[Reader-list] Maoists can be quelled only by full blown war

[Bipin Trivedi]

http://www.dailypioneer.com/248228/Maoists-can-be-quelled-only-by-full-blown
-war.html

 

Maoists can be quelled only by full blown war

Meenakshi Rao

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.