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Rally against Maoist violence Farsegarh (Chhattisgarh): Thousands of tribals from central India came together on Sunday for a peace mission against increasing violence by Maoist rebels Thousands of tribals from ageing village heads to teenagers and young farmers, large numbers of who have formed village armies for defence against the rebels, gathered at the Farsegarh village where they were honoured by the Chief Minister and top police officials. The State Government offered the Tribals monetary incentives to help fund the village defence committees and assured them more schools, hospitals and employment would follow if the fight against the guerrillas continued. "When there is awareness among people then there is no problem that cannot be controlled. People are now standing up against Maoists. The resolution among the people is final, to fight Maoism. There will be no development like school, hospital, roads if there is rebel violence all the tine. There is public revolution with an aim for development," Chief Minister Raman Singh said. The "Salva Judum" or the movement for peace in Chattisgarh, one of the eight Indian States battling an increasingly dangerous Maoist rebellion, is the country's largest such people's initiative aimed keeping the poor tribal youth from falling prey to easy money and inflated propaganda of the rebels. The Maoists had earlier this week given a brutal reminder to the country that it cannot afford to ignore their growing threat in the heartland as New Delhi struggling to contain a bloody revolt in Jammu and Kashmir and several insurgencies in its remote northeast, sidelined the Maoists. More than 700 rebels had temporarily taken over parts in Jehanabad in a brazen Sunday night raid, freeing nearly 400 prisoners from the district jail, including many rebels, and killed three policemen and a member of a private landlord army Ranvir Sena. Thousands have been killed in nearly four decades of intermittent Maoist violence but the rebels -- who claim to fight for India's impoverished peasantry and landless labourers -- have stepped up attacks in recent months. Alarmed by the spike in Maoist attacks in recent months, New Delhi announced a two-pronged strategy in September. This entails more coordination between security agencies in nine Maoist-affected states and a greater push for development in impoverished districts. But Maoist strikes have continued, leaving dozens dead, many of them policemen. Analysts say the merger of two of India's largest radical leftist groups last year and greater links between Indian and Nepali Maoists -- who are fighting to overthrow Nepal's monarchy -- have boosted the Indian Maoists' striking power. But sociologists say the Maoists draw support from India's rural poor -- especially lower-caste Hindus and landless tribals -- who took no benefits either from India's earlier attempts at socialist development or its 14-year-old economic reforms. Analysts add that the Maoists find ready recruits in the harsh world of India's rural hinterland, where caste discrimination and poverty is common and landlords still exercise feudal powers in collusion with corrupt officials. Police say Maoists, estimated to be at least 9,300 in number with thousands more as sympathizers, use extortion, robbery and timber smuggling to raise funds. |
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