Mahendra Karma (5 August 1950 – 25 May 2013) was an Indian political leader belonging to

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

from Chhattisgarh. He was the leader of the opposition in the Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha from 2004 to 2008. In 2005, he played a top role in organising the

Salwa Judum Salwa Judum (meaning "peace march" or "purification hunt" in the Gondi language) was a militia that was mobilised and deployed as part of counterinsurgency operations in Chhattisgarh, India, aimed at countering Naxalite violence in the regio ...

movement against Naxalites, a

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

group in Chhattisgarh. He was a Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Ajit Jogi cabinet since the state formation in 2000 to 2004.Mahendra Karma
He was assassinated by Naxalites on 25 May 2013 in a Maoist attack while returning from a ''Parivartan Rally'' meeting organised by his party in Sukma.

Early life and family

Karma was an ethnic

Adivasi The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term ...

leader from the Bastar region. He was born on 5 August 1950 to Daraboda Karma in the

Dantewada district Dantewada District, also known as Dantewara District or Dakshin Bastar District (South Bastar District), is a district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Dantewada is the district headquarters. The district is part of Bastar Division. Until 1 ...

who was himself a powerful, strong leader in the undivided Bastar region. He received his higher secondary education from Bastar Higher Secondary School, Jagdalpur in 1969 and completed his graduation from Danteshwary College in 1975. His elder brother Lakshman Karma had also been a Member of Parliament. Earlier, Naxalties had killed his brother Podiyaram who was president of the Bhairamgad Janpad Panchayat. They had also killed around 20 of his relatives in the subsequent period. His son Chavindra Karma was also Jila Panchayat Chairman of Dantewada and is in hit list of Maoist and Deepak Karma is currently (as of 2013), Nagar Panchayat president of Dantewada.

Politics

Karma started his political career with the Communist Party of India (CPI). He won the 1980 general elections on the ticket of CPI. Later on he joined the Indian National Congress. He was then elected as the first president of the Zila Panchayat of the undivided Bastar. In 1996 general elections, Karma was elected to the

Loksabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-th ...

as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) on an independent ticket from Bastar. Later on he returned to the Congress. He was elected as a

Member of Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

from Dantewada and was appointed as a Minister of Prisons in the

Digvijaya Singh Digvijaya Singh (born 28 February 1947) is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. He is Ex-General Secretary of the Indian National Congress party's All India Congress Committee. Previously, he had served as the ...

cabinet in the undivided

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. He served as the Minister of Industry and Commerce after Chhattisgarh was carved out from its parent state Madhya Pradesh in the Ajit Jogi cabinet though he was known as a political adversary of Jogi. In 2003, his party Indian National Congress suffered defeat in the legislative assembly elections and he was made the leader of opposition in the state assembly. He used to represent Dantewada constituency. The congress again lost the 2008 assembly elections when

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

swept 10 out of the 11 seats in Bastar. He had secured 158,520 votes (35.19%). In the region, he was known as "Bastar Tiger"-for making a tough stand against the regional

insurgency.

Anti-Naxal movement

Karma was seen as the driving force behind anti-Naxal movements in the Chhattisgarh. In 1991, he had started ''Jan Jagran Abhiyan'' which was composed mostly of traders and businessmen. The movement collapsed after sometime. Because of his role against Maoists, Karma was a high-value target. Owing to the threat perception to his life by the Maoists, he was given Z+ security for his protection.

Death

On 25 May 2013, Karma was killed in the Maoist attack in Darbha along with several other party leaders including

Nand Kumar Patel Nand Kumar Patel (8 November 1953 – 25 May 2013) was an Indian National Congress politician from the province of Chhattisgarh. He was elected to the Kharsia Assembly Constituency five times in a row (1990, 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008). He was a ...

when they were returning from a political rally. On 27 May, the Naxalites claimed responsibility for the attack by issuing a statement which called the attack "the punishment for Salwa Judum founder Mahendra Karma for the atrocities done by the Salwa Judum-Nand Kumar Patel was suppressing people. It was in his tenure in the Center when paramilitary forces were deployed in the Bastar area." The newly elected INC government of Chhattisgarh has set up an SIT under Vivekanand Sinha to probe into the incident on January 2, 2019.

References

External links