The gap between the last post and this one is nothing short of worrying for me, given the impressive speed at which I had clocked the first couple of articles on this blog. However, this is hardly my fault, the imputation of guilt lies with the attention mongering ex-girlfriend who seems incapable of taking the cue from my many intimations and the brouhaha over the Boson-Higgs particle muddling my capacity to think. However, there is a far more pertinent reason for the delay. I had made up my mind that the next post would be on an issue very close to my heart: that of left-wing extremism, and it was the attack in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh last week that firmed up my mind, and given the nebulous nature of the aforementioned police operation, I thought it would be prudent to wait till things cleared up a little; as they eventually did, with even the Union Home Minster having to retract his initial response to the operation.
The incident in question relates to a joint police operation of the Central Reserve Police Force and the state police forces on the intervening night of the 28th and 29th of June in Sarkeiguda, Bijapur district, in which the CRPF claims to have neutralized twenty purported 'maoists'. The entire operation including the intent remains clouded in mystery, with an array of conflicting versions proffered by the Chhattisgarah Government, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Congress Party. After receiving intelligence that senior 'maoist' leaders planned to hold a meeting in Basaguda on the night of the 28th, the security forces formed three different teams with the intention of converging on Basaguda from three different directions, the strategy being to deny the 'maoists' an avenue for escape. But en route to Basaguda, one of the teams came under attack at Kotteguda Panchayat in Sarkeiguda, about five kilometers from Basaguda. In the subsequent retaliation, twenty 'maoists' were killed by the security forces. This remains the official stand of the MHA and the Chhattisgarh government. However, within hours of the operation emerged several reports that among those who had been killed the majority were civilians and even a few school students and women had been gunned down.
Three days later, the Chhattisgarh Congress, which sits in the Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, sent a delegation of eleven members to Sarkeiguda. Led by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture Charandas Mahant, the delegation toured Kotteguda and interacted with the villagers in the Basaguda area. In the press conference that followed, they dared to flagrantly contradict the position of the Union Home Minister who had earlier praised the forces for their courage and skill. The delegation dubbed the incident a 'completely fake encounter' and the victims 'innocent adivasis'. It went on to suggest that the Union Home Minister was mistaken and that he had been misinformed. It is likely that the comments were driven by a sense of expediency and are exaggerated, but at the nub of these claims there lies an element of truth. The government response was that if there were indeed civilians, who fired at the CRPF and how are the bullet wounds of half a dozen soldiers explained? As if to make things worse, a couple of days later the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Kishore Chandra Deo adopted the version of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee and went a step further to say that he had received concrete reports from sources other than the PCC that of the twenty persons gunned down, half were teenagers and a child who sustained injuries was just four years old. “If those killed were ‘extremists’,” Mr. Deo asked, “then why were most of them unarmed? No arms were recovered from them. The first principle of counter-insurgency is that you don’t shoot unarmed people.” The CRPF then ordered an internal inquiry into the encounter and yesterday, on the 5th of July, the Union Home Minister 'apologized' for the death of all civilians in the encounter. This admission of guilt belies the initial claim that all those present were cadres of the Communist Party of India(Maoist) and that there were indeed more than a few civilians who had been shot in cold-blood. The CRPF on its part said in a statement that seven of the deceased had been identified by the Bijapur district police as maoists, and insisting the encounter wasn't a mistake. The incident is profoundly symptomatic of the deep chasm that exists within the government in respect to our approach to left-wing extremism, but at a far more portentous trajectory, it is also symbolic of the Indian state's incoherent policy towards combating naxalism.
(Since I do not have the stamina to write more than three paragraphs in one sitting, this shall be followed up by a second concluding piece tomorrow. Also, pardon the loquacity.)
The incident in question relates to a joint police operation of the Central Reserve Police Force and the state police forces on the intervening night of the 28th and 29th of June in Sarkeiguda, Bijapur district, in which the CRPF claims to have neutralized twenty purported 'maoists'. The entire operation including the intent remains clouded in mystery, with an array of conflicting versions proffered by the Chhattisgarah Government, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Congress Party. After receiving intelligence that senior 'maoist' leaders planned to hold a meeting in Basaguda on the night of the 28th, the security forces formed three different teams with the intention of converging on Basaguda from three different directions, the strategy being to deny the 'maoists' an avenue for escape. But en route to Basaguda, one of the teams came under attack at Kotteguda Panchayat in Sarkeiguda, about five kilometers from Basaguda. In the subsequent retaliation, twenty 'maoists' were killed by the security forces. This remains the official stand of the MHA and the Chhattisgarh government. However, within hours of the operation emerged several reports that among those who had been killed the majority were civilians and even a few school students and women had been gunned down.
Three days later, the Chhattisgarh Congress, which sits in the Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, sent a delegation of eleven members to Sarkeiguda. Led by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture Charandas Mahant, the delegation toured Kotteguda and interacted with the villagers in the Basaguda area. In the press conference that followed, they dared to flagrantly contradict the position of the Union Home Minister who had earlier praised the forces for their courage and skill. The delegation dubbed the incident a 'completely fake encounter' and the victims 'innocent adivasis'. It went on to suggest that the Union Home Minister was mistaken and that he had been misinformed. It is likely that the comments were driven by a sense of expediency and are exaggerated, but at the nub of these claims there lies an element of truth. The government response was that if there were indeed civilians, who fired at the CRPF and how are the bullet wounds of half a dozen soldiers explained? As if to make things worse, a couple of days later the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Kishore Chandra Deo adopted the version of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee and went a step further to say that he had received concrete reports from sources other than the PCC that of the twenty persons gunned down, half were teenagers and a child who sustained injuries was just four years old. “If those killed were ‘extremists’,” Mr. Deo asked, “then why were most of them unarmed? No arms were recovered from them. The first principle of counter-insurgency is that you don’t shoot unarmed people.” The CRPF then ordered an internal inquiry into the encounter and yesterday, on the 5th of July, the Union Home Minister 'apologized' for the death of all civilians in the encounter. This admission of guilt belies the initial claim that all those present were cadres of the Communist Party of India(Maoist) and that there were indeed more than a few civilians who had been shot in cold-blood. The CRPF on its part said in a statement that seven of the deceased had been identified by the Bijapur district police as maoists, and insisting the encounter wasn't a mistake. The incident is profoundly symptomatic of the deep chasm that exists within the government in respect to our approach to left-wing extremism, but at a far more portentous trajectory, it is also symbolic of the Indian state's incoherent policy towards combating naxalism.
(Since I do not have the stamina to write more than three paragraphs in one sitting, this shall be followed up by a second concluding piece tomorrow. Also, pardon the loquacity.)
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