“It is necessary to create terror for a while in every rural area, or otherwise it would be impossible to suppress the activities of the counter-revolutionaries … Proper limits have to be exceeded in order to right a wrong, or else the wrong cannot be righted.”
—Mao-Tse-tung, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Volume I, Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1965, P. 29.
As if the disturbing situation in Kashmir Valley was not enough, the news of horrendous killing of 25 CRPF soldiers in Sukma hit the national scene. Why this continued upsurge of Maoist violence in Bastar region, how long we are going to take this war against the nation, why security forces do not follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in the troubled regions and whom are Maoists really fighting for are the legitimate questions raised by many and should be addressed at an appropriate level. But the real challenge is how to fight the ideological and perception war that is going on in Delhi media and academic campuses where the slogans of ‘Kashmir Mange Azadi’ are proudly coupled with ‘Bastar Mange Azadi’.
It is proved beyond doubt that the Maoists in whatever form they appear do not want development, peace and prosperity for the common people. Almost all the attacks on the security forces took place around the areas where development work is going on in a full speed. About 700 kms of roads and bridges are being built and modern healthcare facilities and educational institutions are coming up in the hilly area of the region. Electricity and mobile connectivity is giving a new experience to the tribals. Naturally, there are growing aspirations and will to stand against the terror of these perpetual revolutionaries which nobody talks about.
Besides this changing ground reality on the development front, the dwindling human resources is severe on the ground. If they are fighting the ‘just war’, why they are losing support on the ground. CPI-Maoist ‘East Division Secretary’, Pratap Reddy aka Appa Rao, in an interview published on July 21, 2016, stated, “I must add that in the conspiracy to eliminate the Maoist Party, the ruling classes and the State Government have been exploiting people in the tribal areas by converting them as police informer and agents. It is such elements that we are eliminating.”
The brutalities of Maoists are unbelievable still they take the limelight of being liberationists. Any action against them is immediately retorted with the allegations of Human Rights violations at international level and from Human Rights activists to academicians, everybody gang up to save the killers of civilians. The killings of Sukhdev Baghel, a civilian, who was hacked to death by Maoists in a village in the Chintagufa area of Sukma District on January 19, 2017 in front of his family members and that of Raju Netam, a village sarpanch at Masenar Village in the Dantewada District on the night of January 17, 2017 are two striking examples. Baghel was raising the people to desist the so-called ‘revolution’ and Netam dared to join the local elections against the boycott call of these anti-democratic forces. No one is there to talk about the human rights of tribals who do not want to side with the Red Terror. Even the police machinery that is trying to book the killers and instigators is under the pressure of so-called human rights activists and organisations.
Not surprisingly, the same set of experts, intellectuals and media persons who have been proudly involved in depicting the draconian character of our armed forces in J & K not long ago, are shedding crocodile tears for the CRPF Jawans. They are neither interested in poor tribals nor in the national security. The cases of Saibabas and Omar Khalids show that the real battle of perception is going on in Delhi which is funded heavily by international networks. If the Government and people who are concerned with national integration and unity of the nation address this issue in Delhi, our security forces and locals would be very much capable to defeat these draconian liberators who claim to have monopoly over rights and wrongs in Bastar.
@PrafullaKetkar
