The killings of Chhattisgarh

A violent death in Chhattisgarh follows a familiar script it is first a mere statistic an addition to the count of the dead in the battle between the State and the Maoists The statistic soon becomes a story The first draft of it is invariably contradicted in its retelling Often the only indubitable aspect of the death is the corpse with bullet woundsmdashand grieving relativesTruth is elusive in Chhattisgarh Keep this in mind as you read this columnIn the last week of August Home Minister Amit Shah said in Raipur that a ldquoruthless strategyrdquo will ldquodeliver the last blowrdquo to leftwing extremism which he predicted would be eradicated by March 2026 Shah cited figures in support of his optimism 189 Maoists had been killed this year alone Security forces Shah explained were working to establish the rule of law and developing the areas dominated by MaoistsIndeed no State can countenance a challenge to its sovereigntyIn the same week of August 68 persons travelled to Jagdalpur city from remote parts of Bastar division whose seven districts spread across dense forests are the site of bloody battles between the State and MaoistsOver the next three days before a team of Peoplersquos Union for Civil Liberties and senior Supreme Court lawyer Colin Gonsalves each of the 68 was videographed as they narrated stories of security personnel killing their family members Their testimonies pertained to 168 deaths in 46 incidents of violence The data suggest multiple deaths occurred in some violent eventsThe recorded video running into 10 hours is on PUCLrsquos YouTube channel but most testimonies are in Gondi and have yet to be translated and subtitled I persuaded Degree Prasad Chauhan president of the PUCLrsquos Chhattisgarh Chapter to provide me a preview of some accounts in Hindi These narratives of coldblooded killings shock regardless of the language usedmdashas for instance the deposition of Lakhe Kartam doesLakhe said on May 10 security personnel swooped down on his hut at Peediya village Bijapur district and killed his grandson Pandu Lakhe used the phrase ldquobhagabhaga kar maar diyardquo to describe how Pandu was shot dead Itrsquos a phrase that appears in several depositionsFor instance on the same day at Itawada village Bijapur district Kamli Thati told her husband Suku that she would join him in plucking tendu leaves in the forest after cooking lunch As she prepared to leave security forces suddenly surrounded the village Kamli was disallowed from joining Suku She too said the police killed Suku ldquobhagabhaga kerdquo up the Peediya hillockI asked adivasi leader Soni Sori the meaning of ldquobhagabhaga kar maar diyardquo She said during search operations villagers flee at the sight of uniformed men who then chase and fire at them But often also Sori said men are compelled to run and hunted down The bodies of Pandu and Suku were not returned to their families The last rites of Suku were performed by placing his belongings on a pile of firewood and setting them ablazeSrimuka of Bijapurrsquos Soni Punami village said the police whisked away her son Beema when he was collecting tendu leaves one early morning She claimed he was drowned in a pool the body subsequently dumped at their dwelling unit Soni Barse testified that her husband Joga of Peediya village was killed before her despite her entreaties when the two were collecting tendu leaves Their accounts drip with grief that is compounded because of their incomprehension of why those whom they love were shot deadIt is inconceivable that all the 68 fabricated their depositions in unison to malign the security forces Chhattisgarhrsquos morbid reality was depicted in journalist Malini Subramaniamrsquos investigative story on the April 2 gunfight in the KorcholiNendra forests adjoining Bijapurrsquos Gangalur village Thirteen Maoists were killed But three of them villagers told Subramaniam were certainly not Maoist Incredibly she found that ldquoamong those declared dead not all were deadrdquoThe animosity between the adivasis and the security forces will escalate as security camps mushroom in the Bastar forests According to Citizensrsquo Report on Security and Insecurity in Bastar released in July there is one security person to every nine civilians in the division making it one of the ldquomost militarised zones of the countryrdquo These camps are established late at night without securing the consent of villagers as is required under a slew of laws Trees are illegally felled and individual or community land usurped On May 17 2021 CRPF jawans fired at an estimated 15000 people protesting against a security camp established at Silger village in Sukma district killing three Three years later the protest continuesThe camps are required it is argued for security forces to establish ldquoarea dominationrdquo for fighting the Maoists and building roads and other infrastructure A counter to this is that feverish development activities under the gunrsquos shadow are designed to access Chhattisgarhrsquos rich mineral resources What cannot be debated and justified is that adivasis can be killed ldquobhagabhaga kerdquo in mockery of the very idea of the rule of lawThe writer is a senior journalist and author of Bhima Koregaon Challenging CasteSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper