Tribals want police boss to do ‘sit-ups’

Lalgarh, Nov. 9: A tribal outfit has set a series of conditions, including “sit-ups by the West Midnapore police chief holding his ears”, to end a Nandigram-style backlash against raids that followed last Sunday’s Maoist blast.

The charter of demands by the group of village elders, the Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa, was made public after an all-party meeting collapsed because of an alleged comment by a CPM leader that was seen as casting aspersions on the Opposition.

Tribals armed with bows and arrows have dug up roads and placed at least 40 tree trunks across a 40km-long road in West Midnapore’s Lalgarh, an area where Maoists are known to be active, cloning the tactics seen in Nandigram.

Around 25 of the 100 villages in Lalgarh have been cut off from the roads connecting them to the rest of the district. The blockade is not insurmountable now but the administration, which has deployed a large number of policemen, is showing restraint to avoid a repeat of Nandigram where several people had been killed.

The Lalgarh protests had begun after the police, apparently eager to show results in the investigation into the blast that struck Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s car, picked up three teenagers as suspects.

The all-party meeting today lasted over an hour but an alleged comment by CPM zonal committee member Joydeb Giri triggered an uproar.

Giri reportedly said workers of Opposition parties were indulging in Maoist activities at night, prompting tribal leaders as well as representatives of the Trinamul Congress and the Jharkhand Party (Aditya) to walk out. Only a Santhal tribal leader, Padmalochan Soren, remained at the meeting chaired by district magistrate N.S. Nigam.

“After the comment from the CPM member, we felt there was no need for the meeting, so we walked out,” said Mohammad Rafique, a Trinamul leader. Jharkhand Party (Aditya) leader Asit Khatua said: “It is because of this attitude of the CPM that we are being branded Maoists and are being harassed by the police.”

CPM leader Giri denied the Opposition allegation: “I only said that Maoists should not be provided shelter by political parties.”

Later, the Majhi Marwa issued the charter of demands that asked the West Midnapore police superintendent, Rajesh Kumar Singh, to apologise before the media with folded hands for the raids.

Prabir Murmu, a leader of the outfit, said: “The SP will have to do sit-ups holding his ears. All policemen of Lalgarh police station will have to crawl from Dalilpur to Chhotopelia village. Women who were beaten up by the police during the raids will have to be given Rs 2 lakh compensation. All villagers arrested over the past several years in connection with Maoist activities will have to be released and all cases withdrawn.”

Home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said there would be more meetings.