Naxalism

NAXALISM IN INDIA

• The term Naxalism derives its name from the village Naxalbari of West Bengal.

• It originated as rebellion against local landlords who bashed a peasant over a land dispute. The rebellion was initiated in 1967, with an objective of rightful redistribution of the land to working peasants under the leadership of Kanu Sanyal and Jagan Santhal.

• Started in West Bengal, the movement has spread across the Eastern India; in less developed areas of states such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

• It is considered that Naxals support Maoist political sentiments and ideology.

• Maoism is a form of communism developed by Mao Tse Tung. It is a doctrine to capture State power through a combination of armed insurgency, mass mobilization and strategic alliances.

CAUSES

[1] Tribal discontent:

• The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 deprives tribals, who depend on forest produce for their living, from even cutting a bark.

• Massive displacement of tribal population in the naxalism-affected states due to development projects, mining operations and other reasons.

[2] Easy Target for Maoists:

• Such people who do not have any source of living are taken into naxalism by Maoists.

• Maoists provide arms and ammunitions and money to such people.

• Gaps in the socio-economic system of the country.

• Government measuring its success on the basis of number of violent attacks rather than the development done in the naxal-affected areas.

• Absence of strong technical intelligence to fight with naxalites.

• Infrastructural problems, for instance, some villages are not yet connected properly with any communication network.

[3] No Follow-Up from administration:

• It is seen that even after police takes hold of a region, administration fails to provide essential services to the people of that region.

OTHERS :

• Confusion over tackling naxalism as a social issue or as a security threat.

• State governments considering naxalism as the central government’s issue and thus are not taking any initiatives to fight it.

GOVERNMENT ’S APPROACH AGAINST NAXALISM:

Operation Green Hunt:

started in 2010 and massive deployment of security forces was done in the naxal-affected areas. From 223 districts that were affected due to naxalism in the year 2010, the number has come down to 90 in nine years.

Aspirational Districts Programme:

The Government’s approach is to deal with Left Wing Extremism in a holistic manner, in the areas of security, development, ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities, improvement in governance and public perception management.

Operation ‘SAMADHAN’ is the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)’s initiative to deal the Naxal problem. The acronym SAMADHAN stands for Smart leadership, Aggressive strategy, Motivation and training, Actionable intelligence, Dashboard Based KPIs (key performance indicators) and KRAs (key result areas), Harnessing technology, Action plan for each theater, and No access to financing.

Technological interventions:

The MHA has suggested the use of trackers for weapons, and bio-metrics in smart guns.Unique Identification number (UID) for Gelatine sticks and explosives.At least one UAV or Mini UAV is deployed for each of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) battalions deployed in the Maoist hotbed.

OTHERS

• Joint Task Forces for operations along inter-State boundaries to be set up. Better inter-state coordination and intelligence sharing.

• ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ being State subjects, action on maintenance of law and order lies primarily in the domain of the State Governments. For this government has took following steps:

• Filling up critical infrastructure gaps under the Scheme for Special Infrastructure in Left Wing Extremism affected States.

• Assistance in training of State Police through the Ministry of Defence.

• Assistance in community policing and civic action programmes.

REFORMS NEEDED :

• Government needs innovative solutions for locating armed groups in the thick forests of the naxalism-affected regions.

• Local Police knows the language and topography of a region; it can fight naxalism better than the armed forces.

• Andhra Police rose ‘Greyhounds’; special forces to deal with naxalism in the state.

• Government needs to ensure two things; security of the peace-loving people and the development of the naxalism-affected regions.

• State governments need to understand that naxalism is their problem also and only they can tackle it effectively. They can take help from central government if required.