By Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization

Editor’s Note: Our Comrades with the Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization have sent us 3 updates in the preceding weeks which we have presented here in chronological order.  The constituent organizations of FACAM are: All India Students Association (AISA), All India Revolutionary Students Organization (AIRSO), All India Revolutionary Women’s Organization (AIRWO), Bhim Army Student Federation (BASF), Bhagat Singh Ambedkar Students Organization (BASO), Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch (bsCEM), Collective, Common Teachers Forum (CTF), Democratic Students Union (DSU), Fraternity Movement, Nazariya Magazine, Progressive Lawyers Association (PLA), Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan (MAS), Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI), Vishwavidyalaya Chhatra Federation (VCF).

Protest Gathering on 10 January Against Displacement Of Adivasis in Kaimur and Hasdeo and The Killing of a 6 Month Old Infant In Bijapur in The Name of Anti-Maoist Operations

10 January, 2024

On 10th January 2024, Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM) held a protest gathering at Delhi University Art Faculty against the cutting of trees and land grab of Adivasi peasant land in Hasdeo, Chhattisgarh, against the establishment of a tiger reserve as an excuse to displace Adivasi peasants in Kaimur, Bihar and against the killing of a 6 month old infant in Bastar region, Chhattisgarh on 1st January 2024. The protest stood in opposition of the Indian government’s Operation SAMADAHN-Prahar, which furthers militarization for the sake of intensifying corporate loot in resource-rich regions by building multiple paramilitary camps and deploying thousands of paramilitary forces in these regions, all in the name of anti-Maoist operations. The protest was addressed by Delhi University’s Dr. Jitendra Meena, Dr. Saroj Giri of the Political Science Department and Dr. Nandita Narain of St. Stephen’s College, DU.

Dr. Jitendra Meena spoke on the intensified displacement of Adivasis from their land by way of big corporate’s seeking to begin mining projects in resource-rich regions. He raised his astonishment as to how forests in Hasdeo which were once declared a “No-Go” zone for human activities are now being cut down for the interests of Adani’s mining project right after the BJP government came to power in Chhatisgarh. He expressed his concern regarding how displacement of people in the name of environmental conservation and building a tiger reserve such as in Kaimur, is being justified through amendments in Forest conservation and wildlife protection laws. He said, “108 villages in Kaimur have been given a notice for displacement. Same story is being seen in Rajasthan, in the Kumbhalgarh area where more than 50 villages have received the same notices for displacement. In Karoli, Dhaulpur, more than 50 villages too have received notices from the government to leave. Where will these Adivasi peasants go, what will happen to their lives? Nobody knows. But the story of displacing them from their lands has already begun, whether it be in Kaimur, Hasdeo, Bastar or Rajasthan.”

Dr. Saroj Giri spoke next, pointing out how the struggle of Palestinian people in Gaza against the Zionist Israeli state is linked with the struggle for land and resources in Bastar and other parts of the country. He pointed out how the Indian state is unleashing an undeclared and undocumented war on the Adivasi people of the country since Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt which has now intensified into Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar. The people’s struggle against militarization and corporate loot is a struggle for their existence which is tied to their land. He condemned the killing of a 6 month old infant in Bijapur by security forces and drew a contrast with previous such massacres in Gompad, Sarkeguda and Eddesmetta. He pointed out that despite judicial enquiry reports finding the paramilitary personnel responsible for the fake encounter in Edesmetta and Sarkeguda, no action has been taken. 

Dr. Nandita Narain followed up by finding the root of the issue in imperialism’s setting up of outposts in different strategic regions of interests, with the Israeli state being one such outpost in the Middle East. Pointing out the role of the Zionist Israeli state providing arms, including drones to the brahmanical Hindutva fascist Indian state, which it used to bomb Bastar, she said this close collaboration between India and Israel is an example of how imperialism is the driving force behind the corporate loot of resources and is expanding its tentacles in our country as well. She reminisced regarding the campaign led by Dr. G.N. Saibaba against Operation Green Hunt which culminated in his incarceration, thereby exposing the state’s attempt to silence any voice that questions this undeclared war.

The protest was also addressed by constituent members of FACAM. Aditya from AISA, Uthara from bsCEM, Sujit from DSU and Val from Nazariya magazine spoke unilaterally against the killing of the infant, destruction of Hasdeo and state suppression of leaders of the anti-displacement movement in Bihar led by Kaimur Mukti Morcha. They also gave a unified call to stop Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar and reiterated that like Operation Green Hunt, Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar will also be defeated.

Concluding the protest, FACAM member and Moderator Ehtmam Ul Haque spoke about the increasing militarization. He pointed out that 195 paramilitary camps have been built within 5 years of Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar and the killing of 6 month old infant in Bijapur is related to similar camps built in nearby villages of Palnar, Dumri Paralnar and Kavadgaon in December 2023.

Oppose The Initiation of Operation Kagar: A Large-Scale Mobilization of Paramilitary in Abujmarh Unuder The Guise of Countering Maoism

21 January, 2024

News has emerged that the Indian state is transferring 3,000 Border Security Force (BSF) personnel from the state of Odisha to Chhattisgarh, particularly the Abujmarh region where already 10,000 personnel of various units of the paramilitary Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), such as the CRPF, are deployed. Since 1 January, 2024, the Indian state is rapidly mobilizing more and more paramilitary personnel into the 6 military camps established in the Abujmarh region under a new Operation Kagar. This region, home to the Gond, Muria, Abujmarhia and Halbaas tribes also falls in the area which contains 700 million tonnes of India’s iron ore reserves, along with graphite ore, limestone and even uranium deposits. With the onset of Operation Kagar, for every 7 Adivasi persons in Abujmarh, there are now 3 paramilitary personnel in the hills once fiercely defended by the Adivasis against the feudal Nizam rule and the imperialist British Raj for preserving their way of life against the brutalities of imperialism and feudalism. The onset of Operation Kagar is soaked in the blood of the 6-month-old infant killed in Bijapur, on 1 January, by the drunken District Reserve Guards who shot at protesters after having come back from the New Year celebrations at their camp. 

Operation Kagar itself is part of the larger Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar (OSP), which began in 2017 after the brutal Operation Green Hunt was defeated. This operation, began under the guise of countering the Maoists in the region, has seen the development of 195+ fortified camps in the so-called “Left Wing Extremism-affected” regions and heavy deployment of CRPF, BSF and even National Security Guard (NSG) as a means of providing outposts for the Indian state. These outposts have then been used in an attempt to crush the region-wide mass movements against rapacious mining projects which have contributed to the loot of India’s natural resources and threaten to displace thousands of Adivasi peasants from their lands for the sake of imperialist and big Indian corporate interests. Since the creation of the fascistic militia Salwa Judum, such attempts have continuously increased as the Indian state seeks to remove the Adivasi peasants from their lands to extract the natural resources within them for the sake of imperialists abroad. 

Salwa Judum began in 2004 and since then, people’s movements have continuously thwarted these attempts, be it the movement against American giant Dow Chemical (the same imperialist corporation behind Agent Orange and napalm used in the Vietnam War and behind the Bhopal gas leak) in Nandigram, against the landgrab to set up a Special Economic Zone for Tata Motors in Singur, against the South Korean steel company POSCO in Dhinkia, Odisha etc. In Chhattisgarh alone at the present, there are 34+ ongoing sit-in protests against these mining projects and displacement which are continuously opposing the joint nexus of the Indian state’s paramilitary and its camps with that of imperialist and corporate interests. Operation Kagar, as part of the larger Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar, represents an escalation that is reminiscent of the old Operation Lalgarh in 2009, which began as a desperate measure by the Indian state to wipe out the resistance of the Adivasis in the West Midnapore region, West Bengal who had arisen against brutalities of the police meted out against their protests opposing Jindal Steel’s plant being set up in their area. These protests themselves echo the same sentiment that is being raised in Silger, Bastar, where the first mass sit-in protest in Chhattisgarh began after police open-fired on peaceful protestors who were opposing a mining project. Fake encounters, rapes of Adivasi women, burnings of villages, abductions, and killings of infants, all for the sake of imperialism’s and big Indian corporate’s interests, this is the legacy that Operation Kagar carries forward. 

The mobilization of Indian state’s paramilitary under Operation Kagar is a highly alarming situation that comes right after the victory of the BJP government in Chhattisgarh State assembly elections which has given unfettered impunity to the brahmanical Hindutva fascist Indian state to carry out its core purpose of intensifying the loot of India’s resources while clamping down on all forms of people’s resistance. The BJP government, under Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar has also introduced the Surajkund offensive (as discussed in the 2022 Surajkund Chintan Shivir) to expand OSP to clamp down on “Naxalism of both the pen and the gun.” This means that for the Indian state, all forms of people’s resistance falls under the category of Maoism, whether it be armed or unarmed. This has seen even Gandhian organizations in the state of Jharkhand being listed as potential “Maoist-linked” fronts by the NIA in 2022! The joint onslaught of direct paramilitary attack on people’s resistance on ground in Bastar, particularly Abujmarh under Operation Kagar along with the use of draconian UAPA law and the NIA against democratic-minded peace-loving individuals and organizations which are raising concern against these developments has ensured that this becomes an all-out war against which is undeclared and undocumented. These developments in the region will only increase the cases of fake encounters, abductions, rapes of Adivasi women and the woeful killings of infants. 

Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM) vehemently condemns Operation Kagar and the large-scale deployment of CAPF forces in the Abujmarh region under this Operation. 

FACAM urges all democratically minded peace-loving individuals and organizations to rise against, agitate and write against the undeclared and undocumented war on people being waged in central India under Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar and the Surajkund offensive. 

FACAM demands an immediate end to Operation Kagar, Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar and the recalling of all paramilitary deployed in the region along with an end to rapacious mining projects which promote an anti-people model of development.  

On The Fake Encounter of Three Adivasi Peasants in Nendra, Bijapur, Chhattisgarh

26 January, 2024 

FACAM has learned that on 19 January 2024, three villagers, Madkam Soni and Punem Nangi from Nendra (Bijapur district) along with Karam Kosa from Gotum were killed by the police in Chhattisgarh. They were going to join a protest before they were apprehended on their way and killed on the hills between their villages. The security personnel claim that three were Maoists who were killed in exchange of fire. Later, the police tried to burn their bodies which was only stopped after the people from their villages demanded the bodies be handed over to them. This incident comes as part of the escalation that began on the 1^st January 2024, when the Indian state initiated Operation Kagar in Abujmarh area, as an expansion to the ongoing Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar (OSP). Operation Kagar has seen the mobilization of 3000 paramilitary personnel from other states to the 6 paramilitary camps in Abujmarh, where now for every 7 locals, there are now 3 paramilitary personnel. Operation Kagar was inaugurated with the killing of a 6-month-old infant in Bijapur district, shot dead after drunken members of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) fired on protestors, where the infant’s mother was breastfeeding her. The intensification of paramilitary presence in India’s resource-rich regions under the guise of countering Maoism, has served to intensify corporate loot of India’s natural resources at the service of imperialist and big corporate interests. All of this is undertaken under OSP, with the paramilitary unleashing a spate of brutalities on the Adivasi peasants to force them off their lands which contain the precious ores and deposits that the imperialists and big corporates seek. 

Fake encounters such as this have been made commonplace under OSP, with the killing of Sodhi Dewa and Rava Dewa in Tadmetla in September last year, one of the more recent and infamous examples. The two were stopped by the police on their way back from their relative’s home, dragged to the forest and shot dead. Both were prominent and longstanding members of the village and the police’s claim that they were members of the armed unit of the Maoists made little sense to the people of theirs and nearby villages who rose up in protest against this fake encounter. Nendra village’s history itself is a microcosm of the brutalities the Indian state metes out in its war against people at the service of imperialist and big corporate interests. In January of 2016, the village of Nendra was taken over by the paramilitary (CRPF, DRG, Koya) as a base of operations. A joint fact-finding team of Coordination of Democratic Rights Organization (CDRO) and Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) found that during this period in Nendra, the men were driven out of the village and the women were held hostage for the sexual gratifications of the paramilitary and the police, with over thirteen instances of gang rapes occurring in a three-day period. Threats were levied by the paramilitary officers that the village would be burned, reminding the people of the horrors of Salwa Judum and the brutal and unsuccessful Operation Green Hunt. All of this was done with the excuse of conducting combing operations in the nearby forests to curtail Maoist activities. Even when people assemble as a means of exercising their democratic rights, they are fired upon and killed, as was experienced with the killings of Madkam Soni, Punem Nangi and Karam Kosa. Corporatization and militarization go hand in hand, which is why it is so necessary for the Indian state to eliminate all forms of resistance, even if it is unarmed, so as to allow unfettered loot of India’s natural resources by imperialists and big corporates as well as the grabbing of peasant land. 

The electoral chest-thumping of Home Minister Amit Shah to “end the Naxal problem,” a claim he made as recently as 22^nd January 2024, is manifesting itself in the intensified militarization of the region and repeated massacres of Adivasi peoples which are projected as Maoist casualties to boast its supposed successes in anti-Naxal operations. The heightened presence of the paramilitary will only lead to deaths of more infants and more fake encounters as the BJP-led Indian state, instead of recalling, intensifies its war on people. In the last 20 days alone, 65 arrests have also been made of “Maoist sympathizers and those supporting the Maoists in Bastar” per local journalists after the Maoists attacked a CRPF camp in Bijapur district, allegedly killing 35 CRPF personnel and injuring 40 others in a retaliation to Operation Kagar on 16^th January 2024. On the other hand, Bastar police has partially refuted this claim. Not only has this matter been strategically silenced in mainstream media, but the arrests are also ambiguous by law too, as the mere allegation of ‘sympathizing’ with a political ideology alone is not a crime, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court and various High Courts. These arrests, instead, are part of the diktats of the Surajkund offensive part of OSP, which concluded that the state would crush “Naxalism of both the pen and gun.” This equates all forms of dissent and brands it with the redtag of Maoism. It also gives impunity to the state to arrest these so-called sympathizers to ensure that this undeclared war on people goes undocumented. 

At the gathering on 22 January, Amit Shah told security personnel to “focus on ‘urban Naxals’,” a conspiracy theory-term that has become part of state parlance under the BJP government. This is an alarming situation that not only affects the resource-rich areas of the country where the people directly confront the brutalities of the Indian state’s paramilitary and corporate loot, but also the cities where the exercising of democratic rights itself becomes equated with Naxalism. The killings of Madkam Soni, Punem Nangi and Karam Kosa, Adivasi peasants killed for merely going to a protest, and the rhetoric being perpetuated by the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist state are a reminder of the threat to the democratic rights struggle for all democratic-minded, justice-oriented and peace-loving organizations and individuals. 

Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM) condemns the fake encounters in Nendra, Bijapur, Chhattisgarh that took the lives of Madkam Soni, Punem Nangi and Karam Kosa. 

FACAM demands an immediate judicial inquiry in the matter and an end to Operation Kagar!