Dissolution of Samajik Ekta Manch not enough to make life easier in Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh's Samajik Ekta Manch (SEM) is a vigilante group similar to Salwa Judum. It is also a state-supported, initiated and facilitated group. It is not some random group formed by locals to oppose the Naxalites, but it is a group formed by the police to act as a front to cover the extra-legal police activities - atrocities against the local adivasi population, police excesses etc.
It is the police's personal social mobilisation device to pressure and intimidate those who dare to raise questions on the acts of violence executed by security forces in Chhattisgarh's villages, those who work towards upholding the Constitution and demanding accountability from the state and police forces on account of gross human rights violations.
A series of newspapers, including the most recent India Today sting operation on the SEM, have exposed the nexus between the police and these vigilante groups, which have been hounding activists, lawyers and journalists out of Bastar.
What we been trying to say in the last three months is finally out in the open. We have been threatened, intimidated and harassed by local police and bar association on numerous occasions.
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| Samajik Ekta Manch members hold a press conference. |
The SEM was formed in December 2015, after which they first targeted Scroll.in writer Malini Subramaniam, who did an excellent job with ground reporting from Chhattisgarh on issues concerning the local adivasis in the past one year. In January this year, our team of lawyers and activists visited the interiors of Bijapur to represent 13 adivasi women who were gang-raped by the security forces. A vigilante group called Naxal Peedit Sangarsh Samiti not only tried to scare us away but also threatened the women.
Later on, effigies of human rights activists such as Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia were set ablaze. Most of us started receiving threats to never set foot in Bijapur again. In February, after Malini Subramaniam was attacked by the SEM, we tried registering an FIR against them in the local police station.
The SEM, then, had not only openly justified its attack on Malini at a press conference, but had also declared that their next target is JagLAG (Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group). They passed defamatory remarks and even went on to sit on a dharna against us.
While all this was going on, we made multiple requests to the administration and the police to take some action against them, but the authorities instead sprung into action against us.
In a personal meeting, Bastar IG SRP Kalluri asked us to stop interfering in the matter, while also pointing out that people like us are a minority in the Chhattisgarh district.
The police then took things to another level in Jagdalpur. They summoned our landlord to the local police station where he was harassed. Intimidated, he was forced to evict us from the house.
The Samajik Ekta Manch and police nexus left Jagdalpur so terrorised that nobody in the town was willing to offer shelter to us. And things are the same even today.
Therefore, the dissolution of the SEM is major breakthrough. But, the battle is far from over. There are many vigilante groups that still hold Bastar to ransom, acting on behalf of the SEM.
Further, police officials including Kalluri are complicit in the unconstitutional act of chasing out those who challenge its official narrative. So, the disbanding one group does not mean that things will be back normal. Neither does it guarantee a secure working environment for activists.
It remains to be seen whether the SEM members will now cease to threaten, intimidate or harass those working in the area. What is important is that the state government acts against the rogue forces, especially the police officials who allowed these groups to fester like a sore.