Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Delhi clueless to Naxalite menace By Seema Mustafa & Venkat Parsa NEW DELHI: Fifteen states, 170 districts and 12,000 trained and militarized cadres is the Naxalite force that the Indian state now has to deal with. At the Centre, though, policy changes with every season, from a "shoot them down" line to a "they are our children" approach, which has sent out confused signals to the administrative apparatus. The state governments too insist on following their own strategy in dealing with the Naxalites, who are seen by some political parties as Robin Hoods and by others as caste gangs of extortionists and criminals. Government inaction born of this complete confusion has allowed the left-wing extremists to grow at an unbelievable pace in the districts of India, even as intelligence agencies record evidence of growing militarization by these groups which are becoming more organized and ruthless. The NDA government, when taking a respite from its over-preoccupation with Islamic terrorism, referred on occasion to the Naxalite threat as a growing problem. The Uttar Pradesh government has gone several degrees further, to describe it as a major threat to internal security. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the left-wing extremists have "the potential to pose an even graver threat than militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast." Despite this, however, the Centre has still not been able to convince the state governments of the need for a concerted and united strategy to deal with the problem. There are several reasons for this. One, the Union government itself is not clear how to balance the very real socio-economic reasons for the growth of Naxalites with that of policing. Dr Ajai Sahni of the Institute of Conflict Management said he believed in effective policing, but admitted that the Naxalite expansion was largely due to the fact that "now there are many Kalahandis in different parts of India." Poverty, extreme distress, caste conflicts, unemployment and the complete absence of governance are the primary reasons why the Naxalites have been able to penetrate the rural districts of India. It is a totally indigenous and in some parts even ideologically motivated movement, although recent trends suggest increasing criminalisation, particularly in states like Bihar. In Andhra Pradesh, where the Naxalites are more organized than in most others parts of the country, the government's flip-flop policy has contributed to the growth and expansion of the groups. Between 1967 and 1983, successive Congress governments have viewed it as a law and order problem. During the 1975-77 Emergency, for instance, then Andhra chief minister Jalagam Vengal Rao carried out massive combing operations, leading to numerous human rights violations. Later, in 1978, during the tenure of Dr M. Channa Reddy, the Disturbed Areas Act was extended to the Telangana region. This policy continued till 1983, when, for the first time, the Congress lost power in the state to the fledgling Telugu Desam, led by matinee idol-turned-politician N.T. Rama Rao. NTR started off his tenure with a romantic offer of "Laal Salaam" to the Naxalites. But by the time he lost power in the state during the Assembly elections of 1989, he had declared that he would "bombard" the Naxalite-infested areas. Then, for the first time in the state there was a significant shift in policy when the re-elected Congress government of Dr Channa Reddy recognized Naxalism as a "socio-economic problem" rather than just a law and order issue. Dr Channa Reddy unveiled a three-pronged approach: under which the Naxalites could come overground and peacefully propagate their political philosophy; that any breach of law and order would be firmly dealt with; and that since it was a socio-economic problem, there was a need for a development programme. It was against this backdrop that Dr Reddy unveiled the Remote Area Development Programme, or RADP, which is a Planning Commission-approved document. In the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, there was a shift in the policy and the Naxal groups were once again banned in 1992. Barring a brief spell during the second innings of NTR in 1994, this policy continued till 2004. Andhra Pradesh in fact is a good example of political confusion because of which the Naxal groups have grown rapidly in strength. In Karnataka, Chief Minister Dharam Singh had first declared a similar policy of "let us talk to our people" in dealing with the growing Naxalite influence. The recent attack changed his approach to a "no more sympathy," as he ordered a police crackdown and later tempered this with an appeal that the Naxalites should give up violence in favour of a dialogue. It is very evident now that the political mood is no longer to view the Naxalite problem as a law and order issue, with considerable space being given at official meetings to analysing the socio-economic dimensions of the problem. However, no proper strategy to deal with this has emerged in a manner consonant with the government assessment that left-wing extremism is posing a grave threat to internal security. Former Union home minister L.K. Advani had convened a meeting of the chief ministers of the concerned states in Hyderabad on June 15, 1998, to review the action being taken by the states in curbing left-wing extremism as well as to prepare a strategy for tackling the problem effectively. As a follow-up of the decisions taken at this meeting, the home ministry set up a coordination centre headed by the Union home secretary with the chief secretaries and directors-general of police of the states affected by left-wing extremism as its members. One of the major decisions taken was that the states should prepare action plans for the affected areas with both security and development aspects in mind. At the end of its six-year tenure, all that the NDA establishment managed to do was to add 35 districts to the Backward Districts Initiative. A committee set up by the Planning Commission recommended that districts affected by left-wing extremism be included under the initiative of the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana. Two days after the assassination attempt on then state chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on October 1, 2003, Mr Advani had advocated a two-pronged strategy to tackle the Naxal menace, that coupled policing with development initiatives. "Such a strategy will yield proper results," he said. But that was as far as it went. In 2004 the new UPA government recognized the Naxal menace as a socio-economic problem and not a mere law and order problem. A beginning was made in Andhra Pradesh, which is now being projected as a test case, under which the first round of talks was held in June last year between the state government and the Naxalite groups. On July 21 the state government allowed the ban on the People's War Group to lapse. The cease fire was used by the Naxalite groups to unite, with the People's War and the MCCI merging into the CPI (Maoist). At the onset the Naxalites had proposed five rounds of talks, but this particular initiative has got stalled at the first round. -By arrangement with Asian Age/Delhi. Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
