One-dimensional approach to Maoist problem won’t work

Taking up the challenge of facing and containing Maoist violence is getting curiouser and curiouser. To start with, the government, with the authority of the prime minister, had observed: “The Maoist challenge is the single biggest threat to the internal security of the country”. The home minister followed this up with a loud war cry. His fulminations led to an atmosphere of militarisation of the conflict between the government, on the one hand, and the Maoists, on the other. In recent times, every major assault by the Maoists on the security forces was followed by a major discourse on whether the military or the air force should be deployed against them.
This one-dimensional, security-centric approach misses out on the very essence of the Maoist movement. Unlike the Taliban or the al-Qaeda or the LTTE or some of the outfits in the north-east, the Maoists are not a purely terrorist organisation. They thrive on an ideological and political platform, howsoever flawed and irrelevant it may be in the Indian context. This conclusion ought to have been drawn not by merely examining the comparative theoretical premise of this movement but also from the adverse experience of the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. 
The government brought about amendments to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and banned the CPI (Maoist) and its front organisations. This ignored the fact that several state governments had earlier enacted similar state-level laws to ban the Maoists but to little avail. Only the Left pointed out that ultra-Left violence would have to be taken on politically and ideologically, but it was scoffed at. So much so, that despite being aware of the struggle of the CPI (Marxist) against the original Naxal movement and the sacrifices it had made to strengthen the participation of the poor and landless peasantry in West Bengal in the democratic mainstream, the home minister had the gumption to claim that the Marxists and Maoists were two sides of the same coin. He was doing violence to history merely to placate his cabinet colleague — railway minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
The response to the Maoist campaign of violence has to be three-pronged. First, the government has to address issues of socio-economic development in the backward regions of the country, particularly on the forest fringe areas. It has to address the issue of large-scale displacement of poor people as a result of mining and mineral extraction and other big projects. The prevailing situation has created a sense of alienation among the poor and the dispossessed, making them easy prey for Maoist recruitment.
Second, a determined and resolute political-ideological offensive needs to be launched against the Maoists. It is necessary to expose the bankruptcy of the Maoists’ avowed goal of overthrowing the government through violent means. The Maoists give one-dimensional priority to military battles in which the people have very little role to play. It is because of this foolhardiness that eventually they are bound to fail and expose the people to the full might of government forces. This leads to complete demoralisation and the Maoists and such other ultra-Left forces could fade again into oblivion. This is what happened with the Naxalbari movement.
Third, the government has also failed to understand that the Maoists have ground-level understanding with political parties where they have no hesitation in delivering electoral assistance despite tall talk of shunning parliamentary politics. And this is precisely why the government finds itself on the backfoot when the second largest partner of the UPA — the Trinamool Congress — openly flirts with the Maoists. This is also why the government cannot do anything with the railway minister who has openly challenged the government’s stated position on the Maoist question and demanded an enquiry on the encounter killing of Maoist leader Azad while maintaining a hushed silence on the fate of 150 hapless victims of the Gyaneshwari Express disaster.
It is, really, ironic that today the Maoist opportunism is on display under full public glare. To gain a foothold, the Maoists in West Bengal  indulge in mercilessly butchering literally hundreds of tribals, agricultural labour, primary teachers and students simply because they refuse to abandon the Red Flag. Not content with this, they are openly embracing the second largest party of the UPA , which has officially banned them. This is a theatre of the absurd!
But people will write the final act of this play. West Bengal, as in the past, will show the whole country the way to deal with the Maoist violence. Thousands of people are refusing to be cowed down by the campaign of violence and depredations. Holding aloft the banner of peace, democracy and development, they are pouring out in thousands against the Maoists. And surely, they shall prevail.

The writer is a member of the CPM central committee