The pressing question facing Mamata

A mixed response to the 24-hour bandh call by the Maoists in Jangalmahal, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia on October 22 confirms that the they are still an entity to reckon with in West Bengal.

The bandh call came on the last day of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s seven-day ultimatum to the Maoists, whom she wants to come to the negotiation table after surrendering arms. Outwardly, the bandh call flopped in urban and semi-urban areas to a great extent, but in not-so-remote villages the protest mood was silently eloquent in favour of the issues of the bandh call — protest against the suspension of the Indian Reserve Battalion Jangalmahal for their resentment against being posted in risky areas and apathetic authorities, the gang-rape of a 28-year-old woman by jawans of the joint forces and raids by ‘Bhairav Vahinis’ , the Trinamool Congress’s version of the CPI(M) harmads.

Nowhere did the Maoists campaign for the bandh . But the BV’s armed roughs roamed on two-wheelers like the harmads during the Left Front days. They were inspired by West Bengal’s first woman CM who described the Maoists as ‘supari killers’ in her 40-minute address in Paschim Medinipur, Jhargham district, on October 15. True, as she said, “The door for dialogue is still open, but guns and talks cannot go hand in hand.”

But why was no ceasefire offered by the state and the joint forces? Instead, as if speaking from a high horse with a pistol, she issued a mandate to the Maoists that if they ‘are brave, they should come for an open confrontation with the police.’ The interlocutors — Sujato Bhadra, a doyen among civil rights activists, and Chhoton Das, secretary, committee for release of prisoners — instantly registered protest.

Unfortunately, the chief minister is unconcerned about the fact that a woman was gang-raped in front of her parents-in-law’s by the security personnel who had gone to arrest the victim’s husband, who was on bail. The victim had consumed poison after the incident and was fighting for her life at Jhargram hospital. The chief minister did not even inquire about her. The chief minister also holds the home ministry, which disallowed the first annual meeting of the Nari Izzat Bachao Committee, which was formed after 11 Adivasi women were raped by men of the joint forces and the harmads. Isn’t this a symptomatic manifestation of autocracy?

Even singer Kabir Suman, a Trinamool Congress MP, remains ostracised within the party, which was why the big boss did not even inquire about his heath after he had a cerebral attack and was hospitalised. Kabir’s faults were two. First, he refused let a close confidante of Banerjee to decide utilisation of MPLAD money as the Mamata-sycophant is infamously corrupt. Second, Suman has been a consistent campaigner for the release of political prisoners in Jangalmahal. Any other democratic party would have been proud of this exceptional cultural personality who fought hand in hand with the Nicaraguan rebels and was a strong sympathiser of communists in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Maoist milieu has become complicated in the initial post-Left Front phase. Segments of CPI(M) harmads who haven’t fled Jangalmahal have mostly infiltrated the Bhairav Vahinis, but some have mingled with the Maoists. Furthermore, the chief minister has gone back on her promise to withdraw the joint forces, although the security forces did not kill anyone during the last four and a half months. Thus an element of uncertainty about the state government’s sincerity in consolidating the peaceful milieu in Jangalmahal remains.

After the death of CPI(Maoist) spokesman Azad, the party chief Mupalla Laxman Rao alias Ganapathi was asked about the fate of the dialogue with the Union government. He bluntly said the answer should come from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Nonetheless, not all optimism is lost in Jangalmahal. Banerjee too realises that “there is a difference between a political issue and development.” Her reiterated optimism about striking a peace deal with the Maoists is suggestive, her apparent conceit about a flopped bandh notwithstanding. The Maoists should be politically challenged instead of being gunned down.

The adivasis are sick and tired of sanguinary violence.

The peace process should go ahead.The writer is a veteran journalist & commentator, specialising in left politics and environment