The Maoist decision to isolate and crush the tribals’ Salwa Judum movement in Bastar region at every level has started to bear results. What began as a spontaneous people’s movement against red terror four years ago is more or less dead.

It is a major victory for the Maoists whose writ in the tribal forest belt is nearly complete. “It is unfortunate that the Salwa Judum movement is disintegrating before it could peak to achieve its goal to oust Maoists,” Basant Kumar Tiwari (76), noted journalist and authority on Bastar and Naxalism said.

“Salwa Judum’s helpless death will be the victory of red terrorism. Efforts must be made to keep it alive as it is the key to crush Maoists,” said Tiwari, whose latest book ‘Bastar: Adhi saadi ka safar’ has just been published.

In June 2005, thousands of tribals fled from the jungles to escape Maoist violence. They took shelter in police stations and relief camps set up by the government. It was then they launched a people’s movement against Maoist.

Later, Mahendra Karma, former CPI Maria tribal leader and Congress MLA from Dantewada, took over the reins of the movement that was subsequently called Salwa Judum (peace march). Karma had earlier led the ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’ in 1990-91 that was crushed by red rebels. Several family members of Karma have been killed by Maoists. Now, the BJP-ruled state supports Salwa Judum.

The number of tribals living in relief camps is decreasing as they have become dens of corruption, benefiting politicians, police, bureaucracy and contractors. Salwa Judum has created its own small-time leaders; many of them are no less than Maoists in their acts.

Many tribals from camps have been lured back to their villages by Maoists. For the Naxals, the tribals living outside their jurisdiction pose a dangerous trend. That is why, the CPI (Maoist) had launched a campaign to crush and discredit Salwa Judum.

Various human rights organisations began visiting Bastar to criticise Salwa Judum’s violence and atrocities. The Maoist network also roped in youth from various cities to tour villages and ask tribals to oppose Salwa Judum. Friends of Maoist have claimed that the Administrative Reforms Commission in its report has castigated Salwa Judum.

Officials claim that the commission had only stated that Salwa Judum had been “unsuccessful in containing Maoist expansion and violence” and the poor tribals are being crushed between the state and the Maoists.

“The same report also talked about the necessity of employing a large number of tribal youth as special police officers (SPOs),” they said.

In 2007, Nandini Sundar, sociology professor in Delhi School of Economics; noted historian Ramachandra Guha; and former Government of India secretary EAS Sarma had filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding a ban on Salwa Judum. Their plea was that it was illegal for the state to set up an armed vigilante group. Their petition was clubbed with another one filed by former CPI MLA Manish Kunjam and two CPI leaders Kartam Joga and Dudhi Joga.

In April 2008, the apex court had asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate charges made by the petitioners. According to Sundar, the NHRC had sent 17 police officers. “They have given a negative report on Salwa Judum, holding it responsible for burning villages and some killings by SPOs. They had recommended further investigation, compensation to victims, return of displaced persons, and moving out security forces from schools. Till date, nothing has been done on this count. We will see what happens at the next hearing on August 6,” said Sundar.

New Delhi, June 25
Defence minister AK Antony today came out strongly to convey India’s stance on Pakistan, China and the US. He also advised the top brass of the armed forces to be “vigilant” on the Indo-Pak border, while separately ensuring that Indian ocean and the seas around India are kept safe.

He went on to assure that funds will never be constraint for modernisation of the forces. Taking on Pakistan, Antony made it clear that peace with that country cannot be a “one-way traffic”. 

It hinged upon Pakistan taking action against groups operating from its territory and this was a “pre-condition”. Antony was speaking to the media minutes after he addressed the top brass of the Indian armed forces at the Unified Commanders conference.

Besides Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force, about two dozen Commanders participated in the conference that Antony has termed “as the turning point from where things will move very fast”.

This is first meet of the unified commanders after the Mumbai attacks in November last year.

Antony said Pakistan was a nation facing turmoil from within. He doubted Pakistan’s act of acquiring sophisticated weapons saying “these were really not meant to develop its capacity to fight terror”. 

India has been telling US that aid to fight terror was being misused by Pakistan to develop India-centric warfare capabilities. Pakistan has been unable to check terrorists originating from its soil and infiltrating into J&K, said Antony, as he admitted that infiltration had declined.

When asked about the forthcoming visit of National Security Adviser of the USA to India James Jones, Antony said “We are going to discuss the security scenario around India in detail”. The Taliban is a threat to world peace, a threat to our region and it is a real threat to India also and it will be discussed”.

Antony while replying to a question on the induction of mountain divisions in the north-east to counter China sent out a strong message saying, “It is our duty to increase our capabilities and equip our armed forces with most modern facilities and infrastructure to protect our national security”. The Chinese have been making noises about India ramping up infrastructure in the north-east, especially Arunachal Pradesh.

New Delhi, June 25
Supreme Court Judge DK Jain, who along with Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and senior lawyer Fali S Nariman was part of the committee going through grounds for impeachment of Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen, has expressed his inability to be part of the panel, the Rajya Sabha stated on Thursday.

Justice Jain disassociating from the panel will now result in a further delay in the effort of the legislature to impeach Justice Sen for irregularities and embezzlement. Rajya Sabha sources say the Rajya Sabha chairman will now finalise on a new name for inclusion in the panel in consultation with the Law Ministry.

Justice Jain, Justice Thakur and senior lawyer Nariman had been entrusted with the task of going through grounds on which Justice Sen’s impeachment had been recommended by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) last year. 

Mumbai, June 25
The Maharashtra government may declare several talukas in the state as drought-affected if the monsoon does not show any signs of picking up in the next few weeks, according to sources.

Data available from the office of the Agriculture Commissioner indicates that more than 200 talukas in the state have received less than 10 per cent of the normal rainfall for June. As a result, cultivation of kharif crops has been badly hit with just a little more than one lakh of the 28 lakh hectares of the area under these crops being sown.

The state government has asked farmers to plant late-sowing varieties to salvage whatever they can of the kharif crops. Crops like cotton and soyabean, which are the mainstay of the state’s agriculture, are likely to take a big hit, the sources say. 

Adding to the woes of the state’s economy, farmers in Maharashtra may be asked to reduce cultivation of sugarcane in order to conserve water for drinking. This will badly impact the politically sensitive regions of western Maharashtra, the say sources.

Maharashtra’s Vidarbha district, which falls in the rain-shadow region, is likely to be even worse hit this season, according to reports reaching Mumbai. The region, which has reported a large number of farmers committing suicide in the past few years, is experiencing renewed agrarian distress, according to the sources. While the cotton crop is likely to be partly lost as of now, farmers are reporting shortage of fodder as well.

According to the sources, in Vidarbha, farmers have taken to selling cattle to butchers as they have run out of fodder. The opposition BJP has put together a list of more than 200 talukas across the state that are in the grip of a severe crisis. Of these, nearly 100 talukas lie in Vidarbha alone. Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde has demanded that these areas be quickly classified as drought-hit so that a relief package can be announced.

Hyderabad, June 25
Alarmed over the growing incidents of acid attacks on women, Andhra Pradesh government is mulling a special legislation to deal with such crimes and ensure stringent punishment to the guilty.

The Union Home Ministry was being consulted in this regard and a decision would be taken soon on drafting a special law, the state Home Minister P Sabita Indra Reddy said. The government felt the need for a more stringent legislation to deal with the heinous crime. It has also received memoranda from various women’s organisations calling for a strict law to deal with the offenders.

The government’s move comes against the backdrop of a string of acid attacks on women by jilted lovers. In the recent cases, two married women were seriously injured when frustrated lovers poured acid on them in Guntur district.

The acid attack on two engineering students in Warangal in December last year had evoked wide sense of outrage across the state. One of the girls, Swapnika, succumbed to burns while her friend Pranitha survived. In this case too, a spurned lover also carried out the attack.

He and his two friends were later shot dead in an alleged encounter with police. “Such cases were earlier confined to educational institutions but are now spreading to other areas. This is a disturbing trend and has to be stopped,” Reddy said.

Chennai, June 25
The AIADMK today filed a petition in the Madras High Court challenging the victory of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha elections and asked for a recount of the votes.

In his petition, Raja Kannappan, former state minister and AIADMK candidate, who contested against Chidambaram in his home constituency of Sivaganga, alleged “large scale irregularities” in the counting. He said thousands of votes polled to the AIADMK in the Alangudi assembly segment were added to Chidambaram’s tally and the election results were altered at the last hour.

Some bank employees employed for the counting indulged in malpractices that affected the chances of the AIADMK’s victory, he alleged.

Chidambaram is the only prominent Congress leader who won the elections from Tamil Nadu. All other party heavyweights, like Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president KV Thangabalu, Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiye, lost due to a targeted campaign by Tamil nationalist groups, who alleged that the Congress was aiding the massacre of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Lankan army.

Despite, addressing LTTE chief Velupillai as “younger brother” and making a public appeal assuring that the Centre would arrange for negotiations between the Tigers and the government if the former declared its willingness to surrender, the Union Minister won by a slender margin of just 3,354 votes.

Immediately after the result, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa had disputed the victory, describing it as “shameful’ and alleging that it was “acquired” through “fraudulent means”. 

Jaipur, June 25
To ensure better marketing opportunities for rural craftsmen, “Graamin Haats” will be set up at all tourist places across the country. This was announced by Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister CP Joshi at Udaipur on Thursday.

Addressing a workshop on mainstreaming rural products at Mohanlal Sukhadiya University in Udaipur, Joshi said, “Merely organising fairs to promote rural crafts would not serve the purpose. We need to develop permanent display and sales centres at all tourist places to ensure that both the buyers and the vendors are benefited.”

He also made his intention clear of including the rural craftsmen into the ambit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). “We will bring all rural craftsmen under the scheme,” he said, adding that the real challenge was to free the craftsmen from the clutches of middlemen. He said efforts would also be made to ensure that the NREGS is expanded to the extent that it helps the craftsmen to easily procure raw material.

The Minister also announced that a mall would soon be constructed in Udaipur to provide better marketing facilities to craftsmen. He said it would be his endeavour to make people financially independent by ensuring some amendments in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). 

Lucknow, June 25
In a clear shift Chief Minister Mayawati today announced no grandiose project. Instead, she got down to brass tacks offering concessions of far-reaching consequence to dalits, traders and students.

Clearly keeping an eye on the diminishing grass root support, Mayawati today addressed a press conference sharing some key decisions of her Cabinet meeting that she chaired today. This briefing by the Chief Minister was itself a first, as in recent times her Cabinet Secretary was doing this task.

A major trader-friendly decision taken by her government today was to abolish the 37 trade tax check posts across the state.

Making the Form 38 available on the Internet would mean paying trade tax would become simpler. Together, these two measures are expected to prevent rampant corruption and stop victimisation of traders and the business community.

The other major step was reiterating her support to the dalits by upgrading civic facilities in the ambitious Dr Ambedkar Gram Programme having predominately dalit population.

Without adding to the existing number of such villages, she announced her government’s decision to upgrade civic facilities by building concrete cement roads, installing solar sodium lights and building community centres in the dalit pockets of such villages.

She also brought much relief to the major chunk of students studying in the state’s UP board institutions by taking steps to bridge the gap between them and students studying under CBSE and ICSE boards.

Now from the 2010-11 academic session if a UP board student passes in five subjects and fails in one, he\she would be considered as pass and given an opportunity to take a compartment examination.

New Delhi, June 25
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today said the whole Lalgarh incident was stage-managed by the ruling Left Front and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to side with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM).

“They (CPM) have created Maoists in the country and now, they are using it to their own end to regain their lost ground,” Banerjee told reporters here.

“And now the CPM is taking credit for recapturing Lalgarh, which is completely stage-managed,” Banerjee added.

Banerjee met the Prime Minister to discuss Lalgarh issue and the Budget proposals. Asked if she was consulted by the UPA government on ban on the Maoists, she said, “I was not consulted about it. I came to know about the decision only after it was taken.”

“The CPM is using the Centre for its own benefit. I met the Prime Minister today and has asked him not to side with the CPM,” Banerjee added.

“They have created an atmosphere of terror in West Bengal. They are even shipping out bullets manufactured in defence units in the state,” Banerjee dded. — IANS

Ahmedabad, June 25
A special court today framed charges against 93 accused in the Godhra train carnage case, in which 59 persons were burnt alive in S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002.

The 93 accused have been charged with murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, rioting with deadly weapons and other Sections of the IPC, according to special public prosecutor JM Panchal.

Judge PR Patel also reserved the order on bail applications made by 40 of the accused for July 1, when the next hearing in the case is scheduled. The court, whose proceedings are being conducted on the Sabarmati jail premises, framed the charges after SC appointed SIT and submitted original documents related to the case. — PTI 

BRIEFLY

Assam Guv dead
Guwahati: Governor of Assam SC Mathur died at a New Delhi hospital on Thursday night. He was suffering from a prolonged ailment and had been admitted to Fortis Hospital in New Delhi a few days ago, according to an official source here. Mathur was appointed Governor of Asam in July 2008 at the age of 82 years. The Assam government has declared a state holiday tomorrow and state mourning for seven days. — TNS