Stay resolute

The rhetorical ground on the Maoist insurgency had already been covered and the debate settled in the light of facts. That is why,after Tuesdays well-planned Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarhs Dantewada district that left 76 security personnel dead in the worst single Naxal attack to date,the notes of discord being struck in certain political quarters are counterproductive. These seek to take the argument back to a point long left behind,one to which the Indian state cannot afford to return. Should the operations be scaled down? No. Because that would immediately cede territory recently recovered from Naxals back to them,precluding all chances of ending the insurgency. Should provocative language against Maoists be dropped? Heres a counter-question: whence the idea that those who massacre 76 men after trapping them,those who for years have kidnapped and butchered civilians and policemen,blown up stations,roads,bridges,schools,burnt peasants crops,who have reiterated countless times their unwillingness to compromise till the state is destroyed whence the idea that these people care about the softness or harshness of words?

The nations main opposition party,the BJP,has displayed realism and good faith in promising to support the government through this crisis. But its alliance partner,the JD(U),and the Samajwadi Party have not. Its a leap of logic to blame Tuesdays massacre on provocation of the Maoists. Does it occur to these critics that to mollify the Naxals or de-intensify Green Hunt,especially now,is to legitimise the rebels? If it does,they are opportunists in the garb of agnostics. If it does not,they join those activists who defy logic,in blaming state violence and the anti-Naxal offensive for the ambush. In countering such woolly-headed argumentation this is what had been established: Maoists are terrorists who hardly deserve the consideration the state accords to those it dares not provoke. The imperative is to boost paramilitary and police morale and training,not to feed the hesitation of states still unable to summon their full political will.

The Congress too must put its house in order: the time is past to question the hardline policy,the aggressive statements,which some Congressmen believe may be counterproductive. Hopefully,as the government has said,the goal remains restoring civil administration in Naxal-affected areas and rooting out Maoist influence. There will have to be changes to strategy and tactics,not in regressing to the Shivraj Patil years,but in taking the war against Naxals to its only humane conclusion: the victory of the state and of the people.