The consolidation of Naxal power — with over 55,000 well-armed cadres, hi-tech weapons in plenty and a well-honed guerilla strategy in the “compact revolutionary zone” in 13 states — is now well established. Little wonder then that the prime minister has decided to take the initiative to counter Naxal growth in his own hands, by chairing the standing committee of the chief ministers of the Naxal-affected states. The nation will watch with anxious interest whether he is able to come out with a strategy, combining tough security options with economic measures which would begin to dry up the recruitment pastures of the Naxal outfits.

When the first Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement in Telangana was withdrawn in India on the advice of Soviet Union in 1951, no one would have imagined that a Mao-inspired ‘revolution’ will erupt in West Bengal a decade and a half later. This ‘revolution’ came at a time, paradoxically, when the communists not only accepted parliamentary democracy, but began their historic rule of West Bengal. When the famed Naxalbari movement was crushed by 1972, no one would have imagined the People’s War in AP emerging in less than a decade — a movement that would signal the gradual spread of the ‘red revolution’ to 13 states in and over 150 districts in some two decades.

The issue has been under the home ministry’s attention for nearly a year. Home Minister Shivraj Patil chaired the first meeting of the standing committee on September 19, which concluded that “the problem of Naxalism has to be addressed by ensuring effective and sustained police action against the Naxal violence and, at the same time, accelerating socio-economic development of the affected areas”. The states, too, have been struggling with various security options along with such innovations as ‘Girijan Greyhound’ (AP) and ‘salwa judum’ (Chhattisgarh). However, these initiatives are clearly failing in the face of the growing might of the Naxals, who are reportedly looking for new pastures in Uttaranchal, Punjab and Haryana.

... contd.