Maoists can be quelled only by full blown war
The national outrage and concern kicked up by the well-engineered massacre of 76 CRPF men by Maoists last week is already dying down even as Home Minister P C Chidambaram has taken full responsibility for the incident and offered to resign. Taking full responsibility is rare in Indian Government and in that context PC’s move is refreshing — but the full-blown Maoist menace that stares our battered nation needs much more than mere verbal refreshments and the way it has been growing over the last decade we are seemingly in a situation which will take generations to abate, if at all, it abates.
The statistics that have flooded newspapers in the wake of the ghastly massacre in Chhattisgarh are enough to run a chill down the spine of even the most unbothered person. None less than a Home Ministry assessment says as many as 223 districts across 20 States in the country are Maoist-hit which is up from just 55 districts in 2003! Not just that, in this decade when the Government was dealing with Naxalism as lackadaisically as it has with, say, poverty and public health, the Maoists not only grew in number, influence and organization but also in daring, money and network. If it is true that Maoists raise around Rs 20 billion annually to fund their operations through extortions, kidnappings and loot, and the Home Minister insists that all such nefarious fund-raisers are only domestic with no source of foreign income, then it is a failure much bigger than being projected.
Though there is a cacophony of opinion on how to deal with this menace — which by all accounts has outnumbered even J&K terrorism incidents and killings on an annual basis — there is near unanimity on one front — that the Maoist itch has grown into a full blown inland terror network only because successive Governments have preferred to look the other way.
Opinion also is that the need of the hour is a co-ordinated and cohesive strategy which involves everything from a State-Centre team-up, sharing of Intelligence, taking the menace more seriously than it is being taken as of now, proper training for the men involved in these operations, adequate funding and a three-pronged offensive — political, developmental and negotiated.
Not really. The first and foremost need is for the Government to generate some coherence in its anti-Maoist strategy. Second, and more importantly, it needs a sustained and very stiff political will to deal with this menace which is eulogized by many within the system as a “people’s war.” Chidambaram’s words of outrage over the recent slaying and the Government’s public mutterings are only appeasement quickies meant to last till public anger dies down. The Maoists feed on such temps in official strategy. The growing Red corridor is just one indication of this. The increased number of killings, arms loot and ambushes is the other. As compared to 156 killings in 1996, 1,134 were put to death by Maoists in 2009, which by any standards is a huge jump in casualty, especially when one views it in the context of the more publicized J&K terror statistics – 133 people killed by militants in J&K in 2009. Now compare this with the 2010 figure till March 29 which puts Maoists killings at 132 as opposed to only 30 by J&K militants and you will know how difficult the terrain is.
The worst part of this issue is that a sizeable population of intellectuals that has the power to derail Government will supports this so-called people’s war. Even Chief Ministers like Shibu Soren and Nitish Kumar have spoken for the Maoists, urging the Government to drop the hit-them strategy for a healing touch. This may have been okay to consider a decade back but today’s Naxalite is no longer just a victim of the State up in arms but a well-oiled spare part in a nefarious design to destabilize the Indian democracy. True, the roots of this menace lie in full-scale victimisation of the common man by the administration but as the situation stands today, there is an urgent need to first cut the branches and then get to the root of the problem. This basically means that a full-scale war against these armed men needs to be launched at the Central level with ears and eyes closed to murmurs of opposition.
As KPS Gill has always advocated, and it seems to stand to logic, there can be no negotiation with men up against the nation, men with arms, men with blood on their hands. But to be so cold-blooded in public perception, the Government would need a massive overhaul of its own mindset and go into the battle with no niggling doubts. But do such things happen in the Indian democracy where saving your seat of power and money is the foremost priority? Not at all.
A classic example of the Government not having the will to do things is the case of sandalwood smuggling king Veerappan. Crores were spent and hundreds of our cops and securitymen killed in tracking him down for over more than four decades. If the entire might of the Indian Government did not have what it takes to track down one criminal in one stretch of a forest, do you think it has any muscle to end a full blown Maoist network currently overwhelming 20 States of the Indian Union?
Only honesty of intention and hardcore political will can clean up the mess now. That, and sensitivity for our security personnel, would be the first welcome steps. About time we stop using our ill-trained, ill-equipped para-forces as prey to Maoists. Call in the Army, even if it is overburdened with J&K and the North-East.
Published in Sunday Pioneer on April 11, 2010 http://www.dailypioneer.com/248228/Maoists-can-be-quelled-only-by-full-blown-war.html
The statistics that have flooded newspapers in the wake of the ghastly massacre in Chhattisgarh are enough to run a chill down the spine of even the most unbothered person. None less than a Home Ministry assessment says as many as 223 districts across 20 States in the country are Maoist-hit which is up from just 55 districts in 2003! Not just that, in this decade when the Government was dealing with Naxalism as lackadaisically as it has with, say, poverty and public health, the Maoists not only grew in number, influence and organization but also in daring, money and network. If it is true that Maoists raise around Rs 20 billion annually to fund their operations through extortions, kidnappings and loot, and the Home Minister insists that all such nefarious fund-raisers are only domestic with no source of foreign income, then it is a failure much bigger than being projected.
Though there is a cacophony of opinion on how to deal with this menace — which by all accounts has outnumbered even J&K terrorism incidents and killings on an annual basis — there is near unanimity on one front — that the Maoist itch has grown into a full blown inland terror network only because successive Governments have preferred to look the other way.
Opinion also is that the need of the hour is a co-ordinated and cohesive strategy which involves everything from a State-Centre team-up, sharing of Intelligence, taking the menace more seriously than it is being taken as of now, proper training for the men involved in these operations, adequate funding and a three-pronged offensive — political, developmental and negotiated.
Not really. The first and foremost need is for the Government to generate some coherence in its anti-Maoist strategy. Second, and more importantly, it needs a sustained and very stiff political will to deal with this menace which is eulogized by many within the system as a “people’s war.” Chidambaram’s words of outrage over the recent slaying and the Government’s public mutterings are only appeasement quickies meant to last till public anger dies down. The Maoists feed on such temps in official strategy. The growing Red corridor is just one indication of this. The increased number of killings, arms loot and ambushes is the other. As compared to 156 killings in 1996, 1,134 were put to death by Maoists in 2009, which by any standards is a huge jump in casualty, especially when one views it in the context of the more publicized J&K terror statistics – 133 people killed by militants in J&K in 2009. Now compare this with the 2010 figure till March 29 which puts Maoists killings at 132 as opposed to only 30 by J&K militants and you will know how difficult the terrain is.
The worst part of this issue is that a sizeable population of intellectuals that has the power to derail Government will supports this so-called people’s war. Even Chief Ministers like Shibu Soren and Nitish Kumar have spoken for the Maoists, urging the Government to drop the hit-them strategy for a healing touch. This may have been okay to consider a decade back but today’s Naxalite is no longer just a victim of the State up in arms but a well-oiled spare part in a nefarious design to destabilize the Indian democracy. True, the roots of this menace lie in full-scale victimisation of the common man by the administration but as the situation stands today, there is an urgent need to first cut the branches and then get to the root of the problem. This basically means that a full-scale war against these armed men needs to be launched at the Central level with ears and eyes closed to murmurs of opposition.
As KPS Gill has always advocated, and it seems to stand to logic, there can be no negotiation with men up against the nation, men with arms, men with blood on their hands. But to be so cold-blooded in public perception, the Government would need a massive overhaul of its own mindset and go into the battle with no niggling doubts. But do such things happen in the Indian democracy where saving your seat of power and money is the foremost priority? Not at all.
A classic example of the Government not having the will to do things is the case of sandalwood smuggling king Veerappan. Crores were spent and hundreds of our cops and securitymen killed in tracking him down for over more than four decades. If the entire might of the Indian Government did not have what it takes to track down one criminal in one stretch of a forest, do you think it has any muscle to end a full blown Maoist network currently overwhelming 20 States of the Indian Union?
Only honesty of intention and hardcore political will can clean up the mess now. That, and sensitivity for our security personnel, would be the first welcome steps. About time we stop using our ill-trained, ill-equipped para-forces as prey to Maoists. Call in the Army, even if it is overburdened with J&K and the North-East.
Published in Sunday Pioneer on April 11, 2010 http://www.dailypioneer.com/248228/Maoists-can-be-quelled-only-by-full-blown-war.html
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