One more Maoist attack

 So sad and tragic that at least a dozen of our Paramilitary forces died and scores injured in yet one more sprctacular Maoists atrack in Chattishgarh state of India. The perpetrators have followed their action by proudly displaying their catch of arms and ammunition they captured from the slain and injured soldiers.

Repeated occurance of such incidents raises a very pertinent question. How can a trained federal security force CRPF (Central Reserved Police Force) be a sitting lame ducks to Maoists, not at any of our hostile border locations, but well inside India's heartland ? Thisnot an isolated incident, happening on regular basis since time immemorial. 

It not only casts aspersions on our security apparatus, but helps in perpetually sustaining our image of a weak state. We tend to blame politicians, communists, churches on these attacks and occasionally on out of state actors (euphemism for China and Pakistan) - often an official innuendo. But there is nothing official about our own shortcoming, spinelessness and lack of political resolve, notwithstanding all bravado in public.

Let's not get partisan. This thing has been happening during the Prime Ministership of Vajpayee, Dr. Singh and Modi, as well as under the state leadership of both Congress and BJP. Both parties own the responsibility. The root cause lies in intelligence failure. This is not the first time such an incident has happened. Both the state and Central intelligence agencies have their tasks cut out. If we can't handle our own shit in the middle of our nation, no point blaming the Pakistanis and Chinese.

Maoist problem is not a simple law and order problem, there is a deep rooted social angle to it. In the 1990s my cousin was posted as the SP (Superintendent of Police) of Dantewada - a Maoist infested district well known for several violent attacks. Per his own accounts, there are places so remote in that area that the district administration is virtually nonexistent. Humans cohabit with mosquitoes as big as crickets in that heavily Malaria infested region. (He had a close encounter with Encephalitis, a brain fever caused by mosquito bite and barely survived). 

Tribals in those places have their own share of social grievances where the government has spectacularly failed to deliver. For years the locals have been exploited and have their valid concerns which haven't been addressed till date. Maoists step in where governance fails. The issue calls for political settlement backed by a no nonsense security action against the perpetrators. If there is a political will, there is a way.

Punjab is the best example. By mid 1991 the all pervasive terrorism in the state seemed beyond control. Then came P V Narasimha Rao as the Prime minister who as bold political step announced elections in the state in February 1992.

The second step that followed was strong police action duly backed by the incumbent state government. Under KPS Gill, the terrorists heads were harvested similar to the chopping of corn crop, as the marauding Punjab police by the end of next BAISAKHI (A spring festival) of 1993 had a bumper harvest of the heads of terrorist. The all scourge of a decade long terrorism which not so long ago seemed beyond solution, never raised its ugly head again.

A similar approach with a strong political will, with the potent blend of political and military action can only help. Otherwise, its a matter of another day, another time and me following with another blog.