The Salwa Judum (fight for peace) operation being carried out by the Chhattisgarh government to curb Maoists with the help of villagers is in the eye of a political storm.
The controversial Salwa Judum (fight for peace) operation being carried out by the Chhattisgarh government to curb Maoists with the help of villagers is in the eye of a political storm as it has resulted in the emergence of new gangs of criminals with government-supplied arms.
In the midst of a keen electoral battle building up between the rightwing BJP and the CPI, charges are flying thick and fast, with the former accusing the latter of enjoying tacit Maoist support. The CPI and the Congress, on the other hand, feel Salwa Judum camps are acting as a “captive vote bank” for the ruling BJP.
Senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi claimed the Raman Singh government had a vested interest in continuing the camps despite their “failure”.
“They reaped benefits from the camps in the assembly election and I fear they will repeat it in the Lok Sabha poll,” he said.
Four of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh are in the grip of Maoist violence, with Bastar, a predominant tribal constituency, worst affected. The other constituencies living in Maoist fear are Sarguja, Kanker and Rajnandgaon. The fact that most areas in these constituencies, particularly Bastar and Sarguja, are out of bounds for political parties has led to a debate not only about the efficacy of Salwa Judum launched three years ago but also its utility to the ruling party.
An extensive tour of Bastar and adjoining areas revealed a growing trend of gun-wielding villagers (Salwa Judum) turning gangsters. “They come to the road, terrorise people and go back to their camps after looting vehicles. It has also led to rampant corruption in the bureaucracy as the state government has been pumping in a lot of money to keep this scheme afloat,” a local social worker said.
Despite strict security measures taken by the Centre and the state government, Maoist violence is on the rise, as remote areas of Chhattisgarh have become a vital transition point in what is known as the “red carpet” that starts from Gadchiroli in Maharashtra and extends up to Koraput in Orissa, a police officer engaged in anti-Maoist operations said.
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