LEFT Wing Extremism(LWE) will take a pretty long time to emerge from the blow Security Forces dealt to its cadres in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker District -- eliminating as many as 29 Naxalites including a top commander with a reward of Rs. 25 lakhs on his head. True, they may try to hit back in next some time, all right, but emerging from this debilitating blow will take them as if forever. The Binagunda-Koragutta forest action by Security Forces, thus, should be treated as a landmark achievement in the country’s effort to ensure higher levels of internal security. Coming as it did just moments ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, this encounter assumes a tremendous importance in view of the vision of the Central Government to eliminate LWE from the country at the earliest. The Centre also is determined to see that the electoral process due to start soon would not be allowed to be disturbed by anybody no matter the cost. The Binagunda-Koragutta operations come to fore as a symbolism of this resolve. Though the actual details of how the encounter was planned and how so many Naxalite cadres got trapped and eventually killed may never come to public domain. Yet, suffice it is to say that this particular encounter needs to be treated as an important step in a bigger strategy of the combined Security Forces in altogether different mode and method and manner (which should have taken the Naxalite cadres by surprise and even shock).

 

There are reasons to believe that the Security Forces adopted a mix of Long Range and Short Range patrolling and gravitated their personnel at a given spot in the most unobtrusive manner. There also are reasons to believe that the strategists of the Security Forces even hoodwinked the ultras about the movement and whereabouts of their personnel -- and subsequently pinned them down to a small area. These successful operations also point to a national strategy to ensure greater internal security not just ahead of elections but also at any given moment where no compromises with larger interest are allowed. This zero tolerance to LWE is the actual motivation of Security Forces across the country in general and in Naxalite-affected areas in particular - spurred personally by none other than Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, as some well-informed sources indicate. The Prime Minister is known to take deep interest in management of detail of the anti-Naxalite policy and offers his suggestions to outwit the ultra-left-wing operatives. His dislike for Urban Naxals also is well known to the whole country and the world.

 

Those who have studied the Naxalite movement and tried to offer suggestion to finish it off, often attribute the success of the official effort to clear all Naxalinfested areas of the ultra-left influences to the Prime Minister’s personalised interest. The Kanker encounter is a good symbolism of all this thinking at the top. It must be noted that earlier Governments, too, made some efforts to outsmart Naxalite leadership, but could attain only a limited success -- vastly because of the absence of certain resoluteness in their thought and action. The case now is exactly opposite -- which has ensured a better strike rate of official moves against Left Wing Extremism. Thanks to the consistency of effort on the part of the Government -- whether Central or State -- the Naxalite movement in the country is being pushed back in a significant manner. This process is not likely to be reversed -- unless there is some element at the highest level in the Government silently collaborating with Left extremism and sympathising with Naxalite philosophy. That is not likely to happen -- which leads us to believe that the Naxalite movement is on the run, no matter a few flashes of resistance.