INTRODUCTION

India has witness remarkable growth and dynamism in the recent past and while it continues to develop numerous challenges to its internal security have hindered such development and plagued the nation to say the least. Amongst these hindrances the biggest threat is posed by Naxalism, a Maoist insurrection that, in the past decade, has grown in scope, breath and violence in, what is popularly known as the Red Corridor, stretching from Nepal to Tamil Nadu. Despite this insurgency being declared by India‟s former Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh as the greatest threat to internal security that the country has ever faced, it is the most overlooked and analytically neglected movement. Given India‟s history with separatist and communal violence, such a pronouncement is truly startling and if not swiftly and effectively countered it will prove extremely disruptive of India‟s further growth and development.

PRESCRIPTIVE MEASURES

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has been declared as the world‟s fifth largest terrorist organisation with the sole aim of destabilization of India. They essentially want to establish a Maoist ideology which is a total authoritarian state with the destruction of democracy, the constitution and everything that India stands for

They are believers of pure Maoist ideas and not of Marxist Leninist or the Deng Xiaoping ideals where the State acts as a representative of the proletariat. As against the dictatorship of the proletariat and total elimination of the bourgeois as advocated by pure Marxist or Maoist ideals.

The only way to tackle Naxalism is to first, stunt its growth. The question is, should we be tackling the rural or the urban networks first to stunt the growth? The answer is quite simple. Maoists operating in tribal areas are mere puppets of their intellectual strategists operating from the urban areas. Therefore, unless the urban networks are destroyed, it is near impossible to end this problem of Maoist violence. It is the urban Maoists who are the masterminds of this war against the Indian state where they cleverly misuse the provisions of democracy against democracy.

To counter this issue effectively, we need a comprehensive, all-round strategy. We require a multi-dimensioned, prolonged strategy of development while ensuring that we are rooting the causes of grievances altogether. Following are the major areas that need to be looked into and measures that must be taken to tackle this problem before it is too late.

1. IDENTIFYING AND CUTTING OFF FUNDING AND WEAPON SOURCES

The first major measure that must be adopted by the Government to stunt the growth of Naxal terror is to identify what their sources of weaponry and funds are. Once these sources are discovered, measures must be taken to reduce the money flow into these terrorist groups thereby affecting their capability to function to a large extent.

A terrific example of such a measure was the November 8, 2016 demonetisation that was undertaken by the Narendra Modi Government. This event made a strong impact in the region with 564 Maoists and their sympathizers surrendering before the authorities. Most of the cash held by the Naxals are in big denominations notes which they hide inside the forests. Along with this, demonetization also meant that the Naxals were severely handicapped and could not produce firearms, ammunition, medicines, pay salary to the cadres or obtain commodities of daily use. While this particular event did not achieve as much success as it was intended to, it was a step in the right direction.

Let‟s now try and understand through what sources do these Maoists gain their funding and weaponry

1. Liberated Zones

The Maoists have declared certain areas as Liberated zones which means that they are free from any form of state function. It is almost as though these zones are parallel states run by them. Their income from such zones is collected through levying taxes and tolls for any movement od good. Since the cadre is full of people from the local area, this means of fund collection is accepted. A lot of areas in Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Odisha are now liberated zones wherein the state cannot exercise any control making it helpless in curbing Maoism.

The private and Government corporations that function within these zones pay the Maoists what they call „protection money‟ so that they do not trouble them or destroy their businesses as do local politicians.

The Maoists also force the farmers to cultivate drugs such as opium which is a major source of their revenue.

2. Foreign And Anti-National Sources

The Government of India has strong reasons to suspect that the Naxals are receiving financial assistance from foreign intelligence agencies such as the Pakistani Intelligence (ISI), Chinese Intelligence (MSS) and the Bangladeshi Intelligence (DGFI).

Further reports link Naxalites to various criminal and militant groups in South Asia and point them as the major sources of weaponry in exchange for safe haven. These groups include Maoists from Nepal, insurgent groups of Northeast India, Islamist groups from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The Government has also uncovered a relationship between the Naxalites and ULFA where the Naxals have agreed to smuggle drugs through the Bangladesh border in exchange for ammunition and weapons.

3. Looting

Earlier, the Naxals depended completely on human strength to fight their battles. Soon they realized that their fight was against armed men of the State and therefore the started looting arms and ammunition from the local police outposts that were situated in Naxal infested areas. Before long, they gained enough confidence to start ambushing the police forces and security patrol parties and looted their ammunition and equipment such as night vision devices, bullet proof jackets, communication sets and other arms.

Where looting was not possible, the Naxalites bribed and coerced the corrupt members of the security agency personnel to sell or give their ammunition, equipment and firearms.

This surge in confidence along with the presence of corrupt security force personnel has resulted in the fact that today, a major percentage of the arms that the Naxals possess were looted from government armouries.

4. Self-Made Weaponry

Today, the Naxalites have become self-sustainable to a large extent with regard to weaponry. They now not only have their own local arms factories where they not only manufacture arms but also produce homemade mortar rounds and components for improvised devices but also have test laboratories where these arms and explosives can be tested.

Where they cannot copy and manufacture, they simply procure them from mining contractors and fertilizer distributors that are known to maintain stock of blasting caps, detonators and explosives, all operating in the Naxal-controlled areas.

An article published in 2009 showcased that a single naxal commandment spent over threequarters of their budget on weaponry which goes to show that their effort to procure weapons from outside have certain limitations; and obtaining them locally would be far cheaper. 1

Thus, if the Indian Government can target the internal sources first and cut of their funding by shutting down their arms factories, regaining control in liberation zones and maybe even increasing the salary of the security forces so they are not easy to buy out, it‟ll put immense pressure on the Naxals to try to procure weapons from outside which will then be impossible due to fund-shortages that they will be facing

2. EDUCATE

Education is the worst enemy of Maoism. Deep inside the district of Bastar, Naxals have gone as far as to issue fatwas that no child will attend school after fifth standard. The objective behind this measure is quite clear- the Naxals want the youth to be literate but not educated enough to be employed.

While Maoist supporters and their urban strategists on one hand, sell the ideologies of Maoism as a battle of justice for the tribal people and their rights, they themselves oppress the basic human rights of the local people in these areas. They therefore mainly target schools to stop tribal children from being educated to ensure supply of cadres for their Dalams.

The Government must use the educated public from the cities to start a literacy drive in the entire region along with teaching them how to use the internet, social media and digital payment portals. This will not only increase the literacy, spread awareness of the Naxal situation and the rights that they are entitled to but will also cause social upheaval in the areas.

3. EQUIPPING THE POLICE FORCE

Equipping the Police force adequately is probably one of the most important measures that ought to be taken to stifle the growth of the Maoist movement. The State police forces are under purview of state government and have a clear pathway for exchange of intelligence from IB and other agencies and among central paramilitary forces. 2

This means that the police force, if equipped better may have made headway in disbanding the revolution by now. Therefore, it is time to modernise the forces in efficiently in the following areas.

1. The Police forces are underpaid and highly overworked because the departments are always understaffed. They must be paid in proportion to the work they put in because if our security personnel do not get job satisfaction or a morale boost, it will be very difficult to stop them from being bought over so easily by the Maoists. If the State took care of them and their needs, the Maoists would have nothing to lure them into assisting their cause through providing weapons from the State armory because unfortunately, in today‟s day and age, monetary incentives get results faster than anything else.

2. Secondly, most of the police force is trained only in law and order enforcement. They use very rudimentary methods in the case of riot management, crime investigation, intelligence gathering and urban jungle warfare methods. They need to change their strategy and this can be achieved by combining their training with the country‟s other defenses.

3. Jungle warfare in an unfamiliar terrain is one of the major challenges faced by the security forces. The state mostly uses the CRPF to fight against Naxalites. The Naxal Dalams are made up of cadres belonging to the local areas who are well aware of the difficult terrain and thus can use it to their advantage. But unfortunately, the CRPF or at least majority of them are outsiders who are at a loss and therefore cannot compete against the Dalams.

4. In addition to all these issues, the Maoists front organisations operating under the guise of non-governmental organisations raise numerous fake cases of human rights violations and abuses against the police forces to demoralize them.

5. The final barrier that the police force faces is that of Guerrilla zones. These are zones were the Maoists train and enact guerrilla warfare to their newly acquired militia. They suddenly attack the state elements, loot their weapons and food and go into hiding. It therefore becomes very difficult to attack something that is always on the move and follows no set pattern

But what the forces can and must do to turn their situation into an advantageous one is to try and build the confidence of the local people. This will help them in carrying out surprise attacks which will help lower the morale and strength of the Maoists substantially. This would also allow them to obtain Intel from the locals as to when and where there is a possibility for the Naxals to attack.

4. DEVELOPMENT

Naxalites have often been compared to parasites that infect and feed on regions that lack proper care and infrastructure. They come to the region under the banner of justice and struggle for the poor and once they gain acceptance they oppress them in the name of revolution.

They have always made a conscious effort to derail all development projects initiated by the Government by killing or taking hostage engineers, doctors and civil service officers. They have blocked road projects and destroyed any progress made, overnight. This is because they are aware that once the areas start to develop, the support that they have shall begin to wither away. And without any local support, it won‟t be long before the Naxals are hunted down and the revolution disbanded.

Thus, the Government needs to start taking steps in the direction of developing these areas a little more seriously than they have in the past. They must ensure the safety of the people working on the projects and have twenty-four seven reliable security available on the project sites. They must also try to provide greater opportunities for employment to the locals to which will ensure their lesser participation and lesser recruitment to the Maoists. In a nutshell the war against the Naxals can be won only by developing the Naxal-infected tribal areas and ensuring proper law and order in the same.

5. POLICY MAKING

While all other measures will only prove to be a start of this tedious journey to disband the Naxal revolution, the major issue and only solution lies in the policy making of the Government. A large section of the Indian population does not expect anything from the Government but a life free from any sort of exploitation. Because it is exploitation which was the root of the eruption in Naxalbari where the Naxal movement began. While education may be an answer to the solution, it is not adequate. One might be educated but that does not ensure that he will be able to stand up against a corrupt system. The population requires nothing but for the Government to perform its duty to protect all its citizens equally. Once the people see and realize that there is no incentive in joining the Naxal movement, it will eventually halt its growth.

The Government must then step in and offer its assistance in the form of rehabilitation programme for those that are willing to lay down their arms. For those that are unwilling to do so, harsh action can be taken against them. While this might not completely kill the movement but it is important that an opportunity must first be given along with adequate reasons for the people to be given a reason to trust the Government and believe that they are in fact working for their best interest and show them that the Naxalites are doing nothing more than oppressing and manipulating them into destruction.

But at the end of it, the most important measure is the political will to tackle and coordinate the efforts, police autonomy and budget required and the determination to maintain such coordination until the final victory. Other States and the Central Government that are not battling Naxalism on an urgent basis must provide logistical support to the States that are threatened by the movement and try to curb and confine them to the forests. But this can only be done with the continuous support and coordination from all the Governments.

CONCLUSION

Naxalism is eating away the fabric of our society and if the Government doesn‟t realize how serious this issue is now and takes appropriate action, this terrorist organisation will destroy our nation, our constitution and everything that India stands for. It is high time that the Governments acknowledges its responsibility towards the locals of Naxal infested areas and frees them from the clutches of these manipulative oppressors who fight in the name of struggle for justice. They must ensure that these areas are developed and the people are educated enough to gain employment so that they no longer see any incentive to join the movement and the Naxals no longer have recruits to fill their Dalams and slowly the movement shall stifle.

1 Anil Kamboj “How and from where do the Naxalites procure their weapons” Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis https://idsa.in/askanexpert/Naxalitesprocuretheirweapons (Accessed June 05, 2018)