The Adivasi Sangharsh Morcha (ASM) held protests across multiple states on April 21 against the brutalities being carried out under “Operation Kagar”, condemning the targeted violence against Adivasis and the growing militarisation of their homelands. Demonstrations took place in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, and West Bengal, while in Chhattisgarh, memorandums were submitted to the District Collector in Durg and the Tahsildar in Karora.
The Morcha has raised alarm over the use of advanced warfare equipment, including Israeli drones, and the increasing frequency of fake encounters and extra-judicial killings in Adivasi regions, particularly in Bastar. These developments come in the wake of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s declaration to make India “Maoist-free” by March 2026—an announcement that has been widely criticised as a licence for unrestrained military operations in Adivasi areas.
The Adivasi Sangharsh Morcha has warned that there is no space left for democratic dissent. The large-scale deployment of security camps without the consent of Gram Sabhas in Fifth Schedule Areas, in violation of constitutional protections, represents a systematic assault on Adivasi autonomy. Instead of development, the state is offering militarisation, while people continue to demand basic facilities such as schools, health centres and access to essential services.
In October 2024, the Chhattisgarh government took the draconian step of banning the Moolvasi Bachao Manch, a people's rights organisation, under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act. More recently, the Chhattisgarh’s police has targeted Manish Kunjam, prominent Adivasi leader in the Bastar region, who has been at the forefront of the struggle seeking investigation into the irregularities of distribution of tendu patta bonus amounting to crores of rupees.
Under the guise of ‘Naxal-mukt Bharat’, the BJP-led government has launched an all-out war against the Adivasi people. The so-called counter-insurgency campaign, in reality, serves as a front for facilitating corporate exploitation of the mineral-rich Adivasi belt, particularly Bastar. Reports of plans to convert military camps into “integrated development centres” have been met with scepticism by locals and rights groups, who view this as a thinly-veiled attempt to legitimise a permanent military presence in the area.
As part of the coordinated protests, the Adivasi Sangharsh Morcha submitted memorandums addressed to the President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu, highlighting the collective punishment being meted out to Adivasis in the name of national security. The memorandums condemn the brutality of Operation Kagar, which seeks to dispossess Adivasis of their land, forests, and dignity.
The Morcha has called upon President Murmu to immediately intervene to halt this war of extermination and ensure democratic space and constitutional rights for Adivasis in Bastar and beyond. It also demands a full stop to the practice of awarding bounty money that incentivises killings over arrests in these so-called encounters. The targeting of Adivasi protestors, under the pretext of combating Maoism, is nothing short of a subversion of constitutional rule of law.
The President is urged to stand with the Adivasis in their struggle against corporate plunder and state violence, and to ensure the release of all human rights activists, people's movement leaders and innocent Adivasis who have been falsely incarcerated in politically motivated cases.
The Adivasi Sangharsh Morcha’s nationwide mobilisation marks a sharp rebuke to the state’s war-driven policies at the behest of corporates in the heartlands of India.
