Journalism of Courage
Mamata Banerjee’s threat to quit if the West Midnapore SP was removed on the EC’s orders may have been just the kind of muscle-flexing the CM is known to indulge in, but she was right in her claims about Junglemahal. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
Mamata Banerjee's stand that the transfer of West Midnapore Superintendent of Police Bharati Ghosh, as ordered by the EC, would hurt peace in Junglemahal. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
Few dispute that the region spread over 8,000 sq km area and three districts, which was once the worst affected by Maoist violence in the state, is one of the Trinamool Congress regime’s few success stories. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
With a combination of political efforts and strong administrative action, including not coming to the rescue of jailed PCAPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato, Mamata would manage to bring Maoists and their supporters into the mainstream and restore peace. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
To keep youths away from Maoists, the government also promoted sporting activities. It announced a Junglemahal Cup, an annual football tournament in which 22 teams of tribal girls participated in the first year. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
Malati Mandi, who is now in Class VII, is part of the team in Jamboni, where Kishenji was killed in an encounter. “I started playing when I was in Class V. The local clubs selected us after physical tests. I remember two years ago, my parents used to send me to my maternal uncle’s house at Midnapore town as our village was not safe. My father and brother were forced to join the meetings held by Maoists. But now my brother is a constable and he is posted at the Jamboni police station,” says Malati. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
“Now every block in Junglemahal has at least a couple of girl football teams,” says Durgesh Malladev, TMC president of the Jhargram subdivision. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
Lakshmirani Mandi, daughter of a landless agricultural labourer from Tentultala village, was for four years an active member of the PCAPA, a frontal organisation of Maoists. She joined in 2010 soon after her brother Gopinath Mandi was dragged out of their home, charged under sections dealing with sedition and criminal conspiracy and branded a Maoist. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
As part of the PCAPA, Lakshmirani was arrested several times for blocking roads and gheraoing police camps. Earlier this year, Lakshmirani returned home. In January, she was among a dozen teenage girls from Junglemahal chosen and trained for a fashion show in Kolkata. Announcements regarding the beauty pageant were made in all the villages of Dahijuri. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
Now Lakshmirani has gone back to school. “I will perhaps never become a model, but now I want to do something. Maoist terror and repression no longer exist. Police do not visit our villages as they used to. Maoist squads too do not hold meetings at night for which they used to gather villagers at gunpoint. We want to live. I want to study and I want to be a teacher,” Lakshmirani says, smiling. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
In the last two years, the police have not recorded a single instance of murder and abduction by Maoists in Junglemahal. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)
Read Full story here.
