Naxalism in India

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approach.

Close examination of the movement will enable to understand that the marginalized take up arms only to break down the insensitive establishment, which has failed to deliver an egalitarian society. The Naxalite leaders may talk about ’deliverance of the proletariat way from the neo- liberalist bourgeoisie, and bringing the dawn of New Democracy’, but such phrases mean little to the tribals and landless laborers‘ who find themselves at the receiving end of state sponsored and non state-sponsored exploitation. They are in the battle only because of their disillusionment with the status quo.

The government‘s response to the insurgency must be a two-pronged approach of security and development, as India‘s Prime Minister has repeatedly stated. The security dimension should

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emphasize a calibrated use of legitimate force. Neither security nor development should be overemphasized at the cost of the other. In highly affected areas, there cannot be but a security- first approach. In marginally affected areas, development should take precedence over security.

Negotiations should not be undertaken at this stage. In the future if they are held, it should be clearly borne in mind that the Maoists will not give up their weapons and join the mainstream society. The people of India should not be given any false hopes by the government, and this message should be clearly spelt out to them.

There has to be a broad national political consensus among all the political parties within the affected states, among all states, and between the states and the central government in New Delhi. Within this broad framework, individual states should devise local-level strategies. And in the field area-specific strategies and tactics need to be adopted. Only once this consensus has been achieved will it be possible to squarely address the problem.

Approximately seven to ten years will be needed for all this to take shape and to start delivering results; assertions by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) that the Naxalite challenge can be defeated in three years are difficult to believe. Andhra Pradesh is the only state that has been successful in managing the Naxalites in their region. The Naxal violence is still rampant in other states where it manages to exist. It will be difficult to predict if ever there will come a solution to the problem of Naxal violence at grassroots level.

At any rate, it is reassuring to note that there are signs that the various state governments and the central government are evincing the political will to address the Maoist challenge headlong. Still, more time will be necessary. Furthermore, more time will be required to build the capabilities of the security forces in the affected states, and for development initiatives to have a perceptible impact.

Naxalism poses a major challenge to the country. That it will not succeed in overthrowing the Central Government is a given fact. But if allowed to fester it will cause grave damage to the country. It will affect the nation‘s economy, internal cohesion, damage its social fabric and impede overall progress. Whereas employing Armed Forces may appear to be an attractive idea in the face of inability of state and central police forces and PMF to control the menace, the adverse effects of long term commitment of Armed Forces, particularly on the Army, needs to be

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understood. There is a need to improve the operational capability of PMF and CPOs to undertake the operations on their own and supplement the effort by toning up the administration and developing political consensus. Armed Forces should be used only sparingly for internal security duties. This has not been the case so far. Their involvement in anti-Naxal operations will seriously affect their combat readiness to face external security challenges which we can ill afford. We need to develop other potent alternatives for which adequate scope exists. The Governmental policies have been successful in controlling the Naxal menace to some extent. For instance the districts that are Naxal affected have reduced. States like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have seen a substantial reduction in Naxal violence. However regions like Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand still are Naxal affected with the Naxal violence being rampant. The governmental policies have also been not wholly but substantially successful in combating the Naxal violence.