much of mahasweta devis writings are inspired by the tribals of bengal and bihar her work offers valuable documentation of these marginalized communities the 84yearold writer who has won many awards including the magsaysay and the jnanpith is wellknown for her strong opposition to the governments antimaoist operations she tells jayanta gupta that she doesnt know the maoists but that as a writer with a social conscience she is willing to mediate on the peoples behalf what went wrong in rural bengal in order for outfits like the maoists to gain a footholdafter what happened in the 70s we welcomed the left front government in 1977 we expected them to deliver but they have not even done the bare minimum for the people even after so many years a major part of rural bengal does not have access to electricity or good roads it only got worse and buddhadeb bhattacharjee was the last straw projects like the icds and right to food were complete failuresadd to this the statesponsored violence there can be nothing more cruel that what took place in nandigram the victims told me how men who used to call them didi elder sister boudi elder sisterinlaw and masi aunt took liberties at the behest of a certain political party the police refused to register firs leave alone arrest the criminalsin west midnapore it was not only the tribals who were victims of torture everybody who is below the poverty line bpl has suffered including muslims and backward classes the government handed over land in salboni to the jindal group and received crores how much of this was utilized for local development there is a big scam in west bengal regarding the distribution of ration cards bpl families receive above poverty line cards while affluent ones hold bpl ones after all this does the government expect people to support themyou have seen the tebhaga and naxal movements of the 70s the present violence seems unending whythat is for the state and central governments to answer crpf should never have been sent here it is one thing to restore law and order and curb violence how does one explain incidents like the one in which security forces defecated in wells in lalgarh where there is a severe drinking water crisis the present round of violence started after the government turned down a small request from the locals after the police entered villages and tortured women the tribals asked senior officers to apologize but would the buddhadeb bhattacharjee government stoop so low as to apologize to women who have been wronged peoples committee against police atrocities leader lalmohan tudu was murdered by crpf in cold blood those who were present said that he was shot four times along the spine the government refused to hand over his body it is time for the congressled government at the centre to go home minister p chidambaram sent crpf to torture peopleyouwere labelled as someone who aided maoists how do you react