Police and the State in West Bengal are cracking down on all democratic dissent by labeling it as Maoist. Partho Sarathy Roy with Sanhati reports on state violence in Lalgarh.

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The blockades in Lalgarh ended last week. After 32 days of an unprecedented and heroic resistance, the barricades were lifted after a marathon discussion between the representatives of the peoples’ committee against police repression and the admininstration, at the Lalgarh police station. But what led upto this climbdown by the peoples’ committee? And what is the condition on the ground at Lalgarh and the adjoining areas?

The situation on the ground is that the entire junglemahal (the tribal areas) is seething with anger. The adivasis have gone back to their homes, but numerous spontaneous outbreaks of public anger are taking place. On the other hand, the ruling CPI(M), together with other reactionary parties such as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, have floated a number of purportedly adivasi organizations such as Ganapratirodh committee (peoples’ resistance committee) and Adivasi o An-adivasi aikya committee (adivasi and non-adivasi unity committee) which are playing one section of the adivasis against the other.

Members of these committees, in the name of hunting down Maoists, are attacking adivasis, especially those who have played leading roles in the upsurge. We can just hope that the situation doesn’t degenerate into a civil war-like condition. The administration, in a carrot-and-stick policy, and really unnerved by the intensity of the feelings expressed by the adivasis, have announced a slew of development measures for the area, many of them rehashings of promises made long ago and never kept. And the peoples’ committee against police repression has threatened to relaunch the movement from 14th December.

What led up to this situation? Ever since the beginning of the revolt on 5th November, the government and the CPI(M), taken aback by the intensity and rapid spread of the uprising, had been lying low playing a waiting game to see how long the movement could be sustained, and how public opinion would shape up in support of the movement.

To their immense pleasure, for an entire month while the movement was at its height, the “civil society” in Kolkata, did not stir. Besides some feeble attempts at “building” public opinion by organizing marches (one of which, held by a human rights group, was attended by less than hundred people and which left Chatradhar Mahato, a leader of the peoples’ committee who had come from Lalgarh to address it, totally dejected) and localized propaganda campaigns, the “intellectuals” in Kolkata did nothing.

Why this happened would have to be a subject of further analysis. The “intellectuals” in Kolkata kept up a lively debate about whether the movement was spontaneous or controlled by political parties, whether it had a mass character or was remote-controlled by the Maoists, but did little else. The opposition political parties like the Trinamool Congress and the Congress also kept aloof, as they realized that they had little to gain from the adivasi upsurge. The government was relieved to see that there would be no mass display of popular solidarity with the movement in Lalgarh, as had happened in the case of Nandigram and Singur.

Then came the elections for the municipality of Jhargram, the headquarters of the Jhargram sub-division, which had been a flashpoint for the movement, and had been blockaded and cut-off for days. Jhargram, although situated in the adivasi belt, is mostly populated with middle class bengalis. The ruling Left Front, led by the CPI(M) won handsomely in the Jhargram municipal elections, which gave confidence to the CPI(M) to hit back.

The CPI(M) used the “logic of the legislature”, using the electoral victory as a show of support for its stance, to undermine the adivasi revolt. It is no wonder that the CPI(M) retaliation started from in and around Jhargram. Then came the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, which riveted the attention of the nation, and pushed news of Lalgarh from the front pages to the insides of newspapers. The CPI(M) was waiting for such an opportunity when public attention would be diverted (remember that the attack on Nandigram happened during a Diwali celebration), and immediately floated the above-mentioned organizations, which in the name of establishing unity between the adivasis and the non-adivasis, started clearing the roadblocks.

The adivasis resisted for a few days, re-erecting roadblocks and confronting the CPI(M) cadres, but the leaders of the peoples’ committee against police oppression possibly thought that they could not sustain the movement in the face of this assault and in the absence of support from the urban population. So, they came to the negotiation table, and met the additional district magistrate R K Israel in the Lalgarh police station.

They also cited the apology made by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the chief minister, in the West Bengal legislative assembly the previous day during a discussion on the police atrocities on the adivasi women, as a factor that brought them to the negotiation table. After the discussion they declared that the blockades would be removed and in return the administration had accepted their demands. The demands about the S.P having to hold his ears and the police having to rub their noses on the ground had been removed. Instead the S.P would go to Dalilpur and apologize to the people. The administration would take measures to implement the other demands. The peoples’ committee also said that they weren’t withdrawing the movement but were keeping it on hold till the 14th of December, after which the movement will start again if their demands are not met.

What has transpired over the next few days clearly showed what was to be expected, when a movement goes on the backfoot, but the people are radicalized. On 7th December night itself, barely a few hours after the blockades were removed, a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) party raided Chotopeliya village, the site of the original atrocities, supposedly to look for Maoists.

They were besieged by hundreds of villagers and were only freed after intervention by peoples’ committee leaders and reportedly after the officer of the CRPF had to hold his ears and apologize. After that the police stopped entering the adivasi areas; instead a slew of minor government officials started visiting the areas, apparently to assuage the feelings of the adivasis and launch development measures. This included the BDO, the public distribution system officer, the BLRO, the additional DM etc. The BDO, in a public meeting in Dalilpurchowk, actually conceded that the police was wrong in inflicting the atrocities on the adivasis.

Together with this, the DM, Narayanswarup Nigam, declared a number of development measures, including the rejuvenation of the Western region development council, which had long been the fiefdom of the CPI(M) minister Sushanta Ghosh. Also, leaders of a number of political parties, most prominently the Congress, started visiting the adivasis in order to express their sympathies but in reality to create a support base there taking advantage of the fluid situation.

Parallel to these “carrots” from the administration, the CPI(M) sponsored organizations continued to wield the stick. A number of skirmishes have taken place in the past few days. There was a major attack by CPI(M) cadres in the Moupal area of Salboni. A large group of armed CPI(M) supporters (although the marchers didn’t carry the party flag, a number of CPI(M) Salboni zonal committee members could be identified in the group) took out a march from Bhadutala which then attacked houses of adivasis in the Moupal area.

The so-called ganapratirodh committee have launched a number of attacks in the Belpahari area where adivasis are being accused of being Maoist supporters and driven out of their homes. The Maoists have also apparently launched a retaliatory attack, murdering Sudhir Mandi, a leader of the ganapratirodh committee in the Chakadoba area, who was a member of the Jharkhand janamukti morcha. However, Babu Bose, the leader of the Jharkhand janamukti morcha, has said that it is uncertain that the Maoists have committed the murder because anyone could have taken advantage of the unstable situation to settle scores. The scheme of violence and retaliatory violence can soon spiral out of control in the entire area.

Yesterday, there have been further ominous developments. Going against the terms of the understanding between the peoples’ committee and the administration, the police and the CRPF returned to the Ramgarh police camp. The police and paramilitary forces had been forced to vacate the camp during the revolt and the camp was locked. However, possibly regaining confidence after seeing the situation for the past few days, the police returned to the camp and broke down the lock and re-entered the camp. The discontent among the adivasis against this betrayal is again rising.

Apparently it was a decision taken by the police superintendent, against the wishes of the district magistrate. The S.P has said that the police and Straco anti-Maoist forces would be returning to the vacated camps in Kaima, Kalaimuri, Pirakata, Belatikari, Nachipur, Churimara and Jamtalagara. Also, the deadline given by the leaders of the peoples’ committee to the administration to implement the decisions of their meeting expired yesterday, and the peoples’ committee is meeting today to decide on the next course of action. The need of the hour is a massive expression of solidarity to the adivasi people in different parts of the state, especially in Kolkata, so that public opinion can be built against these moves of the administration.