Sleeping beauties

Eternal vigilance, it has been said rightly, is the price of liberty. By that token, Indian media, both print and electronic, have been remiss on account of their growing obsession with sensationalism and trivia, and neglect of what may well be the biggest story just now. That story is that the writ of the Indian state does not run in almost 25 per cent of the country, which is under the rule of Naxalites and Maoists, the so-called red belt. The Naxalites call these the 'liberated zones'. According to the home minister, Shivraj Patil, they are now active in as many as 125 districts in 12 states, including some of the bigger ones like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Maharashtra. The national security advisor puts the total at over 150 districts. They loot police stations. They kidnap policemen. They hijack trains. They mount attack on jails and rescue their friends. They routinely carry out ambushes. They plant land mines. They abduct and kill, just like the Taliban does. The resulting violence has claimed over 1,500 lives in the last three years, and the numbers have been rising. According to figures recorded by the Asian Centre for Human Rights, during the first quarter of 2006, at least 235 people have been killed in nine affected States. The statewise distribution of the deaths was Chhattisgarh (124), Jharkhand (32), Bihar (21) and Andhra Pradesh (21). The prime minister, not usually given to over-statement, has called it the "single biggest internal security challenge".

Yet, it is a sad reflection on the priorities of the media that it finds more in the killing of an individual from time to time in Afghanistan, however tragic, than in this daily carnage and assault on India's political and social fabric. The fact is that there is an internal war on. But it seems to have mostly missed the media's attention. Little wonder then, that there is so little awareness of what is happening to internal security. Even major political parties like the BJP, when they draw attention to it, are content to focus on immigration from Bangladesh, rather than also talk about the Naxalite problem. It is also a sad reflection on both the media and the political parties that while the Maoist threat in Nepal seems to excite them no end, the same problem here leaves them yawning with boredom. Even the central government appears content to treat it as a law and order issue, which means that the problem can be left to the affected state governments even though they are mostly powerless, incompetent and bereft of good ideas. We have seen in Nepal what the consequences can be. It is best to be warned. For there are also those in government who seem to have the 'been there, done that' approach, because once before Naxalism had been brought under control, albeit by the most brutal means. But it is different this time. Then, only West Bengal and Andhra were affected and were mostly violent offshoots of ideological struggles within the communist parties. Today, there is trouble in many more states and the Naxalites have become a part of the power play. The modus operandi is to foment disaffection. The time has come to wake up.