himanshu kumar a gandhian

Can Anyone Save This Tribal Girl? - The Persecution of Soni Sori

By Himanshu Kumar

10 January, 2011
Sanhati.com

Translated by Amrita Hazra and Sudipto Muhuri, Sanhati.

A few days back, I wrote an article (scroll down - Ed.) about the difficult situation faced by Soni Sori, an adivasi girl from the district of Dantewada. In that article I had discussed how the SSP of Dantewada, Kalluri was harassing and threatening her so that she would bring back her nephew, Linga Kodopi from Delhi and hand him over to the police. At first he threatened her that if she refused to act as told, then the police would destroy her life. Later on, acting on that threat, he put this girl’s husband behind bars, he confiscated their jeep and slapped two cases against her, alleging that she was involved with the Naxalites in attacking the police station and that she was also responsible for attacking the house of a Congress Party leader in the region. An arrest warrant was also issued against her. After all these incidents, the girl approached me for help.

However it seems that there is no one in this country who can challenge the power and authority of SSP Kalluri in this matter. That is why I could not be of any help to her, although I met politicians, activists and people in the media. All of them expressed their inability to help this woman. Finally I wrote an article hoping that someone would be able to do something about the plight of this woman and save her life from getting destroyed. I was under the impression that in this big and great nation there must be someone who would be able to help.

After the life sentence was pronounced on Binayak Sen, one gets to watch many a bold personalities on TV, talking big and praising the judiciary, the government and democracy. They are successfully convincing us that we should desist from questioning the legal system because such criticism weakens the nation. So for the sake of strengthening this nation, I accepted all their views, started doubting my own thoughts and even started having some kind of faith in the system prevailing in this country.

But all this faith in the system came crashing down on me yesterday when again I received a phone call from the same adivasi girl. This time she told me that SSP Kalluri has trapped her in two new cases, involving the Naxalites. He has even submitted a memorandum in the court for prosecuting her. The girl was crying and telling me- “I go everyday to teach in school, where my attendance is recorded, I go to meet my husband where again I sign in the jail register and yet SSP Kalluri has declared me to be absconding and is looking to kill me.” On the other side of the line the girl kept on crying even as I listened to her cries, seething with anger, helplessness and anguish.

Millions fought for the freedom of this country, my father fought with them. Did they sacrifice their lives for this? Did Bhagat Singh get martyred for the cause of such a nation?

Someone please tell me what I should do. If I was an adivasi, I would have picked up a gun. But everyone has made me so respectable by repeatedly calling me a Gandhian, that whenever there is an injustice, all I do is write an article on the Internet and feel satisfied that I have served my country. The media-persons have even stopped answering my calls.

Is anyone listening to what I am saying? Hello ? Media, Government, Judiciary? is there anyone listening what the poor, the adivasis have got to say? Is there anyone left to listen? At least try one last time to save this democracy.

Is there anyone who can save this adivasi girl?

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