The Great Debate (India)
Maoist killings in Dantewada call for multi-pronged response
The well-planned ambush and deliberate killing of more than 70 security personnel by Maoist cadres on April 6 in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh has caused enormous anger and anguish all over India.
The phrase 6/4 is being added to the blood-splattered internal security lexicon of India that is still coping with 26/11 – the equally pre-meditated and cold-blooded Mumbai attacks of November 2008.
Are India’s complex internal security challenges becoming more intractable?
The answer, alas, is yes. And the reasons have to do as much with the virulence of the Maoist cadres as with the inadequate response of the state over the last decade plus.
Notwithstanding the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as far back as November 2005, had identified the Maoist-left wing extremist (LWE) constituency as the gravest danger to the country, the national security apex of the country and the trouble prone states have not been able to create adequate capacity to contain this challenge and provide the right redress and related measures.
When incidents like 6/4 and 26/11 happen, the brief and intense REACTIVE response is predictable.
The dominant collective consciousness that is more focused on cricket, cinema and inane celebrity antics is jolted – but for a short and transient period.
Pakistan in a maelstrom?
( C. Uday Bhaskar is a New Delhi-based strategic analyst. The views expressed in the column are his own)
The Ides of March have been linked with deep political intrigue and pre-meditated violence and history notes that Caesar paid a very heavy price for not paying heed to the sage advice rendered unto him.
Pakistan is no Rome but the pattern of recent events that include the ‘conquest’ of the Swat valley by the Taliban, the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and the blowing up of the shrine of the Sufi-saint Rehman Baba at the foothills of the Khyber Pass by Sunni extremists are cumulatively indicative of a socio-religious tsunami whose tectonic implications go well beyond the political contours of Pakistan.
Concurrently the country is poised on the cusp of an irreparable breakdown between the two major political parties – the PML(N) led by former PM Nawaz Sharif, and the PPP led by the Pakistan President, Asif Ali Zardari.
This tragic paradox is heightened by the reality that while the disparate extremist groups that are broadly classified as the Pakistan Taliban are uniting under a common banner and leader – the political forces that can counter such ideology are splintering.
But then historically Pakistan has been plagued by myriad domestic contradictions and paradoxes and long-time Pakistani watchers see the current turbulence with a sense of déjà vu.
From the first military take over of Pakistan by General Ayub Khan in October 1958 to the more recent coup by General Pervez Musharraf in October 1999, the khaki constituency has always been the central element of power in the national matrix.
It is clearly advent there is a political instability in the country, which is deterimantal to the world and to the people of Pakistan. The common man is caught in the cross fighting for power between Taliban and the so-called government authorities. The dissidents expressing their grievances are either exterimanated or kept under house arrest. It is sad plight for the citizens. Moreover, the rise of Taliban and Islamic fundmentalism is dangerous as Pakistan become the hub for terrorism.
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The Wall
THIS IS A PROBLEM CREATED BY SUCCESSIVE GOVERNMENT’S. SIXTY THREE YEARS SINCE INDEPENDENCE AND THESE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, THE ‘ADIVASIS’, THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF INDIA, OR ABORIGINALS AS THEY ARE TERMED IN THE WEST, HAVE BEEN IGNORED BY THE SYSTEM.
PROJECTS HAVE BEEN SANCTIONED IN THE NAME OF IMPROVING THEIR LOT, BUT SADLY ALL THE FUNDS HAVE BEEN GROSSLY MISAPPROPRIATED ! THESE PEOPLE LACK EVEN BASIC HEALTHCARE, PROVEN BY THE FACT THAT A MAJORITY OF THEM SUFFER FROM TUBERCOLOSIS. THEY ARE DEPRIVED OF EDUCATION (THE SCHOOLS ARE OCTAGONAL BASTIONS MEANT SOLELY TO ACCOMODATE PARA-MILITARY FORCES)SO THAT THEY CANNOT FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS AS LAID DOWN BY OUR CONSTITUTION.
TODAY HUGE CORPORATE FIRMS INTERESTED ONLY IN THE MINERAL AND FOREST WEALTH IN THE AREA ‘FORCE THEIR WAY IN’ ILLEGALLY, FOR THERE IS NO CONTROL WHATSOEVER IN THIS COUNTRY. WHAT IS THE SORT OF REACTION YOU EXPECT – WELL IT IS EXACTLY THE SAME IF SOMEBODY INTRUDED INTO “YOUR” OR “MY” HOME !! FURTHER, THE GREED OF THE CORRUPT POLITICIANS OF OUR LAND KNOWS NO BOUNDS – INCIDENTALLY THEIR DEPOSITS IN SWISS BANKS ADD UP TO A FEW TRILLION, WHICH GIVES FOREIGN NATIONS THE NOTION THAT INDIANS ARE DOING WELL !
AM GLAD, AM PROUD (FOR GOOD REASONS) THAT AT LEAST THE INDIAN ARMY WHICH MAINTAINS TO A LARGE EXTENT THE DISCIPLINE HANDED DOWN TO IT BY OUR ERSTWHILE RULERS (THE BRITISH) TO THIS DAY, HAS REFUSED TO DEAL WITH THIS PROBLEM – FOR, IT WAS CREATED BY UNJUST, UNSCRUPULOUS AND BLOODTHIRSTY MEANS.
THE ONLY WAY THAT THIS PROBLEM COULD BE SOLVED WOULD BE BY “UNCONDITIONAL DIALOGUE” AND BY STOPPING THE PLUNDER AND LOOT OF THE AREAS IN WHICH THESE PEOPLE HAVE LIVED FOR MILLENIA !
JAI HIND !