Whose Development Is It, Anyway? by Kobad Ghandy

Source: Open Magazine

Now that the Government has finally struck down the Vedanta mining project in Orissa, senior Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, presently under arrest inside Delhi’s Tihar jail, writes about how mining giants are making obscene amounts of money at the cost of the poor while even the State fails to make any gains.

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For Vedanta, mining means development, but for Adivasis it means plunder.(Photo: AFP)

Vedanta continued its activities creating environmental devastation in the Niyamgiri hills, particularly, three villages on the foothills face devastation.

Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others—the empires and their native overseers. In the colonial and neo-colonial alchemy, gold changes into scrap metal and food into poison.

— Eduardo Galeano in Open Veins of Latin America

It is ironic — the richer the land the poorer its people: Eduardo Galeano, in his above mentioned book said: “The Indians (local inhabitants) have suffered, and continue to suffer, the curse of their own wealth; that is the drama of all Latin America”.

In India too, the richest states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh are amongst the poorest in the country. Of course, unlike two centuries back in Latin America they no longer exterminate the local population. They induce slow death through starvation, disease and lack of livelihood. Development for some has always been at the cost of ‘development’ for the many.

Tantalum, a necessary ingredient of computers, cell phones, ipods, and so on, is to a large extent, extracted cheaply from Congo which has one-fifth of the world’s deposits. But to extract that (together with gold and tin) MNCs have tied up with warring warlords which has taken a toll of 5.4 million lives since April 2007. Killings continue at the rate of 45,000 per month and Congo has become the world capital of rape, torture and mutilation.

Yes, computers are huge development, but for the people of Congo what does it all mean? Can the super profits of the mining companies and computer manufacturers be slightly reducd so that the people of Congo share in the wealth creation?

In India, too, the concept of development seems to be different for different people. For Ficci, the representative of big business interests, it is one thing and for the Supreme Court of India another.

Staged show slur on police – ‘Surrendered’ woman held in April: Maoist

PRONAB MONDAL, Telegraph

Midnapore, Aug. 29: A woman Maoist squad leader who “surrendered” before West Midnapore police on Friday was in custody of the same law-enforcement force since April, a jailed rebel and a section of policemen have told The Telegraph.

Sova Mandi alias Soma alias Uma “surrendered” before West Midnapore superintendent of police Manoj Verma on Friday evening, saying that she had found her way to the town through “narrow jungle paths” from her hideout in the interiors of the forest where she was ensconced for the last four months after escaping from the clutches of her “tyrannical Maoists comrades”.

However, Kamal Mahato, a Maoist charged with murder and now lodged in Midnapore jail, has contested the claim. His version has been denied by police chief Verma but a section of policemen in Midnapore corroborated the rebel’s account, following which this newspaper decided to publish the report.

Kamal told The Telegraph: “On April 20, this year, I was travelling with Soma on my motorcycle. I was riding the bike and Soma was riding pillion. She was going to Midnapore town to meet someone and she had requested me to drop her there.”

According to Kamal, they were stopped by the police at Poradihi on National Highway 6, about 15km from Midnapore town. “The police had prior information, or a tip-off, that we would be travelling on that route,” Kamal said. “So, as soon as we reached Poradihi, the police stopped us and surrounded the bike. We were taken off the bike and whisked away by the police to the Midnapore police lines where we were kept.”

Kamal said that after being brought there, he did not see much of Soma except that he was “aware” that she was also there.

“I heard from the policemen that Soma had also been kept there,” Mahato said. “Like me, she was not officially arrested but simply kept there for questioning.”

Police chief Verma, however, said: “Soma had contacted us a couple of days ago and told us she wanted to surrender and we welcome the move. We had not detained anyone and then forced a surrender on them.”

Kamal said that although he was kept billeted at the Midnapore police lines since April 20, he was officially arrested only a few days back, produced in a Midnapore court on August 17 and remanded in judicial custody.

“The police had questioned me for so long and so many times that they did not even ask for police remand. I was sent to jail straightaway,” Kamal said. If indeed the Maoist facing a murder charge was arrested a few days ago, it was unusual for the police not to have sought his remand.

Kamal’s brother-in-law Mahendra Mahato said: “After Kamal disappeared, we searched for him far and wide and spoke to his comrades also, but no one knew where he was. It was only after he was put in jail that we come to know of his whereabouts.”

Mahendra said Kamal had told him in detail how Soma and he were picked up by the police and then detained but not officially arrested.

Some policemen also said that Soma was in police custody since April.

When she appeared before a few journalists days before her “surrender”, she had, in fact, been taken under police escort from the Midnapore circuit house to the fringes of a forest in Salboni, the policemen said. After the media interaction was over, she was taken back to the Midnapore police lines, they added.

A few weeks ago, the government had announced a rehabilitation package for rebels who turn themselves in. The build-up involving Soma and Friday evening’s “surrender” are being seen as an attempt by the police to suggest that the package is drawing a good response.

Azad Encounter: No Point-Blank Justice

“In the Azad case, the state and the Centre abdicated responsibility. What prevents the Centre from asking AP to hold an inquiry?” —Justice Hosbet Suresh, Ex-judge, Bombay High Court		“I heard 110 cases of encounters in two years…the victims were all shot in the head or chest. The cops must be really great marksmen.” —Justice A.P. Shah, Ex-CJ, Delhi High Court
“Encounter killings must be probed…. They mustn’t be the rule. And we can’t simply accept what the state says without question.” —Justice J.S. Verma, Ex-CJI, ex-NHRC head		“The guidelines of the NHRC seem to be ineffective. Time and again we have asked for judicial inquiries into cases of police impunity.” —K.G. Kannabiran, Advocate, rights activist
“In the Azad case, as in all others, an independent body must conduct the inquiry, not the same police that killed him.” —Justice V.S. Malimath, Ex-CJ of Kerala, Karnataka		“P. Chidambaram, the home minister, should have been the first to order an inquiry into Azad’s killing. His silence indicates his guilt.” —Prashant Bhushan, Advocate, Supreme Court

Source: Outlook

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Just as the ghost of Sohrabuddin Sheikh has come to haunt the Gujarat government and claimed the state’s home minister, will the ghost of Chemkuri Rajkumar Azad, the cpi (Maoist) second-in-command who was shot dead in an ‘encounter’ on July 1 in the Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh, come to haunt the upa government at the Centre? So it seems, at least from the post-mortem report.

What does government want in Junglemahal ?

Umakantha Mahato, PCPA Leader

Photograph: Deadbody of Umakanta Mahato. Anandabazar Patrika, 28 August, 2010.

Yesterday, Umakanta Mahato, leader of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) was found dead in Lalgarh. According to the police sources he was killed in an encounter although no casualty of police has been reported. Not only in this particular case, but also in last two encounters in Ranja and Metla forests where joint forces gunned downed total fourteen PCPA leaders-supporters including Sido Soren, no casualty of joint forces was reported. It is therefore very possible that police and joint forces have been killing the leaders of PCPA in clod blood and want us believe that they were killed in encounter.

Fake encounter is not something which we have never hard of. In seventies, so many students and youths were killed in the name of encounter in West Bengal. Although in their words government is keen to restore peace In Jangalmahal, but actually prefers to eliminate the leadership of PCPA, the organization leadading the democratic movement against police atrocities. They are not going to stop the brutal state repression, rather aggravates it.

Azad Encounter: Mountain Of Lies

Chemkuri Azad Rajkumar’s death in an ‘encounter’ in Adilabad district on July 1, 2010, never did fool his family or sympathisers in Andhra Pradesh who allege “it was not just a fake encounter, it was an assassination”.

“There was no chance that he would be present in Adilabad district for a meeting in the first place since there is no Naxal activity in the area any more,” says his brother Dr Anil Kumar, a practising gastroenterologist in Hyderabad. “He was obviously convinced by the central government that he was safe and then trapped and killed,” alleges older brother Colonel Ratna Kumar. Dr Anil asserts that a top leader of Azad’s cadre would not be left alone to face bullets from police personnel. “He would have been surrounded by a minimum of 40-50 squad members.” The doctor also goes on to wonder: “If he was on a hillock as the police claim, then random firing from the AK-47 which he was allegedly carrying would have killed several policemen. How come not a single cop was even injured? The police don’t even know how to concoct a story.”