What is the issue?
Described by Ex-PM Dr. Manmohan Singh as “India’s biggest internal security threat”, the recent attack by the Maoists is a sign of their waning strength, although perhaps not the flicker of a dying flame.
What is the course of action taken by the government?
- The response of the Indian state has been twofold.
- It attempts to provide basic services to win back the Adivasis, and simultaneously, it seeks military conquest of the Maoists.
- Its battle strategy includes emptying out the river that gives the Maoists sustenance: the people living in those areas.
- Mass incarcerations (Chhattisgarh has the highest capacity utilization of prisons in India), fake encounters, and large-scale recruitment into the police forces constitute the strategic line of the state.
- This state of affairs benefits the Indian state as the focus on the “law and order problem” allows it to avoid questions arising about the foundations of its development model.
- Companies find it easier to pay off politicians and bureaucrats to secure their projects rather than genuinely winning the hearts of people, something.
- The Maoists also gain as they get a steady stream of recruits from people fleeing the excesses of the government.
What is the present state of Maoists?
- The insurgents have been losing power for several years.
- People have begun to fear them as much as they fear the Indian state.
- Social services have begun to reach many areas.
- The charms of modern society and education are exerting a pull on the youth, including members of the Maoist cadre.
- The elimination of many top leaders and the inability to offer a compelling alternate vision has led to ideological bankruptcy of the rank and file.
- In their current weakened state, the Maoists seem to have abandoned whatever principles they espouse.
- However, the ongoing excesses on the Adivasis and, the inexorable urge of the Indian state to accelerate mineral extraction mean that Maoists may continue to serve as a refuge for some more time.
- Like ordinary people, NGOs, lawyers and journalists are caught in the cross-fire between the government and the Maoists.
- The government finds it convenient to classify them as over-ground organizations of the Maoists and repress them.
- In this manner, the state turns the threat posed by the Maoists against the cause they claim to be struggling for.
- While many NGOs have condemned the Sukma incident, there is a compelling need for NGO’s to carry out a consistent and concerted communication campaign to counter the government’s strategy of labelling them “Maoist sympathizers”.
What could be done?
- Our mining sector is a den of corruption and illegality.
- The average daily employment of labour in mining decreased from 549,000 people in 2004-05 to 512,000 people in 2013-14, despite a fourfold increase in the value of production.
- Most development projects were accompanied by violence, not just those in Maoist areas but also outside it.
- There exists a much needed rethink on development, including the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
- A healthy contestation over the pace of extraction and distribution of natural wealth will be great for the country as well as the countryside.
Source: Live Mint
