Skip to main content

Concerted, organised civil rights stir is lacking against Operation Kagar

By Harsh Thakor* 

The entire country has been engulfed with barbaric oppression, with unparalleled destruction of constitutional organs for the past ten years. The emergency of 1975-77 has been more than ressurected by the present regime. and more repressive than the post-liberalisation period ushered in by PV Narasimha Rao. Neo-fascsim has been on ascendancy, as never before.
When two revolutionary parties merged to form the CPI-Maoist, PM in 2009 declared that “Naxalites are the biggest threat to internal security. It was the precursor of unprecedented military campaign in the name of Operation Green Hunt .Operation Kagar even if being an offshoot of is even more merciless than Operation Green hunt, with aim to establish a Corporate Hindu Rashtra.
Dandakaranya, sowed seeds for a wave of social upheavals and cultural experiments imperative, for India. It has witnessed waves of unparalleled violence for four decades. However at this juncture, in Operation Kagar (The Final Mission), with deployment of more than a hundred thousand paramilitary forces supported by drones, helicopters, and satellite surveillance, war of aggression has scaled a boiling point, unprecedented, turning into genocide. Operation Kagar is staged to be the final nail in the coffin to wipe out it’s most powerful adversary in the quest for establishment of the Corporate Hindutva state.

Background

The BJP is working to win for the third time in the General Elections. The installation of Ram in Ayodhya, the introduction of CAA to completely marginalise the Muslims from their own land, and attempts to bring a Uniform Civil Code by the saffron government to legalise the Hindu Brahmanical culture planted the seeds to turn India into a Brahminical Hindutva fascist state. On the economic front, all trade, business services, and natural wealth are being placed at the mercy of corporatisation. War on Dandakaranya is part and parcel ofr this very goal.
Militarization in Central India is integrated with corporatization and the penetration of large companies into India’s rich forests. Under the pretext or garb of combating the Maoists, these operations form a leeway for the loot of the country’s natural resources by large foreign corporations.
The reactionary state and its corporate accomplices and imperialist countries drool over Abujhmaad as it is considered to be one of the last places in India that has not been plundered and the forest remains protected.
Patronising the monopoly of finance capital, wearing the garb of constitutional democracy; this war aims to capture or plunder natural resources to mega-corporations. Relentless resistance in Dandakaranya against the large-scale corporatisation of its natural wealth beneath the earth provoked the rulers to convert Dandakaranya into one of the most intensive military zones. For over 3 decades. The government considers the Adivasi movement a thorn in the flesh to their corporatisation objectives. Ironically, the seizure of the so-called remotest areas has become a pivotal problem for the Centre.
After the Abhuj Maad incident, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that “the Maoist movement was the biggest enemy of development and they would liberate the country soon.” It expresses that the Maoist movement as the most potent threat among the existing mass movements rising against corporatisation in the country. The Central government’s slogans – “We will liberate the country from the Maoist movement and hand over the country’s wealth to the corporate”– reflect the same. The present Operation Kagar, though part of Operation Samadhan-Prahar, which started in 2017 is in a qualitative sense a different type of military campaign.
Mainstream media and even the alternative media are camouflaging or keeping deep silence on these genocides. Media personnel are distorting truth by stating that armed forces are killing tribal people out of panic.

BJP Offensive 

Immediately after the BJP grabbed power in Chhattisgarh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, stated the Maoist movement will be eradicated completely; and State Home Minister Vijay Sharma was ready to talk with the Maoists. Inspite of two contradictory views from the state, but they served a single purpose. One was complete extermination. So, hundreds of thousands of CRPF BSF, and other local forces were moved to Dandakaranya. The second was the call for negotiations. The conditions laid down for the talks were for causing no obstruction to the construction of roads and mining in the forest area.
Within no time, six base camps were set up in one Maad area in direct violation of favourable conditions assured.
Instead of finding a political solution to the conflict. the government shamelessly acted on behest of the corporates and proposed negotiations to safeguard the prospects of mining barons.
The BJP government made all these preparations in a most explosive fashion. On New Years Day, the security forces attacked Muddum village, near Gangalur, in the Bijapur district, and killed a toddler- Mangli- in the lap of her mother while she was being breastfed. On April 2, 13 Maoists were killed in an encounter at Korcholi in Bijapur district Four months into this year, 80 adivasis and revolutionaries were murdered in cold blood the name of encounters.
On April 16, 29 revolutionaries, including at least 12 women, were killed in an attack in a joint operation by the BSF]and the State police in the Maad area. It was part of a new war called Operation Kagar [Final Mission] by the Central Government. The North Block in Delhi deployed maximum forces to Dandakaranya [official figures -80,000] to capture the Abuzmad [Unknown Maad] area.
Aerial bombing was also carried out for the fifth time on January 13 as a continuation of the aerial attacks carried out by the previous Congress government Before embarking on this final battle, Amit Shah stated that the next General Elections would be held in the country liberated of Maoists meaning that his forces would completely extinguish the Maoists from the face map of India by 2024. The RSS’ official press announced that 2047 was the goal of realising the Hindu state. The Maoist movement is a thorn in the flesh of their ‘New India’ and the establishment of a Hindu state. The Sangh Parivar wants the Hindu Rashtra based on Hindutva and an aggressive political and economic foundation. Thus the Centre is giving making intensive war preparations and spending more than a lakh crores rupees in the budget to wipe out revolutionary movement completely.

Conclusion

As long as the revolutionary movement unfolds, it is not possible for such a ‘New India’ on the lines of corporate Hindutva, to be established.Central India has hosted at least fourteen major mass struggles in the last three years. These political and economic struggles are sprouting save forests, water, and lands. Millions of people have been relentlessly waging a battle against lack of bridges and roads, ill effects of mining and tourism, propaganda of Hindutva, and anti-farmer, unconstitutional laws. Governments at the Centre and the states were made to shiver in their spine and feeling that the previous Samadhan operation could not check the escalating mass movement inducted Misssion Kagar by equipping security.
The PLGA and CPI (Maoist) were the principal guides to the Adivasis in Abujhmaad in their life and death struggle for the environment, their land and livelihood. The Maoist party  has published a most illustrative and positive statement to spark people’s resistance from every sphere. However still there has to be integration of mainstream movement. A concerted or organised civil liberties or democratic rights movement is lacking, like in Andhra Pradesh in yesteryears or Punjab, in recent times, which significantly confronted state repression.
It is imperative now for the Maoists to act or work within the manifold of mainstream movements the day to day struggles of the people and not subject them to the dictate of armed squads. The Maoists have not sufficiently integrated in mass mobilisation of people, particularly the urban working class and failed to build a broad united front. It has not built genuine mass revolutionary resistance to combat the neo-fascist genocide of the Saffron BJP party and even in protests failed to recruit the people at large. Nor has it spurred the civil rights movement. Rarely to we witness genuine mass based protests of tribals or people at large.
It is always fresh in memory that what principally combated precursor of Kagar genocide, Operation Greenhunt, was the Democratic Front against Operation Greenhunt in Punjab and not the CPI(Maoist) armed activities .It is imperative for mass conventions or rallies to be held all over the country, particularly linking to urban working class. Today many democratic forums like Campaign against state repression are not successful in establishing link with working class.
---
*Freelance journalist. Thanks information from Red Herald and Virasam

Comments

TRENDING

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Where’s the urgency for the 2,000 MW Sharavati PSP in Western Ghats?

By Shankar Sharma*  A recent news article has raised credible concerns about the techno-economic clearance granted by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for a large Pumped Storage Project (PSP) located within a protected area in the dense Western Ghats of Karnataka. The article , titled "Where is the hurry for the 2,000 MW Sharavati PSP in Western Ghats?", questions the rationale behind this fast-tracked approval for such a massive project in an ecologically sensitive zone.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Will Bangladesh go Egypt way, where military ruler is in power for a decade?

By Vijay Prashad*  The day after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, I was on the phone with a friend who had spent some time on the streets that day. He told me about the atmosphere in Dhaka, how people with little previous political experience had joined in the large protests alongside the students—who seemed to be leading the agitation. I asked him about the political infrastructure of the students and about their political orientation. He said that the protests seemed well-organized and that the students had escalated their demands from an end to certain quotas for government jobs to an end to the government of Sheikh Hasina. Even hours before she left the country, it did not seem that this would be the outcome.

Structural retrogression? Steady rise in share of self-employment in agriculture 2017-18 to 2023-24

By Ishwar Awasthi, Puneet Kumar Shrivastav*  The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) launched the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017 to provide timely labour force data. The 2023-24 edition, released on 23rd September 2024, is the 7th round of the series and the fastest survey conducted, with data collected between July 2023 and June 2024. Key labour market indicators analysed include the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and Unemployment Rate (UR), which highlight trends crucial to understanding labour market sustainability and economic growth. 

Venugopal's book 'explores' genesis, evolution of Andhra Naxalism

By Harsh Thakor*  N. Venugopal has been one of the most vocal critics of the neo-fascist forces of Hindutva and Brahmanism, as well as the encroachment of globalization and liberalization over the last few decades. With sharp insight, Venugopal has produced comprehensive writings on social movements, drawing from his experience as a participant in student, literary, and broader social movements. 

Authorities' shrewd caveat? NREGA payment 'subject to funds availability': Barmer women protest

By Bharat Dogra*  India is among very few developing countries to have a rural employment guarantee scheme. Apart from providing employment during the lean farm work season, this scheme can make a big contribution to important needs like water and soil conservation. Workers can get employment within or very near to their village on the kind of work which improves the sustainable development prospects of their village.

'Failing to grasp' his immense pain, would GN Saibaba's death haunt judiciary?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  The death of Prof. G.N. Saibaba in Hyderabad should haunt our judiciary, which failed to grasp the immense pain he endured. A person with 90% disability, yet steadfast in his convictions, he was unjustly labeled as one of India’s most ‘wanted’ individuals by the state, a characterization upheld by the judiciary. In a democracy, diverse opinions should be respected, and as long as we uphold constitutional values and democratic dissent, these differences can strengthen us.

94.1% of households in mineral rich Keonjhar live below poverty line, 58.4% reside in mud houses

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Keonjhar district in Odisha, rich in mineral resources, plays a significant role in the state's revenue generation. The region boasts extensive reserves of iron ore, chromite, limestone, dolomite, nickel, and granite. According to District Mineral Foundation (DMF) reports, Keonjhar contains an estimated 2,555 million tonnes of iron ore. At the current extraction rate of 55 million tonnes annually, these reserves could last 60 years. However, if the extraction increases to 140 million tonnes per year, they could be depleted within just 23 years.