The
Naxals and the Press
Their image-building strategy is carefully calibrated. They issue press notes, send letters to the editors of newspapers, respond to articles that appear in the press, and sometimes explain their position and apologise for excesses.
Naxalites in Chattisgarh surface regularly to
interact with the press
The less than two year old state of Chattisgarh is
under siege in some areas from Naxalites. The country`s armed forces are
deployed in Bastar, and the state government is spending around Rs 50 crores
per annum on anti Naxal operations. Road building in those areas is done not by
the public works department, but by the Border Roads Organisation.
The state government is having to reckon with the
reality that this movement far from being dissipated, is gaining strength and
becoming a continuous ribbon of armed extremism that now runs from Northern
Andhra Pradesh to the border of Nepal. Chief Minister Ajit Jogi says that it
has to be viewed as a socio economic problem and a national problem because the
ideology of the Naxalites is not confined to any one state.
But even as pressure on them mounts, the Naxals are
turning to the media to clarify their position and promote their cause.
"They liase with the press just as multinationals do," says the
resident editor of the Dainik Bhaskar here, Deopriya Avasthi. He is talking
about the fact that the People`s War have in the last two years have begun to
factor the media into their operations strategy in the state of Chattisgarh.
Their image-building strategy is carefully
calibrated. They issue press notes, send letters to the editors of newspapers,
respond to articles that appear in the press, and sometimes explain their
position and apologise for excesses. Their press notes are hand written but
come on the printed letter head of People`s War. "Group" has been
dropped from their name. They want to be seen as a political party, says the
Deshbandhu`s resident editor Ruchir Garg who has been taken to their dalams by
the Naxals.
Press releases are issued by different levels of the
organisation, both the special zonal committees as well as the Central
Committee. And they have designated spokespeople at different levels.
Communications are usually mailed. Journalists who hear from them regularly can
tell whether or not these handwritten notes are genuine. And as their attacks
on the state intensify, the media is perhaps the only community who have not
been targeted by the Naxals who otherwise plant mines and bombs and conduct
summary executions with impunity.
The more than two decade old infiltration from across
the Andhra border is now becoming a growing encirclement of the state. People`s
War are moving upwards, and are spread along the Southern and Western border,
and are linking up with the Maoist Communist Centre on the Jharkhand and Bihar
borders which are to the North and North East. The two groups were earlier
opposed to each other but local journalists say they have lately been building
bridges. Their presence is there in the urban areas as well: in Bhilai their
organisers work among industrial labour, and penetrate people`s movements.
Local journalists have been taken on "press
tours" such as they are, to be acquainted with the parallel administration
that these extremists are running in South Bastar. They take journalists whom
they trust to show them their training programmes, as well as the proceedings
of the people`s courts they conduct. And this has been done not just in Bastar
but also in Sarguja district. Journalists jokingly refers to these as sponsored
Naxalite trips. They have no objections to going along, it makes good copy.
How does the press deal with the threat of Naxalism which shadows the state? Ramesh Nayyar, editorial advisor of the Bhaskar says the papers have largely taken a firm editorial stand in condemning violence. When he wrote an article on the editorial page of his newspaper on an issue concerning the problem, they sent a rejoinder to the article. Letters to the editor from People`s War are sent quite frequently to several newspapers.