Arebel movement that seeks to overthrow the government is gaining ground across a swathe of the country’s centre and south, a region rich in mineral resources, but where many of the poor feel left out of India’s economic boom.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year called the Maoist rebel movement the most serious security challenge facing the country. The rebels are known as Naxalites, after the Naxalbari region in West Bengal where the movement was born 40 years ago.
Governments in states affected by the rebellion, including the impoverished state of Chhattisgarh, have backed crackdowns on indigenous villages they suspect of supporting the Naxalites.
But many of these villages sit on valuable mining lands, prompting human rights activists to complain of a murky line between state-backed security operations and clearing the way for resource development.
This clash between development, the rights of the poor and the rebel movement has ensnared people in the middle.
Among the most prominent is Binayak Sen, a doctor to tribal villagers in Chhattisgarh for 25 years. He is also a human rights activist, frequently visiting jails where he treated prisoners, including prominent Naxalites.
In May, the 57-year-old Dr Sen was arrested and put in prison in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur, charged with passing notes from a Naxalite leader he was treating in jail to someone outside the prison. He has been denied bail. Dr Sen denies passing notes or committing any crime, and says his activities in the jail were constantly supervised by prison authorities.
Dr Sen was a vocal critic of how the state’s development drive is hurting tribal villagers. So far, investments totalling about $21.33 billion (Rs83,827 crore today) have been proposed in the state by domestic and foreign companies, according to the Chhattisgarh State Investment Promotion Board—mostly from large Indian companies, such as Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd and Essar Steel Ltd.
In a speech before his arrest, Dr Sen said: “We are seeing all over India...a concerted programme to expropriate from the poorest people in the Indian nation their access to essentials, common property resources and to natural resources, including land and water.”
The state government claims that by arresting Dr Sen it was enforcing state anti-terrorism laws, enacted in 2005 to beef up the legal framework used to jail Naxalites and their supporters.
“It is very much according to the laws. We have enough proof,” says Ramvichar Netam, the state’s home minister. The government claims Dr Sen broke the law by taking letters from a Naxalite leader in jail out of the prison.
His backers say he was targeted because of his government critiques. “Dr Binayak Sen is an unfortunate victim,” says Mukul Sharma, director for Amnesty International in India, saying Dr Sen is one of several “rights activists” subjected to harassment, arrest and torture.
After Dr Sen’s arrest, Chhattisgarh police searched his house and seized his computer, a letter from a jail inmate describing deplorable conditions in prison, and newspapers and magazines.
Dr Sen’s lawyers say the police used the content from these publications—including articles on jail reform, the Naxal movement and American imperialism—to criminalize “free thinking”. They have petitioned the Supreme Court for the denial of bail to Dr Sen, pending trial, be overturned. The apex court is expected to continue the hearing in coming weeks.
In written answers to questions, Dr Sen acknowledged meeting a jailed Naxalite leader several times in prison as part of his human rights work, adding that “the visits to the leader in question were with police permission, and always in the presence of jail authorities”. He adds, “I am not a believer in violence, and have several times critiqued Naxal violence.”
Dr Sen says it was his criticism of vigilante groups that made him a target.
The groups, known as Salwa Judum, have become an increasingly powerful force by filling a void left by ineffective government. It regularly searches villages for Naxalite sympathizers, removes villagers from their land, purportedly for their own protection, and, say human rights activists, regularly engages in killings, looting and rape.
“Salwa Judum displaces tribals and negates their land rights. This will do away with the tribes’ entitlements, and open the field for industrial development and land acquisition,” Dr Sen says.
The state is widely suspected of providing support for the Salwa Judum. A Chhattisgarh government spokesman said the state provides “moral support” for vigilante activities. “What can a state with a weak police force do other than help the people to defend themselves?” the official said.
wsj@livemint.com