The Government of India had categorically declared, some time ago, that Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) pose the most serious threat to the country’s internal security. During the last five years, LWEs have retreated to a limited geographical area, and are now mostly active in the tri-junction along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border and Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh border.
The Indian government, in a recent meeting, has directed central forces and state police personnel deployed in the LWE-prevalent areas to make a decisive push to tackle the LWEs.
The maximum presence of LWEs continues to be in Chhattisgarh. It is important to analyze the factors for continued violence by LWEs in the area, posing such a serious challenge to the growth story of Chhattisgarh.
The administration in the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh has failed to deliver services required by the people. Consequently, people living in far flung areas have been denied an equal pace of development. Social conflicts arising from this deprivation have not been adequately resolved by harmonizing the competing and conflicting values, identities and interests. The local administration has been more concerned about spending the funds than actual delivery of goods and services.
Corruption and its proliferation are by-products of no-governance and bad governance. The governance record in providing education, health care and poverty alleviation programmes has been disastrous, leading to public agony and mistrust in the system. This ultimately contributed to internal disturbances and provided an opportunity to the LWEs to establish the epicentre of their movement in the tribal area of Bastar.
The administration in the LWE-hit Bastar area - dominated by tribals - has been afflicted by various ailments: lack of professionalism and poor capacity-building; inefficient incentive systems that do not appreciate upright and outstanding persons, but occasionally even reward the corrupt and incompetent; lack of adequate transparency and accountability procedures; no security for whistle blowers; arbitrary and whimsical transfer of personnel; political interference and administrative acquiescence and erosion in values and ethics.
In this context, administrative reforms are immediately needed to ensure that a transparent structure is in place. To see that schemes are planned and implemented according to the needs of the people of Bastar, various levels of approval processes should be cut down. The present system of getting everything approved from the state government delays the development process and hampers growth of innovation at the district level. Proper use of modern technology must be promoted to expedite decision making and to reach the last mile with the benefits of governance.
A paradigm shift in the nature of government officials would help cope with the demands and changes in society. The current crop of government officials seem to have no commitment to public service. They mostly believe in doing their paper work and showing the achievement of financial targets. This ought to be changed and achievement of real targets in letter and spirit must be ensured.
Chhattisgarh has a vibrant democracy and a civil society which enables the procedural aspects of democratic governance. However, the substantial aspect is mostly elusive, with public institutions being inaccessible to a large section of the people. Despite a promising institutional context, the structures of governance have remained ineffectual in fulfilling the basic needs of the tribals in Bastar.
Decentralization and accountability, transparency and responsiveness would make the officers and employees at district level more responsible. This may inspire them to work for peaceful conflict management also. For this, Bastar does not need more strong men, but more committed persons. Without committed persons, no amount of money, no amount of equipment and no amount of resources will bring development and peace in Bastar.
We must strengthen the democratic institutions by good governance. In this regard, political parties and their grass root workers will also have to come forward because democratic assertion and articulation cannot be done by the civil administration or security forces alone. The political parties will have to go to the people to reiterate that the government is committed to the welfare of the people and also to convince the people that the LWEs are there to bring destruction and have not realized the so called ‘goal’ of attaining socialism even in one small village. This kind of political move will help win back support of the people for anti- LWE operations.
So, a three–pronged strategy of maximum security measures, welfare and development activities and political commitment will have to be implemented simultaneously to combat extremism and restore normal life.
(The author, a retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service. He can be contacted at drsushil.trivedi@gmail.com)