Anti-Maoist drive 'targeting' human rights activists

The Chhattisgarh government seems to be adopting the Andhra Pradesh model in combating Maoists by targeting the human rights and civil liberty activists despite the fact that the move failed to yield the desired result in the neighbouring state.

In the mid-1980s, the Andhra Pradesh government cracked down on human rights, civil liberty and social activists in a bid to contain the Maoist movement in the state "" then the worst-affected in the country. Gadar, the revolutionist poet, and a large number of other activists were put behind the bars. But it did not produce the desired result for the government.

A senior intelligence official in Chhattisgarh conceded that the action on a few human rights activists in the state was part of the same model to combat the Left radical group. The government is working on the line despite having all notes that the experiment did not work in Andhra Pradesh.

After the arrest of Dr Binayak Sen, senior human rights activist, for his alleged Maoist links, the other NGOs working for the cause of protecting human rights are also under the scanner. "The government can take action against us by dubbing us Maoist sympathisers for raising voices against the wrongdoing of the state machinery," Gautam Bandhopadhyay of Nadi Ghati Morcha said.

The police allegedly tried to implicate another senior human rights activist and wife of Dr Binayak Sen, Dr Illina Sen, in a missing girl case even though she had no connection with it. According to Dr Illina Sen, her husband was arrested on false charges as there was no evidence against him.

Rajendra Sail, the state president of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), was arrested in a two-year-old case, when he was returning from a dharna staged to protest against Dr Sen's arrest. "The intelligence network of government should be active. Action against the activists would not solve the Maoist problem," Sharad Verma, the Bastar-based president of Bastar Conservation Protection Society, said. According to him, the state government had no policy to deal with the Maoist menace and the action against the activists without any concrete evidence of their Maoist links endorsed the point.

"The (Maoist) problem is socio-economical. The government has failed to pace up the development works and the NGOs working for the social upliftment of the tribals are now forced to stop their activities," Verma said.

If the social activists are protesting for the cause of tribals, who have to abandon their homes and face the wrath of rebels, does it come under the purview of supporting Maoists as government say, Verma asked.

Congress, the main Opposition party in the state, remains a divided house on the issue. Former chief minister Ajit Jogi had protested the arrest of human rights activists alleging that the BJP government was misusing the draconian Chhattisgarh Public Security Act, but the other leaders preferred to keep mum on the matter.

"We are not justifying the government stand," said State Congress spokesperson Ramesh Varlyani, adding that the NGOs in Chhattisgarh should also "set some parameters".

"Why are they not protesting the Maoist action of blowing the power transmission towers that has plunged the entire Bastar region in the dark and forced the people to struggle for primary health and even water?" he asked.