The Prime Minister’s sanguine thoughts on the “macabre drama of death” ending sometime soon in the heartland of the Maoists may sound like rhetoric. There is, however, an undeniable logic behind the thinking that only development will help solve the problem, and not guns. Narendra Modi set foot on territory no PM has been to in about 30 years since Rajiv Gandhi went to the Red-dominated area.
That Modi did so with a message of peace and spelt out positive plans — worth about Rs 24,000 crores — for infrastructure development is reflective of a more studied approach to the problem of left-wing extremism which has a long history in the region. Instead, it may have been sorely tempting to outline the government’s security plans to tackle the insurgency that has already taken 51 lives in 2015, and where members of the Central security forces are seen as legitimate targets by the Maoists, who often have the tacit support of the peasants and tribals.
By avoiding sabre-rattling, and talking peace, the PM has left a channel open for a constructive approach. No matter how much the government may invest to set the ball rolling on jobs for locals in industry, there is no way the militants will be pleased enough to abandon the “revolution.” But, as in tackling ideology-based militant movements around the world, civil society has adapted a two-track approach of putting in place the tightest possible security measures while simultaneously offering development.
Paying the price losing security personnel to secure peace for the majority is a tragedy we have learnt to live with. The Maoist action in Sukma in which several villagers were held hostage but released, save one person who was executed after a kangaroo-court hearing, may have been timed to coincide with Mr Modi’s visit. It signifies amply the problem governments face.
A comparison to the years of terror in Punjab cannot be made as a militant movement based on religion took root in a developed state. The Naxal movement is based in the most underdeveloped places in India, where peasants are torn by numerous inequalities and where environmental degradation threatens their very existence.
The Maoist problem, extending from the borders of Nepal and cutting across the heartland of India down to north Kerala, cannot be overcome without addressing its root causes. The challenge to the sovereignty of the Indian state is not to be tolerated, and yet the long-term answer to the Maoist-inspired problem seems to lie in the path the government is choosing to take now to give the people a dignified way of life.
