[Reader-list] The Naxalites overreached

[Rakesh Iyer]

Cool. From a fight against violence, now we have got to fights amongst
ourselves. Pray, what's the use of all this?

I would say one thing though. The time for peace with the Naxals has now,
whether we like it or not, gone out, at least for the present. We talk about
violence of the state. Since the authorities of the Indian state are
missing, it's actually the Naxals who comprise the State. And their violence
is brutal certainly. This isn't just a group of people who fight because
their resources are at stake. This is a group of people who function like
bandits or dacoits with their fixed commissions from the bureaucrats and the
industrialists. And now allegations surface that naxals are hand-in-glove
with the politicians.

What more has to be said?

Today, we see that clearly. All those advocating force against Naxalites,
why don't you go and train yourself and fight Naxalites? Why sacrifice our
soldiers who have no strategy, no way to identify the enemy, no intelligence
and no understanding of the situation? Why try to solve what is a problem of
the administration through the military? Does anything as 'acting only in
defence' position ever exist? Aren't forces supposed to attack the enemy?

Yes, Naxals have to be fought, but not only militarily, but politically and
administratively, as well as logically. Our current administration setups
will never be able to tackle Naxalism, and if allegations are true, they are
instead using Naxal problem as a cash cow to milk resources of the Indian
state and also through commissions from the industries. There has to be a
complete reform of the police, the administration and the judiciary, as well
as better understanding of the problem first, which has to be undertaken on
a war footing. This is important. Secondly, there needs to be a debate about
our development paradigm itself, associated with a complete reform of the
media. That is the need of the hour.

If fighting Naxals is a war, then one needs to have a strategy to fight the
war. And that can't be 'shock and awe', as the US example shows.

Rakesh