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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The govt, not Maoists, obstructs rural development schemes by Sankar Ray

The govt, not Maoists, obstructs rural development schemes by Sankar Ray

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published Published on Sep 26, 2011   modified Modified on Sep 26, 2011

Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, lacking sportsman’s spirit, has stuck to his post like Dendrite paste, despite a series of failures in combating secessionist insurgencies including the armed offensive led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist). He parrots Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and considers Maoists to be “the most formidable challenge to governance.”

“Only if villagers think that the real adversary is the Naxal who keeps them under threat will the battle be won,” he said recently.

The minister said state governments can do a lot to bridge the ‘trust deficit’ in Maoist-hit areas and suggested that chief ministers and ministers should spend more time in these areas and allocate more resources.

The Planning Commission bluntly told the minister that Maoists do not obstruct implementation of rural development schemes in ‘integrated action plan districts’, confirming the shelved findings and recommendations of the 16-member expert group set up by Yojona Bhavan on ‘Development Issues to deal with the causes of Discontent, Unrest and Extremism’ in May 2006 under D Bandyopadhyay, now a Rajya Sabha MP from the Trinamool Congress.

A bright and unimpeachably honest officer, Bandyopadhyay, a former Union revenue secretary, was the real author of ILO-applauded Operation Barga, introduced by the CPI(M)-led Left Front government in 1978. The areas where Left Wing Extremism or Maoism thrives, the report, submitted in early 2007, revealed, ‘are minimally administered. State interventions both for development and for law and order had been fairly low. In fact, there is a kind of vacuum of administration in these areas, which is being exploited by the armed movement, giving some illusory protection and justice to the local population. The basic steps required in this direction include establishment of credibility and confidence of government; keeping a continuous vigil for fulfilment of people’s vision; effective protection, peace and good governance; rejuvenating tribal economy including social services; sustainable development with equity in tribal areas; holistic planning from below in scheduled areas; and negotiating crises by focusing on ending of confrontation. (italics author’s).’

No endeavour was made for ‘holistic planning from below in scheduled areas’ as the government looks after the predatory interests of mining and construction companies. So Chidambaram reposed an unflinching faith on the power of repression, never caring to understand why there had been no law and order problem in those regions for at least 45 years since Independence.

The Bandyopadhyay panel candidly inferred, ‘what goes in the name of “Naxalism” is to a large extent a product of collective failure to assure to different segments of society their basic entitlements under the Constitution and other protective legislation. There is also no denying that the nation is now caught in a vicious circle of violence and counter-violence.’

The panel suggested in a philanthropic note that there be ‘a will to ensure that every man, woman and child gets his/her legal rights and entitlements in order to make each one feel that he or she is an integral part of the Indian nation.’

The home minister admits to ‘trust deficit’ in Maoist-hit areas but does so disingenuously. Rather he endorsed the illegal and unethical way of the BJP-led Chhattisgarh government to snatch land from the adivasis. Noted Gandhian crusader for the mute and repressed adivasis, Himansu Kumar, narrated at a seminar in Kolkata recently how the rulebook for acquisition of land under the adivasi community lays down sequential steps prior to acquisition — gram sabha approval of the proposal in the presence of the collector (no police or paramilitary staff/officer should be there), endorsement by the legislature and payment of agreed compensation-cum-rehabilitation.

“All this is booted down,” Kumar said. “The DC and the SP with gunmen around force villagers to put thumb impressions and take arbitrarily fixed compensation. In the morning, the adivasi was a land owner and in the afternoon he is dispossessed. If in the evening, a Maoist gives him a gun and assures him to fight for his cause, and if the hapless and illiterate adivasi takes up the gun, should we accuse him of turning into an armed Naxalite,” Kumar queried.

— The writer is a veteran journalist & commentator, specialising in left politics and environment

DNA, 26 September, 2011, http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_sankar-ray-the-govt-not-maoists-obstructs-rural-development-schemes_1591573


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