The Forum Against War on People organised the “Rally Against War on People”, to protest against the brutal military offensive of the Indian state on the tribal people of central and eastern India through the Operation Green Hunt where in lakhs of the paramilitary-military as well as various vigilante gangs such as the Salwa Judum, Nagrik Suraksha Samiti, Sendra, Tritiya Prastuti Samiti, Harmad Vahini etc. has let loose on the people. All this is being done under the garb of bringing in development to these regions. And it is for any discernible eye to see that for the last 60 years there has been hardly any such intervention from the side of the state in some of the poorest regions of India. Why suddenly the government is concerned about development in these regions is nothing but to give away these resource rich regions to the multinational corporations and local monopolies through various MoUs that the various state governments have entered into with the former.
All the walk and talk about development that post-47 India has witnessed has systematically pushed the adivasis away from their natural habitats making them further impoverished. Not even a single such ‘temples of development’ have factored in the lives and livelihoods of the adivasis or the people in general in these regions. Once again Operation Green Hunt is the veritable hunt of the predatory decadent capital in search of super profits in a world that is more and more mired in deepening crisis of capitalism. Hence, this war cries, as Naxalism not to say Maoism as the single largest internal security threat to the country.
It is in protest against this double speak of the government hiding the real facts and intentions of it and addressing the pressing problems of lives and livelihoods of the vast sections of the people as ‘law and order’ problems, using military solutions for the real problems of the people instead of listening to them that this protest rally was organised. The rally commenced from ram Lila Maidan at 11 am and reached Parliament Street where in various social activists, intellectuals, representatives of people’s organisations and civil rights activists addressed the gathering. People from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and Kerala attended the rally. Later a delegation comprising of BD Sharma (Former Commissioner SC/ST), GN Saibaba (Assistant Professor, DU), Prashant Bhushan (Advocate, Supreme Court), Karen Gabriel (Associate Professor, DU), Gautam Navalakha (Consultant Editor, EPW), Mrigank (Navjawan Bharat Sabha) gave a memorandum to the Prime Minister. In the absence of the Prime Minister, Mr. Prithviraj Chauhan, MoS, PMO accepted the memorandum.
PS: The memorandum is attached with the Press Statement
In Solidarity,
Campaign Against War on People, Committee Against Violence On Women (CAVOW), Naga Students Union Delhi (NSUD), Navjawan Bharat Sabha (NBS), Correspondence, KRALOS, KLAS, Krantikari Yuva Sanghathan (KYS), PFD, PUCL, MKP, Campaign for Peace &; Democracy Manipur (CPDM), DSU, CRPP, DGMF, People’s Front (PF), Mazdoor Ekta Manch (MEM), Left Democratic Teacher’s Front (LDTF), RDF, PDFI, CPI (ML) (New Democracy), CPI (ML) (Liberation), CPI (ML) (New Proletarian), JNU Forum Against War on People, BD Sharma, Arundhati Roy, Tripta Wahi, Vijay Singh, Neshat Quaiser, and others.
Contact: 9971664713 stopwaroncitizens@gmail.com
