Indian Defence Review

Making matters worse is the third factor: bad governance, or governance favouring vested interests, exploiting parties, or at places no governance at all. The gainer is the industrialist, the miner, the contractor, the exploiter, all of who make money, add to government as well as personal coffers as GDP growth and national wealth-building, with little accruing to the peripheral even as he has to suffer the most. Bad administration’s backbone is corruption: government funds piously released for the peripheral’s benefit pocketed by the intermediaries including legislators, executives, administrators, contractors and other minions.

Where does the peripheral go then? To Whom? What of his own sense of identity, honour, pride, lifestyle, his own psyche and feeling?

To quell these disturbances – caused by diversity (lack of dialogue), attitude towards peripherals (lack of concern), and people’s deprivation (Bad governance) many a police, para-military, even military operation is set up. Some of them have gone on for years (50 plus in Nagaland, 30 in Assam, and Manipur, 20 in J&K, 15 in Dandakaranya Naxal belt). A few have gained the distinction of campaign medals being struck and gallantry awards instituted for what can be called war in peacetime and on our own people. In such a scenario the term military forces merges with that of the Security Forces (SF), consisting of all government agencies like police, para-military and military.

In the new post-independence melee the aspirations, wishes and sense of rights envisioned in the system immensely agitate people’s mind. It is brought to boiling point by the games various leaders play with the people; by the vacillation, delay and other means the government acts, reacts or does not act all due to pulls and pressures of diverse and interest groups using coercion and force of majority – local or contrived – (a democratic certification); and by the old baggage of neglect of an unconcern for the peripheral: To a point that suggests, if not proves, that in our genre of democracy it is the minority that is sacrificed for the majority; that democracy is dictatorship of the majority; that public interest of wealth building through dispossessing, exploiting and inconveniencing of the minority – the peripheral is unavoidable in the national interest.

Where does the peripheral go then? To Whom? What of his own sense of identity, honour, pride, lifestyle, his own psyche and feeling? He is alienated, gets angry, is forced to revolt, with no alternative. He rebels, resorts to armed resistance. His desperation welcomes any outsider’s help, ignoring the helper’s agenda. Also, the supporter finds a ready listener in the desperate peripheral. Resistance invites police intervention in the service of law and order. The outsider’s help in armed resistance is effective. The police retaliates. Excesses start. Counter excesses follow. The peripheral’s society splits in such tense situation – pro and anti.

Use of force and excesses flow freely on the people on both sides – by the police and the helper assisted affected follower. It is mayhem on the people, the peripheral. Administration grinds to a halt, or is marginally kept alive in pockets by armed force. (It will be an object study how during the tense IPKF days in Sri Lanka Town Commandant Jaffna assisted by the Jaffna Government Agent – GA, equivalent of our DC, maintained civil administration, reconstruction and resumption of civil services despite LTTE danger and IPKF use of force against it. The Town Commandant moved throughout Jaffna unarmed. The GA, though killed by the LTTE later deserved IPKF salute. Civil administration had to be people-centric, courageous and dedicated).

We saw Chinese and erstwhile East Pakistanis helping Northeastern insurgents, Pakistanis helping insurgents in J&K, separatists in Punjab, and now our own Mao inspired communist extremists, Naxalites, stoking Central Indian tribal fires. Discount based on identity, rights to natural resources and a rightful place in the sun resorting to violence and fanned byoutside support (foreign or indigenous like Naxalites) has almost blurred the line between insurgency and terrorism as both resort to excessive violence. Genuine discontent assuming severe forms is termed unlawful act. It seems both law and justice in the case of genuine but flaring discontent of the downtrodden and the oppressed are indeed blind.

So the burning bundle falls into the lap of the SF, which include the military. Merging of military forces into SF consisting of all force-wielding, law enforcing agencies follows proliferation of violence (without which nothing in the government seems to move), taking the form of protest, resistance, revolt, armed action, insurgency, terrorism – in short miniaturization of societal segments. The government reacts with resort to force, more force, more SF, better weapons, Green Hunts, elite forces, training camps for police in military tactics, jungle warfare, militarisation of police and para-military forces.

All for the purpose of killing (and getting killed), waging war against our own people — our cultural, moral and civilizational traits of tolerance, dialogue and adjustment are hung by the nearest peg. The chimera of GDP growth, wealth building, development, progress etc. has had little concern for the peripheral, the poor, the underprivileged, who hardly get a share of the accruing wealth, as a result of bad or lopsided, undemocratic governance — undemocratic because of the sidelining of democratic discipline, tolerance, give-and-take and its obligation of carrying along the minority of the large Indian peripheral.