There is a lot of difference between the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh and the harmad vahini in West Bengal. Sure, both are armed vigilante groups set up to “protect villagers from Maoists” in Naxalite-affected areas. Both have the tacit support of their state administrations —the Right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chhattisgarh and the Left Front in West Bengal. Both use brutal violence to control their territory. Both force defenceless villagers to join them or face murder and mayhem. Both use official government premises, like government schools and panchayat offices, as battle camps and armouries. Both flout the Indian Constitution.
However, we must not assume that the Salwa Judum and the harmad vahini are similar. For one, the very existence of the harmad is officially in question. West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has objected strongly to Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s use of the name to depict the Communist Party of India-(Marxist) (CPI-M)’s cadres in the Naxalite-ravaged Lalgarh area.
Harmad vahini just means illicit militia, and the Left Front insists that only the Opposition Trinamul Congress uses this derogatory term to refer to CPI(M) cadres, there is no such militia in reality. On the other hand, the Salwa Judum is something that the Chhattisgarh government is happy to acknowledge, and looks upon as a legitimate partner in its fight against Maoists. The very name Salwa Judum, which apparently means “peace march” in Gondi, was coined to give the impression of a tribal movement — self-defence groups that sprouted spontaneously to resist Naxal violence. And unlike CPI(M) cadres, many members of the Salwa Judum are now legitimised further as state-endorsed killers, as salaried special police officers.
Besides, the Left has been staunchly opposed to the Salwa Judum. The CPI(M) has protested the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh government’s support to these armed vigilante groups. There was of course no question of the CPI(M) themselves raising such groups in their home territory.
However, in unrelated hearings this week, the courts have cracked the whip regarding these vigilante groups, discomfiting the Chhattisgarh and Bengal governments.  On January 18, the Supreme Court asked the Chhattisgarh government for a time-bound action plan to disband the Salwa Judum. Those living in Salwa Judum camps must be sent back home in a planned and safe way, it suggested, and their freedom and normal life restored. Besides, the schools that had been taken over by security forces must be vacated within four months. And finally, the apex court sought a detailed report on compensation, to make sure that victims of all violence — whether perpetrated by Maoists, the Salwa Judum or security forces — got justice.
In Bengal, the Calcutta high court was following up on its queries regarding the recent violence in Netai in Lalgarh, which left eight people dead and 20 injured in an attack allegedly by armed CPI(M) cadres. The court had wanted to know whether the Left Front government was thinking of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the killing and what it felt about demolishing armed camps in the area run by political parties. It had also asked about compensation.
In its affidavit, the state government had replied that it would ask the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and not the CBI to investigate the Netai incident. And promised to ensure that there were no camps used to store arms and weapons “by or at the behest of any political party”. But compensation would have to wait till the investigation was over. On January 19, the Calcutta high court accepted most of what the state government said. But insisted that the government pay an “interim compensation” right away and specified the amounts.
The Left’s protestations about the Salwa Judum seem ridiculously hollow when we look at the parallels between the “self-defence groups” in Chhattisgarh and Bengal. The CPI(M) seems to be equally guilty of arming rural thugs and raising a private army. And in a state where over three decades of Left rule has blurred the distinction between the government and its main ruling party, there isn’t too much difference between the Salwa Judum and the so-called harmad vahini.
In a mature democracy, people are not expected to seek justice through the barrel of a gun. And the bloody fight between the gun-toting cadres of the ruling CPI(M) and the gun-toting cadres of the challenger Trinamul Congress represents an alarming failure of democratic governance. And the fulcrum of democracy, the people’s vote, is propelling the bloodbath. Both the ruling party and the Opposition have been using criminal violence to clear the path to the state elections in May. The winner will be determined not by democratic choices but by who sinks or swims in this river of blood.
Sadly, bullets have influenced our ballot for ages. What is new is that these armed resistance groups seek legitimacy by pretending to be a people’s movement against Maoist violence.
Just before the Lalgarh bloodbath, Maoists’ spokesman Bikram had officially revealed what was always suspected — that Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul has been an ally of the Naxalites for some time. The Maoists even thanked the Union railways minister for her support. The CID has established the links between the Maoists and Trinamul, and Trinamul MP (member of Parliament) Kabir Suman has written passionately about their close relationship. Soon, the Maoists were openly offering to make Ms Banerjee the chief minister of Bengal if only she fought not just the Left Front but the Congress as well.
Not surprising, since the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government, under which Ms Banerjee is a Union minister, is carrying on a dirty war with the Maoists both in Chhattisgarh and Bengal. Which makes the Union home minister’s innocence about the CPI(M)’s armed cadres in Lalgarh — who apparently help in the joint operations of the security forces of the Centre and West Bengal — seem rather curious.
We all know that lack of development and failure of justice has spawned private armies around the country. Political parties use party workers and the police as their musclemen. Over decades, power-hungry rulers have perfected the process of undermining democracy.
To counter bloodbaths like the low-grade civil war brewing in the Naxalite belts we need more than a change in the government. We need a commitment to governance and social justice from both the ruling and Opposition parties. We need police reforms. We need a cleaner judiciary. And most importantly, we need to listen to our own citizens, hear their stories — not beat them into submission with a gun, then pretend we didn’t know.

Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com