Maoists flourish because of civil rights activists

Vishwa Ranjan



, Director-General of Chhattisgarh Police, points out how Maoists are emboldened by those who refute the harsh truth

Mr Ramachandra Guha and others have responded partly to the last of a series of four articles by me published in The Pioneer on September 2-5. I would have liked them to respond to the entire series. In the other articles I have shown how the psy-war machinery of the Maoists works. The fourth article unfolds from the first three articles.

 

Mr Guha and the others have wrongly castigated me and attempted to show me my place. In the transformed caste hierarchy of modern India, new castes have emerged after the Constitution banned discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or religion. In the new caste-system, a policeman is a ‘Shudra’. I am a policeman and hence a ‘Shudra’ who must be shown his place. How dare I respond or challenge the ‘Brahmins’ of the transformed caste hierarchy!

Let me assure Mr Guha and the others that I am aware of my duties and responsibilities as a police officer and citizen of India. Had he gone through the various articles I have written and interviews I have given, he would have realised that I am an unabashed admirer of the Constitution and judicial system. I have acquired this genetically. So if the Supreme Court has made an obiter dicta that civilians cannot be armed, I am in total agreement.

But the obiter dicta was in response to an allegation. The State of Chhattisgarh had yet to file a counter-affidavit to show that the allegation was false and that only Special Police Officers, appointed under the Police Act, have been armed. So my pointing out that this is not a judgement is not contempt. It is the depiction of it as a judgement by interested groups that is contempt.

Mr Guha and the others have not cared to find out the truth that around 3,250 SPOs were discharged on various grounds of indiscipline. A few among them have also been sent to jail for criminal acts. Mr Guha should have at least known of two such cases as they were registered on the information of a person who sends him ‘friendly SMSes’. Even criminal cases have been registered against some policemen and Salwa Judum activists. Mr Guha visited the area for only a few days. This is also the case with many study teams visiting Bastar.

Mr Guha has wrongly claimed that I have called him, Ms Nandini Sunder and Mr Sarma supporters of Maoists. What I suggested was that it is possible they may have been used by the Maoists. Maoist documents talk of the necessity of getting petitions against Salwa Judum filed in High Courts and Supreme Court. Mr Guha should know how Goebbels had managed to influence the best brains of Europe. Even Ezra Pound was duped into supporting Nazism and Hitler.

It has been wrongly alleged that I have made criminal charges against the Planning Commission. I have made some comments on the working of expert committee which was nominated by the Planning Commission. These cannot be considered, by any stretch of imagination, as comments on the Planning Commission. Some members of the expert group have been named. I know they are not supporters of Maoists and I respect them. But I can also name a few who have Maoist leanings, some of whom I know well and also respect.

Further, having Maoist leanings is not an offence under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Being a member of CPI(Maoist) or its front units is. As long as you show allegiance to the Constitution, you can believe in any ideology.

In the first three parts of my series, I quoted in detail from Maoist documents to show their intention to penetrate civil liberty bodies in such a manner that they are not exposed as Maoist cadre. Such cadre have been instructed to gain position in such organisations so that they are able to direct the activities of the organisation, at least to some extent. While this does not make every civil liberty organisation a Maoist front, the possibility of contamination cannot be ruled out.

As for Salwa Judum , I quoted from a Maoist Polit Bureau document to show its intention of isolating the movement. The directions include inviting national and international fact-finding teams to Bastar. After the Polit Bureau decision, there was a spate of visits to Dantewada and Bijapur by study teams.

A historian of Mr Guha’s caliber should reassess his opinions instead of advising me to fight in the Supreme Court while he continues to attack Salwa Judum in various articles. As I said, it is immaterial what the truth is. The evidence of a ‘Shudra’ has no value in the eyes of the elite.

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