Maoists and their myths

Maoists are back in the news now making headlines and grabbing column space While the likes of Arundhati Roy are too extreme in their views to be taken seriously most other columnists end up reinforcing many prevalent myths about the Maoists Let us look at a couple of such myths The biggest myth is that Maoists are tribals or are fighting for the tribals Little do people realise that out of nearly 1100 persons killed by the Maoists in 2011 700 were tribals The complete top leadership of the Maoists is exclusively nontribal Tribals are only recruited as footsoldiers to be used as cannon fodder in operations against the security forces Gurucharan Kisku aka Marshal an exMaoist leader of tribal origin explained it best in 2010 ldquoThis impression about the Maoists was painted by some citybred intellectuals like Arundhati Roy Mediasavvy that he is Kishenji has instantly taken the cue and uses every opportunity to say that he is leading a just war on behalf of ldquopoor and deprived tribalsrdquo and that he is the Messiahrdquo Too few good men The government canrsquot find the forces to concurrently lsquoclearrsquo and lsquoholdrsquo the 40000 sq km area being contested by the Maoists It has to select smaller areas to begin with Although there is a shortterm overlap in their actions the difference lies in the longterm goals of the tribals and Maoists Tribals want justice and development from the state while the Maoists want to overthrow the state Tribals seek redressal of their grievances while the Maoists seek a total revolution Because Maoists are today using the tribalsrsquo shortterm grievances for their own protracted war it is critical to distinguish between the Maoists and the tribals Another myth which has gained credence is that development independent of security operations is the answer to the Maoist problem Because the problem has been caused by underdevelopment development will work in a vacuum security operations donrsquot matter Astonishingly there is little correlation between underdevelopment and Maoist influence In fact most underdeveloped areas are not Maoist strongholds In their 2007 study on measuring regional backwardness in India Vani Borooah and Amresh Dubey found that out of the 100 districts with highest poverty rates only 26 are Maoistaffected Similarly out of the 100 districts with highest infant mortality ratios only 9 districts are Maoistaffected And out of the 100 districts where households do not have enough food only 15 are Maoistaffected Notwithstanding this the state is dutybound to bring development to these areas Additionally it will help win over the tribals But despite the emphasis on development there has been little discussion about the kind of development tribal areas need The centralised plans formulated by Delhi havenrsquot worked so far and the Planning Commissionrsquos latest Integrated Action Plan IAP which gives Rs 30 crore this year directly to the district officials of 78 backward districts is destined to meet the same fate As an aside at least a fifth of the 78 districts arenrsquot Maoistaffected but have been included under political pressure Even if the IAP projects are tailored to meet the local needs Maoists are not going to let the government implement them The tribals want development but the Maoists donrsquot That is why they abduct hardworking government officials like Alex Menon Security thus becomes the essential precondition for development Without security a 10 per cent extortion on this yearrsquos road construction budget will give the Maoists Rs 740 crores to buy weapons to target the police and terrorise the locals The dictum is simple security without development is meaningless but development without security is unachievable This also fits in with the counterinsurgency doctrine of lsquoclear hold and buildrsquo where security forces first lsquoclearrsquo an area of the Maoists then lsquoholdrsquo it to prevent their return while development starts in the lsquobuildrsquo phase Because the government canrsquot find the forces to concurrently lsquoclearrsquo and lsquoholdrsquo the 40000 square kilometre area being contested by the Maoists it has to select smaller areas to begin with An encouraging attempt to implement the lsquoclear hold and buildrsquo strategy has recently been made in the Saranda forests of Jharkhand Let us get this right Maoists are bloody ruthless killers who are neither tribals nor supporters of tribals Security operations are required to defeat the Maoists so that development work can take place Development is a must but it needs security first Sushant K Singh is Fellow for National Security at the Takshashila Institution and editor of PragatiThe Indian National Interest Review