LALGARH MAOISTS READY FOR TALK

INDIAN EXPRESS: Kolkata: Saturday , Jun 20, 2009 at 1618 hrs IST Maoist leader Koteswar Rao said on Saturday the West Bengal Government should stop the police operation in Lalgarh and hold talks with the people to find a solution to their problems. "If the Left Front government wants to have discussion with the people of Lalgarh, the operation by the police and security forces against them should end by this afternoon," Rao, a politburo member of the CPI(Maoist), told a TV channel. "Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee should come to Dalilpur Chak (a place near Lalgarh) and talk to the people. Many of the demands can be met through discussion," Rao, also known as Kishenji, said. Referring to the ongoing joint operation by the state police and the para-military forces, he advised the Left Front government "not to dance to the tune of the Prime Minister or the Union Home Minister". "If the CPI(M)-led government does not want any bloodshed, it should take a stand on its own," Kishenji said. Though there was speculation that Kishenji had left for Jharkhand, he claimed that he was present in Lalgarh. Kishenji said that Friday night's landmine blast at Pirakata bazar was triggered after the people in many villages sent him messages advising that they should not wait any further and strike at the forces. Asked how the Maoists would resist the security forces, he replied, "I cannot say right now." The Peoples' Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) had made several demands which needed to be looked into, he said, underlining that they should not be rigid on the demand that the police would have to apologise for "atrocities against the people". Freedom here, fear there - Relieved cops hug & break down The march through the Jhitka forest with the minesweeper clearing the way. Picture by Amit Datta Security personnel hug after reaching Lalgarh police station. Picture by Amit Datta Journalists duck during police action in Lalgarh. Scribes were seen taking cover in a similar fashion during the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Picture by Amit Datta ZEESHAN JAWED, THE TELEGRAPH: Lalgarh, June 20: When the first batch of 20-odd state policemen reached Lalgarh police station a little before noon, they had to slip in through the side gate. Their colleagues inside, besieged and threatened daily for seven months, had locked themselves in, and also the main gate. Seconds later, when those inside peeped out and saw the uniforms on the visitors’ backs, all doors were thrown open as joyous policemen rushed to meet and hug the rescue force. Sumit Pal didn’t join them. His eyes welling with tears, the middle-aged assistant sub-inspector (ASI) took out his cellphone and dialled his wife in Bandel. “I am safe now, don’t worry. The forces have arrived,” the father of two young daughters spoke into the phone in a voice choked with emotion. “We lived in constant fear for the past few months. It seems the worst is over,” said Pal, who was posted to Lalgarh police station 19 months ago. Some 33 policemen — including an inspector-in-charge, three sub-inspectors and five ASIs — had been held virtually captive in the two-storey building since November, when the Maoist-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocities dug up roads and declared Lalgarh a “liberated zone”. “We were like hostages. With each passing day, the situation was getting more difficult. In the past few days, some local people even told us to pack up and leave,” said ASI Biswanath Aich. Around 12.15pm, Praveen Kumar, deputy inspector-general (Midnapore range), entered the compound along with the central forces to receive a hero’s welcome from Lalgarh inspector-in-charge Gour Kanjilal and his men. Soon, the senior officers went into a huddle inside the police station to chalk out their next course of action. “I hadn’t stepped out for the past three days — not even to take a bath in the nearest pond,” Aich said after giving a tight hug to a central force jawan. “We got really scared after the Ramgarh outpost was set ablaze. Everyday, People’s Committee members used to threaten us. But it’s different today.” He said most of the men posted at the police station had not been able to visit their homes for the past seven or eight months. Nor had they much to do in their command area. “I think the situation will change now and we will be able to discharge our responsibilities. Oh, how we longed for this day to come,” said a constable as he chatted happily with paramilitary jawans in the yard. Worried villagers wonder what next People leave Pirakata, where police set up a camp for the operation. Picture by Amit Datta ZEESHAN JAWED, The Telegraph: Lalgarh, June 20: The only thing that changes in the lives of Lalgarh’s villagers is who has got them by the throat. Yesterday it was the CPM, tomorrow it may be the police, who’ll “take revenge on us”, says the old man in Barapelia. Today, it’s definitely the Maoists and the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities from whom the resident of the “liberated zone” must take his orders. Which is why, in his 70s now, he is on the Pirakata-Lalgarh road this morning, carrying a bow and a quiver full of arrows. He is headed for Kantapahari where the “battle-ready” from all Lalgarh villages have been asked to report. “Each family must send at least one person. I left my three sons, their wives and my grandchildren at home,” says the frail man in a lungi. Does he want to fight the police and paramilitary? Stealing a glance at his bow, he seems about to say something but stops at the sight ahead. Some 10-15 men, bristling with bows and arrows, axes, bamboo sticks, choppers, swords and sickles, are guarding the entry point to Chhotopelia, 7km from Lalgarh town. The old man clams up. Suddenly, a woman in her 20s — wearing a torn sari and carrying a baby — comes running as she spots the “outsiders” (journalists). “Do you think we can fight the police and army? The only thing we can do now is ask forgiveness. We only followed the committee leaders’ instructions…” she screams. The men look on silently. They look afraid. Many villagers are fleeing to Jhargram. “If we don’t fight for the committee, we’ll be in trouble. Then the police will come and create more problems,” says a young man. He left his home in Madhabpur this morning, he says, after the police entered Lalgarh town and prominent committee and Maoist leaders went underground. “We could not do anything without their permission. Our lives were more or less the same during CPM rule. But the Maoist and committee leaders didn’t beat us up the way CPM leaders did,” says a resident of Dimla village.“The CPM had turned Lalgarh police station into its party office. Anyone opposing them was brought there and beaten up,” he says, adding the committee and the Maoists have one thing in common with the CPM — an aversion to any form of opposition. A chopper’s drone breaks the silence in Dimla. A sign of impending assault? The men look up nervously. No, it’s a shower of leaflets asking them not to let the Maoists use them. “The government should realise we can’t go against these people’s wishes,” the young man says. Rage explodes within BJP

SANJAY K. JHA.THE TELEGRAPH : New Delhi, June 20: The BJP appears plunged in an anarchic, and uncontainable, internal feud. Senior leaders fiercely defied party president Rajnath Singh’s appeal for restraint and discipline and vented their frustrations on the first day of the party’s national executive meeting called to analyse the electoral debacle. The day began with the hope that backroom fire-fighting would have put an end to the unparalleled public bickering in the lead-up to the meeting. But that soon evaporated with party veteran Jaswant Singh lighting the fire again. He made an unscheduled and emotional intervention that climaxed in his threat to quit active politics. Sources revealed that Jaswant complained bitterly about being insulted by colleagues who had planted stories in the media suggesting that he was fighting for a personal position in the party. The former external affairs minister, who represents Darjeeling in the Lok Sabha, said he was in politics for social service and would quit if the party felt he was raising issues because he did not get a room as leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Jaswant said he felt deeply hurt and had told L.K. Advani that he would never contest elections again. Arun Shourie then grabbed the opportunity to present his case, repeating the charges he had levelled in his letter yesterday. Demanding a mechanism for fixing accountability, he said a wrong message would go out to party workers if persons responsible for the defeat were not punished. Shourie barely attempted to conceal that his target was Arun Jaitley, the party’s chief electoral strategist, who has recently been nominated to the leadership of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Shourie wondered how people directly responsible for election management were not attending such a crucial meeting. Jaitley is holidaying in Europe and was seen watching a Twenty20 match at Lord’s in London last week. Shourie also asked why state leaders were being held responsible for the debacle when “even the permission to hang a hoarding has to come from Delhi”. Shourie wanted a larger number of people engaged in the process of investigating the causes of the defeat to ensure that “well-entrenched forces” within the party didn’t cover up their mistakes. He said the issues raised by Jaswant and Yashwant Sinha should be thoroughly discussed as those concerns were vital to the party’s future. Yashwant had objected to failure being rewarded, referring to Jaitley’s recent promotion. Shourie’s assault was so focused on Jaitley’s role that he even questioned his decision to hand over the CD of the cash-for-vote scandal to a TV channel which is “known to be anti-BJP”. Asking the leadership why the defeat of 2004 was not properly probed, Shourie suggested that the final report of the investigation into the 2009 elections should be made public. It is significant perhaps that both Jaswant and Shourie, and the object of their ire, Jaitley, are close to Advani. Jaitley was targeted by Maneka Gandhi, too, who sought to question the wisdom of those who wanted to use her son Varun as the scapegoat. Jaitley had blamed the Pilibhit episode much before Shahnawaz Hussein and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi spoke out at yesterday’s meeting. Maneka wanted a debate on the issue, questioning the very premise that the polarisation caused by Varun’s remark damaged the BJP. She asked when the BJP had relied on Muslim votes and how Varun was solely responsible for the party’s poor showing nationwide. Maneka was scathing in her criticism of Jaitley, claiming that he did not even care to talk to candidates who were fighting in the field despite being in charge of Uttar Pradesh. Sources said more attacks on Jaitley, and journalist-ideologues close to him who had attacked Hindutva, were expected tomorrow. Large sections of the party are learnt to be angry with Advani and Jaitley aides who have now begun to criticise the BJP’s ideology and are advising the party to adopt a Congress-like moderate agenda. Six more fall to Flu SNS & PTI , New Delhi/Dehra dun, 20 JUNE: Six more people, including two minors, tested positive for Swine Flu today taking the total number of cases in the country to 56. Out of the six fresh cases, three are from Delhi, one from Hyderabad, one from Bangalore and one from Fatehgarh in Punjab. “Six new cases have been reported from Delhi (3), Hyderabad (1), Bangalore (1) and Fatehgarh of Punjab (1). Of the 56 cases, 21 have been discharged while others remain admitted to hospitals,” a Health Ministry official said. Of the three cases in Delhi, the case of a 30-year-old woman is that of human to human transmission. The other cases in Delhi are that of a 27-year-old man who travelled from Canada to New Delhi on 17 June and a four-and-half-year-old boy who travelled from Toronto to New Delhi on the same day. A 32-year-old man, who travelled from New York to Hyderabad on 13 June, was another Swine Flu case in Hyderabad while in Bangalore, a 25-year-old man, who came from Philaldephia on 17 June also tested positive for the disease. The sixth case was reported from Fatehgarh Sahib where a 15-year-old boy, who was among a group of 20 children and four others who had gone to NASA, tested positive for Swine Flu. Meanwhile, four suspected cases of Swine Flu have come in limelight in the capital. All four are members of a family who recently returned from a tour of Bangkok and Singapore. Jigmee N Kazi floats Sikkim Press Freedom Forum Staff Reporter, SIKKIM EXPRESS GANGTOK, June 19: Firebrand veteran journalist Jigmee N Kazi has floated Sikkim Press Freedom Forum (SPFF) to commemorate the historic protest rally taken out by a handful but bold journalists of the State on this date, 16 years ago. On June 19, 1993, a group of journalist under the banner of Sikkim Press Association (SPA) led by its president Jigme N Kazi had taken out a protest rally in Gangtok against the suppression of press freedom in the State. “To commemorate this event, I have floated SPFF today. The aim of SPFF is to safeguard press freedom in Sikkim”, said Mr. Kazi. He added that forum is not confined to journalists but also those interested in press freedom. Anyone who feels that press freedom should be there are welcome to join SPFF which is the need of the hour, said Mr. Kazi. He observed that the people whom the media serves should come forward to ensure that there is freedom of press. Mr. Kazi is the editor of Sikkim Observer, one of the boldest papers of its times in Sikkim. After a gap of several years when Mr. Kazi quit active journalism in 1998, the paper has now returned back to the stands from this year.