The interests of both the State and the Maoists are served by reducing the complex and many-layered tragedy unfolding in the forests of Dantewada to a battle between Good and Evil. For the Maoists, the people are subordinate to the revolution; for the government, the people are a minor expendable detail in the mineral-rich territory they live in.
We fly into Raipur, the advice given by civil rights activists ringing in our ears: be careful which hotel you check into, since most report any arrivals—especially of journalists—to the local poli
Wednesday's incident in which local tribals in Naxalite infested Dantewada threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at Narmada Bachao Andolan chief Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pande for their alleged nexus with the Maoists was the surest indication that NGOs and human right bodies poking their noses in the insurgency hit areas of Bastar are no longer seen in a favourable light.
R Krishna Das / Raipur November 19, 2009, 0:28 IST
But, process is getting frozen wherever the state retreats before the Naxals, complain officials and industries.
Ramsingh Sai willingly sold his two acres of land to a private power company in Pusar village of Raigarh district for Rs 3 lakh a year ago. Now, he stands to get Rs 15 lakh more.
Jamshedpur: At a public hearing to assess the environmental impact of Tata Steel's 5.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) integrated greenfield steel plant in the Lohsinghgunda block of Chhattisgarh's Bastar region on Monday, residents of the 10 villages where the project is to come up conveyed their
TATA Steel is likely to begin work on its delayed steel project in Chhattisgarh by the end of the current year. The Rs 19,500-crore project for construction of an integrated steel facility of 5.5 million tonne capacity has crossed a major milestone with majority of project affected people coming in support of the plant.
The large rally-cum-publicmeeting of adivasi peasants, organised by the Bastar Sambhag Kisan Sangharsh Samiti on 1 June in Jagdalpur, opposing the construction of the Bodh Ghat dam and the privatisation of mines and river water resources was an eye-opener.
Regardless of the new ban on the Maoists, as long as the Indian government remains better at talking about local-level welfare than doing anything about it, Naxalite rhetoric will continue to find fertile ground.
