Politics over Red terror

Is inaction against Maoists calculated inefficiency?

By Shikha Mukerjee

(March 11, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian)Violence is a quotidian evil. Be it the Maoists or the Constitutional amendment on Women’s representation, it is the same thing; the measure of tolerance, a virtue exercised at the expense of victims in this pious polity, is indulging the violent.

It is so commonplace that it can be handled at the slow and creaky pace of a political class that finds nothing abhorrent in deaths or destruction. It is no accident or quirk that even as the Communist Party of India(Marxists) bleed in the turbulent Jangal Mahal-Lalgarh-Bankura region of West Bengal, the State’s administration and police machinery seem to be sluggish in their response to organising themselves as a fighting force. It is no accident or quirk that a Congress-led Government that proclaims zero tolerance to the greatest internal threat to security, namely the Maoists, can paint menacing scenarios even as it takes the Home Minister P Chidambaram weeks to follow up on unrolling Operation Green Hunt.

It is no accident or quirk that the Indian state in the hands of a political class such as this can allow associates like Mr Shibu Soren in Jharkhand, Mr Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Ms Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal to be evasive about binding themselves to an agreed strategy for dealing with the Maoist menace. The Indian state is willing to be beguiled by the Maoists demanding interlocutors who are their compassionate crusaders. The game of fiddling while 160 odd districts are ravage by the Maoists is neither accidental nor a measure of the inefficiency, insensitivity or sheer callousness of the political class; it is a calculated and calibrated strategy of feigning blundering incompetence.

What needs to be faced is the dilemma of all Governments at the Centre and in the States between dealing with the Maoists as a straight law and order problem and dealing with the Maoists and their interlocutors as a political problem with complications that include law and order. The absence of clear political will in the matter is obvious.

As a simple law and order problem, the counter offensive against the sustained Maoist violence is the use of maximum force of which the Indian state is capable in order to deal with an internal law and order situation. Therein lies the rub. It remains a hypothetical question as to what degree of force the Indian state can generate, since the Maoists represent a rather unique political problem — they are not terrorists, but like terrorists; they are not separatists or militants aiming to divide the country; they are insurgents.

By fighting shy of taking out the Maoists, giving them time to recuperate and recruit by threats or persuasion, the Indian political class is revealing not its weakness but its guilt. The nexus of vested interests that misappropriate and redistribute resources includes politicians from all parties. The virulence of the Trinamool Congress attack on the ruling Communist Party of India(Marxist) in West Bengal is a measure of its complicity in encouraging the Maoists. By ducking attending the strategy meeting called by Mr Chidambaram in Kolkata, the Chief Ministers of Jharkhand and Bihar revealed their complicity too. In Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the links between business, contractors, political middle men and the variety of sangharsh or pratirodh platforms espousing the rights of indigenous populations (tribals, adivasis) is widely known.

Therefore, it is impossible in terms of sheer survival and self-interest, it would appear, for the Indian political class to sanction a take out plan against the Maoists. Why else would Home Secretary GK Pillai use a think-tank platform to indulge in kite flying about the Maoist’s menacing plans of organising an army and taking over the Indian state by 2050? Why else would he pooh-pooh the idea as a “dream” a day later?

By delaying the launch of Operation Green Hunt, the Governments at the Centre and in the States are not intensely focussing on preparing for the project, they are buying time on behalf of the Maoists and their interlocutors. The realisation that every State police force has huge deficits of personnel is not a new story; it is an old and stupid one. Recruiting these personnel is a process that everyone knows about so the emergency recruitment drive is yet another silly tale.

Every yarn spun by every shade of vested interest is sillier than the other; like the tale about the tribal way of life and the forcible mainstreaming or eviction. Underlying this story is the idea that left to themselves tribals and their leaders are people of unswerving good faith. Underlying this story is that the belief that tribals can be insulated from the processes of social and economic change in India. Underlying this story is the idea that the defenders of tribal rights are persons of unimpeachable good intentions. Would that if any of this were true.