Orissa: Industrial Zones Vs Naxalite Liberated Zones Part-II

CPI-Maoist State Committee Secretary Sabyasachi Panda visited the Sambalpur division after the Nayagarh attack to strengthen the organization’s capability in northern Orissa. In fact, he visited the area three times before the Nayagarh attack. It is assumed that Sabyasachi might have monitored the movement in northern Orissa all by himself. This information was disclosed in March 2008 during the interrogation of Dhanu Dehuri, who was engaged in the proposal called the “red corridor” from Bargarh to Raipur of Chhatisgarh. Another surrendered Naxalite, Puspika, also disclosed that around 25-30 armed cadres from Jharkhand visit the Sundargarh area regularly to motivate cadres in northern Orissa.

Apart from northern and southern Orissa, the Naxalites have established bases in coastal districts like Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri. The Mahanadi division of the CPI-Maoist is controlling the coastal districts. Regarding coastal districts, the outfit has used democratic means, like street demonstrations, strikes, roadblocks and dharanas. These democratic means have helped them set up a liberated zone in these areas. Such ‘librated zones’ are being formed at Ambagadia village in Kalinganagar of the Jajpur district and Dhinkia village of the Jagatsinghpur district by not letting the police forces and government officials to visit these areas. The Dhinkia village has been entirely under the control of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, which has links with the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) of Nandigram and Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch of Kalinganagar. The Dhinkia village has been inaccessible for more than two years by both the police and civil administration. It is believed that some Maoists took shelter in Dhinkia after the Nayagrh attack and are now providing training to the villagers to use firearms in case of police action in future. According to CPI(Marxist) sources, BUPC took control of the entire Block I and parts of Block II of the three blocks of Nandigram, destroyed roads and access to bridges, dug up culverts and set up roadblocks to prevent any entry into their “liberated zone”. Most importantly, the Naxalites have already declared ‘liberated zones’ in more than 25 inaccessible villages in the Chitrakonada and Mottu areas of the Malkangiri district.

Although Orissa witnessed a low level of Naxalite violence till June, recruitment of new cadres has been going on in Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Deogarh forests. Similarly, recruitment drives have been happening in southern Orissa's Malkanagiri, Rayagada, and Gajapati districts. The Ghumusar division is for training, logistics, and coordination between the Andhra groups. They have organized five training centres in the Rayagada district. Of these camps, Pipiliguda and Sandhubadi are under the supervision of area commander Daya,  Meriapangi, Karlaghati, and Rasikola are under Sabyasachi Panda. Similarly, Gothalpadar and training camps close to Gajapati district forests are conducted under Azad and Ghasiram Mahji. Eighty new cadres from Orissa and Andhra Pradesh have joined the outfit and are undergoing training in these camps.

The Naxalites have been using triangular meeting points of States for training camps. Moreover, the Naxalites have also been targeting children to join the cadre. As a new tactic, they have also asked the family members to send one person each to join the outfit. In this regard, a Naxalite Bal Sangathan (child organization) has been working in the northwest part of Orissa. The prime tasks of the trainee cadres are to kill police informers and collect money from rich people and contractors for the party to purchase weapons. The large-scale preparation –training, procurement of arms and recruitment- reflects that the Naxalites will be targeting some mining companies, kidnapping some influential persons or looting some banks for money. People in the affected areas are forced to support the Naxalites since the police administration has failed to provide security to common people living in remote villages. On the other hand, the Naxalites have threatened that police informers will be presented in the Kangaroo courts or Jan Adalats and might get a death sentence. 5. 

An increase in the Naxalite movement in Orissa will certainly have a serious impact on industrial projects. A series of statements released in 2007 by the CPI-Maoist Central Committee asked the “oppressed masses” to “turn every Special Economic Zone(SEZ) into a battle zone.” As a result, the state has already witnessed successful economic blockades in 2007 and 2008, orchestrated to protest against the economic policies followed by governments at the Centre and in the states. The objective of blockades and strikes is to send the message that the region's resources belong to the area's locals and are instead being exploited by private firms. Posters pasted by Naxals, for example, on the Gram Panchayat (Community Halls) buildings at Khutgaon and Mendhatola in Sundargarh district on 26 January 2008, contained provocative statements, instigating the villagers to rage struggle against the government policy of acquiring land to set up industries. They are trying to hit the conscience of the locals by bringing up the Nandigram issue.

Ideologically, Maoists are against globalization and FDI from MNCs. At the initial project stage, the Maoists insisted that the local people not set up the project in the designated area. They would organize rallies and demonstrations at the project site, state capital and district headquarters. That is an opportunity for the Maoists to establish a base in an area using that project issue. They would also call for a general strike and road blockade to get the media and people’s attention. These are the campaigning tactics to seek people’s support. The Maoists have been using these tactics against corporate houses like Salim groups in Nandigram, Tata Steel in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, Tata Steel in Kalinganagar, POSCO, Mittal and other mega projects in Orissa, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.

In case the Maoists fail to stop the project at the initial stage, they would like to get control over the labourers and form trade unions in the organization. During this period, they would constantly use labour issues and paralyze the industry's production, leading to financial loss for the company. The Maoists might shut down the factory through trade unions to meet their demands in their stronghold areas. However, the Maoists need money to sustain their movement against the reactionary state and arms to counter the security forces. In this regard, the Maoists would ask the company to pay a monthly levy to the organization. Failure would lead to the destruction of machinery, an attack on the transport facilities, and, in some cases, an attack on senior officials.

While the Naxalite violence has increased in southern, Northern and coastal districts, the state government is busy counting Naxalite affected districts. Interestingly, the list of state government Naxalite-affected districts does not match the list of union governments. While the state government has been claiming 17 Naxalite-affected districts, the Union government says only nine districts. Instead of counting districts, the state government should address the socio-economic problems and rehabilitation of affected people due to mega projects. The government should obtain the consent of the local people before allotting lands for the mega projects. Militarization of the State by undertaking police modernization could be ineffective, while the Naxalites are gradually adopting democratic means to expand their activities.

This is the second and final part of the article series on Naxalite Menace. Read the First part here.