On Violence, Peace, Justice And Criminals

Repeated power failures have kept me off the internet for two days – and I have yet to catch up. But there seems to be little news from Lalgarh. My newspaper carried a big photo of the Orissa chief minister laying a wreath at the funeral of CRPF men killed by Maoists. What was also mentioned was New Delhi deciding to ban the Maoists, and call them “terrorists.” Note that the CRPF is a force belonging to the central government. Law and order is a subject that belongs with the state government, not the centre. Further down, it belongs to the district administration. It is here that the failure lies – and it is a failure of immense proportions indeed.

Midnapore, where Lalgarh is located, was one of the first districts in Bengal to be administered by the British. They received a revenue-free assignment of Midnapore in 1760, shortly after Plassey, but before Clive’s Diwani. For nearly 200 years thereafter, British district officers in Midnapore and elsewhere roamed their jurisdictions unarmed and unescorted. Something has gone terribly wrong in these last 60 years.

And as for banning the Maoists and labeling them terrorists, the key point to note is that all communist movements aim at a violent overthrow of the regime. They begin with this violence. Only people like us who believe in free markets begin with peace, with voluntarism, with social co-operation, and profit. In other words, Justice.

The central government banning the Maoists and labeling them terrorist should not blind us to the sheer injustices perpetrated by this regime – injustices which give rise to rebellions like the one at Lalgarh. If one side is labeled a criminal, the other side too is based on the misuse of force, something equally criminal.

Reminds me of the Peter Tosh song, where he says, “There will be no peace, till we have equal rights, and justice.” One verse goes:

Everybody’s talking about crime, crime,
Tell me who are the criminals.

Think about that.

This is a “crisis of legitimacy,” nothing less.