The Congress may have opposed POTA tooth and nail but its government in Maharashtra has not flinched from using it to crush the PW and its associates in the tribal Gadchiroli district. Among the 11 people held under the Act last month, only three are hardcore Naxalites while three are their ‘aides’. And four are tendu leaf contractors.Speaking with a forked political tongue, Minister of State for Home Kripashanker Singh says: ‘‘The Congress may have opposed POTA, but now that it has become the law of the land, the police can use it whereever they deem fit.’’The police say the strategy is to choke the Naxal’s source of funds — the tendu and bamboo contractors. Also, the tribal families have to pay a day’s tendu wages to the Naxalites as ‘‘party fund’’. They say they do all this under fear and duress. ‘‘For us, the abettor is also the culprit, even if he is doing it under force,’’ says ADGP (Anti-Naxalite Operations) J.Y. Umranikar. The February-June tendu season earns the government about Rs 50 crore. The tendu business is also the backbone of the beedi industry. And to the poor tribals, it offers seasonal employment.Behind this police move is the feeling of impotence arising out of the fallout of last year’s Chinna Mattami case. Chinna, seen by the police as a Naxal sympathiser, was killed in an encounter in February 2001. The Gadchiroli SDO’s probe disputed the police claim about Chinna. Later, the high court had directed the government to get a CBI probe conducted and restrained the police from carrying out arbitrary search of the tribals.The controversy had also led to the special preventive powers of the police being held back, which they claim resulted in a steep rise in Naxal crime between August 2001 and May 2002. In POTA they found a weapon. On June 25, the police also got back their special preventive powers. ‘‘We will continue the action,’’ said Umranikar.The arrests have caused panic among the contractors, many of whom come from AP, Chhattisgarh and MP. Says a leader of a contractors’ association on the condition of anonymity: ‘‘Everyone knows we have to buy peace with the Naxals while operating in their stronghold. Why only Naxals, we have to pay the police too. And they are charging us with sedition, waging of war against the state and what not.’’The police, however, claim that the four arrested contractors — Kamlakar Holalla, Khawaja Mohiuddin, A. Naim and Alimuddin — were not only funding the Naxals but were also running extortion rackets on their behalf. The police allege some contractors also carry out abductions for the Naxals. For the contractors, the police are the greater evil. ‘‘You pay the Naxals and they are out of your way. There’s no such guarantee with the police,’’ says an office-bearer of another contractors’ association. They are now thinking of boycotting the tendu auction tenders from next year.
