“Our republic cannot behave like this and kill its own children… The government will have to answer so many questions.”-Supreme Court on the 2011 encounter of Azad in the midst of ceasefire talks
The recent killing of Madvi Hidma and other rebels comes as the latest state-sanctioned murder in the unrelenting hunting carried out by the Indian State under the name of Operation Kagar. Despite repeated calls for ceasefire by CPI (Maoist), supported by appeals for peace by civil society organisations and some political parties, the Modi government is still obsessed with hunting the spectre of Bastar. The policy of encounter follows the broader pattern of state-sanctioned murder, a loud proclamation of victory, soon followed with murky details about capture and torture.
The murder of Madvi Hidma has come after recent re-affirmations in the proclamation of “Naxal-mukt Bharat” given by Home Minister Amit Shah with the deadline of 2026. Chauvinistic celebrations of this encounter echo the state narrative and refuse to acknowledge the fundamental roots of the dispossession and discontent which are fuelling this armed struggle. In the name of waging war against internal ‘enemies’ all kinds of dissident citizens are being targeted from within universities, to the streets of the big cities, to the remote Adivasi villages. While some are encountered as in the case of Hidma and Basavaraj, others languish in jails from the Bhima Koregaon Sixteen to the anti CAA-NRC activists. Some are even held until causing death, as in the cases of Father Stan Swamy and Prof. G N Saibaba.
Across the nation political opposition and resistance are termed criminal, with the police and armed forces acting as judge and executioner. Constitutional safeguards and enshrined Fundamental Rights are repeatedly violated in the push for ending all forms of dissent. In the name of development it is the rights of the most vulnerable sections that are being trampled for corporate plunder. The burning coal fields of Jharkhand, the plunder of Hasdeo Forest and recent allocation of more than thousand acres of land at the blatant steal of Rs. 1 per acre, all highlight the corporate plunder which destroys the lives of indigenous people and citizens of these areas, in return for maximising profit margins and wealth theft by the ruling classes.
The system of bounties and rewards are exacerbating an already fragile situation by motivating a competition between different forces for the quick extermination of Adivasis. In the name of attacking Naxalism, one-sided execution has become the policy and has resulted in countless loss of lives of Adivasi people. A government that does not have the patience for due process and redressal of fundamental issues of livelihood, sustenance and rights is a government which murders the ‘children of the republic’ as a quick solution to support the plans of corporate plunder in the name of development.
AISA condemns the murder of Hidma and other rebels and reiterates the call for a ceasefire as essential to safeguarding the rights of Adivasis of these regions. It is time that the Modi government work toward building peace instead of waging a war of annihilation on our own people.
