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Repressive Indian State vs. Brutal Maoist Insurgency: Call for Peace and Sanity

by EKTA, 10 October 2009

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EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity), Mumbai expresses its sense of horror at the reported move of the Government of India, in collaboration with the respective state governments, to launch a large-scale armed offensive against Maoist insurgents in eastern and central India.
Such an operation cannot but result in huge "collateral" damages to the local populace, mainly indigenous people steeped deep in appalling poverty.
It also finds it particularly disturbing that the insurgents, in turn, have in the recent days accelerated their killing spree.

The Committee categorically expresses its utter disgust at the gruesome brutality of beheading an abducted police officer in Jharkhand.

The Committee calls upon both the Indian state and insurgents to enter into a meaningful peace dialogue and step back from the blood-soaked path of armed confrontations.

The state must on a war footing look into the grievances of the long neglected people caught in the web of insurgency. And also forthwith stop drumming up irrational paranoia and using the alibi of insurgency to suppress all democratic mass struggles for realisation of legitimate demands.

It is obviously the responsibility of the State to take the initiative for such a dialogue. In turn the insurgents must also show their readiness to positively respond.

That’s the only way how an inevitable human tragedy on a far larger scale than ever before can be averted.

Sukla Sen
- EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity), Mumbai
- 10 October 2009