The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : War of nerves between police and naxalites

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 14, 2004

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National - Elections 2004

War of nerves between police and naxalites

BSF personnel on patrol in Paderu. - Photo: K.R. Deepak

Santosh Patnaik

PADERU, ANDHRA PRADESH

It is a war of a different kind in the hilly regions of the tribal agency areas in north Andhra Pradesh.

The tribals here regularly see handwritten posters pasted on walls by the outlawed People's War (PW) naxalites asking them to boycott the April 20 elections. "Bhutakapu yenikalu boycott cheyandi (boycott the farcical elections)," say the posters put up by the PW.

The police, in a bid to counter the violence unleashed by the naxalites — who gunned down the Telugu Desam Party functionary, M. Venkata Raju, husband of the Minister for Tribal Welfare, M. Manikumari, recently — have also put up big blue-coloured posters, telling the people: "Your vote is valuable. The Constitution has given you this right. The ballot is more powerful than the bullet and the landmine. Elect your representative to usher in development."

The girijans read the posters released by the annalu — or `brothers' as the naxalites are known — and the police with wry amusement.

However, the fact is that because of the extremists' threats, the voting percentage in the agency areas of the Eastern Ghats has always been low. The officials say the rough terrain is one of the reasons for this. "On an average, one has to traverse five to 10 km to reach a polling station. Still, over the years, the percentage of people voting — ignoring the PW's boycott call — has remained satisfactory," claims the Paderu Sub-Divisional Police Officer, P. Vara Prasad.

The authorities, in a bid to instil confidence among the villagers, have deployed platoons from the Border Security Force (BSF) to hold flag marches and encourage the tribals to exercise their franchise. Air Force helicopters have also been requisitioned to take the troops to the hamlets cut off from the mainstream because of the inaccessible terrain. Accompanied by the BSF jawans, the local police launch patrols in the forest areas to prove their point that the PW militias are no threat to them. "We find it an interesting job, though the terrain is quite difficult," says a BSF officer.

While trekking through the hilly areas, the jawans make it a point to clear landmines planted by the PW.

At impromptu gram sabhas held by them, the police officers explain to villagers the need to ignore the boycott call if they want to derive more benefits from the Government's development schemes.

The naxalites are not sitting idle either. To counter the police's new strategy, the PW recently took a select group of reporters to Koyyuru on the border of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts where they have called on the tribals to observe a bandh on April 19 and 20.

The naxalite Andhra-Orissa border military commission commander, Vinay, also released photocopies of street fights and fisticuffs by politicians over their failure to get ticket to contest the elections.

"How can such leaders serve you," he asks. Says the Superintendent of Police, Sanjay Kumar Jain: "The people should not heed the boycott calls; they have seen how roads have been laid and electricity has been provided to their hamlets through elected governments. Voting is a democratic right which can't be taken away by anyone."

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