INDIA: Breakdown of rule of law in Chattisgarh: Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group driven out of Bastar, Journalist Malini Subramanian forced to leave, and Soni Sori Attacked

Dear Friends,

The situation in Chattisgarh is veering out of control. Activist lawyers of the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, journalist Malini Subramaniam, and activist and politician Soni Sori have been harassed, threatened, and subject to violence. The attacks on their person and freedom of movement expose the situation in Chattisgarh to be dire. It is imperative that the authorities are penalized for their actions, otherwise the state will reach its nadir, and the vulnerable populations will suffer immensely. The international human rights fraternity needs to pressurize the administration at the state and national levels to take urgent action against the erring authorities in Chattisgarh. 

CASE NARRATIVE:

The AHRC has taken note of new reports from Chhattisgarh, which expose how the rule of law and democratic space are being asphyxiated, as a result of continuing malevolent governance. Threats, harassment, and attacks on the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, journalist Malini Subramaniam, and Soni Sori showcase how anyone providing a voice to the poorest and most vulnerable in the state is being hounded. The reports speak of the even worse reality faced by the majority population at the hands of Chhatisgarh state authorities, who have taken to openly abusing the criminal justice apparatus. 

The Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group (JagLAG) has been working in the Bastar region since July 2013, providing legal aid to the most disenfranchised – the Adivasis (tribals). The lawyers, all women, have been working tirelessly to ensure that the Adivasis have legal representation. Many of them are booked in false cases, accused by the administration of being Naxalites or Naxalite informers / sympathisers. 

According to JagLAG, the trouble has been brewing for more than a year-and-a-half now: 
“From giving thinly veiled threats at press conferences that the police are closely monitoring NGOs providing ‘legal aid to Naxalites’, to informing our clients that the police are about to arrest us for our Naxalite activities, to claiming before visiting journalists and researchers that we are merely a ‘Naxalite front’, various officials of the police have been out to get us.”

The Group claims they were publicly lynched as defenders of “bloodthirsty Naxalites” by police vigilante group Samajik Ekta Manch. Anonymous complaints were submitted to the police that JagLAG were “fraudulent lawyers”; the police followed up on each complaint, and JagLAG members had to make several police station visits to prove their credentials. Following this, the local Bar Association also reportedly passed a resolution prohibiting lawyers not enrolled in the Chattisgarh State Bar Council from practicing in the state. The Group challenged this in the State Bar Council and was able to obtain an interim order permitting them to continue their practice.

As none of their previous tactics worked, in February 2016, the police began pressurizing JagLAG’s landlord and his family. The household help was summoned to the police station twice and detained for many hours and subject to interrogation. Realizing that the lives of those associated with them were in danger, members of JagLAG decided to pack up and leave Jagdalpur. 

Article 39a in India’s Constitution mandates free legal representation and imposes upon the State a duty to ensure that every citizen has access to legal aid, irrespective of economic or other difficulties: 
“39A. The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities.”
The Chhatisgarh state has not only reneged on this constitutional duty, it is unwilling to allow anyone else to offer legal aid and representation, and is apparently willing to go to any lengths to make sure that the tribals remain poor and severely disenfranchised, with no access or knowledge of their fundamental rights – easy targets of malevolent state authorities. 

The plight of Scroll.in journalist Malini Subramanian has been no different. On 8 February 2016, Subrmaniam’s home in Bastar was attacked by miscreants, who threw stones and damaged her car. This attack was preceded by several threats and attempts at intimidation. She was called a Naxal supporter and Maoist sympathizer. Her landlord was also summoned to the police station. She has reported extensively on Adivasi issues in the area, on police brutalities against Adivasis and journalists, and on sexual violence committed by security personnel against Adivasi women. She claims she was targeted and threatened for these reports. She too has now left Bastar. 

Finally, the attack on tribal activist and politician Soni Sori on February 20 culminated this series of vendetta against those who have spoken up against State sponsored violence. She was attacked while returning from Bastanar when two persons threw an acid-like substance on her face, resulting in her suffering chemical burns. Sori is no stranger to State oppression and brutality, having been booked under false charges of being a Naxalite informer and conduit. She was subject to severe torture and sexual assault by the police forces; she had alleged that stones were inserted in her genitals. Sori has been a strident voice against State sponsored violence and the breakdown of the rule of law machinery in the state. Post the attack, there have been allegations that the Chhattisgarh police are targeting her family members and trying to frame them for the attack on her. 

The AHRC believes that this continued harassment of activists, lawyers, journalists, and those expose the criminal actions being committed by state authorities of Chattisgarh is against the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution of India. Both the Chhatisgarh state and the Indian State must not be allowed to wash their hands off their roles in this grave and vicious cycle of violence and repression.

BACKGROUND:

Chhattisgarh and surrounding areas have been plagued by Naxalite violence for years and the decades-long civil war has given rise to a brutal counter-insurgency by State authorities. The indigenous people of the region have been burnt at both ends, by the Naxalites and security forces alike. A lose-lose situation, they have been forced to pick a side and fight a losing battle, where they and the rule of law are the biggest losers. 

The Naxalites and the security forces are both guilty of brutal violence and serious physical and sexual violations against civilians and these have resulted in a complete breakdown of the justice system. The question remains – why has the Naxalite movement gained this much ground and amassed support in the form of goodwill and fighters wreaking untold havoc on State machinery? 

The Mungekar Committee report of 2009 speaks of how the Naxalites try to derive benefit from the overall under-development of the region and from the “sub-normal functioning” of institutions like police stations, among others. The report goes on to say that the tribal areas on our country are facing an “unprecedented challenge in the form of capitalist onslaught and people’s reaction supported by Maoists” and that a “ a knee-jerk sort of response with police action cannot be the right approach to a complex problem arising out of socio-economic exclusion……”. The report recognized that this sort of approach resulted in a civil-war like situation with the Salwa Judum and such a situation puts at stake the “lingering faith in the system and the credibility of the State” which would have catastrophic consequences for the tribals. 

In 2010, the AHRC has released a related position paper. An excerpt reads as follows: 
“Exploitation often takes the shape of bonded labour, a practice criminalised in laws that are hardly enforced. Police and other state agencies, like the forest department, are easily bought over by landlords owing to the widespread corruption in the system. In frustration, the oppressed populations fall prey to extremist ideologies like those promoted and professed by the Maoists and the Naxalites, finding in them a means of fighting back to regain dignity at the very minimum. Such fights, of varying intensity, have spread to an alarmingly large area of the country. Unfortunately, the government response has been equally violent, resulting in murders and widespread loss of property.” 

That said, the AHRC does not support armed and violent struggles and condemns the violence that has been unleashed in the region by the Naxalites and Maoists. Equally, the AHRC strongly condemns State-sponsored violence and the counter-insurgency operations that have resulted in the violation of human rights of poor tribal communities. Using the excuse of combating armed militancy, the State has unleashed its power over innocent and hapless villagers, gaining easy targets, and branding them “Naxalites” and “Maoists”, as a way to cover up for their poor investigation methods. 

The recent cases involving JagLAG, Subraminiam, and Sori, also showcase fears of the State vis-à-vis dissident voices that expose heinous crimes committed against civilians. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

In the landmark case Nandini Sundar & Ors. Vs. State of Chattisgarh (July 2011), where the Supreme Court ordered the disbanding of the State-sponsored militia Salwa Judum, the Court observed, 

“The situation in Chattisgarh is undoubtedly deeply distressing to any reasonable person. What was doubly dismaying to us was the repeated insistence, by the respondents, that the only option for the State was to rule with an iron fist, establish a social order in which every person is to be treated as suspect and any one speaking for human rights of citizens [is] to be deemed as suspect, and a Maoist.”

The case of Binayak Sen, which gathered worldwide media attention, must not be forgotten. Sen, a doctor and activist, who was working to better the conditions of the Adivasis, was arrested on charges of being a Maoist sympathizer and courier, and booked for sedition. A very serious charge, he was convicted by the Sessions Court for sedition and waging war against the State. The Supreme Court finally granted him bail in 2011 on the grounds that there was no evidence of sedition. The Supreme Court went so far as to say that simply owning Maoist literature is not a crime and cannot be construed as evidence for sedition and “exciting disaffection”. 
Art 19. (1) of the Constitution of India speaks of the right to freedom and the relevant clauses are, 
“Art. 19(1) All citizens shall have the right— 
(d) to move freely throughout the territory of India; 
(e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; 
(g) to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.” 

JagLAG, Malini Subramaniam, and Soni Sori are well within their fundamental rights to live and work in Chhattisgarh and the manner in which the state authorities have gone about violating their fundamental rights under Art.19 is deplorable. 

There is clearly a history of State oppression and relentless targeting of those who dare to raise their voices. Those working for the poor villagers and tribals, empowering them to fight for their fundamental rights, those pressurizing the State to follow due process and maintain the rule of law, those challenging the State violence unleashed on poor tribals, and those being media attention to it, have all become targets of a state gone malicious. 

Ultimately, the biggest losers in a situation like this are the most vulnerable population: the villagers and the tribals, caught in the crossfire between the State and the Maoists; their plight is scarcely imaginable. They are accused of being informants by the Maoists, of being Naxalites and sympathizers by the police, and are subject to torture and violence, booked and detained in false cases, with no legal representation. 

The JagLAG was performing a valuable and essential service in a region that is grossly underserved and where due process and the rule of law had a premature moratorium. Malini Subramaniam and Scroll.in were similarly writing about a region that the national media frequently ignores. And this was never more apparent in the recent past when these incidents occurred, around the same time the Jawaharlal University (JNU) fracas was underway. The JNU struggle received widespread media coverage and outrage while Soni Sori, JagLAG and Malini Subramaniam’s struggles received scant attention. 

It is imperative that human rights organizations around the world bring attention to the situation in Chhattisgarh on a global scale and continue to pressurize the authorities to take action. 
Suggested Action

It is apparent that the state of Chhattisgarh and its authorities have committed various crimes in the cases detailed above. Please write letters to the following authorities calling on them to take the necessary action against the rogue police and security officials in these cases. The AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, for their intervention into this matter.

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