VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
The gruesome attack on Congress
leaders and death of 28 people so far in the deadly naxal attack in Chhatisgarh
has triggered another round of blame game. So despicable has been the political
discourse following the brutal attack that instead of devising strategy for
tackling the armed brigade of the banned CPI (Maoist), the focus has shifted to
conspiracy theories and electoral gains and losses in the poll bound and naxal
hit State.
Last week in this column, I had
briefly mentioned how the handling of the dreaded Maoists in the last nine
years of UPA has left a lot to be desired. I pointed out how the Government and
the party were on a collision course on tackling the Naxals, emboldening these
groups further. While the Government advocated a tough approach when P
Chidambaram was the Home Minister, the party, particularly Congress General
Secretary Digvijay Singh, questioned the tough approach of the Government. The
confusion spread all around and weakened the morale of the security forces on
the ground as no one was sure how to tackle the lawlessness created by the
Maoists in the so called liberated zones.
Even as the eyes of the relatives
of the family of the victims of the Chhatisgarh attack were yet to dry, utter
confusion prevailed in Government on how to tackle the issue in hand, often
described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the greatest threat to internal
security. While Singh has continued to pay lip service to the issue over the
months and years, he has done precious little to remove the confusion on
tackling naxalism. This has been one of his lapses which have been seldom
pointed out. Merely saying that this is the greatest threat does not serve the
purpose as no concrete and serious action has been taken by his Government on
the ground. Can anyone in the Government enlighten me if any meeting has ever
taken place to build a consensus on the fight against “the greatest threat to
internal security”. Merely sending more
and more CRPF men in the region is not a solution as the Government is more or
less treating them as cannon fodder rather than a fighting force. It was not
long ago that 76 CRPF men were butchered by the outlawed group in the State.
When the top Congress leadership
was wiped out in the Bastar attack, the Central Government started the blame
game by entrusting the investigations to the National Investigation Agency. It
did not have faith in the investigative machinery of the State Government which
has been in the forefront in the fight against the Naxals. I fail to understand
what will the NIA do except blaming someone or the other and pointing fingers
at some low level police official for not discharging duty. What purpose would
the investigations serve in the larger cause of fight against the ultra left
lawlessness? Chances are that it will
blame the State Government and its police force for lapses. Remember, it was
former Home Minister Chidambaram who had praised the Raman Singh government’s
efforts to check the Naxal menace. Now if you blame the same Government which
you hailed earlier, will it serve any purpose in the larger fight against the
Naxals? When Chidambaram was the Home
Minister, at least the right noises were being made and policy
formulation was initiated. With Sushilkumar Shinde in the ministry now, all
seriousness has gone and the Centre is merely treating it as if another crime
has taken places somewhere in the remote corners of the country.
If one goes into anti insurgency
history of the country over the years, one will find that it was the state
police which led from the front, not the central forces. In Punjab ,
perhaps the only example where terrorism was crushed leaving no scope for
revival, it was the state police which crushed terrorism two decades ago and
not the central para military forces. The State police have the local
intelligence, its men come from the same region, speak the same language and
face the threat day in and day out. They have interests in solving the issue
while CRPF and other CPMFs are only doing a temporary job of supplementing the
resources and efforts of the state police force.
Ever since its formation, NIA
does not have any track record of successfully investigating such attacks. It
was entrusted with the Malegaon
blast probe which still has several loose ends. It is unlikely to come out with
anything concrete in the Bastar attack except leakages to the media to suit its
political masters the way it was done in the Malegaon
attack. If the Government can create NIA, why can’t it create a specialist body
to fight naxals in the States of Chhatisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West
Bengal , Andhra Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra
and Bihar . Why can’t there be a unified command for anti
naxal operations and why can’t the government use the expertise of the armed
forces.
Even if one leaves apart the
investigation part, both the BJP and Congress entered into a blame game and
floating conspiracy theories playing into the hands of the ultra left
extremists. This is what the naxals wanted—spread confusion in the political
parties to strengthen themselves. I fail to understand why don’t they realize
that the Maoists intend to overthrow the Indian
State
In fact, having no policy or
national consensus against ultra left violence over the years has helped these
groups propagate their cause and spread out. Ever since Naxalbari violence
erupted in West Bengal in the late 1960s, ultra left
violence has never been eradicated. They have changed their names over the
years— CPI (ML) Maoist Communist Centre, People’s War Group etc but essentially
in the new avatar of the banned CPI (Maoist), they are the same lot with the
same ideology of violence and silencing those who oppose them.
They have several frontal
organisations which remain out of the scrutiny of the law enforcing agencies.
Obviously, the group has an ideology which has to be fought both through
development, ideology and force. Unless you weaken them first, you cannot hope to
take development in the areas where the Maoists dominate. Development here has
to be people centric, as per the local needs and aspirations and not the way
corporate houses or the mining barons want. It was time, the Government built a
consensus on the type of development which needs to be carried out in these
areas, the method of fight against armed rebellion against the Indian
State
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