For the past year, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued repeated statements regarding its 'strategy' against the Maoists, encapsulated in the oft-used catchphrase 'clear, hold and develop'.
The PM calls it the greatest internal security threat. But the government cannot curb it. reports
Samrat.
Sadly, I do not see an alternative. There may be ways of reaching out to the tribals, bypassing the Naxalites. But all that will have to wait. First, the State must reassert the rule of law. Then, it will finish off the Maoists. And only then, will we tackle the serious issue of social justice, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
Should India deal with the Maoists as Pakistan deals with the Taliban? As lofty as the Maoist ambition is, as brutal as their growing attacks are, this would be a grave mistake, writes Samar Halarnkar.
The ongoing Maoist insurgency is no more than a response to this ‘state of generalised exception’ and the political economy it is violently seeking to reconstitute, writes Pothik Ghosh.
‘Rail roko’ is routine in Bengal. But why wasn’t there a single cop on the Rajdhani? Pratik Kanjilal writes.
Do you wonder why so many activists and self-proclaimed scholars take the positions of lay people and then caricature them so that they can construct men of straw to attack? Let’s listen to common sense, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
Brutal force against Naxals is not enough. A genuine effort must be made to address the gross neglect of the adivasis, writes
Ramachandra Guha.
While the government accuses Maoists of being anti-development, Maoists in turn claim they want a different, more inclusive development, reports Sudeep Chakravarti.
The truth is that under the flag of an extremist ideology, various factions of Naxalism had declared a war against the Indian State quite some time ago.
Special police officers of Chhattisgarh battle two fronts: they are targeted by Naxals and face flak from human rights groups, reports Ejaz Kaiser.