Naxalite an emerging threat and Defence Policy Notes | Study Internal Security and Disaster Management for UPSC - UPSC

Literature Review

• The word Naxalite came from the name of a village called Naxalbari in West Bengal. It emerged as a rebellion against the local landlords who hit a peasant over a land dispute, it started in West Bengal and soon to the Eastern Zone. The Naxalites are scrutinize as far-left communist sensitive to Maoism. Their emergence can be traced back to the spilt of the Communist party of India (Marxist) in 1967 followed by the Naxalbari peasant uprising which resulted in the formation of communist party of India (MarxistLeninist) after two years. The Naxalite-Maoist insurgency is an occurring Conflict between the Naxalites also known as Maoist Groups and the India Government. The insurgency started after the formation of the CPI-Maoist in 2004, a rebel group consisting of Maoist Communist centre and People’s War Group.  The 2005 January rebel between the CPI-Maoist and the Andhra Pradesh Government broke out for not communication on the written demand of releasing of prisoners and redistribution of land. The happening conflict has spread across 28 Indian states and since 2005 hundreds of people are being killed in this conflict between the CPI-Maoist and the government.
• The Naxalite are present in 60 districts in India mainly in the states of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Areas administrated by the Communist Party of India especially in West Bengal are the worst affected by the anti-state violence of the Maoist group who commend assemblage of unaccounted for wealth in the hands of CPI-M leaders and fail to address and resolve problems for which they have been elected for such as Caste discrimination and poverty. Naxalite are found is less developed areas and this is because of a number of reasons, the apathy nature towards the tribal community can be considered as one of the biggest reason that resulted in  such uprisings followed by the lack of ability of the political authority to do something for the upliftment of the  vulnerable and deprived section of the society, followed by the poverty and economic inequality towards the poor and disadvantage section of the society, entry of factors such as mining companies in the tribal resisting region and taking away their land and forest which is hampering their livelihood. The tribal population is deprived for their lands and capturing their tradition source of livelihood, followed by environmental destruction due to deforestation for development projects and land being used for mining purpose. There is lack of basic facilities provided to this people like education, sanitation, health and freedom. The socially and economically backward classes, the disadvantage, tribal population and vulnerable sector act as the main supports of the Naxalite movement because of the   inequalities they face, illiteracy and poverty. These people don’t have access to basic political, economic and social rights.

Naxalite the biggest threat to internal security 

• The Naxal violence has spread its tentacles from 156 districts in 13 states in 2004 to 170 districts in 15 states in 2005.affecting 40% of the geographical area and 35% of the population. With every attack on our forces and institutions.The Naxalite have been penetrating organisation in striking their chosen targets at well. Transforming themselves into a modern guerrilla force, Naxals today are equipped with better weapons and communication system, along with the formation of a united outfit namely CPI (Maoist) along with the raising of an armed wing i.e. People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army through the merger of Maoist Communist Centre and People’s group, the movements has not only been successful in getting over the problem of crimson infighting amongst them but the movement has also witnessed a shift in focus and strategy. Toda y, they are not only logically better trained and equipped but also better motivated and better –led. With the programme of new Democratic Revolution, the Naxals wish to attain their goals through the spread of disaffection amongst the rural poor, by creating an influence that the y knew economic policy is hegemonic and imperialist. It is against their interest. The newly acquired propensity by the landlords, bourgeois traders and bureaucrats further vex and frustrates. They believe that the benefits of panachayati Raj have been concerned by handful of well to do peasants. Hence, the y have declared that all landlords, big or small and all bourgeois or petty as class enemies have been working to eradicate them through violence.

• The new strateg y is one of the protracted armed struggles whose objective is not seizure of land, crops or other immediate goal but the seizure of state power. Participation in elections or getting involved with the prevailing bourgeois democracy are not their plans. The focus it to firml y focus on revolutionar y activities to undermine the state and seize power by hook or crook. They plan to mount further attacks on the symbol of feudalism, imperialism and comprador bureaucratic capitalism and also, they don’t mind supporting the national struggle for self-determination including the right too succession, they have also been paying special attention to mobilise and organise women as a mighty force to the bloody revolution they are waging. Naxalites are considered to be working on a counter strategy including exploring newer ways to amplify the people’s war by intensifying their mass base across the country and strengthening its armed cadres. If we try to see through the patterns, breadth and precision of naxal violence in the country.The Naxalites have been successful in not only strengthening the People’s Liberation army, the military wing of the CPI (Maoist) but also succeeded in recruiting more cadres through militant but the populist masses movement against the neo-liberal policies of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation These strategies seem to expand the armed struggle from guerrilla war to urban and mobile welfare focusing on industrial areas.
• Maoist new strategy seem to be setting up bass in new regions by means of taking up emotional issues such as forcible displacement caused by special economic zones, industrialization, infrastructure development projects, caste oppression and religious fascism. Naxalites intend to turn the guerrilla war into mobile war and guerrilla zone into base areas. and They have also been exploring newer tactics against the background of changes taking place in the agrarian situation including increasing resort to break jails and attacking state powers like police and military stations.
• The Maoist did not abruptly launch into armed struggle r violence but are known to proceed very methodologically including a preliminary study on local social, economic and political dimension and the vulnerabilities of particular populations before coming out with customised action plans. They prefer to maintain a low profile in adverse conditions. They keep violence at border region low so as to stay away from the attention of the police, facilities intra-state movement Naxalites are known to follow flexible tactics, if the situation warrants, the y restrict the movement at the political mobilisation, highlight local issues through front organisation and organise meetings in strongholds to garner popular sympathy.
• The naxals have refused to see ad acknowledge the benefits of a federal democracy and a pluralist society thereby pointing to the achievements of the nation-building efforts of all these past years owing to which the Indian states has successfully avoided the pitfall of a failed state, as seen in many countries in Africa and Latin America.
• Even when the country grapples with the growing law and order problems throughout the country in one hand. On the other hand,the Naxals have been s ystematically ratcheting up their fight against a so-called bourgeois Indian State. The y have found new methods to organise themselves and make their presences feel. The Naxalite insurgency has declared as the greatest single threat to the country’s internal security. The Central government is already busy in coordinating with the affected state government to work out a synergised policy to deal with the Naxal menace including formation of a specialised anti-Naxal Force, The Naxal seem intent on upping the ante and taking the fight to new levels as it appears from their recent drive for freeing their contracts lodged in different jails of the country. There has been a string of incidents in recent times where in the Naxalites have attacked the jails in different parts of the country and have succeeded in freeing a huge number of criminals booked for waging war against the Indian state. What once appeared to be one-off incident seems to have become a regular feature and definitely effects ver y poorly on our prison securit y system. For instance, in 2005, 1000 strong well –armed Naxalites were successful in managing to set free 341 prisoners lodged in Jehanabad Jail, again in 2006, 200 armed Naxalite raided a jail in Gajapati town in Odisha and freed more than 40 prisoners after an extended encounter which lasted for over two hours and resulted in killing and injuring of some policemen,in 2007 there was another jail break in Andhra Pradesh here 72 under trial and naxalite prisoners escaped from the jail. India’s battle against Maoist guerrillas suffered an embarrassing setback in December 2007 when almost 300 insurgents and their supporters were freed by the naxalite during a massive jail break in the state of Chhattisgarh this continued in many states across the country.
• The problem of left-wing extremism has often been linked to the alleged development deficit in the country. The Union and the state government have been trying to deal with the problem in a holistic manner through better s ynergy in the areas of security, development ensuring rights of the local communities, improvements in governance and public perception management.One of the various measures taken to protect for preventing jail breaks include the installation of a bio-metric s ystem of access to control as recommend for the installation in all the nine prisons of the Tihar Jail complex. Also finger prints system for the all the prisoners and jail staffs, beside simple securit y measure like installation of close circuit cameras, metal detectors and automatic security lock s ystem should also be thought of for better security of our jails and for further pre-empting such daring jail system as seen during recent times.
• The recent Naxal attack in Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar resulting in the death of many civilians and security forces has once again drawn attention to the dreaded malaise that Naxalism has become in this country. Naxals increase activism, growing reach and killing power provides such ideas about how serious the threat is, Skilled in guerrilla warfare techniques, Naxalite have excellent intelligence system with committed leaders, motivated cadres better trained militia and sophisticated weaponry, Naxals toda y are better equipped to intercept police communication and strike the desired targets at will. The Naxalites are taking advantage of the rising agrarian distress, destruction of forests, uprooting of tribal and marginal peasants due to predatory mining, irrigation, metallurgical and other developments projects not to speak of growing regional disparities, it is quite disconcerting to know that more than two-third of the severely Naxalite-affected areas are covered by the tribal. The tribal and the marginal farmers form the main part of the of their cadre strength, there are few doctors, engineers and educated persons providing the technical expertise required for the various subversive activities, with very committed and motivated leader’s legion of workers and sympathisers and with the help from holistic to this country.The Red Corridor encompassing the so called Compact Revolutionary Zone is said to stretch from Nepal through some of the most backward regions of the countr y including B ihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra, The Naxals first aim to establish a base area inside the Dandakaranaya Forest spanning MP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and parts of Maharashtra.Naxalites are termed as The Enemy within, the fifth Columnist, the Torjan Horse the Naxals find it easier to operate from the backward and underdeveloped areas as people in these areas respond better to their propaganda machinery, Untouched by the light of education and benefits of development, poor and hungry people fall easy prey to disaffecting influences from the Naxalites. Today Naxals have joined hands with Nepal’s Maoist to establish disaffection among people of Nepalese origin who have been breathing in Darjeeling and Dooars region of West Bengal and lower Sikkim, their purpose is to engineer a movement for self- determination which would unleash violence on a wide scale much worse than what was witnesses during the Gorkha Land Agitation.

• Today Naxalites are being used by Pakistan’s ISI for carrying out disruptive activities in the country including drug trafficking and fake currency rackets, in exchange the Pakistan ISI provide the Naxalites with sophisticated weapons and ammunition and using explosive devices. There is a chance for the emergence a of Islamic Fundamentalist and Marxist-Leninist forces to subverting the Indian state.
• The government schemes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, Member of Parliament Local Area Development programme, Sara Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission,Special Component Plan, Tribal Sun-Plan, Integrated Tribal development plan, Indira AwasYojina, Integrated Child development Scheme, Swarna Jayanti Gram SwarajgarYojna, Pradhan Mnatri Gram Sabha Yojna and many other have been launched for the overall economic development keeping the rural development at the utmost consideration and the Naxalite effected regions and bridge the gap between the government and the public.

Conclusion

Naxalism has been termed as the biggest threat to the national security of India.CPI (Maoist) has been declared as a banned organisation by the Centre, while there still seem to be no consensus on banning the Naxals, the time definitely has come that we take the Naxal threat more seriously than has been felt so far.The ban and the branding of Maoist as terrorist should further convince the sceptics about their insidious design on the Indian Nation.We need to find out better wa ys to deal with this internal adversar y left Radicals. There is a need for better infrastructure upgradation in terms of better logistics, equipments and arms there is also need for better and more scientific methods for gathering information, the training needs to be customised to make the force understand the various nuances of anti-insurgency operations and provide the police with better equipments and training facilities.