20091011256 | Editorial: Fight Naxal-Maoist Menace | Editorial

By The Editorial Team, on 11-10-2009 21:05

Favoured : None

The beheading of a police inspector Francis Induwar in Jharkhand was closely followed by gruesome killings of seventeen policemen in Maharashtra. Naxal-Maoist elements have been striking at their will and even with impunity. The brutal manner in which these killings have been carried out exposes the inhuman and barbaric aspects of communism as an ideology. Claiming to wage a war against the Indian state, Naxal-Maoists today hold sway in about 180 districts across ten states of India accounting for about 40 percent of India's geographical area. They are especially concentrated in an area known as the "Red corridor" extending from Nepal borders to Andhra Pradesh, where they control 92,000 square kilometers. In the recent years they have been arming themselves with latest weaponry and arsenal and consolidating their position by gaining new areas and recruits. Moreover they are extorting huge amount on account of levies and other form of extortions. They run their own kangaroo courts intimidating and punishing their opponents in the rural areas and thus exercising illegal control over the rural population. In fact they have been able to run parallel governments in a vast region.

Why the government has failed to effectively curb the Naxal-Maoist menace is a question which remains difficult to answer. The left leaning intelligentsia has often sought to explain it in the neglect of rural area and lack of developmental initiatives among the poor who being left unto themselves have chosen to take the path of ‘armed revolution'. But how far Naxal-Maoists are responsible for disallowing the implementation of government's development plans in their stronghold needs to be honestly assessed. If the cause is poverty and lack of developmental initiatives then the Naxal-Maoists should have been strengthening these efforts instead of blocking them. But the case is different on the ground. In addition to these leftist outfits who claim to oppose parliamentary democracy are seen to be garnering votes for the candidate/parties who prefer to pay them in elections. There is undoubtedly a politician-Naxal/Maoist nexus operating in these areas allowing these elements to strengthen and prosper. Perhaps, the lack of political will in tackling the menace is the result of such nexus in operation seriously undermining the safety and security of the country. While the brutal violence by Naxal-Maoist outfits has started to expose communism and its dangerous ideology, the government should decisively act to defeat and destroy this menace before it is too late.