Bastar: The Real Story

Newsclick interviewed Prof. Archana Prasad about an enquiry by police officials in Bastar district against Prof. Archana Prasad, Prof. Nandini Sundar and two other political party leaders, following their visit to villages in the region for research work.

Police officials in Bastar district in Chhattisgarh want to conduct an enquiry against Prof. Archana Prasad of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof. Nandini Sundar of the Delhi University and two other leaders from political parties following their visit to villages in the region for research work. The Police alleged that the group that visited the villages were trying to influence the villagers to support Maoists. 

Newsclick interviewed Prof. Archana Prasad about the incident. “The purpose of the visit was a fact finding one on various complaints about fake surrenders and atrocities by the state and Maoists,” she said.

Rough Transcript:

Pranjal: Hello and welcome to Newsclick. Professor Archana Prasad from Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Nalini Sundar from DU along with 2 other leaders from different political parties in Chattisgarh took a team for research in Bastar district, various complaints have been filed against them. To discuss this issue, we have with us Prof. Archana Prasad. Welcome to Newsclick. So there was a team of four of you which went to different villages in Bastar district. So what was the reason of this visit and what was the complaint that was lodged/

Archana Prasad (AP): The purpose of the visit was basically to do a fact finding of all the complaints that were coming in about fake surrenders and about atrocities by the state and also the Maoists. So we want to basically understand what is the ordinary tribal going through in that area in this confrontation between the Maoists and the state. So that was the basic purpose. Now, obviously, we visited, there were many visitors, I don't think we really want to name the visitors people over here, it will put them in some jeopardy.

Pranjal: The district collector of the Bastar has been circulating the facebook posts that they have received complaints.

AP: But this is totally incorrect. First of all you see, many of us have been visiting Bastar for the last 20-25 years. We have also written a lot on this. So anybody who knows us and our writing will laugh and even Maoists will not even own us. That's the whole point. The other point is that the district collector of Bastar has gone out of his way on a vilification campaign. The point is this that in Bastar, anybody who disagrees with the government is branded a Maoist.

Pranjal: Yeah, exactly because if I remember in the last 5-6 months, there has been a constant attack on a diferent civil rights activists, journalists have been put behind the bar. So Bastar has been turned into an open jail.

AP: It's not an open jail. It's aclosed jail because they want to isolate Bastar from rest of the country. That's one. So it's a big jail firstly. Secondly, I think we should understand that the impact of the Maoist state conflict has led to a civil war like situation within the villages and therefore, when the villagers are harassed by the Maoists, they look towards the police, the police basically induces them by all these Janjagran Abhiyans and handing them mobile phones, sarees and all those kind of stuff and then they make them SPOs. So one of the ideas of the surrender is that you become a Maoist, you surrender and then you get compensation and then you get a job. This is the situation in Bastar. There is utter joblessness, there is no work. People have not been paid for 8 or 9 years in MNREGS. If you raise MNREGS issues, like comrade Parate was saying that we should have an Andolan in MNREGS and he will be termed as a Maoists. It is well known that the BJP, central government and BJP as a whole has been touting Chattisgarh as a model government, specially on PDS and MNREGS. But if you go to Bastar, you get a totally different situation. I think one has to realize, that the villagers near the security camps and there are security camps in every 2-5 kms. The moment you enter Kondagaon, from there the security camps starts from the main road. What is interesting, what I found very interesting in this visit is that with the security camps you also have notice boards of which the VIshva Hindu Parishad and the RSS and the Bajrang Dal there in every one or two kilometers. They have a unit in every village. It is quite clear thst the right wing forces there corporates and the the security forces are working together in Chattisgarh. So obviously, the development is suffering. Development was what we call it development, not Raman Singh called development is suffering and villages near the main road, near the security camps get MNREGS PDS. But the villages inside, they don't have anything.

Pranjal: So these Maoists group have also been holding different local level courts in the area and have been punishing the both. The villagers on either on account of spying or not supporting them. So the villagers are actually you look is struck between the police administration and the Maoists.

AP: So that is the whole point of our pressures also. This is the whole point that I have been writing way back in 2011 I wrote it in Social Scientist article also called the political economy of the Maoist violence in Chattisgarh also where I actually pointed out that the repression of the state is mirrored by the Maoists and Maoists and the state violence is feeding into each other, they are strengthening each other and the villagers are getting basically stuck and devastated in the middle. The complaint for the village in which we went the village invited we go to that village. We went to that village because we heard that villagers have organized themselves against the Maoists. But when we went over there we found that the first village in Auxillary Police Force the people are meant to have protested against us. I am saying meant to have because the village was not even there.

Pranjal: Even the newspaper reports claim that they deny that they did not participate in any such protests.

AP: Pranjal, they are two villages. There are twin villagres there. Actually, in the Kumakolan village there are 101 households out of which there are only 35 left because of sort of displacement that is going on. Fear of the Maoists and Salvadujum type thing. Now, there is no Salvajudum because in 2011, the Supreme Court banned Salva Judum. The point is this that when you have Samajik Ekta Manch type of things now what is happened with this complaint? It is interesting. It has gone around threatening each and every person who went with us. They have been taping our phones since the day we entered Chattisgarh. But nobody has talked to us so far. When you have a complaint you usually take a statement of the person against whom you have the complaint. They have written to my University. My university has not acted. How can it act on a complaint that is not even in an FIR?

Pranjal: When you raise the issue of Salwajudum, there are various vigilante groups that are working in cooperation with the administration. Can you throw some light on them?

AP: See, the point is the Salwajudum and the SPOs are declared unlawful in 2011. Chattisgarh government brought in an ordinance in the same year saying that they will have Chattisgarh Auxiliary Police Force. Now, this Auxillary Police Force is actually the SPOs who now been called the police. So what do they do? They actually first go and arrest people. Last time we were there one of the villages, they came and arrested 40 people. We went to the Thana and we complained, where are these 40 people. These people were them termed Maoists 4 days later and then date of arrest was shown four days later. So these are the kinds of things going on. So you say okay, if you don't confess to be a surrendered Maoists, then we will put you in jail, we will start all kinds of cases against you and if you claim that you are a surrendered Maoist, you become an informer, then you get a job as an SPO. So the SPO works as a vigilante group and I have had one case when on record this time when one of the SPOs told a girl that you know this is the reward, he raped a girl and he quoted 'this is the reward for being the informer of the police'. I can do anything that I want to do.

Pranjal: So if we look at the current situation and the complaints that have been lodged, collector openly defying set norms and posting things on facebook. So what do you think what's the way ahead for the activists like you in Chattisgarh?

AP: The activists like us should not get scared. The main aim is to scare us so that we can not come anywhere. Why is the probe keeping on expanding everyday because they can't find anything against us. Comrade Parate said there is nothing, how can they find anything? So we have to now work towards getting the political establishment, all concerned political parties together to start a democratic process in Chattisgarh. This is the only answer to the conflict. We are convinced about this.

Pranjal: Thanks Archana for giving us your time and as the things proceed and as your report comes out, we will be coming back to you on this issue again.

AP: Thank you.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for Newsclick are typed from a recording of the program. Newsclick cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.