The Hindu : State savagery

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Sunday, Mar 09, 2003

Opinion

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State savagery

For the survivors, the trauma of police action at Muthanga is something they have to live with.

Geetanandan and C. K. Janu in police custody... at the receiving end.

EARLY IN February, the Kerala Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, wrote to the Union Minister for Forests and Environment, T.R. Baalu: "The landless tribal people in Kerala are among the poorest of the poor. Force would be used only as a last resort to evict them." Just a few days later several people were dead as the Antony Government moved against the Adivasis who had "seized" Government land in the Wayanad wildlife sanctuary at Muthanga.

Groups of social activists and human rights organisations are trying their best to find out how many are "still missing" after the police firing. The president of the Wayanad Human Rights Protection Committee, Thomas Joseph Therakam, believes 35 women and 31 children are missing.

The State police chief, K.P. Joseph, denies that there were many deaths. He added that "even if it was higher, say 10 or 15, we would have owned up the responsibility for the deaths".

For the survivors, the trauma of the police action is something they have to live with. Many of the injured are still in hospital and only women and children are there in many tribal colonies, for the men have gone into hiding for fear of police raids.

The preparations for the agitation undertaken by the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha had started months ago. The local people were very well aware that trouble was brewing. But the Government was not. So when hundreds of Adivasis, including men and women of all ages, sneaked into the Wayanad sanctuary on January 3, they had nothing to fear, except an occasional herd of wild elephants passing by.

Mr. Antony remained frozen in a state of inaction probably out of a deep sense of guilt at his inability to keep his promise to the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha to distribute land to the landless Adivasis by December-end 2002. This promise was given when the Sabha called off its 48-day agitation in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram in October 2001.

The complexion of the agitation changed on February 17, nearly 45 days after it began. Twenty-one persons, including some Adivasis deployed by the Forest Department, were taken hostage by the agitators "for igniting forest fires". The next day, 18 of the hostages were released (three were freed earlier) after hectic parleys with the District Collector.

The day also witnessed an upsurge of resentment against the tribal agitation among the local people. Members of all political parties joined hands with eco-activists in a vain bid to drive out the agitators. The police had a tough time keeping the two groups apart. The very next day the Government moved a nearly 800-strong force consisting of forest guards and police personnel into the sanctuary to evict the tribal activists.

The uniformed men ran into unexpected resistance. They were in unfamiliar territory, unsure about the strength of the agitators inside the sanctuary and about the weapons that would be used against them.

The Adivasis resisted fiercely with long knives, sickles and bows and arrows and battle cries that pierced the silence of the forest. Tear-gassing failed to douse their fury. Fierce encounters went on for nearly two hours before the agitators began to retreat behind clouds of smoke from the forest fires they had started by setting afire shrubs and huge dry clumps of bamboo.

Just when everyone thought the worst was over a constable and a forester were taken captive. The police operation was halted, as demanded by the agitators. For nearly three hours senior police officials and the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha leaders held talks for release of the two hostages.

The hostages were kept in a shed and surrounded by armed activists. The policeman, Vinod, was bleeding from a wound inflicted by his captors. The talks failed. And a police commando force swung into action. A volley of bullets (plastic and non-metallic by police claims) sent the activists scrambling for cover inside the forest. An Adivasi, fleeing from the bullets, hacked the constable (it proved fatal). One rubber bullet scattered the brains of Jogi, an Adivasi.

The police went berserk, infuriated by the news about the murder of their colleague. A freelance videographer and a freelance news photographer were brutally beaten up. But the video footage of the police beating up the agitators was later telecast.

Wayanad district where the police action took place was the hotbed of the naxalite movement which fizzled out in the absence of public support in the 1970s. The Muthanga incidents have emboldened former naxalites and their sympathisers to regroup to revive their failed movement.

Many aspects of the agitation, such as the source of its funds, remain a mystery. A tribal captured after the encounter had a passport issued in Tamil Nadu. Many suspect more Adivasis were killed though there is no evidence to substantiate the charge.

The agitation leaders C.K. Janu and Geethanandan suffered injuries allegedly after their arrest. The two were handed over to the police by local people who found them by the roadside a few days after the Muthanga incidents.

Mr. Geethanandan, who is said to have masterminded the agitation, is a former naxalite and has been charged with murder and conspiracy, among other offences. He claims the agitation was only a symbolic gesture to signal tribal discontent and to focus attention on the large scale swindling of crores of rupees allotted for forest development programmes. — R.M.N.

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