The Nation is facing a much bigger security threat from the Maoist. The naxalite phenomenon, as represented by the Maoist, is not new to India. They follow the 'annihilation line' as propounded by Charu Majumdar, which in short means 'adopt a line of killing the opponents' whoever they are. Initially, the killing was limited to cruel feudal landlords who were exploiting the landless farmers. Later, they got so taken in by the taste of blood that they started killing whoever they felt were not sympathetic to their line.
The Naxalism/Maoism is not new to India. They have a bloody history dating back to mid 1960's. The naxal movement was largely confined to West Bengal, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. I clearly remember the terror they struck in Kerala in my school days and even had friends who were fringe members of the movement. There was even an incident in Kongad in my home district and suddenly the terror was too close for comfort. Most of the naxalites in Kerala were highly educated, intellectual rebels. They were idealists, who resented the inequalities in the society and were attracted by the ideological ramblings of the naxal leaders. Since they abhored the society, they chose to revolt. Though the movement weakened in Kerala during the late 70's, the undercurrents were felt in the Calicut University Campus ( a breeding ground for the movement ) when I was doing my MBA. Many of the Kerala naxalites gave up the annihilation line, and some like Ajitha continued her struggle against injustice through means more suitable for a democracy. Higher education levels, more awareness, more job opportunities, higher wages for labourers, demise of feudal landlords and the state moving away from an agrarian based economy to a services based one killed the movement in Kerala. The Andhra movement also slowly faded away.
But with many parts of North and North East India lacking in development, with people driven out of their homelands by greedy industrialists and government, low wages, abject poverty, gross inequality, rich becoming filthy rich and a pan south asian network active, the CPI (ML) slowly started attracting more and more people in these impoverished region. The porous borders and the success tasted in Nepal, where the Maoist overthrew the monarchy, and active support from neighbouring intelligence operators who saw a vehicle in Maoists to destablilize India and a shockingly apathetic Indian Government who turnd a blind eye to their atrocities - all contributed to the Maoist movement suddenly taking on gigatic proportions.
Today, 40% of India's Geographic area is under their control. 25% of the 600 districts are Maoist controlled. The Governments writ dont run in these places. They have popular support -either genuine or out of fear. Successive Governments, both at the Centre and State level, have not done anything other than paying lip service and sending a few paramilitary forces to tackle them.
Maoism cannot be tackled through counter insurgency operations. They are experts in guerilla warfare and their terrain is ideal for it. The troops dont stand a chance as the area to be monitored is vast. The long term solution is to educate the population, do geniune governance that improve the infrastructure and livelihood of people so that they dont feel a need to turn to extra constitutional authorities like Maoists to solve their problem. This has to be tackled politically at the grass root level. But none of our political parties have cared to do ground level political work. They sit in their ivory towers and be guided by high commands who dont know the ground realities. Neither do the Government.
We are in for a violent future.
