People's war

Even as people are killed by naxalites, a popular movement against them is gaining momentum in parts of Chhattisgarh.

PURNIMA S. TRIPATHI in Dantewada

CHHATTISGARH is witnessing an unprecedented and unique mobilisation of people against naxalite violence. Called Salwa Judum (people's movement), it was initiated in late 2004 and has armed villagers roaming the jungles and patrolling the roads in search of naxalites and guarding potential targets of attack. Sometimes security personnel accompany Salwa Judum members, but mostly they are on their own. The level of popular support is evident from the fact that the movement is backed by both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress - it is led by Congress Legislature Party leader Mahendra Karma.

An increasing number of people are associating themselves with Salwa Judum despite the threat of naxalite retaliation and the fact that once they become activists they have to leave their villages and stay in relief camps. Entire villages are being vacated because even family members of activists do not feel safe there and prefer to shift to these camps.

The exodus began after the killing of 29 villagers in a mine explosion on February 28 near Konta village in Dantewada district. The villagers were returning from a Salwa Judum camp at nearby Dornapal. According to survivors, while 10 to 12 villagers were killed in the blast, the rest were killed with swords by the naxalites. More than 50 people sustained injuries in the attack. After the attack, the naxalites abducted a villager. His body was later recovered from Inzerram near Konta on March 4, with a letter attached to his shirt. The letter warned the villagers against participating in Salwa Judum and ordered them to return to their houses.

The incident spread panic among villagers and so far over 50,000 have fled their homes and are living in camps in Dantewada district and adjoining Bijapur district. Senior police officers and even Chief Minister Raman Singh admit that naxalite violence has increased after Salwa Judum started operations, but adds there is no other way out to fight the extremists. Raman Singh said: "The ultras drew their strength from the people. If we have to tackle this problem, the villagers themselves have to rise against them. We will try our best to provide them security but this is our ultimate weapon to fight them after all else has failed." Besides, Raman Singh said, if the people, fed up with violence over the past 15 years, now had realised that they were on the wrong side of the fence, it was a good signal. "If we lose this opportunity to root out naxalism, we will never get another," he said.

Mahendra Karma agrees. He said: "There is no other way to tackle the naxalite menace. I do not care what my critics say. This is a people's problem and being a people's representative, I have to fight for their problems." He was alluding to criticism within his own party. The Congress, as usual, is divided on the issue. Some of its State leaders have held the Chief Minister responsible for the death of many villagers in naxalite violence.

Importantly, the villagers who are part of Salwa Judum are not scared. Instead, they are full of hope that the movement will pave the way for a peaceful future for their children even if they lose their lives in the process. This correspondent visited three camps - Dornapal where 5,600 tribal people from 26 adjoining villages are staying; Errabore, where over 1,000 people have taken shelter; and Konta, where over 15,000 villagers are staying. During an extensive interaction, not even one villager said he or she was afraid of naxalites. In fact, they have become so used to violence that the fear factor does not matter now.

"Earlier too we were getting killed by naxalites. Now at least we have the consolation that we will die fighting," said Shyam Singh Sinna of Dubbatota village at the Dornapal relief camp. Sinna, who left behind his wife and three children to join Salwa Judum, said what motivated him was the hope that it would lead to peace in the area and a better future for his children. "Even if I get killed, my children will be safer and better off," he said. Hinga Tollai, Kutturam Deva Tatrai and Soyam Mokka expressed similar feelings. Tollai and Tatrai said they had been members of a dalam (the core group of naxalites) and had participated in some killings but got fed up with violence and now wanted to lead a peaceful life.

Interestingly, there were many girls too who wanted to join Salwa Judum and had come to Dornapal. Soryam Raje, like Tollai and Tatrai, was a dalam member and used to go around with Maoists singing revolutionary songs. She too wanted to get back to normal life and hence was in Salwa Judum. Similarly, other girls such as Madkam Adme, Kottam Chinge and Kottam Lachchi, all in their teens, had fled the dalam to join Salwa Judum. For all of them, it was the only hope of coming back to a peaceful and normal life. At Konta camp too, people had similar stories to tell.

Apparently, the naxalites have been rattled by the growing number of villagers associating themselves with Salwa Judum. This is reflected in the sudden spurt in attacks. On March 4, naxalites blew up a portion of the Bhansi railway station in Dantewada district and attacked a railway engine. It was the first such attack on railway property. "This obviously shows their desperation," said the Chief Minister. They also attacked villagers near Bansagudda in the early morning on March 5, killing eight people and injuring over 40. The naxalites took 15 hostages, whose whereabouts are not yet known. Pamphlets warning villagers against participating in Salwa Judum were recovered from all the sites of attack. Even human rights groups such as the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) admit that the spurt in attacks shows the naxalites' desperation to assert their supremacy. "These senseless killings are unfortunate and must stop and both sides should sit down to talk and find a way to peace," said Vinayak Sen, a PUCL activist in Raipur.

Raman Singh, however, remains convinced that Salwa Judum is the only way in which the naxalite problem can be solved. He has a rehabilitation package for those participating in Salwa Judum. "I have 70,000 land pattas ready to give them the moment the Centre passes the Tribal Land Rights Bill. Besides, I can give them employment for 250 to 300 days a year with help from various government schemes. Then there are other welfare packages. In three years, if I keep getting people's support, I will change the face of Bastar," he says. For the moment, he said, able-bodied members of Salwa Judum would be given arms training and employed as special police officers on a salary of Rs.1,500 a month. The rest would be employed as labourers. Raman Singh said that while about 1,000 pucca houses were ready for those displaced, over 2,000 more would be built in a few months so that these people can be relocated in groups at one place.

Counter-insurgency experts agree that policing or military action alone cannot solve the naxalite problem. No matter how effective such action is, it will have to be accompanied by socio-economic development. "This has to be a militarily, politically, administratively, economically and psychologically synchronised action," said Brigadier (retd) B.K. Ponwar, who has been brought in to set up a counter-terrorism and jungle warfare college at Kanker in Chhattisgarh, on the lines of the Grey Hound Academy in Andhra Pradesh.

According to Ponwar, Salwa Judum is an exceptionally good idea because when people turn against naxalites, their main support base is eroded. Then it would become easier for the police to tackle it. "I'm here to teach the policeman to fight the guerilla like a guerilla," he said.

He has already trained 600 Chhattisgarh policemen and 600 others from Orissa and Jharkhand, the two other States that face the naxalite problem.