The Maoists are a guerrilla force to wage war against police to achieve social justice as against democracy, which is concept of Mao Tse Tung, who is a Chinese Marxist and Statesman during 1893-1976 and formed Chinese Communist Party in 1921 and established a Soviet Republic in south-east China during 1931-1934. He also founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and instigated the Cultural Revolution in 1966. We must admit that, there is a lot of injustice in our social systems, which drive youths to get attracted towards the Maoist outfits.
Guerrilla war is a part of the Maoists strategy. They want to establish social equity by hook or by crook. The theory of Mao Tse Tung and the practice of achieving the same through bloodshed is not accepted by the democratic world Governments. Consequently, the theory could not make any headway.
Maoists have chosen their field of operation in hilly areas like the districts within the Eastern Ghat, similar areas like southern and western Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. These areas are populated by the tribals and other forest dwellers, who are basically poor and defenceless.
The whole district of Kandhamal is endowed with small to big hillocks, saddles, ravines, valleys, cliffs, streams, meadows and plateaus, which provide best hideouts and sheltering places to the Maoists to carry out their unlawful and unsocial activities against the State Government. If we strictly visualize this, it will be seen that such actions always go against the natives of the areas. It causes much harm to the people of the region. Mao principally fought to give social justice to economically and socially backward people, but he did not expect that the people taking his ideology as shield would exploit and kill the downtrodden people of the backward regions. There is a difference between the forces and of the Maoists. The latter are indigenous people who know details about the topography of the region where they operate, but the police and anti-insurgency forces are quite new to the region and the culture of that land. So very easily they become the victim of the Maoists. Consequently, before taking any positive actions by the police, the area must be properly studied and action plans must be prepared accordingly.
Our jawans have expertise to proceed and achieve goals in the quite adverse situations but sometimes they end up in killing innocent civilians. The killing of the five Adivashi natives of Kandhamal, including a baby, recently has exposed this lacuna. The area is very difficult to handle physically, which is full of natural multistoried forests of sal and other species. The ground flora is very dense. The writer served for a reasonable period in the Kandhamal district and surveyed the forests. It is a heavenly abode blessed by nature’s thick forests but the area lies very much neglected by the administrations of the Centre and State for pretty long period. The natives are yet to see the light of modern development. The area is very much neglected as compared to other tribal lands of the State. This is not the fault of the residents. Every Government is responsible for this. If the forest dwellers continuously remain deprived of their share of development, this would certainly foment disenchantment against the administration. This is the sole reason which created a wider gap between the police and the Adivashi people.
In such sensitive areas, the Maoists find a very ideal ground to spread wings. The tribal lands should be provided with all amenities. Similarly, the children should be taken to schools and colleges. Also, the Health Department should render mobile health services in the remote areas.
The whole Kandhamal district population comes to only 1.73 per cent of the total population of the State. The administration must look in to the welfare of the people, where the 51.51 per cent of the tribal population of the State are residing. The literacy rate is very negligible.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)