Unspeakable atrocities were committed against women and children. In the ensuing violence thousands of people were evicted and herded into camps, ostensibly for their own safety. In the complete vacuum of authority created by the state, the militarisation of society increased at a gallop, with children being inducted into these private armies. The scenes that started emerging looked like they were the stereotypical images of a small country in the midst of a brutal civil war: children armed for combat, the displacement of tens of thousands of people and a general brutalisation of society. But the political class seemed more oblivious to this. It defended this brutal private army as a spontaneous uprising, justified the decimation of whole ways of life in the name of combating Left wing violence. All this in order to throw a cloak over the state’s near complete abdication of its responsibilities.

One wishes that this story were a fantasy. Alas, something like this is happening right now. The only difference is that the people affected are not rich suburban dwellers: they are poor, marginalised tribals in Chhattisgarh. The entire Salwa Judum episode, which is now a subject of a PIL in the Supreme Court, recounts the broad outline of this story. In the past there have been, particularly in Kashmir and the Northeast, entities like village defence committees that have stepped into the vacuum created by the state. But never before has the state openly licensed private groups and given them carte blanche to brutalise society. Dantewara district is an example of what can happen when the state voluntarily gives up its core responsibilities. The lives being destroyed there are well documented by many independent sources; and a committee of the Commission on the Rights of Children is apparently due to submit a report soon.

... contd.