How not to fight the Maoists

Edit, Governance Now, Feb 28, 2010

In the fight against the red terror, some of the chief ministers are not on the same page as Union home minister P Chidambaram. This can seriously damage the chances of success


In our previous issue we dealt in some detail how the centre and the naxal-affected states have completely ignored a key aspect in the fight against the leftwing extremists: choking the finances of the rebels.
It is not a small matter considering that they mobilise thousands of crore of rupees every year (the Intelligence Bureau’s latest report puts it at
Rs 1,600-2,000 crore), all by way of extortions from industrialists, contractors and traders, even the government servants.
We also pointed out that unless the source of this money flow is checked, it would be very difficult to defeat the rebels.

The same is true of the arms and ammunitions too. The Intelligence Bureau reports show that nearly 90 percent of the arms and ammunitions with the rebels have either been looted from the police armoury or from the police party after an ambush. But what are the state governments doing to stop that? We have the sad spectacle of a police camp (Eastern Frontier Rifles) being run over in West Midnapore district of West Bengal recently by the rebels who shot dead or burnt alive 24 jawans. It is not clear how many of their weapons were looted but it is clear from the details available that these jawans were sitting ducks, untrained and grossly underprepared for engagement with the rebels. Newspaper reports since then have pointed out many more such camps in the state which are equally vulnerable.

The centre can help with its forces, as it is doing right now, but there are obvious limitations. The main battle has to be fought by the local police. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the worst naxal hit states have the lowest police-to-people ratio (half or less than the national average of 120 policemen per 100,000 population). Only Chhattisgarh, which also has a low police-to-people ratio, has taken pains to build up a fighting force by way of training and motivation.

Orissa is giving an impression of waking up to the challenge but states like Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal are still in deep slumber. Andhra Pradesh has shown the way by raising an effective force, the Greyhound commandos, to beat back the rebels, but these states are yet to follow that example.

Worse, Bihar and Jharkhand don’t even seem interested. When Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram went to Kolkata recently to work out a joint strategy with Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa, the chief ministers of the first two states didn’t bother to attend it. He has now called for another round of discussion in New Delhi and we will have to wait and see how these chief ministers respond. The good thing is Chidambaram is making a concerted effort to fight the naxal menace. Under his leadership, the home ministry recognises and is fighting the big threat that the leftwing rebels pose to national security, and not treating it as a mere local law and order issue as his predecessor preferred to declare.

It is important that the chief ministers of Bihar and Jharkhand are on the same page as Chidambaram as the naxals are known to cross over to another state when the going gets tough in a particular state and hence the states must coordinate their operations. Bihar may be reluctant as elections are round the corner (so could be the case with West Bengal where elections are due in 2011) and wouldn’t like bloodbath to queer the pitch but it is precisely this kind of prevarications and lack of clarity which have helped the rebels to spread their terror to 223 districts of 20 states.

The other worrisome aspect in the fight against the red terror is the lack of a firm hostage policy. True, we don’t have a national policy to deal with hostage situation, even after the brouhaha following the Kandahar plane hijack episode. But that is no reason why we can’t have one now. The way the West Bengal government and then the Jharkhand government bent backwards to secure the release of a cop and a BDO, respectively, would only encourage the naxals to repeat their action. That should be another area for Chidambaram to focus on: to work out a firm hostage policy.