Nandini Sundar: They want tribal areas to become a ‘black hole’  

I still wonder what made them to fabricate the case. Had they applied their mind, they would have seen that the case would not stand. But they did it because of their belief that it would not adversely affect them, that they would not be hauled up for lodging a fake case. In the last hearing, the court made it clear that Chhattisgarh Police would have to give us a month’s notice before interrogating us so that we could approach the court. Since then the police have not contacted me at all. Of course, their purpose was not to investigate a case but to defame us, cut off our links with tribals and to terrorise us. They succeeded because I have not been able to visit Bastar during the last two years.

Basically, they do not want the urban middle class to stand in support of adivasis,Dalits, minorities and the marginalised. They want to silence those who have raised their voice against the abuse of state power. They also want to warn others of the consequences

They are targeting people who are pivotalto people’s movements. Take Sudha—she is at the centre of so many movements in Chhattisgarh. They want tribal areas to become a black hole. No one should even dare to know what is happening there—istheir attitude. Sudha is an important link. She is not only a lawyer, she also started Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, she was lawyer of CMM (Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha) and so on.She is the main human rights activist in Chhattisgarh, Father Stan Swamy is the main Human Rights person in Jharkhand and Gautam Navlakha is one of the key persons in PUDR, and has been consistently questioning human rights violations in conflict zones…

The allegedly ‘explosive’ letters (fabricatedor otherwise) leaked to a section of the TV channels and lurid versions given out by the police do seem like a larger design to target dissent. It could be diversionary tactic also.