Where do we stand in the World on Fire? Unprecedented Violence
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- One Hundred and Eighty SEVEN
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
Car bombs hit Baghdad government, killing 136 ...
Ruling Hegemonies justify the War, ARMAMENT and REPRESSION putting SECURITY, SOVEREIGNITY and Peace at stake. Nationalism and Internal Security being the best logic. At the same time, Insurgencies Multi Dimensional quoting COLORFUL Ideologies on differen Political Spaces and forums do CONTINUE. How far these developments in the world of FREE Market and MNCs, Arms of mass DESTRUCTION, manmade calamities, Nuclear strategies, Chemical Pollution, biological war Fare and Space adventure happen to be relvent to the Black Untouchables, Aboriginal and Indigenous communities subjected to ETHNIC Cleansing, Migration, EXODUS and Holocaust? CIVIL war and Terror strikes, Unprecedented Violence, Autocracy and corporate Imperialism amount for PERSECUTION Infinite and we remain ISOLATED from the Mainstream which is quite DETACHED with heartful APATHYMarket regulator SEBI has directed all stock exchanges and other securities intermediaries to keep a strict watch on UN-listed terror funding entities, including the name underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has asked the securities intermediaries to inform the Union home ministry within 24 hours if they find any client, whose particulars match with those of the entries listed by the United Nations.
Supporting unconditional talks with the Maoists, Booker prize winner and activist Arundhati Roy has alleged that "economic interests" in mineral-rich states have driven the government and establishment to launch action against them.
"My fear is that because of this economic interest the government and establishment actually needs a war. It needs to militarise. For that it needs an enemy. And so in a way what the Muslims were to BJP, the Maoists are to Congress...," Roy said in an interview to a TV news channel.
When asked about the talks between the government and left wing extremists, she said, "There should be unconditional talks with the Maoists.
"If I was a person who is being dispossessed, whose wife has been raped, who is being pushed of their land and who is being faced with this 'police force', I would say that I am justified in taking up arms. If that is the only way I have to defend myself," she said when asked whether armed struggle was justified.
"We should stop thinking about who is justified...You have an army of very poor people being faced down by an army of rich that are corporate-backed. I am sorry but it is like that. So you can't extract morality from the heinous act of violence that each commits against the other," she said.
On the other hand,Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday said that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India and hoped Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao would iron out the contentious border issue.
Addressing a press conference after a party central committee meeting here, Karat in reply to a query on China claiming the northeastern state as its territory, said: "As far as our stand is concerned, Arunachal Pradesh is part of India".
"Now, how do you proceed to solve the long standing dispute. There is a mechanism evolved by both the governments which is being carried forward by successive governments," he told reporters.
He hoped that the talks between Manmohan Singh and Wen in Thailand on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit would help resolve the border issue.
On the Maoists' abduction of a West Bengal police officer and the state government's swap of jailed women in exchange for the cop, Karat tried to sidestep the queries.
He merely said: "Those people who were released were ordinary people and had been mobilised by the Maoists. Our job is to politically isolate the Maoists. We have decided to conduct a vigorous campaign against the Maoists."
He said the situation in Maoist affected Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand is "very serious". "The government should deal with the real problem of the tribal people."
Asked about complaints about irregularities in the voters' list in Kannur constituency, where an assembly by-poll is slated November 7, he said the issue is being examined.
Where do we stand in the World on Fire?Political Boundaries corrupt our vision while, provided if we see the developments and EVENTS Geopolitics wise, we would rather find ourselves BLEEDING, Roasted and headlessStaepower as well HEGEMONIES do justify the VIOLENCE licensed and worldwide media along with the Intelligentsia as well as ELITE Civil societyies which eats the CAKE of Power politics, have nothing to do with have Nots Nohing to do with Global warming, Pandemics, food Insecurity, purchasing Power, Jobloss, Infinite Migration and displacement. Genetic seeds and Nuclear energy, chemical Corruption have taken over our ROOTS which have dislodged Folk and culture, languages and lifestile. only Plastic Money SURVIVES killing Knowledge, History, iterature and Art, Everything representing the Aboriginal Celebration of Life which symbolises Civilisation and Humanity India Inc continues to see a double-digit attrition rate, this time of 13.8 per cent -- the highest in Asia Pacific region -- despite Coming to terms with lay-off economic uncertainty, says a survey.
We work on Contact, may be it is KILLING or Poisonous, have converted ourselves in ROBOTICS, Computed Tools and Technology. We Reamin FACE Less, without Identity. And the Crisis is NEVER Local. It is Global problem in the age of globalisation. In a age of FREE market Democracy where Strategic marketing and Escalating market, consumers, brands, shares,plastic money, growth, equities, bonus, surplus, profit, manipulation, corruption, bank acounts, kickbacks,ramps, realty shows, showbiz are the FINAL world and we have no DSTINY to weep for and NO survival Strategy to live on. The TREES hates us, the SYSTEM hates us. The Ecology UNFRIENDLY. Calamities Rule. Pandemics take over. Genocide is CULTURE. Injustice and Inequality Predestined.
We are the SCAPEGOATS of Globalisation worldwide and whoever is killed in encounter has a BLOOD relation amongst us. At every point of time we lose SOME One very dear, dearest
How May we dare to Celebrate? Though it is FESTIVAL time. It is hyped as RECOVERY and we do STARVE in RISILIENT Economy. We see nothing but Mass Destructions , though Economic reforms target All round Growth and Progress. We find our selves in DEINDUSTRIALISATION while Industrialisation is the HOT Bowl of Land War. We have to fight of water as Big dams have Seized us. We have no space to breathe as MANGROVE Forsts have been DEFORESTED. We are NO Body`s people in No body`s land
"The top four markets reporting the highest turnover rate are India (13.8 per cent), Australia (11 per cent), New Zealand and China (10.3 per cent)," the report stated.
Turnover rate refers to the ratio of the number of workers that had to be replaced in a given time period to the average number of workers.
"While many would believe the economic uncertainty should help ease pain on high employee voluntary turnover, the Hewitt 2009/2010 Annual Asia Pacific Salary Increase Survey does not reveal the same. The comparatively high turnover rate...raises an alarm to the world," Hewitt Associates Regional Leader Broad-Based Compensation practice Stella Hou said.
The survey stated that 'better external opportunity' was consistently cited as the top reason for employees voluntarily leaving their organisations across all markets.
"This means companies continue to search for talented people even under a tough economic situation... organisations will continue to face a tight talent market," it added.
Other economies in the Asia-Pacific market, including Singapore, Korea and Thailand, are on high single digits in terms of employee turnover rates in the range of 8.8 per cent to 9.3 per cent.
"An organisation's ability to retain talent is a challenge facing all companies. This provides challenges to be more innovative in retaining the top people in their firms with a tighter budget," Hou said.
Companies need to focus on pursuing different talent management strategies suitable for its own workforce, while the most notably the variable pay programme was the most popular incentive adopted by most companies in the region.
"Companies realise that they cannot afford to lose talent. They know 'high performers' will help them lead the firm out of the storm into the winning field. Even for those companies experiencing unprecedented levels of uncertainty and cost reduction pressures, they tend to reward and retain their best talent with special incentives," Hou added.
The Hewitt survey revealed that the challenging talent market also compelled companies to reward talent differently with top performers receiving 50 per cent higher rewards than the average performers.
India and Russia are planning to test-fire the air-launched version of their jointly-developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft in December next year.
Work on the air-launched version of the missile is in the final stages and BrahMos scientists are now waiting for the Su-30MKI aircraft from India to act as a platform for test launch of the missile, Defence Ministry sources told PTI .
The air-launched version, they said, will be lighter and smaller than the land-based version of the missile so that it can be fitted to the aircraft.
One of the two speed boosters in the missile has been removed for the air version of the weapon system as after being launched from an aircraft moving at a speed of more than 1.5 mach, the missile will automatically gain its momentum and maintain its speed of 2.8 mach, the sources said.
After being released from the aircraft, the missile will have a free fall of about 150 metres before getting activated and flying to its target.
The range and speed of the missile will remain the same as that of its land and ship-launched versions, they said.
For the integration of the aircraft with the missile, two of IAF Su-30 MKI planes will be used. These aircraft would be the part of the 40 additional Su-30s, for which orders were placed in 2006.
Stressing the importance of the rule of law for ensuring economic growth, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said only states that ensured smooth land acquisition and enforcement have attracted more foreign investment than states that have not.
Addressing the valedictory function of the conference on 'National Consultation for Strengthening the Judiciary Towards Reducing Pendency and Delays' here, Mukherjee said: "Some states, which had ensured smooth law acquisition and enforcement of law have attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) more than other states."
He said foreign investors always weighed the cost of capital and delays in courtroom led to additional cost in investment, which repulsed FDI.
Noting that delays in courtroom had led to corruption, lack of investment and inflation, the minister said the delays were the main reason for judiciary eating up two per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the country.
"Taking law in our own hand leads to lawlessness and corruption in general," he said.
The Finance Minister said in India, it took 425 days to enforce a contract, thereby placing it at a lowly 173rd position globally on that front.
Mukherjee said the Home Ministry's budgetary allocation was increased by 25 per cent in 2009-10 budget as a result of the increase in the allocation for police and law enforcement agencies.
"This amount could have been spent for development instead," he added.
Washington has encouraged the operation in the northwest because many militants there are believed to shelter al-Qaida leaders and are also suspected to be involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. military has also kept up its own missile strikes in the lawless tribal belt, including a suspected one that killed 22 Saturday.
The army announced Saturday the capture of Kotkai town — hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and one of his top deputies, Qari Hussain. It also lies along the way to the major militant base of Sararogha, making it a strategically helpful catch.
NASA is 'go' for crucial rocket test
NASA is set to blastoff a prototype rocket on Tuesday that carries hopes of returning humans to the Moon, and for the first time to Mars, despite deep uncertainty about the program's future.
The space agency said everything is in order for Tuesday's two-minute, 30-second test of the Ares I-X rocket, a first look at the launch vehicle designed to replace NASA's aging space shuttle fleet.
It is "an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I," the space agency said.
Data will be collected from over 700 sensors spread across Ares I-X, providing a stream of information that will be scrutinised for months.
But more rides on the launch than data.
It is the culmination of three years work on Constellation, a human space flight program conceived by former president George W.Bush
As George Bush himself is all set to become 'motivational' speakerFormer US President George W Bush, whose economic and foreign policies drew flak both at home and abroad, is set to become a highly-paid motivational speaker.
The Republican leader, who left office with the US embroiled in two wars, the worst economic recession in generations and with his approval rating a toxic 22 per cent, will appear tomorrow with success stories in an "introduction to the George W Bush legacy project".
The appearance of Bush as the headline speaker on the popular 'Get Motivated' seminar on 'How to Master the Art of Effective Leadership' has produced guffaws, The Times newspaper reported.
"Only the BEST of the BEST appear on our stage" declares the Get Motivated website.
That dilemma is complicated by the recent rise of a Pakistani faction of the Taliban that operates in close proximity with al-Qaida — even as al-Qaida has lessened activities with its former Afghan Taliban hosts, according to some administration officials.
U.S. officials face a tough challenge in dissecting the structure and leanings of the militant organizations on both sides of the often indiscernible Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and understanding their murky and evolving ties to al-Qaida.
There was concern at the White House about that wayward Northwest Airlines jet that flew past its scheduled destination in Minneapolis.
White House spokesman Nick Shapiro told The Associated Press on Saturday that senior White House officials were alerted by the White House Situation Room and they closely monitored the incident.
Shapiro didn't say if President Barack Obama was informed about the wayward plane.
Northwest Flight 118 was out of communications with air traffic controllers for over an hour Wednesday night. The plane carrying 144 passengers and five crew members was destined for Minneapolis but overflew the airport by about 150 miles before controllers were able to re-establish contact.
In Islamabad, the army claimed Pakistan's Taliban were in disarray after soldiers captured the hometown of the militants' chief Saturday, a strategic prize as the military pushes deeper into an insurgent stronghold along the Afghan border.
The Taliban militants have carried a string of terrorist strikes in Pakistani cities in response to the operation. A suicide bomber in a car killed a police officer early Sunday on a highway that runs between the capital Islamabad and Lahore.
The 8-day-old air and ground offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region is a key test of nuclear-armed Pakistan's campaign against Islamist militancy. It has already spurred a civilian exodus and deadly retaliatory attacks.
Washington has encouraged the operation in the northwest because many militants there are believed to shelter al-Qaida leaders and are also suspected to be involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. military has also kept up its own missile strikes in the lawless tribal belt, including a suspected one that killed 22 Saturday.
The army announced Saturday the capture of Kotkai town — hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and one of his top deputies, Qari Hussain. It also lies along the way to the major militant base of Sararogha, making it a strategically helpful catch.
On the other hand, a powerful earthquake struck deep under the sea in eastern Indonesia, causing panic and sending residents running out of their homes, officials and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The earthquake late Saturday night had a magnitude of 7.0, but at a depth of 86 miles was too far below the earth's surface to cause a tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
The quake came as Indonesia is still recovering from a devastating earthquake last month that killed more than 1,000 people on western Sumatra.
Meanwhile,a team of U.N. inspectors prepared Sunday for their first look inside a formerly secret — though still unfinished — uranium enrichment facility that has raised Western suspicions about the extent of Iran's nuclear program.
The inspection tour will provide the world's first independent details of the heavily protected site, carved into a mountainside near the holy city of Qom south of Tehran. It also coincides with the countdown to Iran's expected decision on whether to accept a U.N.-brokered plan to process its nuclear fuel abroad.
Iran promised to respond later this week on the proposal, which seeks to ease international worries that Iranian labs could push the uranium enrichment to higher levels for weapons-grade material. Iran claims it only seeks peaceful reactors for research and energy.
Bands crank up volume on Guantanamo debate
Musicians, whose music was used to torture, rally support to close prison
WASHINGTON - A coalition of mega-bands and singers outraged that music — including theirs — was cranked up to help break uncooperative detainees at Guantanamo Bay is joining retired military officers and liberal activists to rally support for President Barack Obama's push to shutter the Navy-run prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba.
Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails are among the musicians who have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which launched Tuesday.
On behalf of the campaign, the National Security Archive in Washington is filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking classified records that detail the use of loud music as an interrogation device.
Interrogation tool
Based on documents that already have been made public and interviews with former detainees, the archive says the playlist featured cuts from AC/DC, Britney Spears, the Bee Gees, Marilyn Manson and many other groups. The Meow mix cat food jingle, the Barney theme song and an assortment of Sesame Street tunes also were pumped into detainee cells.
A November 2008 report by the Senate Armed Services Committee into the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody makes several references to the use of loud music as an interrogation tool.
Camilla Belle shows her style in Beverly Hills, Tim McGraw performs in New York, Paris Hilton celebrates Hello Kitty and more.
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In one case interrogators played music to "stress" Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a citizen of Mauritania who has been at Guantanamo for more than seven years, because he believed music is forbidden, the report says.
Over a 10-day period in July 2003, Slahi was questioned by an interrogator called "Mr. X" while being "exposed to variable lighting patterns" and repeated playing of a song called "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by the band Drowning Pool, according to the committee's report.
Maj. Diana Haynie, a spokeswoman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said loud music has not been used with detainees since the fall of 2003.
Jayne Huckerby, research director at New York University's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, said high-decibel music was also used against detainees at clandestine prisons run by the CIA.
No ‘benign security tool’
As part of an earlier FOIA request for information about these "black sites," Huckerby received a top secret CIA document dated December 2005 in which the agency explains that the use of loud music or white noise is needed "to mask sound and prevent communication among detainees."
If decibel levels are kept at 79 or lower — roughly equivalent to a garbage disposal — detainee hearing won't be damaged, the agency said.
Huckerby says that music was not used as a "benign security tool," but as a way "to humiliate, terrify, punish, disorient and deprive detainees of sleep, in violation of international law."
CIA spokesman George Little said the CIA used music only for security, "not for punitive purposes — and at levels far below a live rock band."
Founders launched National Campaign to Close Guantanamo with ads on cable television urging Congress to reject the "failed Bush-Cheney policies."
Obama pledged to close the jail by January, but logistical snags and Republican opposition on Capitol Hill have made fulfilling that promise less likely. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who warns that closing the prison would endanger national security, has fueled the resistance.
A group opposing the closure of the prison, Keep America Safe, said in a statement Tuesday that those held at Guantanamo are dedicated to killing Americans.
Car bombs hit Baghdad government, killing 136
Explosions come as Iraq prepares for elections scheduled for January
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two suicide car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad Sunday, killing at least 136 people and delivering a powerful blow to the heart of the fragile city's government in the worst attack of the year, officials said.
While violence has dropped dramatically in the country since the height of the sectarian tensions, such bombings like Sunday's demonstrate the precarious nature of the security gains and the insurgency's abilities to still pull off devastating attacks in the center of what is supposed to be one of Baghdad's most secure areas.
Black smoke could be seen billowing from the frantic scene, as emergency service vehicles sped to the area. Even civilian cars were being commandeered to transport the wounded to hospitals.
many wounded, and I saw them being taken away. They were pulling victims out of the rubble, and rushing them to ambulances."
The car bombs, which targeted the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial administration, come as Iraq is preparing for elections scheduled this January, and many Iraqi officials have warned that violence by insurgents intent destabilizing the country could rise.
No claims of responsibility
There have been no claims of responsibility so far, but massive car bombs have been the hallmark of the Sunni insurgents seeking to overthrow the country's Shiite-dominated government.
At least 25 staff members of the Baghdad Provincial Council, which runs the city, were killed in the bombing, said council member Mohammed al-Rubaiey.
The area where the blasts occurred is just a few hundred yards from the Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy as well as the prime minister's offices. The street where the blasts occurred had just been reopened to vehicle traffic a few months ago, in what was supposed to be a sign that safety was returning to the once devastated city.
The devastating attacks occurred just hours before Iraq's top leadership was scheduled to meet with heads of political parties on Sunday and reach a compromise on the disputed election law ahead of a crucial parliamentary vote in January.
The explosive-laden vehicles were sitting in parking garages next to the two government building, police said.
"They are targeting the government and the political process in the country," Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, spokesman for the city's operations command center, told The Associated Press. He said the blasts were the work of suicide bombers who drove the vehicles into the parking lots, before blowing them up.
The blasts, which surpassed coordinated attacks against two government ministries in August that killed more than 100 people, appeared to be a blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who has staked his reputation and re-election hopes on returning security to the country.
Al-Maliki toured the blast sites later in the day.
Sunday's explosions also injured nearly 600 people who were taken to six area hospitals. Medical officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, gave the death toll.
Ball of flames
Video images captured on a cell phone showed the second blast going off in a massive ball of flames, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.
"This is a political struggle, the price of which we are paying," said provincial council member al-Rubaiey. "Every politician is responsible and even the government is responsible, as well as security leaders."
Three American security contractors, working for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad were injured in the blasts, but no American embassy personnel were killed, said Philip Frayne, an embassy spokesman. Frayne could not immediately provide details about who the contractors were escorting to the site, which company they worked for or, or the nature of their injuries.
The explosions were just a few hundred yards from Iraq's Foreign Ministry which is still rebuilding after massive bombings there in August. The bombings were a devastating blow for a country that has seen a dramatic drop in violence since the height of the sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007.
Prominent Hindu leaders to gather for Hinduism Summit
The first ever Hinduism Summit (Hindu Dharma Sabha) in the NJ-NY-PA tristate area will be held by the Forum for Hindu Awakening (FHA) and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), with support from noteworthy Hindu and spiritual organizations. The Hinduism Summit will be held on Kartik Shukla Shashthi 5111 (24 October 2009) at the Marathi Vishwa Community Center in NJ, USA.
The Hinduism Summit aims to bring together Hindu leaders across the NJ-NY-PA tristate area to foster education about Hinduism. This Hindu Dharma Sabha follows the success of a recent similar Dharma Sabha in Virginia, USA, held by FHA, and over 100 such Dharma Sabhas held all over India by HJS.
At this Hinduism Summit, renowned Hindu leaders will speak on various topics. These would include understanding the unique spiritual science and scientific history of Hinduism, awakening to the misconceptions about Hinduism, living Hindu concepts in daily life and preserving the sanctity of Hinduism from denigration and distortion.
This ground breaking event will commence and conclude with auspicious recitations from the Vedas and ancient Hindu Scriptures, and will be webcast live from FHA and HJS sites.
Statement from national platform of adivasi and forest dwellers’ mass
organisations (Campaign for Survival and Dignity) on Government
offensive
Posted by indianvanguard2010 on October 13, 2009
October 12 2009
A Pretext to Impose Brutal Repression: the Government’s “Offensive” Is
a Formula for Bloodshed and Injustice
The Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of adivasi
and forest dwellers’ mass organisations (listed below) from ten
States, unequivocally condemns the reported plans for a military
“offensive” by the government in the country’s major forest and tribal
areas. This offensive, ostensibly targeted against the CPI (Maoist),
is a smoke screen for an assault against the people, especially
adivasis, aimed at suppressing all dissent, all resistance and
engineering the takeover of their resources. Certain facts make this
clear:
The government tells us that this offensive will make it possible for
the “state to function” in these areas and fill the “vacuum of
governance.”
This is grossly misleading. The Indian state is very, very active in
these areas, often in its most brutal and violent form. A vivid
example is the illegal eviction of more than 3,00,000 families by the
Forest Departments a few years ago. Laws have been totally
disregarded; Constitutional protections for adivasi rights blatantly
ignored and their rights over water, forest and land (jal, jangal,
jamin) glaringly violated. Every month an increasing number of people
are jailed, beaten and killed by the police. If this is the picture of
what “absence” of the state means, people are terrified of what the
“presence” of the state will mean. It can only mean converting
brutalized governance into militarized rule, a total negation of
democracy.
This is not a war over “development”. People’s struggles in India
today are over democracy and dignity
Meaningful development must contribute to strengthening the right of
all people to their resources and their production, and thereby to
control over their own destiny. For generations, adivasis have fought
for their Constitutional rights and entitlements. More recently, mass
democratic movements have fought for new laws and policies, such as
the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), the Forest
Rights Act, the right to work and the right to food, in addition to
earlier laws like the Minimum Wages Act, the Restoration of Alienated
Lands Acts, and land reform and moneylending laws. These laws make it
possible for people to fight for greater control over their lives,
their livelihoods, their lands and their forests. However these laws
are respected more in the breach; if the government wants
“development”, let it first stop the blatant disregard of its own
laws. Let people determine the path of their own development, in
accordance with their rights over their resources and the type of
infrastructure they desire. The Constitution itself requires this kind
of planning. The claim that “development” can be provided through
military force is both absurd and ridiculous.
This war is not about “national security”; it is about ‘securing’ the
interests of global and Indian capital and big business.
Any government worried about security would send its troops against
mining mafias, the forest mafias, violent vigilante groups like the
Salwa Judum and others. Rather than being curbed, these killers are in
fact supported by the police. Have the security forces ever been
deployed to defend the people struggling to protect themselves, their
forests, their livelihoods and their futures? The answer is no. The
notion of “security” being advanced by the government clearly has
nothing to do with the people. Rather, it is to enable big business to
engage in robbery and expropriation of resources, which they have
decided will be one of their main sources of accumulation. Hence,
mining, “infrastructure” , real estate, land grabbing, all aimed at
super-profits, are being projected as “development” needed by the
people. Huge amounts of international and government money are being
pumped into so-called “forestry projects” which displace people from
their lands and destroy biodiversity (even while they are trumpeted as
a strategy for climate change). The UPA is rushing into agreements
with the US and other imperial countries to throw open mining and land
to international exploitation. But where do the forests, land, water
and minerals lie? They are found in the forest and tribal areas, where
people – some organised under the CPI (Maoist), some organized under
democratic movements, some in spontaneous local struggles, some simply
fighting in whatever manner they can – are resisting the destruction
of their homes, resources and their lives. The “offensive against the
Maoists” is only a subterfuge to crush this citizens’ resistance and
to provide an excuse for more abuse of power, more brutality and more
injustice.
The government knows perfectly well that it cannot destroy the CPI
(Maoist), or any people’s struggle, through military action.
How can the armed forces identify who is a “Maoist” and who is not?
The use of brute military force will result in the slaughter of
thousands of people in prolonged, bloody and brutal guerrilla warfare.
This has been the result of every “security offensive” in India’s
history from Kashmir to Nagaland. So why do this? And why now? Unless
the goal has nothing to do with “wiping out the Maoists” and
everything to do with having an excuse for the permanent presence of
lakhs of troops, arms and equipment in these areas. To protect and
serve whom?
Hence the need for fear mongering and hysteria about Maoist
“sympathisers” and their “infiltration” into “civil society.”
The government has a very long history of labeling any form of dissent
as “Naxalite” or “Maoist.” The Maoists’ politics are known; their
positions are public; the only secret aspect of their work is their
personal identities and military tactics. We who work in these areas
do not fear this bogey of “infiltration” in our groups by Maoists, for
the different stands taken by our organizations and theirs are clear,
and in some areas there are open disputes. This scaremongering is just
an excuse to justify a crackdown on all forms of dissent and
democratic protest in these areas, a crushing of all people’s
resistance, and the branding of any questioning, any demand for
justice, as “Maoist.”
In the final analysis, peace and justice will only come to India’s
workers, peasants, adivasis, dalits and other oppressed sections
through the mass democratic struggle of the people. A democratic
struggle requires democratic space. The conversion of a region into a
war zone, by anyone, is unacceptable. In the forest areas in
particular, there is now a need for a new peace, one that can only be
achieved through a genuine democratic dialogue between the political
forces involved. For this to happen, this horrific “offensive” must
first be called off. If the government really wishes to claim that it
is committed to protecting people and their rights, let its actions
comply with the requirements of law, justice and democracy.
Endorsing organisations
Bharat Jan Andolan
National Front for Tribal Self Rule
Jangal Adhikar Sangharsh Samiti (Mah)
Adivasi Mahasabha (Guj)
Adivasi Jangal Janjeevan Andolan (D
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