Maoist Violence Victims Write Against Opposition Support To Veep Candidate BS Reddy

Some victims of Maoism in Chhattisgarh have written to MPs of the Congress and other opposition parties against their support to former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy in the vice presidential election, alleging that the verdict of the bench, which had included him, to disband Salwa Judum revived the Maoist violence.

Their letters to several MPs have come amid a sharp attack by the BJP, including Home Minister Amit Shah, on Reddy, the joint opposition candidate against the ruling NDA's C P Radhakrishnan for the September 9 poll. Shah has accused him of "supporting Naxalism" through his 2011 verdict.

In his letter, Siyaram Ramteke (56) said he was a deputy sarpanch in Chargaon in Kanker and was shot multiple times by Maoists as they stepped up their violence after the apex court verdict disbanding Salwa Judum, a militia of the tribal population which worked with police against the ultras.

"They left me for dead. I continue to live the life of a physically-disabled person," he said, adding that thousands of people like him believe that if Salwa Judum had not been disbanded, Maoism would have ended long ago.

Maoists killed those associated with Salwa Judum in large numbers as the civilians associated with the movement returned to their homes after the organisation dissolved.

He appealed to opposition MPs not to vote for a candidate whose verdict exposed them to the raging violence.

Reddy, along with Justice SS Nijjar, was part of an apex court bench that had in July 2011 ordered the disbanding of Salwa Judum, ruling that using tribal youths as Special Police Officers in the fight against Maoists was illegal and unconstitutional.

In another letter, a man identified as Ashok Gandami said he is an uncle and guardian of a girl who lost a foot in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast and was orphaned when her father was killed by Maoists following the Salwa Judum verdict.

This all happened because of the verdict of Justice Reddy (retd), he alleged, adding that the judgment came when the Left-wing violence was on the verge of defeat and was delivered on the plea of "Naxal sympathisers" without taking into account the suffering of the tribal population.

The movement was a security shield for the tribal population against the Maoists, who destroyed schools, roads and power stations and killed and injured thousands of people, he said.

Those who spoke for setting up schools and hospitals were executed, he said, blaming Reddy's verdict. Gandami also appealed to opposition MPs to reconsider their support to him. "Is the Congress opposed to peace in Bastar," he said in the letter.

Speaking in Kerala on Friday, Shah had said, "Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgment had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020. He is the person who was inspired by the ideology that gave Salwa Judam judgment." Reddy, on Saturday, said he did not wish to join issues with the home minister, asserting that the verdict was not his but that of the Supreme Court. He also said that Shah would not have made the remarks had he read the complete judgment.

A group of 18 former judges, including those from the Supreme Court, come out in Reddy's support, saying the judgment nowhere supports, either expressly or by compelling implication of its text, Maoism or its ideology.

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