Today, when the BJP is presenting itself as a protector of women in West Bengal over the issue of rape, this entire experience is coming back to my mind.
By Himanshu Kumar
After the rape and murder of a female doctor in West Bengal, the BJP is preparing to uproot the Trinamool government of West Bengal. In response to this incident, the President, Supreme Court, and Governor of Bengal have become active. The reason is that the BJP wants to gain political advantage from this incident.
But is the BJP really against rape? Let’s investigate. Today, I will not write about Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Chinmayanand, Sakshi Maharaj, Sengar, the Kathua case, BJP’s silence and complicity in parading women naked in Manipur.
Today, I will share my personal story with you. I am a Gandhian social worker and belong to a family of freedom fighters. I heard from my father that Mahatma Gandhi once said that young people should go to villages and serve the people there, otherwise our democracy will turn into a democracy of goons.
In 1992, we left our jobs in Delhi and moved to a village in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, where we established a Gandhian Sewa ashram to serve the tribals. In 2005, in order to allow big capitalist companies to exploit the tribal lands for profit, the BJP government set fire to 650 Adivasi villages in Chhattisgarh. The BJP government armed 5,000 goons with official guns and called them Special Police Officers (SPOs). Along with these SPOs, police and paramilitary forces burned thousands of Adivasi homes. These government forces also raped thousands of indigenous women and killed thousands of tribals.
In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled against all of this, declaring Salwa Judum unconstitutional and ordered that all weapons be immediately taken back from these SPOs.
We were working to provide training to tribals in farming, community health, women’s employment, environmental protection, and children’s education. The same tribals whom we were serving were being killed and raped by the BJP government.
After witnessing all this, I decided not to remain silent and submitted a list of 522 cases to the Supreme Court, which included serious issues like the burning of tribal homes, rape of tribal women by the police, and their abduction. Many reports from the National Human Rights Commission, media reports, and fact-finding reports by independent social organisations support these complaints.
After this, the BJP government first used a bulldozer against me. In 2009, the BJP government demolished our 16-acre Gandhian Ashram using four bulldozers, reducing it to rubble.
We continued our work from a rented house. Six tribal girls came to me and told me that they had been gang-raped by SPOs and leaders of the Salwa Judum movement. One girl had been raped inside a police station.
I wrote their testimonies and sent them to the Superintendent of Police (SP) with their signatures, but the SP neither responded nor initiated any investigation. Subsequently, as per the law, these girls filed complaints in court. To protect these girls from the government and police, I kept them in a tent in front of my rented house under my supervision for three months.
Meanwhile, the case began to be heard in the Sukma JMFC Court. Sudha Bhardwaaj appeared as lawyer for the girls. The girls and witnesses gave their statements, and warrants were issued against the accused officers. The police claimed that the accused were absconding, but they were actually still working with the police, receiving salaries, burning villages, and even serving as bodyguards for the Superintendent of Police. Hindustan Times published a story titled “Absconding but on Duty.”
One of the accused later died in a Naxalite attack. His statue was erected in Dornapal, and its inauguration was done by the Superintendent of Police. When a BBC journalist asked the SP how he could participate in the unveiling of a statue of a person accused of rape, the SP responded that the girl wanted to defame a good movement like Salwa Judum, which is why her complaint was ignored.
The girls went back to their village to plant rice. From there, the police abducted them again, and for five days in Dornapal police station, they were raped again under the pretext of taking the case to court. I informed the Collector, SP, DGP, Chief Secretary, and India’s Home Secretary and Home Minister by phone.
A week later, in 2010, I was expelled from Chhattisgarh for ten years. A few months later, those girls were kidnapped for the third time and forced to withdraw their case before the Dantewada district judge.
After I left, there was no one left to help those girls. When my student, Soni Sori, tried to raise the issue of tribal human rights, the SP took her to the police station, stripped her naked, electrocuted her, and stuffed stones into her private parts. Soni Sori’s nephew, tribal journalist Linga Kodopi, was taken to the SP’s house, where a stick soaked in chilli and mustard oil was inserted into his rectum, rupturing his intestines. After this, both Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi were falsely implicated in Naxalite cases and jailed. After two and a half years, the Supreme Court granted them bail. In 2016, acid was thrown on Soni Sori’s face at the behest of the police IG.
Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi were acquitted of all charges by the court.
I took these cases to the United nations. UN Deputy Chair for Indigenous people Phoolman Chaudhry visited Chhattisgarh and said that he found severe violations of Indigenous peoples’ human rights. On this Chhattisgarh BJP’s spokesperson Sachchidanand Upasane said these people have links with Maoists. Calling a UN representative a Maoist is not a surprise anymore.
In 2019, I went to Chhattisgarh again. When I tried to meet the tribals, the entire administration and police threatened the village head, raided the village, and prevented me from holding any meetings. My landlord was intimidated, and my belongings were removed from the rented house.
Today, when the BJP is presenting itself as a protector of women in West Bengal over the issue of rape, this entire experience is coming back to my mind.
A page from Court proceedings of one of those cases is enclosed.
Also read : ‘Justice is still a mirage for Adivasis’ by Himanshu Kumar.