A Shanti Padayatra, claimed to be innovative, has completed a week of gruelling march through a dangerously beautiful territory. It will reach Jagdalpur for the so-called Bastar dialogue on October 13. A march by adivasis, accompanied by a few non-adivasi activists, Maoists have condemned the effort for dialogue.
Even before the march started, Maoists reportedly ordered the local adivasis to boycott the yatra; they also targeted its principal organiser Shubhranshu Choudhary as a corporate agent. The order has reduced interaction between the local population and the yatris, but the yatra continued in defiance of the diktat. Maoists have always ordered boycott of the electoral process, threatening people with physical harm if they disobeyed.
Even before the march started, Maoists reportedly ordered the local adivasis to boycott the yatra; they also targeted its principal organiser Shubhranshu Choudhary as a corporate agent. The order has reduced interaction between the local population and the yatris, but the yatra continued in defiance of the diktat. Maoists have always ordered boycott of the electoral process, threatening people with physical harm if they disobeyed.
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