Aggression is the new mantra of the Centre, States and security forces to take on the Maoist challenge. An aggressive anti-Naxal operation will go hand-in-hand with infrastructural development projects in Maoist-hit areas, the Centre and 10 extremism-affected States decided on Monday.
“There is need to find a solution to this problem and the strategy is available and encompassed in the word ‘SAMADHAN’. It means S-Smart leadership, A-Aggressive Strategy, M-Motivation and Training, A-Actionable Intelligence, D-Dashboard Based KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KRAs (Key Result Areas), H-Harnessing Technology, A-Action plan for each Theatr, N-No access to Financing,” Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.
“We have to bring aggression in our policy, there should be aggression in our thinking, aggression in our strategy, aggression in the deployment of security forces, aggression in operations, aggression in ringing development, aggression in road construction.
“We will have to be cautious that extremely defensive deployment may result in reduction of operational offensive,” Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in his inaugural address to a conclave of Chief Ministers and top officers of the Maoist-hit States, a fortnight after 25 CRPF personnel were massacred by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district. Hence, more forces will be deployed in the Maoist hot beds and more helicopters will be provided to the States.
Alongside aggressive operations, road construction works, setting up of telecommunication, power and railway facilities in the remote areas will be expedited. Singh stressed for befitting strategies during the security operations and enhanced intelligence in tackling the Maoists.
Economic resources, he said, play an important role in any war — only when money is available is it possible to buy, eat, drink and possess ammunition and weapons. “Therefore, choking the financial resources of the left wing extremists is the most basic mantra in this fight,” he said.
Maoist rebels are known to extort money from contractors engaged in almost all development projects being executed in areas they hold sway which they call “levy”. Declaring an all out war, Singh stressed on “unity of purpose” and spoke of a unified coordination and command to counter left wing extremists (lWE). Along with strategic command, unified command was required at the operational and tactical level — besides intelligence sharing which was equally important, he said.
Referring to the enormity of the problem, Singh said as many as 12,000 citizens had lost their lives in Maoist violence over the last two decades. Of these, 2,700 were jawans of security forces and 9,300 were innocent common people. There were no shortcuts to success, he said, underscoring the need for short-term, medium-term and long-term policies at different levels.
Referring to the 9/11 terror attack, he said the US had taken on the challenge to ensure that there was no repeat. The 9/11 Commission stated that the incident was not failure of intelligence but the failure of imagination, he said.
“Therefore, the SAMADHAN, which we have discussed today has inbuilt potential for imagination. We have to work on imaginative thinking on the whole situation so that we can out-think and out-manoeuvre left-wing extremists,” he said.
“In order to free India from the influence of left-wing extremists that encourage violence and killing, it is necessary that we all should think and work in this direction. I believe that efforts to suppress democracy through the influence of the gun will never succeed,” he said.
The Chief Ministers of Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand attended the meeting, while West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh were represented by Home Ministers and senior officers. District magistrates and superintendents of police of 35 worst-hit Naxal-affected districts along with heads of paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies also attended the high-level security meet.
Detailing the deliberations about the meeting, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said Union Ministers of Roads, Power, Railways and Telecom — Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Suresh Prabhu and Manoj Sinha respectively also held discussions with the Chief Ministers for the speedy implementation of infrastructure. Most of the states urged for speedy implementation of telecom and power projects in the remote areas for the development.
However, Home Secretary was tightlipped on the decisions taken in the meeting about the operations. But he said there was a discussion on stopping the illegal money flow in the Maoist affected areas. “Demonetisation has choked the funds to Naxals and the desperation is now to snatch the arms etc,” he said without detailing further.