Red Ants on the Rampage

JEHADIS AND NAXALITES ARE DESTROYING INTERNAL SECURITY. THE INDIAN STATE IS A HAPLESS WITNESS.

By Dhrutikam Mohanty & Anil Didwedi

Ask well read middleclass urban Indians to talk about jehadi terror attacks in India in the recent times and you will get a torrent of words on Sarojini Nagar, Varanasi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and of course, Ahmedabad. There will be a bigger torrent of words on how India is under siege. Ask them about Naxalite attacks and the usual response is reluctant admission that some bad things are happening ‘out there’. And yet, this is just a small sample of what Naxalites have done over the last five years to make a mockery of the Indian State: On October 1, 2003, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu escaped assassination by seconds in a landmine blast on his way to Tirupati. In January, 2007, the sitting MLA of the Jharkhand assembly was shot dead with impunity On March 5, 2007, the sitting Lok Sabha MP of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Sunil Mahato was watching a football match when he was shot dead in broad daylight. On October 27, 2008, Anup Marandi, the son of former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, was killed in a massacre with 18 others during a cultural programme in Giridh district of Jharkhand. According to KPS Gill, the Super Cop, the Indian State is simply losing the ability to even offer effective resistance to the rising tide of Naxalite violence, far from trying to crush the movement. Savage attacks on high profile targets deliver a telling message: ‘if even top politicians can’t escape our wrath, you better think again’. But that’s not the only way in which the Naxalites are systematically undermining the foundations of the Indian State. The police forces and the law and order system are the ultimate symbols of the power that a State wields over its citizens; the ultimate symbol of the security that it provides to the citizen. That symbol has been torn to shreds by Naxalites in the last few years. Consider just a few such examples of Naxal impunity and audacity: On November 13, 2005, more than 1,000 Maoists literally ‘attacked’ the town of Jehanabad in Bihar, captured the police armoury and liberated close to 400 prisoners from the jail. On March 24, 2006, more than 500 Maoists invaded the armed police camp in Gajapati district of Orissa and liberated more than 40 comrades. On December 16, 2007, Maoists ‘liberated’ more than 300 prisoners from Dantewada jail in Chhatisgarh. About 25 were recaptured subsequently, none of them a Maoist. Nayagarh is less than two hours away from the state capital of Bhubaneswar in Orissa. On February 15, 2008, an army of Maoists descended from trucks and buses and literally ransacked the entire town. Despite the use of armed helicopters in the aftermath, hardly any of the marauders was caught or killed.

Talk to policemen in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa and you will be given a picture of the Maoists becoming increasingly desperate because they are fighting a losing battle. Malkangiri in Orissa is the new front in the Maoist war against the State. About 40 Andhra policemen of an elite group called Greyhounds were ambushed and killed there by the Red rebels on June 29, 2008. Just to signal that the attack was no fluke, a party of Orissa Special Operations Group cops were ambushed just about a fortnight later and 17 of them were massacred. To add insult to injury, Maoists have declared three successive weeks of a closure of schools, colleges and shops in the same district. Here is a telling instance of how the State is responding to these brazen acts of violence and defiance. Says Satish Gajbhiye, Superintendent of Police of Malkangiri, “We have requested for more forces to state and central governments. But so far no additional forces have arrived here. Due to heavy rains, communications links to some areas have been cut off. As Maoists are observing martyrs week and have declared to observe Kranti Divas and Black day in first fortnight of August, chances of violence cannot be denied” The situation in Chattisgarh is even grimmer. The Salwa Judum (a movement of so called tribal volunteers against the Maoists) is in danger of disintegration. Even more alarmingly, the Maoist influence can be now clearly seen in urban areas. Of course, the Director General of Police of the state, Viswhwaranjan, would beg to differ. He sayas Maoists are desperate and extensive combing operations are compelling them to flee. Yet, you have Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shriprakash Jaiswal admitting that Maoists there might have a booty of more than Rs 50 crore. In fact, an exclusive TSI story in February 2008 had clearly revealed that they are literally a ‘state’ within the state. When any Indian with common sense realised by 2005 that the Naxalite menace was a serious one and a grave danger to India, the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was busy with homilies like them being 'misguided youths who could be persuaded to come back to the mainstream'. Each time Patil made such a remarkable observation, the Maoists acted with even more ferocity and brutality, till it fell upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call them the biggest threat to internal security in the country - ahead even of jehadi terrorism. And that presents a genuine dilemma for Indians who are worried about the future of the country. The jehadi attacks are always followed by finger pointing towards Pakistan (and now Bangladesh). It is also easy for prejudiced Indians to take comfort in the perception that ‘Islam is like that only’. But there are no Muslims to blame for the Maoist violence; no Islam to blame for the virtually liberated Red Zone. Most urban Indians are focused on jehadi terrorism. In the future, they may just be shocked to know that while that has run its destructive course, it is the Maoists that have devoured the heart of India.