COMBATING NAXALS- WE HAVE THE POWER

WRITTEN BY: ANURAG SAHOO

Many of us know about the menance of naxalism in India. Nearly every other day, we come across the news that naxalites have destroyed a mobile phone tower or have killed security personnel. But how many of us know what does the word “NAXALISM” means. Well, it refers to the extremist movement started by farmers against feudal system and the government for their lands. This movement started from a place in west Bengal which goes by the name NAXALBARI. So the movement got its name as naxalism. Today, naxalism is a massive extremist process which is spread in the under-developed areas of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh where people are still under the scourge of malnutrition in the year 2009 which is called as the e-chip age. Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh described Naxalism is the biggest internal threat of India. But the question of the hour is whether India can tackle Naxalism or not. I feel the answer is YES. It can be done both economically and by force. While Hyderabad, bhubaneswar, kolkata are becoming the hubs of Information Technology(IT) companies, areas like malkangiri, koraput in Orissa are known for its lack of communication, inaccessibility and malnutrition. Economic development alone can persuade the naxalites to shed arms and live peacefully. The discovery of Chinese made arms and ammunition and the recent revelation of a Pakistani manufactured mineral water pouch alarms us against the involvement of foreign forces behind naxalism. If we go the military way, the recently executed OPERATION NALAMALLA gives us a scale to measure our capability to combat naxalism. In the biggest post independence manhunt in the Indian history to search YSR Reddy, the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, we saw the deployment of more than 5000 CRPF personnel, greyhound and octopus commandoes, more than a dozen IAF helicopters and a sukhoi jet fitted with laser guided missiles and thermal imaging device. Also the services of an ISRO satellite was used. All this happened in a matter of few hours. If this operation of such high magnitude was undertaken for a search of a head of state, then to combat a 20000 strong naxalism maybe a similar operation with more commandoes would be enough. Especially when CRPF maintains a force of about 2,00,000 infantries. But still maybe a state of war is the last thing India wants as it is going through an economic developmental phase. Better health and education, proper transportation infrastructure and active participation of government and NGOs towards the upliftment of the downtrodden and naxal affected areas both socially and economically are the key to eradicate the plague of naxalism in the Gandhian Way.