"If a movement shies away from testing its own legitimacy, it becomesmerely self-serving. Its own claims to be fighting for justice, or forthe rights of the people, simply become self-confirming assumptions,with no accountability to anyone. " IE Really, very little else need to be said about insurgent groups in the country --Ram__________________________________ Test of democracy The prime minister has thrown a challenge to Naxalite groups An important question about the legitimacy of the Naxal movement hasbeen raised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He has punctured thebasic pretension that Naxalites in this country have long held, thattheirs is a popular movement. He has asked them to prove theirpopularity by joining the electoral process and not through violentand intimidating acts. In doing so, the prime minister has also drawnattention to a paradox that lies at the heart of so many violentmovements which claim to represent the people. These movements can doeverything but face the people in an open contest. The political process is often full of shortcomings, and does notunambiguously express the will of the people. But it does not followfrom this fact that any group can claim the mantle of representing thepeople, their needs and aspirations, simply by trumpeting loudly thatthey are fighting for the people. Even if the grievances that theNaxals draw upon truly exist, their means, methods and policies needto be subject to some test to ascertain their legitimacy. For all itsinfirmities, electoral democracy is one of the few means ofadjudicating any claims to represent the people. If a movement shiesaway from testing its own legitimacy, it becomes merely self-serving.Its own claims to be fighting for justice, or for the rights of thepeople, simply become self-confirming assumptions, with noaccountability to anyone. The prime minister is challenging a movement, that claims to befighting for justice, to subject itself to the test of democracy. Indoing so, he is also displaying great confidence in an open politicalprocess, by suggesting that the media should be allowed to interactwith any political group. But no democracy can and ought to tolerateits own subversion. The subversion is all the more insidious when donein the name of the people. Participating in the democratic processcomes with some unavoidable conditions. It requires abjuring violence,it requires respecting the integrity of a political process. The primeminister's call to the Naxals, therefore, is both a warning that theyhave to give up violence, and a challenge to them to prove what theyclaim for themselves — popular support.
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