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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Enemies of the state? by G Vishnu

Enemies of the state? by G Vishnu

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published Published on Jan 8, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 8, 2011

In the end, Gangula Tadangi succumbed to tuberculosis. The Kondh Adivasi’s life could have been saved if he had made it to the hospital on time. But he was in judicial custody at Koraput district jail in southern Odisha for allegedly “waging war against the Indian State”. During his last moments, Tadangi, 25, is said to have whispered something in Kondh. But nobody could make out anything because no one understood his language.

Tadangi wasn’t the only one. Fellow prisoner Ratnus Sirika, 39, died of internal injuries in the same hospital. Both were in custody because they had “connections” with the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh (CMAS), which started a movement 25 years ago to fight for land rights and against oppression by OBC and SC landlords.

In 2009, Tehelka reported about the death of two Adivasis when the police opened fire at a 200-strong CMAS crowd who were protesting against combing operations and police harassment (The After Kill Of Narayanpatna, 26 December 2009). Around 60 people were injured in the incident. Four months later, Tehelka carried an investigation (Their Crime Was They Were Boys, 17 April, 2010) in Narayanpatna into the arrest and torture of 15 juveniles – as young as 13 – for “waging war against the State”. A year later, Tehelka found that the situation has become worse. Late into the night on 20 November, the Bhubaneshwar-bound Hirakhand Express was stopped inside a tunnel. Travelling in the reserved compartments were 42 Adivasi youth who were on their way to the capital for a seminar on ‘Cultural Resistance: war on people in corporate interest’. (The seminar held on 21 November made it to the headlines after ABVP activists heckled the chief guest, Arundhati Roy). However, what happened inside the train did not make it to the media outlets outside the state.

“Once the train was stopped, policemen in mufti boarded it. Men who had Adivasi features were taken to another bogie. The men were beaten up and later arrested at the Rayagada railway station,” says seminar organiser Lenin Kumar Ray, who is also the editor of Nishan, a left-wing magazine. “Nineteen out of the 42 youth were released after a couple of days. The rest are still in custody. Six of them are village pastors whose Bibles have been seized.”

Odisha has spent around Rs 58 crore to tackle Maoists. On 29 November, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik claimed that 78 rebels had been killed and 1,433 arrested in the past 10 years. However, he seems to have forgotten the human rights abuses that have gone into achieving these figures. In Koraput, where CMAS sympathisers have been at the receiving end of the police’s wrath, conservative estimates place the number of arrests under 121, 121(A) and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) at around 235. “Nailing sympathisers, informers and couriers is always a challenge,” says a high-ranking police officer on condition of anonymity. “But the UAPA has been a boon. We get to hold the suspects for 180 days before presenting them in court. We can nail them without causing inconvenience to ordinary Adivasis. We have already nabbed around 120 CMAS and 60 Maoist cadres in the past six months.”

“The CMAS has 20,000 members in two districts. They have sympathisers in every Adivasi village. Their democratic movement has been painted as an armed movement that wages war against the State,” says Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, a Koraput-based lawyer who is representing some of the boys who were arrested on 20 November. “Several charges have been slapped against them but there are no credible witnesses who will testify against them.”

If one were to go by the words of the police officer who wants to nail every CMAS member, this means 20,000 more arrests to be made. With approximately 35,000 sympathisers in just two districts, the state will have to essentially cleanse the Adivasi villages of men, hoping women will be spared. In their apprehensions too, the police hit high notes – the intelligence agencies strongly believe that the Maoists want to turn Narayanpatna into a Lalgarh style liberated zone.

In order to find out who are these people who should be arrested for ‘waging war against the state’ TEHELKA travelled to villages around Koraput, Semiliguda and Narayanpatna blocks. A bike ride for 6 km and a 3 km hike through the hills from Damanjodi police station is Kalabari, a Kondh Adivasi village. Of the 23 boys arrested, seven hail from Damanjodi.

The December rain has washed away the season’s crops along with the only road that leads to the village. The village square has a flag pole, where the local school teacher comes twice a year to hoist the tricolour. However, none of the villagers have a clue of what and when the Independence Day is.

Lingu Saunte, one of the 23 arrested, has four children aged under 10. Saunte’s family is yet to visit him in prison because of the fear of getting arrested. “Though we are alive today, we can’t do anything about our son,” says his mother Malthi. “Lingu did not tell us why he was going. He never picked up any arms. He was not part of any organisation.”

The family of Koibalya Muduli, a Poroja Adivasi who hails from the neighbouring village of Poroja Chalar, have similar fears. “They will arrest us too,” says Bijoy, Muduli’s 17-year-old son.

Bodomanjari, a Kondh Adivasi village, is a CMAS stronghold. “We have links with the CMAS but not these boys. Their only fault was that they are our kids,” claims Hanak Tadangi, 35, a local pastor. Among the arrested, three men - Sada Tadangi, 25, Surei Tadangi, 18 and Balaram Pangi, 26 - belong to this village.

The villagers collected Rs 5,000 to pay the lawyer who is defending the boys. Everyone knows the families will be left to fend for themselves soon. Parents who have visited their children complain that the boys are tortured in prison. “After the Chasi Mulia Samiti was banned in 2006 they regrouped as the CMAS. By the end of 2008, their democratic means ended paving the way for massive violence and demolition of OBC and SC houses,” says YJ Rao, DSP (operations), Koraput. “It is not true that Adivasis support CMAS. In the last year Maoists/CMAS have killed seven persons – contractors and police informers – six of whom were tribals.” The DSP goes on to reveal that there are nearly 250 more warrants pending on CMAS members with 45 cases.

Most of the OBCs and SCs were contractors under the British during the Raj days. With the help of alcohol, the Adivasi lands were allegedly usurped deceitfully by the money-lenders and liquor vendors.

“The story of the CMAS is strikingly similar to that of the movement’s anti-hero: Nachika Linga,” says a CPML (New Democracy) leader on the condition of anonymity. “Born into an Adivasi family, Linga was a bonded labourer working for an OBC landlord. One day, he ran away and laboured in Andhra Pradesh. Years later, he returned and snatched his land back.”

Linga’s act of rebellion became the stuff of legend, which provoked similar deeds in Koraput and Malkangiri districts. “By the mid-1980s, the movement’s formula was simple: forceful acquisition of land, immediate redistribution and cultivation. In 1996, Linga was arrested under several charges. His release in 1998 marked the militant phase of the movement, but not alignment with Maoists,” adds the underground leader, who had a major role to play in the CMAS not too long ago.

“The entry of CPML(ND) gave it a much stronger political backbone. Gananath Patro and Srikanth Mohanty were mighty ideologues to the CAMS,” says a human rights activist. “However, mutual differences led to factionalism and eventual disaster that has gripped the Adivasi movement now.”

In the debate over means and ends of the fight for land rights, there is a disturbing lack of clarity. In the cacophony of allegations, there also are voices of 674 Dalit families who were forced to flee the villages as violence and demolition of houses increased day by day. Some of these families used to be the landlords – some exploitative whereas some others held on to the land without cultivating it. A year after their exodus, nearly 329 Dalits have been camped at various places in the outskirts of Koraput town and Laxmipore – in subhuman conditions.

The ‘Soil Conservation Camp’ is the biggest and houses 200 people. An overwhelming stench of human waste assaults your senses constantly at every corner. People are forced to use every inch of space to sleep at night, including the toilets. There is anger and resentment, but most of the refugees do not harbour hatred for the Adivasis. “People say that Linga is responsible for our condition. We are all living life of pigs away from our village,” says Sabita Bidika, 25. “It’s been a year and we are still waiting for our Adivasi brethren to call us back.”

Two days before Tehelka left Koraput, two more youth were reportedly arrested and the Maoists shot dead an informer. As Tadangi must have realised in his final moments, the problem here is that hardly anyone understands the other’s language.

 

Names of those arrested on 20 November

Narayanpatna police station limits

Mundru Bingadika, 28

Sipan Pujari, 22

Sanjib Madangi, 28

Ranjit Khosla, 35

Sukri Tadangi, 20

Sabana Tadangi, 30

Sembu Sirika, 21

Binod Sirika, 24

Sukru Sirika, 24

Mohan Mandangi, 20

Phula Nagbansa, 21

Lingu Saunte

Semiliguda police station limits

Sada Tadangi, 25

Sure Tadangi, 18

Balaram Pangi, 26

Damanjodi police station limits

Tiliya Pujari, 18

Koibalya Muduli, 30

Lukanath Saunta, 19

Saheb Saunta, 35

Kauru Sisa, 25

Lingu Saunta, 35

Mosa Jani, 25

Potangi police station limits

Rajub Madangi, 25

*Except one SC, the rest of them are Adivasis

Tehelka, 7 January, 2011, http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ws070111ODISHA.asp


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