Articles

The linkages synthesized by Maoist groups with militant organisations, North East insurgents and radical Islamic organisations particularly for availing terror logistics continues to be a key concern for the internal security of India. At the same time, a plethora of factors and reasons imply the role of China in lugging iron to Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in India.

India is on a surge; a great destiny awaits it. If there is one single factor that could negate or retard it, it will be its failure to govern itself. Ensuring safety and security of its people, upholding the rule of law, managing change with order and ensuring legitimacy of power by those who wield it shall be critical components of that governance. Should it fail to happen, history will once again lament India couldn’t do what it could.

Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh has been reiterating a word of caution about the increasing threat of Left Wing Extremism. Few weeks ago, he conveyed the high sign of losing out a double digit sustained growth rate unless the mineral rich Central India as well as the tribal population are freed from the clutches of the Maoist menace.¹ The challenge in front of the nation, as mentioned by the Prime Minister, is arduous for it implies containing an extremist organisation which prevents the nation to put its own resources to optimum use but thrive on them successfully.

The Prime Minister has consistently called Left Wing Extremism (LWE) as India’s greatest internal security threat. The threat assessment however, differs sharply from response realities. For over a decade, the Indian nation state has seriously underestimated the Maoist threat and under-resourced the battle against this grave menace. In the Shivraj Patil era, a concerted attempt was made to assert that such a threat simply did not exist.

Lt Gen JFR Jacob (retired) PVSM

The Naxal Insurgency started in the tiny thatched hut village of Naxalbari in 1967 by Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal. By 1969, it had spread all over West Bengal. The main cause was economic, rampant poverty. The insurgency had, by 1969, spread to the urban areas as well as the mofussil; to the universities, colleges and schools. They had taken over Jadavpur University. Their HQ was in Presidency College. They were active in the factories and were trying to take over the Trade Unions. The situation was indeed grim and the Police and Para-military were unable to cope.

Though, as always, valuable time of parliament was lost in disruptions and political bickering, the just concluded Budget Session had one significant outcome – the emergence of a consensus across the political divide on the need for firm measures to tackle the threat that Maoists are posing to democracy and the rule of law.

Six years back, when on November 4, 2004, the Prime Minister proclaimed Left Wing Extremism as the biggest threat confronting the nation that had to be dealt at ‘war footing’, it had a ring of resolve of a freshly elected government to take the bull by its horns. However, when he repeats the same now, it carries an air of helpless lamentation. The efforts at war footing notwithstanding, during the last six years, the area under Naxal influence has nearly doubled extending to nearly 203 districts in fourteen states.