Unity in diversity is the catchphrase often used in reference to India. People of various cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds united to form a nation. However, today India is a strange twist of this paradigm. In the state of West Bengal people get murdered by state agents while in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, state agents get killed by armed militant groups. During all these, the government of India claims India is heading for a bright future.
In Nandigram, what was reflected, unfortunately at the expense of the lives of 41 persons (and probably many more), is how ordinary people could be exploited to cater to the interests of political parties. It is also a sad reflection of the state administration’s failure to understand the situation and react sensibly to its people’s most pressing problems.
The killing of 54 persons, including 15 personnel of the Chhattisgarh Armed Forces, in an attack allegedly by 300 to 350 CPI (Maoist) cadres and carried out on a police base camp in the Bastar region in the early hours of March 15 is an example of how a failed state can be a fertile ground for armed insurgency. The growth in the strength and number of the Maoist cadres in that state is not a sporadic event. Years of neglect, from much before the formation of the state, caste based discrimination, rampant poverty, killings, rape and torture perpetrated on the ordinary people by state sponsored agents served prolific ground for Maoists to spread their wings.
Thirty-nine of the dead in Chhattisgarh are members of Salva Judum, a private armed group formed by the state, consisting mainly of tribal youth, to help the police contain the Maoist insurgency in that state. Chhattisgarh is not the only state facing this problem. Many states are witnessing a growing number of Maoist sponsored attacks and killings. Massive numbers are also injured including both state officials and ordinary civilians.
Such incidents indicate that something is drastically going wrong or already gone terribly wrong in India. These homicides, in large numbers, manifest symptoms of something horrid. A cancerous growth of callousness towards rule of law and justice.
Unfortunately the judiciary, formerly known for its activism, responds way too late. For example the West Bengal High Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to immediately inquire into the circumstances leading to police firing and submit a report. It has also ordered the state government to submit a separate report. But how can the courts of India be expected to prevent and find solutions to such problems? Indeed the courts have a definite role to play but it is beset with its own problems. Bitter experiences like the delay in courts have taken away the ordinary person’s confidence in the judicial systems in the country.
Had people not lost confidence in their court system, they probably would have approached the courts when faced with serious issues rather than allowing the political parties to exploit them.
The recent eviction of residents from Belilious Park, Bagbazar and Cossipore in West Bengal was sanctioned by the same Court which has now ordered the CBI investigation into the killing in Nandigram. In the former cases the Court did not show much concern regarding the ‘unconstitutionality’ of the evictions notwithstanding that similar force was used. The difference probably was because the eviction was of ‘untouchables’ staying within the city limits.
Persons like Lakhichand Paswan, father of Bhikari Paswan had to wait for more than ten years to find out whether the police officers allegedly responsible for murdering his son would face a prosecution, thanks to the time taken by the High Court of West Bengal to decide whether official sanction was required to prosecute a police officer for an alleged charge of murder. By the time the prosecution was allowed, Lakhichand was dead. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is certain that this is not an isolated case, but a common phenomenon in India. The Supreme Court of India is also not immune to this evil.
The Narmada Dam issue decided by the Supreme Court is a down fall from the jurisprudence the Court has set while deciding the Bombay Municipal Corporation Case. The Court, in this judgment justified the use of force for eviction. The result of such delays and attitudes is blatant impunity. A law enforcement agency that enjoys impunity is one that will go to any extent to be exploited and to exploit.
The Supreme Court of India has of course stepped out of the box in several occasions. Recently the Court has observed that those responsible for corruption must be hanged publicly. The remark was made while hearing the bail applications of the accused in the fodder scams reported from Bihar state — yet another state suffering from Maoist upsurge. The judgments in the D. K. Basu case, the Prakash Singh case and the Best Bakery case are a few other examples.
Since the judgment in D. K. Basu 11 years ago, it would be interesting to see whether there has been even a single case where the Court has initiated contempt of court proceedings against any policemen for flouting its directives. The AHRC had brought to the Court’s notice at least a dozen cases where the guidelines issued by the Court in the D. K. Basu case were violated.
Also, regarding the Prakash Singh case had the state governments complied with the directions of the Court? Will there be any compliance within the next two decade?
But the same Court, while deciding the constitutionality of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, upheld the validity of the law allowing the killings to continue in the North-Eastern state of Manipur. The Court lacked the minimum commonsense to appreciate that peace cannot be attained through the firing of guns.
Compared to what is going on in Manipur, Nandigram is the tip of the iceberg. The government of India is so scared that it will not allow journalists from foreign media to visit Manipur. What is the government afraid of? If a young man decided to take revenge from an army officer who killed his parents and raped his sisters, who is to be blamed? The person or the system that allowed the murder and rape to happen and yet permitted the officer to continue in service?
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India is yet another institution that is responsible for addressing human rights abuses in India. With the experience of filing more than 70 cases before the Commission within the past one year, the AHRC could say that when it comes to investigating cases of human rights violations the Commission does not have any teeth. For instance, the NHRC does not have enough facilities to impartially investigate a case. It is not the manner in which the NHRC deals with a few high profile cases like the Best Bakery case that defines the role of a body like the Commission. What really proves the metal of the NHRC of India is how it deals with the normal day to day incidents that are brought before it. In the Nandigram incident instead of launching its own investigation the NHRC has asked the Government of West Bengal to submit a report. What does the Commission expect from this report? If the Commission expects a true picture of the Nandigram incident from a state report, well then, the Commission is yet to understand why it was constituted.
Regarding the CBI’s mandate to investigate the Nandigram incident, the AHRC is really doubtful whether it will be of any use. What can the CBI do as investigation into the incident? For example will anyone in Nandigram speak to the agency about what had really happened? If there is anyone willing to speak could the agency provide protection to the witnesses – at least until the perpetrators are finally prosecuted? And will such a prosecution happen in any near future considering the woeful lack of facilities like those for conducting autopsies in West Bengal?
At least regarding the forensic facilities available in West Bengal, the AHRC is certain that the CBI will find real problems since even today hundreds of bodies are rotting in ill-fated mortuaries in West Bengal. In fact the bodies, by the time they are examined by an inexperienced ‘Dom’ [cleaner employed in mortuaries in West Bengal from the Dom community which is considered as untouchables by caste Hindus in India], only the skeletons remain. How can the CBI conduct a proper investigation of the case with such facilities?
It is the fundamental failure of the justice systems in India, particularly the police, prosecution and the judiciary that has resulted in Nandigram and Bastar. It is for those who have let this evil happen to make sure that it is not repeated. But that requires an acknowledgment that Nandigram and Bastar should not have happened, not a pointless white washing of a rotten system.
In the current circumstances India is not headed for bright future. Instead, India is spiraling downwards with a collapsing rule of law situation. If lessons are not learned from Bastar and Nandigram and immediate steps taken to correct inherent problems with the justice systems, India will further nosedive into deeper fathoms of irrecoverable chaos.
