Academics deplore Maoist, police violence

Don't blur the crucial distinction between reckless, violent Maoists and peace-minded civilians
Hardnews Bureau Delhi

Eminent academics and journalists have expressed deep concern at the ongoing violence and massive police action in Lalgarh. This will only lead to another round of blood-letting and a spiral of renewed violence, tragedy and injustice.

"We deplore the reckless, self-serving violence of the Maoists, who have exploited West Bengal's post-election chaos by using deprived and angry tribals as pawns and by brutally attacking CPM cadres and offices. This cannot be rationalised as just retaliation against the violence unleashed by the CPM over the years. The two kinds of violence only feed and aggravate each other," they said in a statement issued to Hardnews in Delhi.

"We are profoundly disturbed by the massive central and state armed police operation in Lalgarh-Jangalmahal in West Bengal. This was launched without exploring a negotiated settlement of genuine popular grievances and by blurring the crucial distinction between violent Maoists and peace-minded civilians." The operation is severely hitting civilian life and social safety in an extremely backward area "with sub-human living conditions and absence of public services and social opportunity worsened by unremitting police atrocities".
 
"Deplorably, the media has equated the Maoists with the People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), which has conducted a democratic and peaceful struggle among tribals for dignity and security, and against State excesses," the intellectuals said. The signatories, among others, include historians Sumit and Tanika Sarkar, Editor, Mainstream, Sumit Chakravartty, columnist Praful Bidwai and professor of political science in Delhi University, Achin Vanaik.

Meanwhile, the Central Office of the CPI-ML (Liberation) has stated that the recent developments in Lalgarh in the adivasi belt of West Midnapore district of West Bengal are a source of serious concern for all well-wishers of people's movements in West Bengal and the country. "It must be remembered that the current phase of agitation in Lalgarh was an eruption of mass resentment of adivasis against the daily State-repression and police atrocities against tribals, especially against women, which intensified after the land mine explosion on November 2, 2008 targeting the convoy of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as it returned from the inauguration of the Jindal Steel Works SEZ in Salboni in West Midnapore district," said Prabhat Kumar on behalf of the party.