Maoists are trying, but they can’t suppress voters
The Maoists may use the latest in communication technology to intimidate the people into toeing their line of subversive politics, but that does not mean the insurgents will have any greater success now than they have had in the recent past, in perpetuating their agenda of violence and anarchy. The bulk SMSes they sent out in Bihar, warning locals against casting their vote, may have caught some by surprise, but there is no reason to believe that the messages, threatening as they are, will keep the people away from the polling stations on election day. In previous years, voters living across the country's perilous Red corridor have ignored the Maoist's anti-state propaganda and even braved bullets to exercise their democratic right. In this, they have been ably supported by thousands of security personnel who have done a stellar job of fending off the Maoist threat. Be it during the lok Sabha election in 2009 or the Assembly polls that have been held between 2009 and 2013, the Maoists have repeatedly sought to disrupt the electoral process, but each time the people have rebuffed their efforts. In fact, a high voter turnout in areas considered to be Maoist strongholds has become a fairly routine feature in recent years. For instance, 74.65 per cent of voters cast their ballots — a record high — in the 2013 Assembly election in Chhattisgarh. The notorious Junglemahal region of West Bengal too registered a high voter percentage in the panchayat election last year.
These trends hold true not just for Maoist areas but in every part of the country where vested interests have sought to undermine the authority of the Indian state and disenfranchise the people. In the North-East, for instance, insurgent groups are now losing ground after having wreaked havoc and stonewalled development efforts for decades. Voter turnout in this region usually crosses the 90 per cent mark. In Kashmir too, separatists have failed to dismantle the electoral process as the successful panchayat election of 2011 showed. The bloody retaliatory attacks on panchayati leaders after the election served to underline how the separatists were deeply threatened by the people's vote in favour of democracy and representative politics.
That the Maoists are not getting, or not wanting to get, the message that the voters have been sending across time and again, demonstrates that they are cut off from the people whose cause they claim to champion. The separatist must realise that the people have rejected the politics of the bullet and reaffirmed faith in the path of the ballot. One can be certain that across the country these anti-state elements will make a concerted effort to at least vitiate the atmosphere, as recent instances of pre-poll disruptions suggest. For example, in Bihar's Jamui district, which goes to the polls on April 10, political workers have been abducted by Maoists in recent days and one Special Police Officer reportedly killed by the insurgents. last month, Maoists also blew up two cell phone towers in Gaya ahead of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rally in the area. They also left behind live bombs and threatening notes. But, if the tremendous response that Mr Modi received from the people only hours after the attack is any indication, their threats have fallen on deaf ears.