Maoist resurgence : Indian state terrorism

The Indian government’s propaganda that Maoist resurgence was witnessed in over 160 districts across at least 15 states is an exaggeration. The depiction of Maoist resurgence as an internal threat by the media helps the Indian state keep the failure of the 60-year-old state in addressing the basic needs of millions of its poor under wraps. Basic amenities such as access to drinking water, healthcare, education and sanitation of the lakhs of people, especially tribals and other oppressed classes are never provided.

The spontaneous uprising of the poor tribals in West Bengal was later taken over by the Maoists. People’s Committee against Police Atrocity (PACP), a movement organized by tribal leadership, was behind organizing popular protests in Lalgarh demanding basic rights of the people while resisting the police atrocities on tribals. However, the takeover of people’s resistance by the Maoist leadership offered the state and central governments enough reason to go on the rampage against the people who have always been denied the right to life by the Indian state.

The armed rebellion spearheaded by the Maoists has its roots in the widening rich-poor divide in India. The failure of the Centrist, rightist and leftist parties in grappling with the ground reality of the country is unmasked in the emergence of an armed rebellion across many states in the country. Maoists, apart from taking on the state police and other government-supported armed groups such as Salwa Judum, provide a parallel government which helps the underprivileged masses with livelihood support to a certain extent.

While Maoists don’t have the resources to run a full-fledged government that can guarantee food, shelter, healthcare to the people, they keep up the rhetoric of establishing a people’s government by defeating the government. In the context of a 30-year-old armed rebellion put down in neighbouring Sri Lanka in recent times, there have been saner voices from among the well-wishers of Maoists who appeal to the dogmatic leadership of the Maoists to find a middle path and enter into a dialogue process with the people and with the state.

While the war unleashed by the state and central governments on the poor and the Maoists in the jungles of West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and other states could not be justified by any yardstick, the lack of pragmatist attitude on the part of the Maoist leadership also comes into focus when they made a strategic retreat in parts of West Bengal and Orissa and left the people to fend for themselves. This is nothing but exposing the underprivileged civilians to more of state terror.

When Indian establishment defies reason and deals with Maoists as dealing with terror outfits, the innocent tribals are caught in the crossfire. While the tribals-led PACP in West Bengal adopts a language of democracy and human rights, the distance between Maoists and the people becomes obvious.

While the supportive voice raised by the likes of Arundhati Roy internationalized the Maoist resistance in India, the battles fought in the jungles of West Bengal everyday and the death toll involving innocent lives never see the light of the day. It is high time the Maoist leadership takes into account its strengths and weaknesses before leaving the people it professes to safeguard in the lurch.

The character of Indian state can be changed only by a collective intelligent and non-violent movement which can change the public opinion in favour of the oppressed classes in the country. While state terror cannot be condoned, the armed rebellion’s limitations should be taken into account for the ‘true’ liberation of the masses.