The
Peace and Justice March from
Raipur
to Dantewada.
In recent days
the Naxalite violence has became a predicament of horrendous
proportions in our country. The problem has grown to such an
extent that our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has termed it as the
gravest threat to our national internal Security.
On 6 April,
2010. The biggest Maoist attack took place in the forests of
Dantewada where 76 members-of paramilitary force were ambushed
and brutally done to death. The whole nation was stunned by this
raw power of the Maoist. While the Central and State governments
started flexing their muscles, Operation Green Hunt (media
designated) was launched The Maoist justified the murder most
foul as revenge for the ongoing exploitation and day to day
violence being perpetrated by the Police and other state
agencies. In fact they became bolder and huge cache of arms
which they could lay their hands on made them even more
formidable. It was in this context of a huge build up of
Violence & Counter Violence, a People’s Tribunal was
organised at the Constitution’ Club, New Delhi which brought
out the root caused of this violence in sharp contours.
In an effort to
address the root causes of this serious problem and to initiate
the Peace building process in the violence hit ‘Dand-Karanya’
region Prof. Banwari Lal Sharma and Swami Agnivesh took out a Peace and Justice March from 5th to 10th
May, 2010 from Raipur
to Dantewada. The message of the march was very clear-
An appeal to both the Maoists and the Government to stop
violence and counter violence and discuss all the issues across
the table in a democratic manner.
Before the
March, Swamiji had met the Union Home Minister Shri. P.
Chidambaram who proposed that if the Maoists abjure violence
just for 72 hours, he would intiate the process of dialogue with
the Maoists.
In the March the
following Social activists and eminent Gandhians participated.
1.
Prof. Yashpal (Chancellor J.N.U.)
-
Narayan Bhai Desai (Vice Chancellor Gujrat
Vidyapeeth)
-
Thomas Kocherry (World forum of Fisher
Peoples)
-
Radha Behan Bhatt (President, Gandhi Peace
Foundation)
-
Amarnath Bhai (Ex. President, Sarva Seva
Sangh)
-
Prof. Jagmohan Singh (Scientist, historian
and Nephew of Bhagat Singh)
-
Prof. Navdeep Mathur (IIM Ahmedabad)
-
Rajiv Lochan Shah (Editor Nainital Samachar)
-
Dr. V.N. Sharma (All India Forum for Right
to Education)
-
Prof. Banwari Lal Sharma (Azadi Bachao
Andolan)
-
Manu Singh (Sarva Dharma Sansad)
-
Keyur Bhushan (EXMP)
-
Dr. Kamal Narayan Arya (Arya Pratinidhi
Sabha Chhattisgarh)
-
V.B. Chandra Shekharan
-
Devashish Prasoon
And 45 others.
All these
distinguished members of the Civil Society first gathered at
‘Dadabadi’ in Raipur on 5 May, 10. The Peace Marchers
addressed a Press Conference at Raipur Press Clube in the
afternoon and then assembled at the town hall to outline the
issues that would be brought up during the March. The peaceful
assembly was interrupted by misguided youth from various
political students groups like NSUI and ABVP. The students
unsuccessfully tried to disrupt the peaceful meeting and shouted
vulgar slogans in front of these respected dignitaries. The
meeting continued and Swamiji outlined the need to address the
issue of a paradigm shift in the concept of development which is
currently full of greed and violence. He also paid glowing
tributes to a great Martyr and his friend Shankar Guha Niyogi
who was killed by the nefarious nexus of politicians and
industrialists. Swamiji also spoke about the proposal of the
Home Minister and urged the Maoists to give up arms and help in
the process of peace building.
Braving threats
from various organizations, the peace march proceeded towards
Dantewada after a short Prayer Meet in front of the statue of
Gandhiji. in Raipur on 6 May morning. Peace March reached
Jagdalpur where after having lunch a press conference was
organized. In the press conference Swamiji reiterated his appeal
regarding Union Home Ministers’ proposal and also described
the grim situation of the tribals who have been marauded by this
violent concept of development and the corruption in the
system. While a very volatile press
conference was going on inside the press club, a very violent
protest had started brewing up outside the premises. The youth
who came from ABVP, NSUI and ‘Vyapar Mandals’ were hell bent
on disrupting the peaceful march. They even deflated the tyres
of the bus in which we had to proceed to Dantewada the next
morning.
Despite this
abusive and stormy protest, the members of the peace march
remained calm and did not get provoked At Swamiji’s insistence
some of the members from the protesters were called inside for
talks. The magic of dialogue worked and after a heart to heart
sharing session, the Protestors (some of whom even initially had
sticks in their hands) were pacified. Swamiji in his calming
speech said how he had also encountered the Maoists throughout
his life, not with violence and bullets but through his
ideas and actions.
The ‘yatra’
then had a night halt at Jagadalpur, and the strategies for the
next day were discussed. After some debate everyone agreed to
continue the peace march come what may. The following morning
the yatra commenced again with full enthusiasm. Just after an
hour of travel the ‘Yatra’ was intercepted at ‘Geedam’
by petty political-cum- businessmen, who not only tried to stop
the Yatra but also tried to create panic and terror. They hurled
uncouth and vulgar abuses at the honorable civil society
activists and threatend the driver with dire consequences.
At this point it started
becoming palpable that this might be an end to the peace march,
but then suddenly- almost dramatically the situation changed and
DSP (Dantewada) came and took control of the situation. We were
now accompanied by police and CRPF and the angry protesters soon
disappeared. We reached the temple of Danteshwari at
the confluence of the scenic ‘Dankani’ and ‘Shankhani’
rivers, where the peace activists prayed for Peace and Justice.
After the prayer, a press conference was organized and the
members of the Yatra also had an informative conversation with
the locals, who narrated their problems due to Maoist violence
After this we went to the state managed ‘Astha
Ashram’ where
the children of the people killed
by naxallites were being kept for education.. After having lunch
we first went to a CRPF camp where everybody payed homage to the
CRPF jawans killed by the maoist on April 06. It was a
satisfying to meet a few jawans who were appreciative of
Swamiji’s LSTV discussion ‘Vichar
Manthan. The second and final halt after lunch was the
village of ‘Chitalanka’ where 106 families were living –
all there families had been forced to migrate from their
villages due to maoist violence. It was our first encounter with
what is know as the Salwa Judum- now renamed Special Police
Officers-S.P.O. They narrated their experiences of Maoist
violence.
This was the culmination of
the 3 day Yatra – the only lacunae being that we were not able
to contact the other side of the violence- counterviolence
battle- the naxallites. But this modest effort was just a
beginning and several such initiaves to establish ‘Just
Peace’ would follow in the future.
Having finished
with the Dantewada meetings, we had the satisfaction at least of
reaching our destination. Given a more congenial atmosphere, we
had Plans to go and spend some time with the villagers in near
by villages to understand their point of view. But the situation
did not warrant and the Peach March returned to Raipur via
Jugdalpur and Kanker by
the late evening of 8 May. No sooner we reached Raipur, we
learnt through the T.V. news that the Maoist had struck again
around 5 P.M on 8th May near to Dantewada and some 5
police men got killed due to landmine.
Was it a Maoist
response to our invitation for talks, abjuring violence? Or part
of a routine violence and counter violence?
Manu Singh
Photos - Courtsey, Devasheesh Prasoon
(Peace Activist with
(Wardha)
Swami Agnivesh )