The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : PW - full coffers and a long reach

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Thursday, Apr 29, 2004

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National - Elections 2004

PW - full coffers and a long reach

Sandeep Dikshit

MEDNINAGAR

Every twist in the road from Latehar to Medninagar (formerly Daltonganj) reminds one of Kashmir. Machine-gun mounted armoured carriers, windows barred by thick steel plates, rumble forward slowly along the deserted highway. Jawans from the Central Reserve Police Force and the Border Security Force, looking smart and alien in the poverty stricken setting, move in a single file probing the ground for land mines. They have also to be alert against an ambush. Activists of the Maoist Communist Centre (India) and the CPI(ML) People's War target paramilitary personnel for their sophisticated INSAS rifles, ammunition and grenades.

In Medninagar, a white beard and lawyer's robes hide a frail body. But his friends say he can "walk like the wind", traversing several kilometres of difficult terrain. The recent police offensive — in the form of aggressive long range patrols that lasted for weeks and random checks and questioning — may have broken Lal Babu Singh's links with his extremist friends in the jungles and villages. But the coffers of MCC(I) and the PW are full from levies extracted from contractors of jungle produce.

The weapons are new, many looted from ambushes that killed two Deputy Superintendents of Police, one inspector and sub-inspector and 35 jawans in this region alone. But the groups lack modern communication equipment, which Lal Babu Singh believes is central to their programme of creating unrest.

"We have no problem in moving around, but election time is different because of the heavy induction of paramilitary personnel and the scarcity of commercial transport. Our (People's War) Andhra Pradesh based supremo, Ganpati, has visited this place twice and addressed cadres. Comrades from Nepal also come and train here," says Mr. Singh.Mr. Singh fervently counters charges of sexual harassment, extortion and brutality, which have been levelled against the MCC (I) and PW cadres in these parts. His comrade, Rajeev, who hails from the neighbouring Garhwa town, seems even more loyal to the cause after spending 14 months in jail. He says he was hung by the thumbs and beaten on the soles of his feet for the entire night. The police had allegedly recovered a revolver that had been recently fired and 25 cartridges from his recently. The confession extracted after the night-long torture saw him in jail with his `comrades' from the villages. They included four men who had been sentenced to death under POTA by the sessions court, but who were now serving life imprisonment after their sentences were commuted by the High Court. "My family was able to send me soap, oil and towels but no one came to meet the others during the time I was with them in the jail. They are so simple that they readily confessed to their involvement. Their attitude is `Jo hoga dekha jayega' (We will face the consequences),'' he says.

During his spell in jail, Rajeev convinced one of the POTA accused, an educated boy, to stop admitting that he was a MCC activist. That helped him get bail when the POTA review committee members came visiting. But his family is too poor to grease palms.

The case has not been transferred from the POTA court in Ranchi to Garhwa and the cost of travelling to the State capital has broken him financially. His organisation does not help. "Yet I think what we are doing is correct. That is the only way to counter police atrocities. The socialists are dead and other communists are not that active," he maintains.

This correspondent's brief encounter with PW and MCC cadres led to a stranger one later that night. Outside Ranchi station, three motorcycles sidled to a stop and a tall youth dismounted and came up to address me by name. He said he believed the media could play a big role in enforcing "civil society norms" and asked whether I would like another meeting the following day. "We have a lot to tell you," he said. What was unsettling was the fact that he seemed to know a number of details about me and my family. It was an encounter which brought home the truth that outfits such as the MCC and the PW are networked, that they have the resources to keep tabs on unfamiliar people who come calling, particularly from the media.

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