Indian state, as guaranteed and obligated under the Constitution has the legal responsibility to protect the right of lives of its citizens. If it feels that an individual is involved in criminal activities, in that case the activity of that person must be investigated, before initiating any action against him. Nevertheless the Narendra Modi led BJP Government for protecting the interest of the rightist forces has been unashamedly violating this constitutional provision by resorting to deliberate killing of a person or persons without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding.
Extra judicial killings have not been unknown to the Indian people. An authoritarian regime prefers this nature of political, trade union, dissident, academic, intellectual even religious and social killings. These actions are not legal. Quite intriguing the Modi government and its home minister Amit Shah have been supporting such illegal killings on the plea of eliminating the Naxalite or Maoist menace. Resorting to lynching by the saffron ecosystem has also been the part of the machination. Since the authorities refuse to make their mode of operation public, the charge of using the private militia along with the police cannot be ruled out. It is the threat perception of state relying on non-State actors cannot be ignored.
Though the Modi government has been ruthlessly using police, para military forces against the Naxalites and Maoists in Chhattisgarh and in some parts of Maharashtra, for some time in which hundreds of these political activities were eliminated, it is the nature of design of killing Maoist leader Keshavaraju that has made the left leaders scared and suspicious of the real intentions of Modi and Amit Shah. While Shah claimed that Keshavaraju was killed in an encounter, the Maoists claimed that he was picked up in Odisha and taken to Chhattisgarh and killed.
The murky operation of the home ministry, on the plea of fighting Maoists, has given rise to many portentous questions. Both RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Narendra Modi have coined the word Urban Naxal. Obviously through this word they are targeting the liberal, leftist and democratic people. They are the major threat to them. With their presence in the social life, the rightist forces cannot think of accomplishing their mission. A number of innocent academics subscribing to these principles have been rotting in jails in Bhima Koregaon case of January 1, 2018..
After coming to power for the third time, Modi has become more and more aggressive and, in his quest, to prove as indispensable to saffron ecosystem, has resorted to ruthless subjugation. The five left parties are politically correct in discerning that Modi government would turn more coercive and cruel. Which is why they have written to him to stop the “extrajudicial killings” taking place as part of anti-Maoist exercise in the name of Operation Kagar”, and the state must respond to the insurgents’ call for talks and deal with those Maoists reportedly in security forces’ custody in line with the rule of law.
This letter attains more importance in the backdrop of Amit shah’s consistent threat that by March 31, 2026 the government will finish Maoism and Naxalism from India. It obviously implied that RSS and BJP treat Naxalites as criminals and do not take Naxalism as a political issue. Incidentally BJP chief minister of Chhattisgarh Vishnu Sai Deo has said that there was no need for talks with the Maoists.
General Secretaries MA Baby (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-MLL), Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP) and G Devarajan (Forward Bloc) have said in their joint letter that tribal rights enshrined in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution were being “systematically violated”. The forests and minerals in Chhattisgarh were being subjected to “indiscriminate corporate exploitation with disastrous implications” for environmental stability and livelihood of local people, they said. History makes bare that an autocrat does not hand over the bodies of those killed by the state. Same has been happening in Chhattisgarh case. The leader did not approve of the “hostility that is being seen even after death” as the government refused to hand over bodies to their families, “denying them their right to give a dignified farewell to their family members”. They also urged Modi to stop “militaristic approach that treats the Adivasis” in Chhattisgarh “with unmitigated hostility”.
The most horrific aspect of Amit Shah designed action programme has been to deliver instant justice. The Adivasi activists fighting for their right to the land, were being dubbed as Naxalites and Maoists and killed. The left leaders urged Modi to “put an immediate halt to the extra-judicial killings in the region around Chhattisgarh and demanded that they “be produced in court and dealt with as per the rule of law”. Some rights organisations have alleged that seven of ten rebels captured from Chhattisgarh were killed following torture over the last week.
The leaders while underlined that the rights of the Adivasis “are being systematically violated” they said “We reiterate the appeal” by various people and political parties to respond to the insurgents’ call and “urge upon you to stop the extra-judicial killings and violence with immediate effect and order an impartial judicial enquiry”. Shah last month claimed that security forces killed 197 “hardcore” Maoists as part of its operations this year.
The left leaders lamented “There are several reports that several senior Maoist leaders are currently in the custody of the security forces. We demand that they should all be produced in court and dealt with as per the rule of law,” they also pointed out “ tribal rights enshrined in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution were being ‘systematically violated’. (IPA Service)
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