THE agencies engaged in issues of internal security are working seriously on a very appropriate concern -- of not allowing the revival of the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist) in different parts of the country. Their basic aim is to ensure that the success they have registered over the past some years in containing the Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) does not go waste and the ugly genre of politics does not come up again in its menacing strength. In furtherance of this goal, the agencies of internal security -- such as the National Investigating Agency (NIA), for example, are actively swooping on every possible outfit across the country in an attempt to finish them. The recent raids by the NIA at 31 locations in Bihar, or the recent opening of new Police Stations in many States including Maharashtra, are the pointers to the resolve of the agencies to defeat LWE.

 

By any definition, all these measures are most welcome since they indicate a continued success of the Government’s vision of first restricting and then finishing the Maoist terrorism in the country. In the past ten years or so, the Government has been actively working on a national plan to bring the Maoists to grief -- through direct police action, through anticipatory swoops by different investigating agencies, through political mobilisation as a counter-narrative. The cumulative result of all that action was obvious -- in majority of districts (where Maoists had established dominance) LWE started receding slowly but surely. Over the past one decade or so, the ultra-Left influence in those districts decreased markedly, giving the Government a scope to claim a clear win against the Maoist activity. Obviously, the Government does not want that situation to be reversed. Hence the current flurry of activity on that front. The NIA has been very active in this regard -- marking organisations and people who indulge in Left-Wing Extremism either through arms or through propagandism via frontal organisations.

 

The agencies have also been putting up a systematic front to push back the tides of urban Naxals whose attempt it is to attract young people to the Leftist thinking and a possible armed struggle against the lawfully established State of India. A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi also openly verbalised his ire against urban Naxals and their propagandism. The Maoists, however, are a tough lot and are trying to regroup themselves again. They are organising popular protests against establishment of Police Stations in different areas, promotions of developmental schemes in different States, loan-melas and employment festivals which the Government organises ...! The Maoists are doing all this out the fear of losing their dominance in different geographical areas in India’s rural and tribal hinterland. The main thrust of their effort is to attack the Government in whichever way possible so that the rural and tribal masses feel threatened to join the official efforts.

 

The Maoists do not openly decry development, but try to create obstacles in it’s way by pushing the rural and tribal people into conflict with the Government. To certain extent, no matter how small, the Maoists seem to have succeeded in their goal. The current counter-action by various agencies of the Government on an all-India basis is, therefore, aimed at cutting down the Maoist advance back into the field. It must be said with full satisfaction that the direction of the Government’s action is correct and is yielding good results. It can be said safely that in some reasonable time, the Government’s efforts will produce welcome results. For, in India’s specific socio-political conditions, the Maoists are slated to lose their so-called People’s War.