Maoists have dealt a severe body blow to India's democratic polity and cherished value systems. They have not only brutally killed a national hero like Mahendra Karma and 28 others in Bastar, but have also openly challenged Indian society as a whole.
They want the country to raise the white flag of surrender and genuflect before their diabolical ambition to convert India into a gigantic Gulag where only their diktat runs. Having failed to win popular support except in certain pockets (that too only through terror, extortion, torture and kangaroo courts), they have now unleashed a war on democracy and civil society. The object of their dastardly ambush in the Dharba Valley was not only to eliminate top leaders of the Congress party in Chhattisgarh, particularly Mahendra Karma, but also scare away political activists from an area where they believe only their writ should run. With elections approaching in that State, the Maoists want to create an atmosphere of fear to prevent politicians to approach the electorate and eventually derail the democratic process itself by preventing voters from exercising their franchise. Terrorists of various hues have tried similar tactics in the past. Pakistan-sponsored separatists in Jammu & Kashmir are still pursuing the same objective but the people of the State have firmly rebuffed such attempts. So, no doubt, will the people of Chhattisgarh resoundingly reject the Maoist endeavour.
Some sections of Indian public opinion, however, continue to live in the delusion that it is possible to sit down across the table with a tiger and conduct negotiations so that it agrees to part with its skin. Maoists openly flout their ideological mentor's deranged dictum that power flows only out of the barrel of the gun. But since they will listen to no other logic, it is the gun and gun alone which must do the talking with them. Those who do not believe in democracy; reject the Constitution and seek to overthrow the legally established political order through a violent uprising cannot be extended constitutional courtesies. The scourge they represent must be eliminated through the same surgical and ruthless methods that they employ in the bid to derail Indian society. Just as war is sometimes necessary for peace, undemocratic methods need to be adopted on occasion, if only to re-establish the rule of law and democratic authority.
However, there is little to be said in defence of the laxity demonstrated by our security forces in Naxal-infested areas. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), repeatedly issued by the authorities are routinely breached, while under-equipped, under-staffed and under-trained forces become sitting ducks for a determined bunch of mass murderers. In Sukma, the district where the macabre death dance happened last Saturday, Maoists had ambushed and killed 74 CRPF jawans barely a year ago. No lessons seem to have been learnt from that incident and several others that happened since.
As most Maoist outrages take place in remote villages tucked away inside dense forests, involving ordinary impoverished villagers or security forces staffed by men from underprivileged sections of society, urban opinion makers continue to live in a make-believe world, convinced their comfortable existence cannot be dented by a rag-tag tribal band of misguided elements. In fact, large numbers of these so-called opinion-makers claim we need to go into the "root cause" of the problem rather than treat it as a law-and-order issue. While there is no denying that people living in large parts of Central India, especially tribals inhabiting its forests live in abject poverty and under-development even 66 years after Independence, the fact is that they are being mobilised by a bunch of anti-national rogues to serve their own diabolical ends. Possessed with a perverted mindset this group of urbanised "leaders" are determined to prevent development reaching these remote parts. They want to keep the tribals in bondage of poverty, illiteracy and isolation forever so they serve as cannon fodder to their mad bloodlust. Therefore, it must be realised that without physically breaking the back of the terrorists through superior force, the Indian state cannot regain control and re-induct local people into the mainstream.
It was with this aim in mind that the Salwa Judum movement was initiated by leaders like Mahendra Karma of the Congress which received full support from the BJP-led State Government. Just when this mass movement was on the verge of emerging as a powerful counter to the Maoists, some depraved intellectuals successfully convinced the Supreme Court to order the movement's dismantling. This set the clock back and resulted in anti-national forces getting emboldened all over again. Meanwhile, in a misplaced bid to co-opt some leaders of the insurrection, and thereby score political points over the BJP, the Congress-led Government at the Centre even inducted a Maoist ideologue masquerading as a barefoot doctor into an official body. Gestures like these, coupled with the respectability given to overground Maoist sympathisers by a section of the media, have gone a long way to legitimise this illegitimate cause.
It's time the gloves come off. A full-scale war has to be launched against the enemies of the people. UAVs have been lying idle for months, while the Government ponders if they should be deployed at all. Equipping and training local forces for commando operations is lagging way behind schedule even as Maoists strike and kill at will. The Government allots vast sums for development activities in Maoist-infested areas but they blow up roads and schools, while officers are too scared to venture into unofficial Red Zones. Good intentions cannot be a substitute for tough action. None of this softie-softie talk and allocation of vast sums will succeed unless the affected areas are sanitised; in other words, till the last Naxalite is picked up and dispatched to places they deserve to be in.
India owes a tribute to Mahendra Karma and thousands of innocent tribal villagers and brave jawans who have laid down their lives for this country. The only fitting tribute a grateful country can offer them is the elimination of every Maoist who has picked up the gun against society, for those who live by the gun must die by the gun. This mission must be carried out with ruthless determination. It's a fight to the finish.