The ability of governments to score self-goals is just phenomenal. The UPA government has done just that by banning Naxal group CPI (Maoist). By equating Naxals with terrorist outfits like Lashkar and HuJI, the government has once again missed the tree for the woods.
Before we get to anything else, let’s get this one simple fact straight. Naxalism is not born out of the flawed interpretation of some religion. Naxalism is born out of hunger. Out of poverty. Out of extreme social and economic deprivation. Naxlism breeds precisely because Mr. Chidambaram and his institutions cannot provide vast swathes of our poor people three square meals a day and a decent life. That’s why poor, famished people who have no other resort, take to the loud bang of a gun. To make a deaf government hear their voice.
WHAT ABOUT STATE SPONSORED TERROR?
It’s funny how when any poor man raises a gun against the state it’s termed as terrorism. But when the state itself raises a gun against its own people, it’s called patriotism. What about extra judicial killings? What about custodial deaths? Doesn’t this amount to terrorism as well? Transparency International says, every year around the world more people fall victim to state sponsored terrorism than to terrorism per se.
DISPROPORTIONATE USE OF FORCE
Just look at the number of troops fighting the naxals. There are 26 battalions, that’s 26,000 men of the Central Paramilitary Forces alone who are dedicated to fighting Naxals. In addition you now have the elite anti-naxal COBRA force which makes up for another 11,000. Apart from this, state governments themselves have special anti-naxal forces. The greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh number about 18,000. Jharkhand has a special force of about 14,000. In all, if you look at the entire red corridor, there are about half a million security men taking on a motley army of Maoists. And has anyone bothered to check the number of Maoists. Deprived men and women whom, the Prime Minister calls India’s enemy number one. All over the country, the cadres strength of the Maoists is just 10,500. If this is not an unequal war, then what is?
And after all this, the number of violent incidents attributed to Maoists has been reported only in 4% of the police stations across India.
WHY A BAN IS FUTILE
The Government had earlier banned the previous avatar of the CPI Maoists, the People’s War Group (PWG). Not that the Maoist movement simply withered away. It assumed a new name and a new form. Bans per se amount to squat. If the government is serious about tackling the Naxal menace, it has to review the way it perceives Naxalism. It’s not just a black and white law and order menace. It has to be treated as a socio-economic problem. These are our own people who are begging for their voices to be heard. But the question is: Is a Van Heusen clad Home Minister listening?
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