NAXALISM- “the greatest internal security threat to our country”..

   Recently in May 2019, Fifteen security personnel were killed in an IED blast in the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district Maharashtra. The Naxals triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) to blow up the police vehicle of the C-60 commandos, an anti-Naxal unit, was patrolling the area. This incident pulled me a decade back,  when then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh termed naxalism “the greatest internal security threat to our country” and said the government was taking adequate steps “to deal with the menace.”

The term Naxalism derives its name from the village Naxalbari of West Bengal. It is originated as rebellion against local landlords  who bashed a peasant over a land dispute. This rebellion was aimed with an objective of rightful redistribution of the land to working peasants which was initiated in 1967. This event encouraged many tribals and other poor people to join the movement and to start attacking local landlords. Gradually, Mao Zedong ,a chinese communist revolutionary , better known as the Father of the People's Republic of china , provided ideological leadership for the Naxalbari movement It is a doctrine to capture State power through a combination of armed insurgency, mass mobilization and strategic alliances . While Naxalism originated in India and Maoism in China , there is a common thread between the two is “armed resistance”  and “violence”. A large number of urban elites were also attracted to the ideology and formed the basis of Naxalites’ ideology. The early 1970s saw the spread of Naxalism to almost every state in India, and further in the 1970s, the movement was fragmented into disputing factions. By 1980, it was estimated that around 30 Naxalite groups were active, with a combined membership of 30,000.

In July 1971, Indira Gandhi launched a colossal combined army and police counter-insurgency operation, termed "Operation Steeplechase’’, against the Naxalites.  They had gained the support at ground level and had succeeded in connecting with tribal peasants between 1990s and 2000s . In 2009, the government of India announced a new nationwide initiative, "Integrated Action Plan" (IAP) for broad, co-ordinated operations aimed at dealing with the Naxalite problem in all affected states this plan included funding for grass-roots economic development projects in naxalite-affected areas. Despite Integrated Action Plan, there have been a number of massive attacks since 2010 across India up to 23rd November 2019 Latehar , Jharkhand incident.

Apart from above incidents, one of the prime concerns, would be the cause of Naxals in India , if you go through the entire history of Naxalism, you would get some prominent causes namely the Forest conservation Act, 1980 which deprives tribals, who depend on forest produce for their living , from even cutting a bark, which eventually paved the way for Massive displacement of tribal population due to development projects , mining projects and other reasons. Such people, who do not have any source of living, are being enlisted into naxalism and being given arms and money by the Naxal Minds.

Another thing is how the government of India taking up this issue and implementing development projects in the Naxal affected areas. We have infrastructural problems, as some villages are not yet connected properly with any communication network and rest development projects are being vandalized by the naxals. Despite of many attacks, government should be providing education and basic amenities into these affected areas, is the best thing to implement because “education is a weapon which can change the World.” Operation Green Hunt was started in 2010 aimed at deploying security forces in the naxal-affected areas and even started “Relief and Rehabilitation Policy” for bringing naxalites into mainstream. Most importantly one of the flagship schemes in the stream of development is “Aspiration Districts Programme” which also covers naxal affected district across India , launched in 2018, aims at rapidly transforming the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas.

Further State government can come forward Local police knows the language and topography of a region can fight naxalism better than the armed forces for example the state of Andhra Police ‘Greyhounds’ special forces to deal with naxalism in the state. State government needs to understand that naxalism is their problem, can be tackled effectively India has made some success in containing naxalism but the root causes have not been addressed yet. There is a gradual decline in the numbers of Naxal affected states but there is a need to think twice '' about the output we get from our efforts. Many of us, are not aware of Naxalism in India though Naxals being the greatest internal security threat to our country.