As Ram Girdles upto battle in dantakaranya,

Sonia to strike a deal with the Rakshasas ?

As Raman Singh’s government faced with the mounting casualties of security forces, backed by the nation-wide outcry against the carnage of our men in uniform, and the Home Ministry’s increasing demand to be allowed to handle this challenge of the Maoist insurrection, by bringing in the Air-Force, the only way it could be met, the Maoists seem to have been alarmed at the foreseeable consequences to their hitherto startling gusto of devastating string of strikes.

The fronts men have been promptly hard-pressed to action, to enable them purchase a peace deal at favorable terms– something they have been unable to get done, so far-

Operation Green Hunt went through and Arundhati Roy had to walk out of Press meets, calling them as so many morons who wouldn’t buy into their take, and the public mood is clearly not lending the kind of reception they were used to while articulating such rehearsed hogwash.

International Campaign against War on the People of India– its propagandist outfit reminds us how-  

In late February, when the Indian government was making claims that the war (OGH) was only because the Maoists insisted on fighting, Kishenji, a visible (and elusive) leader of the CPI(Maoist), made a bold challenge to the Indian government: Declare a 72 day cease-fire, cancel the MoUs between the states and the MNCs, stop the mass killings of adivasis, and start up negotiations over issues such as ending “encounter killings” (assassinations of Maoists and suspected supporters), freeing tens of thousands of political prisoners being held in terrible conditions, and withdrawing military and paramilitary forces from the seven states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh where Operation Green Hunt is underway or being deployed.

Which still, doesn’t read much like a peace offer, but a list of demands at gun point- to do as they are told. No wonder, the media rightly dismissed the sham offer and endorsed the Operation and the fronts men were piqued-

Many intellectuals and rights activists and organizations have come out publicly in support of this offer and are attempting to break through the wall of silence in the bourgeois media about the actual terms of the Maoist offer.

This is not acceptable to our campaign and to many political forces in India, who are instead willing to take up the Maoists on their offer. For the unprecedented internal military offensive known as Operation Green Hunt, the Indian government has mobilized 200,000 soldiers, with helicopters, surveillance drones and combat-hardened units from Kashmir and Nagaland, to attack the areas in eastern and central India where the adivasis are best organized and the resistance forces have their greatest strength.

This is where the International Campaign against the War on People in India comes in– it informs us, very earnestly.

The campaign was launched in January 2010 by activists from India, Europe and the US to support the struggle of the people in the adivasi regions to resist and stop Operation Green Hunt.  We are undertaking work in several areas- Political Mobilization: Activists in Delhi have organized marches, press conferences and forums against Operation Green Hunt. Activists spearheaded by Turkish and Kurdish immigrants in Europe organized half a dozen demonstrations condemning OGH at Indian embassies and consulates on February 5, 2010.

More actions are being planned in key Indian cities this spring.

Taking cues from Sonia’s most inane statement that they could strike a deal if they let each other a breather in the tribal heartland-  Congress gets its tacit tribal votes and in return Maoists are bailed out from the furious Armed forces closing in, and the Nation’s mood approving a just retribution for all the recent brutalities–

The campaign will be doing all that it can, particularly in India but in other countries as well, to force the Indian government to agree to a 2 ½ month cease-fire period, within which peace talks about the issues that have given rise to Operation Green Hunt can be discussed by both sides and by the public.

Now that should leave us in little doubt about the genesis of Sonia’s sudden spate of wisdom, and these Fronts people who bend to eat out of her hands. 

We the undersigned welcome the public statement of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the President of the Congress Party that the extreme neglect of the tribal areas is at the root of the present crisis in those regions. We hope that this appreciation of the need to go deeper into the question would lead to initiatives for immediate cessation of hostilities and dialogue so that the process of people-oriented development can be made feasible.

How suddenly, this Top gun of the deacadent bourgeoisie Congress – this lackey of American imperialism at the service of its Corporate invasion of Mining fields and author of the genocidal usurpation of tribal lands, gets to be addressed decorously as the President, should indicate the desperation and the baiter’s scheming.

The list of worthies who would stand in Queue, to put their monker on and petition Her Majesty in flattery would needless to say be long but most certainly should include the usual bunch-

 Justice V R Krishna Iyer, Judge (Retd)  Supreme Court of India, Justice P B Sawant, Judge (Retd)  Supreme Court of India, former Chairperson, Press Council of India, Shankar Ghosh, Poet, Romila Thapar, historian Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University Arundhati Roy, Prashant Bhushan, Advocate, SAR Geelani, Asst. Professor, University of Delhi & Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, Sumit Chakravarty, Editor, Mainstream,….
Sonia’s munificent hint at Leftists’ roots of the problem  – could not have come at more opportune times, for the lobby is getting one upped at its own game of Agitprop-
 
Despite having spelled out the objective of their peace march from Raipur to Dantewada, the marchers faced ugly demonstration from a handful of supporters of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress as well as from some representatives of trade, commerce and industry bodies.

The first to react was Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh who ridiculed the peace initiative by mocking at them and obliquely referring to them as the sympathizers of the Maoists. “Why do these intellectuals wake up only when the government starts operations against the Maoists and keep quiet when the members of our security forces get killed,” he said.

Taking a cue from the chief minister’s statement, a handful of workers of the BJP, the Congress and the local chamber of commerce and industry held demonstrations in Raipur, Jagdalpur and Dantewada, shouting, “Naxal supporters go back, go back.”

None of these demonstrators was local adivasi and only represented the trading community – reminds us that neither were they nor remotely dressed to look like a tribal among the list of petitioners to President Sonia-

And then we wonder if these bunch of Maosist advocate are then Tribals or what is their business with adivasis ? We neither miss the desperation of the Maoists and its campaigners,  nor the plucky ace Sonia at her game.   

The ICWPI itself describes their shared views among other things, particularly regarding-

Muslims and Christians: India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, or 160 million people. Muslims are significantly poorer than Hindus. Indian Muslims live in urban ghettos and separate villages where they are periodically victimized by Hindu mobs animated by the chauvinist ideology of Hindutva. The small Christian minority in India (most of whom are lower-caste Hindus who have converted to escape the caste system) also faces severe religious persecution with the rise of fundamentalist Hindu organisations such as the RSS.

We can understand currently, her buzz to Maoists to join her at the table.