6th April, 2010 will go down in History as the day things changed with regard to Naxalism in India. Like a bunch of boorish school kids livid at being denied sports, a herd of savage death seeking mongers knocked the day lights out of the country’s endeavour to moving ‘swiftly and decisively’ toward a country that could concentrate its military might on external threats. Slaughtering to death 76 CRPF Jawans in never-before-seen brazen brutality, the Maoists had made a statement. That talks and truce go to hell. They shall wreak terror, ferry beleaguered guardians across the lava of dread, and show the country they’re better than giving press conferences with hidden faces or bragging the media with emails and phone calls for publicity. Talk about stamping authority, this was genocide. Absolute carnage. Hunting down the hunters and ripping them apart; Folks, we’re talking business here.
Too much has been written over the years romanticizing the Maoists as crusaders of equality, social justice and alleviating them to pedestals they never deserved to make their own. Gotta ask yourself, how accountable is the Government for the reckless bloodbath that’s been on for a couple of decades now? Can a simple issue like recognition of tribal communities’ rights on land and resources even be given a moment of thought at a time like this? Though the insurrection stems from communist uprising back in 1967, it was never until recently an issue of paramount importance for Governments in power. Sleep wasn’t lost over sweating for solutions to the predicament. Dantewade April 6th must be the gamechanger in India’s approach toward Naxalism. Acharya Vinoba Bhave was clairvoyant enough to foresee a communist backlash in his hay days (I'm sure even he didn't envisage a scenario like this one). We’re watching his words coated with the wisdom of a conscientious saint, translate into horrific scenes of savage slaughter. I don’t quite have the numbers to drive my point home, but I have had the gloom of watching several news stories in the last few months oozing tragedy with headlines ranging from ‘Maoists behead family in …. village’ to ‘Red terror wreaks havoc on polling day’. The trailers are sufficient to convey the mood of a tenebrous film.
Reading quixotic pieces on the Maoists’ endeavours to achieving social justice and giving governments a kick has been a disgusting exercise. Particularly when eminent literary icons of the country take to such stands, you question their credibility. Countless calls from the Governments for talks and truce have been answered with loaded magazines and uninhibited bloodbath. There is no glory in committing homicide to the people of a country you wish to live happily in, and which you’re fighting to make your respectable home. All issues pertaining to historic neglect, seizure of quintessential rights in the cause of the greater national interests, are issues that are more likely to find answers in cross table discussions than in cross fence shootouts. Watching the Maoists’ deeds in the last few years, one really wonders what their eventual goals are. No productive steps whatsoever; all attempts by Governments to get pragmatic and induce them into walking to the talking table have been met with the severity of deadly land mines and the hostility of persistent murders of innocent, hapless civilians. They’ve made the immaculate metamorphosis into despicable terrorists. There can exist no empathy for groups of this nature. The methodology of going about the business of fighting them is something that cannot be made a topic for evening debates on National Television. Ex-DGP's or Party Spokespersons really aren't the right men to be putting forth their thoughts on military strategies. Besides, articulation of military strategies is unwelcome also for the fact that it would be giving too much away. Offers of resignation from the men at the helm of affairs is inevitable. But it is not adversity that must unnerve. Courage is the conquest of fear, not the absence of fear. At a delicate cusp like this, there will be an overwhelming sense of diffidence and fear. But putting in papers is no proper way to quelling the fears. A catastrophe like this one must spur on the right moves and implementation of an efficient infrastructure to tackling the issue, be it in the form of Air Force or UAV's. It is only the best fuglemen who can take this call. And they must hold their own through this crisis.
Oh, take a cue from our southern island neighbours. Emulate Mahinda Rajapakse and wipe these nefarious harbingers of cataclysm off the face of this country. Frankly, we deserve better.
Or, fly the Inglourious Basterds over. We might as well do with a Bear Jew!
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