Ramachandra Guha - Republic of Unfreedom // Chhattisgarh top cop threatens HT journalist over Bastar reporting
This has been a bad
month for Indian democracy. First, there was the one-day ban on NDTV India
imposed by the government of India. This sparked much protest; bowing to the
pressure, the government seems to have stayed the ban — whether for the moment
or for ever, it is not clear. Just when Indian democrats began to breathe
easier, however, news came that the Chhattisgarh police had booked a group of
writers and activists for murder, among them India’s finest anthropologist,
Nandini Sundar, a respected professor at Delhi University with a wide and
deserved international reputation.
Freedom of expression
has long been in peril in our country. Writers have had their books banned,
artists their exhibitions vandalised, film-makers their films censored. But
what happened recently in Chhattisgarh marks a new low. The group, of which
Sundar was a part, had visited the strife-torn region of Bastar, and prepared a
report on the deteriorating human rights situation in the state. This was their
real crime, that so enraged the Chhattisgarh police that they filed a charge of
murder!
Bastar is a part of
India that has long interested me. I wrote a biography of Verrier Elwin, the
great chronicler of Adivasi life and culture, who did his best work in Bastar.
Elwin argued passionately in defence of tribal rights in land and forests. He
hoped that Independent India would respect and protect tribal rights; instead,
successive governments have treated them with contempt and condescension. The
expropriation of tribal lands and forests has led to deep discontent, adroitly
exploited by the Maoists, who in recent decades have made major strides in Adivasi
areas, not least in Bastar.
A democratic state
should have fought Maoism by redressing the many wrongs it had committed
against the tribals. Instead, the Chhattisgarh government promoted a vigilante
army named Salwa Judum, provoking a savage war, in which the violence of the
Maoist was met by the equally brutal violence of the state-sponsored Judum.
The tribals were caught in between, vilified by one side and victimised by the other. In this ongoing civil war, dozens of villages have been burnt, hundreds of Adivasis killed, and close to a hundred thousand people displaced.
The tribals were caught in between, vilified by one side and victimised by the other. In this ongoing civil war, dozens of villages have been burnt, hundreds of Adivasis killed, and close to a hundred thousand people displaced.
In 2006, a group of
independent citizens, which included Sundar and myself, visited Bastar.
Afterwards, we filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court. In its
judgement of July 2011, the court ordered the disbandment of Salwa Judum. The
Supreme Court said it was “aghast at the blindness to constitutional
limitations of the state of Chhattisgarh, and some of its advocates, in
claiming that anyone who questions the inhumanity that is rampant in many parts
of that state ought necessarily to be treated as Maoists, or their
sympathisers, and yet in the same breath also claim that it needs the.
sanction, under our Constitution, to perpetrate its policies of ruthless
violence.” Judges Sudarshan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar remarked that “lawless
violence, in response to violence by the Maoist/Naxalite insurgency, has not,
and will not, solve the problems, and instead it will only perpetuate the
cycles of more violence”.
Sadly, while the Supreme
Court can pass strictures it cannot ensure that its orders are followed on the
ground. The brutal, barbaric civil war in Bastar continues. The Maoists
fetishise and glorify violence, which is why this writer detests them.
Tragically, a government sworn to uphold the Constitution has emulated the
Maoists in showing an utter contempt for the rule of law and for basic
democratic values. Bastar is a war zone, where ordinary citizens fear not just
the Maoists but the Chhattisgarh police as well.
Chhattisgarh has had a
series of freedom-hating police officers, each more vicious and vindictive than
the last. The inspector general now in charge of Bastar was reported by The
Hindu as saying, “We don’t need any interference or guidance, Bastar knows to
handle its own problems. We don’t like any kind of interference”. In pursuance
of this policy, the Chhattisgarh police have arrested several journalists on
trumped-up charges, and hounded several others out of the region. Most
recently, they have filed this FIR charging Sundar and several of her
colleagues with murder. I have read the FIR, whose wording and precise
recollection of names of people the witness had never met, make it clear that
it was doctored and/or coerced.
The timing of this
attack on one of India’s most admired scholars (a winner of the Infosys Prize)
may not be accidental. Last month, Sundar published The Burning Forest, a
deeply moving and richly researched book on the civil war in Bastar. This book,
which by no means exonerates the Maoists, shines a sharp spotlight on the
errors and crimes of the Chhattisgarh state government, its consistent and
sometimes gross violations of the law, its utter contempt for the Constitution
and for the Supreme Court. The FIR initiated by the police is a malicious act
of revenge.
This act by a rogue
police force brings shame on Indian democracy. As I write, the state and
Central governments have stayed silent. Do they condone it? One hopes not. For
foisting false murder charges on independent (and utterly non-violent) citizens
is characteristic of police states like Putin’s Russia or Xi Jinping’s China. I
do not credit the Chhattisgarh government with a deep understanding of
democratic principles. But surely some ministers in the Central government must
understand the damage such arbitrary and vengeful behaviour does to the image
of their party, the Union government, and the nation itself.
NDTV India is a
prominent channel based in New Delhi. Professor Sundar has a high international
standing. If they can be subject to such treatment, one shudders to think of
the fate of writers, journalists, scholars and artists who work away from the
glare of the national media. And of the fate of ordinary citizens too. Physical
attacks on journalists in remote parts of India, often encouraged by the state
and/or powerful politicians, are now increasingly common. The everyday
harassment, by the police and paramilitary, of ordinary citizens in
conflict-zones such as Bastar, Kashmir and Manipur is very nearly ubiquitous.
I have increasingly
come to think of India as an “elections-only democracy”. Elections are free and
fair; but once a party (any party) wins power, it considers itself immune from
criticism or fair appraisal for the next five years. The NDTV and Bastar
incidents display afresh how profoundly undemocratic are the instincts of
Indian politicians and public officials.
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/nandini-sundar-booked-tribal-murder-ndtv-india-one-day-ban-pathankot-attack-4373572/Chhattisgarh top cop threatens HT journalist over Bastar reporting
SRP Kalluri,
Chhattisgarh’s controversial inspector-general of police, has threatened
Hindustan Times’s Raipur-based journalist for seeking clarifications on
academic Nandini Sundar’s alleged involvement in a tribal man’s murder in
Bastar this month.
“Aap log aise karenge
to hum aapko jaane hi nahi denge ..mere reference se aap gaye the…,” (If you
all do like this, we will not let you visit …you went with my reference to
Bastar),” an angry Kalluri told Ritesh Mishra. Mishra had asked him
for a comment after local residents in Bastar’s Nama village--where tribal man
Samnath Baghel was killed--told HT that they had nothing against Sundar, who
was booked for murder along with 10 others.
Kalluri’s words had an
ominous ring as journalists have been at the receiving end in Bastar for what
activists say are persistent attempts by the local police to intimidate the
media. Four local journalists have been arrested since last year while a
visiting BBC newsman was forced to leave the district. Another was forced to
flee the region after being accused of having Maoist links.
The spate of arrests
and the resultant outcry forced the Chhattisgarh government to curtail police’s
powers to arrest journalists. However, the police in
Bastar set a precedent last month when they publicly burnt effigies of
activists critical of them.
Bastar is among the
worst-affected regions of insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh where both Maoists and
the police face accusations of rights abuses. Access to interiors of Bastar is
largely controlled either by the police and its sponsored local vigilante
groups or the Maoists.
Insisting that the
police had enough evidence against those booked, Kalluri told Mishra that he
would not entertain him any further. “You write whatever that comes to your
mind. We don’t care a damn. For you, Bastar is a mazaak (joke).” Mishra had called
Kalluri after visiting Nama where Baghel, a member of a local anti-Maoist
resistance group, was killed on November 4. Police subsequently booked Sundar
and the others for the murder, saying the Delhi University professor had
visited the village as part of a Maoist delegation some months earlier and
threatened Baghel not to support the police in their campaign against the
insurgents.
Mishra, who had
informed Kalluri about his plans to visit Nama, was told by villagers that they had not seen the killers of Baghel and had no
complaints against Sundar, an author and activist who had moved the Supreme
Court against police excesses in Chhattisgarh. They also disputed police claim
that Sundar had visited as part of a Maoist team and said she had introduced
herself as a rights activists.
