Naxalism: A problem to reckon with

Light week attack on Congress leaders and supporters by Naxalites is the manifestation of growing discontent among the Naxals’ community. Every now and then, news of naxals’ attacks hog the headlines. The nature of their rebellion nature is of grave concern and the matter needs to be contemplated thoroughly and solutions which may follow the discourse must be implemented as soon as possible.

The main reason of growing extremism is said to be lack of development in the area. But as I can see it is anti-development rather lack of development which invokes the rebellion nature among them. From tribal's perspective, extremism, terrorism and violence becomes means to attract the attention of state. Any further step taken on path of mal-development or anti-development leads to insurgency, political extremism and terrorism. Historically and culturally forest dwellers and other such communities find themselves isolated from the other part Indian population. They are illiterate and living a life which is certainly not dignified. Growing nexus between government and businessmen deprive them of their basic rights of food and shelter. Their natural habitats are destructed due to the excessive invasion and mining activities in the forests.

Though the constitution of India ensures to protect the interests of socially and economically backward classes or SC and ST community, much to the disappointment a very less efforts have taken place in this direction. There are a few measures taken by the government to address the problems of these communities, however such schemes are far from reaping the fruits in near future. Integrated action plan, backward region development programme, Forest rights act and SC & ST sub plan are among various initiatives taken by the central government in co-ordination with state government to eradicate the poverty, social backwardness and inequality from such communities.

Notwithstanding such initiatives, such communities’ are still in misery. Having lacked the development and keeping their plight in the mind, distrust and anger for the government is inevitable among them. They ventilate their anger in form of extremism and violent attacks on government institutions, employees and now politicians recently.  Had the initiatives taken by the government been implemented as they envisaged, problem of extremism could have been addressed to an extent. However, due to lack of development and growing prejudice against government, Naxalism had been festering for long and at present has evolved as a wound, the most dangerous.

In recent past, the government at both centre and state had been cautious of the problem of naxalism, nevertheless the steps taken to curb the menace had only added fuel to the fire. Take for example the worst hit regions of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh: The simplest and easiest strategy might have been: 1. to take police into action, focus the naxal hit areas and isolate their leaders. 2. Co-ordinate with governments at centre, state and district level, bring backward communities and forest dwellers into mainstream, implement plans so as to benefit them the most.  Despite well-planned strategy in the offing, Chhattisgarh government did opposite. Being least concerned of the developmental activities in the region it also deployed the civilian policemen called salwa judums to empty out the villages for the sake of mining which aggravated the situation instead.      

Central government did realise the individual rights and community rights of the forest dwelling population and passed so called the forest rights Act. This act envisaged the community participation in the development of the region, gave certain rights like collecting minor forest produce to the community. Under the act, any developmental activity needs the consent of Gram Sabha. No doubt, the initiative was a welcome step to raise the livelihood opportunities of the people living in forests. But very soon the requirement of consent from Gram Sabha proved to an obstacle for the private players in the region. Therefore, government is now planning to dilute the above act so as to benefit the private players the most at the cost of deprived sections.

Lack of consensus among the various ministries is another hindrance in taking developmental activities in the naxal affected areas. While ministry of Panchayati Raj is in favour of promoting community participation in developing the infrastructure, Ministry of Home Affairs is all opposed to developing infrastructure even. According the home ministry, as infrastructure is being targeted by the naxals, no need to develop it.  How lame is this argument!

Providing the people basic amenities like drinking water, a home to stay, food, education and health can only be the remedy for the ill affected region. Taking them into the mainstream will surely boost up their confidence in the government and emanate them of prejudice they have been carrying since decades against the government. The initiatives taken by the government must be further strengthened instead of diluting them due to the crony capitalism prevalent in the country. Due process of law and rule of law should be established. Their human rights must be respected and violations must be prevented.  

Naxalism has been a huge problem to reckon with. It not only affects just the regions affected by it but the country as a whole. Naxal affected areas are region which has enormous untapped potential consisting of country’s most abundant mineral rich belts. Keeping the interests of the communities in the region in the mind if such areas are developed and exploited in a well-planned manner, it will indeed boost the Indian economy. The need of the hour is the concerted effort by all central, state, district and panchayat level governments in addressing the problem of Naxalism.