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| Banning is a first step | | Both effective policing and development work needed |
| Business Standard / New Delhi Jun 24, 2009, 00:05 IST |
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The groups that merged to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist) a few years ago were on the government’s banned list; that did not prevent them from forming a consolidated Maoist grouping and spreading their zones of influence and control. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was banned for a while after the Babri Masjid was brought down in 1992, but showed no signs of having suffered on that account. The Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) has also been banned, but seems to be active nevertheless. To cite these examples is not to argue against the imposition of a ban (which has become a needless point of dispute with the Left Front government in West Bengal). Rather, it is to make the obvious point that an order banning an outfit that already operates beyond the pale of the law is only a starting point; it serves a purpose only if the ban is effectively administered, and parallel steps taken to address the underlying issues that led to the banned outfit gaining ascendancy. The problem, as is evident in West Bengal where the state administration has moved belatedly to wrest back control of the Lalgarh area in West Midnapore district, eight months after its writ ceased to run in the area, is that state governments have a very mixed record when it comes to dealing with Maoists. This is party the result of confusion about strategy. The Andhra Pradesh government, for instance, has enjoyed policing success, but thought once that it could parley with the Maoists. In Chattisgarh, the Salwa Judum programme has become a matter of controversy.
The ban is to be welcomed nevertheless, because it signifies Central resolve to deal with what the Prime Minister once called the most serious internal security problem in the country’s history. The fact is that the Maoists have gained ground in a broad swathe of territory that lies in the country’s geographical heartland. Much of this area is economically poor but resource-rich, and occupied by marginalised people like tribals. It is a cocktail designed to generate conflict as “outsiders” have sought access to the forest resources above the ground and mineral resources below. With large numbers of local people seeing little benefit from this activity, they have come to view an otherwise absent Indian state as predatory rather than developmental. With crony capitalists getting mining rights through non-transparent processes, leading to local people getting evicted and the environment degraded, there has been an escalating cycle of violence as Left extremists have sought to mobilise the disaffected and take on the visible symbols of the state.
The very description of the problem and its origin helps to identity what needs to be done. The first and very necessary step is for the state to assert control over its own territory. It would be tempting fate, however, if things are allowed to revert to status quo ante after that has been done.
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