Protests unlikely when Kalluri lectures at IIMC on marginalised

When the then Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwaranjan was invited to address a gathering in Delhi in 2010, there was outrage for the invitation to the officer seen as leading state repression in Bastar. The DGP eventually backed out and was replaced by another IPS officer, Vibhuti Narayan Rai. But there was bedlam in the auditorium when Rai declared that he supported state violence. Members of the audience stood up and fired questions, demanding an explanation.

But Rai refused to answer them despite requests by the moderator, a faculty member of IIMC. Although Rai was mobbed, he got away without taking questions. However, when another controversial police officer comes calling this Saturday to speak on the marginalised, protests are unlikely.

SRP Kalluri needs no introduction. The infamous IPS officer takes equal pride in flaunting medals for exemplary service and valour as in criticism and judicial punishments for severe human rights violations in Bastar during his tenure there as Inspector General of Police. The ever-controversial ex-IG of Bastar is now slated to deliver a lecture at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Ironically, the police officer, who is accused of using vigilante groups, of arming villagers and of hounding of people critical of the police, has been invited to speak on the ‘marginalised’ people.

The programme is co-hosted by IIMC, Mediascan and Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS), Delhi. The event would start with a Vedic ritual Yajna and culminate in a session on Kashmir's insurgency.

With barely three days to go for the event, there is hardly a murmur of protest at the blatant attempt to accord legitimacy to the man in uniform. Barely months ago, Kalluri was instrumental in framing a false case of murder against eminent sociologist Nandini Sundar and a JNU faculty member, Archana Prasad.

Kalluri was under fire from NHRC and activists over alleged human rights violations in 2011 during his tenure as SSP Dantewada. He was removed as SSP Dantewada shortly after the Tadmetla incident. He then came to Bastar in June 2014 as IG. In 2016, a CBI report to the Supreme Court said that it was security forces that burnt 160 homes in Tadmetla.

Kalluri later said that given the heat during the operation, held in March, and the exchange of fire, it was possible that the homes caught fire. Despite pressure from several quarters, the state government consistently backed the officer but after much drama and confusion, he was removed from his post in February this year and attached to Police HQ Raipur.

During the three months of his leave, he landed in multiple controversies and got a show-cause notice from the DGP, Chhattisgarh for attending a private function in Jagdalpur and giving controversial statements in which he compared rights activists to “Maoist sympathisers, who should be treated like the extremists they support”.

The ‘honourable’ police officer had hogged headlines in January with his sexist remarks on Whatsapp such as: “the drama has just begun dear”; “stop bitching”; “f u”; “if you come in front of me, I will chappal you, idiot”; and, “Yes, very soon Maoists and their dogs will be thrown out of Bastar. We will take strong action”.

This happened to even feminist activists who had sent text messages to Kalluri urging for activist Bela Bhatia's security, who was being hounded by the mob out of her residence in Bastar. Bela had been instrumental in persuading NHRC to issue an interim order that indicted police for the rape and sexual assault of at least 16 women in Bijapur. The NHRC had, in fact, summoned Kalluri earlier to depose in the case of mass sexual assault by police personnel and he had avoided appearing on the plea that he was sick.

The gentleman also went on record to say that in 2017 he would go after “white-collar Naxalites”. On Saturday this week, he will finally get a podium to expound his views.

When the IIMC allowed a havan at the main gate to celebrate Saraswati Puja, protests by a section of students and faculty were brushed aside by the logic that Saraswati was the goddess of learning. That was 15 years ago. But now that the IIMC plans to organise a ‘Yagna’ and invite an infamous police officer to the institute, voices are muted.

Come Saturday, the faithful will gather at the IIMC and discuss Bastar; they will discuss Kashmir and possibly pray amidst Vedic chants. What about us? Havan karenge, havan karenge…!

Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece and the views are the writer’s own.