[Assam] Armed Revolution is an Outdated Concept

[Babul Gogoi]

the author could have suggested to setup engineering college or IIT  in that
area, apart for pappads making !!


On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 2:23 AM, Nava Thakuria <navathakuria at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
>
> http://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/story.php?sec=3&subsec=0&id=36719&dtP=2010-05-22&ppr=1#36719
>
> Armed Revolution is an Outdated Concept
>
> The poor are told that violence alone will solve their problem when
> violence does nothing of that kind. It will only add to their prevailing
> misery
> How long do we have to wait for the traitorous Naxalite rebellion to be
> quelled? The UPA government is looking like a standing joke. If we are to
> believe Home Minister P Chidambaram, the government will get rid of the
> Naxals before the term of the UPA-II ends. Does he know how the former West
> Bengal Chief Minister Siddartha Shankar Ray did his job?
> After what happened at Dantewada, one of the poorest districts in India
> with 66 per cent of the 7.2 lakh population of tribal origin, the UPA
> government should have stepped down and fresh elections should have been
> held. That the Naxalites should have succeeded in killing 74 members of the
> Alpha Company of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in an ambush at
> Chintalnar indicates the sheer impudence of the Naxalites. Apparently,
> throughout the tribal belt extending to an estimated 200 districts, Naxal
> cadres number more than 10,000. What is more shocking and shameful is that
> these forces have the tacit support of so-called intellectuals like
> Arundhati Roy, who needs to be questioned. The exact number of Maoists is
> open to guesswork, but again, according to another count, they number
> “several thousand” and are well-equipped with Insas Rifles, AK-47s, grenades
> and rocket launchers, additionally capable of making Improvised Explosive
> Devises (IEDs).
>  Furthermore, they are also supported by an excellent intelligence service.
> From where did the Naxalites get their weapons? Who stitched their uniform?
> It is claimed by Minhaz Merchant, chairman of a media group, “that powerful
> vested interests benefit from the Maoist insurgency” and that “the financial
> nexus between politicians, businessmen and Maoists thrives in a manufactured
> environment of lawlessness”. Are our intelligence agencies aware of who
> these “politicians and businessmen” are? Should not they be interrogated?
> Importantly, should not the Congress Party, which has been in power for the
> last six years and more, have given serious thought to what has been going
> on under its very nose?
> The usual charges are that the tribals have been deprived of their forest
> lands, that they have been denied access to jobs and other sources of
> living, that they have been denied access to education, and that, by and
> large, they have been largely ignored. Surely, all these charges can be
> effectively met without having to take resort to violence? If the late Nana
> Saheb Deshmukh could work wonder in his own chosen tribal field in
> Maharashtra, surely others, equally deeply committed, can replicate his
> success? Is violence the only way to draw the attention of the
> powers-that-be for the betterment of tribal life? Several intellectual
> supporters of Naxalism have expressed their views like Varavara Rao,
> activist Himanshu Kumar and another one of the kind known as “Kishenji”.
> To begin with, why does not the Government of India ask them to submit
> detailed plans to help tribals? Surely that is not too much to ask? Instead
> of attacking the government for establishing Salwa Jadum— in the face of
> sustained violence — did the government have any other option? Cannot our
> intellectuals change their mindset and provide the government with a
> well-thought-out plan to bring tribals into the mainstream of Indian life?
> Has anyone prevented them from developing a positive outlook towards tribal
> enrichment? One gets the clear impression that some of our mentally sick
> intellectuals prefer to romanticize the concept of “revolutionary
> terrorism”, rather than to take over the earthy task of working out concrete
> proposals to enrich tribal life. It sounds terribly romantic to wage war
> against the country in the name of tribal needs, and the blame lies entirely
> on the UPA government for its soft-kneed approach towards every issue
> hurting
>  the motherland.
> This columnist has in the past suggested the setting up of the separate
> Indian Tribal Service, parallel to the Indian Administrative Service, to
> serve exclusively in tribal areas, so that tribal needs and requirements are
> identified and fully met. Roads can be laid down. Schools can be
> established. Medical attention can be provided. Jobs within the tribal
> jurisdiction can be created, and a rich and meaningful life can be
> guaranteed to the tribal population. That is obviously not what our
> revolutionaries want. They want glamour, publicity. Our screwball
> intellectuals want to go back to the twenties and thirties and plan
> ‘‘revolution’’. They want to raise funds through intimidating and blackmail,
> make secret arms purchase, transport them under the very nose of the police
> and bring death and destruction. The very concept of an “armed revolution”
> is stupid in this day and age. It invites administrative reaction during
> which many innocents would
>  inevitably get killed. One activist, Himanshu Kumar, is quoted as asking
> why, granting Naxalism is a problem, that poor people are “attracted to
> politics that will end in death”. The answer is obvious. The poor are told
> that violence alone will solve their problem when violence does nothing of
> that kind. It will only add to their prevailing misery. But how is one to
> convince Naxalites that the prescription they offer is out of fashion and
> today one has to turn to out-of-box solution for known problems?
> One thing is obvious: the government of the day must undertake massive
> public works and welfare schemes. Andhra Pradesh’s State Economic Adviser Mr
> Somayajulu has been quoted as saying that economic development and welfare
> schemes have transformed the Maoist scene in his State to the point that
> Maoism has lost its attraction for the once unemployed youth. Maoist
> incidents in Andhra Pradesh fell from 576 in 2005 to 62 in 2009, Maoist
> killings from 211 to 17, and police deaths from 25 to zero. What was done in
> Andhra Pradesh can be duplicated in Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand. But there,
> surely, are other ways to help tribal people earn and decent livelihood like
> production of pappads to making of dolls which can be marketed, not just in
> India but worldwide. And, at the administrative level, there has to be a
> proliferation of government offices equipped with the latest communication
> technology. But one thing is absolutely a must. And that is to treat Maoists
>  not as fellow citizens, but as traitors and murderers. No mercy should be
> shown to them. Their headquarters have to be bombed. An organization
> responsible for the killing of upwards of 6,000 innocent people from 1996 to
> 2009 has to be wiped out of the surface of the earth. Importantly, the
> Maoists should get the message that there is a strong government in Delhi
> which will not accept armed rebellion anywhere and those who indulge in will
> have to pay a heavy price.
> MV Kamath
>
>
>
>
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