The onward march of Naxal juggernaut

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Starting from 2005 till date, there have been 7404 Naxal terror attacks in various parts of the country. 1007 police personnel's and 2250 Indian citizens have died in these attacks. This year alone, the Naxals have killed 269 police people.

CJ: Brigadier Arun..

Sun, Sep 27, 2009 15:31:35 IST

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naxalism in india :

AFTER HOME Minister of India, P Chidambaram candidly conceded in the Delhi Conference of Internal Security held on August 17, 2009, that the Naxal threat to the security and integrity of the country has been underestimated in last so many years, one cannot be faulted if one assumed that now at last, the Indian political masters are really serious in curbing this menace once for all. Specially so, when all the seven chief ministers of the Naxal affected states of India, attending the said conference promised him full cooperation in his drive against the Naxal terror in the country. However, the unchecked chaos that followed in the two days bandh called by these Naxals in the five most Naxal affected states on August 24 and 25, 2009, have once again put a question mark on the capability of Indian state to firmly deal with this terror movement.

During this two days bandh period, large numbers of these Naxal cadres moved up and down these affected states unchecked and unstopped. They burnt the railway stations of Roxy and Bhalulata in Jharkhand and Ismailpur in Bihar. They torched large number of trucks on national highway 215 in Jharkhand and near Ranchi in Bihar. Numbers of signal towers were destroyed and the community hall of Irky town ship of Aurangabad district was blown up. In the small town of Bindu located 35 kms from Ranchi, a young woman and three students were murdered by these Naxals under the suspicion that they were police informers. In other words, the law and order had totally broken down and the police was infective. The mayhem was complete and wide spread.

In the year 2004, The Peoples War Group (PWG) and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) merged to form Communist Party of India (Maoist) which now controls the entire Naxal movement in the country. Unlike the earlier Naxal movement of seventies, these gentlemen are highly organised. Their leaders are young. They have 22000 well armed cadres spread over seven states (West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh) of India. They control 180 out 630 districts and 40 thousand sq kilometers of land mass of India. They are currently running 100 training camps for their cadres. Their declared aim is not to usurp power at the Centre by dint of arms albeit they intend to break India in 30 small independent countries.

Starting from 2005 till date, there have been 7404 Naxal terror attacks in various parts of the country. 1007 police personnel’s and 2250 Indian citizens have died in these attacks. This year alone in last seven months the Naxals have killed 269 police people. In Naxal affected districts the police lock themselves up in their respective thanas come night fall and the Naxal cadres rule the roost. Every contractor big or small has to pay a price for all construction works that he does to the Naxals at the scale of 10 per cent for pukka roads, seven per cent for village roads and five per cent for bridges and culverts. Rs 15000 and Rs 25000 per year respectively has to be paid by the owners for running of brick kilns and petrol pumps. The list goes on and on. Whether it is a big company or small, levies have also been fixed by these naxals for mining iron ore, coal, gold and diamond, stones and sand. In contraband cultivation of opium also Naxals dip their hands deep. All these activities fetches them a yearly sum of 151000 million rupees which they use for running their organisation and purchase of latest weapons.

To facilitate the smooth transport of weapons from one state to another, starting from the port city of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, through the thick forests of Koraput and Malkangiri of Orissa and ending in the Dante Wada district of Chhattisgarh, the naxals have created a safe red corridor. Nobody dares disobey the dictates of the Naxal cadres. The punishment is immediate and is awarded in kangaroo courts. It ranges from lashings to monitory fines to even death sentences. The offender is charged with a proper charge sheet carrying a file number. Location and meeting times of these Kangaroo courts are always known to Aam Admi but it is a strange coincidence that local police and the administration never get a clue. Same is the case with weapon hiding places of these Naxal cadres. On which trees they are hidden are known to local people but again not to the police.

When Chidambaram said that the Naxal threat has been underestimated, this itself is an understatement. The truth of the matter is that in the Naxal affected districts of India, the Naxals are running a parallel government right under the nose of the respective state governments. The situation is serious and warrants immediate counter measures before it is too late lest we get involved in a full blown insurgency. To start with, the Centre must pressurise these Naxal affected states to immediately implement the police reforms as directed by the Supreme Court in the year 2006. The large sale deficiency existing in the ranks of state police and para military forces must be made up. All these severely affected districts must be identified and should be declared disturbed. It is not possible for the security forces to deal with these Naxals who are actually waging a war against the nation with the existing normal civil laws. The 'Armed Forces special Powers Act 1958' must be enacted in these disturbed areas.

As seven states are seriously involved, the senior elected representatives from these states must be selected to form an ‘action council’ on the lines of North East Council. This council comprising of elected representatives from each affected state should be the supreme decision making body in the anti-Naxal operations. All the special police forces of the respective states involved and the central paramilitary forces must be pooled in to form a joint command to operate in these Naxal affect areas. These police and paramilitary forces must be trained in elite army training institutions in the art of guerrilla and terror warfare. Senoir army officers must be deputed as advisors to respective state governments involved and to this joint command.

The development work especially of the infrastructure in these Naxal affected areas must go on along side the police operations. This developmental works must get full security protection so that no money gets siphoned off to Naxals. Local people must get involved in this infrastructure development work. Government officials with high honesty quotient should only be posted in these Naxal affected areas. The corrupt must be dealt with in a heavy hand. The Naxal cadres who want to shun violence and join main stream must be encouraged. They should be offered lucrative packages. It must be realised that anti-Naxal operation will be long haul. The need of the hour is to resolute political leadership, strong police action and a responsive administration. If even now we do not wake up then very soon we will have in India the same situation which Pakistan is facing with Taliban in their FATA area.

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