How to Tackle Naxalism in India? Group Discussion notes for Airforce Phase 2

How to Tackle Naxalism in India?

✔️Naxalism & Maoism

●The term Naxalism derives its name from the village Naxalbari of West Bengal. It originated as rebellion against local landlords by the ideologues of left-wing extrem groups for rightful redistribution of the land to working peasants. 

◆These extremists were known as naxals and their movement was called as naxal movement, which has, later spread across the Eastern India; in less developed areas of states such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. 

●The naxals supported Maoist political ideology and outfits. Maoism is a variant of communism developed by Mao Tse Tung. The Maoist insurgency doctrine glorifies violence as the primary means to overwhelm the existing democratic state structure .

✔️Reasons for the Spread of Naxalism

●Land Reforms: The failure of implementation of land reforms (land ceiling and redistribution of land to landless) that affected both social and economic conditions of the people.

●Social inequality: Exploitation of sharecroppers and landless labourers by the landlords

●Alienation of Forest land: Alienation of Tribal land and in implementing government regulations (Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980) on forest access, government officials resorted to harassment of the tribals, who supported the naxal movement.

●Land Acquistion and Development Displacement: Ineffective rehabilitation and resettlement after land acquisition for private entities (corporate) or for development projects like Dams, Bridges and Roads etc.

●Failure of Governance: Development benefits are not reached to the intended beneficiaries due to socially biased bureaucracy.

▪️Maoist Insurgency

◆Maoists or Naxals resort to guerrilla warfare that primarily aims at creating a vacuum at the grass-roots level of the existing governance structures. 

◆This is accomplished by killing lower-level government officers, police-personnel of the local police stations, the workers of mainstream political parties and the people's representatives of the Panchayati Raj system.

◆After creating a political and governance vacuum, they force the local population to join the movement. A persuasive propaganda is also carried out against the purported and real inadequacies of the existing state structure.

◆Maoism or Naxalism (ideology of armed insurgency to overthrow the Government) is unacceptable under the Indian Constitution and the founding principles of the Indian State. 

◆The poor and the marginalized social groups like the tribal are bearing the brunt of this violence. Hence, curbing the maoist menace in a concerted manner is necessary.

✔️Measures taken to tackle Naxalism:

◆The government under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967 amended in 2004 has banned the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) - People's War and all its associated organisations.

◆The Government has given a call to the Left-Wing Extremists to abjure violence and come for talks for several times. But they were failed due to lack confidence in talks between government and naxals.

◆Left Wing Extremism Division was created w.e.f. October 19, 2006 in the Ministry, to effectively address the Left-Wing Extremist insurgency in a holistic manner.

◆Forest Dwellers Act

◆Development of left-wing affected districts and regions has been made a priority.

◆Home Minsitry conducts review meeting regularly with naxal affected state governments.

◆In 2017, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) launched Operation 'SAMADHAN' to tackle the Naxal problem. The acronym SAMADHAN stands for

•Smart leadership,

•Aggressive strategy,

•Motivation and training,

•Actionable intelligence,

•Dashboard Based KPIs (key performance indicators) and KRAs (key result areas),

•Harnessing technology,

•Action plan for each theater, and

•No access to financing.

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