The communal violence that took place in Orissa was part of a new phenomenon that started in the 1990s, keeping pace with liberalisation privatisation and globalisation. The link between communal violence and corporatisation must be analysed, said Dhirendra Panda, Coordinator, National Solidarity Forum and National Tribunal in New Delhi on Kandhamal.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Mr.Panda said that the forum, a platform for social activists, media persons, researchers, legal experts and like-minded individuals, had planned to organise a national tribunal on Kandhamal violence in New Delhi on August 22, 23 and 24.
In the Eastern Ghats region, dubbed as the ‘red corridor,' the victims of both communal violence and corporate violence were the same — it was the Dalits, tribals and other socially and economically marginalised sections of people.
Recent studies had highlighted another interesting fact: the ‘red corridor' was a political stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 60 per cent of the seats in the corridor were won by it.
Mr. Panda alleged that all those places were rich in mineral resources and had good forest cover. Big corporates had entered these places and started robbing the livelihood resources of the poor.
“It is a strange set of connections that is functioning in Orissa to alienate the marginalised.”
The attacks against the tribals and Dalits in Kandhamal by the Hindutva forces were planned and even after two years there was a sense of unrest in the district. People's Union for Civil Liberties, Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee and advocate Asma Jahangir of United Nations visited the district and stated that the situation there was not normal.
Stating that there was a total failure on the part of administration to check violence and take up rehabilitation efforts during the post-violence period, he said that large-scale migration had taken place in the district.
Eminent personalities such as Justice J.S. Verma, Urvashi Butalia, Vishnu Bhagawat, Harsh Mander and Seema Musthafa would participate in the public hearing. People's Watch, a non-governmental organisation based in Madurai, would present a report on the “Role of national human rights institutions during the violence in Kandhamal,” he said.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/
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