Last night I was thinking about Naxal movement in India when a news strip caught my eyes. It read "7 CRPF men killed in Bijapur following a Naxal attack".
The prime minister describes Naxalites as "the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country".
What began as the Communist movement in India, is now a menace. Ironically the founders who were responsible for the genesis of this struggle have distanced themselves from the movement and some have even turned to parliamentary democracy for revolutionary activity but their followers continue to distort their ideology with every passing day.
Before we label them as home grown terrorists, we must understand the motivation and the cause of their struggle. Mao said "power flows from the barrel of the gun" and perhaps that's where these self-styled Maoists derive their motivation from. The cause is to prevent themselves from being deprived of their land.
Let us not forget that India is not only growing as a super power in space research, in world economy and in IT sector; but it is also ranked 2nd in the number of malnourished children(after Bangladesh), underweight children are more common in India than in the Sub-Saharan Africa, 4 children of our nation die every minute - and they die of curable diseases like typhoid, measles, pneumonia and malaria.
There are villages where snake bites are common but no medical aid is available. We live in a country where a prime minister once said "for every one rupee we allocate, only 10 paise reaches the common man" (The PM I am referring to is Mr. Rajiv Gandhi). Today the world bank says that only 31% of the allocated money is put to use, the rest ends up in lockers, safe in remote banks. The public distribution system is so bad that several tonnes of grains in Punjab and Haryana are wasted, while there are droughts and famine in Bihar, Orissa.
Aren't the peasants justified in protecting their lands from feudal lords? To an extent yes. But the question is, should it be done like this?
How can one justify killing innocent people? A civil war, or a people's war should not devastate the civilians. India has remained a successful democracy and despite Naxal threats there have been elections. What have the representatives from these areas managed to accomplish? Every year Rs. 2 crores is allocated to each Member of the Parliament for the development of his/her constituency. Why has no progress been made?
Operation Green Hunt has certainly had a huge set back after Dantewada episode, but then are our CRPF and COBRA men enough? Why was CPI(M) not banned in West Bengal when the central government banned it? Why does the Home Minister offers to resign but refuses to use military or air force?
Dantewada has also been the place where the CRPF and COBRA forces had killed more than 50 naxals, in Sept. 2009. Certainly the message is clear, whoever plans better wins the battle. And that has been the case in every battle fought.
Why not deploy other para military forces? When the State Police does not have enough men and inventory too tackle the Naxalites why not upgrade them? Undoubtedly Naxalites fight their war from the jungles in the Guerrilla warfare style, should we not take this to another level. They acquire or manufacture the arms, certainly this needs money and it comes from loot and forceful extraction of money. Why not take steps to prevent them? We can take some inspiration from Assam where ULFA activities are pretty much put to rest off late.
What will happen if India attempts a war against Naxals...like President Mahinda Rajpaksa tried against Prabhakaran's LTTE?
In my opinion we need to step up the heat. We need to mobilise more men and deal with Naxals with steel will. However, military action is not the only way out. Invite them for talks, let the representatives work for their constituencies. Why not offer them opportunities in other sectors like handicrafts, tourism? It is no longer the peasants' struggle it started with...let's see where it leads to.
What are your thoughts on this issue?
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With special thanks to Ela Singh, who suggested the topic
With lots of love
Atul Mishra
Atul Mishra
Dear Atul,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your passionate article on Naxalites!
All that I would like to say on your beautifully composed article is: a) The Naxalites did not kill civilians. They targetted the Jawans who represent the govt in this war b) The next point to ponder is these young people are so well trained and funded that they can fool the govt forces. This means they are not uneducated and are well versed in using technology. Then why don't they use their education and knowledge to exploit the opportunities available to such educated people for leading a comfortable life instead of suffering the hardships of fugitives!
The answer is there in your article's sixth para! Stop this outflow of black money from the country. Use it for real progress of the common people. Only talks or use of force cannot solve this problem.
My suggestion is there should be a movement for creating a spiritual awareness among people, so that they will stop being materialistic. Then there won't be any urge in them to siphon off our taxpayers' money to Swiss Bank accounts.
Nanda Sir
Thank you sir for your comments. I would like to clarify that by killing of civilians I wanted to point out that though they targeted the Jawans, civilians have been in the list of victims.
ReplyDeleteIn last three years more than 2600 lives have been lost and not all of them were Jawans.
As for the other two points, well certainly a teacher is always better than his student.
To those who don't know:
Nanda Sir(His first name is Ashok) is among those intellectuals who continue to inspire the likes of me every day. An extremely articulate spokesman, a motivator, a philosopher and above all a wonderful teacher.
Thank you sir for taking out some time to respond.
Keep posting..keep bloggng...keep helping us improve...
Forever indebt
Atul Mishra
Every issue in India is like a link of a chain which are connected to one another either directly or indirectly.The problem of naxalism is one such bead of this societal chain.After Dantewada incident,one may think that maoist should be given military treatment as these people don’t want any cooperation.But this would be wrong on our part because these are our own people who are fighting for their rights and are not waging war against India as was in case of LTTE.
ReplyDeleteThe government is treating Naxalism as mere law and order problem.This is more a social and political problem than a law and order problem.Government should reform their rules and policies for the upliftment of these deprived and depressed class of India who were constantly being ignored by the government.In my opinion,talks and development(developing the backward regions of India) can be the only solution.
Dear Ela,
ReplyDeleteA very well compiled comment deserves appreciation and you have mine. As for the LTTE comparison, CPI(M)aims to overthrow the government of India. And this is not a passionate statement. It was made by G.K.Pillai, Home Secretary on March 6 this year. And his statement was based upon a booklet circulated by the Maoists.
They are waging a war against the state. So in other words they aim to do what Kasab did. As for the development...well we do agree on some points, dont we Ela?
I dont have much insight on the topic and that's one reason why I am going through articles and opinions available on net.
ReplyDeleteAfter having read all that is expressed here and further without agreeing with any side there's one things tht I just dont understand.
Do we really need to justify by saying smthing like, no military actions against them bcoz they are INdidian..excuse me !!
Don't we hang or punish any ordinary citizen of this nation, following due process of law ??
If you have an opinion or you feel violence is actually justified please express.
I will appreciate.