Yet another social activist and independent researcher, based in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, has alleged that she was being “hounded and troubled” by self-styled vigilante groups.
Ms. Bela Bhatia, a former visiting faculty at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, stays at a village eight kilometers from Jagdalpur, the district headquarters of Bastar.
“At around 4 p.m. on Saturday, a large group of agitated people came to the village where I live, in my absence. According to my neighbours, they came in four vehicles, five autos and one jeep. The group included men and women as well as the men of the police force in plain clothes. Some of them were armed. The group was carrying a banner and asked questions about me to my house-owner and neighbours. They asked why a ‘Naxalite Aatankawadi’ had been allowed to rent a room in the village and advised my landlady to evict me,” Ms. Bhatia said in a statement.
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“Then they took out a rally in the hamlet, shouting slogans against me including ‘Bela Bhatia Murdabad’ and distributed leaflets. The leaflet accused me of being a ‘Naxal Dalal (Maoist agent) from outside and ends with the slogan ‘ Bastar Chhodo’ (Leave Bastar).
The leaflet did not bear anyone’s name or any details of any printer,” claimed the researcher who has been documenting police excesses in the name of anti-Maoist operations in Bastar for over a year now. The sloganeering and leaflet campaign against Ms. Bhatia comes after the recent arrest of four journalists in Bastar and the eviction and attacks on free legal aid groups, journalists and tribal activist Soni Sori.
Bastar Superintendent of Police (SP) Mr. R.N. Das and Inspector General (IG) of Police S.R.P. Kalluri were unavailable for their reaction to the incident.
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The Chhattisgarh state unit of the Congress has termed Bastar police head Mr. Kalluri a “dictator” after the arrest of four journalists in Bastar in last six months.
“S.R.P. Kalluri has become a dictator of Bastar because of the free hand given to him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Common people, journalists, political workers and almost everyone is on the police target in Bastar now,” State Congress spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said in a press statement on Sunday.