Security forces dealt a decisive blow to the Maoists on April 14 in Kanker district, Chhattisgarh, near the Maharashtra border. A joint force of the BSF and district reserve guard engaged a division of Maoists on the periphery of Abujmarh in Binagunda and Koronar forests, and killed 29 of them, including three senior commanders. A significant quantity of arms and ammunition, including three light machine guns, seven AK- 47s and some SLR and Insas rifles, were also recovered. This was the highest number of casualties that the Maoists have suffered in a single operation in Bastar.
The Maoist movement, it may be recalled, had touched a peak in 2010 when 223 districts across 20 states were affected by violence to some degree. Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Left-wing extremism (LWE) as the gravest internal security threat to the country. Heavy deployment of central armed police forces, however, gradually contained the geographical spread of Maoist influence.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai, in a statement made in the Rajya Sabha on February 7, claimed that the implementation of the “national policy and action plan” had resulted in a consistent decline in violence and constriction of the geographical spread of LWE influence. Violence and the resultant deaths have declined by 73 per cent from a high in 2010. Rai added that the number of police stations reporting LWE-related violence had reduced from 465 police stations across 96 districts in 2010 to 171 across 42 districts in 2023. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, sustained pressure on Naxalites has also resulted in a large number of surrenders over the past few years. It is estimated that 16,780 Naxalites surrendered between March 6, 2000 and April 7, 2024.
In a statement made in 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah said that “we will bury Naxals 20 feet under the earth”. He also claimed in October 2023 that the Naxals would be finished within the next two years. Interestingly, P Chidambaram (as then Home Minister) said in 2010 that the Naxal problem would be overcome within the next three years. Rajnath Singh was also optimistic that the problem would be rooted out by 2023.
The problem, however, refuses to die down even though there has been considerable attrition in the Naxal ranks and a substantial reduction in the strength of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army. The hard fact is that the Maoists still have adequate strength and firepower to launch lethal attacks on security forces and create significant law and order problems.
Where the government falls short
There are, in fact, major flaws in the government’s approach to tackling the Naxal problem. There is no overall strategic plan and the states have been tackling the challenge as per their perception and the political appreciation of its gravity. One party takes a comparatively soft line; there is a change in government and we find a more aggressive approach. This is what we are witnessing in Chhattisgarh today.
States, unfortunately, consider LWE a national problem. They find it convenient to pass the buck to Delhi. The problem will not be conclusively dealt with until state forces take the lead in anti-Naxal operations and the central armed police forces play a subsidiary role only. This was a great lesson from the Punjab insurgency where the state police was always at the vanguard of all operations.
The whole-of-government approach is also missing on the ground. The security forces can deliver only up to a point. They can clear an area of Naxals but, thereafter, the administration has to step in and establish infrastructure. This is not happening, with the result that an area cleared yesterday is re-occupied by Maoists tomorrow.
It’s about political-economy too
There are fundamental problems that are adding fuel to the Naxal fire. India’s forest cover is being gradually denuded. It is estimated that since 2008-2009, a total of 3,06,001 hectares of forest land was diverted for non-forestry use. Tribals inhabiting these forest areas were displaced in the process. Deprived of their land and any regular means of livelihood, many of them gravitated towards the Naxals. The government passed a Forest Conservation Act, but its amendment in 2023 leaves the very definition of the term “forest” ambiguous. According to many experts, this could benefit the real estate and mining lobbies.
Yet another disturbing feature of our economy underlined by the World Inequality Lab (WIL) is the extreme levels of inequality. The WIL paper titled ‘Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj’ revealed that the share of wealth with the top 1 per cent of the population was 40.1 per cent in 2022-2023. “The Billionaire Raj headed by India’s modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces”, the paper says. WIL’s findings have been questioned by Indian experts who consider it biased. In any case, WIL’s claims warrant a deeper and unbiased examination.
Talk to Naxals
There has been much bloodletting on the Naxal front. Now that the government has the upper hand, it is the right time to initiate peace dialogue with the Naxal leadership. It would not be taken as a sign of weakness. In fact, it would be considered magnanimous.
The Government of India has been having peace talks with several insurgent groups in the Northeast. There should be no hesitation in taking a similar initiative in Central India. It is time to heal, time to mainstream the tribals. We must not try to “defeat” or “conquer” our fellow citizens.
Prakash Singh is former Director General, BSF and author of The Naxalite Movement in India
