[Reader-list] IGNORE THE 'IDIOTS'. FIGHT THE WAR

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Bipin

I dont' have time right now to go through the entire article, but will
certainly do so at some time. But Chandan Mitra is a known BJP sympathizer
(if not a party member), and I don't expect him to do anything better than
say what they have indulged in the past as well: violence.

Rakesh

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 4:56 PM, Bipin Trivedi <aliens at dataone.in> wrote:

> http://www.dailypioneer.com/248225/Ignore-the-
> <http://www.dailypioneer.com/248225/Ignore-the-'idiots'-fight-the-war.html<http://www.dailypioneer.com/248225/Ignore-the-%27idiots%27-fight-the-war.html>
> >
> 'idiots'-fight-the-war.html
>
>
>
> Chandan Mitra
>
> The Goebbelsian propaganda of Maoist sympathisers posing as 'intellectuals'
> should not deter the state from launching an all-out offensive against the
> guerrillas
>
> I am not suggesting that Facebook users are necessarily representative of
> public opinion, but for whatever they count, the networking site reflects
> the urban professionals' mind to some extent. Therefore, I was heartened by
> the significant number of comments on the site asking why Arundhati Roy and
> her ilk are silent after the Dantewada massacre. Some even demanded that
> these breast-beating publicists come out in the open and condemn the Maoist
> marauders. I was tempted to respond to the outraged middle-class
> Facebookers
> that far from being shamed, this anti-India cabal is probably busy plotting
> an eloquent defence of the merchants of mass murder; so, expect a
> 5,000-word
> tear-jerking essay in a newsweekly soon suggesting that the CRPF jawans
> committed mass suicide or were killed by agents of the diabolical Indian
> state just to give a bad name to the Maoists.
>
> This line of argument would be perfectly understandable from people who had
> alleged that the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament was an elaborate
> conspiracy by the Vajpayee Government to justify warmongering against
> 'peace-loving' Pakistan and even more 'innocent' terrorist outfits
> sponsored
> by Islamabad. Similarly, hasn't it been repeatedly claimed by some of them
> that the 58 kar sevaks who were burnt alive inside coaches of the Sabarmati
> Express in Godhra were actually possessed by pyromania and a burning (pun
> unintended) desire to go up in flames? So, it won't be surprising if we are
> told that a bloodthirsty Government gunned down its own security forces
> only
> to justify launching a genocidal military campaign against helpless
> tribals.
>
> In a brazenly Goebbelsian style of propaganda, these self-styled human
> rightswallahs and various wannabe Arundhati Roys have started using Maoist
> and tribal as synonyms. This is a deliberate attempt to portray all action
> by the state against Maoists as part of a plot to terrorise innocent tribal
> people into submission so that their lands can be grabbed for mining or
> setting up industries, their women can be happily raped and their children
> brutalised. That the overwhelming majority of tribals in all Naxal-affected
> States are actually fighting Maoist depredation and that the bulk of the
> security forces, especially policemen of the States concerned, are of
> tribal
> origin are facts consciously overlooked.
>
> The aim is to put the average urban Indian on a guilt trip and mount public
> pressure on the Government to slow down or even call off the armed
> confrontation with the Maoists. These conspiratorial bleeding heart
> 'intellectuals', most of whom have little knowledge of history or even
> Communist literature, obviously don't know the contempt in which Mao Zedong
> held their kind. As a senior columnist recalled last week, Mao called
> "intellectual" supporters of his revolution, "Useful idiots, but idiots all
> the same"!
>
> Fortunately, the breast-beaters' plot is not succeeding this time. Opinion
> is, in fact, running high against the desperadoes and from all accounts
> people want sterner action to eliminate the scourge of Left-wing
> adventurism, which none other than the father of the Russian Revolution,
> Vladimir Illych Lenin described as "infantile disorder". So, I have been
> telling my friends not to get too agitated by the offensive, anti-national
> utterances of these professional India-baiters. Over the years we have
> dealt
> with a whole range of lily-livered liberals who, if they had their way,
> would have gifted away the North-East, Punjab and Kashmir to India's
> neighbours and even now advocate restraint in dealing with jihadi
> terrorists, perhaps also the Taliban. India survived the onslaughts of its
> 'intellectual' Fifth Column and I am confident will do so yet again.
>
> Having said that I must also express my deep dismay at the manner in which
> the Government is conducting its anti-Naxal offensive. It is almost akin to
> the mindless way the US Army fought the Vietcong guerrillas in the
> late-1960s and, predictably, got routed. It does not seem to have
> penetrated
> the impermeable skulls of New Delhi's security establishment that we are
> facing an all-out guerrilla offensive, not conventional insurgency. The
> Dantewada tragedy demonstrates the alarming absence of the mindset required
> to take on heavily armed, highly trained and motivated Maoist insurgents
> who
> undoubtedly enjoy some degree of support from a section of the local
> populace, whether at gunpoint or otherwise.
>
> The French Leftist ideologue Regis Debray once wrote, "In other to combat
> the enemy you must first come to grips with it." In other words, it is very
> important to understand, internalise and anticipate the opponent's tactics
> in a guerrilla war. I would prescribe a crash course in the war manuals
> penned by Mao Tse-Tung and Che Guevara for all security force jawans when
> they are sent to combat zones. Nearly 70 years after Mao led a successful
> insurrection in China, his self-styled pupils in the jungles of India are
> employing classic Maoist tactics with considerable success. We don't seem
> to
> believe that these rudimentary and outdated mid-20th Century tactics can be
> easily countered with the experience of counter-insurgency operations since
> those days.
>
> In Dantewada, Naxals followed Mao's dictum: "When the enemy attacks, we
> retreat. When the enemy camps, we harass. When the enemy retreats, we
> attack." A cursory look at the sequence of events in Dantewada last Tuesday
> proves this. The CRPF got a tip-off that a Maoist training camp was in
> progress and decided to go in pursuit. (Maoists retreated). The CRPF did
> not
> camp on reaching destination, so the second part of the dictum got skipped.
> (Incidentally, at Sildah in West Bengal last month, 24 members of the
> security forces were killed in a sudden guerrilla attack on the police post
> - a clear instance of the dictum being followed there.) In Dantewada, as
> the
> jawans retreated, confident they had secured the territory and complacent
> that the guerrillas were on the run, they were attacked. This is not the
> first time that Naxals have meticulously followed Mao's well-publicised war
> manual.
>
> A pall of depression has gripped India's security establishment in the
> aftermath of the Dantewada massacre, affecting even the otherwise ebullient
> Home Minister P Chidambaram. I fear it will take several weeks for the
> security forces to get their act together again, allowing Maoists vital
> time
> to regroup, re-arm and re-strategise, apart from gaining the psychological
> upper hand. Mr Chidambaram is still our best bet as Home Minister and he
> must lead the counter-offensive.
>
> Clearly, there is inadequate coordination between the State police and
> Central security forces. This is a lacuna that has to be overcome without
> delay. I am no security expert, but my experience of covering insurgencies
> over two decades convinces me that you can't win the war against insurgents
> until the State police turns into a deadly combat force. They know the
> terrain, they have contacts even in Maoist-dominated villages, and if
> motivated they will fight to the finish to defend their families' honour.
> Instead of paratrooping Central forces (who need to be used sparingly in
> joint operations), the Centre needs to help and if necessary compel States
> to train, motivate and equip their police the way KPS Gill's Punjab Police
> fought the Khalistanis till they became history.
>
>
>
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