwal: There has been an increase in what the police
call “surrenders” in the past 18 months, but there has been a clear change of
effect in the last four months.
SG: We believe that the recent streak of
evictions—of journalists, lawyers and documenters—is part of this new design.
It seems that there is going to be an increase in human rights violations—signs
of it are already visible—and they want to make sure that there are no
witnesses left. They don’t want any news to come out; they don’t want
fact-finding teams going there to document what they are calling a “clearing
operation.” In the first 22 days of November alone, there were 18 encounters.
Now, the number is 56. These are large numbers. We are talking about 56 deaths
that nobody has been able to go and investigate except for the one in Mardum
that Soni Sori brought to light. That was the point when all this hell broke
loose.
TC: Has anyone from
the administration said why the “clearing operation” is happening?
SG: When SRP Kalluri had come in as the inspector general, we presented our credentials to him in the first month itself—since we were going to be working in the area, we wanted to be upfront about it, and go meet him. That was in July 2014. He said that he had recently met with a secretary from the ministry of steel, and that they are planning on setting up an Ultra Mega Steel Plant, or UMSP. He said that this are is really well positioned for industrial development—we have the ore nearby, we have a rail connection, water supply and so on. And he said that the only reason we haven’t been able to develop magnificent industries here is because of this trifling problem of the Naxalites. He told us that he was appointed to clear up this area so we can have another Bhilai or Raipur in Chattisgarh. Since then, he has repeated this on several occasions.
SG: When SRP Kalluri had come in as the inspector general, we presented our credentials to him in the first month itself—since we were going to be working in the area, we wanted to be upfront about it, and go meet him. That was in July 2014. He said that he had recently met with a secretary from the ministry of steel, and that they are planning on setting up an Ultra Mega Steel Plant, or UMSP. He said that this are is really well positioned for industrial development—we have the ore nearby, we have a rail connection, water supply and so on. And he said that the only reason we haven’t been able to develop magnificent industries here is because of this trifling problem of the Naxalites. He told us that he was appointed to clear up this area so we can have another Bhilai or Raipur in Chattisgarh. Since then, he has repeated this on several occasions.
TC: Have there been
any indications that Kalluri’s actions have the sanction of the state?
SG: He has certain kind of immunity, and we don’t know where it is coming from. He also said when we met him—and I don’t know if we are to believe it, as it could have been self-aggrandisement—that he had been appointed by “Modiji himself.” That was what he told us.
SG: He has certain kind of immunity, and we don’t know where it is coming from. He also said when we met him—and I don’t know if we are to believe it, as it could have been self-aggrandisement—that he had been appointed by “Modiji himself.” That was what he told us.
Either way, ever since
the new IG has come, there is increasing pressure on the villagers. In the last
four months, we are hearing stories of troops going into the villages. They are
breaking homes, they take food stock they can use and destroy the rest. They
are also killing the cattle now.
IK: They take everything useable: cooking oil,
salt, grains—whatever people have in their homes—breaking or destroying
everything else. They take clothes as well, and tear the ones they can’t take.
The message is this: it is not just about our greed. We will not let you guys
survive here. You are going to be punished for being here.
SG: All this is happening from village to
village—areas that they have demarcated as enemy territory. So people living in
those villages are also enemies—not citizens. This kind of terror, we have not
seen before. All this started from October. Maybe it has something to do with
Ajit Doval’s visit which may have resulted into a new strategy for countering
Naxalism in the area.
IK: We have been told this in as many words by
different people in the administration. They said that Ajit Doval came, and
there has been a change in strategy about how to deal with the situation. They
have decided that they want to clear this area of all Naxalites in this year
without any distractions.
TC: In a recent article, Nandini Sundar said that the District
Reserve Groups are the return of the Salwa Judum.
SG: We are seeing that the
DRGs are being increasingly used in police operations. Earlier, most of the men
in the force were Hindi speakers, but now the people who are coming speak
Gondi. Some of them have also been recognised as surrendered militants… read
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