Indian government threatens to eradicate popular resistance by March 2010
In late 2009 the Indian government unleashed massive war against its own people under the code name “Operation Green Hunt” involving the deployment of 70,000 military and paramilitary troops. Their target is the so-called “Red Corridor” that runs through parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal states.
It’s the latest in a series of efforts by the Indian government, labeled the “biggest democracy in the world” by Canada and other western powers, to impose “military solutions” on deep-seated social, political and economic problems,and to clear the way for local and trans-national corporations to plunder this region’s resources. Most of the riches sit on or under land occupied by the poorest populations in India, including the adivasis — the indigenous or tribal peoples.
Hundreds of agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) that allow free plunder of people’s resources have already been concluded by mining and other corporations with the central and state government and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) for multinational corporations have been established. The only barrier that now stands between the local and trans-national corporations and their prize is people’s resistance, both unarmed and in some instances, armed.
During this military-economic offensive, Indian government is actively ignoring its own Constitution and laws such as PESA and the Forest Rights Act and targetting anyone who dares to speak out against this state repression as a “potential terrorist”.
However, from Nandigram to Niyamgiri, Lalgarh to Dandakaranya, Koraput to Lalinganagar, Dadri to Narayanpatna, people have refused to be mere victims of state-sponsored policies of liberalism, privatization and imperialist globalization (LPG) in the name of “development”.
As a result of Operation Green Hunt and renewed aggressions in Lalgarh, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and the number of burnt villages, persons displaced, injured, arrested or “disappeared” has skyrocketed. Many have been placed in so-called “security camps” similar to the practice in Sri-Lanka, where the government in Colombo, with the backing of Washington and other western powers, bloodily attacked the Tamil population in early 2009.
In a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dated October 12, 2009, Indian and foreign intellectuals, including Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy and American political activist Noam Chomsky, charged that the government’s offensive was “an attempt to crush democratic and popular resistance against dispossession and impoverishment” and a move that seemed to be geared towards facilitating the entry and operation of “large corporations and paving the way for unbridled exploitation of the natural resources and people in the affected regions”.
Arundhati Roy said, “This is a war waged by the army and paramilitary forces for the super rich corporations against the super poor of India, who have been driven to rebel and resist by years of injustice and mistreatment.” Roy continued: “The Government doesn’t give the people anything else than violence and disrespect. And now they want to take away from them the last thing they have, their land”.
The purported aim of the Indian government is to clear this heavily forested area of resistance forces, including Maoists and other Naxalite organizations. Maoists — also known as Naxalites after Naxalbari district in West Bengal state where they first led a peasant uprising against landlords in 1967 — have a strong presence in this region. The members of the Communist Party of India (CPI – Maoist) the political wing of the Maoists, are now estimated by mainstream Indian media to be 20,000 strong.
The focus of Operation Green Hunt is the Maoist or “Red Corridor” which stretches from West Bengal in India’s northeast through the states of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in the west. It includes many forest areas including the Dandakaranya forest. Its millions of adivasis were pushed into forest regions by waves of invaders and generally excluded from mainstream Hindu society. They have a long history of rebellion and militant uprisings against British colonial rule starting in the 19th Century and have been a major base for communist organizing.
The forests where the adivasis are concentrated have abundant mineral wealth (iron, coal, bauxite, manganese, corundum, gold, diamonds and uranium). Over the last years foreign and Indian corporations, with the protection of the Indian state apparatus, have been exploiting these resources while violently suppressing the local people.
International League for Peoples’ Struggle
(Submitted by Hari Sharma of SANSAD with the following message:
Dear SANSAD Members and Friends,
We are very pleased to send you a copy of public campaign lunched by ILPS (Canada) [International League of People’s Struggles – Canada]. SANSAD has already endorsed this campaign.
In addition, we also forward you a statement publicly released by ICAWPI (International Campaign Against War on the People of India) for your consideration and support.
In Solidarity.)
ICAWPI The International Campaign Against War on the People of India
info@icawpi.org
Dear friends,
The International Campaign Against War on the People of India (ICAWPI) is now ready to be launched to work as a coordinating centre seeking international support for the resistance of the people of India against the all out military offensive of the Indian state against its own citizens.
ICAWPI is an international extension of widespread opposition and initiatives against this genocidal war to forcefully crush the heroic resistance of the tribal peoples in the heartlands of India and hand over these lands rich in minerals and raw materials to international corporations such as Vedanta.
This overt war serving to facilitate the looting of the land by Indian and international corporations for fabulous profits and the destruction of the livelihood of the countless numbers of the poorest of the poor in India is branded “Operation Green Hunt”. While in different regions of the country the same operation may be named differently, the Indian state shamelessly tries to hide this banditry against the people of India and utterly open servitude to the imperialism as “war against the Naxalites”– imposing a severe reign of terror and repression on progressive and democratic forces and individuals everywhere across the country.
Countless intellectuals, authors, film makers, academics, and other professionals such as lawyers and doctors who abhor the Indian state’s total lies and open disregard for civil and human rights have joined mass gatherings and rallies and various forums in India in order to raise their own voices and join forces to oppose the State and to defend the just cause of the oppressed tribal people in India.
In the course of this gathering movement countless people have been arrested and imprisoned. Untold suffering and restrictions have been imposed on the people.
Yet, international public opinion is kept grossly in the dark about these issues while the mainstream media continue to follow and repeat the Indian State’s claims that “India is the largest democracy in the world” and that the Maoists, as the biggest security threat to this “democracy” must wiped out at all costs. Thus they justify their silence and bless the Indian State in perpetrating these crimes in the name of a “war on terror”.
The ICAWPI aims to reach out to all democratic and freedom loving people across the world concerned about the plight of the people in India to unite and take initiative to break this silence internationally and to rally much needed support and solidarity to the just struggles of the people of India.
Further information on Operation Green Hunt and the struggles of the people are available through www.icawpi.org – a website designed to carry material related to this issue and the campaign.
We request all democratic and progressive formations to take initiative and coordinate their efforts with ICAWPI. All reports of actions, meetings and letters of solidarity and concern will be published at this site.
In order to launch this campaign and rally the support and solidarity of the progressive forces abroad, ICAWPI calls on everyone to join demonstrations and protest actions in front of Indian embassies and consulates on February 5, 2010 where ever possible. A list of organized events will be published on the website as they become available. Further actions, events and meetings are being planned and will be announced soon after.
The website will also publish a list of clubs, associations and meeting places in Europe and elsewhere, for contact and discussion about the issue and to find ways of raising local awareness and take common joint action.
Please contact the ICAWPI through info@iwapi.org to inform us of your proposals to bring the campaign to your area.
ICAWPI