The ugly and unpredictable face of Maoism

The gruesome killing of 73 CRPF personnel in the thick Mukrana forest of Chhatisgarh’s Dantewada district on 6th April once again proved the lack of efficacy in collecting intelligence outputs and lack of training in jungle warfare to contain the guerilla war strategies of Maoists. The high causality of one of the elite para-military in a single attack shocked the nation and the responsibility for this tragic incident has to be shouldered both by State and Central Government. CRPF team consisting of about 80 personnel including a Deputy and Assistant Command of 68 battalion and a constable of the District Police Force were traveling in a vehicle which was surrounded and ambushed and overpowered by a strong force of about 1000 maoists. They had also triggered a landmine blast, which could blow up the CRPF vehicle and was the cause of maximum unexpected causalities. Although the injured and dead were airlifted to nearby hospitals and reinforcements were sent to track down the naxals and their whereabouts.

There were Naxalite violence and attack in Orrisa and some parts of West Bengal and ofcourse Andhra Pradesh has had the longest history of Naxalite movements. If we analyse the factors of naxal/maoist movements, we can find out the suppression and oppression of the poor and landless farmers by rich landlords and their loss of faith in the existing political system and administration to deliver them justice and come out of their miseries. In fact an organized movement with dedicated leaders made a cadre based party could influence a large chunk of people to the naxal / maoist fold and the members were asked to wage a guerilla war against the state establishments by attacking vital installations and killing the targeted people including the police/para-military personnel. As a matter of fact, the leaders of national political parties started thinking about the root cause of naxalite upheavals after a long drawn out battle to suppress the movement by state force and they realized the emerging scenario that the naxal movements have started spreading to new areas of Maharashtra, M.P., Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal etc. and many underdeveloped parts and also in forest areas of these states, their writ runs against the will of the States. Many battles fought with them through the state force could not erase their presence and day by day their area of influence has started increasing. What went wrong for the emergence of such a scenario to develop in these under developed States even after six decades of independence? The simple answer is the failure to distribute equitably the fruits of development and the uncompassionate and insensitive bureaucracy as well as the local leaders to do something concrete for the poorest of poor. Further, they were exploited to the tilt by the local powerful and influential personnel as a tool for their upward mobility and even the Government was also apathetic towards their sufferings and poor social and economic conditions. The spread of media i.e. both print and electronic media coupled with the awareness created by the leaders of naxal/maoist movements made them more tough and they have started organizing the naxal activities with an avowed mission of better tomorrow free from exploitation and suppression and enjoy the pleasure of economic advancement and freedom.

Moreover, there was a great failure on the part of State and Central Governments to find out the root causes of naxalite movements and planning out effective schemes for their economical and social advancement and also monitoring the implementation of schemes already launched. Further, the recent declaration of war against Naxal / Maoist by Home Minister, P. Chidambaram was also uncalled for as it gave them an opportunity to unite various groups and making coordinated attacks on Government establishments and law enforcing authorities. As a strategic measure, the Central Government should have declared more employment generating and anti-poverty schemes in these areas and educating the people regarding their senseless killings of innocent people in the name of their aim and ideology on the one hand and collected more and more intelligence outputs from the people at the grass root level by working amongst them and persuading them the futility of taking weapons against the State thereby demoralizing their leaders to give up the armed struggle against the State establishments for achieving their goals. Unless and until a good rapport and contacts are maintained with the people of troubled areas and understand their woes and aspirations with confidence building measures about their future prospects and progress, it will be a Herculean task for the Government to make a semblance of normalcy in the near future. In order to achieve this, there should have a concrete plan for the amelioration of the poor people and construction of social organizations like schools, colleges, hospitals, better roads, sanitation, drinking water and the sources for continuous employment. And the Government should also propagate and advertise what they are going to do for them and what they have achieved within prescribed period is also must to counter any negative propaganda by the vested interested leaders. Hope, the Government will ponder over all these matters and think afresh for changing their mindsets to wait for some more time for a better tomorrow of their own dreams!