Chhattisgarh has an Adivasi chief minister in Vishnudev Sai but the issues facing the Adivasis of the Bastar region of the state don’t appear to be a priority for his government and remain unresolved. Innocent villagers are being branded as Naxals and killed in “encounters”. The Adivasis are up in arms against the growing clout of mining companies. Manish Kunjam, a former MLA from the Bastar region, spoke to Forward Press on the situation there:
There is no end to allegations that the police are carrying out fake encounters. The latest in the series is the incident in Kondagaon district, where a young man called Abhay Netam was shot, allegedly on the suspicion that he was a Naxal. What is your take on these incidents?
The police are not conducting investigations properly. Merely on the basis of suspicion, they are sending people to jail, and even murdering them. This has been happening for a long time but we were hopeful that at least now it would stop. But it hasn’t. In Bijapur, the police caught a cook and killed him. Then, there was this incident in Kondagaon. These kinds of things should not happen at all. But frankly, they no longer surprise me. We have been witnessing all this for the past 20 years. Earlier (during the Salwa Judum days), such incidents happened on a very large scale. Now, the numbers have fallen a bit. I believe all this should end. But such incidents keep happening. This is a matter of deep concern.
This BJP government replaced a Congress government. Has that brought about any change in the way the police function?
No. Police are police, and will always be. What happened during the Congress regime is still continuing. There is no fundamental difference.
The central government has been saying that they would eliminate Naxalism. It has even claimed that Naxalism has already been eliminated. Are these claims credible?
It is true that over the past year, a large number of Naxals have been killed. They include top leaders of their national committees. Young men working with them have also been killed. It is also true that for the first time a large number of Naxalites have surrendered and continue to do so. Many young men are also quitting Naxal groups and returning to their villages. They are not being counted among those surrendering but we have information from many villages. However, despite all this, Naxalism has not ended and there is no possibility of it ending in the near future. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that Naxalism would be completely eliminated by March 2026. But my contention is that this is not possible and I am not saying so without any reason.
Senior police officers, journalists who cover naxalites from close quarters and, of course, the ordinary people, all say that March is just six-seven months away. Naxalism can’t end so soon. Another thing: the government’s current policy on Naxals is that they should either surrender or be ready to die. This is the line the government is taking. Now, there is a hill called Karegutta in the southern part of Sukma district. We all saw that it took 20,000 security personnel 20 days to gain control over the hill, to reach its top. That was in May. There are many such hills in Bastar. There are many forests and rivers.
If the government wants to end Naxalism by killing Naxals, I don’t think it will succeed. Another thing worth taking note of is that the young men who are surrendering, barring exceptions, are coming without their weapons. Obviously, they must have hidden their weapons somewhere in the forests – they might have left them in a cave or buried them in the ground. I am saying this because the police have not been able to get hold of the weapons.
It is very difficult to identify young men operating in the jungles. They move around plain-clothed in different guises. So, I can’t comprehend how Naxalism can be brought to an end by killing Naxals. This is no way to go about it either. When Maoists are saying that they are ready to talk, they are ready to talk peace, the government should talk with them.
I have said this in many interviews. In June-July, top Naxal leaders wrote five letters. They said they wanted to talk. The last letter was addressed to Mallikarjun Kharge. The first one was written to Prime Minister Modi. From the contents of the letters, it is clear that they have mellowed down or shall we say, they are being uncombative. That is very unlike their original tone and tenor.
What I want to say is that they (Naxals) are our countrymen. They are not conspiring against the nation from across the borders. They are fighting within the country. Their means may be wrong. These days, you can’t win any battle with weapons. It is not possible at all. They must have known this all along. Or maybe, wisdom has dawned on their top leadership now. I feel that they are our compatriots, they are our brothers and sisters, there should be no problem in talking with them. When the government can hold talks with secessionists from the Northeast in Singapore, Malaysia and elsewhere abroad; when it continues to talk with the secessionists from Kashmir and Punjab, it is impossible to understand why it is not talking with the Maoists when they want to talk.
This is a big question. The truth is that if the government enters into a dialogue with the Naxals, they may give up arms. And if that happens, the central paramilitary force camps dotting Bastar will have to be shut down. There will be no justification for the camps once the Naxals have surrendered. There will be a demand for sending the jawans to places where they are needed, to disturbed areas. You see, here in Bastar, we have CRPF, BSF and ITBP jawans. What will they do in Bastar? The government wouldn’t have an answer. And if they are sent back from Bastar, the government wouldn’t be able to so easily exploit the mineral and forest resources of Bastar. It is being said that the area around Karegutta Hills may have uranium deposits. At present, the government is able to exploit the mineral resources behind the shield of the central paramilitary forces. But the Adivasis here enjoy some protection under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and PESA Act. If the Adivasis assert their rights, if they seek recourse to these laws, it will become difficult for the government to allow the open loot of resources. The government knows that as long as there are paramilitary camps, Adivasis can be suppressed. All laws and rules can be overlooked. That is the reason, I believe, the State does not want to talk with the Naxals. It does not want Naxalism to end.
There are reports of many journalists being jailed in Bastar?
Yes. Some journalists have been jailed. They were framed. There were some journalists in Dantewada and Sukma areas. Ganja (hashish) was planted in their vehicles and Andhra Pradesh police arrested them. They were sent to jail. Journalists protested, staged sit-ins, and held demonstrations in Sukma. Besides Chhattisgarh Patrakar Sangh, journalists from Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and other states joined these protests. The main thing is that journalists are being branded as Naxals and framed in other cases.
Not long ago, you were accused of a scam in the distribution of tendupatta bonus. What do you have to say about it?
Yes. It was a much-talked-about allegation. Among the national newspapers, The Indian Express and The Hindu reported on it. Local newspapers also covered it, and so did the electronic media. Much was written on social media, too.
This is a long story but I will try and summarize it here. The bonus that had become due in 2021-22 was released in 2024, just before the Lok Sabha elections. It was supposed to have been distributed among the beneficiaries by February-March 2024 at the latest. But the money was gobbled up by government officials and office-bearers of tendupatta cooperative societies. We were unaware of this. Then, a source in the forest department told us that the entire amount has been siphoned off.
Once I came to know of it, I sought information from the local cooperative societies. I was told that the DFO (Divisional Forest Officer) asked them to withdraw the amount and give it to him. And they did that.
Armed with this information, on 8 January 2025, I met the district collector and submitted a memorandum. The same day, I invited friends from the media and shared whatever information I had. I told the mediapersons that this scam is not confined to the DFO; that a scam of such proportions couldn’t be carried out without the collusion of senior officers and ministers. What I said then was published the following day. The coverage by some newspapers was comprehensive. Others picked up some portions. When no action was forthcoming, we resumed our protests. Then, on 7 March, the DFO was placed under suspension. But our point was that DFO’s suspension was not enough; that the managers of cooperative societies should also be penalized; and even more importantly, the people should get their hard-earned money.
Exactly a month later, on 10 April, my home was raided. I was told that I could also be one of the recipients of the money that was siphoned off. I said this was atrocious. It was I who had exposed the scam, which had already been buried.
The information that I have is that the case was registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on 8 April. The ACB presented a person from Rajnandgaon – who was perhaps a police informer – before the court. He said that there has been a scam in the distribution of tendupatta bonus in Sukma. Based on his testimony, a case was registered. I had been saying the same thing since January but had it fallen on deaf ears.
So, this is the story – so strange and amazing. The long and short of it is that my house was raided due to other reasons. Adani and Jindals are being granted mining rights in Bastar. There is this talk of discovery of Uranium deposits. A railway line is being laid. Roads are being widened. Those in the government know that there is only one person who would oppose it. That person is Manish Kunjam. So, why not entangle him in a case! This seems to be their objective. As for the raid at my home, what could they have found there?
They found your diary?
Yes. They took it with them. They haven’t returned it till now.
(Translated from the original Hindi by Amrish Herdenia)
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