PEOPLE’S MARCH Contents Vol : 7, No. 1, January 2006, Rs. 12 Voice of the Indian Revolution

Hoax of Rural Em- 15 ployment Gaurantee Act.

Scandalous 3 & 8 18 sale of Dandakarnya - A saga of 25 yrs Mumbai Mill of glorious Lands struggle

Back Cover GreatSell Out Press Release Indian traitors sell our water to Inter- 25 Horrors of Salwa Judum 28 Vigillant gangs of AP 13 national water mafia Salwa Judum Fact-finding Report 27

Cover Page : Martyrs Column under construction in Dandakaranya

People’s March Articles may be reprinted and translated in various Indian & Foreign Languages without permission, provided the source (www.peoplesmarch.com) is credited

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2 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 A Saga of Twenty-Five Years of Glorious Struggle An Epic of People’s Radical Transformation Sudhakar It was November 2. The year was 1980. sarpanches and priests. In addition to this and “democracy and development for all A full 25 years back. The young 18-year there was extreme sexual exploitation of Oppressed”. They began by taking up the old Peddi Shankar was shot dead by the the women and girls whose innocence was Tendu leaf picking rate and bamboo Maharashtra police. He was the first martyr brutally violated. For the tendu patta cutting rate and won big victories. They of the revolutionary movement in leaves they gathered they were hardly paid soon gained the confidence of the tribals Dandakaranya. The son of a coal mine a pittance, for the bamboo they cut for the which got further cemented when they worker from just across the border, he had paper company it was the same story. For began beating back the terror of the forest come barely a few months back to this forest produce sold in the village market and police officials. They began building southern tip of Maharashtra, along with a they were systametically cheated. Over the mass organisations in the villages — team of four others, to spread the and above all this the forest officials would first the peasant organisation, then the Karimnagar/Adilabad Revolutionary not allow agriculture in forest land and women’s organisation and even the movement to one of the most backward prevent them for even cutting fire-wood. children’s organisation. Revolutionary regions of the world — the Gadchirolli part They would be robbed of their chicken, songs were written in the Gondi language of what is now called Dandakarnya (DK). goats and other produce by all and sundry and literary classes were set up amongst So, also another team crossed over from for supposed favours. They were all those entering the squads. The squads Warangal into the other part of DK in humiliated and harassed at every turn and administered simple medical treatment Bastar — then part of the state of Madhya lived a life of semi-starvation with no and even trained local youth in basic Pradesh (now Chhathisgarh). In this way development whatsoever — whether medicine. The women’s organisation seven small guerrilla squads entered DK. fought horrifying patriarchal practices and In these 25 years from a handful of educated women against superstitious dedicated comrades, mostly from rural practices. And all this developed amidst student background, the movement has systematic increase in police terror. grown to encompassing lakhs of people. It First it was the local police forces. Then is an epic saga of heroic courage, selfless to them were added the state special police. sacrifice, unflinching commitment to the Then came the para military forces. In cause of the people, and a will-power to Gadchirolli even the military’s Border sustain in the face of the worst odds. In Road Organisation was brought in so that these 25 years over 300 comrades have been roads could be built to the interior villages. martyred from top leaders, to women Mass arrests and foisting hosts of false activists, to simple cadres, to mass cases, torture, incarceration in jails for organisation leaders and even ordinary long periods, killing in fake encounters, village folk. destruction of houses of activists, The Bastar part was even more disappearances, gang rapes of women backward with no education, no modern Com. Peddi Shankar activists, and mass destruction and loot of medicine, no proper knowledge of properties — all this became common to agriculture…. It was as if still in the middle stem the tide of the rising assertion of the ages where witchcraft, superstition and economic, political, educational, cultural, tribals of the region. even human sacrifice were the norm. social, etc. Yet the Maoist influence spread as the Primitive agriculture gave little and their And it is into this world that the people saw that it was they alone who stood lives could only be sustained by selling Naxalites descended. Before they could by them and even gave their lives for them. forest produce, hunting, and wage labour. even take a step forward the officials and By 1995 the mass organisations in the DK The poverty then was such that they barely Mukhiayas had widely propagated that had swelled to a membership of 60,000; wore anything on their bodies. 180 years these are robbers, child-lifters, and today it is over one-and-a-half lakhs. First of British ‘modernising’ rule and another dangerous bandits. When they came to a the village organisations defended three decades of so-called freedom had village in the initial phases people would themselves with lathis; then they formed passed-by this huge population of Gonds all either lock their doors or flee to the Gram Raksha Dals (Village Defence of Central India. The British and Indian jungles. The Maharashtra and MP police Squads) with country weapons; now they rulers were merely interested in looting the were already on the prowl combing the are organised into militias on a mass scale mineral and forest wealth of the region. forests even before they could get a base with a minimum of military training. Even in this excruciating poverty they were amongst the people. Together with the People’s Liberation robbed and cheated in every possible way They came with kit bags on their back, Guerrilla Army the people have been — by the officials, by the contractors, by a few shot-guns for self-defence, and three fighting back the government attacks. An the traders, by the forest and police main slogans of “Land to the tiller”, “Full entire new generation has grown up now officials, and even by their ‘mukhiyas’, rights of the Adivasis over the forests”, and they cannot even think of going back PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 3 to the horrors of the past life of servitude scorched-earth policy of burn-all, loot-all, terrible patriarchal practices. Liquor was and starvation. kill-all!!! every where and widely promoted. Poverty The main fruits of the two-and-a-half But justice will prevail and Maoists, was such that people had hardly any decades of struggle are to be seen in an no doubt learning from earlier mistakes clothes even to wear, let alone any entire populace having gained enormous in the world revolutionary moment, will commodities of modern civilization. self-confidence, self-respect and the ability advance forward to build a paradise on Struggle’s on People’s Issues to determine their own destiny. The earth. On this silver jubilee year we First the masses were organised on the oppressors of all types have been banished introduce these historic changes to the issue of increase in wage rates for tendu- from the region, their ruthless exploitation people of our country. leaf picking and the cutting of bamboo. is now minimum, they have rudimentary Situation in DK Before the Entry of Tendu leaf-picking rates have, over the health-care and education, their standard Naxalites years, increased from about one to two of living has improved and they are taking In those days people were living a rupees per bundle to over Rs.100 per to more scientific methods of agriculture. primitive existence mostly off forest bundle. Even today where the movement They are also learning to administer the produce. The people had no rights over is not there the contractors give under region themselves by the setting up the the forests as various forest acts arbitrarily Rs.30 per bundle. Similar is the case with rudimentary organs of political power. And made them trespassers in their own habitat. bamboo cutting for the paper mill. In to the defend the fruits of these victories To take anything from the forests they addition the masses were organised against the peoples armed forces have grown, from would have to face the exploitation and the atrocities of the forest department — small squads of 5 to 6 to platoon size and oppression of the officials. There would they were virtually chased out of the area. even a few of company size equipped with not be a single family who would not have As a result, all were able to till land and modern weapons snatched from the enemy. paid some ‘fine’ (bribe) to the forest cut fire wood without having to face their What has taken place in DK is earth- department and the local village elders. terror and loot any longer. shaking where every aspect of the people’s Besides this, they would be arrested and It is these two issues that initially built lives have been transformed. The wretched treated as thieves for plucking even a leaf their popularity amongst the tribals. The of the earth have grown to be masters of from the forest. Traders and moneylenders word spread and people began calling their destiny. Whether it is sitting with would buy the forest produce like wood, them to newer areas. In this way the slates and chalk learning the alphabet; or Mahua, Jhadu, honey etc at very low rates movement spread like wild fire. From the it is their efforts to pick up medical cures thereby making fortunes through re-sales. beginning itself the police were pushed for the basic ailments; or whether it is their In addition the tendu-patta contractors and into action and so the people saw the need efforts to grasp current events and the paper mill owners would not only give for armed defence. They were also Marxism; or whether it is their growing very low wage rates they also sexually politically educated on the nature of the knowledge of science and coming out of exploited the women. state and the need to overthrow it to gain the muck of superstitions; or whether it is The local village chiefs are the real liberation. The movement in DK now their dedication to learn warfare and the sarpanch, patwari, etc were hand-in-glove covers an area roughly the size of Kerala. use of the gun; or whether it is even in with these officials to rob the people. The Besides this the movement began their entertainment where their tribal song political leaders, making Adivasis their taking up other issues like the oppression and dance have been put to revolutionary vote banks, were also part of this mafia. by the local gentry and village elders, the themes; or whether it is in their new The local feudal rajas like Vishweshwaar priests, the quack doctors, etc. People’s relationships based on democratic values Atram of Gadchiroli and Bodda Manjhi courts would try the offenders and give — here, a new society is taking birth. (Mahendra Karma’s — the chief architect punishments according to the nature and It is this that the rulers are terrified of the Salwa Judum —father) used age- severity of the crime. Earlier, conflicts about and so the venom in the latest Salwa old tradition to keep the Adivasis in a state between the people were ‘settled’ by the Judum state offensive. Already hundred of backwardness and as vote-banks to build village elite, police, lawyers, judges, etc killed, 30 women gang-raped and 50 their political careers. As feudal chiefs they All these would fleece both parties. Besides villages burnt down. These butchers would intervene in all disputes and extract it meant enormous expense traveling to the cannot bare the thought of people freeing money and material from all. courts and hiring lawyers. All this is past. themselves from centuries of bondage. The There was virtually no development in The conflicts are resolved by taking massacres and rapes may be the handiwork this region — no education facilities, no people’s opinions and arbitration by the of local goons and the police but the health care, and what little agriculture people’s courts. responsibility lies at the very top of the there was it was extremely backward (rice Also issues linked to patriarchy were establishment. Big business wants their is sown without transplantation) with little taken up in a big way, like wife-beating huge investments in mining to bear fruit; knowledge of fruits and vegetables. and forced marriages. This won the and the imperialists and the compradors Superstition was rampant and encouraged confidence of the mass of women. The are panic stricken that if Maoism gains and in the name of tradition oppression children were drawn to the movement by further roots in the people of the country and exploitation was intensified — the cultural performances and the respect their dream of making even more fortunes local priest would extract large amounts shown for them. In this way the movement will end. So, they have resorted to a from the people and the women would face and Maoist politics were able to take deep

4 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 root amongst the masses and many became recruits to the people’s army and the Party. In Feb.1984 the mass organisation, the DAKMS (Dandakarnaya Adivasi Kisan Shetmazdoor Sangathan) was to hold its first Conference of the Gadchirolli division. Many intellectuals were to address it. Kamlapur, the venue, became a rallying point for the entire people of Vidarbha. Posters appeared all over with Peddi Shankar’s photo. Streams of Adivasis traversed 30 to 40 kilometers to attend. Intellectuals and others sought to reach Kamlapur to find out what this new phenomenon was. The police turned Kamlapur into a war camp. All roads to it were sealed. All forest paths were swarming with heavily armed police. Hundreds were arrested, the speakers were turned back, and the Conference was ruthlessly supp-ressed. Yet it took place; could mean that the house would be burnt rights and assert their authority over the but in the jail. down. forests and all its resources. Without such Till 1984 there was not much retaliation In the Bastar region, in 1989 itself the an intense struggle such victories for the against police high-handedness; with the movement spread from the south to the people of the region would have been attacks being focused on the local hoodlums. north of the district. The government tried inconceivable. But soon, the police increased their attacks its best to stop the expansion by unleashing Fruits of Struggle particularly on entire villages which were terror in the new area. Many comrades fell known to be Naxalite strongholds like When a terrible famine struck many to enemy bullets in the process. But the parts of the country in 1997 thousands died Hemalkasa, Gurja, Jimalgatta, etc. So, from extension continued. It was only from 1990 1985 to 1990 the people began retaliating in other tribal belts but not a single died when the police terror had grown that the in DK. Why, today even in normal times as the incident of Sursundi village indicates. Maoist began systematic attacks on the Here the police lathi-charged and fired on a there are regular reports of deaths through government forces through ambushes and malnutrition in most of the tribal belts rally. The people retaliated and snatched two raids. In the process many modern weapons rifles. But, from 1991/92 state terror where the Naxalites do not exist. In fact were seized. With such successes the enemy conditions have been getting from bad to increased ten-fold, particularly in forces were beaten back and the people Gadchiroli. The Maharashtra government worse in these areas as even official records regained confidence. For intensifying these show. Here the situation is different. What sent special commando forces headed by attacks in 1993 Special Guerrilla Squads notorious police officers and in MP the BJP then have been the fruits of the past two- were formed which by 1995 developed into and-a-half decades of struggle? government unleashed its first Jan Jagran platoons. In the process hundreds of youth Abhiyan. Road-building which till then had ADIVASIS STAND UPRIGHT: The [including girls] began to join the people’s biggest victory has been the tribals of the been foiled by the people was undertaken armed forces and on July 28 2004 the first by the BRO in Gadchirolli for quick area have got a self-confidence they have Company was formed. The raid on the never known before. Earlier they would movement of police forces. In the Gadchiroli Koraput armoury in neighbouring Orissa and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra cow down before any authority and would was an important source of weaponry and be looked down upon by all. Now they have village after village were attacked. Mass ammunition. Now the entire masses felt the organisation leaders were killed or arrested. self-respect and can stand upright before need to be armed and vast numbers began any person. This personality development Many disappeared including young girls to take part in actions. who were the organisers of the KAMS is the single major change that the It was after the formation of the movement has brought. It is long-lasting (Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sanghthan). In People’s Guerrilla Army on Dec 2 2000 MP too under the JJA they resorted to rape, and deep-rooted. Now, they all have land; (now called PLGA) and the holding of the they freely move in the forests; and they loot, killing, etc. By 1993 the police terror erstwhile PW Party’s Congress which set peaked in Maharashtra with police openly get a just wage for their labour. Now the the task of establishing a Base Area in DK loot of the contractors, saukars, village shooting mass leaders before the entire that militias began to be formed on a big village. In Bhandara district in Mangazari elders, capitalists, officials, politicians and scale in all villages. their brokers, etc have all come to an end. village the police killed 14 people and It is in the process of these struggles, quietly buried them. Terror reached such BETTER LIVING CONDITIONS: whether armed or unarmed, that the Here, now no one dies of hunger. Having levels that merely giving food to Naxalites Adivasis have been able to seize their

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 5 put an end to the exploitation and loot and brought about a huge hike in wage rates, people’s living standards have changed drastically. Earlier they had no clothes even to wear. Now, not only do they have proper clothing, they have radios, cycles, torches and many other commodities that they could never dream of before. Their diet has improved due to the development projects taken up by the Naxalites helping them grow vegetables, fruit and developing fish ponds. Hygiene has been brought to the people by the Party and the boiling of water has brought down stomach ailments drastically. HEALTH CARE: Health care is being developed on a big scale with the Maoists teaching local youth basic medicine and anatomy. Disease, particularly malaria, is a serious problem in the region. Medicines are distributed at cost price. Hygiene is age. They learn to read and write, sing numbers of women participating in the repeatedly stressed including the boiling revolutionary songs, and often become the mass organisation and even people’s army of water. eyes and ears of the party in the villages. is an indication to the extent of women’s EDUCATION: Every youth that enters Often they inform the party of any person liberation achieved. Today 40% of the the squad is taught to read and write within misbehaving or acting wrongly. As they PLGA are women and of the new recruits a year. Then they go on to more advanced grow into youth they develop into party women and men are equal. Many have learning. In the villages the Maoists try persons and effective guerrilla fighters. risen to be commanders and leaders in and see that government schools function Earlier they had no existence whatsoever different spheres; they are also there in the and have even set up a few themselves. — toiling day and night with the house/ organs of the new power. Of course They take higher education for the elder field work, sick, ill-fed and neglected. The patriarchy still exists in various subtle and youth and have devised courses for the media propagate that Naxalites uses not so subtle forms, but the Party takes a purpose. For those entering the party, in children as child fighters. Though the firm stand against it. addition there is a special political course minimum age to enter the PLGA is 16, DEVELOPMENT: The government that is taught.The basics of Marxism- the media fail to say what their wasted and media keep propagating that Naxalites Leninism-Maoism are taught. Simple book existence was in the existing system, and are hindering the development of the have been written and the practice of what they are today. people. Of course they don’t say what they reading encouraged. All are also THE WOMEN: Though tribal society have been doing for the last 50 years and encouraged to use their spare time is relatively free compared to the tight what is the plight of Adivasis in the areas studying. Sports unknown there, have also controls of the Hindu brahminical order, where Maoists do not exist. The main been introduced, particularly volleyball patriarchy was deep-rooted even here. purpose of this propaganda is their desire and badminton. Educative films are shown Women would slave more than the men to build roads for quick movement of their regularly particularly war films and day-and-night only to get beaten by their police and para-military forces. The progressive films. In fact Charlie Chaplin drunken husbands. Girls would be married Maoists have always demanded hospitals films are a great hit with the people. They off to old men and there was a very tight and schools first not roads, which is a also go through courses of military training gotra system and any marriage out of the double-edged sword to slit people’s throats. — both academic and field training. rule would end in killing. In fact, in many But when the Maoists were able to take a Besides, the people’s courts and the of the earlier cases of women joining the breathing space from the continuous rudimentary forms of administration squads it was to escape from some police/para-military operations, asserted by the organs of power that are marriage to some old man or drunkard. particularly in Bastar, the party has set up developing are in them-selves an enormous This would often take place forcible with over 100 mini irrigation projects through educative process. the girl tied up and taken to the new house. shramdan. All have been made into fish THE CHILDREN: One of the major Also superstition was rife and all women’s breeding which gives the people a better changes that are observable is the self- health problems were dealt with in diet and some money from the sales. Some confidence of the children. They are dangerous ways. The powerful women’s of these are sold while some is consumed organised into Bal Sangams and take up organisation has put an end to all this and by the villagers. They have sought to tasks that help them develop their initiative now girls can freely choose their partners. introduce cooperative activities in the and leadership qualities from a very young The party lends support even if the village and in farming, introducing traditional parents oppose. The vast modern methods. They have avoided 6 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 falling into the imperialist trap of going expression of the locals in Gondi. They case Bhagat Singh and all those who for capital intensive farming but focusing are made to feel proud of their roots and revolted against British rule would also more on organic methods. The main focus all comrades who come from outside pick have to be categorised as terrorists. Mere is to develop agricultural productivity and up the local language. violence cannot be equated to terror, as this to dissuade hunting and destruction of the Democratic and socialist values are very system is based on violence and terror. forests. Orchards have also been planted encouraged and relationships are developed Democracy is a hoax. If there is to be any and many vegetables, unknown to the on this new basis. Marriages are also justice whatsoever for the oppressed and locals, have been introduced. People are conducted through mutual consent where exploited they can never hope to get it taught and encouraged towards forest liking each other is the only basis. Marriages through peaceful means. The past half conservation and the planting of trees. are kept simple and the function is century of so-called independence has Poultry, goat, and pig rearing is accompanied by speeches on the marriage proved this. History too has shown that encouraged to take them away from bond in the new system and followed by a unless the people take to arms in an hunting and yet getting their meat. cultural programme and sweets. organised way they can never hope to CULTURAL CHANGES: Adivasis have The New Power liberate themselves and build a just and a great passion for song and dance. Earlier All activities are geared to the equitable order. The effective building of the much of it was animistic or dedicated to the establishment of the new organs of power people’s army and the New Power in DK, gods and goddesses. Now the same tunes which have begun to emerge in both under the leadership of CPI (Maoist) have been put to revolutionary themes. rudimentary form in the villages in the party, is one of the main victories of the Today hundreds of cultural troupes have form of the RPCs — Revolutionary people’s movement in the region. But, the been set up throughout the region which People’s Committees. These are aim and goal of the army is not to plunder train and perform in the villages. This acts administrative units which seek to develop like any of the earlier armies of feudal and as entertainment and also education — as the exercise of people’s new power at the bourgeois times but to safeguard and all songs have some political content. They ground level. They collect funds through consolidate the new political power that is often dance through the night to these songs. taxation of the better off and through the being born in the region and the country. The rulers have tried desperately to amounts raised by cooperative efforts. They Twenty-five years is no doubt a long destroy their culture either by introducing have a number of departments like time, but the fruits of victory are a new Christianity or through Hinduisation. In developmental, justice, defence, education, experience for the communist movement the earlier period it was the missionaries health, etc. The vast network of militias of this country. The people of DK now that sought to convert the tribals. Now it acts to defend this new power being born. organised under the newly formed is the RSS and their numerous outfits that These are gradually evolving into Janata CPI(Maoist) is a shining red star in the have been trying to Sanskritise the tribals Sarkars of administrative units at a higher very heart of India. A hundred Salwa making them look down on their own level encompassing larger populations. It Judums will not be able to break their will culture. Hindu Gods and festivals are being is this new power which the establishment and the state terror and inhumanity introduced and they are even encouraged rulers are panic stricken with. The resorted to will only cause even more to change their names. Their mother- maniacal attacks in the Salwa Judum is disgust for this system and push hundreds tongue, Gondi, is frowned upon. On the precisely to destroy this new power and more to the path of revolution. Let the other hand the Maoists have sought to preventing its spread. people of our country celebrate this silver develop the Gondi language by bringing The government and media try and jubilee by lending whatever support is out regular literature in Gondi and printing portray the Maoists as terrorists. In that possible to this new society taking birth. songs, poems and other forms of self- PP

Continued from page 12 worried that the adivasis in this vast tract of ploitative practices of the ruling classes and rich region of Jharkhand, or Orissa, land have risen up in arms against the reac- to turn the entire region into a graveyard if Chattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh, tionary Indian state and exploiters of vari- necessary in order to squeeze it of its min- Maharashtra or Andhra Pradesh, the regions ous hues and are asserting their inalienable eral and forest wealth. Hence it is all the inhabited by the adivasis are virtually in the right over land, natural resources and for- more important that the people of the entire control of the Maoists. This fact was ac- est. They are fighting for establishing their country stand up in support of the ongoing knowledged by none other than the Prime power and authority over these regions by people’s war and the militant struggles of Minister himself. Talking to journalists at destroying the power and authority of the the adivasis and fight unitedly against the Bangalore, he stated: “The Union Govern- Indian state that represents the comprador machinations of the Indian ruling classes ment is concerned, particularly as the capitalist and feudal forces. and their mentors abroad. Naxalites have emerged in the hilly areas Hence the imperialists and the Indian of central India, where there are our min- ruling classes, through the armed might of PP eral and hydel resources. The Naxalite the Indian state, have been drawing up dia- movement is gaining momentum and the bolic schemes to unleash the most cruel ter- Centre (the Central Govt.) is concerned.” ror over this vast tract, to enact massacres The Indian ruling classes are obviously of adivasi people who dare to resist the ex-

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 7 “The Forest is Ours” — Assert the indigenous Adivasi inhabitants of Dandakaranya and the vast hinterland of India Nitin Revolts broke out all across the country joying their traditional rights of collecting “Jal, Jungle, Jameen hamara hai!” against the terrible exploitation of these forest produce and they are fined even for “The forest is ours! Our Right over the for- thugs. The great Santhali rebellion of the collecting wood for the construction of their est produce is inalienable!”—These slogans mid-19th century led by heroic warriors like huts. On the other hand, the contractor- are reverberating across the vast forested, Siddu Kanu, Birsa Munda and others, the smuggler-CBB-bureaucrat nexus, with the hilly regions of India stretching from the Halba rebellion of 1774-79, the Paralkot re- blessings and active connivance of the State, seven North Eastern States to the Wynad bellion of Gend Singh in 1825, the Muria take away the forest wealth without paying belt in the south western tip of the Penin- rebellion of 1876, Gond adivasi revolt a pie. The story of exploitation of the adivasis sula, where the indigenous adivasi people (bhumkal) of Abhujmad led by Gundadhur and the snatching away of their traditional of India reside, people who have long suf- in 1910, the Rampa rebellion of the 1930s rights over the forests differs little whether fered the oppression, suppression, exploita- led by Alluri Seetharama Raju in East it is in the deep jungles of the North East or tion and discrimination in the hands of the Godavari and Vishakhapatnam in north in mineral-rich Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, imperialists, comprador big business houses, Andhra, the Gond rebellion of Adilabad led Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, feudal forces, rapacious contractors, mon- by Komuram Bheem, and several such Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka or Kerala. The eylenders and traders, forest officials, gov- adivasi revolts shook the British empire and pattern of so-called development being pur- ernment bureaucrats and policemen. Ironi- showed the seething anger and the united sued by the reactionary ruling classes of In- cally, despite its unending chatter about might of the adivasis. dia in collusion with the imperialists is the uplifting the girijans (literally hill people), The post-British period in India saw the same—plunder the mineral and forest it is the Indian state that is spearheading same pattern of development by the reac- wealth in the name of developing the in- this oppression and exploitation of the tionary ruling classes of India who came to dustries, displace the local adivasi commu- adivasis. power by colluding with the British and nities, snatch their rights over the forests, The oppression and exploitation of the other imperialists. Large-scale eviction of convert them into cheap labourers for the adivasis has been continuing for centuries the tribals became one of the cornerstones big business and imperialist ventures. And and has taken the most cruel forms since of the new pattern of industrial development. now this plunder is set to increase ten-fold the invasion and occupation of our country Millions of adivasis have been uprooted with just the three states of Chhatisgarh, by the British colonialists. The British from their natural habitat by the huge irri- Jharkhand and Orissa having signed MoUs colonialists, recognising the vast potential gation, hydro-electric and multipurpose of over Rs.3 lakh crores in the course of just for profits that the backward, hinterland in- projects, thermal plants, steel plants, baux- the past one year for mega iron ore and steel habited by the adivasis held in store, ex- ite and alumina plants, etc., initiated since plants. ploited its rich mineral and forest resources the time of Nehru and that are continuing In the present article let us see the pat- to the maximum possible extent. They un- till date. National Parks under various tern of development pursued by the reac- dertook mining exploration, set up planta- nomenaclature have displaced several lakhs tionary ruling classes led by the CBB and tions and constructed railways on a war foot- of adivasis from the interior forests. backed by the imperialists in Dandakaranya, ing to plunder the vast natural wealth. They In addition to tribal land alienation there its impact on the region and its people, the converted these regions into profitable are tribals/ non tribals displaced by devel- history of struggles of the adivasis and the sources of raw material inputs for their in- opment projects (such as dams, mines, in- present upsurge in these struggles for their dustries or for simply looting and selling dustry etc.) that have not received rehabili- right over land and forest and mainly for off the forest wealth. They dug several mines tation and have ‘encroached’ forest land to their political power. all over the country to carry away the iron eke out a living. According to the estimates The Exploitation of Dandakaranya and ore, manganese, coal, bauxite, gold, dia- of the Planning Commission, 21.3 million the Myth of Development monds, dolomite, quartz, limestone and lots people were displaced by development Undivided Bastar district, now divided of other mineral wealth. They cut down the projects between 1951 and 1990 alone. Of into three revenue districts—Bastar, Kanker forests for Sal, Teak, bamboo and other natu- these, 8.54 million (40%) belonged to and Dantawara—and two police districts, ral wealth. They hunted and killed animals Scheduled Tribes who constitute less than Bijapur and Narayanpur, is the heart of the and birds driving several rare species to 8% of the total population. Only 2.1 mil- region of Dandakaranya. It is in this dis- near-extinction. In short, they destroyed the lion (25%) of them are reported to have been trict that the exploitation is at its worst. Be- economy, society and culture of the adivasi rehabilitated. The rest were left to fend for sides undivided Bastar, the other two dis- communities, broke up their collective life, themselves. tricts that form part of Dandakaranya are carried them away to distant places to work Today, the imperialists continue to step Rajnandgaon and Gadchiroli in as cheap labour in tea-gardens, coffee plan- up their plunder unhindered along with their Maharashtra. Undivided Bastar has an area tations, as construction labour, as casual comprador capitalists in India. Contractors, of over 39,114 sq km (which is slightly labour in mines and industries. This was traders and forest officials continue their larger than the state of Kerala), of which 62 the first big onslaught by imperialist capital rampage fleecing the adivasis of what they per cent is covered by forests. The forests on the adivasis of India. have. The adivasis are prevented from en- provide livelihood to the predominantly

8 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 tribal population that comprises around 87 Dantewada District. The range comprises be the direct sufferers while several hundred per cent of the total population in the dis- of 14 iron ore deposits rising to a height of more villages will suffer acute shortages of trict. The trees are sal, teak, bijasal, sirsa, 1260 metres above mean sea level. The even drinking water. Following these de- kusum, palas, kanha, harra, dhowara, amla, Commercial discovery of Bailadila dates velopments the people of the district formed samara etc. Almost 93 per cent of the back to 1955-56 when Prof. Euemura of the Chargaon Khadaan Virodhi Jan district’s population is rural and the rela- Japanese Steel Mills Association, drew the Sangharsh Manch. The adivasis of tive index of development had come down attention of the Japanese Steel Mills to the Chattisgarh have been agitating against the from 44 in 1980 to 35 at present if we take richness of the vast deposits of iron ore and various iron ore and other mining projects 100 for India as a whole. The comparative its proximity to the Eastern Coast of India. since long and they bore the brunt of gov- index for MP is 73. Irrigation covers only 2 Later an agreement has been signed with ernment repression as when they protested per cent of the cropped area. Agriculture is the Japanese Steel Mills in 1960. An setting up of the projects in Bailadilla, still subsistent in nature and collection of approval of the project report prepared by Nagarnar and Maulibhat. forest products such as mahua, tamarind, NMDC has been given in 1964 and the Let us see the disastrous effects of other chironji seed, ambadi, kusum, mango ker- Mine Plant was inaugurated in November projects in Dandakaranya. It is estimated nel, harra, shikakai, karanji, peng seeds, 1968. that around 3,278 hectares of forest would Kosa cocoons, charota seeds, amchur, tora, Recently, the Gujarat-based comprador be cleared by Raoghat mines. There is a pro- chirayta, nirmali seeds, karkatiya seeds, house of Essar was given permission to set posal to set up a hydro-electric project on bhilwan seeds, cashew, dhavai phool, gum up a pipe-line to transport iron ore from the Indravati river near Jeethamkhandi are an important means of livelihood for the Bailadilla to Vishakhapatnam. In Kanker which would uproot several villages and majority of the adivasis. Plucking of tendu district, plans have been drawn to open iron deplete the forest. Permission has been leaves and cutting of timber provide some ore mines in Chargaon and Raoghat. The granted to a private company to set up in- income to the families. All family members government also sanctioned the construc- dustry in Maulibhaat. The proposed Rs. 600 participate in the collection of tendu leaves tion of a railway line from Dalli-Rajahara crore power project near Bodhghat over the during the summer season. to Jagdalpur via Raoghat in order to fully Indrawati is estimated to generate 400 MW The adivasis sell the forest produce in exploit the mineral wealth. The Courts re- of power. This project would clear 13,750 the haat i.e., the weekly bazaar at nominal jected a public interest petition filed by an hectares of agricultural land and 9,309 hect- prices. The traders dupe them by exchang- organization against the opening of the ares of forest. Adivasi families in 60 villages ing goods by their weights such as selling a mines and gave its green signal to the gov- will become homeless. The effects on the Kilogram of salt for a Kilogram of tama- ernment to go ahead with its monstrous environment are quite severe. Moreover, the rind, mango kernel, chironge seed, or plans to drain the district of its iron ore. power generated from this project is meant mahua. The traders also offer loans at an Earlier, the mining of iron ore had begun in for use not for local people but for the big exorbitant rate of 120 per cent per annum Kuvvemari and Budhwarimaad in the same industrial houses and for other states. In to the adivasis. Although traders are pro- district. undivided Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh hibited from buying the forest produce from The contract for mining the ore in produced a substantial 36 percent of the to- the adivasis under the Mandi Act, they con- Chargaon and Raoghat was given to NIKKO tal power generated, contributing 42 per- tinue to be the biggest buyers in the haats company which opened an office in cent Thermal and 14 percent of Hydel power due to the connivance of the police and ad- Bhanupratappur. The company officials con- but in terms of power consumption, it con- ministration. The unscrupulous traders cheat ducted a survey and tried to send the mate- sumed around 24 percent of total consump- the innocent adivasis in every sphere—in rial but were obstructed by the local people. tion in 1996-97 and 1997-98. Thus the pricing, grading, weighing and counting of It is said that the mining in Chargaon can power generated by Chattisgarh is used up the forest produce. The tendu leaf contrac- go on for 125 years so much are the reserves by other states even as the people in the state tors and officials exploit the adivasis by pay- of iron ore. The effects of the mining on the face acute shortages in supply. Hence the ing low prices which compels the adivasis people’s livelihood and environment are people formed the Bodhghat Sangharsh to often go on strikes demanding a rise in quite terrible. Due to the mining of iron ore Samiti and began a campaign for the scrap- the rates. in Bailadilla in Dantewara district the wa- ping of the proposed project. While the traders and contractors are ter of the two rivers, Sankhani and Dankini, Why are the ruling classes showing keen looting the adivasis at the micro level, the have become poisoned. The mining in interest in the region? The secret, obviously, Indian state, the CBB and the imperialists Chargaon hill would pollute the stream that lies in the vast treasure that the region holds are carrying out large-scale exploitation by flows into rivers Paralkot and Mendhaki in its bosom—the millions of tonnes of min- draining the region of its minerals and ruining the livelihood of thousands of fami- eral wealth and timber that could fatten the natural wealth. Iron ore is sold at a nominal lies who survive on these rivers for their ir- vultures from Washington to New Delhi. No price from Bailadilla mines to the rigation and for fish. Several villages along matter if the entire region is devastated, riv- imperialists and the CBB. A special railway the stretch of the rivers will not have access ers are contaminated, environment is pol- line was laid to supply iron ore to the to drinking water. The villages around luted, homes of adivasi families in hundreds Japanese imperialists at a very cheap rate. Chargaon have fertile land and they pro- of villages are destroyed and lakhs of people The Bailadila range of mines is perched on duce two crops of foodgrains. But if the are displaced by this “development”. The the southern tip of Chattisgarh in mining is taken up 16 of these villages will wealth of the region is mind-boggling to

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 9 greedy hawkish treasure-seekers who will minerals in the region are: 35,000 million ers, primarily the Marathas and the British. not hesitate to unleash brutal war against tones of coal, 2336 million tones of iron ore, This rebellion was led by Gend Singh who their own people and spell death and de- 3580 million tones of lime stone, 606 mil- mobilized the Marias against the British. struction to countless people in order to cap- lion tones of dolomite, 96 million tonnes of One of the objectives of the rebellion was to ture this natural wealth. bauxite and so on. establish a world free of loot, plunder and For instance, in Tiriya-Machkot area The 150-year-long history of struggles exploitation. The presence of the Marathas alone 450 lakh tonnes of dolomite reserves of the adivasi peasantry of and the British threatened the identity of are found which can be used in the iron and Dandakaranya the Marias and they resisted this through steel industry. In Deverapal, Potanar-Laroji, The region of Chhattisgarh, which falls organising the rebellion of Paralkot in 1825. Raikot and Manjhi Dongri of Bastar dis- in the present Dandakaranya, has witnessed The immediate reason for their resentment trict 1770 lakh tones of lime stone reserves several tribal rebellions starting from the late was the heavy taxes levied by the Maratha are estimated. Bauxite is found in abundance 18 century through the 19 century to the rulers. In essence this rebellion was directed in Keshkal tehsil of Bastar district. 53 lakh first few decades of the 20 century. Some of against the foreign interference and control tones of bauxite reserves are estimated in these tribal revolts were localised while oth- of Bastar and its aim was to re-establish the this region alone. In Markatola of Kanker ers were more widespread. All these rebel- independence of Bastar. district and in Barchhegondi region lions were centred around the traditionally The rebellion of Tarapur (1842-54) was silimanite/ kinite deposits have been discov- inalienable right of the tribals on the local once again the assertion of the tribals against ered and gold deposits have been found in resources land and forests. Often the the invasion of their local culture and the Sona dehi, Michgaon and in some other mobilisation was around the issues of tradi- tampering with their traditional principles region of Bhanupratappur Tehsil. tion, culture and the tribal way of life. These of social, economic and political organiza- Chathisgarh has a variety of rich min- rebellions were also a protest against an alien tion. It started with an opposition to taxes erals—iron ore, bauxite, coal, manganese, system of governance and an alien politi- levied under the pressure of the Anglo- limestone, dolomite, tin ore, china-clay, cal, economic and social order that had been Maratha rule. For the tribals, these experi- quartzite, quartz-silica, fluorite, diamond, forced upon them by the British. These tribal ences of coercive taxation were alien and granite, corundum etc. In the districts of rebellions, although they predominantly new, and therefore they opposed them. The Bastar, Dantewara, Kanker and took place in Bastar, were spread across the local Diwan became a symbol of oppression Rajnandgaon, iron ore is abundant. In various tribal areas of Chhattisgarh as well. and bore the brunt of tribal anger. Dantewara and Kanker the reserves are in It is important to understand the long tradi- The Maria rebellion, which lasted excess of 600 million metric tonnes each. tion of protest and rebellion of the adivasis nearly 20 years from 1842 to 1863, was Bastar also has dolomite and bauxite. Tin of the region in order to understand their seemingly in favour of an inhuman prac- ore and corundum are exploited by the MP present role in the ongoing people’s war tice of human sacrifice. In reality, the revolt State Mining Corp in Bastar. It is estimated against the Indian state. was against the insensitive and intrusive by the government that there are 75 lakh The Halba rebellion was the first docu- handling of tribal faith. The Anglo Maratha tonnes of bauxite in Chattisgarh and the mented rebellion of the adivasis in Bastar combine did not hesitate to enter and pol- entire tin ore is found in Chattisgarh. against the British and the Marathas. It lute the temple of Danteswari. The facts A fifth of the iron ore in the country is lasted for nearly five years from 1774-1779. clearly indicate that this rebellion was more here, and one of the best quality iron ore Its significance lies in the fact that it was defensive in nature and was waged by the deposits in the world is found in the the first organized resistance by the adivasis tribals to protect their land and tradition. Bailadila mines in south Chhattisgarh, from against the intrusion of the British in Bastar. Furer Hamendorf (Aboriginal Rebellions in where it is exported to Japan. Rich deposits The Halba rebellion is also a very impor- the Deccan, Man in India, No.4,1945, PP of Bauxite, Limestone, Dolomite and Co- tant event in the history of Bastar as it was 2089) writes that all these rebellions were rundum are found in the State. The State is responsible for the decline of the Chalukya defensive movements, they were the last lucky to have large deposits of coal, iron dynasty. The fundamental reasons for the resort of tribesmen driven to despair by the ore and limestone in close proximity, mak- rebellion were economic in nature. There encroachments of outsiders on their land and ing it the ideal location for the lowest cost had been a prolonged famine, which had economic resources. of steel production. Workable deposits of Co- severely affected the people who had very The adivasis of Bastar were actively in- rundum are widespread in South little cultivable land. The presence of volved in the First War of Independence of Chhattisgarh. Corundum includes semi-pre- Maratha forces and the terror caused by the 1857 with Southern Bastar as the centre of cious varieties of Ruby and Blue Sapphire, East India Company in these adverse cir- the revolt. Under the leadership of and possibilities of finding precious variet- cumstances precipitated the rebellion. The Dhruvarao a battle was waged against the ies exist as well. The corundum mines in stronger armies of Bastar supported by the British. He belonged to one of the Maria Bhopalapatnam have become a source of British and the Marathas crushed the rebel- tribes called Dorla and was supported by enrichment for the smugglers and govern- lion. A massacre of Halba tribesmen fol- his tribesmen. ment officials but are of no use for the local lowed the defeat of the Halba army. The First war of independence in 1857 adivasis. The Paralkot rebellion was representa- was spearheaded in Chhattisgarh by Vir According to an estimate, the amount tive of the resentment felt by the Maria gonds Narain Singh who was a benevolent of reserves available for some of the major of Abujhmar against the invasion of outsid- jamindar of Sonakhan. The British arrested

10 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 him in 1856 for looting a trader’s grain strong armies of the British. After the crush- through prolonged struggles or through stocks and distributing it amongst the poor ing of the rebellion, the local tribals and political lobbying, the Gonds have not yet in a severe famine year. In 1857 with the supporters of the rebellion were subjected been able to unify their community into a help of the soldiers of the British Army at to severe abuse. However, the post Bhumkal single nationality. In fact, the subjugation Raipur, Vir Narain Singh escaped form British policy in Bastar was forced to be of the Gonds commenced from the period prison. He reached Sonakhan and formed more sensitive to the tribals and their tradi- of the Kakatiya kings who ruled from an army of 500 men. Under the leadership tional way of life. Andhra Pradesh in the 14th century. They of Smith, a powerful British army was dis- Several policies of the state at that time remain victims of the policy of ‘divide and patched to crush the Sonakhan army. The proved extremely oppressive for the tribals rule’ first introduced by the British British succeeded after a prolonged battle of the region and became focal points of the colonialists and which is continuing after and Vir Narain Singh was arrested and later Bhumkal rebellion. Extensive forest areas the British left. The Gonds are known by hanged on the 10th December, 1857. He be- were declared reserved forests; resulting in different names—Rajgond, Baiga, Madia, came the first martyr from Chhattisgarh in the tribals feeling that their inalienable right Muria, Dhurva/Parja, Bhatra, , Halba, the War of Independence. Vir Narain over forests has been subverted. Due to the Durggond and Dorla. Singh’s martyrdom has been resurrected in excessive revenue demands of the colonial The Gonds began to lose their traditional the 1980’s and he has become a potent sym- rule, several tribal villages were given on lands to the non-adivasis who came from bol of Chhattisgarhi pride. lease to thekedars who adopted extremely outside and snatched away the lands by tak- Later in 1858, the Gonds challenged the oppressive means to collect revenues from ing advantage of the adivasi culture of con- British in several battles. In 1859 a very im- the tribals. The monopoly on liquor brew- sidering land as a non-commodity and as portant rebellion began to take shape in ing also was a causal factor for the Bhumkal collective property. As long as the adivasis Southern Bastar with the tribals refusing to rebellion. The tribals considered liquor as were unconnected with the outside world, let contractors undertake cutting of Sal trees. the prasad of Gods, and the order banning the influx of non-adivasis from the “civi- The people of these Jamindaris were called liquor brewing, amounted to interference in lized” world was hardly existent. However, Kois or Koyas. This rebellion was against their religious affairs to them. with the construction of roads, railways and the decision of the British to give contracts During the rebellion on 7 February 1910, bridges, the civilized people from outside for cutting forests to contractors from Rani Subaran Kunwar declared that the Brit- flocked to adivasi areas and began to usurp Hyderabad. These contractors were also re- ish rule on Bastar has been abolished and their lands. This so-called development, sponsible for the exploitation of the tribals. tribal rule was re-established. This declara- without any protection to the local adivasis, The local tribals in 1859 decided that they tion sums up the Bhumkal rebellion and the only made them landless and drove them would not allow the felling of a single tree. protests of Bastar. It articulates the asser- away from their traditional lands. As ob- The British took this as a challenge to the tion of the tribals to weed out alien rule and served rightly by the renowned anthropolo- might of the empire and used coercive meth- protect their traditional tribal way of life. gist, Hamendorf, construction of roads and ods to continue the felling of trees. This re- The anti-imperialist and anti-State bridges in the adivasi areas brought forth, bellion was a loud and clear assertion by struggles of the adivasi peasantry of not real development, but, impoverishment the tribals of their inalienable rights on their Dandakaranya and destitution to the ordinary adivasis. forests and natural resources. It is against the above background of It is this pattern of development that is In 1867, Gopinath Kapardas was ap- continuous intrusion into tribal lands, soci- continuing to displace the Gonds from their pointed the Diwan of Bastar State and was ety and culture by the outside exploiters and hearths and homes, turning them into home- responsible for large scale exploitation of the continuous struggle of the adivasi peas- less migrants, beggars and cheap labourers. the tribal population. Tribals from different antry for their inalienable right over their The slogan “The Right over the Forest be- parganas jointly requested the King to re- traditional lands and right over the forests longs to adivasis!” arose out of this alien- move the Diwan but the King did not con- that the present explosive situation in ation of the adivasis from their traditional cede to these demands. This led to the Muria Dandakaranya, the militant struggles of the means of livelihood. Revolt of 1876 The rebelling tribals sur- adivasis against exploitation in all its forms, In continuation of their 150-year-long rounded Jagdalpur on 2 March 1876; the particularly against the rapacious plunder tradition of militant protests and armed re- King with great difficulty was able to in- by the CBB and the Indian state, and the bellions, the adivasis of Dandakaranya, dur- form the British forces. Finally a strong Brit- increasing role of the Gond adivasis in the ing the period since 1980, have demon- ish army sent by the Resident of Orissa, advancing people’s war can be properly strated their collective might and fighting crushed the rebellion. understood. capacity by turning up in thousands to pro- The 150 year history of protests and re- Gonds, who are almost 70 lakhs, are test against the government policies that bellion in Bastar culminated in the Bhumkal spread out in seven states, but mainly con- were aimed at depriving them of their rights rebellion of 1910. This rebellion was wide- centrated in five states. This division of the over the forests. And thousands of them spread affecting more than half of the Gond population into several administra- joined the armed struggle spearheaded by parganas of Bastar. It symbolized the tive territories is a cruel ploy of the ruling the CPI(ML)[People’ War] since 1980 and struggle of tribals against an alien rule at- classes to scuttle their development into a now advancing under the leadership of the tempting to remould the tribal pattern of life. single nation. While several other advanced newly-formed CPI(Maoist). Hundreds of The rebellion was ultimately crushed by nationalities achieved their statehood villages have armed people’s militia units

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 11 whose presence, along with that of the regu- ongoing Salwa Judum campaign in the re- some police officials upon which the latter lar units of the PLGA, protects the adivasis gion is particularly horrifying with the forces turned tail. Soon after 3000 adivasis dem- from the exploitation by the outside land- having mobilised lumpens burning down 50 onstrated in front of Gyarapathi PS in grabbers, comprador capitalists, contractors, villages, brutally killing over 100, includ- Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra and forest officials, government bureaucrats, ing children and raping about 30-40 women. warned the police of dire consequences if traders and policemen. The adivasis have To terrorise the populace the severed heads they did not stop their atrocities. The peas- taken up massive struggles against the tendu are hung on trees and post of their own ants also issued similar warnings to the po- leaf contractors, traders and forest officials houses. lice in Marripalli PS. Four thousand adivasis and won several victories. Of particular sig- Despite all these desperate attempts by of Kishtaram area in south Bastar demon- nificance is the continuous struggle of the the Indian state, the struggles of the adivasis strated peacefully in Seethapuram village adivasis of Gadchiroli district of are forging ahead undeterred. For instance, condemning the atrocities perpetrated by the Maharashtra against the Ballarpur Paper adivasis of Bastar came out in large num- police of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The Mills of the big comprador business house ber protesting against the inclusion of Bastar police opened indiscriminate fire on the of Thapar. As a result of this militant (i.e., the three districts of Bastar, Dantewara people killing an 18-year-old adivasi girl, struggle against Thapar’s exploitation of the and Kanker which were in Bastar district Kadthi Some. adivasis, the latter could increase the rates until 1998) in the new state of Chattisgarh On February 10, 2004 bhumkal divas of bamboo several times. The adivasis had which was formed in November 2000. was celebrated throughout the region of also stopped the indiscriminate felling of the Thousands participated in demonstrations Maad. 10,000 adivasis, including 4,000 forest by the contractors, timber smugglers and rallies held in Kunta, Bhopalapatnam, women, attended the meeting held in and the CBB in Dandakaranya region. Now Madded, Bhairamgarh, Bhasagudem, Nelnaar village to commemorate the wherever they are organized they enjoy the Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Koelbeda and bhumkal (rebellion) that took place in 1910 right over the land and the forest resources. other towns. Around 25,000 people attended against the British imperialists. The signifi- It is now well established that it is not the the rally in Narayanpur in 2001. Also in end- cance of bhumkal lies in the fact that for the adivasis who are responsible for the denu- 2001, a 10,000-strong morcha was held by first time the Madiya gonds formed their dation of the forests but it is the contractors adivasi peasantry in Orcha in Maad divi- own kingdom by throwing out the British. and the CBB who are the culprits. Contrary sion demanding education for their children The uprising, however, was crushed within to the myth floated by the ruling classes that and healthcare for the adivasi people. Dem- five days after the formation of the adivasi forests are being denuded by the adivasis, it onstrations took place in Kunta, Bijapur and kingdom. is the latter, led by the CPI(Maoist), who other towns in south and west Bastar. As Conclusion are the real protectors in DK and other re- drought struck the area in 2002 and gov- No society can survive without food and gions in the country. The attempts by the ernment bureaucrats played with the lives no industrial development can take place ruling classes to plunder the wealth of the of the people by swallowing the foodgrains without access to minerals and forest prod- region through various mining and other and funds allotted for the ‘Food for Work’ ucts. A society can survive without the com- projects that cater to the needs of the impe- scheme, adivasis under the leadership of the puter or the internet but it is impossible to rialists and the CBB, have been thwarted DAKMS confiscated the foodgrains from do so without agriculture, mining, and for- by the organized and consistent resistance the government godowns and private hoard- est products. That is why in spite of the hype of the adivasis. ings and distributed them to the starving about information technology and knowl- The Indian state is desperately trying to people. In Maad and North Bastar divisions edge revolution, the imperialists and the break the back of the movement by resort- several famine raids were conducted on the ruling classes everywhere are unleashing ing to massive suppression campaigns godowns and foodgrains were seized. In plans to control the natural wealth without through the might of the police and central south Bastar, the houses of landlords and which the wheels of industry and, conse- para-military forces as well as through vari- traders mainly in the bordering areas of quently, the advance of society, grinds to a ous cunning ploys and intrigues such as: Andhra Pradesh were attacked and several halt. creating divisions among the adivasis, tak- tones of foodgrain were distributed to the It is a fact that the natural resources in ing up so-called developmental activities to people. Thousands of people were mobilized the world are limited. In India the resources win over a tiny section, creating a network in these raids which became successful de- are continually being depleted due to the of police informers, and unleashing a bru- spite heavy police protection to the land- unbridled loot by the imperialists and big tal reign of terror. The Jan Jagaran Abhiyan lords. business. As the mineral and other natural or Salwa Judum, initiated mainly in The gond adivasis have also begun to resources are getting depleted the imperial- Dantewara district, and Gaon Bandhi in directly confront the armed police defying ists and the ruling classes of India led by Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, are re- the threats, intimidation and restrictions the CBB and their imperialist masters are cent examples of the attempts by the reac- imposed by the latter. In January 2003, for evincing keen interest in the hitherto unex- tionary ruling classes to pit one section of instance, around 12,000 people demon- plored mineral-rich regions in order to keep adivasis against another, aimed at creating strated in front of Manpur PS in their profits from falling. Today, most of schisms within the adivasis and weakening Rajnandgaon district protesting against po- these resources lie in regions where the the ongoing revolt of the adivasis. Given lice atrocities. When the police opened fire people’s war led by the CPI(Maoist) is strong the huge mining interests in the region the on the adivasis they retaliated by beating up and advancing. Whether it is the mineral- Continued at page 7 12 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 Press Release MURDERS .., DEATH WARRANTS AND HARASSMENT OF RIGHTS ACTIVISTS CONTINUE ... Within just two weeks two social he too would be killed as Purushottam and counter- insurgency operations. Since then activists have been killed by the self styled Ajam Ali were killed in Hyderabad and the police officers in Telangana districts have or proclaimed killer gangs called Narsa Nalgonda by the Nayeem gang in November sponsored killer gangs and supported them Cobras and Nallamalla Cobras in 2000 and February 2001. Every day the so with funds and arms. These gangs operated Mahaboobnagar and Prakasam districts of called Cobras are making phone calls and with names like Kranti Sena(Army) or Jana Andhra Pradesh. On 25th August 2005, Mr. threatening the activist to abstain from their Sena. Latter they changed their names from Kanaka Chari, a teacher who has been activity and openly announce their sena’s to tigers. It was the Green tigers active and associated with Patriotic resignations. In fact these death warrants which made an attempt to kill the balled Democratic movement and one of its state are intended to terrorise the organisers and singer GADDAR. For the last six or seven Executive Members was killed by cutting their family members. Till date about fifty years the public and the press is familiar his throat with a sharp weapon. He was activists have received death warrants. On with all colours of tigers. Soon after the first kidnapped on the way to the school and the one hand the police are continuously attempt on Chandrababu life near Alipiri brutally assassinated by the so called Narsa making mis-propaganda against the civil at Tirumala the self styled Tirumala Tigers Cobras. On 10 September 2005 Mannem Rights and other mass organisations as emerged and began to harass the activists Devi Prasad, who is the district president of frontal organisations of the Maoist Party in Tirupati and other districts of Kulanirmulana Porata Samithi (K.N.P.S — and on the other hand the so called killer Rayalaseema region. Now the Cobras have anti-caste organisation) and an employee of gangs are targeting the members as the been formed affixing the name of an adjacent a cooperative bank in Singarayakonda sympathisers and supporters of the Maoists. forest area (like Nallamala) which the branch was attacked with sickles in the office It is quite obvious that the police and the Naxalites use. and killed him on the spot. The miscreants killer gangs are operating hand in glove. Ever since the ban was imposed on the left a note of warning that all supporters or The statements of the DGP and Home Maoist Party and six other mass sympathisers of the Maoists will be Minister are ambivalent. The DGP, while organisations the police have been very eliminated in similar fashion. Further they commenting on the emergence of various enthusiastic to use the A.P.Public Security warned that against their mandate if Cobras as a natural consequence to Naxalite Act. The very next day the police arrested anybody dares to attend or participate in the violence and that all the killer gangs are Varavararao from his residence without memorial or condolence meetings of the formed either by former Naxalites or the following any procedure. Prior to the public diseased will be attacked and killed. The victims of naxalite violence. Unmindful of notification of the ban orders the police warning letters symbolically are written with his dignity and status the DGP responds to swooped onto the houses of poets and writers blood. the media that police are not like snake belonging to Revolutionary Writers The killer gangs while claiming charmers to catch or control the Cobras or Association. The Act is basically a draconian responsibility for the murders have issued make them dance according to their wishes. piece of legislation which bans political press statements listing out their future The Home minister made a public statement beliefs and dissent. The members of the targets and names of activists associated with that the government has taken the matter Revolutionary Writers Association believe the several mass and democratic very seriously and Special Investigation in the politics of New Democratic organisations in the state. The so called teams have been constituted to arrest the Revolution and write poetry and propagate Cobras are continuously making phone calls alleged Cobras. However, so far there are the ideology of revolution in different literary and threatening the activists with dire no clues about the gangs and arrests. The forms. They have never been part of any consequences to their life and limb. Almost harassment is continuing and threats and violent activity of the Maoists. But death warrants are being issued to the death warrants are being regularly received Varavararao and Kalyan Rao and Gaddar leaders of democratic organisations in by the members of the APCLC and other were implicated in criminal cases and are general and the APCLC (Andhra Pradesh mass organisations. harassing them by shifting them from one Civil Liberties Committee) in particular. BACK GROUND court to another throughout the state. The Mr. L.Veeranna, an engineer working in The killing and harassment of activists police seem to be faithful servents of the law Warangal was threatened by an unidentifi- by the state sponsored criminal gangs is not and do not care to consider the health ed person that unless he resigns from the a new phenomenon in Andhra Pradesh. In problems of the writers and their age. APCLC his dead body will be dispatched to the past Putushottan and Ajam Ali, The Home Minister while justifying his home. Similarly Mr.Anil Kumar, the prominant members of the APCLC were the re-imposition of the ban on the Maoist district President of Prakasam district was killed by the Nayumuddin gang. Before party and other six mass organisations harassed and threatened to disassociate these murders, Belli Lalitha a popular including the Revolutionary Writers immediately from the APCLC otherwise his singer in the Telangana region and the Association said that the proscriptions of life will end like that of Mannem Prasad. convener of a cultural team was brutally the organisations is necessary in order to Mr. Jayabalanna joint secretary for murdered by the same gang. It is from 1997 instil people’s confidence in the government Mahaboob Nagar district is being terrorised the police began to organise the former and to restore democracy, law and order in by the Narsa Cobras to leave his native place naxalites and criminals to counter the the state. It is the experience in the state and be silent. If he fails to oblige the mandate militants in the villages as a part of its that the AP.Public Security Act has been a

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 13 source of indiscriminate powers for the of the Maoists. One can hardly find any implications of the murders on the society police and means to harass any one branding difference between the statements of the so in general and the danger to the democracy him as a Naxalite. It is a source for making called ‘COBRAS’ and the Director General and the rule of law. The public which had money. Notwithstanding any criminal of Police. In response to the demands of the high expectations on the institution very activity the police can read bad intention in Rights Organisations and prominent soon realised that the Human Rights every mind and invoke the Act. What is most persons to inquire into the incidents of Commission is only a recommendatory body objectionable is the very object of the murders the Home Minister has announced and not competent to punish those who legislation that it prohibits freedom of that a Special Investigation Team is being violate human rights. It is ironical that the opinion and political beliefs. It does not constituted to inquire into both kind of state government has re imposed the ban allow any kind of democratic activity and incidents of murders committed by the on the Maoists and six other mass dissent against the government. In the past vigilante groups and the Maoists. The organisations including the writers thousands of people were arrested under this response of the government appears to be organisation and at the same time act and majority of them are innocent. For neutral and impartial but a close constituted the Human Rights Commission. no fault they spent years in the prison. examination of the incidents that occurred Perhaps this is a strategy to de legitimise During the negotiations between the immediately after break down of the the rights organisations in the state and give government and the Maoists one of the items ‘PEACE TALKS’ between the State police a chance to brand every activity of on the agenda was to release all who were government and the Naxalites there has been the organisation as criminal activity. booked under POTA and the Public Security an escalation of violence in the state . We sincerely request the honourable Act. Although the government for political Home Minister to expedite the investiga-tion On the demand of the people and reasons had initiated the peace talks but by the SIT and identify and control the killer intellectuals and right activists in the state the police from the beginning are opposed gangs (cobras) and further take necessary the Home Minister and the top brass of the to the dialogue and democratic process and and immediate action to prevent any police promised to inquire into the two have been insisting to wipe out the Naxalites untoward incident in future. We urge the murders and also find out the so called only by force and repression. Minister to provide a conducive atmosphere vigilante groups and nab them. But the Very recently the government has in the state for the human rights Home Minister and the D G P denied the constituted a State Human Rights organisations and other mass organisation allegation about the nexus between the Commission. When the matter has been to carry on their activities without any fear police and the self styled killer gangs. But referred by the victims and their family .It is the responsibility of the government to the role of the police can not be ruled out. members to the honourable Chairman to safeguard the life and liberties of any The DGP while answering the press persons enquire into the murders and save the life individual irrespective of his political or about the murders and the organisations of the human rights defenders the religious beliefs. Any state that treats dissent responsible for the incidents he categorically Commission made it clear that it has no or criticism of the citizen as a crime and said that these outfits carrying on the powers as the matter does not come under become intolerant is not a democratic one. murders may be the victims of naxalites and its jurisdiction . However the chirman is kind in frustration are targeting the sympathisers enough and took notice of the serious ANDHRA PRADESH CIVIL LIBERTIES COMMITTEE (APCLC) Continued from page 26 besides the huge consultancy costs of PwC of the livelihood of the people. DJB is to hand over its assets to foreign and other such, not to mention the kick- Similar will be the story of all water TNCs at throw-away prices and then allow backs to Sheila Dixit and her other cronies. privatizations throughout the country. The them to make huge profits all of which will The example of the DJB, though people of the country will not look on silently be paid by the people of Delhi. Besides, the temporarily postponed due to public outrage at these blatantly traitorous polices of the very loan from the World Bank is at interest is an example on the extent to which the Indian rulers. They cannot be fooled rates above the international market rates. comprador rulers will go to sell out our indefinitely by the politicians. Their anger will break into revolt. This too the people will have to pay for country and its resources to TNCs at the cost PP

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14 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 The Hoax of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Rashmi the scheme are identified by their own other expenditure (including wages of any After months of debates and application for the scheme. skilled and semi skilled workers) in NREGA deliberations, the National Rural o EGA will be implemented by the works is to be 60:40. Employment Guarantee Act 2005 was state governments with funding from the The central government is to undertake passed by the Indian government on 7 central government. Specific responsibilit- the entire cost of NREGA wages as well as September, 2005. It had been introduced as ies are given to the district administration, three fourth of capital expenditure (90% a bill in the Lok Sabha in 2004 and is the block office and gram panchayat. The basic total expenditure) and the state government latest in a long line of poverty alleviation unit of implementation is the block and in is expected is take up the remaining 10% of programmes in India. Newspapers, political each block, a ‘programme officer’ or a ‘block the total expenditure. parties and commentators have hailed it as officer’ will be in charge who would be The Right to Information Act will cover a landmark legislation. Under the EGA all accountable to the panchayat samiti as well the implementation of NREGA i.e. people that the needy must do to find wage labour as to the district administration. are supposed to have general access to public is to intimate the concerned authority and o If an applicant for employment is records and information pertaining to the onus is on the government to provide not provided employment within fifteen days NREGA. employment within 15 days. All this makes of his application, he shall be entitled to a The idea of the state providing EGA very attractive but strangely there is daily unemployment allowance. The rate employment (self employment and wage little euphoria among the people for whom would be specified by the state government employment) to the rural poor for poverty it is intended. As an old villager put it provided that the rate is not less than one alleviation is not new. The Famine and “darinder darkhast diya to dafter band ho fourth of the wage rate for the first thirty Drought Relief codes of the British colonial gaya” (when the wretched make a days of the financial year and not less than government provided for employment on submission, the office will be shut down – one-half of the wage rate for the remaining public works. Post 1947, the Indian EPW Oct., 2005). The skepticism is period of the financial year. The payment of government instituted many schemes in the certainly not unfounded. this allowance shall cease in case of any one course of the five year plans, such as the According to the NREGA, each state of the following: National Rural Employment Programme government is supposed to provide unskilled As soon as applicant is directed by the (NREP) and the Rural Landless manual work to adults of every rural gram panchayat or the programme officer Employment Guarantee Programme household for not less than one hundred days to report for work either by himself or de- (RLEGP) which were later merged to form of such work in a financial year. For this pute at least one adult member of his house- the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna ( JRY). There purpose, every state government is supposed hold. were also other schemes which did not focus to provide a scheme or programme within The period for which employment is on guaranteed employment such as the six month of commencement of this Act. sought comes to an end and no member of Integrated Rural Development Programme Until any such employment guarantee the household of the applicant has turned (IRDP) which focused on transfer of (rather programme is initiated by the state up for employment. than creation of ) productive assets to the government, the annual action plan for the The adult members of the household of people. There were also several Food for Sampurna Grameen Rojgar Yojana or the the applicant have received in total at least Work programmes starting from the late National Food for work programme, one hundred days of work within the ‘70s. However the direct precursor of the whichever is in force in the concerned area financial year. NREGA can be said to be the Maharashtra at the time of implementation of the NREGA The household of the applicant has Employment Guarantee Scheme (MEGS) shall be deemed to be the action plan for the earned as much from the wages and which was made into a state wide scheme scheme. unemployment allowance taken together on 26th January, 1979. In the 10th plan, the Provisions of the Act: which is equal to the wages for one hund- focus is now on SGRY on one hand (for self o The NREGA seeks to provide one red days of work during the financial year. employment) and NREGA for wage hundred days of guaranteed employment to o NREGA aims to create employment. adult applicants from poor households at a productive assets focusing on the following Before we go on to look at the ‘merits’ minimum wage rate of Rs. 60/- or the works in order of priority. of the present Act, let us take a look at the minimum wage rate prevailing in the extent of rural poverty, which this act is concerned state whichever is higher , in Water conservation and harvesting supposed to eradicate. every financial year. Each person, when has Drought proofing The sheer magnitude of unemployment done work given to him under the scheme, Irrigation in India is mindboggling. The NSSO puts is entitled to receive wages at the wage rate Renovation of traditional water bodies the rate of unemployment as 4.4% (1999— for each day of work and payment of daily Land development. 2000) and that of visible underemployment wages shall be made on a weekly basis or Flood control and protection as 7.2%. However some other studies have within a fortnight of work being done . Rural connectivity calculated underemployment as 13.3% o The scheme is self elective NREGA specifies that the ratio of wages which makes the total of unemployment and meaning that the potential beneficiaries of (to NREGA beneficiaries) to capital and underemployment, a staggering 17.7%

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 15 (4.4+13.3) [Peoples March August, 2005]. Work (FFW) approach and no attempt was find a role to make money. A look at the list Even this does not reveal the real picture made to find new effective and efficient ways of ‘works’ chosen in the 150 NFFW districts because in an economy like India, with no for implementing this programme. It is the shows that only assets with money spinning unemployment benefits, remaining same old structures which will be the potential were taken up. unemployed is not an option for the vast implementing agencies this time as well. Also the act has a beautifully built in majority. Therefore there are large numbers The only example of guaranteed state loophole to ensure that it will not be actually who are technically employed but are sponsored rural employment in India is that implanted but only sufficient noises would subsisting at bare minimum levels. Of the of the Maharashtra EGS and in that, be made. There is a clause which says that total number of employed, 84% fall in the through more than two decades of if there is any complaint regarding category of self employed or are casual implementation, not a single paisa has been corruption, the funds for the entire district workers. Over 30% of those employed live paid as compensation, in case employment would be immediately stopped. In other in dire poverty. The situation has become was not been provided. One official from words, even before it has begun, there is a even graver since the mid 90s with a virtual Maharashtra publicly claimed, “forget guarantee of its non implementation. collapse of all avenues of rural employment compensation, we did not even allow anyone However the most important of all and a sharp increase in unemployment in to challenge us”. The unemploy-ment dole criticisms is the fact that it is a reform the other sectors. remained a dead clause in the agreement. measure and like all other reforms, it does It is in this context that the present UPA Why should one expect anything different not address the root cause of government brought in the NREGA which from NREGA? Right to information clause unemployment and poverty. More is being supported by all the so called left also cannot really challenge the abuse of importantly, and more dangerously, as parties as well. Can NREGA offer a solution power, as is being claimed. The gram sabhas with other reform programmes, this too to the raging unemployment and worsening and the panchayats remain the instruments has the underlying political purpose of poverty which stalks the country? of feudal domination and so the EGA could trying to legitimise the present state which The first question that needs to be asked mean further servitude to bureaucracy and represents the imperialist and the feudal is whether this Act can even claim to perpetuation of feudal forms of domination. interests. Like with other reforms, it eradicate poverty. According to the The ruling classes also need corruption to intends it divert the people away from provisions of this Act, the beneficiaries grease up their social base. class struggle by providing some sops and would get a wage of Rs. 60 for a minimum Moreover, there is no concrete financial in this regard there is no difference in the of 100 days ie. Rs. 6000 per year. Taking an commitment made by the UPA government intentions of UPA, NDA or the CPI/CPM. average household size of 5 people this yet. The estimates of the cost of the Even the supposed controversy regarding amounts to a paltry sum of Rs. 3.28 per programme amounts to approximately this Act was never a real controversy, but person per day! Can this kind of additional 40,000 crores of rupees of which 90% is to was concerned merely with some income even be called dignified be borne by the centre and 10% by the states. technical aspects of the Act. Had this not employment, leave alone attempting to Past experience shows that this could been so, there would have been differences remove poverty? Also the term household become an instrument for the states and the regarding the present policies of the is quite dubious. A household is defined as center to simply blame each other. Though government which are generating potentially several families sharing a the act provides for the creation of a separate unemployment and poverty in the first common residence, kitchen and ration card. fund for the NREGA at the central and the place. The path of development So the implication of this act is that if one state levels, this is to be credited by way of undertaken by the ruling classes is such member of such a household gets a job, grants or loans after due appropriation is that it necessarily leads to further others are not entitled to unemployment made by the parliament. Till date all that marginalisa-tion of those who are already benefits! Also the act is meant for the rural the finance minister has committed is that poor. As a result of the economic policies poor which means that only those people “funds would be arranged”. From where, of LPG of the government, the organized will be covered by this act who have their no one knows! As of now, the central and sector is retrenching people on a large names registered in the BPL list, which as the state governments together spend around scale, the small scale industry has we all know is hugely under-recorded. Rupees 17,000 crores for various rural virtually collapsed and the agricultural Then comes the question of implement- employment schemes which would now be sector has been showing negative growth ation of this programme. Again the diverted for the NREGA. But where would rates. Especially since the mid 1990s, not experience of self employment or wage the remaining Rs.33,000 crores come from? only avenues of employment generation employment programmes for poverty And this is the estimated requirement for collapsed but even the hitherto existing eradication are not new. One of the prime just the first phase of the Act which is employment opportunities are being ministers of India had publicly accepted that supposed to cover 200 districts. deliberately scrapped. Without only 15 paise in a rupee reach the villages. The provision about creation of questioning the development strategy, it On 2 October last year, the prime minister productive assets can also potentially lead is more mockery to talk of employment launched the National Food for Work to widespread corruption. In practice, all generation. Programme (NFFW) in 150 districts as a ‘works’ to be selected are not identified by There is enough reason to suspect that pilot to the EGA but this pilot program the local community but by the ‘experts’ in the act is actually meant to wean the people merely followed the conventional Food for the state capitals wherein the contractors away from revolutionary struggles rather

16 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 than to provide employment or to eradicate seeks to cover these 150 and an additional insurgency. The Indian government is not poverty. If one looks at the initial 150 50 districts in the first phase and extend doing any thing different. And in this districts to be covered by this Act [these to all six hundred districts of the country regard there is no controversy between the were the districts chosen by the National within a period of five years.] This is not UPA, NDA, CPI or CPM. There is Food for Work Programme which was a really surprising and as both the UPA and sufficient reason to suspect the intentions pilot programme for the present Act] it the CPM have been talking about of the government as regards the present would be quite clear that those selected naxalism being the main threat for employment guarantee act. Unless are either already areas of intense class internal security and about socio economic employment generation is linked to the struggle for example, Adilabad , backwardness being an important factor entire path of development, attempts like Khammam, Warangal (AP); Bastar, for breeding naxalism. Undoubtedly, this the NREGA not only become meaning- Dantewada, Kanker (Chattisgarh); then, is an important underlying concern less but are actually meant to blunt the Gumla, Chatra Garhwah, Palamau, for the passage of the present act. Actually class struggle which is a natural Latehar (Jharkhand); Koraput, after US faced defeat at hands of Vietnam, consequence of the government’s Malkangiri (Orissa); Midnapur (West such reform measures were made part of development strategy. Bengal) are areas where revolutionary the low intensity conflict strategy of the struggle is quite strong. [The NREGA imperialists in order to counter PP Continued from page 24 out into the open and the revisionists are movement, which will take the battles out of their jobs to provide real estate gains part of the gang that rule the country. No from the factories to the bastis and for their mill and factory owners, it will wonder they are silent at the mafia games colonies of the workers, to strike at the emerge from the millions thrown out of being enacted in Giringaon. Militant trade elite establishments of the ‘sanitised’ their homes to implement the Vision unionism came to a tragic end with the super-rich enclaves. From Giringaon to Shanghais of their rulers, it will emerge brutal murder of Samant in broad daylight Gurgaon. From a dying industry to a from the crores of rural victims of this in front of his own house. Giringaon, the display of militant working class anger. vicious path of ‘development’. The ruling hotbed of the Lal Bavta (Red Flag), The rulers came down brutally in Gurgaon class has so far managed to contain or became a key centre of the fascist Shiv as in Giringaon; hundreds injured, many overcome the resistance through Sena. If the CPI/CPM type trade unionism arrested and numerous ‘missing’. The repression or deception. But the conflicts is impotent; if militant trade unionism is moneybags and rulers will show no mercy are growing – conflicts that hold the crushed; if the workers are being attacked to any attempt at reducing their profits. promise of the final solution. day-in-and-and-day-out without any The workers too need to learn from the But where is this real solution? The recourse to defensive action ……. Where defeats of Samant and Gurgaon and textile mills of India gave birth to the then is the final solution? The failure of restore the great traditions of the working communist movement in the country and the textile strike witnessed hundreds of class to Mumbai and the rest of the have a glorious history of struggle. But workers take their lives, and thousands country. where are those communists today? They more live in utmost penury. Over one lakh While the court order may provide have been betraying the workers time and workers were dismissed without even the temporary hope to the mill workers and again for a few crumbs from the strike-period pay, let alone the dues for chawl dwellers who are facing the comprador table. It was the outright years of work. Half a crore lives destroyed. immediate impact of the destruction of the betrayal of the CPI leadership that The answer for the workers can only mills, it must be clear to all that no court dominated the Mumbai textile industry for come from revolutionary working class order can be expected to provide any decades that saw the workers switching struggles which give the workers the lasting relief. Unless there is sustained enmass to Datta Samant cursing what they strength to take on not only the manage- struggle and resistance from the masses thought were the communists. In the ment, but also the mafia and the and affected sections, the ruling classes historic 1981 strike the CPI/CPM was revisionist betrayers. The struggles of a will do just as they have planned. revolutionary united working class nowhere to be seen. Today, they have come PP Continued from back cover page Simultaneously they have set up forces have been heroically resisting. village by the Naga forces and goons they police/para-military camps in Besides blowing up the CRPF ‘mine- found just one boy of 12 hiding. He too neighbouring villages each with 100 proof’ van on Sept 3 killing 24 and was shot. On Oct 10th in a raid on Paralnar CRPF men spreading terror in the region injuring three, the people have also killed village they killed a 14 year old boy. On under the name of Operation Rakshak and some of the leading hoodlums. Besides Oct.3rd they shot dead the chairman of the Operation Green Hunt. Such camps have this they have also killed some top Janta Sarkar of Lova village, comrade been set up in Bodli, Pindum, Matvada, Congress leaders. The people themselves Komar Mankeli. A 14 year old boy, Raju Naimad, Goduma, Karkelli, Ambelli, etc have also caught hold of some of the more was a witness to this murder. He has since villages and are spreading their terror in notorious elements and killed them. There disappeared without a trace. So the tale the name of “carpet security”. is no doubt that this attack too will be of terror goes on and on. Inspite of all this terror the people’s beaten back. PP

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 17 Vision Shanghai over the Mumbai Mill Lands – Speculation and other Ravages of a Decadent Bourgeoisie [As we go to the press, the Supereme Court, in an interim judgement on December, 14,05 overturned the earlier Mumbai High Court’s order banning the sale of Mill lands. This was expected as it entails a gigantic sum of Rs. 5,500 crores for the six hundred acres of the 5 NTC mills sold. And this is just the begining. 20 other NTC mills and numerous private mills are yet to be disposed, involving thousands of crores. All major ruling class elements and their hangers on are involved. With the stake so high, such a Supreme Court order was inevitable ... . . Editor.] Damodar dubious environmentalists, all are salivating is simply affixed on the cloth produced Mumbai’s Girangaon1 is in the news at their chance to partake of easy speculative elsewhere. Resources from the mills have these days. In a spate of auctions in June earnings. been deliberately sucked out by the owners and July 2005, the Central government However, whatever be the internecine to other areas in order to declare their mills owned National Textile Corportation (NTC) conflicts within these ruling cliques, they as sick. The ‘sick’ mills are then closed sold 47.69 acres of its mill lands for amounts are one in their purpose – to convert down, workers thrown out and the mill lands totaling more than Rs.2021 crores. Each Mumbai’s Girangaon into an upmarket sold or converted for use in other more auction saw the rates rising sharply (see enclave of posh residential towers, 5-star profitable areas. This simple modus Table 1) and the last auction saw the hotels, shopping malls, commercial operandi has led to most of the mills in Kohinoor mills land being picked up by a complexes and entertainment plazas. This Mumbai stopping production altogether builder combine headed by Raj Thackeray one-time centre of India’s first modern throwing lakhs of workers on the streets. and Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena at a industry – cotton textiles – is being converted An industry which employed over two and phenomenal rate of about Rs 86 crores per into a playground for the rich; and the a half lakh workers in the early eighties now acre. These sales cover a minor percentage working class is being evicted from its has hardly twenty thousand left. of the total of 601 acres of mill lands at stake birthplace to provide one more building This process started in the 1950s. At that and there are many more lucrative pieces of block in the enduring comprador dream to time, due to the long history of pioneering land waiting to be picked up at even higher make Mumbai an international financial struggles for DA, bonus, etc. of the textile rates. centre and global city on the lines of workers, they were among the better paid With the prices far exceeding earlier Singapore, Hong Kong, or most lately, workers in the country and could also force expectations, the dogfights which are on Shanghai. the implementation of most welfare between various members and sections of The Background legislation. Despite the installation in 1947, the bourgeoisie for their share of the booty, This area is an area rich in proletarian of a lackey union, the Rashtriya Mill can only be expected to worsen. Sundry culture and history. It has always been Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS), as the battles are being fought out with various bustling with industrial activity. The last few representative union under the notorious elements slugging it out at various levels decades have however seen major changes Bombay Industrial Relations (BIR) Act, the and through varied means. From top in the nature of the Girangaon. Silent looms mill owners were unable to crush the ranking gangster dons to the hoods of the and cold chimneys now dot the mills organized strength of the workers. They highest courts of the land, from corrupt landscape. The lure of greater profits to be continued to fight spontaneously and politicians to the fixers heading the most gained in real estate and other service sector through various other unions and could hallowed industrial houses, tainted builders operations has led the mill-owners to rapidly maintain to some extent the gains of earlier and notorious police officers, IAS find a variety of excuses to close down battles. Thus the mill owners started the bureaucrats and trade union bureaucrats, production in the mills. The production is process of outsourcing production to the and even some unscrupulous architects and outsourced and then the mill’s brand name power looms and dyeing-printing units of Sale of NTC Properties Bhiwandi, Malegaon, Ichalkaranji and Name of Mill Purchaser Date of Area (in sq m) Price (in Surat where 12 hour working days and low Auction Rs crores wage rates ensured a much lower cost of production. Jupiter Mills Indiabulls May 05 around 48,800 276.51 (foreign owned firm) There was a steady shift of cloth production away from the mills to the Apollo Mills (a Lodha 21 June 05 around 30,000 180 powerloom sector. While in 1951 the part) (builder & BJP politician) percentage share of textile mills in total cloth production was 78.6%, this fell to 53% in Mumbai Textile DLF Group, Delhi (builders) 21 June 05 around 76,000 702 1970, 42% in 1980, 24% in 1987, 8% in Mills 1993 and a mere 4.2% in 2001. In other words today the bulk of cloth production is Elphinstone Indiabulls 21 July 05 around 35,000 441.75 coming from the small scale powerloom Mills (foreign owned firm) sector, where wage rates are a small fraction of what was paid in the mills, enabling huge Kohinoor Mills Raj Thackeray, Manohar Joshi (Shiv 21 July 05 around 19,000 421 profit to be extracted. While the shift in the No 3 Sena politicians) earlier period was due to the lower costs in the power looms, in the later period the main 18 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 attraction for the Mumbai mill-owners was The Phoenix mills and Mukesh mills fires provided free under socialism, were the boom in real estate prices. Thus from earlier, and the recent fires in Tata’s bulldozed to open up space for gleaming 1975 we see a drastic fall in the mills’ Swadeshi mills and in the Khatau and office and commercial complexes. production with demands for permission to Sitaram mills are just some of the examples Similarly, in India, every such ‘vision’ throw out the workers, close the mills and where the most nefarious means were used or plan has included the systematic and sell and transfer the use of the land for other by some ‘respected’ names in industry in forced eviction of slums, hawkers and purposes. close nexus with the police, goons and chawls, along with the ‘dirty’ industries that However, despite the collusion of the government. With almost all the ruling class give the poor their employment. They are Congress-led RMMS, this was not possible forces lined up and waiting to grab a share consigned to the corners of the city or even due to the resistance of the workers. In fact, of the loot it was only to be expected that to some distant ‘backward’ area. when many owners deliberately pushed their the mills would definitely be all closed down Simultaneously it has involved the mills into losses and demanded closure, the and pass into history. rebuilding of the city centres and the creation government bailed them out by taking over Globalisation and the Global City ‘Vision’ of glittering residential, entertainment and the losses through the NTC, set up by the During the period of liberalization and commercial complexes, hotels, malls and Central government in 1974. Though the globalization however, the mill lands issue multiplexes that cater to the upper sections work force did not grow, few workers were took on one more dimension. It was during of society. With the mill-lands occupying the thrown out. The mill-owners, RMMS and this period that the Indian compradors very centre of the city, in close proximity to the government got their opportunity started seeing for themselves a more global the old central business district and posh however during the historic strike of 1981- role in the system of imperialist exploitation. residential areas, they naturally became the 83. Subsequent to the defeat of the strike As part of this they started on a plan of prime target of every urban planner more than one lakh workers were thrown developing and remodelling some of their dreaming of making Mumbai a global city. out of their jobs. And the RMMS further mega-cities to play particular roles within Playing with Development Control Rules entered into a spate of retrenchment the emerging imperialist globalization They proposed the modification of the agreements to again reduce the work force. network. Bangalore, for example, was sold Development Control Rules (DCR) to Some mill owners refused to reopen their as the model IT base for multinational permit the mill-owners to use the mill mills after the strike and many later closed corporations, the Third World assistant to properties for purposes other than textile their doors with the collusion of the RMMS. the USA’s Silicon Valley. Similarly Mumbai production. This was because, according to However the main demand of the mill- was to be pushed as a global city and ideal municipal development rules, the mill lands owners to be allowed to sell the land or international financial centre (IFC), a nodal are reserved for industrial use, as they were transfer its use could not be implemented in point for the regional operations of finance by and large given to the mill owners at the face of opposition from the workers. The capital, operating complementary to, and at concessional rates by the colonial Bombay Datta Samant-led Maharashtra Girni the next rung after, the prime centres of New Government, to promote industrial Kamgar Union (MGKU) and other fronts York, London and Tokyo. Thus from the late production, and to develop the city and its like the Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti eighties, we have had successive Chief hinterland. In fact most of the land is on (GKSS) conducted repeated agitations Ministers of Maharashtra setting sights on lease and some of the leases have even against this murder of the mills. But long reshaping Mumbai in the image of the more expired. years of struggle only succeeded in retarding established IFCs in Asia, like Singapore and The first modification to the DCR came and slowing down the process. Hong Kong, and now after Shanghai. in 1991, coinciding with the Manmohan Demoralization after the strike’s defeat, the The most vital element anywhere of such Singh new economic policies. These new sharp reduction in the number of workers global city visions is however the systematic rules permitted portions of the “surplus and the absence of any recruitment of new and forced segmentation of the city into land” within mill compounds to be young workers, the inability to make the mill sharply divided and separate rich and poor redeveloped, and under rule 58.2, the funds lands an issue of the whole city’s working quarters. If a global city is to service the accrued from this redevelopment were to be class and the total collaboration of the overlords of the world of finance capital, it invested in the revival and modernisation RMMS ensured that the workers’ resistance must provide sanitised enclaves that will of production, and in generating remained limited and never reached cater to the business, residential, employment for mill workers. Alternatively, anywhere near the heights reached in earlier entertainment, security and other needs of under rule 58.1, the spaces of the mills which times. the very rich and their numerous chamchas. were completely unviable were to be divided The organized gangs of Central Mumbai This automatically implies that these into thirds, one third for low-cost housing led by Arun Gawli, Amar Naik and others enclaves should be free of the presence of to be developed by the Maharashtra Housing also were brought into play by the mill- any signs of poverty. Since global cities are and Area Development Authority owners and the RMMS to attack and literally the progenitors rather than eradicators of (MHADA), one third to be developed for beat the workers into submission. Mills were poverty, the only method of creating such civic amenities like schools, educational and burned down by the owners, both to claim poverty-free centres is to physically evict the cultural institutions, housing infrastructure insurance as well as to prevent any re- poor to the periphery. In Shanghai this was and open spaces, by the Municipal employment of the workers and to use it as achieved by brutal state fiat, where resisting Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), an excuse to refuse to pay the workers’ dues. workers were fired upon and their houses, and the last third was reserved for

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 19 development by the mill owner. give permissions for sale and ‘development’ an additional provision made for job Almost no one availed of the facility of the mill lands. opportunities for the family members of the under rule 58.1 as it would mean handing The RMMS during this period was taken textile workers. However these provisions over two thirds of the land for social use. over by Sachin Ahir, nephew of ganglord have remained and will remain only on But there was a spate of proposals under Arun Gawli, and former bodyguard of mill- paper, since the land now made available rule 58.2. Cases referred under the Sick owner, Sunit Khatau. This only made the under the amended DCR is so miniscule. Companies Act of 1985 to the Board for strong arm tactics of the RMMS more This is due to another clause introduced Industrial and Financial Reconstruction blatant and in many cases workers opposing in the amended DCR of 2001, according to (BIFR) for tax breaks and financial mill closures and land sale were attacked which the land share of the mill owners has amnesties for “sick industries” swelled, and even murdered. The contradictions increased several times beyond the original requesting permission to allow new among mill-owners, builders, speculators one third. The land share of the MCGM, development in the Mill Lands, under the and mafia dons also started getting more meant for creating open spaces and other guise of industrial revival and vicious. Many gangland killings were also facilities, as well as the land share for modernisation. With the willful linked to the mill land deals. Even police MHADA meant for public housing, have collaboration of the RMMS it was easy to encounters of gangsters were staged on the been reduced by more than 90%, often to make false claims of development in the direction of the builders and mill-owners. nil. This was done by making the one third interests of the workers. This was also the period when the killings divisions applicable only to vacant open land One of the first to avail of this break reached the doorsteps of the bourgeoisie in the mills, and removing land on which was Matulya Mills owned by the Mafatlals, itself. Sunit Khatau, was gunned down in structures are, or were, standing, from the which developed housing stock purchased his Mercedes in 1994, while Vallabhai purview of the one third division. This would en bloc by the Reserve Bank of India for its Thakkar, the owner of Raghuvanshi Mills, have made sense if the mills were still officers, and a commercial complex set up was killed in 1997 in his car while traveling running and were thus unavailable for by Raheja builders. Kamala Mills followed with the very gangsters who were to murder distribution. Since the mills are closed, the the same route, with the Govanis as principal him. land available is logically the entire land, developers. Modern Mills reduced its 1997 also saw the murder of Datta whether there are structures on it or not. In workforce to only 250 workers while Samant, the leader of the historic textile fact, the old mill structures have been or are building a large luxury apartment complex strike, and a consistent opponent of mill land being demolished, to make space for a real complete with swimming pool on the mill sale. Though the police saw to it that the estate bonanza for mill owners, builders, and land. A 42-storey building, Kalpataru, was actual assassins and conspirators were never sundry other speculators, while giving built in the compound of Hindustan Mills, exposed, it is generally believed that his nothing to the workers, or the city at large. owned by the Thackersey group. The opposition to mill and other factory land sale The new amendment thus opened the glittering Peninsula Corporate Park with was the cause of his death. His union door for legal exploitation of the mill lands. 800,000 sq. ft. of premium office space was continued to oppose mill land sale even after New proposals started emerging and with built on the premises of the Morarjee his death but at a much lower key. Even the some buoyancy in the long depressed real Goculdas Spinning & Weaving Mills. None GKSS which had started in 1989 as a front estate market in 2003 the pace picked up. of these mill ‘developments’ however served to campaign for re-opening of closed mills, Mammoth projects for commercialization any of the workers’ needs. Neither was any later shifted the focus of its demands to the of the mill lands kicked off. ‘Planet Godrej’ new employment created nor were the monitoring of the revival and redevelopment with five 40 storeyed towers on the Simplex company’s dues to the workers even paid. of mill lands and state intervention to mills, ‘Kamala City’ on the Victoria mills, What in fact occurred was further support displaced and unemployed mill malls, office space and residential buildings downsizing and closure of what was left of workers. Datta Ishwalkar, one of the GKSS on the Mafatlal lands are some of the the mills and their workers, and siphoning leaders, even formed a Girangaon Rozgaar projects that have got under way. Ruby, off of funds and incentives earmarked for Sangharsh Samiti to demand jobs for the Hindoostan, Morarjee, Swan, Khatau, Shree investment in the industry. The Ruia-owned children of the former mill-workers. Ram, Shree Niwas, and Matulya are some Phoenix Mills case was particularly The 2001 DCR amendment of the private sector mill projects. While notorious. After prolonged agitation and some like Khatau have sold outright, others This phenomenon of ‘redevelopment’ negotiations with the government, some of like Mafatlal entered the real estate business was opposed strongly by the workers at every the GKSS’ and unions’ policy through joint ventures with builders. Yet step. The GKSS and some of the unions led recommendations were included in new others have ventured out on their own. Even agitations against various mill managements policies for monitoring of sales of surplus running mills like the Birla’s Century mills and the government. However the successive land and escrow accounts to safeguard and Nusli Wadia’s Bombay Dying mill – Congress as well as Sena-BJP governments workers’ livelihoods. These were announced among the few units still engaged in actual would give false promises at the time of by the Government of Maharashtra in late cloth production – embarked on plans to elections but would quickly change over 2001. The DCR was also then amended and retrench the workers and develop their real once in power. While playing lip-service to a provision introduced that within the land estate. The NTC itself came up with the the workers’ cause, they would side with the provided for public housing, 50% would be biggest proposal of all. It proposed to sell millowner-builder lobby and continue to set aside for housing textile workers, and off 17 of the 25 mills under it, while setting

20 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 up a 75 storey World Trade Centre on a sea “islands of housing and commercial are mostly in their late forties and fifties – facing mill plot on Cadell road and 16 lakh excellence” in areas such as the Mill lands, recruitment being zero since the last twenty sq ft knowledge cum software park on two the Port Trust lands and the Bandra Kurla years. The GKSS and non-RMMS mill adjoining mill plots in Dadar. Complex. These are relatively large tracts unions are also at a low ebb and there has All this was in sharp contrast with the of land in prime urban areas. If they are not been significant resistance or agitation ongoing government hype regarding redeveloped holistically to include high- by the workers against the 2001 DCR fraud textiles, where the lifting of international class housing with earthquake resistance of the Maharashtra government. trade quotas from 1st January, 2005 was buildings, enough open spaces, 40-feet wide A New Round of Ruling Class battles supposed to be the great big break for the roads, excellent transport connectivity, It was an environmental group, the Indian textile industry to increase production urban plazas, hospitals, museums and retail Bombay Environment Action Group and exports. The textile ministry was developments on the waterfront, they can (BEAG), which, more than three years after announcing sops to big textile manufacturers provide a model for the rest of the city. These the amendment, challenged it in court in claiming that they would be best able to world-class ‘islands of excellence’ will begin 2005 through a public interest litigation compete in international markets and avail to attract both corporate investment and (PIL) petition also claiming that of the post quota opportunity to expand. But talent for high-end services.” Thus this environmental and other laws are being though Mumbai had the largest mills and report clearly proposes that the Girangaon violated in the process of commercialization the biggest names in textiles, none were should be converted into an ‘island of of the mill lands. They enumerated various willing to even consider continuing in excellence’ meant exclusively for the rich permissions which the builders had not textiles. The quick gains to be got from and financed by corporate investment. It obtained before embarking on their mega- dabbling in real estate were far more does not even bother to consider that this projects. As the petition came up, some rewarding than textile manufacture. has always been a working class area and office-bearers of the petitioner organization Vision Shanghai even today has a vast working class section. were themselves accused of being in cahoots At the same time the urban planning It obviously assumes that this working class with a group of builders with interests in departments were coming up with city plans can be pushed out to the ‘hinterland’ to make North Mumbai, whose projects will be hit that set the tone for the above type of way for the corporates and other high by development of real estate on the mill development in the Girangaon. The income groups. lands and thus the petition was painted as Regional Plan for Mumbai (1996-2011), The McKinsey report was presented in motivated by certain sections of the media. clearly based on the liberalization, September 2003 with investment targets of This group was also responsible for the cruel privatization and globalization thinking had Rs. 200,000 crores upto 2013. The Chief demolition of 80,000 hutments in the slums already set the tone. It stated that, “Greater Minister of Maharashtra immediately gave of north Mumbai. But whatever be the Bombay has the potential to emerge as an recognition to the report and in October motives of the BEAG, it’s petition has international city, fostering growth of 2003 set up a top level task force of unleashed another round of skirmishes over financial and business services, and hi-tech, bureaucrats and industrialists to implement the mill lands. export-oriented industries... It calls for an an Action Plan according to the report. On April 1st 2005, the Bombay High approach that would facilitate increased Despite strong opposition to the McKinsey Court passed an interim order restraining investment by the private sector in report from all progressive sections, the the MCGM/ state government from giving infrastructure and other developments”. CM’s Task Force has adopted all the key the mill owners fresh permission to It was followed by a report prepared by suggestions of the report and is going ahead commercialise property until the MCGM/ the multinational business consulting firm, with implementation. The brutal eviction of state government submitted documents McKinsey, entitled “Vision Mumbai - lakhs of slum-dwellers and hawkers in the relating to these lands. Rather than submit Transforming Mumbai into a world-class first few months of this year has been the documents, the authorities went in appeal city”. This report clearly outlined that its opening salvo of this vile Action Plan. to the Supreme Court, where on May 11th first objective was to “Boost economic The anti-worker nature of the task force 2005, they partially lifted the stay. This led growth to 8-10 per cent per annum by and the sharp marginalization of the to the earlier mentioned spate of NTC focusing on services (high- and low-end), organized workers can be gauged by the fact auctions (Table 1). Now the case continues developing hinterland-based that this time the government has not even in the High Court and, as it proceeds, more manufacturing and making Mumbai a bothered to appoint a single trade union horror tales emerge of how the mill-owners, consumption centre.” Thus the textile representative, even from the lackey RMMS. politicians, trade unions and sundry other mills, like all other manufacturing, are to This also represents to falling proportion and authorities have been conniving to dodge be pushed to the hinterland, while the city importance of the organized working class old laws and enact dubious new ones in their concentrated on services and encouraged the in the city. While the proportion of organized common endeavour to plunder the mill conspicuous consumption of the rich. manufacturing was half of the work force lands. Further, regarding the mill lands, the in the 70s, the proportion of informal labour At one hearing it was disclosed that that McKinsey report, true to the global city alone was 68% of the work force in 2004. most of the mill ‘owners’ were not owners ideology, proposes that the area should be The mill situation is even worse. The but actually lease holders. Further, the lease converted into an enclave for the rich. It said, estimated 20,000 mill workers remaining of many had actually expired and not been “Mumbai has the opportunity to create true are rapidly reducing and even those around renewed making them unauthorized

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 21 occupiers of the land which they were trying “to examine the feasibility of integrated business today is Niranjan Hiranandani. He to sell. Some of these were Raghuvanshi development of mill land to study the loses no opportunity to talk to the media Mills, Shree Ram Mill, Morarjee Mills, existing DC rules” and to “suggest ways for against the “unrealistic” prices of the mill Simplex Mills, Khatau Mills and Phoenix enough land to be available for open use land sales and lament that they will take Mills. Though the court asked the authorities and public housing, without jeopardising the housing “out of the reach of the middle for the complete list, it has yet to be workers’ and financial interests.’’ The class.” He has also been supportive of the submitted. committee is headed by Deepak Parekh, tightening of bank credit for such deals and As should be expected, the stands of the chairman of HDFC, which has itself lent projects. It is likely that such elements would government have been shifting and suspect. hundreds of crores for various mill land even try to use various authorities to serve It gave varied statements, until, on 17th Aug. projects. Other members include NTC and their ends. 2005, in a new affidavit, it said that the 2001 Mill Owner Association representatives and But when tens of thousands of crores amendment was done on the basis of the some of the main stalwarts of the task force are at stake no court will be allowed to urban development department’s view that implementing the McKinsey vision. There disturb things for long. Even if a quirky unless the mill owners were given more is not one workers’ representative or any one judge or two passes an order interfering land, “revival (of the mills) would not be who can be expected to even express the with the process, the judicial system and feasible or possible”. Such a blatantly people’s viewpoint. Considering its the government will not sit quiet. This fraudulent view was submitted at a stage composition, the conclusions of the could be seen in May 2005 when the when it is clear to all concerned that the committee are quite clear even before it Supreme Court, despite the summer court ‘revival of the mills’ is a concept remotest submits its report. vacations, lifted the High Court stay on from the minds of all the parties involved. Not much different will be the outcome the NTC auctions, within a month. And The urban development department itself of the 133 page report submitted before the even if some judicial ruling were to hold, is the author of the Mumbai plans and High Court by the Maharashtra Pollution the bureaucracy and other sections of the ‘visions’ that plan not to revive but to replace Control Board (MPCB) on 1st September, state machinery will certainly use other the textile mills. Even the BEAG is only 2005. In it, it has stated that 12 mills had executive or legislative means to take interested in the environmental aspect and launched construction activity without ahead the process. After all when major is not bothered about or demanding any obtaining the mandatory consent and sections of the comprador big bourgeoisie revival of the mills. environmental clearance from the Central are standing to gain directly and when the The RMMS, who has also opposed the government under the Environment class as a whole is firmly behind Vision BEAG petition, took a similar sham stand (Protection) Act, 1986. All have obtained Shanghai, and when the masses are not when it claimed in court that sale of land is commencement certificates from the now able to put up notable resistance, the in the workers’ interests and the only way MCGM and have advanced substantially in state machinery is bound to use all means in which their dues can be paid. This after setting up the structures. The Morarjee to clear the path for the transformation of the mill sales have in most cases not resulted project of four residential towers totaling 140 Girangaon. in a single rupee being paid to the workers. storeys has already reached the fifteenth Bull charge of the Speculators In fact the RMMS has been one of the main floor. Since such major construction is not It is this certainty that is driving the champions of the sale process. The only time possible without active connivance of the furious charge on the mill lands. Judging when RMMS leader Sachin Ahir, found fit authorities, it is thus obvious that that the government is supportive and will to oppose any sale was when the Kohinoor environmental considerations have never most likely bail them out in case of a crash, Mills went to the Shiv Sena’s Raj Thakre – been a barrier to the type of ‘development’ speculators in all shapes and sizes are Manohar Joshi group. He, being from the that the mill lands are experiencing. testing their fortunes on an increasingly Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was In fact the BEAG court proceedings dangerous field. Their operations are probably mourning the loss of his cut on themselves can only be expected to be a rapidly pushing up the land prices making such a major deal. minor irritant to those bent on taking over it more feasible for funds to be attracted Perhaps similar concerns have also led the Girangaon. As has been proved time and for the various visions that the government to the ‘opposition’ of Milind Deora, Lok again, unless there is determined opposition is pushing. Thus ruling class and Sabha member for South Mumbai, and son from the working people, the bourgeoisie government too need the speculators as of one of the prime representatives of the will, without doubt, implement what it sees much as the speculators need the Mumbai compradors. He, in January 2005, as in its interests. So far the court government. approached Congress president Sonia proceedings are mainly being used by those One of the principal speculator firms, Gandhi regarding the mill land issue and sections of the ruling classes who either which picked up two of the five NTC followed it up with a letter on 15th August stand to lose to some extent or have yet to properties, has appropriately named itself 2005 to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, receive what they consider their rightful Indiabulls. It is actually a stock-broking urging him “to rescind the amendment to share of the loot. The North Mumbai builder firm formed just five years ago, with DC Regulation 58 and ensure equitable group mentioned earlier was reported to Laxmi Mittal (steel magnate and one of distribution of land to MHADA, the BMC have met some BEAG office bearers to lend the world’s richest men) as one of the and mill-owners”. Deshmukh, on Sonia’s their support. A leading North Mumbai financial backers. This is the first time it behest, formed a committee in January 2005, builder and one of the biggest names in the is entering into real estate for which it has

22 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 established two linked firms Indiabulls politics, which had been stashed away in in order to make some profit. The current Real Estate and Indiabulls Properties. tax havens abroad. As the Sena’s inner rate in the area is however ranged between While the bullish Mumbai stock market party fights sharpened, these details were Rs 8,000-10,000 per square foot and only may have provided Indiabulls some disclosed by Sena defectors to the a bout of frenzied speculative buying could surplus funds for playing on the real estate Congress, leading to CBI raids on the push the market to the levels required by market, the main source of funds for the finance company who managed the today’s buyers. mill land purchases is American. Farallon, operations. The irony is that it is these The McKinsey report writers and a San Francisco based risk fund is 60% very same politicians who have, at every Shanghai visionaries however advise that owner of Indiabulls Properties. In August election, vowed to protect the Girangaon there is full scope for such rates. They 2005, Indiabulls also raised $150m and prohibit the sale of mill lands. Most argue that if the land is directed primarily (around Rs. 650 crores) in New York of the MPs and MLAs of the Girangaon for high end users like malls, 5-star hotels, through global depository receipts in order have over the years been from the Shiv Info parks and other commercial space the to fund its recent property purchases. The Sena. Manohar Joshi himself was MLA rates would be viable. They had pushed main funders were some of the principal and MP for many terms from these parts. for the recent opening up of hotels and international speculators and finance Yet it is these very same prohibitors and real estate for foreign direct investment capital manipulators – Goldman Sachs, saviours who are unashamedly seizing the (FDI) and are further pushing for similar Merrill Lynch and Fidelity. opportunity of grabbing crores by concessions in the retail business that will The other big operator, who picked up murdering the mills. bring in retail giants of the likes of the largest plot from NTC, is the DLF While these and other wheeler-dealers Walmart, the world’s biggest corporation. group. It’s owner, Kushal Pal Singh is rush to grab a share of the spoils the prices With this they expect the foreign money reputedly the richest realtor in the country of real estate are jumping by leaps and to flow that will prop up the real estate today with 22 malls and a group net asset bounds. The early pre-NTC sales went for rates. ‘Experts’ like international realty base of Rs 15,000-20,000 crore. Known comparatively lower prices – Standard firm Knight Frank claim that India’s mall as the man behind Gurgaon, his dealings Mills (Rs 130 crore), China Mills (Rs 53 rentals are among the lowest in the world in this suburb of Delhi have helped create crore), Khatau Mills (Rs 98 crore), and that there is enough scope for increase a property price bubble there. As this area Srinivas Mills (Rs 200 crore). But with in rates (see chart ). They similarly has started the process of collapse, much the the record-breaking NTC sales provide contrasts for the intended posh of his mall space there now remains generating excitement in speculator hotels and entertainment complexes. unsold and he is moving to greener circles both in India and abroad, the deals What such experts however ignore in such pastures. Obviously after creat-ing a that follow can only be expected to raise international comparisons is the reality of similar bubble and collapse on the the rates to new heights. There are at least the Indian economy which renders higher Mumbai mill lands, he can again move 18 properties in the pipe line with many rental rates totally unfeasible. on. parties hungrily eyeing them. For example, according to the same Politicians are another parasitical Meanwhile companies who have Knight Franks estimate, around 55 new group aiming for speculative gains. purchased the land as well as those that malls, with approximately 15 million Perhaps their confidence in their ability have land to sell are seeing a boom in their square feet of space, will be added by end to bypass all rules and regulations has stock prices. Indiabulls market 2007, to the 22 malls already existing in made them jump in the fray for the mill capitalization has increased during recent the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). land. The NTC’s Apollo mill property was months from just 200 crore to around 3000 With the rapidly rising real estate prices picked up by Lodha, a builder and BJP crore. Bombay Dyeing with 70 acres of such malls need to have an extraordinarily MLA. And the record breaking price for mill land and Morarjee Realties are among high turnover to avoid loss. But since such the Kohinoor mills property was paid by other companies seeing their stocks boom. malls cater to those from the upper a group of four firms owned by Shiv Sena So is the case of other companies with sections they would find it impossible to leaders. One of these is in the name of industrial land for sale even in other parts get a large enough customer base to former Lok Sabha speaker, Manohar of the city. Thus the mill land sales are increase their turnover beyond a point. Joshi’s son, Unmesh. Sena supremo Bal not only fuelling the real estate market Mumbai is a city with 50% in slums, 8 Thackeray’s nephew Raj is partner in the throughout the city to new heights but also lakh registered unemployed, and 68% other three firms formed with friends and contributing some bit to the stocks build struggling to eke out a living in the old compatriots from the Bharatiya up. informal sector. These are hardly the Vidhyarthi Sena. Raj has been well using A Property Bubble Waiting to Burst sections that would ever be able to provide his uncle’s clout to build up his business But boom time at the auction-block the demand which the mall operators empire. He has even built up contacts and stock exchange will sooner rather need. Thus the scenario of the shining internationally and made a London visit than later lead to bust. Already the rates malls and multiplexes becoming totally in July 2005, just before the Kohinoor of the latest Kohinoor auction have unviable does not seem quite distant. As auction, to raise funds for the deal. Besides reached the level where it would be mentioned earlier the process has already the foreign funders, a substantial part of necessary to sell the developed property started in Delhi’s satellite city of Gurgaon. the amount is black money earned in at a minimum of Rs 20,000 a square foot Today, big malls in Gurgaon, such as the

PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 23 DLF Mega Mall, have huge unoccupied bubble building up, the Reserve Bank of The earlier ruling class solution has been spaces more than 18 months after opening India (RBI) has not taken any significant of an export-oriented growth strategy. But (others in the region are delaying opening steps. It merely sent out an advisory issued this too, being tailored to the needs of the due to the paucity of tenants) and the by way of an internal circular which multinationals, was doomed to failure. The number of shoppers there is also pretty cautioned the banks to be careful while past few decades have proved that the low. With the recent mill land sales raising funding real estate. Then in late July it raised imperialist bourgeoisie will not permit prices rapidly throughout the MMR, the the risk weight assigned by banks to their access to large enough foreign markets that same fate seems likely there too. loans on commercial property to 125% from could help to comprehensively industrialise This may seem similar to the cycles of 100%. Such steps however will not result such a large society as India. And the Indian boom and bust that endemically plague in any stoppage of loans to this sector. It bourgeoisie, born dependent on imperialism, capitalism and its brightest sectors. This will only raise the cost of the loans which could never muster the capacity to fight time however the boom is more dangerous will not be a major hurdle to a speculator in resolutely to prise open these markets. as a significant part of the financing is being a rapidly rising market. The current imperialist-comprador way now done through the banking system. Meanwhile it is the government’s out is to bet on the consumption-driven Funding to the real estate sector almost policies that are ensuring that funding of growth of India’s economy by spawning doubled between March 2004 and March the property bubble will not dry up. As glitzy shopping malls, entertainment 2005. Though the RBI has yet to release mentioned earlier, some of the biggest names centres, multiplexes and luxury hotels for figures for last six months it can only be in imperialist finance are rushing in to seize the topmost 10-20 percent sliver of Indian expected to have risen at the same pace if the opportunities thrown open by the society, while at the same time being a cheap not more. ICICI Bank (Rs 4,350 crore), opening up of real estate to FDI in February outsourcing services centre for imperialist Punjab National Bank (Rs 2,920 crore) and this year. Besides those mentioned earlier, corporations. Besides the consumerist Bank of India (Rs 2,836 crore), are some of giants like JP Morgan Asset Management decadence that this approach engenders, the banks who have lent substantially to the and General Electric Commercial Finance essentially, such maneuvers are only an real estate sector. It is also quite clear that have also launched or invested in Asia attempt to wish away the rural reality and most of this new financing is purely for specific funds which will be investing in its urban consequences. Being riven with speculative purposes, because during the commercial projects in India. Other foreign numerous contradictions (which cannot be same period when real estate loans rose by institutional investors (FIIs) are looking for detailed in this article) they are doomed to almost 100% the loans for actual deals themselves. The Indian financial failure. construction only rose by 16%. Thus the compradors are also not far behind. HDFC, As this ruling class strategy fast banks are mainly financing the inflation of State Bank of India and ICICI have already reaches its limits, it is only but logical real estate prices without actually creating launched property funds. A major therefore, that it should fuel repeated any real value through construction. component of all these funds can be expected rounds of hectic speculation as is being Since such lending is against collateral to fuel the speculative prairie fire in the seen currently in the real estate, stock and of the real estate assets there is obvious Girangaon, with all its hazardous portents. other markets. Capital that cannot find danger to the banking system when the A System Crying to Explode profit in the sphere of production is bound assets are priced at artificially inflated levels. However, despite the obvious dangers of to look for returns via speculation and When the real estate bubble bursts the speculation spinning out of control, the moot other dubious means in the sphere of borrowers often cannot or do not return the question that remains is whether the circulation. While this speculation may loans and the banks find it impossible to government and the RBI actually have any seem irrational and definitely is harmful recover even a fraction of their money. It options to what is essentially a systemic to society and the economy, it provides was a property bubble burst of this type that, problem. The periodic pumping of super profits to the biggest and most during the early nineties, led to the collapse thousands of crores into speculative bubbles unscrupulous operators. It is mainly the of several large banks and an economic crisis is essentially due to the limited opportunities middle and lower classes and the smaller in Japan, from which it has yet to completely for investment in industry in our country. operators who bear the burden of the recover. A similar sequence of events caused The backward relations of production that market crashes, bank collapses and the East Asian crisis in the late nineties, hold back the development of the vast rural recession that follow a speculative boom. wiping out the savings of common people, hinterland have for long ensured the And as the markets hurtle towards another while the imperialist financiers protected strangulation of the home market, thus boom-bust scenario the government and themselves by rapidly withdrawing all stunting the growth of industry and the the RBI will only play the role of funds. economy. But the big bourgeoisie of India observers, if not collaborators. They being As banks in India in search of profits has long had a reactionary pact with its at the heart of the problem cannot be get more and more immersed in similar landlord ruling class partners to preserve expected to provide a solution. risky operations the dangers to the banking these relations. Thus all ‘visions’ of the The solution will emerge from every system, the economy and the common man bourgeoisie remain limited by its pocket of struggle to this warped and are quite clear. However despite the recent unwillingness to break these relations and decadent model of development. It will spurt in prices for the Mumbai mill lands thus create the conditions necessary for a emerge from the lakhs of workers thrown giving all the indications of a property vigorously expanding home market. Continued at page 17

24 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 The Great Indian Sell-out :Traitorous policies of the Indian rulers Indian Traitors Even Sell Our Water to the International Water Mafia Arvind Water Scarcity in India watershed Development Project, Kerala It is a betrayal of gigantic proportions. According to the UN the availability Rural Water Supply and Environmental Not only has water been defacto privatized of fresh water in Asia is only 3,000 cubic Sanitation Project, District Poverty with bottled water now having a Rs.10,000 meters per person per year. This is the Initiatives Project, Tamilnadu Urban crores market, the very water distribution lowest figure for any continent. India’s Development Project, Tamilnadu Resources in the country is being handed over to situation is even worse at 2,500 cubic Consolidation Project, Madras Water foreign multinationals. A natural resource meters per person and is predicted to go Supply Project, UP Water Sector like water which should be free is now down to a mere 1,000 cu met. per person Restructuring Project, UP Diversified being made into an enormous source of per year. Already the situation is serious. Agricultural Project, UP Rural Water Supply profits. Already bottled water sells at the About 39% of the urban population has and Environmental Sanitation Project, AP price of milk. Once fully handed over to no access to water. In 1985 there were 750 Irrigation Project, AP Hazard Mitigation and the MNCs the monthly water bill for a villages with no water sources; in 1996 Emergency Cyclone Recovery Project, AP middle class family could vary from these were 65,000. Ground water is Economic Restructuring Project, Orissa Rs.1000 to Rs.1,500 and for a slum dweller becoming non-sustainable due to excessive Water Resources Consolidation Project, could be around Rs.350. exploitation particularly in AP, Gujarat, Bombay Sewage Disposal Project, Rajasthan The World Bank, since 1999, has been Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Water Restructuring Project, Haryana Water on an aggressive campaign to ‘privatise’ Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu and UP. Resources Consolidation Sector water. And in their eyes the only ‘private’ 80% of children suffer from water-borne Restructuring Project, Integrated Rural companies are the international water diseases of which 7 lakh die each year. 4.4 Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation mafia companies like Vivendi (French), crore people suffer from problems related Project, World bank aided Water Supply and Suez Lyonnaisse (French), Bechtel (US), to water quality due to the presence of Sewage Project, etc. Saur (French), Thomas Water (Germany/ fluoride, iron, nitrates, arsenic heavy Besides this the World Bank has been UK) etc. In order that these TNCs can metals and salinity. pushing through the privatization of the make windfall profits the government has And it is into this situation of scarcity Delhi Jal Board and also the privatisation been raising the water rates, and once fully that the international MNCs have entered of water in Mumbai, Bangalore and all privatized could be 800 times the present riding on the back of the World Bank, IMF major cities. In addition the EU has taken rates. Politicians and bureaucrats are being and WTO. up projects in Kerala, Rajasthan, Orissa heavily bribed by the International bodies Aggressive Policies of the Pondichery and Maharashtra; Japan in AP, to aggressively push through the International Water Mafia MP and Orissa; The Netherlands in Kerala privatization of water. It was in the mid-1990s that the and AP; France in Manipur and Gujarat The plan for the privatization of water international institutions took a decision and Germany in Maharashtra and Orissa. is to make profits from the scarcity to push for the privatization of water. A Government’s Total Capitulation situations that a prevailing throughout the World Bank policy paper on water Signing on the dotted line dictated by world. In the global scenario over 1.3 recommended the creation of “markets to the World Bank the Central government billion persons lack safe water and by 2015 tradable water rights”. At the Fresh Water brought out the National Water Policy would result in another 1.6 billion persons Conference in Bonn it was openly stated 2002 calling for private sector in need of water. Demand for water will that water soon would be sold like oil participation in planning, development exceed supply by a staggering 30%. The through pipelines and tankers. The WTO’s and management of water resources. Soon international water mafia, backed by the General Agreement on Trade in Services all the State governments have fallen in World Bank, seeks to make windfall profits (GATS) is forcing backward countries to line. The above agreements show that from these scarcity conditions just as privatize water through the introduction nearly all the State governments are being hoarders make huge profits during of “Environment Services”. The Trade and enveloped in a net of foreign funding to droughts and famines. Environment Section of the Doha privatize their water systems and hand What has already taken place in some Declaration presses for including water in them over to multinational. Here we shall countries is an indication of what will National Commitments so that countries give just two examples of Maharashtra and happen here. In the Bolivian city of like India will be forced to provide national the DJB of Delhi to show the extent to Cochabamba a consortium of private water treatment and market access rules to which the governments are willing to go suppliers charged people 75% of their benefit MNCs. to loot the people of the States of their hard- salary as the monthly water bill. They were Soon after this the World Bank began earned incomes, in the interests of the later kicked out by the people. In Bolivia to aggressively push the privatization of foreign companies. water prices shot up by 200% within a few water in the country. A host of water- weeks after privatization. In Manila water Maharashtra Experience: related projects have been set up by the In April of 2005 the Maharashtra prices went up by 700% within three years World Bank in India since then. Some of of privatization. Assembly passed the “Maharashtra Water these are: Karnataka Rural Water Supply Resources Regulatory Authority Bill” and Sanitation Project, Karnataka (MWRRA). This called for the “drastic PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 25 The Great Indian Sell-out :Traitorous policies of the Indian rulers increasing and rationalizing of water Project (GBWASP) to privatize the water The PwC has also said that that the rates”. It called for the “big-bang supply. The plan entails bringing an extra operators can only be foreign companies approach” rather than gradual increases. 700 million litres of water from the Cauvery, as “there is no experience in India in The Bill warns that “water shall not be 95 Kms away. The entire project is to handed providing 24/7 water supply”. And the made available from the canal unless the over to private companies, all of which will DJB has faithfully obeyed by short listing cultivator adopts drip irrigation” (whose be the same TNCs. Privatization entails the only four foreign companies — Manila capital cost is a minimum of Rs.20,000 privatization of regulation, monitoring, Water (Betchtel), Vivendi, Saur and per acre). Besides in Hitlarian style the Bill billing, maintenance, etc. Under the Degremont. The PwC have also drafted says that those with more than two children GBWASP residential units will have to pay legislation for the government called the from the day it is passed will have to pay Rs.2,500 to Rs.15,000 a year depending on Delhi Water and Wastewater Reform Bill, 50% more than the revised rates. (Earlier the area of the dwelling unit. As with the 2004 for the entire privatization process. the Bill said “farmers who have more than other projects as reported in the press “the The PwC’s plan guarantees a minimum two children after the Bill is law will be city has retained the World Bank groups profit to the companies and a huge denied access to irrigation waters and the International Finance Corporation to assist payment of Rs126 crores annually on existing irrigation benefits that they enjoy in structuring and implementing a salaries alone. The DJB has 21 water will be cut off”. It was only after an uproar management contract with one or more supply zones. Once privatized each zone against this clause that it was changed to private-sector companies to operate and will have a core team of 4 managers, with charging 1½ times the normal rate.) manage the Greenfield water distribution a monthly fixed fee of $24,400 (Rs.11 It adds that the MWRRA will ensure and waste water collection systems covering lakhs) for each manager in the team. This that “water charges shall reflect the full the eight urban local bodies”. alone comes to Rs10 crores for the city. recovery of the cost of irrigation These huge costs of course the people will management, administration, operational The Delhi Jal Board: have to pay. The PwC estim-ates that in and maintenance costs and recovery of At the DJB, whose chairperson is none the very first phase revenue from capital costs”. It is estimated that the price other than the Chief Minister, the scandal consumers will go up from Rs.69 crores of water for irrigation purposes could go is even worse. The prices are to be hiked to Rs.725 crores. Yet it says that inspite of up as high as Rs.8,000 per acre!!! up so substantially that the yearly this hike the DJB’s cash deficit will be Also the Municipal Corporation of collection from water is planned to go up Rs.7,746 crores by the year 2012. Greater Mumbai has decided, in from Rs.350 crores today to Rs.3,000 The PwC report has given total powers consultation with the World Bank, a pilot crores. In the name of 24-hour supply the to the independent regulator to “frame project for the privatization of one most World Bank Report set out a roadmap for principles and regulate tariffs with respect populous ward with a population of 10 lakhs. the full privatization of the DJB by 2011. to water supply and removal of waste Like the DJB this is to be done through an It granted a $2.5 million loan to the water”. Besides, for the non-supply of international consultant for which the WB DJB to appoint a consultant for the entire water from the Sonia Vihar, as per an has given a loan of Rs.3 crores. In the process. After much arm-twisting the agreement between the DJB and targeted ward NGOs have been taking consultancy contract was awarded to Price Degremont the DJB will have to pay the meetings of the residents to create the Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) in Nov.2001. company the equivalent of Rs.3 crores per necessary climate for privatization. PwC had lost out in the normal bidding year as penalty. The Sonia Vihar is still This is taking place in Maharashtra process not once but thrice, but the World not functional. which faces acute water shortage. In the Bank arbitrarily intervened every time and The very Sonia Vihar Treatment Plant last summer nearly 50% of the state faced got PwC the contract. It was nothing but has been built on the basis of a secret acute shortage of water for drinking and fraud. Finally after PwC won the contract agreement between the DJB and irrigation purposes. 3,000 villages immediately one-third of the contract Degremont, the Indian subsidiary of the depended solely on tanker-supplied money of $1.9 million went into the global giant Suez Lyonnaaise at an estimated drinking water. Of the 48 lakh hectares of London Bank account of Pricewaterhouse cost of Rs.880 crores. Though the plant is arable land in the State only 11 lakhs are Coopers Development Associates, London, ready the water which was to come from irrigated. It is in this scenario of acute even though the contract was to be given the Tehri dam is yet to flow. The DJB has to water shortage that the government plans only to an Indian company (the Indian ensure for the supply of water to the Sonia privatization, ruining lakhs of lives in branch of PwC). How much of this money Vihar or else pay penalties amounting to order that the foreign companies can make went into the pocket of Sheila Dixit and about Rs.80,000 per day. huge profits from the sale of water. the CEO, Rakesh Mohan, only time will According to a local organisation “if Bangalore Experience: tell!! Since then the PwC has acted so as you remove all subsidies and cross- The story is much the same as in to transfer the DJB to the MNCs at throw- subsidies by 2011 as recommended by PwC Mumbai and Delhi. Here too there is a away prices and by a gross undervaluation the price of water for a middle class family Rs.658 crore World Bank sponsored of the assets. It has also recommended that will go up to Rs.1,750 per month and for project for ‘clean’ water to Bangalore city. “water tariff be depoliticized so that a slum-dweller to Rs.350 per month”. This goes under the name of the Greater elected representatives would have no The essence of the privatization of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage control over water prices”. Continued at page 14

26 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 Press Release Joint Committee (PUCL Chhattisgarh and Jharknhand, PUDR,APDR and IAPL) for the Salwa Judum Fact Finding, Nov-Dec 2005 An all India team looking into the reality many instances. In some villages, the raids escalated. of the alleged violations of human rights and continue till the entire village is cleared 7. The Salwa Judum is strongly supported its impact on people’s lives in the course of while in other cases, only old people, women by certain sections of Bastar society. This the Salwa Judum in Dantewada district and children are left. Many villages are section comprises of some non-adivasi conducted an investigation between 28th coming to camps to avoid these attacks in immigrant settlers from other parts of India, November and 1st December. The 14 the first place. sarpanches and traditional leaders whose member team met local people in camps as 4. Once in camps, people have no choice power has been threatened by the Maoists, well as in their villages, people arrested but to support the Salwa Judum. Some of powerful local politicians like Karma, and during the operation, leaders of Salwa them are forced to work as informers against his network of supporters. Both the local Judum, Police and Civil Administration members of their own and neighbouring Congress and the BJP are supporting the officials (Collector, SDM). villages and participate in attacks against Salwa Judum together. Following are the main findings: them, leading to permanent divisions within 8. Militarisation: We have heard from 1. The Salwa Judum is far from the villages. Individual families are sometimes several high ranking officials that there is spontaneous uprising of tribals against being split between Judum supporters and an undeclared war on in Bastar, and we fear Maoists that it is claimed to be. It is an those who wish to remain in their villages. that the worst is yet to come. There is a heavy organized, state managed enterprise that has We also came across instances where young presence of the paramilitary like the CRPF precedents in the Jan Jagaran Abhiyans that people were taken away from the village by and the Naga Battalion. This creates a have occurred earlier under the leadership the Salwa Judum and their families are situation where forces from other states are of Mahendra Karma. The Collector himself unaware of their whereabouts. behaving like an occupation army. We has been part of 75% of the Salwa Judum 5. It is frightening to note the collapse of ourselves saw a number of cattle and people meetings and security forces have been civil administration in many parts of being herded by the Naga Battalion after a backing the Judum’s meetings. The main Dantewada District. Salwa Judum members raid. In addition, people are being cadre of Salwa Judum are comprised of man check points on roads, search people’s encouraged to carry arms. Village defence Special Police Officers who are being paid belongings and control the flow of traffic committees are being created, SPOs are and armed by the state, at a rate that is and buses. They enforce an economic being trained and armed, and the entire standard in counter insurgency operations blockade on villages that resist coming to society is becoming more militaristic. across the country. camps. They also try to force civil officials 9. Although Chhattisgarh is claimed to be 2. The Salwa Judum has led to the forcible to follow their dictat. a tribal state, adivasi society and culture is displacement of people throughout 6. FIRs registering the looting, burning, being actively destroyed. People, for whom Dantewada, Geedam and Bijapur areas, beatings/torture by Salwa Judum mobs and the earth of their village is sacred, are being under police and administrative supervision. the security forces are not recorded. We were forcibly removed from it, and the whole According to official estimates told of specific instances where Security social fabric is being torn. approximately 15,000 people from 420 Forces threw dead bodies inside or near We demand: villages are living as refugees in temporary villages. These killings are not reported, and 1. Stop militarisation of society in Bastar/ camps. People have left behind their cattle therefore hard to corroborate. Some reports Dantewada, which is pitting adivasis against and most of their household goods. The suggest that 96 people from 34 villages have each other as part of an anti-Naxal operation, entire area is being cleared of inhabitants been killed. However, the only killings that and using people as a shield. even as new roads are being built and more are officially recorded are those by Maoists. 2. Hold a judicial enquiry into all killings police and para-military stations are being In the period since Salwa Judum started, it committed by the Salwa Judum/Security set up. The region is being turned into one is true that the killings by Maoists have gone Forces combine, which have gone have gone large cantonment. In many places regular up substantially and the official figure today unrecorded. economic activities like weekly haats have stands at 70. Rather than being a “peace 3. The CPI (Maoist) provide details of all stopped. mission” as is claimed, the Salwa Judum persons killed by them. 3. We observed a pattern in the has created a situation where violence has PP dislocation: when Salwa Judum meetings are called, people from neighbouring villages are asked to be present. The meetings are accompanied by heavy security forces. Villages which refuse to participate face repeated attacks by the combined forces of Salwa Judum, the district force and the Naga battalion. In addition, there are separate raids by the Naga Battalion. These raids result in looting, arson and killings in Young women gang-raped and killed at Majjimendri village, Dantewada distt. PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 27 Resistered with the Registrar of Newspaper of India under RNI No. KER ENG/2000/2051 Postal Regn. No. KL/EK/614/2004-06 More Horrors of the Salwa Judum As we go to the press more news has been coming in of the horrors and inhumanity of the Salwa Judum, being led by opposition party leader, Mahendra Karma, with full backing of the State. While the media has been portraying this as a people’s revolt the real facts have been totally blacked out from the media. Genuine reporters are being prevented from going to the area. In fact the Bijapur SP, Manhar, has given clear orders to kill any reporters that may come to cover Naxalite activities. Of the over 100 killed the People’s March has received a list of 64 killed and of 31 women gang-raped, of whom six were then killed. The 64 names received belong to 37 villages and the 31 raped belong to 17 Example of house burnt st villages. Of the 64, eight are office bearers attack on it on July 1 . The attack was of a young boy of 12, but even he was not of the mass organisation, another 36 are its the nature of a war on a country. Hundreds spared. These bodies were not even given members while the rest are ordinary of police/para-military and goons, armed to to their relatives but were secretly burnt by villagers. The worst affected villages are the teeth, participated in the attack under the police/para-military in the forest. Even Hariyal, Kotrapal, Pottenar, Jangla, the direct leadership of I.G. Ansari, Bijapur some relatives of the Mukhiya were killed Kondum, Karre Pondum, Of the six gang- SP, Manhar, and Mahendra Karma. in this massacre. That took place on Sept st raped and killed two were pregnant. The Expecting an attack most of the people had 1 . rest of the facts are still to come to light. already fled to the forest. They burnt down The method of conducting the On the main road to Byranmgad there 8 houses and killed and looted all the operations have been much the same, where are about 70 villages that have no direct chicken, pigs, and animals of the village. the IG of police/para-military has been touch with the revolutionary movement. It Meanwhile as two elderly villagers were directly involved. Hoards of police/para- was from these villages that some were returning to the village they were brutally military and goons attack a village. Most duped to take part in the Salwa Judum. killed by the CRPF and they shot at and villagers flee to the forests before hand. They Mahendra Karma and his hoodlums seriously injured an old woman. Then again then go on a rampage looting and burning organised ex-landlords, lumpen elements the police/para-military once again attacked anything that they get, killing all the animals th and those whose loot was ended by the Kotrapal on August 8 and killed three in the village. They burn the houses down movement, to gather people from these innocent peasants and raped four women. and beat and kill any that they may set eyes villages for the Salwa Judum. On Jun.18th But it was Haryal village which has been on. In the first week of August they launched about 3,000 people gathered. In the lead the centre of state anger. Situated just two such an attack on Mejjumendri village. along with Karma were Mukhiyas and a kms from the Mirtul PS in West Bastar, this Mahendra Karma based in nearby Karpa number of anti-social elements from Bel and village has been under white terror since village directly directed the attack. On July th Dharma villages. After the meeting about the past six months. But, they have not been 20 they attacked Pondum and Pallayvaya 1,000 were mobilised to attack nearby cowed down, though 10 people have been villages; on July 22 they attacked Munder th Kotrapal village. Anticipating this attack the massacred from this village alone. Taking village; on July 25 Phulgatta village; on th mass organisation leaders had cleared the refuge in the forests the villagers have been July 29 they attacked Karrebodli village. village of all elders and children. The rest fighting back. The Mukhiya of this village, In the month of August they virtually fully of the youth (both male and female) divided Doru Magu, who has been a target of the burnt down Majjimendri,Kotrapal, Mankel, themselves into two groups and lay in wait people’s movement was one of the leaders Munder, Pottem, Pullum, Alvur, Pedda with bow and arrows ready. As soon as the of the Salwa Judum. He spread the rumour Jojjer, Chinna Korma, etc. Reports of further goons launched their attack on the village that the villagers were to attack the PS and attacks in Oct. and after are still coming in. they let loose a volley of arrows killing three also showed the police/para-military where The police/para-military did not even th goons on the spot. While the gangs began they were staying in the jungle. The police/ spare small children. On August 26 as the to flee the villagers ran after them and para-military caught hold of 10 unarmed Naga forces were coming to attack Pottnar caught hold of 12 of the gang leaders. The ordinary villagers who were going to the village they were ambushed by the PLGA police/para-military, that also accompanied forest. Though they yelled that they were forces. While fleeing in fright they came this mob, also fled in fear. not members of the organisation they were across four people grazing cattle. They shot Angered by this action the police/para- put in a line and the fired upon. The police/ all four dead including a 12 year old boy. th military took out their venom on the para-military then announced that 10 On August 28 in the attack on Aakva Naxalites had been killed. Of these one was Kotrapal villagers and launched an inhuman Continued at page 17 PEOPLE'S MARCH, January 2006 Owned Printed & Published by P. Govindan Kutty, Peroor house, Thripunithura, N.F. Ernakulam, Kerala — 682 301, Printed at Chithira Printers, 63/321, Poruvelil, Kannachanthodu Road, Kochi — 18