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India concedes it is losing war
against Red Terror
WSN Network
 NEW DELHI: Not
long ago, India's PM Manmohan Singh had called Naxalism the single
most important threat facing the country. On Tuesday, the candidness
only rose a few notches as he acknowledged that Maoist violence had
increased and the government had failed to check Maoist influence
effectively.
What the PM did
not state was that the reason for failure lies in the poor diagnosis
of the problem and the entire focus has remained on throwing money
at the security forces and asking them to buy new weapons and raise
new battalions to kill more tribals and landless poor who are now on
the path to armed rebellion.
“We haven’t
achieved as much success as we would have liked,” the PM told the
chiefs of central and state police forces on Tuesday. “It is a
matter of concern that despite our best efforts, the level of
violence in the affected states continues to rise.”
Had India
decided to move ahead to carry out land reforms, poverty alleviation
programs and taking care of the massive corruption at the ground
level in remote tribal areas, results would have been different.
For the PM, the
problems are only inclreasing as he even conceded a rise in
infiltration of terrorists into country.
Singh said
encounters with armed militants had become more frequent in recent
weeks and militant groups within Jammu and Kashmir were once again
trying to make common cause with outside elements.
But there
appeared to be a nuanced shift in the government’s approach towards
dealing with naxalism, especially in wake of the coordinated armed
offensive planned against the naxals. Singh — who called Left Wing
extremism as “perhaps, the gravest internal security threat” — said
Naxalism could not be simply treated as a law and order problem and
needed a holistic approach.
Last month, Home
Minister P Chidambaram had outlined the government’s two-pronged
approach of development and police action to deal with them at the
chief ministers conference.
16
September 2009
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