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This story was close to my heart. Having grown with naxalite-maoist ideals, I used to rever them. During 1940-1990s Moaists did an phenomenal job in fighting

This story was close to my heart. Having grown with naxalite-maoist ideals, I used to rever them. During 1940-1990s Moaists did an phenomenal job in fighting for oppressed, they were solely responsible for minimum wage enforcement, stopping the exploitation of tribals. They fought off razakars with armed guerilla groups and saved innocent women from getting raped and mutilated. Post 1990s, The land reforms, abolition of feudal landlord system, employment creation actually solved most of the problems the poor were facing. Migration of people to urban areas increased. Thus, The maoists lost their purpose, and started searching for monsters to fight. Post 1990, maoists are bunch of thugs living in forests doing contract killings in their free time. They claim to fight for poor, but they oppose anything that bring out poor tribal people out of their poverty. In the last 10 years there were hunderds of incidents of maoists killing contractors laying roads to remote villages fearing the tribals will be out of their grip. Hence I have zero sympathies for these 'activists' aka hired thugs.

zozbot234 5y ago
> maoists are bunch of thugs living in forests doing contract killings in their free time. They claim to fight for poor, but they oppose anything that bring out poor tribal people out of their poverty. This is a familiar dynamic, seen also with the Shining Path violence in Peru. A very well-regarded book, "The Other Path" was written by a Peruvian economist to refute the common radical narratives and lay down a pathway for development that actually provides wider benefits for the population.
kumarvvr 5y ago
Yup. The naxalites have been reduced to isolated pockets in backward areas of the country, which, for various reasons have remained backward. The reason for their existence is being strained for past few decades. It would not be far fetched to think that they will be out of the minds of the public in another 20 years.
AlexCoventry 5y ago
> Hence I have zero sympathies for these 'activists' aka hired thugs. This is a weird derail, since the point of the posted article is that the evidence implicating the accused in Maoist sympathies was illegally planted.
- random314 5y ago
  This is a fairly standard derailment tactic in the Indian right wing ecosystem. Begin the story be expressing deep familiarity with a situation they barely understand. Pretend to be neutral in the first half. Move on to attack a phantom target in the next half. These are variously Maoists, muslims, "rich" farmers, Sikhs, greta thunberg, forced religious conversions etc. In this particular case pretend that the fabricated evidence linking social workers to Maoists is real and bury the lede in final sentence.
  - TriNetra 5y ago
    The planting of evidence story sounds unconvincing. There hasn't been any reason given who would have planted and for what reason. Some of the people assuming here it as a state sponsored stuff; but there is no such thing mentioned by the defendant. They are just trying to disprove the authenticity of electronic documents found on the computer of the accused. The FIR was lodged by state police on January 8 2018 on behalf of local people complaining about the so called activist because of the violence that took place after provocative speech on 31dec. The case is then taken up by federal agency (NIA) because of the accused people's linkage found with a band militant organization. NIA states that there are sufficient oral evidence in addition to the electronic evidence which this report is trying to disprove (which itself is subject to verification in the court) Read about one of the activists accused here https://www.firstpost.com/india/portrait-of-an-old-man-as-a-martyr-what-left-liberal-media-wont-tell-you-about-stan-swamy-9781821.html https://www.firstpost.com/india/portrait-of-an-old-man-as-a-...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - rualca 5y ago
      > The planting of evidence story sounds unconvincing. There hasn't been any reason given who would have planted and for what reason. What? You honestly believe that trying to incriminate activists by planting fake evidence of assassination plots and associations with maoist groups is unconvincing and not a valid reason? I mean, not so long ago India persecuted an activist who helped Greta Thunberg to the extent of arresting and accusing her of sedition just because the girl helped edit an online document that Greta Thunberg promoted. https://www.reuters.com/article/india-farmers-protests-idUSKBN2AF0HK https://www.reuters.com/article/india-farmers-protests-idUSK... > They are just trying to disprove the authenticity of electronic documents found on the computer of the accused. There was no "trying". They found evidence that emails with malware were targeted at the accused activists, and they found evidence that said malware was used to plant evidence. Also, the "smoking gun" files were sloppily planted. I mean, the article states that incriminating docs were dropped on the windows folder without even having metadata showing they were ever accessed or opened in the computer.
random314 5y ago
This reads like an apologia for state fabricating evidence to jail social workers. Labeling social workers or human rights activists Maoists, naxals, antinationals, planting evidence and jailing them without trial for years is the regime's modus operandi. I take it that you are fine with social workers being imprisoned via fabricated evidence.
- lazyninja987 5y ago
  Ofcourse I dont want innocent peole jailed with fabricated evidence. I have seen 20 years of senseless maoist killings to not blindly trust anyone who calls themselves 'activists'. I have seen enough fake activists who are nothing but political hitmans for hire.
  - dang 5y ago
    It looks like this account has been using HN primarily (actually exclusively) for political and ideological arguments. We ban accounts that do that (regardless of what they're arguing for or against) because it destroys what this site is for, and is explicitly against the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. I've therefore banned this account. Doing this on HN will eventually get your main account banned as well, so please don't do that.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
srijith259 5y ago
What has any of that got to do with the Indian government planting evidence on 'activists'?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- rualca 5y ago
  > What has any of that got to do with the Indian government planting evidence on 'activists'? This. I mean, the article states that the Indian government was found planting evidence regarding assassination plots and forging associations with a maoist group, and suddenly the discussion revolves about maoist groups around the globe? What next? Should we commend the Indian government for it's keen eye to pick fake stories to frame activists with?
- lazyninja987 5y ago
  who said indian government planted it ? What if the defendent created a trail of planting to exonerate his/her self. Do you think faking a digital evidence is hard ?
r00fus 5y ago
This presumes that the persons so implicated were in fact, naxalite-maoists.
- lazyninja987 5y ago
  Well, the entire article presumes the security audit does not have conflict of interest and Everyone here presumes its state planted and activists are falsely imprisioned. This article is nothing but a hit piece trying to capitilize on the death news of one of the 'activist' and trying to create a sympathy wave. I am not presuming anything. I am just giving backstory on what goes on on the ground. Anyone who claims to fight for tribals rights are either maoists or chritian missionaries. One of the so called activist (who died last week) was a Jesuit priest.
justshowpost 5y ago
Yeah, Maoism caused circa 74 millions of deaths at home. Its very hard to believe they are treasuring human rights in any form. We should give India a break and let them fight terrorist incursion before people get hurt.

zozbot234 5y ago

> maoists are bunch of thugs living in forests doing contract killings in their free time. They claim to fight for poor, but they oppose anything that bring out poor tribal people out of their poverty. This is a familiar dynamic, seen also with the Shining Path violence in Peru. A very well-regarded book, "The Other Path" was written by a Peruvian economist to refute the common radical narratives and lay down a pathway for development that actually provides wider benefits for the population.

kumarvvr 5y ago

Yup. The naxalites have been reduced to isolated pockets in backward areas of the country, which, for various reasons have remained backward. The reason for their existence is being strained for past few decades. It would not be far fetched to think that they will be out of the minds of the public in another 20 years.

AlexCoventry 5y ago

> Hence I have zero sympathies for these 'activists' aka hired thugs. This is a weird derail, since the point of the posted article is that the evidence implicating the accused in Maoist sympathies was illegally planted.

random314 5y ago
This is a fairly standard derailment tactic in the Indian right wing ecosystem. Begin the story be expressing deep familiarity with a situation they barely understand. Pretend to be neutral in the first half. Move on to attack a phantom target in the next half. These are variously Maoists, muslims, "rich" farmers, Sikhs, greta thunberg, forced religious conversions etc. In this particular case pretend that the fabricated evidence linking social workers to Maoists is real and bury the lede in final sentence.
- TriNetra 5y ago
  The planting of evidence story sounds unconvincing. There hasn't been any reason given who would have planted and for what reason. Some of the people assuming here it as a state sponsored stuff; but there is no such thing mentioned by the defendant. They are just trying to disprove the authenticity of electronic documents found on the computer of the accused. The FIR was lodged by state police on January 8 2018 on behalf of local people complaining about the so called activist because of the violence that took place after provocative speech on 31dec. The case is then taken up by federal agency (NIA) because of the accused people's linkage found with a band militant organization. NIA states that there are sufficient oral evidence in addition to the electronic evidence which this report is trying to disprove (which itself is subject to verification in the court) Read about one of the activists accused here https://www.firstpost.com/india/portrait-of-an-old-man-as-a-martyr-what-left-liberal-media-wont-tell-you-about-stan-swamy-9781821.html https://www.firstpost.com/india/portrait-of-an-old-man-as-a-...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - rualca 5y ago
    > The planting of evidence story sounds unconvincing. There hasn't been any reason given who would have planted and for what reason. What? You honestly believe that trying to incriminate activists by planting fake evidence of assassination plots and associations with maoist groups is unconvincing and not a valid reason? I mean, not so long ago India persecuted an activist who helped Greta Thunberg to the extent of arresting and accusing her of sedition just because the girl helped edit an online document that Greta Thunberg promoted. https://www.reuters.com/article/india-farmers-protests-idUSKBN2AF0HK https://www.reuters.com/article/india-farmers-protests-idUSK... > They are just trying to disprove the authenticity of electronic documents found on the computer of the accused. There was no "trying". They found evidence that emails with malware were targeted at the accused activists, and they found evidence that said malware was used to plant evidence. Also, the "smoking gun" files were sloppily planted. I mean, the article states that incriminating docs were dropped on the windows folder without even having metadata showing they were ever accessed or opened in the computer.

random314 5y ago

This reads like an apologia for state fabricating evidence to jail social workers. Labeling social workers or human rights activists Maoists, naxals, antinationals, planting evidence and jailing them without trial for years is the regime's modus operandi. I take it that you are fine with social workers being imprisoned via fabricated evidence.

lazyninja987 5y ago
Ofcourse I dont want innocent peole jailed with fabricated evidence. I have seen 20 years of senseless maoist killings to not blindly trust anyone who calls themselves 'activists'. I have seen enough fake activists who are nothing but political hitmans for hire.
- dang 5y ago
  It looks like this account has been using HN primarily (actually exclusively) for political and ideological arguments. We ban accounts that do that (regardless of what they're arguing for or against) because it destroys what this site is for, and is explicitly against the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. I've therefore banned this account. Doing this on HN will eventually get your main account banned as well, so please don't do that.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

srijith259 5y ago

What has any of that got to do with the Indian government planting evidence on 'activists'?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
rualca 5y ago
> What has any of that got to do with the Indian government planting evidence on 'activists'? This. I mean, the article states that the Indian government was found planting evidence regarding assassination plots and forging associations with a maoist group, and suddenly the discussion revolves about maoist groups around the globe? What next? Should we commend the Indian government for it's keen eye to pick fake stories to frame activists with?
lazyninja987 5y ago
who said indian government planted it ? What if the defendent created a trail of planting to exonerate his/her self. Do you think faking a digital evidence is hard ?

r00fus 5y ago

This presumes that the persons so implicated were in fact, naxalite-maoists.

lazyninja987 5y ago
Well, the entire article presumes the security audit does not have conflict of interest and Everyone here presumes its state planted and activists are falsely imprisioned. This article is nothing but a hit piece trying to capitilize on the death news of one of the 'activist' and trying to create a sympathy wave. I am not presuming anything. I am just giving backstory on what goes on on the ground. Anyone who claims to fight for tribals rights are either maoists or chritian missionaries. One of the so called activist (who died last week) was a Jesuit priest.

justshowpost 5y ago

Yeah, Maoism caused circa 74 millions of deaths at home. Its very hard to believe they are treasuring human rights in any form. We should give India a break and let them fight terrorist incursion before people get hurt.