The Red Corridor threat

Our Home Minister Mr. PC Chidambaram has indeed shown tremendous gut and determination in reorganising our intelligence machinery, much to the dismay of bureaucrats and the senior officers in the intelligence outfits. He has taken initiatives to strengthen the security apparatus of our country and our forces as well to counter the growing threat of external terrorism. But little would he have hoped that during the course, another form of threat would soon take centre stage – an internal threat so strong that it could take the country to the brink of a civil war and is rightly termed as our biggest internal security threat – Naxalism.

Naxalites waging a guerrilla war mostly from the forests of central and eastern India have a one point policy agenda – fight for the rural poor and landless & self reliance & development in order to capture political power & built a communist state, for which, they would throw out any and every state object functioning in their regions by all means possible. The brutal killing of 76 CRPF jawans by Maoists shows their aggression and hunger for dominance in their areas of operation. Naxalites not only target the police and paramilitary forces, but also target the administrative machinery of the government (block development officers etc) & the judiciary as well. So strong is their movement, that their sphere of influence has spread to almost half the states in our country which are categorized as the Red Corridor.

But what prompts them to take up the gun? Why this anger against the system? Social activists attribute the entire reason as exploitation & oppression of the backward classes of society. The Maoist cadres are formed largely by the poorest of poor people and only a fraction of them are tribal's, as understood otherwise. The wide ranging social disparity, caste divides, corrupt political class & no visible development on the ground in those lands in the past 60 years are common reasons for the same. Not to mention the brutality of the upper castes against these people, frequent incidents of abuse & rape of women in tandem with the police and the complete failure of the administrative and justice delivery systems within their regions (remember the Jehanabad massacre in 1997 that sent shock waves through the nation when members of the upper caste Ranbir Sena, a private militia of landlords, brutally killed 58 people, largely women & children, belonging to the lower castes). Statistically speaking too, the Tendulkar committee report presented to the Govt says that almost 38 crore people in India live below the poverty line, out of which 28 crore people live at less than 40 rupees a day and nearly 10 crore live on 10-15 rupees a day….the data clearly shows the social divide in our country validating the cliché that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Activists even hold Corporate India responsible for the abetment of Naxalism because of their continuous quest for agricultural land to set up industries to tap the mineral wealth of these regions, which is supported by the Govt.

What is the solution to the crisis? Mr. Chidambaram wants complete neutralization of the naxalites at all costs. But he conveniently forgets that our police & paramilitary forces (which incidentally are among the largest in the world), armed with their service revolvers, are ill-equipped to fight those, who carry nothing less than AK47’s. The negligence of paramilitary forces like the CRPF, BSF, ITBP etc is a big blot on the Home ministry and significant improvement is needed in their pay scales, their equipment and training. Else, killing of our soldiers would become common news in no time. The naxals should abstain from violence in all forms and should resolute to solve their differences through dialogue and talks, but for this the state first has to show its sincerity and resolve to provide intensive relief, rehabilitation & development on the ground in their territories and work to alleviate poverty. Corporate social responsibility should be pepped up in these regions, with more initiatives taken for providing education to the children, and employment to the locals in the industries. The monies made by corporate India by wiping out the mineral riches of these states should be pumped back into social initiatives for these sections of the people. Land acquisition processes should be streamlined (although I admit this is wishful thinking) and no way should land owners be forced to sell their land at throw away prices. The Madhu Koda’s of India should be brought to justice and the few thousand crores made by them should be pushed back into the economy. This would be the only way out.