As the general election approaches, the Red ultras will become more determined to thwart the democratic process. They have already proved as much with the latest attack in Chhattisgarh
Once again, the Maoists have massacred our security forces. Once again this has happened in the tribal district of Bastar. And once again it is the so-called human rights activists who have been blaming the Indian state and it inability to fix the supposedly underlying socio-economic problems for this armed insurrection in the country.Also, after last week’s Maoist attack on security forces that were going to protect workers involved in a road construction project, in the extremely backward Bastar district, it appears that all that the nation can do is wait for the next round of attacks by these rebels.
The search for a solution is lost in the debate that such attacks spark. Much of the conversation is a distraction. The first part of the debate is about who is to blame: The Union or the State Government concernedIJ For now, it is mostly Chhattisgarh that bears the brunt of the Maoists’ challenge to democracy, but Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra and Maharashtra also suffer.
The short answer to this question ought to be that eradicating an insurgency is the joint responsibility of the Union and the State Governments. The Union Government provides special forces like the CISF, the CRPF and the aerial reconnaissance teams while the State Police takes responsibility for gathering ground-level intelligence and providing other support systems.
Recently, the Union Government introduced the Under Vest Restraint System to scan Maoist-infested areas and provide intelligence on the movement of the insurgents. It also must keep a tab on movement of arms and money to the Maoists, who mislead the poor tribals into believing that they can seize the state apparatus through insurrection and that will go a long way in improving the economic situation of the marginalised sections of society.
Unfortunately, the tribals of Bastar never get to know about what happened to similar movements in other parts of the world. For example, they do not know that Soviet Russia was overthrown by the people when they realised that even after 75 years of Marxist rule, they still did not have two meals a day or minimum comforts. Similarly, in China, even though a communist party is in power, it has had to adopt free enterprise to push itself to the top. On the contrary, because the regime in North Korea has persisted with communism, that country is one of the poorest in the world, even though its neighbour, South Korea, is an upper middle-income country.
The Maoists destroy schools and seek to block all sorts of development works that connect the forests to the outside world and provide relief to the people. This is proof of their intent to retain a vice-like grip on the tribals who they want to keep poor, deny education and basic healthcare facilities.
It is worth recalling that in the Sukma district of Bastar area when a young Collector, Mr Vineet Krishna, succeeded in setting up schools and health centres, the Maoists abducted him and held him prisoner for almost a month. That was also a warning to other officers of the State to not work for the people.
Unfortunately, the intellectuals of the country seem to have their eyes closed towards these means and methods of the Maoists. Instead, they keep repeating ad nauseam that the entry of security forces into Maoist-held areas is a violation of human rights. The doctor from Raipur who justified Maoist violence and decried police intervention even got a helping hand from the Supreme Court. How can the State Government — or for that matter the Union Government — deal with armed insurgency in such a situationIJ
There is, of course, the need for both the Union and the State regimes to work with each other to eliminate the Maoist menace. It is equally important that the Union Minister for Home Affairs inspire the security forces to give their best, even in the hostile environment of Bastar and other Maoist-infested areas. The incumbent Home Minister, and most of his predecessors during the two tenures of the UPA, have been feeble. Only Mr P Chidambaram was an exception. But even he was busy eyeing the Finance Ministry for much of the time and, thereby, could not give his best to the Home Ministry.
Besides, how could the Congress lead this fight against the Maoists when it is suffering from cleft feetIJ That the party is confused in its approach to the Maoist menace is clear from the fact that it supported the campaign for Binayak Sen on the ground that mere intellectual justification of violence against the state cannot be a crime.
Following last week’s Maoist attack, we are now being told that the insurgents were sending a message to the Indian state to not go ahead with the upcoming lok Sabha election. Ironically, the same tribals, whose loyalty the Maoists claim, voted in large numbers in the State Assembly election held only four months ago. Their strong participation in the coming parliamentary election will demonstrate that the tribal people are beginning to see through the propaganda of the Maoists and that they now understand the value of a free and fair election as a game-changer.
After all the Raman Singh Government in Chhattisgarh has been acclaimed for its success in making the Public Delivery System successful and pro-people. If it has been elected three times, it is certainly on the basis of the relief it has brought to the people in the State. Obviously this success is now visible to the tribals as well as such information cannot be totally blanked-out, even in the thick of the jungles.
By this logic, it is quite certain that the frustrated Maoist leadership — which has already lost some of its top fighters — will organise more attacks to destroy the morale of the security forces. Civil society activists have an obligation to understand the dangers such an armed insurgency poses to orderly progress.