LEFT-WING EXTREMISM or NAXALISM

LEFT-WING EXTREMISM

The tactic is GUERRILLA WARFARE, as bases are situated in dense forests and hilly tracts where the state is relatively weak, so naxal maximizes the use of terrain in their favour.

Introduction

The word 'Naxal' originated from the village NAXALBARI in West Bengal. In 1967 under the leadership of Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal oppressed peasants took arms against local landlords for the rightful redistribution of land and a violent uprising started.

History

During British time there were numerous uprisings against imperialist landlords which planted the seed for future proletariat mass movements.

• Disappointed with Gandhiji's non-cooperation movement failure and disenchanted with the national movement thousands of cadres were drawn to the more revolutionary Marxist ideology and the success of the Russian Revolution became the inspiration for the nascent communist movement in India.

• With the establishment of the Communist Party of India(CPI) in 1925 communist ideology consolidated its roots in India.

• Telangana movement(1946-1951) supported by CPI to liberate the oppressed peasants from landlords and redistribute the land amongst the landless became the root of the Naxalbari movement 16 years later.

• The split in CPI-M led to the formation of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist(CPI-ML) under the leadership of Charu Majumdar who was much more inspired by Maoist ideology and led to a more violent insurgency.

• To crush the insurgency GOI commenced OPERATION STEEPLECHASE and sent CRPF and Army personnel to West Bengal. The operation lasted for 45 days and the movement declined.

• After the liberalization of the Indian economy in the 1990s government started granting licenses for mining to multinational companies which resurfaced the insurgency again.

Modern Maoists & Areas Affected

• In 2004 People's War Group and Maoist Communist Center merged together and led to the formation of The Communist Party of India-Maoist(CPI-Maoist) and its armed wing, The People's Liberation Guerrilla Army(PLGA) and an increase in LWE-related violence.

• LWE-affected areas are called RED CORRIDORS including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, M.P, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, W.B. and U.P.

Modus operandi

The main tactic of Maoists is GUERRILLA WARFARE, as their bases are situated in dense forests and hilly tracts where the state is relatively weak, they maximize the use of terrain in their favour.

• Maoist operates in small, decentralised units this makes them mobile, and flexible and allows them to conduct AMBUSHES against security forces. e.g In May 2009 16 Police officers were killed in Maharashtra, In the recent attack on May 2019 in Gadchiroli(MH) 15 members of QRT were killed using an Improvised Explosive Device(IED).

• Between 1980 and 2015 the Naxalite insurgency caused more than 20,000 casualties including Naxalites. According to the 2019 report of MHA since 2010 average of 417 civilians has been killed annually in approx 1200 incidents of violence.

Funding

• Funding come from contributions, membership fees, extortion and confiscation of properties of the enemy and 'REVOLUTIONARY TAXES'.

• Recent reports have suggested that Maoists are engaged in organised crimes e.g.In 2018 police seized 700million Rupees worth of crude heroin from Naxal areas.

• Maoists have nexus with terrorist outfits of Pakistan and other neighbouring countries which many times supply arms and money to destabilise state machinery.

Root Causes of Naxalism

1)Mismanagement of Forests: 

Depriving forest dwellers of their rights who solely depend on forests through various acts and policies caused resentment and mining activities caused huge displacement.

2)Regional Disparities:

Lack of infrastructure, medical facilities, education etc made tribal people alienated and helped Naxalites to change the minds of locals against the State.

3)Tribal policies not well implemented:

Policies to bring tribal people into mainstream societies did not implement well resulting in further socio-economic gaps.

4)Poor Land reforms:

Half-hearted implementation of Land reforms worsens the situation and leads to dissatisfaction from the government.

5)Geographical Terrain:

Dense forests and difficult terrain of central and eastern India helped the Naxals to thrive and operate effectively.

6)Confusion over tackling Naxalism:

The state government considers naxalism as the central government's issue and thus does not take proactive steps regarding infrastructure, medical facilities, education etc made tribal people alienated and helped Naxalites.

Government Initiatives

To address the LWE problem government has adopted multi-pronged startegy in different areas:

• The left-wing extremism division was created in 2006 under the Ministry of Home Affairs to implement security-related schemes and coordinates various development schemes of the different ministries of GOI in left-wing extremism-affected states.

• Some states have their special forces to counter Naxal and Maoist activities. e.g Greyhounds a special police force unit of Andhra and Telangana.

• Security-related expenditure(SRE) scheme is implemented under the umbrella scheme "Modernization of security forces" to enhance the capacity of the security forces and provide ex-gratia payment to families of civilian/security forces who got injured or killed in Naxal/LWE violence.

• Special Infrastructure Scheme(SIS) for strengthening infrastructure related to security.Since 2017-18 around 185 crores have been released to date.

• SAMADHAN DOCTRINE-

S- Smartness
A- Aggressive Strategy        
M- Motivation and training
A- Actionable Intelligence
D- Dashboard-based KPIs(key performance indicators), KRAs(Key Result Areas)
H- Harnessing Technology
A- Action plan for each theatre
N- No access to Financing

• To improve the connectivity in LWE areas mobile towers have been installed in phase wise manner.

• Road Requirement plan(RRP) in Naxal/LWE affected areas is being implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highway to improve road connectivity in 34 LWE affected districts of 8 states i.e Andhra, M.P., Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar.

• The Aspirational District program was launched in 2018 to transform the lesser developed district into key social areas

• The Civil Action Programme is conducted to bridge the gap between security forces and local people through personal interaction and bring the human face of security personnel before the local population.

         

 

Way forward

Governments have done a lot to contain Naxalism and we have got some serious success. Still, there is a lot more to do to ensure tribal rights and bring them into mainstream society plus securing our security forces as well as civilians.

-RAGHU NANDAN SINGH.