Friends, Today the threat of Naxalism (known by so many names) has been accepted as being among the biggest threats to our country. The situation is almost alike an all-out war where both the State and the extra-constitutional forces seem to be interlocked in a deadly fight. And when any State, with all its might, decides over something, more often than not, it succeeds in achieving its goal and purpose. Yet, the fact remains that the lure of the Left is among such phenomenon that is bound to remain all the time, at all places. The idea of waging a righteous war against the system, the imagery of being the protectors of the poor and the hapless and the concept of being the voice of the voiceless are some such thoughts that always have a sufficiently large number of takers. There could always be a question as regards the extent to which such ideas exist in an individual as also regarding the genuineness and commitment of those who claim to be the forbearers of such ideas but there can be no denying that Left and Ultra-left are such basic ideas which have their existence rooted in the very genesis of Human thought. Here is an attempt to show it through a brief academic analysis- 1. Left, Right and Center are three broad categories in which Human Thought processes can be divided. If there shall be a Centrist way of thinking and a Rightist way of thinking, there will also be some kind of Leftist way of thinking as well. This seems to be as natural as it can be. 2. Extending the same further, we can see that Left and Right both move have a scope to tend to their respective infinities, just as we see in the Number system. 3. Hence, extreme Left (like the one seen all over the world on so many occasions) and Extreme Right (example being that of Hitler and Mussolini) are such phenomenons that always have a scope of popping up. 4. The same can also be seen through the most popular of the Statistical distribution tables, known as Normal distribution, which as we all know is Bell-shaped. Here all situations ranging from minus infinity to plus infinity are possible with varying probability. Thus, extrapolating this concept to the various possible ideologies, we see that while Centrist ideas and those closer to center (on both the Right and the Left) have a much higher probability of existence, yet the presence of extreme ideologies can not be ruled out. 5. This must have been the reason for all kinds of ideologies existing since the advent of human race- in different forms. 6. Left and Extreme Left also have some kind of glamour and romanticism attached to it. This must have been the reason for such extremely talented people with bright future as Che Guevera, Fidel Castro, Lenin, Charu Mazumdar et al to have given up everything to get attracted to this, with varying degree of success. 7. Again, whenever the Left or extreme Left has been able to acquire power finally, it tends to have more and more of Centrist tendencies. It is akin to water flowing from higher level to lower level naturally. Thus, science and nature seem to point out that Ultra Left ideologies have an inbuilt place in human existence. But, then since the prime role of State is related to Peace and tranquility in the Society, hence no government (acting on behalf of the State) can ever tolerate any such kind of aberration and anomaly that questions its very existence. Hence, such a struggle, time and again.
Amitabh Thakur IPS, Currently at IIM Lucknow # 94155-34526
