The "LIES" our 'SECULARISTS' Perpetrate and Perpetuate

H. Balakrishnan

LETTER TO INDIAN EXPRESS

DEAR SIR,


This has reference to the ' Bleeding Heart Palestinian ' - Seema Mustafa's column - " Set to Repeat the Blunders" - (TNIE- 24 Feb) .


She wrote: " This cynical and totally callous misuse of power was visible on the ground in India as well, when Salwa Judum was launched to tackle the Naxalites. What emerged was the harassment and victimisation of local villagers who refused to join Salwa Judum, leading to tremendous human rights vciolations."


In the dominant political culture of India, citizens are encouraged to treat terrorism as an unavoidable feature of modern existence and undertake no independent initiatives to counter it.When occasionally, very occasionally, citizens choose to break the shackles of liberal squeamishness and fight back, the full weight of enlightened opprobrium is hurled against them. The human rights industry, famous for its remarkable sense of selective indignation, the editorial classes and the minences grises of the NGO sector rise as one to discredit anything that smacks of either retribution or self-defence.


The genesis of Salwa Judumlies in the refusal of a large section of tribal society to endure this nonsense any longer. What began in May 2005 in Kutru village in Dantewada and quickly spread to neighbouring areas was essentially a non-cooperation movement against an occupying Red Army.Maoists and their sympathizers were chased out of villages and their supply chain was crippled. When large 8,000-strong gatherings of local people voted in unison to fight the Maoist menace, if necessary with bows and arrows, Chhattisgarh saw the beginnings of a popular upsurge.


The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has, however, given a clean chit to anti-Naxal movement Salwa Judum, accused of extra-judicial killings in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, and held Naxals responsible for forcing it to take up arms. In a report to the Supreme Court in 2008, the rights panel justified the anti-Naxal movement, saying, " The tribals cannot be denied the right to defend themselves against the atrocities perpetrated by the Naxalites, especially when the law enforcers are themselves ineffective or not present ".


A three-member NHRC team, which investigated the alleged rights violations by Salwa Judum highlighted in a public interest litigation filed by a group of activists including historian Ramchandra Guha, found the charges to be mostly based on hearsay. And, of course, for being an 'Eminent Historian', Guha has been awarded the 'Padma Bhushan' in this Republic Day Honours (2009) !! We are Secular - Stupid!!


After inquiring into 168 of the 547 allegations, the NHRC said: " Many of the villagers whose names figure in the list of those allegedly killed by Salwa Judum or security forces were actually killed by the Naxalites." FIRs were registered in most cases and the kin compensated. Interestingly, some of the villagers on the list died of natural causes while a few others were alive and still many were Naxalites. The NHRC team - led by DIG Sudhir
Chowdhary was attacked thrice by Naxals and one such incident left a police officer injured - didn't come across any complaints of Salwa Judum collecting " taxes " from vehicle owners.


Taking a dig at the petitioners, it said: " Surely, the petitioners wouldn't support the subjugation and killings of tribals by Naxalites for years before Salwa Judum." The fact of the matter is Salwa Judum poses an enormous long-term threat to the Maoists, and, our 'secular - bleedingheart - liberals' - don't like this!! And yet, the people of Chattisgarh have spoken in the recently concluded Assembly Elections!!


The "LIES" our "SECULAR ESTABLISHMENT - PERPETRATES AND PERPETUATES"!!


I rest my case, Your Honour.


VANDE MATARAM