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ELECTIONS '96

To vote or not to vote? Tribals in AP's Naxalite-affected districts debate the risks

Tribals in the Manala village, which has more than 2,600 voters and is located deep in the forests of the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, shudder at the sight of a stranger.

The tribals, caught in the crossfire of the dreaded People's War Group and the police, are under intense pressure. The Naxalites have issued a diktat to boycott the election, while the police visit the villagers to "educate them on the power of the vote". With three polling stations, located in the village, the one thing uppermost in the mind of the tribals is that polling on February 22 should pass off without incidents.

About 408 other villages in this Naxalite-prone district, comprising an electorate of 400,000, share the same wish as Manala, villages where politicians fear to tread. With 280 of the villages termed "hypersensitive", the police in the district are stretching all their resources to protect the villagers right to vote.

Nizamabad district Superintendent of Police C V Anand says, "All our efforts are only to counter the PWG." Sharpshooters have been posted in the villages to protect the ballot boxes and they would shoot-to-kill anyone attempting to disrupt the polling process.

PWG district committee secretary, Markandaya alias Anjaiah, holds a different view. He says the PWG never objected to politicians campaigning in villages. It was the people who were disgusted with the false promises of the political representatives and who were opposing the poll, questioning the prosperity of these leaders, he adds.

Anjaiah points out that election campaigning has been virtually absent as the leaders could not face the "enlightened villagers who saw no development in their areas."

PWG posters and graffiti are found all over the villages exhorting the people to stay away from the 'fraudulent elections'. The wall writings in crimson denounce 'fake encounters' and warns that 'Revolution cannot be stopped by pushing guns'.

The police too have joined the poster war, putting up multicoloured posters to impress upon the villagers that 'Democracy stands for progress'. The poster shows picture of the Nizamasagar dam and another photo of a burning bus with the caption, 'Extremism stands for destruction'.

"We have only brought out this one poster," says Anand, defending the release of the publicity material by Prajavani (Voice of the People), a social organisation of the police.

The PWG, according to Anand, has adopted a different strategy than the one it had in 1991 and 1996. At that time, the Naxalites had threatened the villagers that it would "chop off their hands" if they participated in voting. "But they have failed to convince the people as in the earlier elections also, voting in the Naxalite-prone hills was higher than in the plains," adds Anand.

Dispensing with the threat of physical decapitation, the Naxalites have resorted to pasting posters, placing effigies with a warning that these contained explosives, and putting cement pipes across the entrance of polling booths.

The police are also combating the Naxalites through cultural activities under the banner of the Kala Jagruti Vrindam (Cultural Renaissance Troupe). It has staged about 60 performances in seven segments of the constituency, including the hotbed of Naxalite activity in the Kamareddy and Yellareddy segments of Medak constituency. "The response has been satisfactory and with police durbars to educate the villagers, we have built up their confidence," says the police officer.

Anand says ten additional companies of armed constabulary had joined the police forces in the district to oversee the poll particularly in the Naxalite-affected areas. They had worked out a plan of action to ensure the safety of the ballot boxes.

Backed by elite 'Greyhounds' special units and other anti-Naxalite wings, the district police plan to position static and mobile parties in the vicinity of these villagers. The mobile parties would also move about in two-wheelers.

Villagers and other sources, however, said the police action plan was to use the "militants to keep the PWG from attacking the ballot boxes and poll personnel after the voting."

Police have already taken into custody about 2,000 militants and sympathisers along with anti-social elements under the Election Commission directives.

After polling ends at 1700 hours on Sunday, the sympathisers and militants will be made to ride atop the official vehicles transporting the boxes from the polling stations to the counting centres. "It will be virtually a human shield against the PWG." The police have used this ingenious method since the 1991 Lok Sabha election.

The PWG modus operandi has been to attack poll personnel on their return after completion of polling, taking advantage of the darkness and the terrain. But with the sympathisers riding the vehicles, it was an insurance for safe passage as these persons formed the crucial links for the PWG's logistics, both for supply and subsidiary intelligence.

"We have been able to contain the post-poll attacks successfully since the 1991 Lok Sabha poll, especially during the 1994 assembly polls and 1996 Lok Sabha poll," police sources said.

"We are taking no chances against them," the police chief said, suggesting that 24 of the 36 mandals (subdistricts) of the district, spread over two Lok Sabha constituencies, were extremist-affected."

"The PWG appear to be convinced that they cannot stop people from voting," Anand adds.

The police have even attempted to whitewash the 'red slogans' in Jagiral village of Bheemgal mandal as a confidence-building exercise besides playing audio cassettes in favour of voting.

But the PWG has also stepped up their campaign. Banners were tied on to state-owned buses operating between Bheemgal and Nizambad calling for boycotting the poll. The drivers of the buses have refused to remove the banners fearing for their lives if they did.

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