An old colleague from the BBC suddenly called the other day. "Dada, wanted to share something worrying," he said. "I had gone to do a story on the Maoists, and they were boasting about killing your colleague and leader of displaced tribals who wanted to return to Chhattisgarh. And they also said they will not spare you when they get the next chance."
"Oh, I was looking for confirmation on this killing for some time," I said. "I had written to the Maoists a few times, but there was no response. Did they speak on the record?" "When I go inside the jungle, whatever they say is all on record," he replied. "And all this was happening in front of top leaders."
Dudi Ganga was a displaced tribal from Chhattisgarh with whom we have been trying for their rehabilitation for some time. He lived in Andhra Pradesh after his displacement due to the ongoing conflict between the Maoists and the State. He had travelled to Delhi with us, demanding rehabilitation of around 125 of them in April.
This was my first meeting with Dudi Ganga. He was one of the few who spoke Hindi in that group and was evidently taking leadership. So I put him forward when the press came to talk. I also took him to meet the Union minister of state for tribal affairs, Renuka Singh, in Delhi when she wanted to meet a few displaced people.
Ganga called me after returning home. "Our Dudi clan meets once in 12 years in Chhattisgarh, and I am planning to go this time. Please also come. There will be a few thousand people from all over Bastar, and there will be lots of dancing and singing, and maybe you can record some," he said. I could not go. The Maoists picked him from that meeting.
Another journalist friend had called to inform us about the discovery of Ganga's dead body on the roadside. She had noticed his name in media reports of the rally of the displaced people. She told me that his name was second on the list given to the Chhattisgarh chief minister of people who wanted to return to Chhattisgarh. Though the police suspected the killing by the Maoists, there was no confirmation from them.
The police in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh want to push the displaced people back to Chhattisgarh because they "fear" that the Maoists in Chhattisgarh will use them someday to sneak back into their states. They are taking away the forest land the displaced people have cut after their displacement and doing plantations on them. "They need to go back to Chhattisgarh or they can come to our slums," police officers say off the record, adding, "Them being in our forest is a security risk".
I requested the Maoist leaders to issue a press note saying displaced people will not be harmed if they return as they are getting evicted again since corona when this plantation drive has started. One of the top leaders replied, "The Indian constitution allows anyone to live anywhere. It's good you are fighting for their land rights. We are with you. They have been living there for so long. Why should they return?"
I heard similar stories from the displaced. "Since all our land is now gone due to plantation, I went back to my village in Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh to check if we can go back. My relatives told me Dadas had told them they will not allow anyone to return. You have lost your land but try to live there somehow. Don't even think of returning."
I heard about another killing a few months back when another of the displaced, a boy, tried to return to Chhattisgarh. His family members told me, "Our relatives there said about his return to the Maoists, and they killed him in a people's court." I requested the deceased's family to file a police complaint so they could get monetary compensation, but they refused. "We can take risks with the police sometimes but not with Dadas."
During my BBC days, I witnessed how the LTTE slowly turned into a terrorist organisation and their subsequent decimation. A top Maoist leader sent me a letter last week saying the BBC correspondent was "spreading lies" about a plot to kill me but there was still no word on Ganga.
I want to reply through this column that you are turning into a terrorist organisation, Comrade. Maybe you always were, as many say. Some are not averse to revolutionary violence, but what you are doing by killing whoever regularly disagrees to create terror in the community by calling them informers just to be safe in your comfort zone has little to do with revolution. This is plain and simple terrorism.
(The author is a former journalist with BBC who, for the last 15 years, has been working on an experiment to create a model of democratic media in media dark zones in the forests of Central India. He has written a book titled Let's call him Vasu: With Maoists in Chhattisgarh)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.