Dear friends, As I circulated in an earlier mail, David Pugh, Pratima Das and Devendra were arrested by Orissa police on "suspiscion of being maoists". David Pugh is a teacher from Bay Area of California, a deeply committed activist who had been visiting various places where people's movemnents in India are going on, including places like Nandigram, Kalinganagar and the anti-Posco movement in Jagatsinghpur. While in Orissa he was accompanied by Pratima Das, a high court lawyer for helping in translation. These people were arrested by the police near Jagatsinghpur and proclaimed as "Maoists". Many of Orissa's newspaper have carried the news of this arrest as a extremely sensational and exagerrated manner, calling David and Pratima as hardcore maoists and militants.The news coverage was deliberately mischeivous. One of the worse coverage was by the newspaper "Pioneer" which I have reproduced as below.
The role of the press and journalists in this matter is not naive or uninformed, but part of a well coordinated strategy to paint all anti-displacement movements as maoists and use this labelling to crush these movements. This has been occuring in almost all parts of Orissa where there is a groundswell of local movements against displacement by corporate projects of mining and industrialisation; in every case, the government is trying to link these movements with the violent "maoist" movements and use this excuse to carryic out suppression. Thus Kalinganagar as well as anti-POSCO movement is painted as being "citadel of maoists", whereas these movements are peaceful, democratic expressions of dissent against a rapacious, corporate led displacement. The news media in Orissa is a willing accomplice in this effort to label all peaceful people's movements and all dissent against the corporate loot of Orissa as "maoists",- the news in Pioneer as provided below is a good illustration of this process. A recent article by Saikat Dutta in Outlook illustrates the tendency of the governments in India to term those who dissent peacefully and democratically as maoists. This is an extremely dangerous trend which is aimed at silencing all dissent against the powerful, even when democratic and non-violent. The complicity of some in the media will become explicit by the coverage in *the Pioneer*. Those who sympathise with these people's movements - which effectively seem to be last bastion of progressive democratic politics in this country, need to get together and challenge this dangerous role of media. As a part of this, we have drafted a letter to *Chandan Mitra, Editor, The Pioneer,*pointing out the biased and mischeivous news reporting in his newspaper. At least he would know that people are aware of these tactics of his newspaper. I would request friends willing to put their names to this letter to kindly do so. Regards Kundan *Letter to Chandan Mitra, Editor, The Pioneer* Dear Sir, We are writing to you to protest about the extremely biased coverage of events and processes occuring in Orissa, specially those related to displacement and people's movements against industrialisation. Specifically we would like to point out the latest instance of biased and mischievous coverage by your Orissa correspondent of the arrest of Mr. David Pugh, Ms. Protima Das and Mr. Devendra Das by the Orissa Police. Mr. David Pugh is an internationally famous activist from San Francisco who has been actively working on people's struggles throughout the world. He is also well known and respected teacher. He had come to a trip to India to visit some of the sites of people's movements inlcuding Singur, Nandigram etc. Ms. Pratima is a practicing High Court lawyer, assistant in the Chamber of Mr. Prashant Jena, a respected lawyer of the High Court. By what stretch of imagination these people have been accused of being "hard core maoists" as represented in your esteemed newspaper in its coverage dated 14th August, 2008 is not known. It was shocking to read the extremely sensational coverage in the newspaper about the persons who were arrested, with use of terms like "hardcore maoists", "fleeing militants" aimed at painting these persons as "terrorists" of some type. One would assume that this sensationalisation is by your reporter, as in the report, the district SP is reported as saying " The *US national David Augh (60) was left free as he was here on a tourist visa and was a researcher, who was moving around the places where displacement has been taking place*". He further goes on to say that "*One Pratima Das alias Rakhi, an advocate of the Orissa High Court, who is suspected to be a supporter of the CPI (ML) was arrested on Tuesday night and was handed over to the Jagatsingpur police, as there were several cases pending against her.". * When the police itself has left one "hardcore maoist" to roam free and another is only "suspected to be a supporter of CPI(ML)", by what stretch of imagination has your reporter termed these people as "hardcore maoists" and "fleeing militants". Is he a sensationalist or a paid stooge of the corporate houses whose projects are being held up be genuine, democratic and peaceful people's movements against displacement. There seems to be a conspiracy to paint all democratic people's movements fighting against displacement and forced industrialisation by private capital as "maoists" and the Orissa administration, the police, the corporate sector and some journalists are actively conniving in this conspiracy. Only this may explain the black propaganda being carried out by your reporter, who calls Kalinganagar a strong citadel for Maoists. The whole world knows the story of Kalinganagar and its self-generated tribal movement which is a reaction against the coldblooded killing of thirteen tribals. To call these activists and tribal movment as a citadel of "maoists" is a direct and strong perversion of reality, sepcially when the leadership of the movement is being killed and intimidated one by one by corporate hired goons. This is not an isolated incidence as similar coverage from your newspaper is a regular occurence. We do hope that this is not newspaper policy and rather the mischief of a local journalist and that you will look into the issue and clarify the matter. Regards ______________________________________ *Pioneer coverage of the arrest* *Maoist, lawyer arrested in Jajpur* *Pioneer News Service | Jajpur/Jagatsinghpur* After the arrest of two top-rung Maoist leaders in Jagatsinghpur district, in a major breakthrough, the Jajpur police managed to arrest *two hardcore Maoists* near Krushnadaspur under Balichandrapur police station about 65 km from here, on Tuesday night. District Superintendent of Police DS Kutty, acting fast on the information received from sources, blocked the roads on Express Highway No-200 near Krushnadapur and arrested three persons including *a foreign national* and a woman. Speaking to The Pioneer, District Superintendent of Police DS Kutty said "One *Pratima Das alias Rakhi, an advocate of the Orissa High Court*, who is *suspected to be a supporter of the CPI (ML) was arrested* on Tuesday night and was handed over to the Jagatsingpur police, as there were several cases pending against her. The US national David Augh (60) was left free as he was here on a tourist visa and was a researcher, who was moving around the places where displacement is taking place. The car driver Devi Mishra who belongs to Bhubaneswar has been detained on certain charges and further interrogation is on in the matter." The suspected Maoists were travelling by an Indica car bearing No-OR-02-AC-7383, from Kalinga Nagar and were moving in the direction of Paradip on Express Highway No-200. When the police tried to intercept their vehicle they tried to flee from the place. SP Kutty directed the Barchana, Balichandrapur and Dharmasala police to block the road to nab the fleeing * militants*. On Wednesday morning the suspected Maoists were taken to a secret place for interrogation. It is believed that those arrested in this incident were working under a Maoist run NGO and were visiting Kalinga Nagar, a strong citadel for them. The militants underground network and their growth in these areas was badly affected following the arrest of hardcore Maoist leader and chief of CPI (ML) Janashakti Anna Reddy and his concubine and women's wing leader of the organisation Rani Jamuda in January, 2008. In order to activate the movement in the locality again and to spread the Red message these suspected Maoists were believed to be working in the Kalinga Nagar and Sukinda hills. Kutty said, "Interrogation is on, and we are ascertaining these people's identity and activities." Sources said that these suspected Maoists were staying in Kalinga Nagar since the last two days and the local police was watching their activities very closely. However it may be recalled during the arrest of Anna and Nanika, the SP assured everyone that he would wipe out the Maoists menace in the district. Moving one step ahead in this regard he also proved his words by cracking down on the militants and by arresting them at regular intervals. It is interesting to note that the Maoists activities have drastically come down in the district following the arrest of Anna and Rani who are presently in Choudwar jail. Regular monitoring by the cops in Kalinga Nagar region and a vigilant Kalinga Nagar Inspector-in-Charge KC Mund have a total grip on the Red Brigade and its activities. Sometimes by adopting combing operations and also by using his intellect the young Inspector In Charge is having the situation under complete control. The recent developments in Kalinga Nagar have shown a new path, opening for a dialogue between the oustees and the Government. However when there was the pressure from the insurgents these innocent people were not being able to run their regular and normal life. Meanwhile Jagatsinghpur Superintendent of Police RK Sharma said the alleged had been identified as a legal professional Pratima Das of Pradhansahi in Chowdwar and Devendra Das hailing from Kanjiakana village under Erasama after interrogation. The police have sent them to judicial custody. Police sources said out of the three held in Kalinganagar, two were identified as working in Jagatsinghpur district for which the special squad and Crime Branch cops had sent them to Jagatsinghpur on Wednesday morning for interrogations that was conducted in the police headquarters and both were involved in Maoist operations. They were later presented in the SDJM court and forwarded to judicial custody.
