They
are the hollow men
Hindustan Times ^ | April 20, 2006 | Manoj Joshi
Posted on 04/20/2006
4:48:59 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Among the myriad of
interesting facts and revelations in Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly
Everything, the one that stuck most vividly in my mind is about a very rare
condition in which benign bacteria within our bodies turn rogue and begin
eating us, inside out. No known treatment works. The only cure is to surgically
excise the portion affected and, since it is random and can be any part of the
anatomy, a victim can be left with the most horrific consequences.
India seems to have become
afflicted by that disease, and hostile organisms are now eating the system from
within. The rogue bacteria are the Maoist extremists, or Naxalites who have
established their presence in a vast swathe of the country. Despite much talk
and exhortation, no cure seems to be in sight. But those in-charge of running
this country, both in the state and Union governments, have not done anything
but routine and hand-wringing till now. Indeed, by their acts of commission and
omission, the political and governmental system is probably contributing to the
spread of the disease.
The Naxalite phenomenon is not
new. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) led by Kanu Sanyal and
Charu Mazumdar broke away from the CPI(M), which itself was a rump of the CPI.
Following
the ‘Spring Thunder’ of 1967,
idealistic youth took on the state with pipe guns and slogans. The movement was
soon crushed and its leaders killed and imprisoned. In the past four decades or
so, the generic Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has split into
several factions which periodically merge and split again. Some of its elements
like the CPI(ML) Liberation led by Dipankar Bhattacharya has joined electoral
politics and won a seat in the 1991 and 1999 elections to the Lok Sabha. Kanu
Sanyal runs another faction which is also involved in electoral politics.
Pockets of the militant movement, however, survived in Andhra Pradesh, via T.
Nagi Reddy, an old-time communist leader of the state, and later resurfaced as
the People’s War Group founded by Kondapalli Seetharamiah.
In Sept. 2004, the PWG merged
with the Maoist Communist Centre, a group that had arisen in parallel to the
Sanyal-Mazumdar CPI(ML). This merged entity is called the Communist Party of
India (Maoist) and has consolidated its hold across large parts of Bihar,
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh with
significant pockets of activity in Karnataka, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
The Naxalite of today is a far
cry from the ill-armed zealot of Naxalbari. They have established sanctuaries
in forest areas and are well armed, mainly with weapons seized from police
personnel and have a well-knit organisation with an extensive cadre of
sympathisers and supporters in the cities. Their strike capabilities come from
their use of effective explosive devices which have taken a heavy toll of
police personnel. Reportedly, the PWG reportedly learnt the use of such devices
from the LTTE in the late Eighties.
But what the movement has gained
in its ability to kill, it has lost in its ideology. Maoism has been
definitively buried in its own home country, even if its prophet’s embalmed
remains are used as a talisman by his successors to ward off the many evils he
perpetrated. His Indian heirs are more focused on power, and how to obtain it
through systematic brutality and extortion, all in the name of the Revolution
rather than the fine points of Mao’s thought. In the process, unlike their
forbears, they have sought to use the fissures of caste and community to serve
their ends.
Failure of governance, effective
policing and apathy of various state governments have enabled the scattered
dalams and groups of the past to become efficient fighting groups sometimes
operating in units of hundreds. In Nov. 2005, they demonstrated their
capabilities in the spectacular attack on Jehanabad, a district headquarters,
that succeeded in freeing hundreds of detained activists. In another attack in
Giridih, they seized a police armoury by killing seven policemen and looting
some 185 rifles and ammunition.
There is a time in every
militant movement or insurgency when its operations are so scaled up, or when
it consolidation is marked by an effective revenue gathering and administrative
machinery. Insurgencies in large parts of the North-east have reached this stage.
What happened in Punjab, or the present situation in Jammu and Kashmir are
examples where this has failed to happen. While no one cause can explain why
one fails and the other succeeds, one thing is clear — once a militant group is
able to establish a parallel government with its justice dispensing and tax
collection system, it is very difficult to dislodge it as it has now enmeshed a
larger pool of sympathisers with a vested interest in the continuance of that
system.
The Indian-State has to decide
whether it wants to allow this state of affairs to continue and, as a first
stage, spread to increasingly anarchic Uttar Pradesh, or do something about it.
The time for a piecemeal response is over. With a united Maoist party operating
in a ‘Compact Revolutionary Zone’ extending from the Nepalese border to Andhra
Pradesh, there is need for a holistic response, as well as clarity in the
ideological perspective of the Indian-State. Unfortunately, so thoroughly has
the Indian political class debased the currency of secularism, socialism,
social justice or any kind of justice that this is not any easy task.
On the other hand, the Maoists
have been able to press their agenda with civil society groups and the
intelligentsia in states like AP. Under their pressure, Chief Minister Y.S.
Rajashekhara Reddy declared ceasefire in 2004 with the hope of negotiating a
settlement. The Maoists used the respite to consolidate their operations and
forge a tie-up with the MCC. Last month, when Reddy called on them to lay down
their weapons before any talks, the cheeky Maoist response was that any
‘intellectual’ (read: civil society) push for talks would be “the equivalent of
supporting the fascist rule” of the Congress. Their spokesman, Janardhan, also
appealed to ‘civil rights organisations and democrats’ not to criticise Maoist
‘counter-violence’, but to be more understanding to why a revolutionary party
took resort to violence.
To counter Maoism, we need to
clearly understand its pernicious pseudo-ideology and the fundamental challenge
the outfit poses to the body politic of the country. The Maoists are not
seeking concessions, land reforms or social development — their aim is to seize
political power. That possibility may be remote, but be clear about one thing:
There is as much room for compromise with the Maoists as with Osama bin Laden.
The second item is the need for
a quality response on the ground to, first, re-establish the writ of the state.
Without law and order there is no chance that you will be able to either
restore educational and public health institutions, build roads or undertake
any development projects.
This is easier said than done
because the Maoist dalams today are better organised, led and armed, than the
police personnel in many of the states. There is obvious need for better
training, leadership, and equipment. Under the cover of a qualitatively
enhanced police effort a refurbished administrative and justice delivery
systems can be reinserted and development plans executed. But all this can
happen only if there is a realisation in the states and the Centre as to the
life-threatening danger posed to the Indian body politic by the rogue bacteria
eating us from within.