The Hindu : Karnataka News : `CIP's efforts being misrepresented'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 25, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

`CIP's efforts being misrepresented'

By Vijaykumar Patil

BELGAUM, FEB. 24. Citizens' Initiative for Peace (CIP) has observed that both the incidents — the police encounter at Menasinahadya in which two naxalites were killed and the killing of police personnel at Venkatammanahalli — have come as a severe setback to the dialogue process that both the CIP and the Government want to explore in the light of growing naxalite activities in some parts of the State.

`Distortion'

Talking to The Hindu here on Wednesday, the CIP member and well-known progressive activist Shivsundar sought to offer clarifications in the light of the efforts by some forces to distort and misrepresent the CIP's ideological stances and campaigns.

He said the CIP has never endorsed the militant path of naxalite ideology to bring about social change. But, this does not negate or make irrelevant the questions thrown up by unequal and unjust socio-political structures. In the past seven to eight months, the CIP has been urging the Government to negotiate with the naxalites, even while appealing to the naxalites to shun the path of violence. However, these efforts are being misinterpreted by the Government and communal forces as "pro-naxalite activities" of the CIP. Just as it condemned the police encounter at Menasinahadya, it also condemned the massacre of the police personnel at Venkatammanahalli. It also demanded a comprehensive investigation of both the incidents and punishment of the guilty within the judicial framework.

Mr. Shivsundar said there are constant efforts to suppress the CIP's voice. It is directed towards stifling any independent voice that endorses neither the naxalite movement nor the Government's handling of it. The very survival of democracy is dependent on the survival of spaces for issue-based and vibrant opposition to the powers that be. But the Government has, over the past few days, tried to dub the CIP as a naxal mouthpiece and lodge false cases against its members.

Taking advantage of this misinformation campaign, communal forces are physically assaulting CIP members, he said.

`Independent stand'

The CIP's position is that Karnataka should not go the Andhra Pradesh way, leading to a chapter of bloodshed where the police, civilians and naxalites become victims. This stand is neither pro-naxalite nor pro-Government, he said. It is the voice of a conscientious society that believes that we need to learn lessons from history.

The CIP requests all democratic-minded people to join hands with it in preserving precious democratic spaces, Mr. Shivsundar said.

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