Union and state government are not able to chalk out a strategy to solve the Naxal movement which has spread out fast. It has hit hard recently indicated that it means real business. For the last decade or so there has been a campaign within the government to solve it but no concrete steps were taken up. India has problems in most of the north eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir . Even before insurgency movement took seed in Manipur the Union government had already decided to tackle any problem which may come up. It was to impose AFSPA and eliminate those who rebel. JK had also similar story with AFSPA and the evils associated with it. If the Union government really took up measures to fight the insurgency movements in north east and the movement in JK in a humane and political manner the administration could have been equipped with the mentality and infrastructure to fight the movements. As the Naxal movement is raging on within the heartland of the country and the media and the people are concerned with the people living in the Naxal affected areas no one wants to involve the military. Even after the recent massacre including top Congress leaders the first reaction from the political class in New Delhi was, “ No army to solve Naxal problem” even though all available adjectives were used to condemn the killings. The raging battle is not arms but of the mindset. The battle has to be fought through the minds. Whatever it is necessary to rectify the wrongs on the part of the government specially corruption, bad governnance have to be rooted out. The government should consult experts and experts should include academicians, political analysts not only police and officials and self proclaimed experts. The problem has really exposed the failiure of the administration to reach out to the masses and to the peripheries. All insurgency related problems occur in the peripheries were people are poor . Naxalism, which started from Naxalbari area in West Bengal in 1967 had almost seen its end but it started flourishing after the merger of the Peoples War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in September, 2004 which led to the formation of the CPI (Maoist). As per official records the movement holds sway in ten states involving about 180 districts. All the steps taken up were to supply more arms and pour in security personnel. There is shortage of security personnel and most of them do not want to be posted in Naxal dominated areas. The 2006 status report stated that the Government would address the problem in a holistic manner. That includes ‘political security, development and public perception management fronts’ as well. To thwart designs of the government the Naxals are directly attacking politicians, security personnel and wiping out all developmental process taken up in the affected areas. Backed with security personnel civil administration should infiltrate and meticulously develop the infrastructure otherwise everything will be in a complete doldrum. The first approach is to love the people and their problems not killing the people as adopted in Manipur and other insurgency affected people. Once people realise the government really loves them and means business they will also come out and support the government otherwise there will be no meeting point.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/fighting-naxals/
