[Reader-list] The Naxalites overreached

[Pawan Durani]

…and committed a strategic mistake at Dantewada


The reason why Naxalites have been able to sustain their insurgency
for so long is due to three main reasons: the absence or failure of
governance; the romanticism and propaganda of their overground
sympathisers; and, finally, due to the relatively subliminal nature of
their violence.

To the extent that their violence was distributed in space and time
they could slip in and out of the public mind, pursue on-and-off talks
with state governments and generally avoid provoking the government
into hitting back hard. Over the last five years Naxalites have
violently expanded the geographical spread of their extortion and
protection rackets—yet, the violence in any given place and time has
been below a certain threshold. That threshold itself is high for a
number of reasons, including efforts by their sympathisers to
romanticise their violence, spectacular terrorist attacks by jihadi
groups and due to the remoteness of the areas of their operations.
This allowed Naxalites to get away with murder. A lot of times. In a
lot of places. Literally.

But killing 73 out of 80 (or 120) CRPF and police personnel in a short
span of time in a single battle is no longer subliminal violence. In
all likelihood the Naxalites have crossed a threshold—this incident is
likely to stay much longer in the public mind and increase the
pressure on politicians to tackle the Naxalite threat with greater
resolve. Also, given that it has also become an issue of P
Chidambaram’s—and hence the UPA government’s—reputation, the gloves
are likely to come off in the coming weeks.

There’s a chance that India’s psychological threshold is even higher.
But it is more likely that the Naxalites have overreached. Perhaps
their leadership has calculated that they are in the next stage of
their revolutionary war. If so, that would neither the first nor the
only delusion in their minds.

http://acorn.nationalinterest.in/2010/04/06/the-naxalites-overreached/