Indian Express , however, published an apology for carrying such stories without much basis either in real events or the reports sent by DM and SP of Latehar (see here , point 13). It is known to all that most of these cases were lodged by the vested interests involved in fudging NREGA funds.
Why was Niyamat Ansari Killed? : The Politics of NREGA and the Maoists - NewsClick
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Most of the facts listed above are available in media and the vicious propaganda against Niyamat and others has been effectively countered by now. This note attempts to ask the more fundamental question about NREGA, civil society and the Maoists by going deeper into the problem of acute violence over NREGA in states like Jharkhand. We propose, here, that the brutal murder of Niyamant Ansari constitutes a wake-up call for the progressive sections of Indian society towards at least two widespread tendencies among certain intellectuals and media. The first tendency concerns the dominant perception of NREGA in the liberal media as a “destabilising scheme” which orients fiscal policy and rural labour market towards disequilibrium. At the same time, “the discourse of NREGA-II has a disproportionate tilt towards tackling issues of migration, demand generation (through professional NGOs), high-value asset creation and skill generation so that one inexpensive act could compensate for historical injustices, agrarian crisis, unemployment, low education, drastically reduced public investment in agriculture and everything else” (see, ‘Musings on MGNREGA-II’ at http://www.pragoti.org/node/3908 for an extensive treatment of the politics behind NREGA-II). The neoliberal discomfort over NREGA cannot be more ironic since, in this version, NREGA merely disturbs the fiscal stance and distorts the labour markets. The neoliberal dilemma has nothing to do with the “fact of universal guaranteed employment” and its radical potential within the agrarian social structure and rural power configurations, even in its most limited avatar. As we have noted earlier about MGNREGA-II, “it is a way to de-emphasise the ‘political’ attributes and objectives of NREGA. It is routine yet profound; innocuous yet deep-reaching and procedural yet political. Hence, the only way to fight it is to expose it” (ibid.).Why was Niyamat Ansari Killed? : The Politics of NREGA and the Maoists - NewsClick
