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| India-Pakistan |
| Indian Government soft on Maoists reveals paper |
| 2007-04-13 |
| Startling revelations were made by a Calcutta based daily 'The Telegraph' regarding the Central Government's "soft posture" with respect to tackling critical internal security challenge of Maoism in India. A report indicates a top-level intervention as the root cause of the abandonment of a tough Anti-Maoism policy. A section of the home ministry officials, advocating a tough line against "overground" sympathisers of Naxalites, raised the pitch after arming itself with a report on a seminar held in January on the campus of a university in Delhi. The report, drawn up by home ministry officials, said the tenor of the seminar was "pro-Naxalite". The participants, who included bureaucrats, academics and students, engaged themselves in "anti-state" discussions that seemed to justify armed uprising, it said. By February, the officials behind the initiative had begun to discuss specific punitive measures that could be taken against the "sympathisers". Penalties put on the table included shunting officials to nondescript areas and cutting down retirement benefits. However, "intervention from the top" nipped the plan. A near-certain public furore and the ruling establishment's well-known eagerness to preserve its liberal credentials were the primary factors that forced the rethink, the sources said. The past few years has seen the insurgents spreading Naxal influence from 76 districts in nine states to 118 Districts in 12 States. The Communist Party of India (Maoists) was formed on September 21, 2004 through the merger of two prominent naxalite outfits - the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War (PWG) and the Maoist Communists Center of India (MCCI). The Research and Analysis Wing alleges that many Naxalites have tried to coordinate with international terrorist groups and organizations against India, such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, with whom they have engaged in weapons transactions. The president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rajnath Singh, alleges links between the Naxalites and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. The Naxalite party has been banned in Andhra Pradesh, a ban that they have protested. They have also been attacked by anti-Naxalite paramilitary groups. The Naxalites intensified their insurgency in 2007 and are now active in half of India's states, mostly in rural areas, in an attempt to encourage a peasant revolt in response to a government plan to expropriate large tracts of peasant land in eastern India in order to create special economic zones to attract industry. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Naxalites pose the biggest internal security threat to India since Independence, yet his very Government is going soft on Maoism at the expense of our brave soldiers who're dying in battle. |
| Posted by:John Frum |