Since long in all newspapers whether Local, National or International the news can be found almost everywhere; the unknown place like Dantewada in Chhattisgarh where, the biggest strike ever by naxalites took place. The whole world was left stunned by naxals as no one ever even dreamed of such a sophisticated and planned of such a degree can be carried out by naxal who were supposed to be ill-equipped until than but the incident opened the eyes of the whole country and may of the world. However many intellects and socialist still feel that nxalism is not a law and order problem but political or socio- economic problem. They are right to a certain extent but not all the way because i am very much convinced that those who are responsible for making policies are no way connected, concerned and either don't understand or don't want to understand the problem. Slowly but steadily naxals have spread their influence in bigger part of the country and are gradually proliferating with their infection.

For understanding the problem correctly we need to have good look at its origin and reasons of its origin. As we go through the naxal history and start from the Naxalwadi in WB; we get to know that earlier the naxalite & naxal are non-other than just informal names given to revolutionary communist group which were born out of sino-soviet in the Indian communist movement. The term came off from a small village in West Bengal that is Naxalwadi, where leftist section of CPI (M) led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal led a militant peasant uprising in 1967, trying to develop a "revolutionary opposition" in order to establish "revolutionary rule" in India. Mazumdar greatly admired Mao Zedong of China and advocated that Indian peasants and lower classes must follow in his footsteps and overthrow the government and upper classes whom he held responsible for their plight. In 1967 'Naxalites' organized the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR), and broke away from CPI(M). Uprisings were organized in several parts of the country. In 1969 AICCCR gave birth to Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). After the internal revolt led by Satayanarayan Singh in 1971 and the death of Majumdar in 1972, the movement was fragmented into many competing factions. Practically all Naxalite groups trace their origin to the CPI(ML). A separate tendency from the beginning was the Maoist Communist Centre, which evolved out of the Dakshin Desh-group. (MCC later fused with (People's War Group) PWG for to form Communist Party of India (Maoist).) A third tendency is that of the Andhra revolutionary communists, which was mainly presented by UCCRI(ML), following the mass line legacy of T. Nagi Reddy. That tendency broke with AICCCR at an early stage. Today some groups have become legal organisations participating in parliamentary elections, such as Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. Others, such as Communist Party of India (Maoist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti, are engaged in armed guerrilla struggles.

The main source of naxal ideology:

Mao Zadong (China): The well known Maoism draw its name from former communist leader of china Mao Zedong. He derived his ideology from Marx, Lenin & Engels. Most important reflection of his Philosophy is Maodun (Philosophy of Contradiction).

"The interdependence of the contradictory aspects present in all things and the struggle between these aspects determine the life of things and push their development forward. There is nothing that does not contain contradiction; without contradiction nothing would exist"

Further-

"There are many contradictions in the process of development of a complex thing, and one of them is necessarily the principal contradiction whose existence and development determines or influences the existence and development of the other contradictions"

Maoism's political orientation emphasizes the "revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures", which Mao termed a "People's War". Usually involving peasants, its military strategies have involved guerrilla war tactics focused on surrounding the cities from the countryside, with a heavy emphasis on political transformation through mass involvement of the lower classes of society.

In context to Chhattisgarh there is no exception. The recent incidents have revealed how vulnerable we are, and no matter how much the government or concerned agency claim to have taken steps to prevent such incidents but yet another accident happens; it clearly shows lack of will and vision on governments part. Being a newly carved state the government was under pressure for fast and sustained development of this region, because slow development with respect to exploitation of natural mineral resources of the state was the main reason for the split from Madhya Pradesh. When the newly carved Chhattisgarh came into existence, it was an underdeveloped state with lots of natural resources which would render as the basis of transformation to a developed state. Government announced different industry friendly policies so that it would interest big industries to setup their plants here. The forest areas of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa are rich in natural resources like minerals - Iron Ore. The royalty on Iron Ore is just 0.5%. This rule was approved in the year 2000 by the UPA government itself. This allowed private entrepreneurs to mine in these regions. As a result, large parts of these regions were mined by rich entrepreneurs giving just 0.5% of the profits to the people of these regions. Also, the ill-effects of mining industries are known. The tribal living in these forests suffered the effects of the mining industries with just 0.5% royalty and that too went to the Government which obviously gulped it all.

Naturally, the poor and needy people would be attracted to the Naxalite movement against the Government and its selfish resolutions. For the past 10 years, the corporate industries have been making immense profits from mining in these regions with all the side effects of mining suffered by the tribals and needy in these forests. What compensation is given for the people who own live in these regions? Just 0.5% of the profits. Even in countries like Australia, the Government imposes 40% compensation on the natural resources industries for the benefit of the people of the region. There have

been lots of controversies in the state so far unveiling the bitter experiences of locals about the expropriation from their land and other resources from they dwell.

Their always been some sort of drawbacks associated with economic development and this truth can easily be understood and tracked after looking into our history. Whether European, Russian or Chinese post industrial revolution it all contributed one way or other to the sting in the tail of economic growth. Expropriation of different natural resources like land, forest, agriculture, rivers etc. at the cost of poor peasants, traditional artificer community, tribal other who dwelled from these natural resources was definitely contributed a large measure to the economic growth but, it was not that overwhelming. An intense reflection of the same trend can be seen in the latest neo-liberal development phase of Indian economy today. Now to the chagrin of Government, so called intellect policy makers of our country & their ideological touts, they are finding them self unable to replicate the same here in the 21st century thus facing stiff resistance from locals at almost all the places - against a proposed SEZ in Nandigram in Left-ruled West Bengal; a Tata steel project in Kalinganagar in Orissa ruled by a Right-of-the-Centre coalition; a mega hydel project in Kinnaur in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh; the setting up of nuclear reactors in Koodankulam in DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu, A India Bulls and IFFCO-Chhattisgarh government joint venture mega power project in Surguja district or a TATA steel project in baster district of chhattisgarh ruled by BJP and the most recent one from Bhtta parsaol in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh against the proposed construction of Yamuna Express Way, which is ruled by BSP. These are only few from the list which reflect the definite outburst of people's discontent from the popular developmental programs undertaken by governments. However the leaders of this neo-liberalism are not willing to associate any importance to the root cause of these militant demonstration but instead they reiterate instead "The collective social unrest is not driven by economic reasons but social and political reasons based on caste/ religion. Asking us to wait for the trickle-down effects that would follow soon to benefit those who are being thrown out from their hearth and home, they advise the government to treat “deprivation as an individual issue” and dismiss the present demonstrations of protest as isolated hiccups of “individual discontentment” (Bibek Debroy in Indian Express, June 12, 2007) and disparage their leaders as anti-industrial ‘jholawalas’. But the cavalier manner in which they are tending to disregard the human tragedy of massive displacement loss of income and environmental pollution, indicates the abyss of moral insensitivity and social irresponsibility to which the corporate sector and the peddlers of its ideology have sunk in the present era of neo-liberalism — compared to the somewhat accommodating policies that their predecessors followed, before the so-called ‘reforms’ came into force.

Let me give you as example which i read in a blog somewhere. Arijit Banerjee, who was an executive vice president in the Haldia Petro-Chemicals Limited in the early 1990s, told how his company in those days set about acquiring land and planning rehabilitation for those who were to be ousted from the proposed site of its factory (in the same West Bengal district where Nandigram is situated). Describing the differences between then and now, he narrated his own experiences. “My first task,” he said, “was to talk to the villagers. I hired a car, fixed a mike atop and visited every village addressing the farmers whose plots were to be acquired.” While explaining to them the importance of the petro-

chemical complex for the country’s overall economic growth, and assuring employment in it for the local people, he made it clear to them that the factory would deal with hazardous chemicals — albeit under adequate protective measures. Inviting the village youth to join the venture, he introduced his company: “We are snake-charmers. If you want to play with snakes, join us.” Some among the villagers dared and opted for jobs in the factory, some accepted compensation in cash, some were given agricultural plots in different areas, and others were accommodated in a special rehabilitation colony, which has today become a thriving township. That the takeover of land for the Haldia petro-chemical complex (a public-private partnership) in the early 1990s did not create a Nandigram-type explosion could be attributed to a number of factors. Arijit Banerjee tells me that the then Chief Secretary of the West Bengal government (even then run by the Left Front) was sensitive to the needs of the oustees, which helped him overcome the bureaucratic hurdles in rehabilitating them. The solicitude and tactfulness demonstrated then both by the corporate sector and the government, according to Banerjee, is missing today. According to a leftist film-maker and a political activist, who was also involved in anti SEZ protest in nandigram in WB and has a different explanation for these sorts of agitations and disagrees with some other popular views on this matter. He says “At that time, the affected villagers might have accepted whatever compensation that was given to them for the loss of their lands. Today, increasingly aware of the market value of the lands and their democratic rights, they are refusing to be taken for granted, and are spontaneously resisting the acquisition of their lands,” he says. Commenting on the political contours of such resistance, Chowdhury says: “It cannot remain confined to a struggle for higher compensation in cash, or alternative plots of land, or promise of jobs in the proposed SEZs. We are challenging the basic concept of the neo-liberal model of development.” The similar sentiments can be seen all over the country these days as most of the industrial projects are facing analogous hostility in every state irrespective of the ruling political party or its ideology. We can also see some the agitation and demonstrations being done against the industrial or developmental projects shows some features peculiar to the post-reform era of neo-liberalism. At most of the times the agitations/protests start spontaneously against some issues and for its immediate solutions stems from a common source which fuels it- the prevailing model of uneven growth which ultimately leads to the dispossession of their lands and deprive from their occupation. These movements have loose structures and bring together the "Have-To-Doe with" and it’s very easy for the naxals to gain sympathy of such affected & oppressed inhabitant. This provides the movements and naxals and wider and somewhat coherent reasons. The naxals are more or less a transformed left with highly aggressive ideology, the transformation which came about to overcome the failures and defeats of the left. These naxals activists are more often than not, grassroots activists and are more strongly linked with the inhabitants or he himself is an inhabitant of that place who clearly does not has a political loyalty towards any specific party and has no hesitation in fighting for any reasons against any political party in power. In context of chhattisgarh which is now being pretended as the epicenter of naxalite movement. The movement iVery obviously the fueling agent is complete failure of the government mechanism and the insensitive bureaucracy is added catalyst. You can observe a sudden increase in victims of police encounters after the introduction of out of turn promotion policy. Such

policies definitely need special precaution & discrimination in its implementation by the government or it will lead to more chaotic situation.

The consequences of Naxalism are already in front of us. But what our government is not able to see is the implication of force being used to curb the problem rather than by way of dialogue. Poverty breeds filth but such mindless and reckless killing of insurgents would breed nothing else than hatred, contempt and thereby more bloodshed. The government should take lessons from world history. As a parallel example, about a decade was first invested to create Taliban, and now another decade has been invested to demolish Taliban but the menace of Taliban is still alive. It is high time that the Government realized that war is not peace; otherwise battalions over battalions will be induced into this fire only to fuel it more rather than extinguishing it.

Does the above example say that the path chosen by the Naxals to meet their demands right? Does this imply that the gore killings of innocent people who have nothing to do with the problem of Naxalism justified? Certainly not. But given the condition and situation of those Naxalities, I do not expect them to understand a thing. What I expect is though, that the authorities be more mature about their decision making policies. That the authorities realize, killing these people would only prove to be lethal. It will create monsters out of the children of their terrorist fathers and mothers being killed. And we will be stuck in that vicious circle of an internal war that is impossible to curb. Apart from this who is to stand responsible that those being killed are not civilians but militants? Who is to tell the good from bad? It is an un-uniformed army we are after to kill. It is sad that the country is forgetting its father’s principle- the principle of Non-Violence. Steps, for example, tracking the supply of arms and ammunitions to these Naxalites and thereby curbing it should be followed. Land Reform measures, on an ongoing basis, should be applied practically through measures like redistribution of land and a constant vigil by authorities so that it is not taken back by the landlords. Bhoodan Movement of Vinoba Bhave kept the menace of Naxalism on the down low. Poor should be provided with work, food security and honorable living in the villages and doors for talks must be open even at worst scenarios. That is the essence and purpose of democracy.

The dire need today is that the government does not take shelter of just profound statements like “we will teach Naxals a lesson” or “I am performing to the best of my ability” but exercise profound and prudent actions. War and violence is the answer to nothing. It could be expected of the learned ministers to understand the concept.