Maoist - a Threat

Some times I think Maoism is the biggest threat to our democracy and country. The parallel and rebel mechanism not only deplete the well organized structure of democracy but badly influence people. I mentioned this in post earlier.  But now we should think it deeply and avoid all hesitation to destruct this evil force. 
Maoist in literal terms means the followers of Mao Je Dang, the most popular face of Chinese communist movement that overthrew the monarchy in China few decades ago. Maoists in India have a similar intention to defy the democratically elected government and establish an autocratic state based on communist ideologies. Originally started a popular peasant movement in the state of West Bengal during 1970’s, it gradually turned into a violent struggle and spread to almost a third of country’s geographical area mainly covering less developed, tribal dominant, inaccessible hilly and forested areas of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

Maoist movement is often argued as a reactionary rebellion of capitalist exploitation and government apathy. After independence, India’s growth has not been able to alleviate the regional disparities but eventually worsened it. The capitalist oriented industrial economy couple with the inaccessibility of the hostile topography and lack of political will has left the central part of India far behind its other parts. However many mining industries have tried to make use of its huge reserves of mineral resources. These mining activities have mostly encroached upon the social systems of the original inhabitants. Their lands have been forcefully taken over in exchange of some inadequate compensation. The lifeline of their economic and religious activity, the hilly forested areas, has been torn apart. In addition, various social and economic program of the government fail to reach them due to high level of redtapism, corruption and inefficiency. As a result, the deprived people turn to using force against the state citing the reason of years of injustice and inefficient grievance redress system. With the availability of arms and plenty of landmines mainly used for mining activities in the area, this struggle takes the form of a violent armed revolt. There is little doubt that the Maoist movement is one such mass struggle. But some also argue it to be a foreign aided internal conflict to destabilize the country. Whatever may be the cause of this movement, it is definitely fuelled by the industrial repression and government inaction. Over the time, Maoists have somehow distracted from their ideology and instead of fighting for the poor in a democratic manner, they are on a killing spree eliminating anybody who they suspect to be against them.

Maoists have their base camps deep inside dense forests. They collect arms by attacking local police arsenals and possibly through some foreign consignments. By blackmailing and threatening the local wealthy property owners and industrialists, they gather their finance. It is also reported that Maoists have taken off the food grains provided to schools, situated in their controlled areas, under Midday Meal program. They often attack in groups, most of the time outnumbering the personnel on the target, and leave posters with their messages. Their prime target has been various communication networks like mobile towers and state establishments like railway stations, railway tracks and police stations. They declare the area of their influence as the so called “Liberated Zone”. They establish an autocratic style of rule for the same. They justify the violent public killing of innocent civilians by charges of police sympathy or exploitation of local people. The railway track damages often lead to derailment like accidents killing many innocent lives. The Maoist menace is now treated as single biggest internal threat to the security and integrity of India.

Government response to the Maoist movement has been that of double standard. On one hand it declares to take on the armed revolt with force but on the other it backtracks due to the protests by human right activists. Booker Prize winning writer Arundhanti Roy has termed the forceful government suppression as a war raged against its own citizens. The result has been a delay in military deployment. An operation named “Operation Greenhunt” has been executed by the paramilitary forces like CRPF and CoBRA. However this has met with marginal success and there has been many life losses of the security personnel. The Dantewada Massacre of 72 policemen by around a thousand Maoists in April this year is the worse ever setback faced. Security forces and sometimes civilians are routinely getting killed by landmine blasts and collective attack by an overwhelmingly large number of armed cadres. Reports of beheading of a government employee also speak about the barbarism and fearlessness of Maoists. In states like Chhattisgarh, government sponsored militant outfits like Salwa Judum are fighting the Maoists in their very own way. But this has been severely criticized for its human right abuses and worsening state’s credibility as a guardian of law and order. Andhra Pradesh has built a specialized commando force named “Grey Hound” and has met with some success in tackling the growing insurgency. Overall, the acute scarcity of policemen in comparison to the Maoists, difficult terrain, lack of jungle warfare expertise and sometimes hostile local population has limited the success rate heavily.

Some scholars advocate to look at the crisis from an ideological angle. Maoists follow communism and its reflected in their organizing structure. All the cadres are treated as equals and only the decision making lies with the cadre up the hierarchy. The head even shares the same cigar with the fellow cadres. But our mainstream society is far from being egalitarian with the caste ghosts and power hierarchy still looming large. A significant social transformation is required to solve it ideologically. Maoist sympathizers have rightly awakened the government to its inefficient regional policies and failure to integrate the poor tribal populace with the mainstream. However the brutal and animistic killing of innocent lives by Maoists in retaliation can never be justified. Government needs to step up its police actions and if needed to take the military assistance to make the Maoists abjure violence. At the same time it needs to guard against any human rights violation and provide adequate social and economic incentives to all sections across the length and breadth of the country.
I strongly suggest that this Operation Green hunt and Kobra should be more practical and creative. Nothing happen like in Srilanka. But it is possible by taking the people in our hands not by force, threats and money but by effective welfare packages.