Maoists are enemies of the people

The Maoists are waging war against the Indian state; it is war against democracy, against the rule of law and against freedom. The state must defeat them to preserve liberty and ensure development

Author:  Chandan Mitra

Maoists beheaded an intrepid police inspector and left his dismembered body on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway. Alongside they scattered a set of handwritten posters threatening more such gruesome killings. Two days later they ambushed and gunned down as many as 17 policemen in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. All 17 were local tribals in whose name Naxalites are ostensibly conducting their liberation struggle — an euphemism for mayhem and terror. Media savvy leaders of the bloodthirsty outfit are unapologetic: Kishenji, alias for one Koteshwar Rao, has proudly asserted their intention to ramp up the campaign of violence. (Mercifully, he has been liquidated since.)

Yes, it is war. It is war against the lawfully constituted Indian state; it is war against democracy; war against the rule of law and judicial system; it is war against freedom itself. This is now being waged in an ever-expanding area comprising parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka: In other words nearly one-third of this country. It is a war against those who have declared implacable hostility to the Constitution, democracy, judiciary, the free media and everything else the average Indian believes in. They have audaciously announced their aim of violently overthrowing the state. Is there any option other than to confront them head-on and eliminate this grievous threat to our value system?

I should think not. But shockingly, there is a significant section of the effete urban middle class that demurs. Admittedly, it is a small section but wields a disproportionate influence as so-called intellectuals and opinion-makers. I have been progressively appalled listening to their perverted logic on TV channels, equating the state with the outlaws, demanding “state terror” end before any plaintive appeal goes out to the Maoist bloodhounds. Interestingly, these spokespersons of Naxalite terror are regarded with contempt by the very people whose cause they espouse. Marxists in general and Maoists in particular, have always treated the intelligentsia with ill-concealed disdain. Wherever their insane political philosophy had triumphed (Russia, China, Cuba etc.), intellectuals were the first to be lined up before firing squads. Yet like moths to a flame, a kind of fatal attraction draws rootless intellectuals masquerading as human rights activists to the Maoist ‘prairie fire’.

To my dismay I find even the organised Communist parties, often the first targets of the ultra-Left insurgents, nowadays spouting homilies about the democratic rights of these merchants of mass murder. The other day I was accused of being a devotee of George W Bush by CPM leader Nilotpal Basu in a TV discussion for advocating a relentless war on the terrorists; this despite the fact that scores of CPM cadre have been mercilessly gunned down by their estranged ideological cousins. Last Friday, CPI leader AB Bardhan glibly pronounced “certain failure” of the security forces’ offensive against the Naxalites, claiming violence wasn’t the answer to violence. Considering all Communists (irrespective of the shade of red they adhere to) believe that force is the essential mechanism to bring about a proletarian revolution, Bardhan’s new-found doctrine of pacifism and compassion towards terrorists seemed amusingly out of place.

The less said about the JNU variety of intellectuals the better. They have been arguing, in effect, that while the police must act according to every letter of the law Maoists should be free to shoot, behead, maim, torch and destroy individuals and establishments that represent the state. Clearly taking a leaf out of Mao Zedong’s dictum, “Revolution is not a dinner party and revolutionaries are not expected to follow table manners”, Naxalism’s promoters in intellectual clothing brazenly argue that different sets of rules must apply to the state and non-state players (an euphemism for terrorists of every hue — Lashkar to Maoists).

I must, however, admire their clarity of purpose and capacity for intrigue. They have swallowed up organisations like PUDR and PUCL, originally established to be genuine watchdogs of human rights, civil liberties and excesses by organs of the state. As a result, several such bodies have become de facto Maoist mouthpieces. For them human rights of ordinary citizens are of no consequence. Even pre-teen children can be brutally killed on the charge that their parents are police ‘informers’. This has been going on for years in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region as a recent report by a fact-finding team irrefutably establishes. For these selective peddlers of human rights only ‘innocent’ Maoists and equally ‘innocent’ LeT activists like Ishrat Jahan need to be defended against the ‘predatory’ Indian state. They fit perfectly into an uncharacteristically acerbic remark former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao once made: “From the hue and cry made by some people every time an encounter takes place it would seem in India only terrorists have human rights and nobody else does”.

For too long, the rest of India watched in mute trepidation as all manner of Leftists ran riot over India’s air waves and newspaper opinion columns. They bellowed all voices of sanity and balance into terrified silence. So much so that today it appears civil society comprises only those who can mount an assault on the state and the nation. It is time for those that refuse to be led on a leash by these intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt advocates of spurious logic to stand up and be counted.

But the ongoing war is not only about reclaiming civil society space for the majority of right-thinking Indians. It is also about the battle to bring development and prosperity to abjectly poor villagers, mostly tribals, so woefully neglected by regimes in New Delhi and the States all these decades. Arguably, though, Maoists forcibly prevent any development activity from taking place in regions where they wield influence. No roads can be built, schools and public health centres are routinely torched and innocent villagers terrorised into becoming executors of a macabre philosophy. It is the state and civil society that must together launch a war to liberate villagers living in abject poverty and underdevelopment from the clutches of Maoists. It is not just a war against Maoist terror; it is also a war against poverty. The war should have begun much earlier, but then it is never too late to dedicate oneself to a just cause.

This first appeared on October 10, 2010. Chandan Mitra is travelling.