Political Diary
New Delhi, 18 January 2023
Naxals: Wake Up Call
TACKLE TERIFYING BLACK HOLE
By Poonam I Kaushish
It’s the season of banalities in
politics. An outsider would be excused for thinking that India’s biggest crisis
is BJP sniping over Rahul’s Bharat Jodo
Yatra, hate speeches, Joshimath sinking, inflation, high prices. Alas, lost
in the seamless and mindless meandering babble, is the brutal reality that the
1967 peripheral peasant threat nee Naxalites
have now reached a critical mass. Never Mind Home Minister Shah vowing to make
India Naxal-free next year.
Barely, had Shah spoken that Naxalites fired at a
CRPF COBRA commando team and Telangana police’s Greyhounds in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur
and Sukma districts during a massive anti-Naxal operation killing 6 policemen and
one Red commander Wednesday. Earlier 5 security personnel were killed in
Chaibasa, Jharkhand. And 2023 has just started.
Fury and anguish apart, it tore asunder the carefully
cultivated mirage of the rarified
air-condition portals of New Delhi’s Raisina Hill and State Capitals that the
Red brigade menace was not as serious as made out to be. Reeling out banal
statements, “Government is determined to take the ongoing fight against Naxals
to its logical conclusion.” Words we have heard zillion of times after every
attack, but as sequence of events shows its mere words.
Questionably, how does the Centre intend fighting
the war? Does it know the DNA of Maoists? Have an iron-tight anti-Naxal policy
in place? A realistic and accurate assessment of challenges? Does it know what
fuels their movement? Are Reds driven purely by “robbing Peter to pay Paul”
syndrome? Can an honorable cause and eventual utopian outcome justify violent
means? Is violence consistent with norms of democracy?
Tragically, Government is clueless of how it should
tackle the growing menace. At last count Maoists had spread their deadly
tentacles in 20 States and 223 districts – and is showing no signs of
exhaustion. (7 States have already slipped beyond State control). Worse, they
have assumed alarming proportions and intend ratcheting up stakes at a potent
level to destroy democracy and replace it with anarchy.
Intelligence sources aver Reds have links with Lashkar-e-Tayiba, HUL and other Islamic
terror outfits and enjoy patronage from China. Simultaneously, they want to
transmute the social structure through the barrel of the gun and are getting
moral & material support from Nepal, Pakistan’s ISI and China. Their
ambition: Have a ‘Red Corridor’ from Pashupati to Tirupati.
Clearly, Government cannot fight a
war with battle cries of courage. Think. Over 60 security personnel were killed
in 131 Naxal attacks till June last, another 62 dead and 103 injured 2021, 55
killed and 50 maimed 2020, 21killed and 26 wounded 2019 including a BJP MLA and
four security personnel exterminated when Naxals blew up their vehicle in
Dantewada district. In March-April 2017 37 CRPF jawans were again killed in two
separate attacks in Sukma. The preceding year a powerful landmine blast slayed
7 policemen in Raipur district and 2 in Sukma district.
Shockingly since 2014 they have killed over 3,670 people
equaling three deaths every two days according to South Asia Terrorism Portal. Only
one Naxal gets killed for four deaths among policemen and civilians. Not only
that. As Reds become mightier and deadlier with each killing, police helplessness
is obvious.
Pertinently, 14 of Chhattisgarh’s 27
districts are in the vicious tentacles of left wing extremism violence. Sadly,
successive Government’s have reveled in pass-the-buck mind games and taken the
easy way. Arguably, has India underestimated Maoists’ military capabilities?
Prepared its forces to tackle a well-entrenched and motivated guerrilla
force? Covering the entire panoply of
counter-insurgency skills: Training to technology, intelligence to social
development. Given, counter-insurgency is not a picnic.
Asserted a senior police officer,
“There is lot of vacillation and ad hocism, whereby counter-Naxal strategy and
attacks have been outsourced to Central security forces.” Consequently,
with Central forces playing supporter’s role
and not a lead force to the State, the fight against Maoists is manifest by
massive confusion and operational weakness with both accusing each other of
failure.
Consequently, tackling Maoists
cannot be dismissed as a rural or tribal problem of quelling a mob of
stone-throwers. Four factors need to be remembered. One, coordination,
cooperation and complete understanding between CRPF and State police as sons of
soil they know the terrain while CRPF gets battalion from all over for short periods
who have neither terrain knowledge or know the local language. Towards that
end, police must be motivated, given pre-induction training and right equipment
before being sent to battlefield.
Two, provide proper ground intelligence
back-up. As attacks show there are not enough intelligence inputs. More impetus
should be given to feedback from the ground whereby authorities need to
sanitize people on the periphery of security forces: drivers, sweepers and
locals to ensure Maoists don’t have access to vital information that would help
them mount deadly attacks. Also, one should think out-of-the-box and adopt
unique tactics along-with constant and continuous uniformity in response.
Three, be ever vigilant. Use vehicles
off the beaten track or move on foot. Take a leaf of Andhra and Punjab. In
Andhra it was compulsory for every sub-inspector recruited to train in
anti-Naxal operations and IPS officers were posted in Naxal-hit districts
before being made SPs.’ In Punjab, terrorism
was rooted out by police taking terrorists
head on with CRPF, BSF and Army support.
Further, learn from military. When it finds conditions
tough, it does tactical retreat, regroups and again assaults. Security forces
need to do ditto. An integrated manpower policy adopted for armed, paramilitary
and central police forces. Forces need to be overhauled and restructured in command
and control.
Till date the Government has talked
ad nauseum about its ‘anti-Naxal strategy’ couched in jingoistic jargon of
“challenge, development” etc. Used grand language: “tackle terror on the
political, security and development fronts in a holistic manner”. Failing to
realize that impressive catchphrases don’t add up to well-thought-of
strategies. Instead they only allude to a mumble-jumble of intentions and
wishful thinking at best and complete catatonia at worst.
What next? New Delhi must acquire
resources to contain if not annihilate the enemy. There should be planned
deployment of time-bound resources imposed by conflict. The Government needs to
realize if there is disconnect between its objectives, tactics, resources and
ground conditions, all stratagems and measures are rendered redundant.
It needs to deal with distortions in
the social system on a war footing to alleviate poverty, ensure speedy
development and enforce law and order strictly. Police needs reorientation,
equipment and mandate to deal with Maoists. Only through genuine police reforms
and dramatic augmentations in general policing capabilities can the State stem
the rising tide of Naxal terror. Given that Maoists follow the ‘fish in water’ policy:
which renders guerrilla soldiers indistinguishable from common citizens.
Undoubedly, both Centre and State
need to act together, take the bull by the horn and realize that anti-Naxal
operations are a chronic terrifying black hole. Time to send a clear message
that senseless violence wouldn’t be tolerated. Remember, nations live or die by
the way they respond to a challenge. Do our leaders have the stomach? ---- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature
Alliance)
|