Left Wing Extremism

Six years back, when on November 4, 2004, the Prime Minister proclaimed Left Wing Extremism as the biggest threat confronting the nation that had to be dealt at ‘war footing’, it had a ring of resolve of a freshly elected government to take the bull by its horns. However, when he repeats the same now, it carries an air of helpless lamentation. The efforts at war footing notwithstanding, during the last six years, the area under Naxal influence has nearly doubled extending to nearly 203 districts in fourteen states. The strength of armed guerrillas has swelled from less than 7,000 then to somewhere around 13,500 now. Left extremists, today, have many more and much sophisticated weapons; (estimated to be nearly 14000 as against 5500 in 2004) and have upgraded their tactics, field craft and skills in handling weapons and explosives manifold. They raise funds nearly to the tune of Rs. 1,200 Crore a year, which in an impoverished area of their dominance is a huge amount to create instability and enables them to pay regular monthly salaries to their armed cadres. Economic conditions of the people have by and large remained unchanged despite sizeable developmental outlays - most of the funds either misused or siphoned off by the corrupt.
It would be erroneous to infer that the government took no initiatives both at security and developmental fronts to deal with the situation. However, in terms of results achieved, the efforts made have failed to achieve the expected results. It makes it a case less of error of intention, and more of lack of capability, which in a national security paradigm is a cause of much greater concern. The matter that needs to be pondered over is why a country of India’s Comprehensive National Power is unable to cope with an existentialist threat from an ideology that has been defeated and discredited world over, is unable to counter an offensive by under-resourced and ill trained tribals and despite being world’s biggest democracy is unable to