Maoist Insurgency in West Bengal

Bastar, Dantewada, Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, and Kanker of Chattisgarh, Gaya of Bihar, Latehar of Jharkhand, Sambalpur of Orissa, and Gadchiroli of Maharashtra are continuously in headlines for the past few days. Dozens of people in these areas have lost their lives to Maoist violence, and schools, hospitals, and community buildings are being destroyed. The concerning aspect is that in recent times, these incidents are being repeated in Jharkhand and Bihar in a manner in which they have been going on in Chattisgarh for a long time.

Lalgarh Tragedy
What is taking place in Lalgarh in West Midnapore District of West Bengal is surprising and frightening. There is mayhem there for the last one week. It does not seem that there is anything like law and order there. The way people carrying traditional arms indulged in sabotage and arson to celebrate victory could not be called a normal people's movement. Incidents like burning down the local police station, destroying the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) office, murder of CPI-M workers, and attacking their homes proves that certainly destructive violent forces are also active there under the banner of the People's Committee against the police atrocities.

Almost all political parties keep giving advice from time-to-time of not solving the problem of Maoist violence in more than half dozen states of the country only from a law and order viewpoint. If it takes years just to understand a problem, words like unified command, federal forces, comprehensive policy, and social change lose their meaning. There is no direct and clear demand of Naxalites or Maoist insurgents on which political or any other kind of discussion could be held.

Path of Violence
The Government often says that discussions are only possible when these insurgents give up the path of violence and come onto the dialogue table keeping faith in India's constitution. As far as the Communist Party of India (Maoist) is concerned, this party has no faith in democratic means, because it believes that this political system is under the control of "capitalist" parties and elections is a meaningless exercise. In the statements released through its spokesperson, this party is continuously giving calls to take retaliatory action against security forces.

Nobody can deny the right to protest peacefully against injustice, but no one can support this kind of attack with weapons and declaration of liberation. There were reports of Maoists becoming active in Singur and Nandigram also, but amid political differences, nobody took the trouble of looking at them. In fact, it is time that all political parties understand the destructive goals of Maoists.

Presence of Violent Insurgents
In fact, Maoists are active there for a long time, and they have made inroads among local adivasis (aborigines). The branches of the CPI-M are active there, and they have trained adivasis. In November 2008, the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was attacked there with bombs when he was returning after laying the foundation stone of a steel factory. That provided proof of the presence of violent insurgents. After that, the police cracked down heavily. It is possible that innocent adivasis would also have become victims of the police atrocities. The local CPI-M workers were there with the police. This way, it turned into a direct confrontation.

Maoists took advantage of this situation. According to a report, Maoists declared a big region as liberated zone. This is a very dangerous situation. All this has been taking place for several days, and the police are not in a position to do anything. The central Government sent battalion of the paramilitary forces from Jharkhand, but they too were not allowed to enter for several hours. This situation is like a state functioning within an authorized state, which must be ended under all circumstances.

Restoring Rule of Law
Despite expressing its likes and dislikes so clearly, if the Government is hoping for a change of heart of these insurgents, then certainly the directionless-ness of today could be called proper, otherwise the lack of any kind of thinking on this problem is clearly visible. In the affected states, there is Congress party Government in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party Government in Chhattisgarh, regional party Biju Janata Dal's Government in Orissa, and no Government in Jharkhand at the moment. In this situation, only a federal initiative becomes important. Among the problems with which union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has started grappling in his new term, Jammu and Kashmir is perhaps the most serious, but he should soon take concrete initiative to give the message that he is also aware of the growing threat of Naxalism-Maoism.

Rule of law must immediately be established in Lalgarh. However, the state and federal Governments must go to the troubled area and try to understand why the situation became so grim. It is necessary to defeat these forces.