Ballot wins over bullet once again

Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao & Uppala Narasimham

Whichever party may win the elections for the Chhattisgarh assembly, the real winner is the tribal voters of that state who bravely reposed their faith in the ballot despite the threat to the life from Maoists.

Chhattisgarh is the only state where Maoists are alleged to have an upper hand over the people’s mind and it was their Revolutionary People’s Councils (RPCs) which controls the voting pattern there. As per the claims of Maoist ideologues and their friendly media the narrative of Chhattisgarh is having fourteen districts affected by the Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) and no civilian administration worth the name is in existence in those Maoists infested districts. It was the barrel holding persons dikhat which is reigning in those Dandakaranya regions and ballot is a sham.

It is this narrative which Amit Shah encountered when he was entrusted with the responsibility Ministry of Home and tasked with the establishment of the civilian authority in that state of Chhattisgarh. A year before BJP scored a spectacular victory for the second time in succession Chhattisgarh electorate voted out BJP government in 2018 assembly election and gave power to the Congress. Maoist group and urban Naxals openly claimed their role in ousting BJP and installing more pliable Congress in that state.   But Amit Shah never succumbed to those political calculations, but as a true nationalist took up on himself the onerous responsibility of tackling the LWE in Chhattisgarh despite not receiving the administrative support from the newly crowned Bhubesh Bhagel government in Chhattisgarh.

Ever since Amit Shah took over the Home ministry he repeatedly announced his resolve to eliminate extremist elements of all varieties from the country. The home ministry actions has brought the influence of religious extremism in Kashmir valley in the post Art. 370 abrogation scenario. His focus on the LWE is no less. Many of those Maoists and the sympathisers of that banned organisation living in the urban areas are either under investigation for their role in extremism or put behind the bars for their anti-national activity.

Indian Maoists, like their ideological big brothers from China, have no faith in democracy and individual freedom and liberty. The constitutional values as enshrined in India are also abhorred by those China guided dreamers of “red corridor” whose idea is the establishment of ‘Red Dictators’ by using the bullet and barrel on the innocent, unarmed citizens of this country. Silencing the opposition through physical elimination is the strategy LWE employed since their Naxalbari days. Their election boycott slogan was loud through mikes, pamphlets, wall posters worked during the earlier elections with voters fearing for their physical safety. There were earlier instances where the hands, of those who defied their call and voted, were chopped off. Poll percentage in the LWE influence districts was abysmally low in Chhattisgarh.

All this got changed with Amit Shah guided policies of Home Ministry. Net result is the high voter turnout even in the Bastar, the proclaimed bastion of Maoists. Chhattisgarh voters boldly chosen the BALLOT over the BULLET thus rejecting the violence filled ideology Maoists. The vote percentage is much higher in the 14 districts, where Maoist claim to have established their own BARREL POWERED administration, compared to the districts where Maoists have least say.

This victory of ballot over bullet is made possible through the resolve of the central home ministry under the stewardship of Amit shah. As soon as Amit Shah took over he promised to tackle the extremism in the country and started focussing on that issue. India faced the religious extremism and also the China supported Left extremism.  For the elimination of LWE extremism special focus was made. All the 14 districts of Chhattisgarh districts were included in the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme of Home Ministry by Amit Shah. Financial grants on various counts were offered to support the security personnel. In 2018, before Amit Shah took over the responsibility, there were 44 CRPF battalions allotted to Chhattisgarh. Under his orders 5 more battalions were added enabling the CRPF to establish 75 new security camps in the Bastar region. Under the leadership of Amit Shah a Bastar Fighters force was created by recruiting more than 2000 local youth, that included 460 women fighters,.

All the efforts of Amit Shah headed home ministry are reflected in the successful electioneering and the voting time of Chhattisgarh. Phase I of the elections covered 20 assembly constituencies largely went incident free as the confidence of the voters was boosted through the relatively undisturbed electoral campaign. The polling booths increased giving easy access to the voters and 44 booths were relocated and well-guarded. The voters came in groups defying the threat to ascertain their democratic right and to send a message to the extremist elements that people are not with them. The result is the increased voting percentage in the worst effected district, Sukma, from earlier 55 to 63%. The interior areas where the Maoist threat was more severe and Dalam’s activities are more prominent the voting earlier was minimal has risen to above 40% and in some areas it touched 60%. The overall pool percentage in the first phase voting increased by 1.5%. In the last election it was 76.5% and now it is 78%. Which party is going to win doesn’t matter as long as the democracy wins is the political administrative philosophy of Amit Shah.

Dantewada, the area which was always in the news for the Maoist violence is back in the news for exactly opposite reason of peaceful polling. This was taken as the challenge both by the home ministry and the Election Commission of India (ECI). With enhanced focus all the grey areas were cleared for the successful polling. 14 new polling stations are provided and the relocation of the polling booths reduced from 21 to 7 and the result is the 9% increase in the voting in the alleged troubled area. In the 2018 elections Potali village which is almost controlled by the Maoists witnessed voting of only 1%. The same village which witnessed a fight against the establishment of security camp in 2021 has 45% polling in recently held elections.

The 2023 Chhattisgarh elections has proved quite a few things. The most important one being that Maoists are no more a influential organisation in the tribal belt. The tribal population understood the fallacy of the Maoist campaign of power through barrel. The tribal communities are now in the know of how the gun wielding Maoists are exploiting them through lip sympathy and are doing more damage to their progress by blocking the developmental activities of the government of India.  So at the risk of death, chopping of hands threats the Tribal ventured to side with the democracy and hopefully the blood soaked ideology of Maoists will soon disappear from the map of India.

(The views expressed are personal opinion of the authors)