OPERATION GREEN HUNT- Jungle laws for excesses

OPERATION GREEN HUNT- Jungle laws for excesses
(Madan Menon Thottasseri)
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The report: “Lanka has given government an ‘oppression’ model” on the ‘Operation Green Hunt’, is the armed offensive launched against tribals in the Chahattisgarh state, as if the government has taken a cue from the Sri Lanka’s war tactics against the Tamil, accused the Activist-Film maker Gopal Menon. He is doing a documentary film on atrocities by security forces wherein the state has declared war on innocent tribal people. Recently he had screened a 10 minute trailer to the Press in Chennai on his documentary depicting police-excesses in the name of fighting Maoists.

The trailer showed covered the chilling vignettes of a one-year-old child, whose four fingers were chopped off by the security forces comprising the CRPF and police. The child’s mother, Katam Kani (20), was killed after her breast was cut off. The narration of a gang rape victim and an elderly man, who was hung upside down and tortured, inside a police station, were also touching episodes. Gopal Menon said “When I landed in Chhattisgarh to document the problem, the police didn’t allow me inside the forest. I was taken to various places in a police jeep for six hours before they let me free”. Thus he could not continue to document more testimonies.

Upon reading the press reports on the above, I thought of blogging to express my opinions on the same.

The Chhattisgarh State was formed to protect the interests of tribal communities in the hilly region. The very purpose of forming a new state was to shift the administrative machinery to the reach of tribals while disintegrating the power of democracy centered only around elite communities in urban areas.

It is a disgrace to the state government to embark on a war against the whole tribal community ostensibly to eliminate Maoists. Where are the saviors of democracy hailing from the state who clamored for formation of the state only for the tribal welfare? What a shame to India when people in the state are on their heels to a neighboring state as refugees.

The national government's Home Ministry should immediately come with a peace-pact with the fighting Maoists and reconcile issues with a clear mindset for reaching solutions and not simply act as a mute spectator for intensifying calamities. Probably the Maoists must have used the poor tribal communities as a shield to attack the administration and police and that does not justify in the police excesses on the underprivileged tribal communities a very atrocious way. Will this brig laurels to our political democracy which has a high esteem in the global arena of Human Rights?

I would like to advice the Film Maker to seek legal action against the state government if he encounter difficulties in establishing contacts with victims of atrocities against the people, for documentation of facts .Of course he can seek justice from judiciary as we have many laws to prevent any governmental restriction to have an interface with victims of all kinds of abuse, violence, mortification etc even if such things are purportedly committed by the government machinery itself in disguise, pursuance to any governmental order or law established under the constitution.

Where ever there are issues with tribals, the concerned state government should apply caution and deploy the genius of ’well meaning people’ to initiate meaningful dialogues. Many State governments are unfriendly to tribal communities and poor tribals are denied of their eligible rights and various concessions for education or employment exclusively reserved for them. There is no concerted target oriented approach to rehabilitate the tribal communities who were thrown out of their traditional vocations mainly due to unauthorized deforestations and attack by land grabbers etc.

Even in Kerala where tribal communities get assistance from the refined, educated and prudent mainstream societies wherein people come forward to put forth the demands on behalf of the marginalized people, discrimination by government officials against the poor tribal people are not uncommon. It is a fact that the tribal communities have to be trained for gainful employment in other sectors if they are not adequately compensated by their traditional vocations or displaced due to termination of traditional vocations for want of resources connected with the same. At the same time the tribal leaders should not have a pre-emptive sort of hostility towardsadministration and police when they come forward for truce and dialogue for peace. That is the way they have promote them self to the main stream and coming out of self-imposed isolation.

The news reports on recent upsurge in naxal attacks proved that there is mafia in disguise with vested interests manipulating Politics, Money and Hooliganism for indoctrination of tribal communities under the banner of fighting injustice. Actually Maoists won in congregating tribal people only because of atrocities done by liquor and forest produce contractors with the connivance of forest department officials , staff and elected members of local bodies of state governments etc.

As pointed out by Mr.B.G.Varghese in his Article :“Dialogue with Maoists” by G.G.Varghese, New Indian Express dt. November 12,2009, the developmental strategy should be to promote and add value to traditional tribal activities and can offer stakeholder participation through PESA. It is a ignominy to our democracy that neglected the Fifth Schedule and Panchayats’ Extension to Scheduled Areas ASct,1996( PESA) ; the reports from the so called Tribal Advisory Councils are seldom presented to Parliament and not debated at all! None of M.Ps, few hailing from or representing tribal communities bothered to bring to notice at Parliament?


Can we get enacted the Tribal Forest Rights Act and simultaneously sternly comply with the provisions of Fifth Schedule and PESA?
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