Threat to Security, Or Democracy ?

Naxalism, or the Naxalite Movement is heralded as the biggest internal security threat to the nation, by the honourable prime minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh. Perhaps it is, considering the brutal killings of political leaders across the nation. Newspaper headlines scream of the recent killings of M.P Sunil Mahto in Jharkand, a separate congress party leader in Andhra Pradesh, the brutality of the killing of villagers in Chhattisgarh.

Violence is never a means to an end and fighting of this kind should be against the enemies who are out to kill you, or to invade you, not against your neighbour or brother who is committing a mistake. Now this is a touchy issue, because ultimately when I write this I am aware that I have never been directly affected by those whom they are fighting against. But ultimately the truth is their efforts or struggle so to say, has not brought collective good upon the nation.

Now, there is reason enough to admit that politicians are primarily responsible for creating discontent and frustration among people. When we hear of figures like a hundred crores, being spent for the functioning of the parliament, with only 85 days in a year, when they actually sit to work there. So ideally when someone raises commotion over silly issues and stalls proceedings, the nation loses 1 crore rupees in a day. Isn't that alone enough to cause irritation among the downtrodden or the labourer community.

The 'labourer' community specifically being mentioned here because naxalism is a violent and revolutionary offspring of the communist ideology and sadly this movement is growing much more rapidly, in fact achieving more than what the Communist party in it`s peaceful version has stood to achieve in India.

Violence v/s Non-Violence

Very evidently right from our freedom movement onwards there have been conflicting ideologies. The Nationalist movement which sought to peaceful means of protest headed by stalwarts like Gopal Krishna Gokhale, followed by Mahatma Gandhi and so on. On the other hand, we had the extremist movement which had great heroes like Lokmanya Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh and the charismatic leader Subhash Chandra Bose. But it would be very wrong if I were to be inspired from the violent form of protest they made and justify it for naxalism today.

Both their struggles had a common goal and the welfare of the common man of India in mind. It was not a matter of whether you were doing a right thing or a wrong thing, but whether you were doing it for the right/wrong reasons. Their reasons were right, and to comment upon the things they did then is not of relevance today.

The Fundamental Question


The fundamental question, we have in minds is of course about who they are a threat to ? Is it a threat to security ?

Yes! it is.! It is these kinds of movements and guerrilla warfare that led to the devastation in countries like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or Srilanka for example, so it is a security threat.

So the truth is, ultimately the common man of India will have to bear the brunt, no matter which side wins.

Now to return to the question, it is an even bigger threat to Democracy or the present form of the government. It is a challenge and war cry against democracy.

Democracy should be a government of the people for the people, but the situation is sadly where we have today a government of the political class for and by the industrial class. There are reforms announced for the rural sectors, for the unemployed youth but the deep loopholes in the implementation will surely cause unrest in any nation.

It is a red signal from the red corridor that it is time, democracy seeks to cleanse itself and thereby oust such a movement. The Government needs to take stringent steps towards elimination of naxalism, but it should not start with an iron hand. It should start by first cleansing itself of it`s ills, and then seek to reform these misled, mostly tribal youth and address their concerns . The government would do well to slow down on aggressive steps such as land acquisition and granting of SEZ`s or at least take care not to do so at the cost of other sectors like agriculture or other cottage industries and by hurting local sentiments.

In a government which allocates ninety six thousand crore rupees for defence, it remains to be seen how much of it will get used to solve these internal problems. Because if it does not, tomorrow Naxalism could grow into terrorism. Civil War will not be far away.

This whole issue requires to be treated with sensitivity and an equal rate of alarm. With sensitivity, because they are mostly people of the farms and forests who have been wronged and with alarm, because their armies are recently regularly marching out from their forest hideouts.

As taxpayers and voters, we have a right to raise these concerns or to make it more pressing it is our duty to do so.