Maoists in India
As I pass through certain "red alert" areas of Jharkhand, I see signs and banners intimating "People's War". Walking along, I wonder how this unethical and ridiculous claims of those who themselves are involved in taking thousands of lives indicate that they are "People's Power". This is the picture of the "Maoists" or more famously the "Naxalites" who have been making strong headlines recently in our country.
Its not that the problem is new but there has been a recent resurgence in their acts which has led to mass killing and they being termed as the most vivid "Internal Threat" to our nation. Now there are people who contradict this by saying that there is never smoke without fire, meaning there must have been circumstances which led them to lead such a activities. Just looking at the history of Maoism, the term "People's war" was a strategic line developed by Mao Zedong during the phase of guerrilla warfare of the Communist party of China. Maoism's political orientation emphasizes the "revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures".
The guerrilla warfare tactics focused on surrounding the cities from the countryside, with a heavy emphasis on political transformation through mass involvement of the lower classes of society. The Communist Party of India (Maoists) is a Maoist political party in India which aims to overthrow the government of India.
It was founded on September 21, 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC). The merger was announced to the public on October 14 the same year. It is currently proscribed as a Terrorist Organization by the Indian government for organizing mass killings in furtherance of their ideology. The term "Naxalites" comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) led by Charu Majumdar, initiated a violent uprising in 1967.
On May 18, 1967, the Siliguri Kishan Sabha, of which Jangal was the president, declared their readiness to adopt armed struggle to redistribute land to the landless. The following week, a share cropper near Naxalbari village was attacked by the landlord's men over a land dispute. On May 24, when a police team arrived to arrest the peasant leaders, they were ambushed by a group of tribals led by Jangal Santhal, and a police inspector was killed in a hail of arrows. This event encouraged many Santhal tribals and other poor people to join the movement and to start attacking local landlords. This way the movement which was started for equal power of all sections had turned into a brutal killing spree. Just in 2010,they have killed more than 300 people,
- June 29, 2010: At least 26 CRPF personnel were killed when the Maoists attacked a road opening party in Narayanpur district.
- May 27, 2010: At least 145 people were killed after a train derailed in an apparent Maoist attack in West Bengal.
- May 17, 2010: 35 killed after Maoist rebels blow up bus in the Dantewada district
- April 6, 2010 : At least 76 CRPF and district force personell killed in Mukrana forest of Chattisgarh.
- February 20, 2010 : Maoists killed a village guard by slitting his throat.
- February 18, 2010 : Twelve villagers were killed and 9 injured in indiscriminate firing by the Maoists in Jamui district of Bihar.
The Maoists claim to be fighting for the rights of the tribes in the forest belt around central India. That region contains deposits of minerals which are of interest to mining companies like Tata and Essar. The funding for the Maoists come from abductions, extortion and by setting up unofficial administrations to collect taxes in rural areas where official government appears absent. Another major source of funding for Maoists allegedly comes from poppy cultivation in the Ghagra area of Gumla district in Jharkhand and in parts of Gumla, Kishanganj and Purnia districts in Bihar. Security forces claim that opium fields are screened and hidden behind peripheral maize cultivation. The Naxals are also believed to be patronizing hemp cultivation to fund their activities as reported from Debagarh district in Orissa.
At last I would say the government now must show greater resolve in controlling this rebel otherwise soon it would blow up into an intangible problem and the ones who would suffer the most would be the people of this country.
Tusheet Saraf
