THE greatest enemies of India today are Maoists and their supporters who think they are fighting for peoples’ rights but are actually trying to dismember India. Supporting them are innocent-sounding groups like the People’s Union for Democratic Rights which is bitterly opposed to national unity and want the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) scrapped so that there would not be one India but several ‘Independent’ states within the country’s geographic limits such as existed before the British took over.
Our Left Wing Extremists blame the Army for seeking to maintain peace and harmony in 136 out of the 626 districts in India with a population in excess of 150 million people. The argument is that all the 150 million people support armed terrorism which the Maoists practice, which is just not true. Indeed, it is a blatant lie. The people have been terrorised into submission. The Maoists claim that the Government of India is spending as much as Rs 69,000 crore to ‘pay for war’ against the people. Would any sane government spend that much money if peace prevailed in the land? The truth is that the Maoists are out to destroy the unity of the country by encouraging insurgency – no doubt with China’s urging – to return India to the medieval ages, with the country divided among scores of Rajahs, Maharajahs, Nawabs et al, one fighting the other and seeking the help of outside force, from Iran, Afghanistan, Central India, not to mention European powers like Britain, France, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Who supported China when it invaded North East India but the Maoists? Killing the innocent, in the name Democratic rights is their professional ideology borrowed from Mao. Those who abuse democratic or human rights are not the Armed Forces but the Maoists themselves. Yes, there are many districts which are still backward and need enormous financial and other inputs. Were there no sponsored rebellion, the Government which is charged with waging ‘war’ against its own people would then be able to spend the Rs 69,000 crore for the welfare of the very people who have been driven to despair by Maoist elements.
If as many as 101 districts have been notified as “disturbed areas”, the blame lies squarely on traitorous Maoists, none else. Like the Maoists, the ULFA in Assam tried hard to get the state ‘liberated’ from ‘colonial’ occupation, indulging in random killing and abduction, trying to silence the voice of civil society. That voice has now prevailed, after some 10,000 people were killed. The argument advanced was that Assam was once ‘free’ till the British annexed it and has every right to claim its past sovereignty. If that argument was to be conceded and state after state seeks its ‘sovereignty’, what would be left of India then? If there is one sentiment that we must oppose it is parochialism and sub-nationalism. The question of ‘discrimination’ against any state cannot possibly arise. What has been painfully noticeable in recent times is a kind of ‘exclusivism’ that is self-destructive. To insist that the natural assets of any one state should be the exclusive preserve of that same state is to deny the fundamental unity of India.
To argue, like the Shiv Sena does, that Maharashtra belongs only to Maharashtrians and ‘outsiders’ are not welcome or for some groups in Karnataka to insist that their state belongs only to Kannadigas is to question the very foundation of our Constitution. It is easily to incite hatred and promote rebellion on spurious grounds as the People’s Union for Democratic Rights is presently engaged in. Have we forgotten what Khalistani separatists did and what price the entire country was forced to pay? When, on an auspicious day, millions of Indians go for a dip in the Ganga, they don’t go there as Biharis or Gujaratis or Oriyans. When will we realise our essential oneness? Under no circumstances should sub nationalism be supported. Nor should we encourage class conflict as do the Maoists and organisations like People’s Union for Democratic Rights! Democratic Rights do not include the right to murder, loot and derail trains. The civil society in Assam deserve our highest esteem for standing up against ULFA’s separatist ideology.
Like Assam different parts of India have also been ‘free’ at different times but that does not mean that we should cede Maharashtra to the descendants of the Peshwas, Hyderabad to a descendant of the last Nizam and Chennai to the Nawab of Arcot. There are large tracts of land in the country – primarily in the tribal areas – where poverty and backwardness is endemic. But poverty cannot be eradicated through insurgency. It can only be eradicated through a concerted attempt to understand the root causes of poverty and attempt to overcome them. That will take time and one needs patience, not a handful of Kalashnikovs. Violence will not help, as, in recent times, the unemployed and poor have shown whether in Tunisia or Egypt. Maoism is anti-people. It failed noticeably in China where it originated and which was to lead to the deaths of millions. But Maoists will never learn. Presently a major issue confronting India is how to deal with tribals. There are no easy answers. Should we leave them to wither in their forest culture or would it be the right thing to drag them into modernity and an urban civilization? Either way one feels guilty that justice is not being done to them. But it is not for the Maoists to initiate them into open rebellion and rampant terrorism. That can only invite strong action from the rulers.
To condemn that as ‘military suppression’ is to confuse the issues. The wise thing is for all those interested – and that should include all parties – to get together to fashion a practical plan to help the tribals in ways that are acceptable to all concerned, but on one clear condition, namely, that the tribals must give up violence. That the Maoists would never agree to, leaving no option to any government but to take strong action against the insurgents. It is not that the government is waging ‘a war’ against its own people. This is a clear case of the Maoists seeking to dismember India and that has to be put down mercilessly. Delhi has no other options. Those who live by the sword inevitable perish by the sword. And if the Maoists do not understand that, they understand nothing.
