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| The hostage swap |
| Friday October 30, 2009 |
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| Much water has flown under the bridge in Lalgarh since the swap of policeman Atindranath Dutta....The Rajdhani was hijacked and released....But Atindrananath Dutta's dramatic release by Maoist leader Kishanji remains a stand-alone experience. October 22, around 3 pm, as the media waited at Jhargram, a small town in West Midnapore district, word came from Kishanji to come for a press conference. The final location was not named. Instead a mid-point where there would be further instructions. We arrived a Gohomidanga village around 3.45 pm where, again, a phone call to one of the reporters said, switch off all mobiles and collect them in one place. We did that, dumped all mobiles into a plastic bag, and were then told to go to village Doumoni. Doumoni was just 15 minutes away by car. A man in a brown shirt and blue trousers took charge of us there, frisked the men, searched the bags of 4 women journalists on the spot and told us to walk. How far? He wouldn't say. One and a half km later, we found ourselves on a huge football field in front of a single storey school building at Bhulagarah village. There were about a hundred villagers milling round. A few who we got talking to were soon told not to. Evening fell, there was a nip in the air. We 60 odd media persons sat on the football field and waited.. Someone came along with black tea in a plastic jug. And biscuits. Suddenly, from one corner of the field, there was a buzz that grew into a hum and loud whispers of "esheche, esheche" ...."he has come, he has come" ....And then a diminutive man comes forward...wielding a torch...that lights up his face. It is Kishanji. About 5 foot 6, he was wearing a light blue shirt, a belt with cartridge cases, camouflage pants and slippers and an Insas rifle across his shoulders. He also wore a cap over which was wrapped a checked gamcha or towel...All you could see is the gleam of his eyes, an aquiline nose and teeth flashing as he smiled. Kishanji, the CPI Maoist Politburo member in charge of operations in eastern India, a man reputed to be a military strategist and advocate of tough tactics to push his cause... He went round shaking hands with media persons, saying "welcome, welcome" to all. Then, the unexpected. As the media scurried to get the best position for the impending press conference, some still cameras went click and flash...and immediately Kishanji's hand shot out and grabbed a still photographers..."I told you not to take pictures, " he shouted. "Why have you taken pictures from the front . You are under arrest." And before we knew what was happening, he marched off with the photographer. That's when I noticed at least 6 other gun-toting Maoists - at least two of them women - hustling other photographers away as well...to a dark corner of the field. We could hear Kishanji berating them. The video camerapersons were also all called away. These were tense moments. Pitch dark, gun-toting men and women milling about and photographers and cameramen gone...The next bit I heard from my cameraperson. Apparently photographers deleted the pictures of Kishanji that they had taken from the front and apologised profusely before they were let off. Kishanji was back with us, smiling again. The press conference began...Kishanji's back was to the camera, his head covered...and he talked...first in Bangla, then English and finally Hindi. He ranted and raved at times, at others, he was brief and pointed and finally confirmed to us that he would indeed be releasing the OC of the Sankrail police station who they had kidnapped on October 20. It was just after 8 pm. The press conference had lasted an hour. I was watching time, wondering when I could get the news of the policeman's release out and uplink footage. But Kishanji was calling the shots and seemed to have everything planned to the last detail. Press conference done, he said, the OC will be with you any moment, please wait. And disappeared. 8.30, almost to the minute...and the OC appeared, escorted by two gun-bearing men with their faces covered...Written on the OC's chest....POW... Questions flew...and Atindranath Dutta answered them all with considerable aplomb. He seemed calm and unshaken and spoke...in Bengali, English and Hindi.... 10 minutes on...Kishanji was orchestrating the show again....He came into the spotlight and ceremonially removed the POW tag from the policeman's chest...and formally pronounced him a free man... And then, more orchestration....Kishanji thrust an elderly woman into the foreground in front of the camera and virtually told us to interview her...apparently her son had been arrested by the police some time back. As cameras turned to the woman ...as well as the reporters...Kishanji melted away into the darkness. I realized that he had just orchestrated a reality TV show and, before we knew it, gone away. As we escorted Atindranath Dutta back to Jhargram, I couldn't quite get the image of Kishanji out of my head. The head covered with the cap and the gamcha, the face barely visible...If he were to show up at my office in ordinary clothes, I don't think I would recognise the man who is holding Lalgarh to ransom in defiance of the might of the state. In pictures: Freed by Naxals, policeman returns home |
Monideepa Banerjie is the NDTV Correspondent from Kolkata.
