Maoism/Naxalism, India's Achilles Heel

The all too familiar headlines On Tuesday read “Naxalites/Maoists kill 15 security personnel and a civilian in the restive Bastar region near Tongpal in Chhattisgarh. The incident took place just four km from the spot where rebels had targeted a convoy of Congress leaders in May 2013, killing key party functionaries”.

Acting on a tip-off about the presence of a large number of Naxalites in the area, a team of 40 troops from the 80th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Chhattisgarh police left Tongpal on a search operation on Tuesday. When the team reached Takwada, about three km from Tongpal, it came under heavy fire.

What is irreconcilable and inexplicable is that this was a pre planned search operation. How come it ended in such a shameful failure of the establishment and the boots on ground, where sixteen innocent lives were lost? The alarming regularity with which we face this de javu is becoming depressingly predictable like our crime films - direct pick offs from an Alfred Hitchcock or Agatha Christie blockbuster. Regrettably, true to their style the Central Govt, the State Govt and the bigwigs in CRPF, who planned and executed these ops, are conveniently passing the buck. Why haven’t any heads rolled so far, who is accountable?

 Common lament of deprivation and exploitation of locals, based on caste and class is sighted as the primary driver for their isolation and motivation to take up arms against the State. This is a social problem requiring pragmatic policy formulation and implementation to overcome the same. Unfortunately the Centre has, over the years, only papered over the hard truth than face it squarely. Wonder when will they get their act together and understand the dynamics at work, stop crony capitalism and integrate the masses in the main stream?

On the other hand attempts at fighting and eliminating Maoism/Naxalism in the cavalier manner that the Home Minister, Shinde suggested have ended in a dismal failure and the rot of Maoism/Naxalism  has spread in more than 250 districts of India, termed as the” red corridor”. Yet we continue to undertake these ill conceived half hearted ops to prove that we mean business and will not accept the people’s right to resist/challenge their exploitation.

Why didn’t the CRPF mount surveillance ops prior to sending in the troops? They could have asked the IAF for UAVs to gather the requisite ISR to locate any surreptitious movements. However, if the policy is to eliminate Naxalism/Maoism then why not equip the troops appropriately, to combat such situations. UAVs carrying Synthetic Aperture Radars and hyperspectral imaging that detect objects underground, especially the IEDs, and state of the art personnel weapons should be inducted in the Central Para Military Forces assigned with such tasks.

The lame duck UPA, which has faltered and failed the nation on every count over the last five years, is not expected to do anything other than churn out incendiary rhetoric. One can only hope and pray that the next Govt would give this burning issue the due consideration and move  ahead to resolve it amicably with the affected people, rather than take up arms against its own citizens.