A long term strategy and tactics are required to face the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by India. In fact, country is losing battle against the Naxals. The insurgency started as a peasant rebellion in the eastern India village of Naxalbari in 1967 is spread in 16 of India’s 28 states. One fifth of nation’s forests are under Naxalite control.
India has been a major victim of externally sponsored insurgencies and terrorism for the last four decades. We have suffered and bled patiently and have taken huge human casualties, which could exceed 13,000 uniformed personnel and 53,000 civilians during the last 25 years.
The ideology of naxalites is anti-democratic and against our constitution. The problem till date has not found favour for serious discussion, primarily because it has never been treated as an issue which deserved national attention and was treated as a socio-economic problem or at best a law and order problem of the concerned state government.
Naxalism is based on rejection of path of parliamentary democracy. They are committed to armed struggle to lead the revolutionary movement aimed at securing land for the tiller and establishment of egalitarian society with economic independence.
In fact, Naxalites claim to be supported by the poorest rural populations especially Dalits and Adivasis. They are highly motivated, highly trained and there is possibility of some ex-army persons also. They have frequently targeted tribal, police and government workers in what they say is a fight for improved land rights and more jobs for neglected agricultural labourers and the poor. They are following a strategy of rural rebellion similar to that of protracted people’s war against the government.
An internally weakened India will be incapable of effectively dealing with the increasing external terrorist threats. As such, even though the Naxalite movement is an internal security concern, it can have serious consequences for the defense of the country and needs to be dealt with urgently.
Without strength in numbers or combat skills, the police have been unable to curb the spread of Maosist violence and defend the state’s isolated outposts and the Dantewada in which 75 personnel of the force and one Chattisgarh policeman dead on April 6 this year, is the glaring incident to know how much the naxalities are active.
Wait and Watch policy will not now work rather Will and Work strategy will only do the miracles to control the naxal movement. The only solution for maintaining of law and order is that Indian government should implement plans to develop the backward regions of the country that are the Naxalite strongholds. There is no harm in making the military presence in such States and Districts to successfully countering the naxalite menace which is a serious threat to destabilize the country.
