Sreelatha Menon: A campaign to free Bastar from Naxals?

While Binayak Sen is free, tribal people and their forests are still in the clutches of Naxals

Binayak Sen finally stands vindicated by the Supreme Court. The apex court has said he did not engage in sedition, and that he is no Naxal sympathiser. Of course, the state government has an appeal in the High Court, charging him with waging war against the state, reminds a wary brother Dipankar Sen. Yet, he feels the worst just got over.

But the worst got over long ago for the tribals in Bastar, for whom Sen and his wife were working when he was arrested on charges of covertly helping Naxals. The end began decades ago when Naxalism spread through the jungles like a virulent fungal infection, perhaps with the purpose of putting an end to exploitation by government agencies and the industry.

But, they also put an end to the cultural existence of these citizens. Like robbers, they usurped the jungles and made them their own. Arming the people came later.

Before the Naxals gained ground, the tribals still had a village which had a name, they had homes, they had festivals, songs, folk art. Now, they have nothing. Their villages are a battleground for the police and the Naxals.

The much hated DGP of Chattisgarh Vishwaranjan, seen as the other extreme of the tug of war between the Naxals and the state, once explained to this writer why the Naxals never hit the industrialists there. He said: "They are the main source of income for the Naxals. The Naxals never attack them. They want the industry to remain there and prosper.''

No campaigns were ever launched to nip this parallel state in the bud. The free Binayak Sen campaign that grew and bore fruit in the last five years did not find a parallel in a save the tribals and forests from the Naxals campaign.

The favourable verdict for Sen is the culmination of one of the most successful campaigns by civil society, a campaign that has lasted for more than five years and has sprouted roots in other countries, like the US, with no visible source of organised funding. Activists don't like comparisons with the Anna Hazare campaign, which declared the donations received. "How can you compare the two?" asks activist Sabu George, who had set aside everything and campaigned for Sen for five years.

Satya Shivaraman, one of the brains behind the media management for Sen, says in the beginning only those who knew Sen in the health fraternity came forward. When the Supreme Court rejected the bail application in 2007, the international community also joined hands. But it remained a self-sustaining effort, totally decentralised and with zero funding.

The biggest achievement was the support of Nobel laureates, he recalls, but maintains that there was no funding. The strategy was to cleanse Sen of his image of being a dreaded Maoist and make him accessible to NGOs and the media. His pictures without the beard were circulated and he was projected as a benign doctor. It clicked and the media suddenly started talking about him and more and more activists came forward, especially from the fields of art.

All the work was voluntary and if money was collected, it was done locally by people for the programmes they organised. Shivaraman says the next strategy was to demand accountability from the state functionaries and demand compensation for Sen.

It is a great achievement. But, perhaps if this fervour for the well being of one individual was replicated to cleanse the jungles of Naxals, the achievement would be greater.

Says Shivaraman: "We swear by the Constitution and fight the state for violating it. But, we cannot take up the fight to remove the Naxals."