Homeland Security

Don't throw India to the wolves
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Issue Net Edition | Date : 22 Feb , 2011

The abduction of an IAS officer RV Krishna in Orissa and the seeming capitulation of the state has made the people of India feel vulnerable and insecure. If the swap of terrorists with the passengers of Air India IC-814 in Kandhar imparted a huge impetus to jihadi terrorism, the proposed swap of hardcore Maoist cadres with the IAS officer will compromise all the gains that the security forces have made after much of sacrifices in the Red Corridor.

Security personnel are not cannon fodder

If the swap takes place, the state would be seen as callous to the security personnel to the point of treating them as cannon fodder. This state of affairs cannot continue for long. Someday in the near future, the security forces will begin to question the government and a stage may come when there will be no security personnel willing to stake life for the writ and integrity of India. Above all, soldiers sacrifice for a cause. Political expediency of the government in power can certainly not serve as a cause.

This is the face of Maoist terrorism i.e. anti-state, anti-people, and anti-development. It is for this reason, that they do not have the guts to follow route through the ballot box.

As it is, the morale of the security forces in the Red Corridor has been plummeting. This author has been a witness to a Maoist attack recently and the response of the security elements in the area. A road construction party was attacked at 2300 hrs, intelligence for which was available with the police. As the Maoists were gathering in large numbers for the attack, more than a dozen people informed the SHO of the local police station through mobile telephones. The SHO in turn informed the CRPF company in location. The categorical stand of the CRPF company was that it would only cordon the area and the onus of apprehending the Maoists lay with the local police. The SHO developed cold feet. He only went with his police party to the location once the sun had shone, to find the entire road construction equipment worth several crores destroyed by the Maoists.

So much with regard to the development agenda of the Maoists! In fact, it was this very development project that had drawn the ire of the Maoist leaders. They intimidated the contractor and demanded ‘protection money’. It was initially given, but it became so incessant that the project was becoming economically unviable. It was then that the engineer and the contractor approached the SHO. The police and the paramilitary could do nothing.

This author met the SHO after the incident, who clearly said that why should he risk his life in fighting the Maoists when some mainstream politicians provide patronage to them. The company commander of the CRPF lamented that his men are too untrained and old to take on the Maoists in a direct firefight. He further said that one could not expect 50 year old men to take on the young Maoist cadres. The retirement age of CRPF personnel is 58 years. It may also be mentioned that this road was being remade and expanded after some three decades. The local population was ecstatic and enthusiastic about it. But when the police went on the scene of Maoist mayhem, not one of them was willing to divulge anything, terrorized as they were.

This is the face of Maoist terrorism i.e. anti-state, anti-people, and anti-development. It is for this reason, that they do not have the guts to follow route through the ballot box.

Can’t we sacrifice one IAS officer for integrity of India?

As in the case of Kandhar swap, this time too, the government seems to be floundering for response. The people of this country expected that the state would have learnt its lessons from Kandhar and have policy and response mechanisms to deal with such situations. The hope of the people has been belied. This is the fifth major hostage crisis confronting the central / state governments in past one year. As in the case of Kandhar, this time too, the state is ready to talk to terrorists.

Also read: China’s string of Pearls vs India’s Iron curtain

There is no difference between the jihadi terrorists and the Maoist terrorists. There is enough evidence to prove the linkage between the two. Both have international patrons and both want the destruction of India. Can’t we sacrifice one IAS officer for the integrity and future well-being of India?

The trading of India’s Writ

The abduction of the IAS officer indicates the pathetic internal security situation that we have arrived at. It is because the state has been increasingly conceding its writ. The writ of a state cannot be calculated in terms of percentage. It either exists or does not. In fact, the government of the day is elected and paid to enforce 100 percent writ. A 100 percent writ implies the guarantee of legitimate rights, privileges and security to all citizens. It can only happen only if public servants act like servants of the public.

Given the external linkages of the Maoists, the security situation in the country is going to further deteriorate and the state apparatus is going to look even more helpless”¦

On the contrary, in many areas the state apparatus willfully traded a certain percentage of the writ, because in such a situation, official patronage can be selectively given for monetary and other favours. It ensures that the people remain at the mercy of the state apparatus. The public servants to maintain their misplaced notions of power, pelf and superciliousness, deliberately allow the state’s writ to function below par, how much below – is a measure of how patronizing, negligent and corrupt the system is willing to become.

It is a sad commentary that people have to bend backwards or put their self respect at stake for their legitimate entitlements, rights and security. A government official even if he is a relative or a known person, when approached with legitimate problems, behaves as if he is dispensing favour, while crooks of every variety have unhindered access to every level of power. Rather, power has become a tool to rollback the writ of the state.

The space of writ conceded was initially filled by third rate politicians, third rate bureaucrats, third rate police officials, criminals, and various mafias, which includes the mining mafia. In the Red Corridor, all these have been supplanted by the Maoist. The difference is that in the former case, the mutual beneficiaries were the government functionaries and those who had appropriated the writ of the state, in the later case; it is exclusively the Maoist leaders and their vast network of professionals, ideologues, and international benefactors.

International Face of the Maoists

The real face and international dimension of this network was in evidence recently. The members of the international network were present in the High Court in Chattisgarh, when Binayak Sen bail application had come up for hearing. International Human Rights Organizations portray Sen as a great saint, engaged in providing medical succor to the tribal. The prosecution blew up the facade by pointing out that Binayak, the pediatrician, was engaged in every activity other than attending to sick children and not even once he organized a medical camp for children in his long stay in Chhattisgarh. The national and international face of the Maoists was visible in the candle-light rally held at India Gate to press for release of Binayak Sen’s release.

Also read: Changing Face of Terror

Indians should not be surprised, if this support finally manifests in Noble Peace Prize to Binayak. The sanctity of the Noble Peace Prize is being compromised with every passing year, and more than recognition, it has become a tool of international diplomacy and intervention.

Significantly, the Times of India, in an article, ‘Support for Naxal Goes Global’ (dated 24 February 2011) has quoted a statement by International Committee to support peoples war in India to the effect that a week long international campaign to sustain “the peoples’ war in the country will be held from April 2 – 9, 2011 across the nation”. The statement further states, “This campaign is the expression of proletarian internationals and advancement of unity of international proletariat, of revolutionaries, democratic forces, and oppressed peoples around the world.” Posters have been made in French, Spanish and other languages to support the cause of the Maoists. The training of some Maoist cadres in China’s Yunan province and Maoist – ULFA – KIA (Myanmar) – China military links is now established beyond doubt.

Why the recent abductions?

The timing of the abduction of IAS officer, when seen through the prism of international benefactors of the Maoists, is significant. The life-imprisonment of Binayak Sen, the fact that one-third of the top Maoist leadership is in jail, the decision of setting up of an army training camp in the Abujmarh forests in the epicenter of Red Corridor in Chhattisgarh, the mixed success of Op. Green Hunt, and the challenge within the Maoist rank to the Andhra leadership in Maoist hierarchy – has rattled the underground and over-ground Maoist leadership. Recently, in Chhattisgarh after the release of five abducted policemen in Chhattisgarh Comrade Prabhat, a top Maoist leader, said: “We did not hurt these jawans because they were not our main targets. The message was for the government to …. abandon Op Green Hunt and stop installation of army base in Maoist territory”.

The space of writ conceded was initially filled by third rate politicians, third rate bureaucrats, third rate police officials, criminals, and various mafias, which includes the mining mafia. In the Red Corridor, all these have been supplanted by the Maoists.

They are seen to be activating every national and international leverage to put the Indian state into the back-foot. The internal security situation in the country has become grim. Powers that be in Delhi may not feel so because of the sheer size of India, but the tentacles of the Maoists are quite visible and increasingly making their presence felt in the capital as never before. Without internal security, no country can hope to have a robust external security.

Given the external linkages of the Maoists, the security situation in the country is going to further deteriorate and the state apparatus is going to look even more helpless because it is this very state apparatus which traded the state’s writ and therefore has no moral and physical authority to reclaim it. The run-away corruption impacting the country can be attributed to the same factor. To reclaim India, the imperative is a new and dedicated state apparatus. The current state apparatus does not appear to be in a position to even protect the functioning by government functionaries, otherwise the IAS officer RV Krishna known for his integrity and hard work would not have been kidnapped.

Internal face of the Maoists

Internally, the Maoists have the most intriguing and elaborate network, comprising lawyers, doctors, saffron clad religious activists, professors, so-called intellectuals, media personnel, and film personalities; all working under the guise of human rights organizations, and civil right groups. These people are the actual white-collared criminals acting in the forefront of the entire Maoist movement, some of them now for almost three to four decades, since the time when the Maoists movement had no tribal colour. There is one thing common that these white-collared criminals are invariably rich, irrespective of their profession.

Also read: Chinese incursions and India’s flawed response

This author has met a large number of Maoist leaders, who provide the most scintillating rags-to-riches story. There are some universities and media houses in the national capital, which are catering exclusively to the Maoist agendas. When 73 CRPF personnel were killed in Dantewada, some students of that university organized a party, wherein booze flowed. A television channel, which has taken up the cudgels on behalf of Binayak Sen, is conspicuous by its relative indifference on the abduction of RV Krishna.

Internally, the Maoists have the most intriguing and elaborate network, comprising lawyers, doctors, saffron clad religious activists, professors, so-called intellectuals, media personnel, and film personalities; all working under the guise of human rights organizations, and civil right groups.

A saffron clad activist on his recent visit to Chhattisgarh to negotiate with the Maoists for the release of five abducted policemen, surprised everyone when he embraced gun-toting Maoist cadres, he then raised his fist and roared “Bhartiya Communist Party, Maowadi, Lal Salam”. The response was deafening.

The external linkages and the white-collared criminal activities of these Maoist facilitators is well established in the intelligence-agencies and the home ministry. When quizzed by this author, as to why the government is not putting them behind the bars, a senior functionary of the home ministry cited the example of a professor who organizes rallies in the capital whenever demanded by the underground Maoist leadership. He further added that the husband of this professor is a well-known journalist who hobnobs with the mighty and the wealthy in the corridors of power.

The Maoists have also infiltrated the security and administrative establishment. It is a fact that many abductions of police and administrative personnel has been with their connivance and is a part of well-orchestrated campaign to achieve the aims and objectives of the Maoists. Many of these abductions, like the hostage crisis in Bihar, was being orchestrated from Delhi. The statement to the effect “they chatted with us and we sang songs together….”, by one of the police personnel who was recently abducted by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh speaks volumes.

The enemy in form of Maoists and their sympathizers has been growing right under the nose of the Indian establishment. This enemy now talks of liberated zones and Maoist territory. This enemy calls itself Peoples War Group (PWG). This enemy has links with China and Pakistan. This enemy has now emerged as the new mining mafia. This enemy is into opium cultivation and smuggling of drugs. This enemy destroys schools, hospitals, communication towers and does not allow infrastructure development to take place. This enemy is recruiting child soldiers. No other terrorist outfit in the world as this enemy has as much access and availability to explosives.

In the rural areas of the Red Corridor, such is the terror of this enemy that people are migrating to nearby towns and cities because of which price of urban properties have soared beyond the reach of the middle-class. The methods of terror of this enemy are even more cruel than that of Taliban. The gruesome manner in which Inspector Tete and Inspector Induvar were killed bears testimony. The difference between the Dawood group and this enemy is that the latter carries the ‘Red flag’, the colour, which we Indians have been psychologically brought up to recognize as another stream of politics. The Maoists, who believe in the Mao’s dictum, “power flows through the barrel of the gun”, do not tolerate any other political stream.

Also read: Blueprint to tackle the Maoists

The Maoists did try to eliminate Budhadev Bhatacharya and Chandrababu Naidu. If a chief minister were to be abducted by the Maoists, the security discourse of the country with regard to Maoism would be different. And when this stage of the Maoist war against India arrives, the state apparatus would not be in a position to salvage India from the Maoists.

Therefore, if the Orissa government concedes to the Maoist demands for release of RV Krishna, it would have contributed in a big measure to the Maoist takeover of this country. The government cannot throw the same people, who elected it to power to the wolves.

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

RSN Singh

is a former military intelligence officer who later served in the Research and Analysis Wing, or R&AW and author of books Asian Strategic and Military Perspective, The Military Factor in Pakistan and The Unmaking of Nepal. His latest books are Know the Anti-Nationals (English) and Know the एंटी-नेशनल्स (Hindi).

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