Growing Naxal Threat

More lives have been lost in Naxalite violence in the country than in terror strikes during the past two years. According to official estimates, around 650 people were killed in each of the last two years with roughly half the victims belonging to the security forces and the other half made up of innocent civilians.

From hijacking trains, bombing railways stations and torching oil tankers to ambushing policemen and gunning down civilians, Naxalites have spread their terror across a Red Corridor comprising 253 districts stretching from Tamil Nadu to Bengal accounting for over 40 per cent of India’s geographical area. Approximately 1,300 persons have been killed in the past two years alone, about 430 of them police personnel. This poses a serious challenge to national security, which needs to be addressed on a priority basis by both the Centre and the concerned State Governments.

Recent Tragedy
The recent ruthless gunning down of 16 police personnel including, for the first time, five policewomen, by naxalites in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district should serve as yet another grim reminder of the growing menace of naxalism in the country. The incident occurred after a contingent of police personnel was rushed to clear some trees that had deliberately been felled by naxalites on a busy state highway leading to Chhattisgarh. All the unsuspecting police personnel were killed in an ambush laid by a group of 70 to 100 Naxalites. This is the fourth incident of Naxalite violence in this district alone, where, together with last Thursday’s incident, 34 police personnel have lost their lives so far in 2009.

What was also new about the ambush and slaughter of 16 cops by Naxals in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district recently was that so many were killed, that five of those were women, and that it was so soon after the general elections. Rattled, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan cancelled a trip to, where else, New Delhi, to visit a part of his state long ignored by Mumbai.

Biggest Threat
The figure does not include the Naxalites killed in encounters but taken away by the rebels. But despite the Prime Minister’s assertion last year that Naxalites pose the biggest threat to internal security, the issue has largely been ignored by civil society in urban areas, obviously because so far they are the least affected by it.

But smaller towns in Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have started feeling the presence of Naxalites and it seems only a matter of time before they target bigger cities. A parallel with the Taliban in Pakistan is possibly far-fetched but the example nevertheless is useful to drive home the point that ignorance need not always be bliss.

Government’s Approach
Governments have generally used the carrot and then the stick in dealing with Naxalites. On one hand State Governments have offered to hold dialogue with the rebels and produced attractive rehabilitation packages to woo Naxalites back into the mainstream. On the other hand they have sought to provide more teeth to the police in an effort to crush the rebels.

Many State Governments have not been paying adequate attention to their police forces. A recent report prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General has observed that funds made available by the central government for police modernisation between 2000 and 2004 had been seriously under-utilised. For example, Orissa spent just one third of the planned outlay while in Jharkhand up to 60 per cent of the spent funds had been improperly utilised.

Urgent Solution Required
Though many States — Orissa and Maharashtra amongst them — took the cue and turned an almost blind eye, some states were different, among them Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Andhra, in fact, redeemed itself after the 2004 decision to let off Naxal leaders encircled in its northern forests, by ruthlessly taking them on thereafter. Carefully nurtured local intelligence units and a dedicated anti-Naxal force (Greyhounds) have successfully curbed the Naxal writ running over parts of Andhra Pradesh. In fact, Andhra Pradesh offers a blueprint for the Centre to consider.

These efforts have been punctuated by platitudes that the problem lay in poverty and inequality and with the hope that poverty alleviation programmes and development would be the ultimate solution to this vexed issue.

The police, on its part, claims to have gone the extra mile to win back the trust of the people, mostly poor tribesmen and villagers residing in otherwise resource-rich areas. Policemen have undertaken the distribution of medicines and organised medical camps. They have mobilised village youth and played football or volleyball matches in a bid to gain their trust and gather intelligence about Naxalites. They have even produced street plays ostensibly to expose Naxalites, who, according to these scripts, are said to be robbing people to pay for their own creature comforts. Similar efforts have been undertaken for the past several years, without much significant change on the ground.