*Bloodbath in 'red corridor' * ** The sinister design of the Maoists has been working well. They have been successful in not only spreading a fear psychosis among the people of at least nine states, the police force too has been showing signs of crack in its bid to foil the efforts of these extremists. In one of the most unprecedented events in the annals of jail breaking in the recent past, about 299 inmates, including 105 Naxalites, overpowered the security staff with some rare brand of ghastly attack on 16 December in the Dantewada jail in Chhatisgarh. The Naxalites in Chattishgarh have been striking repeatedly. Only a few days ago, in three separate incidents no less than 30 members of the law enforcing agencies were killed. Seeing these recurrent attacks, the Prime Minister has termed the Naxalite menace as the biggest threat to national security. The Naxalite movement has become the most pressing problem before the Union home ministry. In a recent circular, the ministry sounded a red alert for the worst affected states and initiated measures to tackle the growing menace. In two recent incidents, 18 people, including the son of Mr Babulal Marandi, former chief minister of Jharkhand, were killed. Within a few days, 15 policemen were ambushed by Naxalites in a remote village in Chattisgarh. When the Maoists attacked with sophisticated weapons, the policemen were found to be having traditional weaponry. The state of affairs at the local police station with which these policemen were attached was simply deplorable. It did not have the basic facilities needed to combat the extremists; it is hard to believe, but the police station did not have even a telephone connection. This shows the abysmal backwardness of the poverty-stricken villages Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally, these states are the hotbed of Naxalite activities. Mr Amarjit Singh is an owner of a small factory in Giridih in Jharkhand. He had been to Kolkata for his mother's treatment in a well known city hospital on the very next day after 18 people were killed by Maoists after a football match. He said that considering the unbelievable misery and poverty of the rural masses of Jharkhand, it is rather natural that frustrated youths were taking to the path of extremism in sheer desperation. Failure of land reforms, lack of basic rural infrastructure like roads, electricity, drinking water and almost total absence of adequate livelihood are some of the problems plaguing rural India. Thus, the villages have become the breeding ground for extremism. In November 1998, the Jehanabad district of Bihar witnessed one of the worst attacks by the Ranavir Sena, an armed outfit of local landlords, on poverty-stricken villagers; 61 people were killed in a midnight operation. Later, Indrajit Gupta, then Union home minister, visited the spot and declared that it was a sheer manifestation of failure of land reforms ~ as was evident from the absence of consolidation of the rural masses against the rich land-owing gentry. He said without agrarian development with land reforms as the precursor, such attacks cannot be stopped. Recurrent attacks by the Ranavir Sena led to counterattacks by the Lal Sena. The Lal Sena, Jana Yuddha or People's War group (PWG), the CPI-Maoists, among others, are now broadly categorised as Naxalites by the Union home ministry. The ministry seems to be considering the menace of Naxalism as a law and order and socio-economic problem. Therefore, apart from strengthening the police and paramilitary forces, equal stress was given to revamp the ailing rural socio-economic structure of the Naxalite-affected states. At a recent meeting convened by the home ministry, emphasis was given on creating as much livelihood potential as possible. The Rural Employment Guarantee Programme was earmarked to create jobs. The state rural development and panchayat departments were instructed to create and extend the provisions relating to rural roads, electricity, drinking water, educational institutions and irrigational facilities. The endemic deprivation and backwardness of the Naxaliteaffected regions may be the basic reason for armed popular upsurge. But there are allegations that these centrifugal propensities were patronised by forces across the border. India stands to be the biggest market. In a market-driven society, the potential of an enabling market creates enormous opportunities. India is comparatively peaceful and is therefore considered as a better pedestal to extend sway over the entire Southeast Asian market. Extension of hegemony over India may be easier with Balkanisation of the country. Thus foreign market operators love to see India becoming more and more divided and the regions at loggerhead. The thesis of international patronage behind various disintegrative tendencies gains more ground considering the huge money power of these illegal outfits and the highly sophisticated ammunitions they use. The connotation gains credence not only by the way the Naxalites work, the manoeuvring of Ulfa and various other terrorist groups of the Northeast and those working in Kashmir and Tamil Nadu have to bear the same allegation. Local resentment against the state power may be a social factor. But it is hard to believe that without sponsorship from various international agencies, these terror outfits could have become so rich and heavily armed. Compared to the Kashmiri militants and insurgents of the Northeast, the Naxalites have become the most dreaded group according to a Union home ministry communiqué. In the last one year, about 600 people were killed, including a large number of policemen and politicians. In March 2007, 56 policemen were killed in one single attack ~ which stands to be the biggest armed onslaught on security personnel in one single day in the post-independent era.
Tracing the history The word "Naxal" emerged from Naxalbari, a place in Darjeeling district of West Bengal. In 1964, the Communist Party of India split while considering certain political issues and the Communist Party of India-Marxist was born. The party was able to form the first leftist government in West Bengal in 1967 ~ the United Front government. Two major departments, police and land reforms, were given to Jyoti Basu and Harekrishna Konar of the CPI-M. The government lasted 21 months but during this period ceiling-surplus agricultural land was distributed among the landless and semi-landless peasants. The land reforms programme was a grand success. On 25 June, 1967, Charu Majumdar, a member of the CPI-M State Committee, and Kanu Sanyal initiated a new brand of land movement by adopting the khatam line or annihilation of class enemy programme. These leaders favoured killing of land owners and forcibly taking over their land without giving any pecuniary compensation. Compared to the statewide land reforms programme, the total quantum of land forcibly occupied by the peasants under the leadership of Majumdar and Sanyal was insignificant. But the Naxalbari movement was able to attract international attention owing to the support rendered by the Communist Party of China (CPC); Radio Peking started broadcasting periodic bulletins and hailed the Naxalbari movement as expressions of a "spring thunder" in India. The Communist Party of India did have a party to party relationship with the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU). The worsening of Sino-Soviet border relationship had a lasting effect on the relationship between the CPC and the CPSU. Resultantly, the CPC might have been a bit more over-enthusiastic in championing the cause of the Naxalbari movement even when the undisputed leader of the CPC, Mao Zedong, preferred to remain aloof in international issues and concentrated more on social reconstruction of China. The Naxalbari movement began to spread like the prairie fire in various parts of North Bengal and the best talent of the Kolkata-based leading educational institutions got attracted. Sushitol Roy Chowdhury, a member of the state secretariat of the CPI-M became the editor of Deshabrati, the organ of the Naxalites. Leaders like Saroj Dutta, Jangal Santhal, Santosh Rana, Jayashri Rana, Ashim Chatterjee almost became legends among a section of the youth. But the movement gradually lost its steam among the peasantry who were considered to be the harbinger of a peasant-led revolution for which the Naxalbari leaders distanced themselves from the CPI-M. On the occasion of Lenin's birth centenary on 22 April, 1969, the Naxalbari movement gave birth to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) during the regime of the second United Front government when it was in office for only seven months. But soon the movement got derailed and West Bengal was plunged into darkness. Meanwhile, the liberation movement started in erstwhile East Pakistan and West Bengal witnessed the free flow of weapons; the process of criminalisation of politics started from this point of time. After a very turbulent period (1969-72), the Congress ministry headed by SS Ray assumed office in 1972 and the Naxalite movement was brutally crushed. Almost all senior leaders and workers were put behind bars and the movement suddenly went into oblivion. Charu Majumdar, the most respected Naxalite leader, was arrested from a rented flat in Entally and within a few days passed away rather mysteriously in Lalbazar lock-up. The Naxalite movement started in West Bengal, but failed to spread its wings. It is only in the past few years that the movement has got a new lease of life in various parts of the country, notably in the countryside. Ultra-left groups were active in small pockets of central India ever since the Telengana movement in the late 1940s. But the clubbing of all such groups under the broad banner of Naxalism is a recent phenomenon. The inhuman nature of low quality of life in various parts of rural India may be the reason for the growth of extremism. International sponsorship may be adding fuel to the fire. But it is high time that better sense prevails and steps are taken to end this perennial bloodbath. Moreover, apart from religious fundamentalism, no political organisation around the world is now resorting to armed rebellion as consensus and democratic values reign supreme in modern civil society. 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