Even as we condemn the attempt of the Central government and the ruling establishment to criminalise certain political acts by calling them ‘Maoist’, we cannot remain silent when Maoists kill people in the name of fighting an oppressive state. It is not only the violence that has to be condemned, but the arrogance of a party and its members who think that violence is their right.
The recent killing of a journalist in Chhattisgarh is abhorrent not simply because a media person has been killed, but because they are part of a well-thought out strategy of violent armed struggle which necessarily involves the killing of people who are on the “wrong side”.
The statement issued by the Maoists explaining away the killing of journalists has to be read to understand their complete absence of humanity. It is written in officialese, a style we generally associate with the state. It says:
“We had planned an ambush for October 30 and our team had reached the ambush site. …The ambush began as they saw the police approaching, but were unaware that the police was accompanied by a Doordarshan team.”
Also read: After Dantewada Attack, Maoists Warn Journalists Against Travelling With Police
There is no sense of remorse in the statement. Feel the cold stony language:
“DD Cameraman Achyutananda Sahu was killed after being caught in the ambush and we had no intention of targeting the media.”
Calling journalists their “friends and not enemies”, the Maoist secretary further asked journalists to avoid travelling with the police.
The note assumes that its act of ambushing police or security forces is legitimate and would not be questioned. It also suggests that the Maoists think that they have a right over the area and can restrict the movement of people. That is why they thought they could advise the media people not to travel with the police.
It is this sense of entitlement that needs to be criticised and rejected.
A photo Achyutananda Sahu (L) posted hours before he was killed on Tuesday. Credit: Facebook/Achyutananda Sahu
In May, 2010 the Maoists had attacked a bus which was carrying some policemen and killed 35 people. It had later sought to justify this by saying that the villagers were advised not to travel with policemen or security personnel. One should not socialise with them, came the warning.
In other words, since the people travelling in the bus had ignored this advisory, they themselves had invited their deaths.
The Maoists are acting not as liberators of the people, but as another state competing with the Indian state to gain control over the area and the people living there. It is not the concern for justice for the people or their welfare that drives the Maoists, but a desire to control them.
The Maoists must realise that in the name of fighting on behalf of the people, they have taken a path where violence in itself has become an end. It is an endless cycle of violence in which one act of violence justified and produces another act of violence. And so it goes on.
Also read: Doordarshan Cameraperson, 2 Policemen Killed in Naxal Attack in Chhattisgarh
The Maoists are not interested in giving people a voice. Instead they speak on their behalf. Since they have the right kind of ideology, which the oppressed people don’t have, they know which path of struggle has to be taken. Instead of doing the painstaking work of mobilising around an idea or a platform, they take the short cut of enacting episodes of bravery. History has shown that this method does produce martyrs on both sides but hardly anything more than that.
The Maoists are also irresponsible because by disrespecting the human rights of people on the other side of the fence, by denying them the right to associate, the right to movement and other rights, they treat people as their subjects.
When you spill the blood of people, justice moves further away from you. The Maoists are not serving the cause of equality and justice by wanting to keep the right to use violence with themselves; calling their violence sacred while mirroring the very state they are fighting.
With every such act, the path of democracy gets narrower.
Apoorvanand teaches at Delhi University.
