Lalgarh and the arrest of Kobad Ghandy brought to light two things that we have, always, either known as facts or suspected as possibilities — that militant Maoists are every bit as keen on publicity as everybody else; and that there are intriguing, though not altogether inexplicable, pockets of urban elite sympathy for their ideology. As Maoists wreak havoc across wide swathes of the country and as the Indian state engages them in battle to combat its gravest internal security threat, it is pertinent to include within the ambit of our concern about the Naxalites the radical appeal of their “cause” to some members of the intelligentsia. Therefore, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s double act of countering the Maoist violence through security forces on the one hand, and exposing the intellectual vacuity of their ideology by connecting that ideology with their cynical violence, is a timely improvisation.

This intellectual challenge to the extremists’ ideology is not a softening on Maoists, but an invitation to civil society to form its ideas and opinions on the basis of facts and not the other way round. The home minister’s outreach is necessary, given recent attempts by Maoists — from Kishenji to Ghandy — to use the mass media to intimidate as well as entice, the latter as a bait for those among the educated urban classes only too willing to be swayed. None of this is to refute the discourse of deprivation and lack of development in the areas where Naxalites are active. But it is to liberate that discourse from the grip of the Maoists and their sympathisers and work towards the uplift of the marginalised. It is also to expose how Maoists, by the violence they have unleashed on security personnel and civilians, by their persistent destruction of infrastructure, are actually the greatest obstacle to the development of these areas. As Chidambaram underscored on Thursday, the recent two-day bandh and consequent mayhem inflicted by the Maoists on Jharkhand, Bihar and parts of West Bengal have set back development efforts in the affected areas. If so much time and resources need to be spent on rebuilding damaged roads, bridges, railway stations, telecom towers, schools and offices, how and when will the same be allocated for building new ones? And that still leaves out all the needless blood spilt.

... contd.