Concerted, organised civil rights stir is lacking against Operation Kagar

By Harsh Thakor* 
The entire country has been engulfed with barbaric oppression, with unparalleled destruction of constitutional organs for the past ten years. The emergency of 1975-77 has been more than ressurected by the present regime. and more repressive than the post-liberalisation period ushered in by PV Narasimha Rao. Neo-fascsim has been on ascendancy, as never before.
When two revolutionary parties merged to form the CPI-Maoist, PM in 2009 declared that “Naxalites are the biggest threat to internal security. It was the precursor of unprecedented military campaign in the name of Operation Green Hunt .Operation Kagar even if being an offshoot of is even more merciless than Operation Green hunt, with aim to establish a Corporate Hindu Rashtra.
Dandakaranya, sowed seeds for a wave of social upheavals and cultural experiments imperative, for India. It has witnessed waves of unparalleled violence for four decades. However at this juncture, in Operation Kagar (The Final Mission), with deployment of more than a hundred thousand paramilitary forces supported by drones, helicopters, and satellite surveillance, war of aggression has scaled a boiling point, unprecedented, turning into genocide. Operation Kagar is staged to be the final nail in the coffin to wipe out it’s most powerful adversary in the quest for establishment of the Corporate Hindutva state.

Background

The BJP is working to win for the third time in the General Elections. The installation of Ram in Ayodhya, the introduction of CAA to completely marginalise the Muslims from their own land, and attempts to bring a Uniform Civil Code by the saffron government to legalise the Hindu Brahmanical culture planted the seeds to turn India into a Brahminical Hindutva fascist state. On the economic front, all trade, business services, and natural wealth are being placed at the mercy of corporatisation. War on Dandakaranya is part and parcel ofr this very goal.
Militarization in Central India is integrated with corporatization and the penetration of large companies into India’s rich forests. Under the pretext or garb of combating the Maoists, these operations form a leeway for the loot of the country’s natural resources by large foreign corporations.
The reactionary state and its corporate accomplices and imperialist countries drool over Abujhmaad as it is considered to be one of the last places in India that has not been plundered and the forest remains protected.
Patronising the monopoly of finance capital, wearing the garb of constitutional democracy; this war aims to capture or plunder natural resources to mega-corporations. Relentless resistance in Dandakaranya against the large-scale corporatisation of its natural wealth beneath the earth provoked the rulers to convert Dandakaranya into one of the most intensive military zones. For over 3 decades. The government considers the Adivasi movement a thorn in the flesh to their corporatisation objectives. Ironically, the seizure of the so-called remotest areas has become a pivotal problem for the Centre.
After the Abhuj Maad incident, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that “the Maoist movement was the biggest enemy of development and they would liberate the country soon.” It expresses that the Maoist movement as the most potent threat among the existing mass movements rising against corporatisation in the country. The Central government’s slogans – “We will liberate the country from the Maoist movement and hand over the country’s wealth to the corporate”– reflect the same. The present Operation Kagar, though part of Operation Samadhan-Prahar, which started in 2017 is in a qualitative sense a different type of military campaign.
Mainstream media and even the alternative media are camouflaging or keeping deep silence on these genocides. Media personnel are distorting truth by stating that armed forces are killing tribal people out of panic.

BJP Offensive 

Immediately after the BJP grabbed power in Chhattisgarh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, stated the Maoist movement will be eradicated completely; and State Home Minister Vijay Sharma was ready to talk with the Maoists. Inspite of two contradictory views from the state, but they served a single purpose. One was complete extermination. So, hundreds of thousands of CRPF BSF, and other local forces were moved to Dandakaranya. The second was the call for negotiations. The conditions laid down for the talks were for causing no obstruction to the construction of roads and mining in the forest area.
Within no time, six base camps were set up in one Maad area in direct violation of favourable conditions assured.
Instead of finding a political solution to the conflict. the government shamelessly acted on behest of the corporates and proposed negotiations to safeguard the prospects of mining barons.
The BJP government made all these preparations in a most explosive fashion. On New Years Day, the security forces attacked Muddum village, near Gangalur, in the Bijapur district, and killed a toddler- Mangli- in the lap of her mother while she was being breastfed. On April 2, 13 Maoists were killed in an encounter at Korcholi in Bijapur district Four months into this year, 80 adivasis and revolutionaries were murdered in cold blood the name of encounters.
On April 16, 29 revolutionaries, including at least 12 women, were killed in an attack in a joint operation by the BSF]and the State police in the Maad area. It was part of a new war called Operation Kagar [Final Mission] by the Central Government. The North Block in Delhi deployed maximum forces to Dandakaranya [official figures -80,000] to capture the Abuzmad [Unknown Maad] area.
Aerial bombing was also carried out for the fifth time on January 13 as a continuation of the aerial attacks carried out by the previous Congress government Before embarking on this final battle, Amit Shah stated that the next General Elections would be held in the country liberated of Maoists meaning that his forces would completely extinguish the Maoists from the face map of India by 2024. The RSS’ official press announced that 2047 was the goal of realising the Hindu state. The Maoist movement is a thorn in the flesh of their ‘New India’ and the establishment of a Hindu state. The Sangh Parivar wants the Hindu Rashtra based on Hindutva and an aggressive political and economic foundation. Thus the Centre is giving making intensive war preparations and spending more than a lakh crores rupees in the budget to wipe out revolutionary movement completely.

Conclusion

As long as the revolutionary movement unfolds, it is not possible for such a ‘New India’ on the lines of corporate Hindutva, to be established.Central India has hosted at least fourteen major mass struggles in the last three years. These political and economic struggles are sprouting save forests, water, and lands. Millions of people have been relentlessly waging a battle against lack of bridges and roads, ill effects of mining and tourism, propaganda of Hindutva, and anti-farmer, unconstitutional laws. Governments at the Centre and the states were made to shiver in their spine and feeling that the previous Samadhan operation could not check the escalating mass movement inducted Misssion Kagar by equipping security.
The PLGA and CPI (Maoist) were the principal guides to the Adivasis in Abujhmaad in their life and death struggle for the environment, their land and livelihood. The Maoist party  has published a most illustrative and positive statement to spark people’s resistance from every sphere. However still there has to be integration of mainstream movement. A concerted or organised civil liberties or democratic rights movement is lacking, like in Andhra Pradesh in yesteryears or Punjab, in recent times, which significantly confronted state repression.
It is imperative now for the Maoists to act or work within the manifold of mainstream movements the day to day struggles of the people and not subject them to the dictate of armed squads. The Maoists have not sufficiently integrated in mass mobilisation of people, particularly the urban working class and failed to build a broad united front. It has not built genuine mass revolutionary resistance to combat the neo-fascist genocide of the Saffron BJP party and even in protests failed to recruit the people at large. Nor has it spurred the civil rights movement. Rarely to we witness genuine mass based protests of tribals or people at large.
It is always fresh in memory that what principally combated precursor of Kagar genocide, Operation Greenhunt, was the Democratic Front against Operation Greenhunt in Punjab and not the CPI(Maoist) armed activities .It is imperative for mass conventions or rallies to be held all over the country, particularly linking to urban working class. Today many democratic forums like Campaign against state repression are not successful in establishing link with working class.
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*Freelance journalist. Thanks information from Red Herald and Virasam