The Maoist Insurgency: Has it crossed all levels, or, is it just a beginning?

Every day when I browse through the newspaper to see the dismal numbers of economic recovery coupled with an ever increasing numbers of the casualties from the Naxal attacks, I am not even in a state to feel sorry or sympathize. Fortunately I may not be in the direct radar of their wrath, but, unfortunately, I do belong to one of those states whose potentially bright future has been doomed by political instability and insurgency.

Both Indian government and Maoists have their own stands and so called principles on which they operate and work, however, the adversarial nature of their conflict has cost lives. Lives of not only security personnel who dedicate their life towards our safety, but also the unarmed civilians, who aren’t even a stakeholder in whoever wins the fight. Call it pessimism or practicality, the socio economics and political destiny of these people still lie beyond their reach.
Our most honorable home minister has been changing his stances and probably the death of civilians enlightened him to initiate a talk in the middle of operation green hunt. Though the offer was rejected on the certain grounds, what makes me ponder upon the impotency of the government is their explicit request to hold on the violence for 72 hours.

Does it mean the security force has accepted its inability to protect people even in time measure by hours? And the fact that the home minister hasn’t still agreed on other demands, I wonder if he is waiting to see some more blood to give in, because right now, it doesn’t really look like he has any bargaining power.

So the point is, “Is there a pre determined number of deaths which needs to take place before you give in?” As far as I believe, they don’t have any political or moral or human rights to decide that.

I don’t intend to glorify the act of giving in to the anti social or in this case may be anti nationalist groups of people who keep vandalizing life and property at their will, however, I do believe that when time comes, we need to do whatever it takes to ensure the basic right to people, “right to life.”

Peace talks or force, what is important is that this needs to stop. And it won’t in a day or a week or a month because beneath all this violence lies extreme dissatisfaction at all levels, be it social acceptability, political will or economic well being. Every movement starts with a cause, but, if continued for a prolonged period sometimes also leads to lot of adulteration in the thoughts and practices which is exactly the case in point here.

But all said and done, as someone who has a family only 100 kilometers away from the epicenter and as someone who happens to be a resident of a country which right now is facing the biggest internal security threat (which will continue to grow if unaddressed), I cannot just feel sorry or sympathize.

But then I have an unanswered question, “What do I do?”

--Sriram