India has to take 'Red Terror' seriously

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh acknowledged it as the “biggest threat to the nation” but the Centre and the States seem to be nowhere serious to dealing with Red Terror. The Maoist unleashed their terror again when they attacked the camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) of West Bengal Police in the Maoist dominated area of Silda. The attack left 24 policemen dead and the rest highly demoralised.

The Government's laxity towards dealing with the Maoist problem can be understood from the fact that
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his Jharkhand counterpart Shibu Soren remained absent from the meeting chaired by P. Chidambaram of the Maoist affected states. This strikes which comes less than two weeks after that attack is an egg on the face of our politicians who don't seem to foresee the gravity of the situation.

All the States and their law enforcement agencies have different mechanism to fight the Maoists who strike with the same ferocity in all the affected regions. Some states believe in combat operations while others believe in sitting for talks with the left wing terrorists. The Maoist are taking advantage of this muddiness in the corridors of power and striking at will causing rampage in tribal belts in turn causing embarrassment to the Government.

Another striking feature of the Maoist attacks is the manner in which they execute it where the security forces are always taken by surprise. No where are the security forces suffering this many casualties as they are in Maoist affected heartland of India. The casualty rate of the security forces is alarmingly high when compared to that of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and the various North Eastern states.

It is high time that the Centre and the State formulate a concrete plan to deal with the Maoist in the affected areas. Raising a special force to deal with the problem on lines of the Rashtriya Rifles which has been a potent forces in fighting militancy in J&K. Such a forces should be under the Centre like the RR is and not be a used according to the wimps and fancies of the political parties ruling various states in the Maoist affected region.