Recently, there was a war of words between two prominent politicians of the country over the word ‘buck’. Before the argument ‘The buck stops at whose desk’ could end a tragic and horrific incident shook the nation, 76 CRPF Jawans were massacred by the Naxalites at Dantewada. The brutal attack on the CRPF shows the ugly face of Naxalism. Naxalism can get uglier, if the government doesn’t take some concrete steps to put an end to this serious internal threat. Naxals are not just a group of bandits involved in violence, I have written about this in one of my earlier articles ‘carry out operation green hunt’. Naxals fight with a purpose; they have a common agenda and ideology. Recently a national newspaper published a shocking report that Naxalism is a 1500 crore empire. They have a strong set up, with different layers of committees and cadres, a strong core committee to formulate plans of action, strategies; it is not just violence, but guerrilla warfare against the state, against democracy. On the other hand, government sends out troops to crush them, in fact the Naxals are very much threatened by the government offensive; it seems the recent motive behind the brutal attack was to slowdown the government’s offensive against them. The Naxals literally enjoy many advantages over the state forces at those areas, they have mass support, many believe in their ideology, the tribes support them either by choice or by force and believe that they can do some good for them. Most of the people of those areas have lost faith in the government which has been neglecting them for years and failed to meet their basic needs. The left ideologists have been propagating among them that the state wants to get the Naxals wiped off so that it can grab those mineral rich lands. Naxals are familiar with those areas, they are well trained, organized and they know how to operate in jungles, their safe hide out. Their areas of operation are very large, they can hardly be cornered like the Srilankan army did with the LTTE, and it was an island that went as a disadvantage for the LTTE. Naxals, when cornered they move out to other states, or they move into Bangladesh or Nepal or any other neighboring nations through porous borders.
So what should be the government’s strategy to fight these rebels? Simply deploying forces won’t serve any purpose. The government needs to adopt a two-way approach to deal with Naxalism, at one side; it needs to carry out a coordinated offensive against these rebels, at the other side it needs to show its compassionate face to the innocent tribes and poor of those Naxal infected areas. This is not the time to blame each other, or to fix some body for the recent attack or to argue ‘the buck stops at whose desk’. Well, I am not a defense expert, but the operation against the rebels can be successful only when there is a clear coordination between the state and central governments, in fact that is the major concern in the Naxal operation, absence of coordination among governments and difference of opinions. When the forces corner the rebels in one state they move into some other state, when the government of that state does not respond in a similar manner to fight the rebels and corner them the total effort goes in vain, this is what happens, lack of coordination. Secondly, forces need to be well-equipped especially when they are carrying out such difficult operations in the jungle, which is a permanent hideout for the Naxals, they know about the jungle very well. Thirdly, an active intelligence network which can provide precise and real time information regarding Naxal movements, operations and presence. Even the recent attack, experts say, happened due to intelligence failure.
On the other hand, how should the government deal with the innocent people of those areas, firstly, government should ensure that the state forces don’t harass them, most of time this happens, government forces pick innocent tribes or villagers for interrogation, suspecting them as rebel supporters or informers. Constant harassment from the government forces has resulted in hatred for the government among those people, a few months back there was a report in the Newspaper that the state police arrested a few tribal people suspecting them as rebel informers. In that group of arrested people, there was an old lady, who couldn’t see and speak properly, the old lady along with others was booked under waging war against the state act, can you believe this?. How will the people trust the government?, how will they believe that the government which has been neglecting them for years will take concrete steps towards development and that it will meet their basic necessity.
The primary objective of the government should be to win back the trust and confidence of the people of those Naxal infected areas not by making false promises, but by systematic development visible enough to convince the people that finally the government has taken their development issues seriously, development is the key. There was a news report recently, that NREGA scheme has been implemented effectively in the Naxal affected areas, this shows how people are desperate to see development. Along with the development, a clear communication between the concerned state government and the people need to be established through IAS officials appointed at various districts, they can play a vital role in providing the ground level information about these people, their needs and problems thus government can respond to them quickly, this will restore the faith of the people in the government and democracy.
The sacrifice of our precious soldiers who lose their lives in this bloody battle should not go in vain; the purpose of the offensive should not be to grab those mineral rich lands as the left ideologists say, but for the purpose of bringing real development in those areas and real changes into the lives of those poor tribes. At one side when our forces fight the rebels, at the other side, the top priority of the government should be to ensure the prosperity of the economic developments flows to those areas too and help these underprivileged people lead a descent life, so that their next generation do not take guns to fight against their own government and their own country, but become patriots and serve their country in one way or the other.
Naxalism is a lesson to learn for the government and the people, there are thousands of people in various part of this country, starving from poverty, suffering from diseases, lack of access to basic necessities, lack of education, unemployment, government should take more interest in the development of these people, rather than giving more and more tax exemptions to the rich, before these people too, become desperate and frustrated and take up arms against the country.
Long Live India, Long Live Democracy!
So what should be the government’s strategy to fight these rebels? Simply deploying forces won’t serve any purpose. The government needs to adopt a two-way approach to deal with Naxalism, at one side; it needs to carry out a coordinated offensive against these rebels, at the other side it needs to show its compassionate face to the innocent tribes and poor of those Naxal infected areas. This is not the time to blame each other, or to fix some body for the recent attack or to argue ‘the buck stops at whose desk’. Well, I am not a defense expert, but the operation against the rebels can be successful only when there is a clear coordination between the state and central governments, in fact that is the major concern in the Naxal operation, absence of coordination among governments and difference of opinions. When the forces corner the rebels in one state they move into some other state, when the government of that state does not respond in a similar manner to fight the rebels and corner them the total effort goes in vain, this is what happens, lack of coordination. Secondly, forces need to be well-equipped especially when they are carrying out such difficult operations in the jungle, which is a permanent hideout for the Naxals, they know about the jungle very well. Thirdly, an active intelligence network which can provide precise and real time information regarding Naxal movements, operations and presence. Even the recent attack, experts say, happened due to intelligence failure.
On the other hand, how should the government deal with the innocent people of those areas, firstly, government should ensure that the state forces don’t harass them, most of time this happens, government forces pick innocent tribes or villagers for interrogation, suspecting them as rebel supporters or informers. Constant harassment from the government forces has resulted in hatred for the government among those people, a few months back there was a report in the Newspaper that the state police arrested a few tribal people suspecting them as rebel informers. In that group of arrested people, there was an old lady, who couldn’t see and speak properly, the old lady along with others was booked under waging war against the state act, can you believe this?. How will the people trust the government?, how will they believe that the government which has been neglecting them for years will take concrete steps towards development and that it will meet their basic necessity.
The primary objective of the government should be to win back the trust and confidence of the people of those Naxal infected areas not by making false promises, but by systematic development visible enough to convince the people that finally the government has taken their development issues seriously, development is the key. There was a news report recently, that NREGA scheme has been implemented effectively in the Naxal affected areas, this shows how people are desperate to see development. Along with the development, a clear communication between the concerned state government and the people need to be established through IAS officials appointed at various districts, they can play a vital role in providing the ground level information about these people, their needs and problems thus government can respond to them quickly, this will restore the faith of the people in the government and democracy.
The sacrifice of our precious soldiers who lose their lives in this bloody battle should not go in vain; the purpose of the offensive should not be to grab those mineral rich lands as the left ideologists say, but for the purpose of bringing real development in those areas and real changes into the lives of those poor tribes. At one side when our forces fight the rebels, at the other side, the top priority of the government should be to ensure the prosperity of the economic developments flows to those areas too and help these underprivileged people lead a descent life, so that their next generation do not take guns to fight against their own government and their own country, but become patriots and serve their country in one way or the other.
Naxalism is a lesson to learn for the government and the people, there are thousands of people in various part of this country, starving from poverty, suffering from diseases, lack of access to basic necessities, lack of education, unemployment, government should take more interest in the development of these people, rather than giving more and more tax exemptions to the rich, before these people too, become desperate and frustrated and take up arms against the country.
Long Live India, Long Live Democracy!
