Social activism

     During his visit to India, President Obama had initially planned to visit Golden Temple. But the plan was shelved because he had to wear a headgear to enter the sanctum sanctorum, and that would have made Americans confuse him for a Muslim. And that would have been disastrous for his electoral prospects. This points to a lobby hell bent to prove that Obama is a Muslim and hence sympathetic to terrorists. And this has been going on since his campaign days. Also, his supporters have had to waste a substantial portion of their time defending Obama and refuting such rumours. In fact, it is laughable that the President of America has to keep defending himself against allegations that he is a terrorist-sympathiser.
The situation in India is similar. Here, social activists are victims of character assassination by certain lobbies. Human rights activists have to keep on convincing people that they are neither Naxals nor are they supporters of Naxals.  However, people who are part of the government machinery as well as elected representatives who mislead people keep on harping this tune. They claim that every activist who fights for the rights of the downtrodden is a Maoist sympathiser. The agenda is to isolate such pro-people activists so that the establishment can carry on with its nefarious designs without any hurdles. 
At times the situation becomes funny. These people in their zeal brand every activist, including Gandhians and followers of Jayaprakash Narain as Maoists. For people who are part of the government machinery or have been co-opted by the state, there is no fundamental difference between Mao-Marx and Gandhi-Vinoba. Whosoever stands with the poor and destitute is  branded as Naxals. It is the easiest way to push them out of their way. These days, several of the activists and journalists are being regularly harassed by the administration. The ones who have refused to bow down have been put behind bars. Several ashrams and buildings have been demolished.
When I started working in Chhattisgarh in the 1980s, the administration called me a closet Christian straight from Rome whose only interest is to convert Hindus to Christianity. A section of the media as always jumped to the conclusion without verifying. I understand that these people were not against religion or community; they were basically against my work. I used to train lots of youngsters and used to send them to villages where they raised their voices against oppression, corruption and unequal distribution of resources. It was against the designs of the administration. They wanted status quo. They became really furious when we protested about hooch shops. They were anguished that we demanded just price for the forest byproducts that we used to sell. When your work starts challenging the slave structure, oppression and corruption, these lobbies come into play.
Suddenly, Ekta Parishad, the organisation I work for is being branded a Naxal offshoot. This has been done at the behest of some corrupt officials from the civil administration and forest department. We are wasting time trying to convince the media  that we follow the non-violent ways of Gandhi, Vinoba and Jayaprakash. We work for the fundamental changes on the ground. Last year, a few journalists on the payrolls of the forest department alleged that we are Maoist sympathisers because we go from village to village, organise people and incite them against the state. 
The administration and the companies that exploit natural resources are wary of us and similar organisations. We have protested against them through non-violent means. They simply cannot put us out of favour with people by saying that we are protesting against oppression and loot. Therefore they are linking us with Naxals and subjecting us to character assassination. So when Manmohan Singh said that Naxalism and terrorism are two biggest challenges, these people started misleading people by claiming that we are Naxals. These lobbies create confusion among the masses. Innocent people are unable to see through them.
I have always said that the problem is unequal distribution of resources, transfer of natural resources and the irresponsible behaviour by the capitalists. I have also said that till land is not given to people who actually till them, poverty cannot be eradicated. I have repeatedly called on the PM, CMs and others to sit with non-violent organisations and look for solutions. But they have not responded positively. In fact, instead of looking for non-violent means, the government is responding with recourse to violent means. They are trying to declare organisations like us pro-Naxal. There is a design behind this. The state is trying to take control of people by snatching their rights. This can be explosive. A distinction needs to be made between followers of Mao and the followers of Gandhi, Vinoba, Ambedkar and JP.

The views expressed by the author are personal