Salwa Judum has only ended up strengthening Maoists: Book

In "Let's Call him Vasu", journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary takes a critical look into the Maoist issue and says the problem stems from a breach in communication between mainstream India and its hundred million-strong tribal population.

"Through the stories I heard, I have tried to piece together the history of the Naxal movement in the central tribal region through the 1980s up to the present. I do not aim to provide a 360-degree panoramic view of everything related to Left wing extremism. For me, this book is just a step forward in the larger effort that is required to understand the 'why' of the 'Naxal problem'," he says.

"The state-driven, strategic 'hamleting' experiment of the Salwa Judum, cleared at the highest levels of the government, has proven to be a disaster on all fronts. In fact, in the last five years, the Salwa Judum has ended up strengthening the Maoists as never before," the book, published by Penguin India, says.

"Still, the Maoists have no illusions about being anything but a spare wheel, valued only in an emergency."

The author, who has created the world's first community radio on the mobile phone called CGnet Swara, claims Jan Jagran or Salwa Judum was a plan prepared by the central government, drawn up when L K Advani of the BJP was the union home minister.

"Much later, when I had enough data and appropriate questions, the head of the Naxal cell in the home ministry would confirm to me, off the record, that there was truth in the story that the Salwa Judum had been planned in Delhi," he writes. (MORE)