Political Diary

New Delhi, 7 April 2012

Naxals Kidnap, Govt Crawls

WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP?

By Poonam I Kaushish

Yawn, it’s the same old story all over again. So predictable. The Naxals are back in business: kidnapping and killing. They struck again in Orissa by kidnapping a BLD MLA and two Italians, one since released, nearly a month back. And it took only 20 days for the Maoists to bring the State Government on its knees, crawling and agreeing to meet all their demands, albeit release 32 Naxalites. Underscoring that when push come to shove, we buckle!

Importantly, the issue is not the latest crisis because this is not going to be the extremists last. Or, whether the State administration concedes the Maoists demands. What matters is that it exposes the Government’s, Centre and States, soft under-belly. Notwithstanding, it is the State’s duty to protect its citizens, the harsh truth is that abduction for the release of jailed Maoists has become a raison de atre of Maoist theatre.

True, it is very difficult for any Government to maintain a hands-off-stand when innocents are kidnapped. From Kandahar onwards, Governments have negotiated, ceded demands to get citizens released. Failing to realise the cure is worse than the disease. Think last year Odisha released a Maoist ideologue for a district collector and engineer, Bihar set free unknown number of Maoists for three policemen in 2010 and in 2009 Jharkhand freed 14 terrorists for a BDO and West Bengal 24 for a police officer et al.

Undoubtedly, the polity’s powerlessness to deal with hard targets strongly has given us the soft State image whereby everyone takes us for a ride. Worse, the Administration is unable to enforce its writ throughout the country, a natural sine qua non of a State. Remember, it is no use having the instruments to enforce law if one lacks the ability to put them to effective use.

Clearly, this 'don’t-rock-the-boat-avoid-confrontation' policy has cast a long shadow on the central and state security forces fight against Red terror. Not only has it affected their morale, made them vulnerable in the absence of clear instructions from the top but also emboldened the Naxalites to carry out more brazen strikes, bringing newer areas under their control. Resulting in mounting number of attacks and surging casualties.

Plainly, the insurgency, which started in 1967 as a peasant uprising, has now spread to 20 States and 223 districts– and is showing no signs of exhaustion. (7 States have already slipped beyond State control). Worse, as the Reds becoming mightier and deadlier with each killing, the police helplessness is obvious. Add to this the Prime Minister confessing that the Naxals are the numero uno security threat to India.  

Think. The Maoists have killed over 3,670 people since 2005, equaling three deaths every two days according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal. Shockingly, only one Naxal gets killed for four deaths among security personnel and civilians. Add to this, the Maoists have seized over 3000 weapons including AK 47’s, bombs and RDX in the last three years. Highlighting, the Government ill-preparedness, our intelligence apparatus’s in-effectiveness and the abysmal lack of Centre-State coordination.

Questionably, how does the Centre intend fighting the war? Does it know the DNA of the Maoists? Have an anti-Naxal policy in place? A realistic and accurate assessment of the challenge? Does it know what fuels their movement? Are the Reds driven purely by the “robbing Peter to pay Paul” syndrome? Can an honorable cause and an eventual utopian outcome justify violent means? Is violence consistent with the norms of democracy?

Sadly, for the past year, the Government has talked ad nauseum about its 'anti-Naxal strategy' couched in jingoistic jargon of “clear, hold, develop, a four-legged race” etc. Used grand language like tackling terror “on the political, security and development fronts in a holistic manner". Failing to realize that impressive catchphrases don’t add up to well-thought of strategies. Instead they only allude to a mumble-jumble of intentions and wishful thinking at best and complete catatonia at worst.

Undoubtedly, our war against Naxalism is slowly but surely turning out be a one-sided bloody affair, as Maoists dominate a battlefield of dispirited security forces. The level of their sophistication in inflicting large-scale casualties with minimum damage to themselves exposes their superiority.

Not only that. The Maoists have assumed alarming proportions and are all set to ratchet up the stakes to a deadly and more potent level to destroy our democracy and replace it with anarchy. According to intelligence sources, the Reds have links with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, HUL and other Islamic terror outfits and enjoy patronage from China. Their ambition is to have a ‘red corridor’ from Pashupati to Tirupati.

Shockingly, New Delhi is fighting this violent movement with not even one tenth of the total security forces required to contain it. Worse, more than 30% of the Centre’s outlay towards modernization of the police force in the Red corridor has not been released at all and in eight Naxal-hit States only 63% of the outlay was used in 2001-2009.

According to the Institute for Conflict Management Director, “the forces do not have the strength, training, transportation and arms to gain control over such vast swaths of territory. Until there’s a steady capacity-building, all deployments will be irrational. It will just be a nibbling away at the peripheries, and a lot of security forces will be killed.” The national average of the police-population ratio is about 1.3 policemen per 10,000 citizens. Yet in Bihar, a Naxal-prone State, the ratio of policemen to the public per 10,000 is a meagre 0.9 i.e hardly one policeman for 10,000 people!

The time has come for New Delhi to get its priorities and act together. There is an urgent need to undertake joint operations and set up joint unified commands for continuous monitoring of the arms profile of various Naxal groups in Naxal-prone States. Along-with tackling the lacunae in the Naxal’s ideological framework, launching a political offensive to correct the distortions in the social system, ensure speedy development and enforce law and order strictly.

Our leaders need to show some backbone in punishing the Naxals before claiming to deal with the phenomenon of terrorism. They need to distinguish between conflict resolution and peace. When the State’s existence is in peril, the only way to hit back is to carry the fight into the enemy camp. It is not enough to assert ‘we have might and muscle. One has to display that power.

In the ultimate, we need a clear vision and a no-nonsense approach to come to grips with this long, bloody war. The Centre cannot pass the buck to the States, it must take a forceful lead, quickly forge a no-holds barred policy to show that Maoists’ senseless violence wouldn’t be tolerated. As the Israeli’s assert, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

Clearly, the time has come for the Government to smell the coffee: Talks and terror cannot co-exist. Remember, nations live or die by the way they respond to a challenge. The nation that survives is the one that rises to meet that moment, has the wisdom to recognize the threat and the will to turn it back before it is too late. Do our netagan have the stomach? ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)