Those who deal with the Naxalite army must not forget a few essential ingredients. First, the State should not be confused that this army is fighting against poverty. They are inimical to the developmental activities. They are like terrorists armed with the most sophisticated weaponry and are capable of fighting with a regular army. Second, they constitute the third generation of Marxist guerrilla believing in the maxim "power comes from the barrel of the gun." They are fighting for power as is evident by the example of Nepal. Their entire inspiration comes from ideological teachings. They may talk the language of Human Rights just to camouflage the large scale killing of the innocent people. Now, at this stage, their fight is mainly with police administration. They want to demoralise the police force of the State altogether.

In any war, propaganda is one of the essential weapons. This propaganda is capable of confusing the State, its policy makers and public at large. At present, many well meaning people are prone to get confused about the Naxalite's objective.

I now have a serious doubt that the State can stand against the Naxalite army. It was possible, some twenty years back, to confront them with police force. Today, they are far more organised, armed, well connected with sister organisations of neighboring countries and emboldened. The question is who has to give mandate to Chidambaram. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Naxal menace as the greatest challenge to our internal security. Now, here the same PM has withheld the full mandate to Chidambaram. Congress President Sonia Gandhi said that an integrated development-oriented approach is needed to tackle the Maoist problem. Human Right activist, Arundhati Roy and company, welcomed her statement.

It may be recalled that in Andhra, Congress had an alliance with Naxalites and, thus, it won the election. Sonia may be thinking of repeating this alliance and integrated development-oriented approach i.e. kid blow approach for this biggest internal security challenge. The real confusion is whether to deal with Naxalite with iron fist or with kid blows. As far as the PM is concerned how much his words quoted above, carry conviction, is obvious. It is Sonia and Sonia alone who matters. At least, Manmohan Singh has mortgaged his soul about the "biggest challenge of internal security". That is why Chidambaram has only the limited mandate to use army or air force.

Union Law Minister, Veerappa Moily, asked the judiciary to restrain itself from admitting PILs and said "unrealistic judicial activism on the part of judges is one of the main reasons for increased Naxalism in the country." He also said the Supreme Court judgment in the Godavarman case was against the ground realities and prevailing conditions in the forest, which led to the displacement of a large numbers of tribes forcing them to join Maoist groups.

It is a very strange situation that the Government, whose responsibility is to handle Naxal problem, is seriously divided on the approach of dealing with this problem. The PM thinks one way, Home Minister another way, the Law Minister puts some of the blame on the judiciary and most of them take it as problems caused by non-development and neglect of the area. All these confusions give an opportunity to the Naxal army to strengthen itself. The Naxal army behaves exactly like terrorists. What can be done to them? Many experts and security people have posed this question.

First of all, Naxalites, by whatever names you may refer, must be banned. Second, their source of finance should be stopped altogether. They have large stockpiles of sophisticated arms and ammunitions, which should be dispossessed by seizure or by all other possible means. Their bank accounts must be frozen. They have links with their counterparts in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. Their sympathisers in cities, universities and other academia must be kept under close watch, and whenever they are crossing the limit of Freedom of Speech, they should be accordingly dealt with legally. Human Rights activists should be engaged in dialogue and they must be held accountable for intellectual muscles provided by them. These steps are difficult to implement. Also, it requires high level of intelligence set-up. But, if you have to deal with the Naxal Army, much more efforts are required, even diplomatic channels may have to be engaged.

The basic question is how to fight the Naxal army which has the target of changing the map of India by capturing the Red Corridor comprising parts of several middle States.

It will take just 72 hours to crush the whole Maoist scheme of things. But the Government takes the pin-pricks of Maoists a little more seriously. That is why the Prime Minister said that it is the greatest challenge to our internal security even as Chidambaram is for an iron-fist treatment.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, May 23, 2010