Experts brainstorm on Naxal menace

Expressing serious concern over the growing Naxal menace in the country, two security experts have suggested that a unified command structure should be formed to counter it effectively. Former Army chief General Shankar RayChoudhury and former security advisor to Union home ministry Arun Prasad Mukherjee (IPS retd.) are of the opinion that the government must do away with the present disjointed state-centric structure of anti-Naxalite operation.

Instead, there should be a unified command structure in place where a coherent team of representatives of concerned security agencies will be in charge of the operations.

Both Gen. Raychoudhury and AP Mukherjee are in agreement that there has to be a political solution to the Naxal problem.

“This can only be achieved through dialogues,” says Gen. RayChoudhury. AP Mukherjee says, “The State must isolate the Naxalites from the masses.” As a young SP in Darjeeling district, Mukherjee had firsthand experience of the Naxalite movement when it first raised its head in 1967.

During 1967-71, he was successful in containing the movement there.

He feels that the tribals have fallen prey to the Naxalites as the government let them down.

To isolate the Naxalites from the tribals, the government has to play a proactive role in winning the trust of the people.

But there lies a bigger problem. He puts the blame squarely on the government's attitude towards the tribals.

“Why is it that even after 60 years of Independence, the tribals could not be provided with the basic things? Why do the tribal areas remain most neglected in terms of roads, electricity, housing and drinking water and the people go hungry?”

Mukherjee, who has been a member of the last Administrative Reforms Commission, asks, “How many of the sarkari babus have been punished or held responsible for their failure to reach development in the tribal areas?” He feels that while consolidating the security measures with a unified command structure, there must be a separate team of experts comprising social workers, civil society activists, who should keep watch on the developments and point out loopholes and urge the government to do the needful.

RayChoudhury looks at the crisis more from the military and strategic viewpoint and wonders if there is a Gen. Giap (of Vietnam War fame) among the Naxalites who has been leading their armed outfits in this kind of guerrilla actions. The recent military tactics employed by the Naxalites reminds him of the classical guerrilla warfare.

He feels that the present challenge is too big for the Union home ministry to handle, it should also involve military expertise available with the government of India, though he is opposed to handing over this problem to the armed forces. Instead, he suggests strengthening the state level police apparatus with better training and improved infrastructure and prepare for long drawn-out struggle.

He feels that so far the Naxalites have not established any foreign link. But he warns, “Our friends across the border, the ISI and the Chinese intelligence must be closely monitoring this development and sooner they would like to poke their nose into it.”